Rapture #13
The Day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day #2#7683
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we’re very happy that You are so gracious to us tonight to let us come together to worship Your Name and all of us worshipping in Spirit and in Truth. Lord, it’s wonderful grace given unto us, and we’re thankful for it.
We pray now that You’ll help us in the study of Your Word that we might know these things of this hour, that the Church is supposed to know: the hour it’s living in, its place, the deep mysterious secrets of God, and the revelation of the end time – the Person, God Himself, revelation of the Bride, all of these things coming in together which we will believe.
And this will be the faith of this hour, and we’re trusting that we are a part of it. We give Thee praise, Lord, in faith. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now we’re going to recap tonight what we went into on Sunday morning, that is, the recap of “The Day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day.”
Now we’re going to read, of course, first of all in:
(02) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
And we have a reiteration over here in 2 Peter 3:10, the first part:
(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;…
But over here in Revelation 1, after two mentions ‘the Day of The Lord’, It says:
(10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Now of course it would be casually observed that when you have the possessive, or genitive case there, it wouldn’t much matter whether you said, ‘Lord’s’, (‘d’ apostrophe ‘s’) or whether you said, ‘Day of The Lord’; it would show possession, and I guess people would automatically think it is one and the same.
However, according to the students of Scripture, those two phrases are actually different one from the other, and according, as I say to the Bible students of repute: the ‘Lord’s Day’ is in contradistinction to ‘man’s day’.
Now that’s the first thing we understand. The Lord’s Day, L-o-r-d’s – it’s in contradistinction to man’s day.
Now man has had six thousand years for his day and is still having his day, though unknown to him or unemphasized to his consciousness’, man’s day is running out; it is being cut off at this moment; it is in process of ending.
It has to, according to the “Seventh Seal,” which we’ll read later on.
Now ‘the day of the Lord’ is an expression signifying God’s interposition, or God interposing Himself, or God taking up a position both against His people or for His people, as the occasion demands.
Now we want you to just get that thought now, because it’s a two-fold thought in there: the day of the Lord is an expression signifying God’s interposition – God Himself interposing Himself both against His people or for His people as the occasion demands.
He’s either for the people, or against them. God is the enemy of the people, or He is the enemy of the enemies of the people, His Own, according as the occasion demands.
Now, to understand this we take the case of Israel sinning and rebelling against God, transgressing by idolatry, and disobedience, which we see an awful lot of through the Old Testament, and we see God coming against them.
They have become the enemy of God, and that’s the ‘Day of The Lord’ as taking His position against them. All right.
We go to Amos 5:1-20, we’re reading:
(01) Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. [Now God is against Israel.]
(02) The virgin of Israel is fallen; [She’s left the Word.] she shall no more rise: for she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
(03) For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
(04) For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
(05) But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
(06) Seek the Lord, then ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
(07) Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
(08) Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:
(09) That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come forth against the fortress.
(10) They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
(11) Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you’ll not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them.
(12) For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
(13) Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
You’ve got the same thing with the Mafia… politics. People are afraid to even go to the law. You don’t think anything is new under the sun, just because you’re here in America?
They stunk back in Israel… they stink in America… and they are the people of God? Hogwash. It’s wrong somewhere.
(14) Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
(15) Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
(16) Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all the streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.
(17) And in all vineyards shall be wailing: or I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.
(18) Woe unto you that desire the Day of The Lord! [Woe unto you that desire the Day of The Lord.] To what end is it for you? The Day of The Lord is darkness, and not light.
Are you thinking? Just keep thinking. Got a parallel in this hour: “Everybody’s going to go into the Rapture, hallelujah!” “Millions now living will never die. Glory to God.” “O the great Day of The Lord. Hallelujah!”
Darkness! You do what you want.
(18) …The Day of The Lord is darkness, and not light.
(19) As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
(20) Shall not the Day of The Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? [That’s God against the people, and notice verse 18:]
(18) Woe unto you that desire the Day of The Lord! To what end is it for you? The Day of The Lord is darkness, and not light.
All right. Let’s go to,
(06) Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
(07) Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
(08) Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
(09) And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbles himself: therefore forgive them not.
(10) Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.
Now these are the children of God, you know. They’ve gone into idolatry, the same as we have: “rich, increased in goods, and don’t lack a thing.”
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, a thief. They are all in there.
(11) The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
(12) For the Day of The Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and everyone that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: [That’s Malachi 4:1-2. You know that, don’t you?]
(13) And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, [That’s speaking of powerful men.]
(14) And upon all the high mountains [high organization], and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
(15) And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
(16) And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
(17) And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
(18) And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
(19) And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. [You hear the same thing in Revelation, don’t you?]
(20) In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; [They’ll say, “This isn’t working, is it?”]
(21) To go into the clefts of the rocks, to the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
(22) Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Now It tells you right there what is going to happen when people refuse to give pre-eminence to God. They’re going to find that everything they depended on isn’t worth anything to them.
Now in here you’ll find a purging: this is significant of destruction, death and a purging.
Now the very sentiment of what we are reading in the Old Testament is found in the New by measure of a warning, which warning will not be heeded and judgment must come.
1 Thessalonians 5, speaking of the time of the Rapture:
(01) But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. [That’s when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a Shout, with the Voice of the archangel, the Trump of God.]
(02) For yourselves know perfectly that the Day of The Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
(03) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; [Claiming their refuge is in God when it is not – when it is in the devil.] then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Shall not escape from whom? The Lord in His day! And He is talking to the Church. He’s not talking out here to a bunch of hell-bound sinners that don’t know ‘A’ from ‘Z’.
You’ll get to some of that later on. You’ll find out who the enemy really is, which you’re going to see is this perverted bunch of church members.
(04) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day [The Day of The Lord, which certainly is contingent to the portion above, where the living and the dead get out of here – you’re not in darkness at that day, the Day of The Lord] should overtake you as a thief.
(05) Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
(09) For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
But you will notice he says in here:
(06) Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
(07) For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
(08) But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
Now you’ll notice in here the warning is sent out. As many people preach their great evangelistic sermons… “God is your friend today, but your enemy tomorrow.” I wonder if they realize how far extending that is.
Again we saw in 2 Peter 3:2-3 the same warning:
(02) That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
(03) Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
Now that’s at the time when a vindicated prophet comes on the scene in 2 Peter 1:16-21, and they are going to be completely oblivious to it.
In fact, I would say many who claim to be aware, haven’t the foggiest idea as to what’s really going on.
(04) And saying, Where is the promise of his [presence]?…
Now that word ‘where’ really has to do with the physical, that which is translated into the material, like: “Where, Lord?”
“Well,” he said, “where the body is.”
But they’ve got this so much in the physical that they can’t understand the spiritual Presence.
(04) …for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were…
(05) For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.
Now what they are willingly ignorant of is that something has been brought to their attention, which lines with Scripture, which verifies the day of judgment, both to the purging of the church and the world, and Israel, and so on, but they refuse to listen to it.
Now let’s go to Hebrews 10:26-27. You’ll notice It says:
(26) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
(27) But a certain fearful looking [forward]…
Now you’ll notice: those who turned down the blood in Egypt died, because they could not believe the truth concerning it. They could not believe what was going on in their hour.
The same thing obtains today: that those who willfully sin, turn down what God is revealing, or whereby God is interpreting His Word into manifestation, which is the interpretation, and He lets them know that there is coming a day of judgment.
And he said:
(09) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(10) But the Day of The Lord will come as a thief in the night;…
So the Day of The Lord of the Old Testament has a principle which does not lose its power in the New Testament.
And we see God coming against those who are His people, who call upon His Name, but as all Israel is not Israel, and the seed of Abraham is reckoned according to promise, so the church is not all Bride, but Bride is reckoned according to foreknowledge, election, and predestination.
Now the second thing we saw about the Day of The Lord, is not only is it a time of darkness and trouble for Israel, gross darkness upon the people, gross darkness upon the church, God has to deal with them according to their rebellion, their lack of sincerity, they are “whited sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones,” but also at that time, unfortunately, the real enemies of God are not necessarily heathen per se, as we reckon heathen, but the real enemy has always been within the gate.
Israel never had one enemy on the outside until they deteriorated on the inside. And you will notice here that God rises up against whoever is the enemy of the election.
Now let’s go to:
(30) And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
(31) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
Now notice over here in:
(01) For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
(02) But unto you that fear my name [Now notice at the same time slot:] the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
(03) And tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,… [The treading down and turning them into ashes for you.]
(05) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of The Lord:
And at that time of darkness… so what do you want the Day of The Lord for? “It’s going to bring darkness,” he said. But it is also going to bring light because he said,
(06) He will turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers [and thereby there will be a way of escape.]
Now we go back to Isaiah 13, and in Isaiah 13:1-11; we’re reading:
(01) The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
(02) Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
(03) I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
(04) The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
(05) They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
(06) Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. [Now you will notice that the Day of The Lord always has destruction in it: judgment.]
(07) Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: [That’s right back to the Book of Revelation.]
(08) And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces as flames. [Now, sounds like the atomic bomb doesn’t it?]
(09) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: [Now that’s the earth being purged, as well as the church in Israel being purged. See? God has always had His way of doing things.] he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. [So how are you going to have them in the Millennium having children?]
(10) For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
(11) And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Now that’s said right over there in Acts 2 also.
Now:
(01) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
(02) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go into captivity, the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(03) Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
You can see from here what we’re looking at is that God will deliver according to the principle that lies in the Day of The Lord: there will be a destruction, but there will also be a deliverance.
Now that’s like what we’ve got over here in Psalm 27, that Brother Branham used for the setting of the Rapture.
(01) The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? [No one but God of course.] The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
(02) When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
(03) Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
(04) One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
(05) For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock.
Now you’ll notice we read the same thing already over here in 1 Thessalonians 5, which is terribly important to understand at the time of the Day of The Lord, knowing that part of it will be the great tribulation, that the Bride will not be in it.
(09) For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. [Which starts with the Blood, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and the end time revelation of the prophet at the time of the Rapture, of the Shout, the Voice, and the Catching Up.]
Now, let’s try to put this together, if we can, reading from:
Patmos Vision 60-1204e
[131] Now John was transmitted from the Isle of Patmos in the spirit over into the Lord’s day.
This is the day of man – men are fighting but the Day of The Lord will come when these kingdoms will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of this Christ, then there’ll be the great Millennium.
Now you can see right there in contradistinction to man’s day, the Lord’s Day is coming on the scene. But you’ll notice. Watch how it gets there and what’s involved:
[131] …The Lord’s day, the day of His coming, His judgment, that will be the Lord’s day. [Now going on.]
[132] This is the day of man. That’s the reason they slam you around and do what they want with you. They call you now Holy roller and fanatic, but there will come a time, see, that they won’t do that.
They’ll scream and fall at your feet. The Bible said in Malachi 4, “You’ll even walk on the ashes after they’re burned up.”
Now, when is this going to take place? We’re coming back in Revelation 19. Nobody’s going to be falling at our feet, before we get out of here in a Rapture, as far as I know the Scripture.
[132] …They’ll be burned up leaving neither root nor branch. Exactly what the Bible says, “The righteous shall walk upon the ashes of the wicked.”
That’s exactly. There will not be left root or branch, nothing to come back to and they’ll be done. Now this is man’s day, man’s doings, man’s works, man’s church, man’s idea, but the Day of The Lord is coming.
Now we can see here that Brother Branham agrees that the Lord’s Day is in contradistinction to man’s day. “Today is man’s day, man’s doing, man’s work, man’s church, man’s ideas,” but Malachi 4 will change that.
Now I’m going to read to you from an expanded translation from Dr. Wuest in 1 Corinthians 4, to give you a better idea of what you are looking at.
Now Paul is speaking here:
(01) In this manner let a man measure and classify us as servants of Christ and as those who have been entrusted with the mysteries of God and their disposition.
Now how did you like that from the plain Greek? Paul has quite a fat mouth here. He gets up and he flexes his spirit, and he says, “Bless God, you look at me.”
He said, “I’ve got the mysteries of God, and they’re at my disposition.”
How do like that? Let your tongue hang out. Well, come on… Interesting.
If Paul were here, they would kill him! You talk about the oath of Columbus perpetrated on him by these so-called sweet Christians. Yeah, the mysteries of God and their disposition.
I’ve got some twenty dollar bills in my wallet, and they’re at my disposition, and I’ll do what I want with those twenty dollar bills. Yeah. I’ll take you all to dinner, if you want to go some place.
The Fu Manchu’s down here tonight… not very many. I could treat the all of you, as long as you stick within the hamburgers. Well, that’s in my disposition. Well that’s what it says. Language is language.
1 Corinthians 4:
(02) Under these circumstances it is further sought in stewards that a man be found faithful. [Now Paul lets you know he is going to be faithful to God in the revelation when he does it.]
(03) But with me it is a very small thing that I am being put on trial by you, by the judicial day of mankind.
I want you to get this, because that’s what you’re looking at: the day of the Lord is judicial.
This is man’s day, which is judicial. What man’s judgment says, man’s ideas, man’s church, man’s things, man’s this… what he looks at and judges according to his own knowledge which is a physical thing.
Remember: spiritual comes through spiritual.
(03) But with me it is a very small thing that I am being put on trial by you, by the judicial day of mankind in fact I do not even put myself on trial.
(04) For I am not conscious of even one thing against myself: but not by this means do I stand justified. He who puts me on trial is the Lord.
(05) [Paraphrased] Wherefore stop exercising censorious judgment with reference to anything before the epochal strategic season, until that time whenever the Lord may come, Who will both turn the light on the hidden things of darkness and bring out in the open the counsels of the hearts: and then to each one shall there come his praise from God.
Now he’s telling you there’s an epochal day coming when man’s judgment ceases; and this prophet, William Branham, pinpoints it at this hour that you’re looking at the Book of Revelation open at that period, where Paul categorically says, “I don’t have any sense of guilt.”
But he said, “I’m going to tell you something: I don’t stand in that.”
Now here’s what I’ve been warning people all along; I’ve been telling you: there is no sense of guilt since a certain date. I saw the same thing in Brother Branham.
But that doesn’t mean anything, because that’s an experience. Anybody can have an experience. The trinitarian idolaters can say the same thing. I’m going to tell you something: I don’t depend on experience. I depend on Word.
I don’t have one feeling about myself to justify or condemn.
Now it’s going to be strange that I’m talking this way, but I want you to know something. I’m part of whatever hour this is; asleep, or fooled, or I’m going to walk into something.
Now I know I get hated for talking like this, it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m hated anyway. So have a field day. Have a ball.
Have a big ball, because Brother Branham said, “Abraham didn’t even look at what he did,” because Paul said, “God says I am righteous.” And it’s gotten to a place where we’re dealing strictly with reality.
Now you can tell then from what I read here: man’s day is a day in which man judges everything according to how, and what, and where, and when he wants to judge.
And he’s abysmally a failure, because there’s no way he can do it. Now there’s coming a day, which is the Lord’s Day. Now Brother Branham said here, “They’ll be done.”
Now, let me get it here now, “The Lord’s day, the day of His judgment, His coming, His judgment, that’ll be the Lord’s day.”
Now right here he said, “They say anything they want to do. They pull anything in the book.” And he said, “It’s man’s doing; it’s man’s church; it’s man’s idea, and man is in the day of his judgment.”
And he says, “You people don’t dare believe that Branham message.”
And even amongst us say, “You don’t dare believe in that ‘Parousia’ junk. That’s a lot of puke. That’s a cult.”
That’s fine; that’s fine. I want to know who came down. I want to know what came down. I want to know who they thought the prophet talked to.
Now his personal tape to me privately, that went around the world, said, “Now, Lee, you know we haven’t had a prophet that talked face-to-face with God for two thousand years since the time of Paul until now.”
Now these preachers around the country say they believe the prophet. What do they believe?
Now it’s this hour. Put it down the road if you want. That’s your business, and they can do what they want.
But Brother Branham said, “That Lord’s day has got to come and take over a man’s day and the righteous are going to walk on the ashes of the wicked.”
Well Elijah’s supposed to be here the same time that that great One comes down. I want to ask you a question: then what’s going on?
I understand, according to Scripture, the prophet himself said that Hebrews 4:12-13 was in full effect:
(12) For the word of the Lord is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Now:]
(13) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight [Not ‘its’ sight, but ‘His’]: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Now you tell me that Brother Branham opened that Bible and read every man’s heart. He did not! It was when that One became present. I want to tell you: the Logos is not this Bible.
That’s printed form. The Logos is a person. We’re not dealing with any of these things we dealt with fifteen years ago when we couldn’t figure things out. I was as confused as anybody, but I knew jolly well something was there. Today I know what’s there.
Now, “Today is man’s day, man’s work, man’s church, man’s judging,” but it’s running out. Men fighting, as he said here, paragraph 131.
[131] …But the Day of The Lord will come when these kingdoms, which they’re fighting for, the organizations, principalities, and all those things, will be the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and then there will be the great Millennium.
The Lord’s day and the day of His coming, His judgment, that will be the Lord’s day.
So he’s put an awful lot in there that is significant of the Lord’s Day that absolutely is identical to the Day of The Lord. Right? Certainly.
Now Malachi 4 is going to change that when all is gone but the Groom, the Bride, and the 144,000 and whosoever, and whatsoever He might want to have there with him.
Now I believe that is, then, what we’re looking at: Revelation 19:11, where He comes with the saints to take the world over, to destroy the kingdoms of the earth, and establish His own.
Now here is what I want to try to get to you, according to my understanding on this subject: though the Day of The Lord is a day of decisive action and judgmental overthrow, which actual overthrow might be twenty-four hours or far less, there is still a period of time that goes with it and is recognized that that so-called Day of The Lord can be much, much longer than a twenty-four hour period.
It could go over a period of time which would be called an epochal season or a certain time slot that must run its course.
Now to understand that and see what we’re saying, let’s go to,
(08) And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. [So anybody that doesn’t have the wedding garment on, it’s too bad.]
(09) In the same day I’ll punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
They are still, right at this time, fighting each other to take over. They’re still going to be fighting. There will be some group.
The rest will be making altar calls and filling the altars with people, but no more getting saved than nothing.
(10) It will come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and the great crash from the hills.
(11) Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all that bear silver are cut off.
(12) And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. [That’s the same thing they said in 2 Peter: “All things continue. There’s no big change. We’ve got to sit here and watch.”]
(13) Therefore their goods shall become a booty, their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, not inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. [See? Merchandising keeps going on.]
(14) The day of the Lord is near, it is near, [Now that’s the great day of the Lord] and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: and mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
(15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of dark clouds and thick darkness,
(16) A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. [In other words there is going to be a cry against organization… all these big things.]
(17) And I will bring distress upon men, they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. [That sounds like the atomic bomb again.]
(18) Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the Day of The Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
All right. You’ll notice that that is a period of time, because they’re building and planting. It’s not a twenty-four hour period, though the wrath, the ultimate decisive action, may not take any more than minutes. Then again it may.
Let’s go to,
(01) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
(02) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(03) Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Now he tells you: the day of the Lord – these things will be taking place… then the day of the Lord, the decisive battle, one day of those particular days.
(04) His feet stand upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
(05) And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [Now he’s telling you all these things are going to be going on before Revelation 19:11 comes, “seated on white horses.”]
(06) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(07) But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, not night: it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
Now that’s been going on for years! And this the day of the Lord. So you begin to see why the judgments of God are in the earth and the six Seals opened in 1964 of March.
Now let’s look again at verse 6 and 7:
(06) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(07) And it shall be one day… [Whatever comes to pass, and how long, is going to be one day – one respite given to us to get light.]
“The Lord is my light and my salvation.”
He is going to get me out of here. You are not unaware of that day. It won’t overtake you as a thief. You’re not children of night; you are of light.
God is obligated to give light. He said, “You that call for the Day of The Lord, you understand its darkness? You understand what you’re asking for when you’re praying for the Lord to come and do so and so, and so and so?”
Well they’ve been praying for years. Like Brother Branham said, “This couple, [the Moores’] that wrote the Herald of Hope: ‘O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet!’”
So the prophet came in their house and ate.
“O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet!”
So the prophet ate and went out.
“O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet!”
Ah, shut-up!
Friends that are dead now said that he should not have said it. His wife tried to stop him. He was not half as smart as he thought he was.
There are people now in that never-never land that thought they knew all the answers. That’s why we don’t have answers here. God has the answers.
“That day.” What “that day?” The day of the Lord coming, the spoil, the feet standing, the people running. There will be a period of time that we get a chance to escape it.
The prophet said that Zechariah 14:6-7 was today, in this gloomy period. What’s going on anyway? The prophet told us.
Now notice again 2 Peter 3, once the revelation breaks. 2 Peter 3. We’ve read it many times: “scoffers, willingly ignorant.” They don’t realize that the day of the Lord brings judgment; it brings darkness; it brings tragedy.
But it brings light and deliverance and a new residence, a new settling down, a new settlement, a new culture, a new civilization.
Now let’s get the background of 2 Peter 3:3-12, especially in verse 12. It says:
(12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Now that’s the Presence. “Looking for and hasting.” Now when do you ‘look for’ and ‘the hasting’? You get it over here in 2 Peter 1, after the stature of perfect man.
He said, “If you get this… The seventh church age comes to God Himself, which is Love…
(11) For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Now here’s what you’re looking for: you’re looking for the abundant entrance. You’re looking for the kingdom.
And Peter said, “This is the truth that is under scrutiny: this kingdom teaching, the Coming.”
Now he said, “I’m going to tell you something.”
He said:
(16) [I’ve] not followed cunningly devised fables, when [I] made known unto you… [The preview of this kingdom, when I saw by vision this kingdom coming into view upon the Holy Mount.]
But he says in verse 18, the word of prophecy is far more sure than this, because this was only a vision, and the real thing is coming.
Now:
(19) We have the word of prophecy made sure and you better take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Now he tells you the conditions that bring about the abundant entrance into the kingdom, that the hour that this prophecy really comes to pass. Not a vision, not a pre-figure, but the real McCoy.
And verse 20:
(20) Knowing this, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
(21) But prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
He tells you it is going to take a prophet to bring this to pass. As Paul said, “To me was committed the mysteries and the disposition.”
To William Branham, Elijah, is committed this prophetic knowledge that is to break at the end time, in the day of the Lord and in the Lord’s Day.
Now notice 2 Peter 2:1. It shouldn’t even be in chapter form.
(01) But there were false prophets among the people,…
Now he tells you that there were false prophets, but here you’ve got to look out for false teachers, because it is the teachers that are going to take you away from the prophet, because as Brother Branham said, “Satan can’t duplicate this.”
There’s no way.
There’s nobody going to rise up and follow William Branham – nobody. They can take a lie and, pffap, around like these other guys do, but they always hit a snag. They always manifest themselves.
But you’ve got these teachers that will mess you up. And they’ll sit with you at your feast.
Like this guy from Washington, nice looking man sat there. He didn’t know that my wife sat next to him though, because he didn’t know my wife. So there was a sleeper in the audience.
And while Bob Brown preached, he said, “Amen! Preach it, brother! Hallelujah!” Then went, “Ha, ha, ha, ha,” behind his hand; but she caught him. Sleaze.
Came to my room and told me that I had to listen to them. I should listen to them?
I’m tired of these pastors – yes, pastors – who keep quoting Brother Branham to their own end: “The pastor’s ordained to see you through.”
And so Brother Harold Marconda said, “You let me know what pastor that is. I’ll sit under him, because I want to get through!”
The word ‘ordained’ is ‘commanded to be responsible’, but it seems the most of them simply want your pocketbook and your attendance. We’ve got a small crowd tonight.
It doesn’t bother me at all. This goes on tape. It will get to a very big crowd, don’t worry. They’re sitting twenty-two deep, fifteen deep, twenty-two deep. Preachers are preaching.
I’ve got no problem if I preach to one or nobody. It doesn’t matter about money.
Lots of money comes in the mail to this church. Right? We get checks coming all the time over in Columbus. I don’t take it all. I don’t need it.
There’s a difference, my brother or sister: we don’t have to do things like that, and they’re going to regret it. We’re not through preaching yet.
Now It tells you: you’ll never duplicate this prophet. I don’t care who you are. It’s once for all vindicated, but you can louse up the teaching. But even then, the elect will never get deceived.
So there’s no problem there. They can try every trick in the book: rape, which they do… mental rape, mental seduction… They go the whole gambit. I’ve got news: we’re on to all this. We’re fully aware what’s going on.
There is a period there, then, that you’re literally looking at, and it has to be in the day of the Lord, because the Bible said so, and William Branham placed it. Now let’s understand emphatically.
Go back to,
(06) It shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(07) But in that one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
Now “come to pass in that day.” It says, so you’re talking about this time, that the church is going to know the hour in which it is in. Now that is literally:
(01) The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon the king of Judah,
(02) I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. [Now you know that’s ‘Day of The Lord’ talk.]
(03) I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord. [That’s Malachi 4.]
(04) I will stretch out upon mine hand unto Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
(05) And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; [In other words, you’ve got bastardized religions like Catholicism today, Mariology, Peterology, Paulology and God knows what. Idolatry.]
(06) And them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him.
(07) Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the Day of The Lord is at hand:
So he tells you He is going to be Present and you better know the day of the Lord is here, too, because He comes with light and He comes with darkness.
That’s why it’s such a gloomy, funny day, a day that’s confusing, but so what? We’re used to confusion by now, so praise God.
(07) …the Lord [God] hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
Where’s the wedding garments? Where’s a Marriage Supper going to go on? And you know who is going to be around, and what it’s going to be around? The great Sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself incarnated – yes!
Fully prepared through God bringing everything under His feet. The great Day.
Now, so we said Zephaniah 14:6-7 is Zephaniah 1:1-7, which is Zephaniah 1:8:
(08) And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
How did you get in here without a wedding garment? See? And watch: Zephaniah 1:1-7, which is based on: 1-8. We better read some more.
(09) In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, [We already read that. Verse 14:]
(14) The great day of the Lord is near, is near, hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; [He is going to raise the dead.] the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
(15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of grossness, dark gloominess, and clouds that are thick and dark.
(16) A day of the trumpet [What about the day of the trumpet? Well we’ll read that in Amos after a while.] and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
(17) I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men,… [And so on. We read all those things.]
(18) And their silver and gold [won’t do them good. Even though they say, “We’re rich and increased with goods, and don’t need a thing. Right?]
All right. Now watch: Zephaniah 1:16. See? “A day of trumpet, a day of alarm against the fenced cities”…That takes us to:
(06) Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? [Or shall not the Lord do something about it? is what it is.]
(07) Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
(08) The lion hath roared,… [Seventh Seal, Seven Thunders.] the Lord God hath spoken, [Down here on earth.] who can but prophesy? [It takes a prophet to tell you.]
You’re right back now to 2 Peter, the Word of the Lord, the prophecy, which is on the scene at this hour, has been conclusively made known and given to us through the vindicated prophet.
The whole thing is wrapped up. This is it – the hour in which we live – but we don’t need to be afraid, because we’re children of Light. We’re not back here with the world judging anymore.
We’re in a spiritual vacuum, so to speak. And by ‘vacuum’ I mean nothing can come into it. ‘Spiritual isolation’, I should say, which is better.
So Zephaniah 1:16 is Amos 3:6, which is also Malachi 4:1-2, 5-6: wrath, destruction, immortality, tread down the wicked, Elijah coming, the same time God comes to set the thing in order, which is also:
(27) As the light shines from east to west, so is the presence of the son of man.] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Which is Luke 17:20-30, the kingdom here. As Brother Branham says, in I think ‘World Falling Apart,’ in 1963 in New York, “He is the Kingdom. He is here. The King is here.”
As it says in 2 Thessalonians 2:1, “…by our gathering together unto him.”…which is a Message, bringing us in, which is, without a doubt, Zephaniah 1:1-7 which we read:
(03) I’ll consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
(04) [Stretch mine hand out] I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
(05) I’m going to take in those that worship wrong…] And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham;
(06) I’m going to come against those that turned back from the Lord; [How many left Brother Branham every time he said something? Why, the man couldn’t say a thing but they began jibing at him and running off. Well fine! That’s good! The Bride’s got to be few, so thank God they did it.] and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him.
(07) Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
(08) And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. [When we’re at the Wedding Supper you watch what happens.]
It’s all going on right now… that is, to say: what is going on is the sense that we’re rapidly coming into the complete fulfillment of this whole thing.
Now, I don’t know how quick I’ll cut off here, but we’re going to do some reading.
So, we go to:
The Seventh Seal 63-0324e
[103] We must remember that this seventh seal is the end of time of all things.
Now he tells you. Now the day of the Lord has got to be part of it. The Lord’s Day has got to be a part of it. So he tells you: the opening of this has to do with it. Let’s read it:
[103] …That’s right. The things written in the seventh seal book, [Sealed up with the plan of redemption from before the foundation of the world.], it every bit ends.
Well this has got to end too then. The Seventh Seal opened it, set it in motion. The Sixth Seal set it in motion. There’s nothing that’s not set in motion.
It is the end. The end of the struggling world. [He’s going to destroy it. He said so here.] It’s the end of struggling nature. [He said so.]
It’s the end of everything. In there is the end of the trumpets, [He said so. No more trumpets going to blow.] it’s the end of the vials, [No more punishment.] it’s the end of the earth. It’s the end of time – time runs out. [That’s under the Seventh Seal.]
[104] …Revelation 10:1-7, time runs out. Angel said it, “Time is no more,” … in the days of this great thing to happen. Everything runs out at this time – this is the end of the seventh seal.
Notice. It’s the end of the church age, it’s the end of the seventh seal, it’s the end of the trumpets, it’s the end of the vials, even ends the ushering in of the millennium.
Well, we read it. So under the Seventh Seal that broke, that’s in effect, you are not going to escape the Lord’s Day and the day of the Lord – His Presence.
[105] It’s just like firing a rocket into the air. And that rocket explodes here and it goes up, and then it explodes again. It puts out five stars.
One of those stars explodes and blows five more stars. And then one of them explodes and blows out five more stars, see. It fades on out. That’s what the seventh seal… it just ends the time for the world. It ends the time for this, the time for that, the time for this, the time for that.
[106] Now, how is He going to do it? That’s what we don’t know, isn’t it? We don’t know. It’s even time for all these things, and the ushering in of the millennium.
Notice, the breaking of this seal was so great that heaven was hushed by it in silence for the space of a half hour. Now, how great is it?
[Now he said,] “Listen,” he said, “It’s even time for all these things and the ushering in of the Millennium.”
Well how do you usher the Millennium in, except through a Resurrection, and a Rapture, and a Wedding Supper, and come on down and take over?
Well if that’s not the presence of God, you tell me what it is. Yet people can’t shut-up and listen. Now he tells you how the twenty-four elders quit… Just read your Bible on the twenty-four elders, and you’ll find some more thoughts. Okay?
Let’s read this. This is about the cloud, the big cloud up there.
He said:
He That Is in You 63-1110e
[23] It was 30 miles high and 27 miles across, one or the other. Life magazine packed it, May 17 issue. That’s it.
[24] Now there it is, scientifically, proof that it’s the truth. So therefore we don’t worry about whether it’s truth. Both scientifically and spiritually; but what was said has come to pass.
So the message of the seventh seals, and their closing, that’s the message of the entire Bible. The seventh seals closes the New Testament and seals it up.
Now you say, “Just a minute, I thought it opened it.”
Well it’s how you look at it. First of all the Seven Seals had closed it. But now that It’s opened, It can’t be closed.
It’s closed it – that’s the end of it – because you can’t add or can’t take. He knew It was open. That’s the truth.
[24] Now, we know that that is by prophetic utterance, by scientific, and by the Word. Three has given the witness that it is the truth. Science, prophetic, and here’s the Word.
Just like It says Peter said, “You’ve got this prophecy absolutely made sure.”
When did science ever have a picture of anything in the past? When did they have that Pillar of Fire and those clouds? Now people say, “Well, you’re just guessing.”
Well that’s fine. Then we’re guessing. Wonderful. No problem. The Word said so, but that’s all right. You see who believes the Word, don’t you?
[25] Therefore, we know we’re at that end time; we’re here. I don’t know how far away. He’ll never let us know that, because his coming will be “as a thief in the night.”
So what’s the difference? What do I care? I’d like to get stolen out of here. There’s no problem to me.
Now listen; let’s watch it.
[25] Now, my friend, my brother, sister, let’s get ready, be ready regardless. Let’s just chase ourselves. See, because the world will go right on.
They’ll never even know what’s happened. When the doors of mercy close, preachers will be preaching salvation, cause the people to repent, go right on like they always did. It did in other ages and it will be in this age.
The Rapture will be so sudden and so quick, the world will never miss them if they’re gone. That’s right. They’ll know nothing about it. He comes and slips her away. It’ll be gone and know nothing about it. So be in prayer for me. I’ll be in prayer for you. We don’t now when that hour will be.
So what’s the difference? You’re going to get changed before you get snuck out of here. So what’s he telling the people?
He’s telling them that they don’t know, and they should know, and there are a people that are supposed to know, and they will know.
And it’s not the idea of getting snuck out of here – it’s you better know ahead of time what time it is and what it takes to get you snuck out of here. Because they are going to be giving altar calls and it’s going to be all gone and they won’t even know it. Sure.
Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed 63-0728
[206] The reason there that was such a tremendous thing that he spoke of it here and showed those Seven Thunders and Look and Life magazine there packed that “circle of Light.”
There they could not understand and don’t yet but here telling, go there and wait for those mysteries to be revealed in here months before it happened. Then it happened exactly the way he said it would do.
So he tells you here about that same Thunder, the same circle of Lights.
He also said:
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages – 9 – The Laodicean Church Age
Now this messenger of Malachi 4 and Revelation 10:7 is going to do two things. According to Malachi 4,
One: He’ll turn the hearts of the children to the fathers.
Two: He’ll reveal the mysteries of the seven thunders in Revelation 10 which are the revelations contained in the seven seals.
That’s exactly what the prophet said.
The Rapture 65-1204
[156] And those Seven Seals opened, those mysteries and showing those things what’s happened. I didn’t know it.
[157] But there’s a man standing right here, was standing right with me when you heard me preach the sermon, “Sirs, What Time Is It?” And that morning exactly where it said it would be, there stood seven Angels standing right from the Heaven.
And as they went up, and that whirlwind took them up there, we standing, watched as they went away, science took the picture of it all the way across the nation, down into Mexico.
[158] And there I was watching. One day when I started to preach those seven church ages, I called Jack Moore, a great theologian; I said, “Jack, Who is this Person standing there, There’s One like the Son of man there, hair as white as wool.”
I said, “He was a young Man; how could He have hair as white as wool?”
[159] He said, “Brother Branham, that was His glorified body.” That didn’t ring a bell. But I went in the room and started praying, He let me know what it was.
What was it? It was a Judge. What was it?
[160] . ..He was a Deity, not just a man; He was God manifested in flesh.
But He never came back in that ring. It wasn’t the man in that ring. If that was a man in that ring… I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that. Brother Branham said, “It wasn’t His glorified form.”
So it couldn’t have been glorified form. Had to be a theophany form. And there He stood like one of those mighty angels. He stood there, just like when He was in the form of Michael. But there He stood. All right?
Now what’s he saying?
Patmos Vision
[131] Now John was transmitted from the Isle of Patmos, appeared in the Lord’s day. This was the day of man, but the day of the Lord will come when these kingdoms will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
Then there’ll be the great millennium, the Lord’s Day, the day of his coming, His judgment, that’ll be the Lord’s Day.
So look, how much more evidence do we want of what’s going on? Okay.
Christ the Mystery of God Revealed 63-0728
[337] Notice, being personally identified by the original headship, we have the answer to the devil’s question. Amen! Glory! We have the answer to the devil’s question.
He, Christ, is risen and has paid the price in raising up the body. The devil can’t stand it.
[338] That’s the reason these ecumenical kingdoms are setting up. That’s the reason they’re all coming into what they’re doing now. The devil, that’s the reason he’s howling the way he is.
His scheme has been uncovered by the risen resurrected Christ in the headship over his body!
So who’s here? Why is Satan howling? Why are organizations coming up the way they are? Because He’s here. He’s back to headship.
[339] You think I’m beside myself; I’m not. We’ve got the devil’s answer. “Not me, but there was Christ the Word living in me.”
Now he’s not talking about Paul – he’s talking about himself. It’s not my ideas; it’s his power. Not my ideas; his Word.
What is it he said over here? “The day of the Lord, this is man’s word, this is man’s this man’s that…” What’s this? It’s coming into full view.
That’s what it’s doing. And it’s coming into full view in a Bride, because how in the world are you going to have a kingdom without the subjects? How are you going to have the Rapture without the Bride?
How you going to have anything without a Bride? A Wedding Supper?
[339] Not my idea; it’s his power. Not my idea; it’s His Word. He promised it, here it is. He said it would be here, and here it is. We’ve got His answer.
Now what’s he talking about? Something Paul wrote or something that’s here? I don’t believe it’s something Paul wrote. I believe it’s here.
[340] Christ is risen and paid the price for our redemption. What God in Christ manifested, He gave that flesh and blood, that in the blood might come the life, and the flesh be redeemed; and that was God in this redeemed flesh could manifest his Word for the day as He did in that day.
[Now he’s telling you,] “As it was in that day, is for this day.” You see? Oh my!
[341] Notice it. And we stand justified in the presence of God as a drop of ink dropping in a full tub of bleach. You’ll never find the stain of ink no more.
It went somewhere. And never come back again. And when man is truly redeemed (that predestinated seed in its season and accepts it), his sins are demolished.
In other words we’re truly redeemed, because we see what we see.
“Oh,” you say, “I’m looking down the road”
I’m not. You see, that’s where this church stands. We’re not looking down the road. We’re not looking back. We’re looking at what’s in front of us. This is where we differ from so many people.
[341] It’s gone! It’s separated! It’s dropped into the ink of the blood… [He should say, “the bleach of the Blood.”] from Christ and it’s never remembered. God forgets it and he stands as a son or daughter in the presence of God. Amen and amen!
Now he tells you what’s here.
[342] Now are we the sons of God. Not will be, we are. Now we’re redeemed. We have Satan’s answer. God has vindicated Himself, has proved Himself to his promise in this day. Hallelujah! Headship is here.
“Well, maybe He’s not here. Throw it in the garbage tin. Maybe he’s just carried away with his own blah, blah…his verbosity, his verbiage, and his hot air.”
Is that what a prophet is all about? This is what I wonder: what do people believe? I preached a sermon, “God, Prophet; Prophet, God.” There!
“Oh, Brother Vayle, I knew it all the time.”
Oh, sure you did. The simple things are the deep things. God makes things out of stone; stone – common material. But it takes an expert cutter to build a pyramid.
[342] Headship is here (Amen!) – Christ, the risen Lord. It’s here. [Notice ‘It’ – Holy Spirit.] And the same power of his resurrection He ever was, manifesting Himself. There’s the devil’s answer.
[343] That’s the reason this man sitting here dropped dead the other day, we could say, “Come back, life!” – because the Holy Spirit said so.
That’s why He could do that for that little baby in Mexico that had been dead for about fifteen hours. The vision came, “Call her back to life. Let the little baby live.”
And the baby that the doctors wrote a statement died at nine o’clock that morning, eleven o’clock came back to life and living today.
That’s what Paul said when he said, “We’ve got this, and we dispense it.” That’s what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4: “We have this ministry.”
“Oh, the church has got it. The lovely brethren that came together and elected somebody, and they sit together, and they talked it over. Oh! Those lovely brethren got it.”
Hogwash they got it. They’ve got it – and it’s herpes – from their sexual intercourse with filth! When they go down with the AIDS, I’ll laugh my guts out.
And if I’m one of them, I’ll go to hell with bells on, too, just like the rest, because we’re calling the shots.
We’ve got a vindicated prophet – you’ve got a vindicated prophet. It’s this Word, brother. I don’t care what anybody says. It’s living, and It’s not just a Word – He is here.
Logos is here by the One by Whom all things consist, Who made all things and consist, and He’s upholding them now. That One is here at the head of the Church!
And that means just one thing: there isn’t nothing but the Church that has a true relationship to Almighty God. Everything else is relative. But we’re not even related; we’re Sons – a part.
“I’m tired of being identified. I’m not identified. I’m a Son.
“Brother Vayle, you…”
I’m not identified. Look, kid, forget it: ‘I’m identified’. I’m a Son; I’m not identified.
And he said, “You’re identified as a Son.”
No way, no way. I’m a Son. Period. And that’s all there is to it. Don’t tell me anything else. I’m just tired of all this other flukey stuff thrown here by the theologians.
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[591] What is it? Not them people; the headship and the body have become one unit. Couldn’t be any other time. It’s God manifested in his people.
That’s the reason the husband and wife are no longer twain; they’re one. God in His church is one – Christ in you! God, the great revelation. Glory to God!
Ever bearing His name. His name is Jesus, the anointed. The reason He’s called Jesus, He’s the anointed. And it is the anointed body of Christ proving, manifested God like that body did. The body redeemed.
Now it says “like that body did.” Now listen, who’s doing it? William Branham was doing it, so therefore the body was doing it – because what’s he a part of? He’s not God, he’s part of the body.
[591] And through there God works his threefold manifestation. Going to the kingdom, risen, paid the price. We’re redeemed. God proved it, vindicated it. [See? Vindicated.] See?
[592] And we stand justified in Christ before Him, because He cannot pass judgment, for He has already judged that body in which I am a part of it.
But where do you stand then? You’re judged already. How am I a part of it? Here it is:
It’s in me. “If ye abide in Me and my words in you, then what you say… Ask the Father anything in my name and it will be done because it’s there.” Justified! Glory to God!
So, where are you at? Matthew 3:12, “The fan is in his hand.” Matthew 22:10: when the Seals are broken, you can’t reseal it – but it’s sealed in this respect: you can’t add to it. It’s all over. The whole thing is coming to an end.
So we see, you can’t separate the two days, Lord’s Day and the day of the Lord.
You can’t separate them, but you can identify, so that in identifying and mentally separating, you can place exactly what’s going on as to intent, and purpose, and events, and to whom it concerns, and to what concerns.
And it works out.
They are together, but instead of a generalization, there is a particularization, or designation, to make us know we are already thrust into the hour of destruction which we will escape and are ready to start His Day with Him.
I maintain we are all caught up into it, irrevocably, because He’ll lose none, and are a part of it. We cannot be deceived.
The day of the Lord, blinding and opening eyes…blinding eyes, opening eyes… destroying and saving, which brings the parallelism of Scripture before us, which people find so hard to understand.
In one breath in Isaiah: blessing, cursing; blessing, cursing; blessing, cursing.
You say, “Oh, it’s going on anyway.”
He’s talking about two things at one time: light – darkness; life – death; mercy – no mercy; grace – disgrace. What’s the day of the Lord? The day of the vengeance of our God.
Absolutely. They run hand in hand: blinding eyes, opening eyes; destroying, saving. That’s the day of the Lord – the Lord’s Day – the great take-over. And there wouldn’t be any take-over except for the first.
So you’re beginning to see: you can’t separate them. The prophet didn’t separate them.
But the differentiation lies there. The day of the Lord, brother or sister, I believe we are into, and because of it, the climax, which is the Lord’s Day, will bring us right down here.
And that’s where they’re going to fall and squall and wail at our feet, and wish they hadn’t done what they had done. But it’s going to be too late.
So we just have one thing to say, and that’s what Brother Branham said: “Come into the ark now by believing His Word and separating ourselves from all unbelief,” and begin to realize that as it wasn’t done in a corner, but as everything was done back in the days of Jesus in his flesh, starting redemption, now everything has been done openly here and not in a corner, to finish redemption, and the Book which was closed two thousand years ago is open.
So this is the day of the vengeance of our God and comforting those that mourn.
This is the day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day. But it’s to understand what is going on, what they signify. It’s just like: there is one God, but He is Judge.
There is one God, but He is King. There is one God, but He’s Prince of Peace. There is one God, but He’s Counsellor. There is one God, but He’s Mighty God.
There is one God, but He’s Holy Ghost. There is one God, but He’s Lily of the Valley. There is one God, but He’s the Rose of Sharon.
You can have four thousand names and titles – He’s one God. But every one signifies, and you see God before us. Now it’s what I try to get across to people.
To me it’s like that Pillar of Fire, folding and enfolding, that’s exactly what Ezekiel saw, and he saw the whole thing heading up to the Son of man, God incarnated, the cherubim, chariot, the whole thing.
And you see Him coming around and there He is back in the days of Abraham, and He stands by Abraham, the Pillar of Fire, God taking the sacrifice, burning it up.
Coming back with a great promise… standing one day before Abraham as a man. There He is – Elohim, flanked by two other men, and there He is the Judge of all the earth, and there He is the great Destroyer.
Now watch Him keep coming down. He’s the same Pillar of Fire in the days of Moses. He goes down and destroys Pharaoh, brings the children of Israel out.
It’s the same One doing it. And then He said, “I’m going to take you to this mountain here, and you are going to be able to worship.” With the Pillar of Fire there. We’ve got the same thing going on now.
Then one day He came down and became a man in human flesh. Then He died. He went back again. Now He was the Son of man, and now He’s come back in the form of the Spirit, Pillar of Fire, William Branham, there it is.
And watch the ministry come forth in the form of the Spirit through a man. What was He? Son of man, Son of God, Son of man, and so we see Him folding, and unfolding, and folding, and unfolding, and any turn He wants to make.
And so you see the facets, the aspects, and today we are in the progressive and wonderfully progressive thing we are into which is Shout, Voice, Rapture, and we are not going to be here when wrath falls.
I’m getting out of here. Yes. Why? Because I’ve separated from all unbelief. I left my creeds and my dogmas. Everything else has gone down the drain. Why should I fool with it?
Let’s rise.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Jesus Christ our Lord.
We thank You, my God, that he ever lived to make intercession for us, and we deal with Him Who was God manifest in flesh, who had a birth different from ours, though coming by a woman, he didn’t come the way we come.
There is something entirely different. He was, and then He changed the form.
And we can’t understand all these things, but we appreciate them and thank You for it, that here You are again now coming down to show that this One, though coming with eyes of fire and all, to take vengeance, the great day of the Lord, the Lord’s Day, sure, all these things, but we know that at that time in His Presence, Elijah stands and we stand and now redeemed.
And here we stand without guilt, without fear – nothing against us, and we know it – that great wonderful day.
What a day that is, Lord, and we know that it doesn’t mean one thing as though we’re superior to anybody. We know that, we’ve already discovered that.
We know that. We just know that this is the hour of Your pre-eminence, O God, and that’s the way we want it.
And if You need us out of the way more and more, which I wish we could get out of the way more and more, learn how to do it, to be more and more conformed to Your image which is truly one in the Spirit. Lord, help us.
Help each one, Lord, to just realize where each one is tonight. It’s really safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on that gentle breast. In the pavilion of our God we’re hidden away. The enemies can circle us, let them circle, and they will.
How do we know, Lord, which ones of us will die? We don’t know. We don’t know all which is coming upon the earth, and we know we don’t need to know.
But we know this one thing, the Psalmist said it, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, and he will deliver me from mine enemies.”
And when they compass round about me, I’ll just desire this one thing – His Presence, being in His pavilion, to enquire of Him, just to look to Him.
He’s my headship; He’s my all; He’s my everything. Give Him pre-eminence as we ought to.
Lord, we see so much trouble today amongst men and women that type You and Your Bride, and we see that women do not give reverence to their husbands, and we realize a lot of husbands sure aren’t worth it.
But when we realize, Lord, tonight that You are our Husband and You deserve reverence, absolutely, such reverence. How what manner of people we ought to be, and we want to be that kind of people.
Help us tonight, Lord, to have more guard upon our very innermost being, as never before, until the outermost being begins to reflect a little more of what we know to be true and what we believe to be true by all of grace and nothing of ourselves.
“Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to Your cross we cling.” “Rock of Ages cleft…” Thank God for the cleaving. Thank God for the Blood. Thank God for the Life. We cannot praise You enough, Lord.
We often sing, “Cry out with a thousand tongues.” It would take billions of tongues. You’d never do it. Billions and trillions of years. How could you do it?
If we just stood there and looked and said, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” Eternities and eternities would never fill it. We know that, Lord, and we don’t say it, because we just want to be saying something.
We know it’s the truth. But, Lord, let it become dynamized living truth as never before.
And unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only- wise God, be all power, and honor and glory through Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. Amen.
‘Take the Name of Jesus with You.’