Token #05
#0286
…we see, the night is far spent Lord; we know that the day is at hand that soon there’s going to be a breaking of the day, a new day.
Lord, we know that that’s all the more treacherous because the end time even though there is great light for the believer, there’s also great darkness in a spiritual form of wickedness that the world has not known and also Lord, the devil does not let up and we know that there’s a repeat of all diabolical cunning and without You Lord, we have no way of making anything at all, but… so we cast our all upon You tonight Lord, in our very beings, oh God, in the depths of our soul we cry unto you and ask for Your help Lord, that we might be fully fortified in this hour and that we might be able to go into where You are Lord, into the chamber, the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
Father, help us tonight in the meditation of Thy Word, that we realize Lord, many things the prophet said are terribly difficult. And even as Peter met with Paul that said things that are terribly difficult but they’re true.
Father, help us to understand what it is said and apply it to our lives wherever it is possible and we know that most of the Word can be applied to our lives, not just a matter of revealed faith Lord, but a revealed life, a revealed walk. So Father, we just commend ourselves to You in Your grace tonight, believing somehow You will help us, in Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now this is Token, number 5, what we’re getting into tonight as of this fifth message on it up to page 20 and in each of these services we notice, we try to say something that allows us to break into Brother Branham’s message to make it a little more smooth than, though we just started or might start to read it.
And so far we’ve pointed out quite deliberately and tried to be emphatic that Brother Branham’s speaking on the Token did not deny that Luther, Wesley and others had received the Holy Spirit in their ages.
Of course, that’s something that you’ll notice sounds as though he were saying that pretty soon as we read that that could not be possible but quoting from Doing God a Service Apart from His Will, Without It Being His Will, Brother Branham said, “The Holy Spirit was in Luther. The Holy Spirit was in Wesley. It’s God’s Word being anointed.”
Now you notice how he always put the measure of the Spirit and the measure of the Word together. He never left them separated. It’s always together. You can’t have one without the other.
Anyone truly full of the Holy Ghost would have to be Word orientated, they’d have to be compatible with the Word, not say, “Well, we’re so deep in the Spirit we just bypass the Bible.” You can see that would be very wrong.
Now it’s God’s Word being anointed. The Holy Spirit returned to this age; they began to have restoration of gifts. They found that by yielding to God the Holy Spirit spoke in tongues through them. That is a tremendous statement.
You see there’s where the Pentecostal people got really off on a wrong foot due to sensations because it was true that this was the Holy Spirit speaking through them in gifts and they had to be yielded to It and so it naturally came to them that this yielding to the Spirit and speaking in tongues was the baptism with the Holy Ghost when it wasn’t.
Actually you would have to be baptized with the Holy Ghost to have a legitimate gift in tongues and be in true church order. Now you could have a gift of tongues without being baptized with the Holy Ghost; that’s true. But what I’m trying to show you here that, you don’t get the cart before the horse as Brother Branham often said.
Thus when Brother Branham was putting or pointing out that the Token could not come until evening time he was not denying that these people had received the Holy Spirit but it was that the fullness of the Spirit could not come until now. Now you’ll notice every time he said measure.
Well, how many measures are there? You see that’s the thing. See if God poured out His Spirit by measure in every age when did the measures run out?
Well, the seven spirits before the Throne, seven lamps, seven eyes, all indicative of the seven outpourings in the seven ages which brought it up through a body constituting the fullness, getting back to Headship.
So the fullness of the Holy Spirit could not come until this last measure was granted to us and when he said, “The Lutherans, the Wesleyans and Pentecostals only potentially had the Holy Spirit,” he was referring to the very Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit veiled in a Pillar of Fire as He has now come amongst us.
Now he said, “Luther looked for the Pillar of Fire and Wesley looked.” Now we don’t challenge that statement, what Brother Branham meant exactly, I don’t know, being a prophet he could well be assured by God that they literally looked for a Pillar of Fire.
On the other hand, it could be that they were looking for what we have received, but perhaps, with a thinking that wasn’t as perfect, well, it wasn’t as perfect as Brother Branham’s that’s for sure.
Now it was just like Brother Branham said, … ”Justification gave way to sanctification I’m a little bit paraphrasing this out of Masterpiece, [64-0705] and sanctification gave way to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost gave way to the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost Itself.”
Now you’ll notice how that when he talked of this potential, “Lutherans potentially, Wesleyans potentially, Pentecostal potentially, they all had a measure and one giving way to the other,” you can see that he said, “what a glory Luther had over the Catholics, what a glory it was that Wesley had over the Lutherans, what a glory Pentecost had over the Wesleyans and what a glory this is; this is the glory that will never fail.”
Now he also brought the thought up that it was a seed that went into the ground and it had to come back to where the seed was identical to that which had gone into the ground.
Well, all right, we know that the literal fact of the matter is Brother Branham said, “See, we haven’t had God speaking face to face with a prophet for two thousand years like He did to Moses, for two thousand years since the Apostle Paul.”
And he said, “Just think the same Pillar of Fire that brought the Word is here revealing that Word or interpreting that Word.”
So what we’re looking at here is that which was in the beginning in the form of the Holy Spirit was immediately cut off in that First Church Age and it went down, down, down until the Spirit in the Church was very, very minor to what it should be.
The leadership of God was not there, the Word was decimated, nothing was there and especially in the Dark Ages, you couldn’t even begin to find anything that looked in any way shape or form of what went down in the ground and died.
Now it wasn’t just a Bride going in, because Brother Branham doesn’t talk of that Bride in these terms when he talks about the potential. He’s talking of the literal Holy Spirit and the ministry we see in this hour.
Now he said, “It started back under Luther in those little stalks, maybe a couple came up,” now he said, “That didn’t look very much like the original grain.” That’s true, it didn’t. A couple of green stalks don’t look anything like a corn.
That’s the mature article we’re talking about that went in. And Luther’s age didn’t look hardly anything like the age of Jesus Christ, what the Holy Spirit can do or Christ can do in the form of the Holy Spirit; it didn’t look like it.
Now Wesley came along and that was a lot better. Then Pentecost came along and that looked closer still because now you’re getting to where you can see a seed form and there’s got to be a seed form there like the original.
But Brother Branham said, “What was the ear of the corn developed fungus,” and you found that as you looked into what was the ear or what should have been the grain of wheat whichever way you want to go, you could tear it apart and you’d find there was nothing in there but it was predestinated by God and a life was in there but it was coming out, and perhaps, with a scope you could see it begin to form.
Now he said, “This is what you’re looking at, the real seed that’s come back.” Now that’s the ministry or the literal proof that Jesus Christ is come back to this earth in the form of the Holy Spirit and is doing exactly what he used to do when he was here in the flesh to Israel. See?
Now that’s what we’re looking at here and we cannot ever take one message and play it against another message or some quotes and play it against other quotes. You’ve got to see the picture in its entirety. So we’ll just keep going along here then. So he said, “Gave way to the Holy Ghost Itself.”
It was a perfect picture he gave us when he showed how the corn was coming back to original, or the wheat was. And here it is today the perfect ministry, perfect parallel, the perfect Word, no doubt about it, Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit identified amongst us.
Now actually we can read this on page 20, starting at the top of the page, that’s the last sentence in that first paragraph.
[19-12] The evening time Message is to apply the Token.
Now that’s what he said. In 1962 in Spokane, I think it was, he said, “My Message is to declare that He is here.” So the evening time Message is a declaration that He is here.
Now with it is an understanding of a Token that must be applied because the man cannot be bringing up two subjects which are contrary one to the other. What they are they’re perfectly real. Now let’s read on.
[20-1] Satan will sow all kinds of counterfeits of shaking hands and evidences and everything like that: FORGET IT! The hour has arrived that the Token, Itself not some counterfeit, make-believe substitution… or something; the hour is here when the Token Himself is identifying Himself right among us and proving that He is… Jesus Christ or Jesus yesterday, today, and forever, and He is right with the Word.
Now that follows when he said, “My Message is to declare to you, the evening time Message is a declaration of the application of the Token.” And then he goes right on here and he reiterates what he said in ‘62. “My Message is to declare that He is here.” Now you notice he’s very careful when he speaks of the Token that must be applied.
Now watch it. He said, “Counterfeits, shaking of hands, evidences, some substitution, make-belief.” Now evidently the purpose of that statement is to jar the thinking into an understanding this is literally a Mount Carmel showdown. It’s what you’re looking at. We’re going to go into that a little more.
Now, reading on.
[20-2] It has got to be applied. A man that says that he has got the Token and denies this Word; [Now there’s a Message with it.] then what about it? You can’t do it. The Token has got to be there…
Now emphatically, stressing the validity of his thesis is understanding his presentation and warning and exhorting that there is a relationship to a true Token that you must possess and the Token that stands there that he absolutely believes to be vindicated. It’s got to be applied.
Now he’s going back again to Exodus as the blood had to be applied, the Token had to be applied. Now remember, the blood had a source. Our token also has a source.
[20-3] Now, now, the Holy Spirit the Life that was in the Blood is a Token unto you. Get to that in a minute. The Holy Ghost is the Token.
Now does he mean, the Holy Ghost is the Token, as though we’re going to have the Holy Ghost and God Himself is standing there and He’s not the Holy Ghost but He’s something else? Well, you get back to being a Trinitarian pretty quick on that one. You got too many spirits. It’s no way.
That’s the Trinitarian concept, you get the Spirit of Jesus Christ and then you get the Spirit of God. The spirit of Jesus, of course, is the salvation but Brother Branham didn’t say that. He said, “You get another spirit from God but not the Holy Spirit, because the spirit you got cannot receive the Holy Ghost. He gives you another spirit;” reading that from Ezekiel.
Then you can receive the Holy Ghost. Because the Trinitarian doesn’t have a clue as to the message that Brother Branham is preaching. So what have we got here? “The Holy Spirit, the Life that was in the Blood now,” he said, “that comes back upon the believer.”
Then Who is standing there? The Life-giver Himself or the Life Itself, Jehovah Life. See? Jehovah-Way: Jehovah-Truth.
Now notice, he says here,
[20-3] The Holy Ghost is the Token. The case is closed…
In other words, you do what you want; it’s all over. This is it or nothing is it. Or this is it or you haven’t got it. That’s what he’s really saying. Now we’ll hit this on judgment a little bit later.
[20-4] Now, remember, … it doesn’t matter what you are, how good you are, how many times you jumped up and down, how many churches you’ve joined, how many good things you’ve done; it won’t mean one thing to you, if the Token isn’t applied. This is the evening time.
Now you’ll notice in there he’s making a leeway that this could have been supportive to the person or supported as your understanding but not anymore, because all these things are good, even dancing is fine. Nothing wrong with dancing in the Spirit as long as, you don’t try to make some kind of sexy hoe-down out of it and women and men dance together.
Impressionistic dancing is all… always has been of God, you’re supposed to praise Him in the dance. I don’t think we’re going to start anything like that here, but Brother Branham mentioned one time himself he got very critical of some Pentecostals, you know, dancing around and the music… and before he knew he was tapping his toe and the first thing he knew he dancing around, too. I’ve got nothing against that at all. I’m for it, even if it’s just psychological.
You know, people think I’m a whole lot starchier than I am, but I’m not as starchy as you think I am because these… it all comes out in the message that’s what I really stand for, what I really believe. See?
Now he said,
[20-5] That worked all right in the days of Luther… worked all right in the days of Wesley. But it doesn’t work now. No.
[20-6] Yeah… keeping up the lamb was all right then. Those who died… before the lamb was applied, even with the blood… [he meant you see, they had that lamb to apply that blood; there were those previously who were killing animals in sacrifice but they weren’t applying the blood on the lintels of the doorpost. See?] Now they all died… because of good conscience.
And they’ll come up, but you notice that those in Egypt at that time that died never came up. Like Joseph said, “Take my bones back.” Jacob wouldn’t even allow himself to be buried there. He wanted them in Jerusalem where the Resurrection was going to be.
They knew that there would be a Resurrection and they being prophets. You see? Now they could come up in a Resurrection down the road, but they weren’t resurrected at that time and taken into the Promised Land.
This is a Promise Land promised and a condition, an itinerary at that particular time it was over, it doesn’t repeat. And we’ve got to… and we’re going through the same thing again.
Now I know that when talk about being in the Bride of Christ, Brother Branham categorically said, “It doesn’t matter if you die. You don’t have to be standing here. One is as good as the other; you’re going to make it.” Then you see they think, “Well, hey, everything then is par for the course.”
No, you’re wrong; everything is not par for the course. You can be back for those six church previous ages and most of this seventh and you’re fine, but you come up to this, suddenly everything changes. It’s not par for the course, anymore.
This is the thing we’ve got to get our thinking lined up with. This is what he keeps hammering. Don’t put faith in something that has been the status quo. He said, “Anybody can build a fence, or a house made of bricks until you come to the corner. But it takes an expert man to turn the corner.”
Now he’s telling you we’ve turned the corner. It’s the epical strategic season. We’re not back there anymore. We’re not back in Pentecost. Now we’re still in the Laodicean concept but we’re not personally the Bride in the Laodicean age and milieu. We’re not oriented here anymore. We’re out of her. We’re in the Bride age that marches on for the Bride. All right.
[20-6] Yeah… keeping up the lamb was all right then. Those who died… before that lamb shed his blood and the blood applied, that was different. Yes, sir. They went on [That means they died.] because of good conscience. They would be judged whether… they were predestinated, it struck them. If it didn’t, it didn’t. That is all. It is just God.
Now you notice the truth lies there where Brother Branham is bringing us to this crucial point. Back in Ephesians again, where he speaks of those full of the Holy Ghost, verses 13 and 14. You notice then he goes on and he says,
(17) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened…
Now what we don’t realize in there by reading that is the gap of two thousand years where everything that Brother Branham took… said took place of the seed going into the ground and then starting to come up till this point here where that Spirit comes into the Church.
Now at that point you can see that something is definitive which wasn’t definitive before, something is requisite that at the previous point was not requisite. Do you follow what I’m saying? See? Because you’ve got to understand between 14 and 17, two thousand years go by. That’s what you’re looking at. See? All right.
We read those paragraphs. Now here’s what I understand him to be saying in paragraphs one to seven. He says, “First of all the evening time Message is brought by an evening time
messenger right there.”
[19-12] The evening time Message is to apply the Token.
And he said, “The Token Himself is identified right amongst us.” So the evening time Message has an evening time Messenger. Two fold, Jesus, Message, Jesus Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit, a prophet on earth and his Message which is one with the Messenger.
Now you remember what Brother Branham said and I don’t want to read the whole thing because we’ve read it so many, many times, he said, “I want you to know that this is sure and you that listen to this tape you might have thought today I was trying to say that about myself, seeing I was preaching this Message.
I’ve no more to do with it than nothing, no more than just a voice. And then my voice even against my better judgment I wanted to be a trapper, but it’s the will of my Father I declare to do and determine to do. I wasn’t the One that appeared down there. I was the one standing there when He appeared. I’m not the One that performs these things,” and so on.
“I was only a voice that He used to say it. It wasn’t what I knew; it’s what I just surrendered myself to that He spoke through.” See? And then he said, “It’s a manifestation of the Son of man.” And he said, “The messenger and the prophet reveals the Son of man.” [All right.]
Now, so the evening time… there’s an evening time Message which is brought by an evening time Messenger, and this Messenger is Jehovah Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit in a Pillar of Fire in the office of Sonship, because He’s the Son of God according to the Resurrection from the dead and Paul called Him that after He identified Himself to Paul, “I am Jesus.” So this is Sonship.
It’s still Sonship. That’s why Brother Branham said, “God has given us the gift of His Son in these last days in the form of the Holy Spirit.” So don’t get away from Sonship. You say, “Well, I thought it was the Father.”
Well, He’s Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He’s all three, the Lily of the valley, the Rose of Sharon, the altogether Lovely, Son of God, Son of man, Son of David. It’s not that He’s not these things but at this particular time in the role of the drama, He is definitely in the form of Sonship, the office. So we got to remember that. All right.
The Messenger, Jehovah Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit in a Pillar of Fire, in the office of Sonship wherein the days of the Son of man ministry of Luke 17 and Matthew 12, manifest perfectly through a prophet that Jehovah Himself is indeed present, He has appeared according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
The Lord Himself has descended with a Shout, He appeared on the river, He came down with a message and that His message would be received He had a prophet to speak through and He vindicated Himself, proved Himself, proved the prophet, then spoke and proved what He spoke. See?
The Word of the hour is very direct and urgent to point that rejection demands destruction. That’s what It says in Acts 3 concerning Him at the end time.
Let’s go to Acts 3. I’ve got a lot of flack from this kind of preaching but it really nothing… you better believe it doesn’t bother me because I know I’m right. It’s says here in verse 19, the middle.
(19) …when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; [Now that’s not the Presence we’re talking about now.]
(20) [Even] he shall send Jesus Christ, which… was [proclaimed in advance] unto you:
(21) Whom the heaven must receive until the… [restoration] of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Now that’s that great healing revival that identifies the Lord Jesus Christ in His prophet and He still hasn’t come down to earth. The heavens have still retained Him. See?
The One you got advance notice about. The advance notice of the Marriage Supper, the union has gone on for years and is going on right now. And one day He’s going to break the clouds, so to speak, or come down and we’ll meet Him in the clouds, meet Him immortal which is the second coming, second time He comes in flesh. All right.
Now notice,
(21) …which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
(22) For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him [you will] hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
(23) …it shall come to pass, that every soul, [that] will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Now it tells you right there that Jesus is called that prophet. It’s identified with the prophet. A prophet is a messenger, actually he’s a messenger from God. That’s what he is. This is not just God’s prophet; this is the God prophet, God Himself. All right.
Now in this hour he is prophet yet Son of man in the form of the Holy Spirit, and it tells you right here that at this particular time, at this end time here, just before he comes in the human form that those who turn him down are going to be utterly destroyed.
Now, you can’t get away from that because that’s right over here in the Book of Matthew.
Now see, brother/sister, you’ve always got to just keep everything in place and understand Scripture has compound meanings many times, even compound chronology. The chronology might be two thousand years different. Now it says in the 3rd chapter…
(10) And now… the axe is laid unto the root of the tree: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
(11) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I [am], whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: [Now listen!]
(12) Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat [in] the garner; [and] burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Now someone could say, “Well, you see right there his fan was in his hand and he separated the true ones from Israel and he brought forth them out of the grave and he took them with him.” Who got burned up? See, they blew it on that one.
His fan is in His hand now. It wasn’t previously. The separation is over in Luke 17 where the eagles are gathered and “I’ll take one, leave one;” that’s going into the Rapture, see.
Now let’s go a little further. Let’s just run right back to Malachi 4…
(05) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
(06) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to [the] fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now right away the human mind can say, “Hey, now if that fellow Elijah comes he won’t smite the earth.” Wrong! He’s going to smite the earth, but He just won’t smite everybody. You see what we’re dealing with is the particular urgency of this end time Message, He is here with the fan in His hand, He’s separating the chaff from the wheat. And remember, the chaff gets burned.
Now, look it, I’m not making this Bible up. I didn’t… I got enough… I came out of Pentecost. Now I’ve still got enough sympathy for Pentecostal folk not as if you want to see anybody burn.
But I want to ask you, where does the wheat form? Not down in the roots, not down in the stalk, not in the tassel; it forms right in the husk, the chaff.
Now you see what happens the chaff gets brittle, hard to pry, “He that stiffens his neck and hardens his heart will be cut off.” Satan fell by reason of pride.
“We’re rich in goods and… we’re increased in goods and rich and we’re we don’t miss a thing, we got everything.” But he said, “You’re miserable, wretched, naked, poor and blind.” See, you can’t tell anybody that.
So, this is the urgency of that message so it’s to receive Elijah and Jehovah is deliverance, to reject is death. See? Now follow closely.
This great Messenger, this great prophet, and this great Message, you got a messenger, you got God Himself, you got a prophet, you got a Message which are in Revelation 10:1-7, the One that came down has one on earth to meet him in Revelation 22:10, the Seals are already broken now from Revelation 10, and you can’t close the book.
And at that time 1 Corinthians 13, that which is perfect is come, there’s no more parts. We know in part but now you’ve got all the parts. There’s no more to come. See? With it Revelation 22:18, 19, you can’t take and you can’t add. See?
You come to a perfection and this could only come at a time for an exodus that’s perfectly typed by Exodus 12, Israel going out. See that’s the alpha, this is your omega.
In no other church age did God Himself appear as He has now appeared. No way. See; let’s go back to the Pillar of Fire that brought the Word. The same Pillar of Fire brought the Word is revealing the Word, but He wasn’t revealing the Word back there, just giving It. See, it wasn’t time. Something was left out.
Paul himself said, “That the Spirit may come and give a revelation.” Now It came and gives a revelation now. And that’s the only thing that was missing to bring about a Resurrection and a Rapture, that’s the Lord Himself descending with a Shout. The Token is here. See? The great sealing… the great Sealer Himself is here. See?
Now Luther, Wesley, Pentecost were all leading up to it for they each had a measure but not the completely revealed Word, both as to letter and Logos. No, Logos Himself appeared on the scene. Why you can see the picture taken. See? That was all right for their day, and it was all right for their day; they’re going to make it. See?
They had enough to get them by and they could shake hands and join churches and this and that and that was fine; they’d get by with it with what measure they had but you and I cannot get by that way anymore. It’s over. See?
That’s what he’s bringing up to us all the time here and you cannot get people to understand they don’t have what it takes. Say, “Well, look, I spoke in tongues.”
Fine and dandy. “I prophesied, prayed for the sick, saw the dead raised, got devils cast out.” No problem, lived a beautiful life, far better than we’re living, no doubt. Brother Branham said, “The mule will outwork the horse anytime.”
Christian Science shows more love than we ever will; that’s the kind they got, they don’t have the other kind. Our kind goes to the Word, see. Then we’re expecting more to come out of that. All right.
Now Luther had his measure of the Spirit in his life in justification and it will take them in. Wesley had his measure in his life, sanctification; it’s going to take him in. Pentecost had their measure. Now remember, when Luther’s bunch turned on Wesley, [they] died.
When the Wesleyan bunch turned on the Pentecostals, they died. When the Pentecostals turned on the prophet in this Message and this Bride; they died. See, you can say what you want but that’s exactly what happened; they’ll never rise again. See, Pentecostals are the same as Wesleyans.
None of these three had to come under the full measure so they made it by what they had and especially through predestination like under the Fifth Seal. They did their best with what they had. See? But they didn’t have the revelation.
They couldn’t, it wasn’t time. The Pillar of Fire couldn’t come. He couldn’t return to the Gentiles, and the returning to the Gentiles in the ministry was to prove who It was in order to bring the ministering which was the Word because the just shall live by faith.
Now we’re going to get out of here and the faith is tuned to the Word of God and you cannot have faith toward the Word of God unless it’s the season. You can’t do it.
Now Pentecost could have its sensations and its wonderings and its wanderings like all the rest and even more so. That was fine for that day. See? The margin of error was there. They only had so much. They walked in the light. They had fellowship, but this is a different story today. See?
We’re right; we’re in a different area but today is different.
Number one; do you believe the Token Itself?
Number two; do you receive that Life from that Token that has revealed Himself?
You got to receive that Life from that Token that has revealed Himself. Now they never had that previously, brother/sister. It wasn’t that they didn’t have something real. We’re in a different hour. All right.
You have to receive that Life from that Token that has revealed Himself and spoken through the prophet of this hour for the first time from the Ephesian age God has identified Himself. You say why from that age? Because He said to Paul, “I am Jesus.”
Then Paul came in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Ghost; he didn’t just talk. He was identified. And he suffered for it, too, because he had a measure like none of the rest of them had but… he was even one born out of due season.
Remember, how God spoke to Brother Branham, the Voice said, “Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New.” He’s identified. See? Now if you believe… if you believe that is true, or you believe this which is true here, Jehovah’s Presence, you will receive every Word given in this hour.
Now this was not the Presence of God under Luther, under Wesley, under Pentecostal, because you couldn’t have it. They believed everything they could possibly get their hands on for their hour but we’re at the end of the ages. See?
Now, you will identify with Christ who is our life. Now watch that. You will identify with Christ who is our life and you will claim no other life to be of Christ than what Jehovah vindicated. Now come on, see, they called Brother Branham a soothsayer and a familiar spirit, names just like the devil, just like Jesus and everything else.
They say, “Don’t tell me I haven’t got the Holy Ghost.” I’m telling you right now they never had the Holy Ghost. They wouldn’t know the Holy Ghost under any condition; see, scream the housetops at Him, because He already did it.
What I’m saying is this, Jesus Christ, Jehovah Savior has identified Himself publicly to us. He is the great Token and the only Eternal Life available is the life given to us from that identified and present God, nothing else is of Him. The rest is sensation, shaking hands, jumping up and down, gifts, but not Life.
Now you see this spells an exclusivity. Makes people think, “Well, you’re closing people out.” I’m not closing anybody out. Go talk to God, don’t talk to me. Go talk to the prophet.
He’s the one that said it. I didn’t preach this sermon; he preached it but I don’t think I’m figuring that I can’t understand what… at least with the help of Almighty God the things that he’s saying here.
Because you go back in Scripture the Bible distinctly says, “Except a man have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” That’s written by Paul right there in that first age.
When did God ever change that Word? When did the age not have a measure of the Spirit? He said, “Don’t destroy the oil and wine.” He tells them flat. Remember, the bruised reed he doesn’t break and the smoking flax he won’t quench. He just keeps pouring in the oil. He pours in the oil until the end time.
He’s got a perfect Light again. See? That’s just for a few people, of course, and remember nothing else is of God. So He is the great Token and the only eternal life available is the life given to us of that identified and present God, nothing else is of Him; there’s no other life of Him, no life.
No sensation, no signs, no fruit, no knowledge, nothing but recognizing the vindicated Jehovah and asking for and receiving the gift of life from Him who is now manifestly present. Now that locks it right up.
Otherwise, why has Brother Branham said what he said? I’ll tell you why he said what he said because he’s a crank. That’s real good. Ranting and raving, like the poor people said… the poor dear sweet sister, who hasn’t got enough brains to come in out of the rain.
They haven’t got enough brains to get in the rain because that’s what it is because there’s a former rain out there and latter rain and they haven’t got enough brains, they want their slacks and their short hair and their floozy deloozy life. I don’t know what’s the matter with them. Oh, I can tell you what’s the matter with them; there’s no God there.
They can say what they want, the anointing, sure, but it’s not life. See, listen. Now, from what I’m bringing you, you can see that this message on the Token is literally another way of preaching a Rapture and it brings in the false anointed which it always does all the way down the line. All right.
No sensation, no signs, no fruit, no knowledge, nothing but recognizing the vindicated Jehovah and asking for and receiving the gift of life from him who is now manifestly present, to say one is spirit filled and deny the manifest Appearing in this hour shows he is not born again. Why a lot of people say they believe this Message and they don’t know there’s the Appearing going on.
I admit I threw a lot of people on that but my first message on it, I told everybody I went to the Word to find out about that word ‘appearing’, what’s going on, because Brother Branham said, “They’re two different things.”
And I came up with the understanding of the Presence right there, and He is present, and He’s present in a way He hasn’t been for two thousand years and He’s doing something in the… presently now that wasn’t done except one time four thousand years ago under Moses, with Moses. And this is better than ever because we’re going in through Resurrection. See?
And the other three periods of Wesley, Luther, Pentecost they came as Brother Branham says on paragraph 7 and page 20. He said,
[20-6] Yeah… keeping up the lamb was all right, then. Those who died then before the lamb was applied the blood, it was different. [That’s right.] They went on because of good conscious.
They did the best they could. They understood the best they could. But you see, when that’s all you got you’re stuck with it but God doesn’t leave you stuck. Just because the church started going down God didn’t say, “Okay, let her go down, down, down, just send her off.”
He said, “I’ll start bringing her back up. Then at the end time I’ll do something very special, that’s when I’ll cut if off. I’ll get the special out.” You know that’s as simple as a-b-c?
Now the next thing is how does He do it? Well, we got the secret. The secret is out, the devil can’t do a thing about it and the rest of the folk can’t handle it. There’s your Seven Seals and the mystery under the Seven Seals.
The devil got a hold of it, for example, the people can’t get a hold of anything anymore; it’s too late. No matter what he does. See? And God’s got… had His prophet to bring us because He’s left us lying there silent until He could bring us. All right.
But today the vindicated Token Himself… oh, I read that, no, here we are.
[20-6] …good conscious… They would be judged [not according to condemnation]
But they come in, not second Resurrection, I don’t believe that second Resurrection, otherwise, you don’t have seven church ages going up in a Bride, Brother Branham saw seven. So there’s a Bride in every age. Now that’s true whether Brother Branham saw it or not, there would be that Bride.
That’s Bible. And he didn’t have to have a vision; God just gave him a vision to comfort him and vision’s ours, too. It’s good… I’m glad we that had the visions but it wasn’t a vision that we needed. You know what I mean. It just… well, we need it, I suppose, in the sense of the Word.
[20-6] …if they were predestinated, it struck…
In other words, all that’s Bride is going to be Bride, period, no matter how little they had or how much they had it constitutes Bride, but he’s bringing her right back now to restoration. All right.
But today the vindicated Token Himself demands you receive the life that knows its source as only in Him, the vindicated Token. In other words, you’ve got to have in you that which recognizes that vindicated Token or Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13:8, the source of what’s in you. See?
Now then if we receive that light; that Token in us we’ll agree with every word placing us under the Seventh Seal, right under Jehovah Himself sealed in to the Resurrection and immortality and Rapture and Millennium.
Now what Brother Branham is bringing out according to my thinking is actually a Mount Carmel showdown where the prophet of God came against the four hundred prophets of organization and said, “All right, if Baal is god, let’s serve Baal, let’s find out. Now if God is God let’s find out and serve God. We’re going to have a showdown.” See?
Now Mount Carmel was a showdown back there. Mount Zion is the showdown now. Why? Because we cannot have a Carmel per se that allows a prophet to kill off the organization. He had too tough a time doing it and God doesn’t want him to do it anyway because God has reserved that to Himself.
He said, “I will send Elijah to get my elect out. Then I will take care of the rest.” And that’s what’s going on right now. See? So there’s a showdown.
The preaching of this entire message is in the spirit of a showdown. If God be God, serve Him. But in this showdown we don’t have prophets of Baal against the true prophet of God but we have false ones anointed by a true Spirit that deceives everybody except the Very Elect. See?
Now, just to make it even clearer, this message proves the legitimacy of God’s judgment. In other words, God has cleared Himself perfectly in this age so that nobody can say, “I didn’t have a chance.” See?
He’s cleared His Word, cleared the Bride, the judgments of God are in the earth, sent a vindicated prophet, picture’s taken, everything to show exactly who He is, what He is, what’s going on… There’s nothing now that is not unveiled to Him.
It’s all in the open after Revelation 10:1-7, or just take the whole chapter if you want to. Revelation 22 says don’t seal the book again; it’s all in the open; it’s all there; you’re responsible. All right.
I’m just going to hit this quick again, now he said,
[19-12] The evening time message is to apply the Token.
And the message God gave him was to declare that He is here. So then you have got to apply what this Presence gives you in this hour which is of His own Life and His own revelation, see, and it will be perfect with that Word and it comes by a prophet.
[20-1] Satan will sow all kinds of counterfeits of shaking hands and evidences and everything like that: [sensations] FORGET IT! The hour has arrived that the Token, Itself now not some counterfeit, or some make-believe or something that’s a substitution, not anything else; the hour is here when the Token Himself is identifying Himself right among us and proving that He is… Jehovah, Hebrews 13:8, and He is right with His Word. [Laid it out.]
Now everybody is going to… now everybody but the Elect is going to say, “Well, I don’t believe that. God hasn’t cleared His Word with me.” Well, isn’t that great, tinhorn? You talk about the devil having pride and a tub full of guts, that’s not nice language but I just couldn’t help myself. Why he’s a pussy-cat alongside some of these people we got today but they won’t be that way in Judgment Day, brother/sister.
Because I tell you what they… these guys are butterflies coming on like Sherman tanks and Brother Branham of course, is a Sherman tank which acted like a butterfly that threw the whole bunch out. They thought they could run him. You try to run God’s prophet; you just might as well try to run God. See?
[20-2] Now it has got to be applied.
What has got to be applied? What this One has for us now which is His life and His Word, His revelation. You can’t separate one from the other, brother/sister.
You say, “I’ve got the Token,” and turn down the Word? I’ve got the Token and turn down the Token Himself? Come on. Why you see the whole thing is a travesty against even intelligence, human intelligence, let alone the partition that God gives you.
[20-2] It’s got to be applied. A man that says that he has got the Token and deny this Word… what about that? You can’t do it. The Token has got to be there… [and you’ll stay with the Word.] The Blood shall be a Token… [See now it’s the Holy Spirit, see.]
[20-3] Now, the Holy Spirit the Life that was in the Blood is a Token unto you. Get to it in a moment. The Holy Ghost is the Token. [Yes sir.] The case is closed…
Judgment’s set. Do what you want about it? Get your own token, try your own ideas, say your own prayers, say your own word, go your own way. Case is closed. You know what a closed case is? You never get back in court again. That’s the sentence. It’s final; do what you want about it.
You say, “Well, I’ve been wronged.” Well, I’m sorry about that but the case is closed. How did God ever wrong anybody?
[20-4] Now, remember… it doesn’t matter what you are, how good you are, how many times you jumped up and down, how many churches you’ve joined, how many good things you’ve done; it won’t mean one thing to you, if the Token is not applied. This is the evening time. [Something special. See? Okay.]
[20-5] That worked all right in the days of Luther… worked all right in the days of Wesley… it won’t work now. No.
[20-6] Yeah… keeping up the lamb was all right, then.
In other words, look, they had the lamb for Seven Church Ages, and there He stood as surety. There He was pleading the case. Now He’s come down and identified Himself and they crucify Him afresh.
Listen! You tell me what kind of an attorney and mediator He’s going to be for you? Now you tell me how much you’ve got under the conditions that I just spoke of.
Brother, you know, listen, you can tell this doesn’t set… This leaves it rigid, this leaves the corner turned. You’re not sitting on the fence any longer. You’re on either side of the fence. It won’t work anymore. See?
Talk about the Blood all you want and the Lamb, here in the form of the Holy Spirit proving who He is, what it’s all about. You say, “Well, oh, I got this over here. Just in my way, I don’t take this. I’m over here.”
Are you? You bet you are. That’s putting Him outside the Church and nailing the door. It’s also putting nails in our own spiritual caskets.
Now it was okay back there, they went on because of good conscience. Well, they did the best with what they had. They were good people. Don’t ever … they’re not going to miss it. They were predestinated. See? Now whatever was for that hour struck. See?
Remember that old cry that went out for years, “Millions now living will never die.” Hogwash! Billions living are going to die, all five of them, five billion. Not that I want them dead, I don’t want them dead anymore than I want myself dead.
The thing is what are you going to do? Stay with the Word of God or are you going to be a flunky for the devil? We’d sooner be God’s delegate or the devil’s flunky, the devil’s patsy or God’s emissary. It’s just up to you. It’s up to me. All right.
We’ll keep reading.
[20-7] He justifies whom He will, have mercy on whom He will… condemns whom He will. He’s God. That’s all. He has mercy on whom He has mercy… condemns whom He wants to condemn. A Jew could plainly show by the circumcision, that he is a believer.
[20-8] There is many… a fundamental man who can take the Bible and say, “I am a believer.”
Why sure, they can say that, absolutely, that would have been fine back yonder. See? But when you turn down; it’s not fine anymore. See?
[20-9] Now Jesus said, “By faith we are saved.”
[20-10] …”I am a believer, but that Baptism of the Holy Ghost is nonsense.” Then, the Token isn’t applied… how much he believes, it’s annulled.
Now there are those who go out and say, “I believe in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.” What about him who claims the Holy Ghost standing here? “Oh, come on, that’s not God, that’s just William Branham. He had a great ministry and he blew it. He got proud. He got carried away.
Oh, something happened to the guy, nice fellow, you know, but he got cranky and everything else, you know.” Well, I disagree. I never found him cranky. I found him… I wish I could be in my sweetness just one tenth as sweet as he was in his crankiness. Then you’re getting somewhere.
[21-1] Just like the circumcision of the Jew. He said, “I’m a Jew. Why do I have to go out there and act like that other bunch of fanatics.”
In other words, why would I have to make a break? Why do I have to leave what I’m in? See? Well, you need to identify with the identification of this hour, manifested Word, the manifested God, the manifested prophet, the manifested Bride and she’s manifested by what she’s gathering to because you see, the eagles come to the carcass.
There’s clean eagles and dirty eagles; don’t ever forget that. The clean eagle is… The good eagle that soars up there and every now and then he plunges and hits the river. When he hits the water his feathers go off and God grows him new feathers and all renewed again like renewed his life like an eagle.
Then you got the dirty eagle that which is a kind of a buzzard and he eats carrion, they’re both eagles, they come out of the Orient. There’s two gatherings. One’s going to go ecumenical; one’s going to go with Jesus. And you better believe the Jesus group is going to be very, very, very, very, very small..
[21-2] Moses going up and down the streets saying, “The evening message is here. [The covenant time. See?] It will come to pass, at the end of the fourteen days, you’ll gather the congregation together and kill the lamb. The whole congregation of Israel shall kill it, putting their hands upon it, identifying themselves with it. And the blood shall be struck upon the post and upon the lintel of the door; and when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you, for it is a token that you’ve accepted the death of the lamb that I’ve provided for you.”
Now there’s a provision. God made the provision, made a way. See? Now the death of Jesus Christ provided this for us in this hour. Now I said the death did, that means the Blood. All right, then if a person doesn’t accept the provision then what good is the Blood? No good at all. See? Because the Blood provided. You got to get the provision. Do you understand?
The provision is the Life; it’s God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit, given us a gift, right back to us right in this hour; God giving of Himself again. You say, “I got a… I’ve got the Blood.” How can you have the Blood which provided the provision that you turned down? Wouldn’t it… Look it, brother/sister, if this isn’t what Brother Branham is saying I don’t know what he’s saying. He labored on this message and this was a crucial message to his life. He put it very nicely. You don’t need guys like me to come by with the bludgeon and a mallet but I usually do. See?
The provision.
[21-3] The blood was a token then. Now, the Spirit is the Token. “You shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.” [That’s right. Peter at Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you.”] And when the Blood was shed, the Token was sent down on the day of Pentecost like a rushing mighty wind… That was the theme of every apostle. … “Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?” “Repent everyone of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for it is a Token [Amen!] that you’ve passed from death unto Life.” There you are. [That never changes.]
[21-4] When the Jewish Church faded out, the Gentiles took over in that perversion like that. Now, she is come out to get that remnant of the Gentiles for His Namesake the Bride. See, what I mean? See what the Scripture is speaking of here? If the Token was not displayed, then the covenant was not effective.
See? The Word of God is not effective to anybody that’s not under the bonds of the covenant. But you see the covenant… really, the covenant is you might like say are the terms of a contract or what lies in there, what lies in that contract or what lies in that will, that testament.
Now there’s something that’s got to be done which you’d have to prove that you were the legitimate heir of that testament; that will. In other words, there’s got to be a life or a blood relationship. They say, “Are you a blood relation, are you a blood relative?” They even use Scripture.
Why don’t they say are you a life relative? You say, “Well, that goes for saying if you’d really rather have some kind of a… ” No, I’m in-laws. No, that wouldn’t do. So they talk about blood, for the life is in the blood. All right.
Now, you have here this covenant is not effective, though the blood paid the price and everything unless you’ve got the blood to show the source of that provision. Now, you got to have the very life today which is the Holy Spirit to be a part of the covenant of the Millennium, because that’s what it’s all about, because we’re going into it. See?
Now you haven’t got the covenant, there’s no way you’re going to be a part of it. Now how do I know? See?
Well, this fellow says here, when you jump up and down you’ve got it. When you laugh you’ve got it. When you got joy you got it. When you dance you got it. When you speak in tongues you got it. When you live this kind of a life you’ve got it.
When you confess this, you’ve got it, when this, this, this. Now hold it, you got fifteen hundred different things almost. That doesn’t do one bit of good. Now that might have been good at one time, because those things are all good. No one’s going to fuss about them.
But today He stands here identified. What are you doing about identification? Now here’s what I contend where even in this message they’re turning it down too much to my liking. They simply can’t understand that He’s here and He’s here in a way that He wasn’t here before.
Because if He’d of been that way here before then Luther, Brother Branham would not have said what he said about right here in these seven, these six paragraphs. He couldn’t have said it. It would be the old status quo. So there’s something different, absolutely.
Now,
[21-4] It must be; because if you say you believe, and you don’t follow the instructions of the Word, then you don’t believe.
Repent, be baptized. What about repentance today? Everybody goes to repentance because the message of this hour is repentance, change your mind, get rid of your old thinking, put on the new thinking.
[21-5] Though you be circumcised; though you join and though you’re baptized; you’ve done all… things like that, that still isn’t the Token the Holy Ghost.
Now why does he say that? Because many people depend on that from the formalists, the dead formalists to the very vivid and livid emotional Pentecostals; they can… only settle for something that they reason out or they feel they figured out or they’re satisfied with.
They cannot accept that which they come face to face with in a vindicated ministry although they talk about vindication day by day, at least Pentecost does; the rest I don’t think talk too much about it. They talk about their great scholarship and they know this and they know that.
Well, how come they can’t know the weather tomorrow? They know the things of eternal life and don’t know even know the weather.
Jesus himself caught them on that one. He said… They claimed they knew the weather but there’s nobody knows the weather; the best they can do is say, “Well, it looks like it is going to be so-and-so.” How many times have you heard the weather report recently and found out that it wasn’t that way at all? I almost do better myself with my corns if I had any.
[21-6] …What more could a man do, but believe God?”
[21-7] I said, “That is true, Doctor. It is right. He did believe God. The Bible said so. You’re right. As far as you’ve come, you’re right. As long as the twelve spies that were sent out to go over to spy out on the land of Canaan as long as they went forward towards Canaan, they were gaining ground, but when they came to the border line… they rejected.” I said, “You Baptist are all right as far as you’ve come, but have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?”
Now you say what’s he building up to here now? They don’t have the measure of the Spirit at all. There’s none of them going to go in. Now not necessarily chaff, the best they could qualify is foolish virgin, go up in the second Resurrection, as far as they’ve gone. There will be millions of them, hundreds of them, perhaps, billions for all I know. See?
[21-7] I said, “Remember, God recognized Abraham’s faith. He believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. That is true. But then, God gave him the seal of circumcision as a sign a sign to him. Not that his flesh circumcised had anything to do with his soul… it was a sign that he had God had recognized his faith. And He gave us the sign of the Holy Ghost that He has recognized us as believers. For he said, ‘Repent and be baptized every one in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost…
Now when did that ever change? See? Put you at a juncture. See, you’re at a juncture. The juncture is, “I’m with Elijah and I’ll save those that I turn the hearts back, the rest are gone.” See? You’re looking at exodus; you must put this in the perspective of exodus.
You can’t go back to the beginning of the Seven Church Ages, the six, the five, the four, and right down; you cannot even go back to age number one. You got to come right here. Age number one did not have an exodus or the promise of an exodus. They were thirteen and fourteen. We start with seventeen. We’ve got thirteen and fourteen, too, don’t think we don’t have. We sure do.
[22-1] The Jews, no matter how… they could prove they were circumcised… that’s the token that had to be shown.
Not the circumcision token, no, no. That’s a manifestation of flesh. They had to have a manifestation of something that had nothing to do with their flesh but they said, “I’ll take it.” The source provided an identification: God has provided an identification that angel with the inkhorn that sighs and cries over sin.
Not this out in the world kind of sin but this unrighteousness sin, the evil deeds of Cain. Oh man, they don’t like that one. Spiritual wickedness; they don’t like those. The trail of the serpent. Why the serpent might as well of just taken a big rock and clobbered Eve and killed her.
He killed her deader than that when he got her mixed up with his junk. Then his rotten son came along, Cain, and did kill Abel. Oh yeah, so the promise is to you, get the point? Okay.
For seven ages they had the Holy Spirit in a measure. They got… I believe they had the Holy Spirit, that’s enough to get them through. No doubt about it, Brother Branham said so.
They baptized wrong for hundreds of years, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: can’t do that anymore. People say, “Well, I believe I got the Holy Ghost, and I tell you, I was baptized that way; it’s good enough.”
We were commanded under the Seals to be re-baptized. A lot of preachers want to just stick around and not do a thing about it. After they got put in a spot then they started to do something about it. He’s usually pretty rough; you know when, well, I won’t say anything there.
[22-1] The Jews, no matter how much they could prove they were circumcised, but the token had to be shown. If not, then the covenant was not effective… Same now, same thing. No matter what you do, no matter how much you can explain the Bible you might be a Bible student and oh, my… You might say, “I’m a believer,” and everything, but still the Token is required.
[22-2] …You say, “I was a good person, Brother Branham. I don’t care what anybody says, you can’t beat that man. I never saw him do anything wrong in my life.” That doesn’t mean that (Brother Branham snaps his fingers) to do with God. There is one requirement, and that alone, and you cannot do that. You cannot put the blood on the lintel of the door, where the token could not be, unless the lamb died… the blood was a positive sign… the lamb died no make-believe; the lamb died.
Then what’s the positive sign that you’re alive? You got the Holy Ghost. You don’t have the Holy Ghost. The only person that would come near that would be Brother Branham. But you have the Holy Ghost, a gift of the Holy Ghost, a modicum. You have just what you need to quicken you, see.
[22-3] Now… the Holy Ghost is a positive Token that your Lamb died, and you received the Token upon yourself, for His… life is in you. [That’s called the epi-baptism, epi; ‘upon’ and that’s in you… your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost.] See? There is no make-believe. There is no put on. There is no impersonation. It is there. You know it; the world knows it. The Token is there.
Sure, as you open your mouth and get into any Scripture at all, get into these things, they know that they’re not speaking their language, no way. Satan can impersonate everything but handle the Word; he cannot handle the Word. Now we saw the Word handled by God Himself through a prophet; that’s real Word handling.
Now you check all these other guys how they handle the Word; then they’re not of God. Where’s the Token? No way. Now you see this makes this Message hated. Makes anybody to do with this Word hated, there’s no way that you couldn’t be hated.
And I do admit that there’s a lot of justification as far as we ourselves are personally because there’s none of us got too much on the ball I would say to really stack up to be the kind of Christian Brother Branham was, and Moses and those great people, Paul. So they could be well justified in nailing us, but not with the Word they can’t.
No, but we’re not… See, it doesn’t depend upon how good you are and how this and how that; that’s there but that’s not it. See, it’s whether you recognize the Message, the hour, the event, right now. That puts you, brother/sister.
[22-4] No matter how good the person was… Might have been a Bible student… it might be any kind of a… church member. It might have been a good person. It might be a denominational head. It might be the hierarchy of Rome. I don’t know who it is, but it don’t make it anything.
See? Now you put all of this stuff together, all of these paragraphs together and you can see that if one today does not accept the living manifestation of the Spirit who is manifesting the Word he is not baptized with the Holy Ghost. He doesn’t do it. “Well,” they say, “what’s that picture? What’s that anyhow?”
“What about THUS SAITH THE LORD?”
“Oh, we’ve always had that.” They got an answer for everything. Sure, they’re not going to be convinced.
[23-1] …Israel had the same thing… Any Bible student knows that Israel was a type of the Church [see] , exactly, to the promised land. And that is where she is journeying. And when the evening time came and the journey was on, there was one solemn requirement: No matter how much Jew you had been; how well he kept his crops; how well he had taken care of the neighbors; how much he had done, how good a member he was, how much tithes he paid all these things were fine; that was… they were okay; he was a good man; recognized among his people as a good man but without the token of the blood, he perished.
That’s exactly right. Good conscience won’t get you there. Doing the best you can, won’t get you there. This is showdown time, brother/sister, it’s change. You can sneak in then as a foolish virgin. Yeah, you’d have something…
Look it, it was just God had to be just and keep the ends open but the ends aren’t open anymore. You’re in a tube and either you go into the tube or you’re… there’s destruction. And most of that means the lake of fire because Brother Branham put Malachi 4 right with the lake of fire. That’s pretty tragic, brother/sister, it’s very tragic.
[23-2] Oh, may God help me, both present and in the tapes to pin that down… no matter… You might have preached the gospel; you might have cast out devils; you might have spoken with tongues; you might have shouted; and danced in the Spirit; but without the Token…
Now he’s not only pleading; he’s warning. The Token and the Word, brother/sister, are one. So what part of the Token does anybody have that’s real Token and disagrees with the Word? It isn’t there. And yet that’s the criterion is that agreement with the Word because that’s where Israel fell out with Jesus.
They said, “Listen, if you just kept your mouth shut, nobody would bother you.” And if Brother Branham had gone in his great ministry with someone like Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lindsey and different ones go around the country doing his preaching and little man go on the platform and pray.
They’d say, “He’s definitely the greatest guy living if he were living. But no he had to open his mouth and spoiled the whole thing.
He believed in one God, Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Bride different from the church, good old-fashioned long hair, long skirts, women acting like women and men like men.” Well, he died right there. They buried him just as deep as they could.
[23-3] And you say, “Can I do it?” [Which means, can this happen to me? Could I do such a thing as that he says in here? Have all these things and miss it? He said, “You could.”]
[23-4] For Paul said… “Though I speak with the tongue of… men and angels… give all my goods to feed the poor; my body to be burned as a sacrifice; and I have faith to move mountains and those things; I am nothing, yet.” Don’t rely upon that. It is the Token. No matter how much you have done, how good you are, when the wrath of God flashes, it’ll only recognize the Token.
Now you see right there what he’s done, the wrath of God did not flash it and does not flash till this hour. See? He’s talking to living people, not those that are gone on. Talking to those people who say, “Millions now living will never die.” It is the Token.
[23-5] It is a Token that a price has been paid, [In other words, it’s a guarantee, it’s a sign] that has been required; and the price that was paid was the Life of Jesus Christ, and He gave His Life, and His Spirit came back upon you as a Token that you’re received. […that you’re received, that you’ve received and now you are received, you yourself.]
Then you see the very fact that you can recognize the Presence, the Appearing, the hour, this Word correlated, vindicated, shows that you’re in the mainstream, in the Life stream, waters to carry you over.
You’re not dancing. You can dance. Sure, go ahead and dance. Do it without music. That would prove something right there. Say, “I’ll whistle my own tune.” I think I’d get a scriptural tune if I were you. See?
[23-7] …The blood shall be a token unto you. You say, “I still believe. I am a believer.” That is all right, but if you reject the Token… how you going to be a believer?
In other words, if you reject the Token, this is here; what are you believing anyway? You’re no believer. You’re an unbeliever. People think they can believe anything and that constitutes a believer. No, that constitutes believism. That doesn’t make you a believer; that’s believism. Believing is something different. And in this hour it is based upon a vindication. Thank God, that’s tremendous, you know that.
[23-7] It speaks against you, see. It speaks against your testimony that you do… Bible student, good person, church member, ever what you are doesn’t mean a thing. Yes, sir.
[23-8] Maybe your father’s a preacher, maybe your mother was a saint… That’s okay; they have to answer for themselves.
[23-9] As I’ve said, some people try to make God some big old fat doting grandfather, a bunch of grandkids … like little “Ricky’s” and “Elvis;” … no harm in Him. Not God, He has no grandchildren; He’s a Father. You got to be born again. He’s no big, soft, doting God; He’s a God of judgment.
And He’s the Judge right here. Now I want to tell you something, Brother Branham categorically made the Judge and the King one person. He said, “The King is here.” He’s everything, people, He’s everything. The One that’s here is everything.
See what it is, is these roles, the drama, the great drama of Redemption and His own particular desire that He’s acting out, He’s all that in one but it folds, it goes out, then enfolds itself and moves and comes back.
He’s everything He is. He’s never changed but sometimes He projects more than others and He’s just beginning to move from the Priesthood into the Judge into the Kingship. See? It’s molding together because everything is moving together.
I wish people could see that. They wouldn’t be so mixed up on Godhead and some of these things. Not that I got the answers but I think we’re getting some answers because we have what the prophet taught. I believe we’re believing it and getting somewhere.
[23-9] The Bible says He is. And His wrath is fierce. [Then what does the Judge just say to the Bride? “You’re blameless.”]
[24-1] Don’t… trample on that and expect the goodness of God someday to take you in your sin, and… take you to Heaven. If you had done that, … If He had done that, He would have excused all of this here… You’ll believe His Word or you’ll… perish. And when you believe His Word, the Token will be upon you.
[24-2] Death was ready to strike… that night, at any time. It was a fearful time. All their ceremonies, all their feast days and fast days God had visited them; God… showed His great signs and wonders in the midst of them. [But He did more than that, didn’t He? In Egypt He came Himself and showed Himself just like now.] What is that?
[24-3] Now, stop a minute. God… showed them His grace.
Now what’s grace? I’m going to tell you what I wrote down here for my definition. Grace is the opportunity to believe and receive or reject, an actual time extended that they might be saved from wrath through mercy.
That’s what it is. It’s an actual time, an actual place when it’s laid out in front of you to get what you want. Now you know that’s true when you got converted yourself. You came right face to face with God and He said, “Now which way do you want to go? Now if you want to come My way, this is it. If you want to go the other way, just count Me off, I’m cut off.”
It’s a period of time when you can get mercy or you can get wrath, whichever it is and in mercy He is right here now in this period of grace. This is real grace. See? Now, and when you believe His Word, the Token will come. What Word? The manifested Word when you believe Logos.
Say, “I know that’s God.” How can you go to meet Him with thousands in the air? And you could sit there and somebody else say, “Well, that’s not God”.
You say, “That’s got to be God.” Yet you both come in, same old boys, no different, walk in off the street, one fellow says, “That’s God.”
“Ah, that’s not God, what are you talking about?” See? Logos drew one, nothing there to draw on the other. And then what’s going to happen? You recognize, not just recognize God moving.
He’s more than that, brother/sister. You know what I’m talking about. Anybody would know that that would have to be God under certain circumstances. See? But this is not God under certain circumstances in that manner; this is God, period, in this hour.
This is something. What is it? What’s going on? But you look back and you know it wasn’t going on when you were a kid; it wasn’t going on when you were an adult. Look, I was…
What was I when I saw Brother Branham? In 1948; I was thirty-three years old about, thirty-three, I think it was just about there, 1948, yeah; 33 years old. I’ve seen lots to do with God, healings and everything else, some phenomenal things.
When I saw that, that was not God the way I knew God, and yet it indicated it was the God that I knew but not that way. See? That’s the way it is… that’s the way it is with all of us. There’s no difference between you and me, amongst us, no difference, see.
[24-3] Now, stop, wait a minute. God had showed them His grace. He gave them an opportunity. They couldn’t turn it down. [But they did.] They said, “Ah, there is nothing to that. It’s nonsense. It is just something up there in the cataracts; there is an eruption of red mud flew out.
That’s what they claim. Velikovsky; he said, even documented according to his own… He’s dead now, Worlds in Collision. He’s quite a man, was quite a man. He could even tell you from when Elijah said, “If I be a man of God let fire come down and devour fifty… ” He said that was a meteor.
I think it said it was, flashed down. He said he had it all figured out. You know, and I think he had it documented to the extent that they could find traces even. I can’t remember, it’s been such a long time since I read part of it. I never even read the whole book, just read some of it. Some things were good; some things, boring. If I get too much of one thing it bores me.
But I can’t get enough of this because I don’t know enough about it. See? They had an opportunity, they turned it down.
[24-3] “… nothing to that. … nonsense. … an eruption of red mud flow out. That is what made the sea red.”
[24-4] Then the hail came. … frogs came. God had prepared a place and put His Word in a prophet’s mouth, and when he spoke, it came to pass. And they saw it, they couldn’t deny it. [See, they had to face it. God makes them face it. He always makes them face it.]
[24-5] What Moses called for, that is what (Moses) [God] got from God, because, he only spoke the Word of God. [Moses called for what God wanted; Moses could call for it. That’s what He got him. See?] “I’ll make you a god,” he said.
[24-6] Moses was a god to them. They knew no different, so He said, “You’ll be a god, and Aaron will be your prophet.” [See?] “You’ll be like a god. For I’ll take you, your voice, and I’ll create with you. I’ll speak, and the people can’t deny it because right there it is. What you say will happen.”
Okay, let’s… I put a little note here on Colossians 1, and we’re going to close right away because our time’s gone anyway…
(14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
(16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers… all things were created by him, and [all things] for him:
(17) And he is before all things, and by him all things [do] consist.
All right. You notice in there this One here that is the great Creator is here now using a man’s voice, just like back there, no difference. Jehovah is the same. You’re not dealing with a Jehovah and a Jehovah and a Jehovah. You’re dealing with Jehovah; yesterday, today, forever.
Not a Jehovah yesterday, and another one today, and another tomorrow. We don’t have three of them; we’ve got one of them. And the one that took upon a human body in order to redeem is now here without the human body to redeem us to a human body the way he is as committed to do it according to His Word. And people don’t want to be committed to God’s Word.
That’s the trouble. See, that’s why Brother Branham was so against theology and these trained men with great wisdom.
Brother Gene was just mentioning a certain man that he is in touch with and he’s very erudite, and he likes Brother Branham’s sermons except he can’t stand his language. And he thinks, “Well, how can this be God?” So Gene said, “Well,” he said, “if He took a Kentucky hillbilly because of He’s bypassing all of these wise men, to show it’s not by wisdom.”
Brother Branham’s own words were this is why he was a Kentucky hillbilly because God has revealed it to the babes. That’s what He’s done it for. That’s God’s way of doing it. He didn’t take some university professor, some seminarian.
Who needs him? All you need is a man who can get out of the way, who’s got two ears, a couple of eyes, and a mouth and lungs that will breathe; God will make out very well with him.
Bypass your intelligence any day and bypass your ignorance if you got that, and just use His plain good old wisdom and say what He wants said and get it done. But that’s just too little… that’s too simple for man.
See, they’re trying to make… everybody is trying to make God complicated. I’m afraid that God is very uncomplicated if we only knew it, if we only knew it. We just complicate Him by our own folly. All right.
He said,
[24-6] “…I’ll take… your voice, and I’ll create with you. I’ll speak, and the people can’t deny it because right there it is. What you say will happen.”
[24-7] Oh, my! I’ll show you those things. And Egypt saw it. They saw it… just at the evening time.
[24-8] He showed them His goodness.
[24-9] Magicians tried to do the same thing the impersonators. You always find them. There was Jannes and Jambres, they stood there. But when it comes to the real thing, they didn’t have it. That’s right. They followed along a little while, but after a while, their folly was made manifest.
The anointed ones, brother/sister, never could take… never could take the Word, and they never could get the Word, either. You know how we know? They weren’t vindicated to it. They weren’t cut to it.
See, to be in Bride, to be in Christ, you got to be cut of a special material in a special way to fit in a special pattern, and when you realize that this prophet of the end time, where Christ was the Cornerstone, He had a Paul down there, when He’s the Capstone, we’re talking of Spirit now, He had another prophet.
So if you have an Alpha and Omega you got a Paul and a William Branham. And on top of that you’ve got thrown in the ministry of a Moses because Moses led them out in an exodus.
So when you begin to see the… tremendous, not implication although that’s true and ramifications but the tremendous how am I going to say it here? the tremendous thing that is manifested and brought in our hour, the great majesty of God, how He used His Spirit on these various occasions, like in Paul and Moses, at this end and Jesus, that great Spirit that was here doing the work.
Now how great is this man in our hour who literally combined all those in one? Because, you see, it’s all in there. You say, “Well, that’s pretty fantastic.” It is! Then look it, if you’re going to measure this hour which we are doing now by literal history, profane and sacred, then this has to be the end hour and destruction has got to come. There’s no way. But before that there’s Redemption. So it’s windup time.
Let’s rise at this time. Sunday morning, 10:30.
Gracious, heavenly Father, again we approach Your throne at the end of this little time of getting together Father, we pray, oh God, that the things have been said that are right, we haven’t said anything wrong Lord, in any way shape and form, we’re doing our best Father, with what the prophet said, doing our best to listen to and our hearts line up, oh God, with Your voice somehow to know just what to tell the people so we can all see together very, very clearly exactly what has gone on and what is going on and what is yet to go on, how that this is running its course and its course is the glory, of course, where the prophet said, “Oh yes, Wesley has faded, Pentecost fades; this doesn’t fade because this glory never fades. It’s the glory that excelleth.”
And Father, we know that there was a ministry with it, and we’ve already had the ministry and now Father, just a matter of moving on to greater depths of grace. Father, purge our hearts tonight Lord, help us as the prophet said to put everything away, oh God, no matter what it is under every consideration until we discount all things but loss to gain the excellency of the knowledge of our blessed God who stands amongst us.
And like Paul said, that we may know him in the power of his Resurrection. And we already do in a way that the other ages have not known we’ve believed that, Lord, but oh God, help us to be in that position now as the prophet said… ”We ought to so live that we will see our loved ones in the Resurrection.”
Lord, let us be in that area now and this time on Father God, to put away everything, everything, everything, everything, Lord, circumcise a hundred percent to the Word of Almighty God. Lord, we’re talking a lot down here. We have our boast in Thee, Lord, oh God, may You one day boast in us, may it be that we are that people who learned to get out of the way and let Christ shine forth His glory.
Bless every family represented, every one Lord, a little sickness here, a little sickness there,
Lord, we just pray that You’ll heal it, Father, help those who have this distress or that distress, this need, that need, oh God, we know that we’re needy people, and yet this is rich, wicked Laodicea. But Lord God in heaven, no matter how many ways our needs our met and they’re met so many, many ways Lord, there’s only one person can meet that great need of the hour, the great Token, You Yourself can give us of Yourself, a Token Lord, sealed in, to be out of here.
So Father, we just commend ourselves to You in love, and mercy and grace and we cannot thank You and praise You enough in the holy Name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
‘Take the Name of Jesus with you’.