Trees, Books, And Fountains #10

Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, we are again happy to be in Your Presence, knowing, Lord, that You have not left Your people but as the prophet said, “the Pillar of Fire”… and we know that is representative of You, for You’re dwelling in that, Lord, to take us into the Millennium. We are very grateful for it.

We know that we have Your Word vindicated. That is absolutely true, Lord, and by Your grace we will stay with that Word and not doubt it and not depart from it but know for a certainty (It having been proven) that this is exactly the event of the hour. This generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. Time entered into eternity, Lord, and the great things of God coming before us; help us, Lord, to understand that and rejoice in it, and keep our hope and our faith high. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, we were into the Book of Confession last Sunday, and we saw that it is quite a bit different from what we might possibly believe just from the fact of using that very title. And we found our reading in Joshua 1:8-9.

So, there it is: the Book of Confession, or the Book, or the words of the Book that we confess which is, as you can see here, the revealed Word of the hour. And this is where Brother Branham would get his understanding when he said that, “Moses never came into Egypt to deliver Israel by preaching Noah’s message, or he would have said, ‘Let’s build an ark, float down the Nile, and across the Red Sea into the Covenant Land’. But he brought a message that God gave him which was necessary for the preparation of Israel to go over, and necessary when they went over”. So, we’re looking at that in a type.

Now, we’ll notice in Joshua 1:8-9 (which we read, here) that this Book of Confession did not have its birth in the Exodus. This is not something that was given during the time of the Exodus, that is to say, when the great miracles were going on and Israel was being prepared to leave by the power of God. And it was not even at the time of the giving of the Word, that’s on Mount Sinai and Horeb and various places where the Word was given, but it was given after the completed Word. And you’ll find that in Deuteronomy 4:1-2, and Moses is saying.

So there’s to be nothing added to the Word, nothing taken from it; it’s whole as it is. It would not be whole if anything was done to it. And it must be preserved in that perfect state. There must be nothing done about it.

Now, after the wanderings of forty years, all the Pentecostals died off with their misunderstanding and not coming into the Word of God. And of course, even Moses the prophet was taken by God so he could not enter into the Promised Land at the time that the people entered in.

Now, you’ll notice that God took him up Mount Pisgah and gave him a revelation, gave him a vision of the land, exactly all about it. And, of course, the revelation went far beyond that, because there’s no doubt he saw the same city that Abraham was looking for, “ the city which hath foundations” (in fact, twelve foundations), which is New Jerusalem.

So, therefore, we see very clearly that after the Word was given, there wasn’t any more message, absolutely no message under any consideration whatsoever. Now, the people were settled down, then, at that particular time concerning the Word of that hour.

As Brother Branham said, “Live or die; sink or swim”, we are going into the Promised Land at that particular time because that was the Word for that particular hour. And we know it was the Word for that hour, and they knew it was the Word for that hour by virtue of vindication. And you notice that we took Scripture the other day (and we may even look at it again… I don’t know) where God Himself continuously spoke of vindication whereby the Word was established.

And right into the Psalms which was hundreds of years later, David and other psalmists brought out the fact that God vindicated Himself to be the Giver of the Word that was living, that was substantiated, that would be positively fulfilled, even as basically what was fulfilled previous to it. So that knowing what was already fulfilled gave them not a hope, not faith, but a knowledge that this also would be fulfilled.

And the understanding at this point is: Get in the ark or die; take the Word or die; go your own way and die, or take the Word of God. Now, it’s that simple. It’s just that simple. This is the one life-raft, the one life-boat we have in crossing over Jordan into the Millennium.

Now, we get to the context of Joshua 1:8-9; and of course, it is Joshua 1:1-11, and then [verses] 16-18.

Now, it’s not going to be anything other than what was said to Moses. That’s like we said some time ago, in dwelling upon the fact of God’s ultimate. Many people have their own ideas what should be. Well, I’ve got news for you: you’re not going to get what you think it should be. You’re going to get exactly what God said should be. Nothing else.

There’ll be no deviation from it. He’s not going to call a committee when we get over there and say, “Now, look. I’ve left all this planning for you. How would you like to have some plans?” Well, that’s not going to work. That’s not the way it is.

Now, he said

Now, this is a matter of heresy, the matter of heresy as it was with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And they said, “Bless God, we can go to God and we can get a word too because we’re prophets”. And the earth swallowed them right up, and fire, showing that this will be deserving penalty, the Lake of Fire, for all those who take that attitude.

Now, it’s a very tough attitude, but remember, today we live in Laodicea, the people’s rights. No matter what you do for them… if Honda comes in here (or Nissan, or Toyota), and they build plants and they treat them better than their American officers and corporations, you’re going to find the union is going to come in and stir up trouble, because they can’t keep their cotton-pickin’ big mouths shut up!

They get an idea that they’re supposed to tell the boss something. And that’s the way the people are; they think they’re going to tell God something. Well, God doesn’t work with a committee. Like the old South African said, “If Moses had been a committee, the children of Israel would still be in Egypt”. That’s what people don’t understand: God does not work by committees; He works by Himself.

All right.

So, the context is what we have read, here, of the verses, that are our text for the Book of Confession. And now with these Scriptures we find the God-ordained life of faith which is based upon the unchanging Word of Almighty God, the vindicated precepts that God laid out.

Then people begin to take that, and begin, then, to live the lives… not just in this hour we’re speaking of, Moses and Joshua and the people, but even way back in the Book of Genesis you’ll see that people began living with those precepts. And out of those precepts they were judged faithful.

And without the precepts, what we’re talking about, neither adding nor taking from the Word, going solely by that which was given by vindication and proven to be so and, of course, the revelation would also be given of it, those people would be written in a Book of Remembrance by God as the soldiers of faith, contrary to those spoken of in Matthew 7 who also took the Word of God but bypassed vindicated revelation to say with Payne.

“Look, I can read the Bible. I can find and show you, in here, the first-fruit offering. I’ve got every right to do it this way”. Then they stand before God and actually mouth off against God. And God gives them protection like He gave Cain, but He put a mark upon him. And in the Judgment He’ll say, “I never knew you!”

Now, this is tough preaching and this is what Pentecostals will never get. And I’m wondering if you’re getting it. I’m not saying you’re not getting it; I’m not saying that. But I’m putting the emphasis on it, that we’re not looking at the Bible as the fundamentalists do. We’re not looking like the Pentecostals do.

We’re looking through the eyes of a vindicated prophet who had what nobody else had. And remember, he’s gone now, so he can’t stand before the Pentecostals. And when they would defy him… somebody coming forward, they’d carry him out feet first. No longer do we have “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” So they can say anything they want to say. And they’re saying it.

Now, is there going to be a little group that stands faithful to the Word, and puts the emphasis on the dynamism of revelation which is the passive faith instead of scrutinizing the Bible to find all kinds of promises and by sheer dint of faith (and anybody can have faith, and everybody has got it) begin to get these promises, and still miss the things of God?

And we’ve got a perfect picture in Pentecost: they’re prophesying, they’re casting out devils, they’re raising the dead, they’re healing the sick, they’re doing miracle after miracle. And yet, God is duty-bound to say to them outside of the election, “I never knew you”.

Now, remember, in Psalm 106 it says [that] when Israel got in that frame of mind after Moses (because they did), they turned down the vindicated Word and began fooling around. And they began looking for the flesh pots of Egypt and introduced carnality amongst them.

And the Bible said, “He gave them their requests but He sent leanness to their souls”[Psalms 106:15] And then also, we notice very very much so, in 1 Corinthians 13:(2-3, paraphrased): “… though I give my body to be burned, though I speak with tongues, though I prophesy, though I do many things which are absolutely in the Word of God and are legitimate, they are promises without the basic precept of the Passive Faith, the Word of God that’s vindicated and revealed, these can become a trap and a sin unto you”.

See, we’re looking at that. Now, I know you’re not going to convince anybody but us that that’s the truth. So, you’ve got to have clear precepts of what this is all about.

Now, first of all, let us consider what God demands to be confessed in faith as the basis. And He’s over here… of course, you read in Joshua 1:7,8,9. (You can read the three of them.) [Verses] 7,8,9 categorically state that God wants to hear Joshua say what Moses wrote in a book. Now, that’s what He wants.

He wants, first of all, to have this understanding, this step of faith… “Look, I am going to say exactly what Moses said, and I’m going to say nothing else”.

Now, we know that Moses wrote exactly what God said, and nothing else. So, therefore, Joshua will be saying exactly what God told Moses, even though he did not get it directly from God. Joshua will say exactly what Moses wrote and nothing else.

Now, believe it or not and you do believe it, and Brother Branham said it, that ‘confession’ in the New Testament means ‘to say the same thing’. So, therefore, when Joshua was saying the same thing as Moses, that he was commanded to say it, this becomes the Book of Confession, the book that is to be confessed.

Now, all right. At this point you can see that the Book of Kings and the Book of Confession are actually one and the same book except it is used by two different people in two different ways. (See?) In Deuteronomy 17, the king writes out the book. He writes it out himself. He makes a copy for himself, and he reads it daily that he might know the mechanical aspects of the Word in order to make decisions for the people. (See?)

The objective of the king is to maintain the spiritual and moral original status of the kingdom over which he has been placed, but which he in no-wise originated or established. He didn’t even give it the Word. He was put in there, and he has this book, and he reads it carefully every day. So he knows what is in that book concerning the moral conduct of the people. The power of the king does not lie in the confession of his mouth. It doesn’t.

Now, there’s a difference. You might say, “Well, he’s going to do it anyway”. That’s not the point! That’s not the point. You’re getting basics. The king is not told to confess it; the king is told to read it. This Book of Confession is to Joshua, and he’s going to lead the people into the Kingdom. This is what takes over in the Exodus, the final stage of going in. So, there’s a confession. (See?)

The power of the king does not lie in the confession of his mouth but what lies in the book, which law he reads as it is related to the moral condition of the people. He matches what presently has been done by the people, but what is already in the book. And, therefore, the person is judged out of the book. In truth, the person is already judged before the fact. That’s right.

You don’t even have to sin, in the sense that something is going to be said about it. It’s already said, knowing what is going to be done. Like the Bible said, “Where there is no law, there is no sin”. Now, this had been written down by the Book of the King and it’s already in there so that no matter what anybody does, all the king has got to do is point them to the book. (See?) He’s got to go to the record; he’s got to go to the book.

Now, thus the Word scrutinizes the deeds of the people and assesses the penalties for the failures even before there is a fault presented for judgment. Now, that’s exactly what we’re facing down the road when the King sits on the Throne. That’s right! And we’re on the thrones with Him, judging. “We’re like attorneys”, Brother Branham said.

And that group stands right there and the books are opened. And no matter what has been done, the book is scanned to see if it is proper. See, everything is going to be plumb judged by that Word of God. (You see?) Now, this is known as the judging Word. As it says in Acts 17:30-31 “There is coming a day because of the resurrection in Jesus Christ, the world is going to be judged in righteousness by One, Jesus Christ.” And He is the Word.

And Paul, the apostle, in judging the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 5, he said (verse 3, paraphrased): “My spirit being present, though I am absent, I have already judged because of what the Word says”.

So, therefore, people aren’t going to face a judgment at the White Throne. They are literally already judged. And we’re already at the White Throne because we’re already judged. That’s just a formality: say, “Here are the books. What are you going to do about it?” Also in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ”. And notice over in John 5… (and I want a good look at that), we looked at that last Sunday but I’m through this as rapidly as I can.

Whom who will? The Father. Everything is going to the Father, but it’s left in the hands of Jesus. God, always doing things in Christ. God is in Christ reconciling the world. God is in Christ creating the world. God, in Christ maintaining the world. I don’t care what anybody says. That’s the Scripture. If He did it once, He does it every time. You’ve got a principle; you’ve got a law laid down, here.

Now..

Now, notice he goes from the judgmental to the executing of it. (See?) Now, we have to watch that because that’s very important. And to the execution is Revelation 19, when He comes down with the saints to wreak judgment upon the earth.

Then in Revelation 20:11-15, which you read last Sunday, you will find that the books are open. And as the people come before the King, it’s right there. The King has read in the book, knows exactly what to execute, what penalty, what this, what that, because that book is open. That is a book.

Now, in the study of the Gospels, I cannot recall one time where Jesus used an illustration of a king but there was a judgment following it… even to the Lake of Fire or to the Great Tribulation. You can look in the Gospels yourselves, you’ll find that’s so.

Now, that’s the Book of the King. Yet it is the book of the people as a nation unto God. And we find that, over here, in Deuteronomy 11:18-21.

So there is, therefore, an absolute tying in to the Word of God in this book, the Book of the King and the Book of Confession, that will set the standard as to whether you are going to go into the Kingdom or not. Now, if they weren’t in this, they would never get into Canaan Land. So we’re looking at something very special, here, because God cannot change or do anything different.

People say, “Well, that was for back there. What about now?” He never changes. The same eye-for-an-eye God and tooth-for-a-tooth, has never changed. If He speaks of love… they try to make a God of progression, a God of some kind of moral stature that we contribute to, a sort of God who evolves. God does not evolve! No, sir!

You’re going to find that there is no change from the Garden of Eden right on down through the whole Bible right to the very end of time. There’s no way.

Now then, there is a harmony. The harmony is this: From the king to the least member of the nation under God there is to be a preeminence given to the study of the Word of the Lord, so that all men, bar none, may know the precepts given to us by God through His prophets.

In Psalm 119 (that’s one psalm) there are 176 verses [that] specifically relate to the statutes of the Word of God as concerning the well-being of the people who will look at them and take them to heart. We are not even talking of an in-depth revelation of the mysteries of God. We’re not talking of the Millennium, or the New Heaven and New Earth. We are simply talking of a people who acknowledge God as a being, and then go further: they honor His Word.

As we found out in the Book of Deuteronomy, they don’t add to it; they don’t take from it. Now, no wonder America and all the world is lost. No wonder this prophet said he ceased to pray for America, and he preached the indictment against this generation.

Now, it is actually more and more against the law in America (in other nations, also) to worship God and to believe His Word while all manner of atheism and idolatry and spiritual wickedness and the uttermost of corruption is upheld by law. The angel with the ink-horn is even now marking the foreheads of those who sigh and cry over sin and unrighteousness. And you can’t find them in the government.

Brother Branham categorically said, “There is no such thing as a politician who can make a correct judgment, a correct decision.” And since the courts are filled of political men, there is no way you can go to court and get justice. So, brother/sister, burn it in your soul: Don’t try to get it! The best you can do is play politics and butter them up.

In other words, give a soft answer and turn away wrath. But you cannot win in the courts! Forget it! Now, Brother Evans knows… if he doesn’t, he knows tonight, publicly. Forget it! You are not going to win! I don’t care who you are. You say, “Well, Paul appealed to Rome.” Yes, and he got his head chopped off! (He would have got it chopped off anyway.) But, let me tell you something: the prophet said, “No politician can give a right decision.”

The courts cannot go by the books. They do not go by precedent. There’s no way you can win! There is no way you are going to win. If you want to go to court, you go ahead and sit mum, or do what you want. It doesn’t say I’m going to plead guilty and say I’m to blame.

You can do anything you want, but the law is stacked against you because the courts are not full of political appointees (only in some directions. Most of the judges, positively, are there because of your votes and my vote). We don’t vote. The supreme court absolutely sits in power by appointment.

But you go to your average court where those men are brought in by politics and you will find that not one of them care two-bits what the supreme court has set as a precedent. You’ll fight it all the way through the courts, all the way to the supreme court, and then he reveres the decision.

There is only one Being that’s got one mind, and that’s God. And we had better get to the Word of God and cling with it. And that’s all there is to it.

Now, I’m not tough on any one person in this congregation or any family, but the thing is this, let’s understand this: there is no way you can win. I learnt that years and years ago. I spoke to Brother Branham about it. When the jury will pass a decision of ‘not guilty’ and then say, “Yes, but we had better hit him a little bit…” Do you hear what I’m saying to you people tonight? Now, you haven’t got a prayer… that’s all you do have, really, is a prayer.

Not in the court, you don’t. They wouldn’t let you; they’re not interested. You can throw yourself on the mercy of Almighty God and do your best, but know this one thing: the courts are not going to do anything for you. They’re stacked against you. Only God can intervene. And your sole dependence on Almighty God is going to do it for you, and nothing else. All right.

The Book of Confession… it’s the same Book of the Kings. But notice how it is used and to what end. It is not set forth as a standard law of correctness and correction. Now, notice this: now, this is the same book but it is not set forth as a standard law of correction and correctness, to a plurality of people as in the Book of Kings, a principle of conduct.

Now, it’s all there but that’s not it. Neither is it set forth to a king who is to be established in an established kingdom (that is, to be continuously established). It is given to one, a commander, who will himself establish the kingdom by taking it for a possession for himself and his people. Now notice, the onus of the whole thing is ‘one man acting for all men’.

Now, you understand what I am saying: there is a difference. It’s the same book but there’s a difference, depending exactly who it is that God has ordained concerning it.

Now notice:

01. He, in himself, has no guarantee of any success, nor is any required of him. The only success before God and before Joshua is that the Word of Moses be spoken unerringly. No deviation. No changes. For the Word of the hour, and that alone, can be fulfilled. The Word alone can succeed and, thereby, the man succeeds. The Word places the man, not the man the Word.

As Brother Branham said, “I, the Lord, have planted and watered it. None shall pluck it out of my hand”. What was he talking about? He was talking about the former rain which is the teaching ministry, teaching the Presence of Christ. Not just the Presence of Christ that’s concerning a Pillar of Fire, but the Presence of Christ in the prophet because he categorically said… and I don’t have the quote with me, but he categorically said, when they asked about Jesus and God, he said, “It is very simple. When you looked at Jesus, you saw God. The same as when you look at me, you see God.” God in the individual.

Now, you can take that and run with it and go to hell and cut your throat and go to the Lake of Fire, and everything else. You can take it and blaspheme. You can take it and thumb your nose and laugh; that’s up to you. But you can take it the way he said, “God in the prophets.”

And everybody want to forget that Jesus is a prophet. They want to forget that he is judge. They like to think of him as king. But they haven’t put it together, and that’s what is wrong. And people who believe this Message, they can’t put it together.

The Word of God is not to be meditated upon and then spoken from the viewpoint of meditation, or as though it can be analyzed and become a part of natural cosmos, as though you could start to use it. When you start to use it you put yourself in position of those in Matthew 7 who can prophesy, speak in tongues, and end up in the Lake of Fire.

This has nothing to do with that. You cannot associate this Word to natural cosmos or even the cosmos of God, because the Cosmos of God comes out of it. You’re dealing with creator. And the creative Word is what you are dealing with. (See?) It is to be spoken and the mind is to receive it exactly as spoken. And the mouth having spoken it, the mind, then, receives it, in spite of the fact that the mind, positively, will go to analysis and figure the thing out.

Now, the Bible tells you, here, you simply speak the Word. This leader will get up there and speak that Word. And he doesn’t care two-bits about anything but the Word. And he doesn’t examine the circumstances or the conditions. He simply speaks that Word. And if that Word is the Word of God, the Word cannot fail.

The prophet can fail but the Word of the prophet cannot fail. David went so far as to commit adultery and murder. He numbered Israel, against the command of God. Prophets will fail. They are fallible men. But the Word of God cannot fail. That’s the greatest battle ever fought. The mind is to have no influence on this Word through reasoning processes and sense knowledge. This puts men in the prophet class.

Why? Because God said, “I have put my Word in your mouth.” And the Word goes no place but the mouth, because the heart and the mind are desperately wicked and controlled by a spirit allowed of God but not of God, and gets you into trouble.

That’s why Brother Branham preached in Perfect Faith and in The Greatest Battle [and?] laid it down. And that’s why he could stand there, and in spite of every contradiction under high heaven, it didn’t bug him. He said, “Shoot me down if I can’t raise Abraham Lincoln from the dead, if God tells me I can.” He said things improbable, which according to the world are not scientific. And he called it scientific because it had passed from faith to knowledge.

All right. It puts you in the prophet class, the God class. The mouth speaks it; the ear hears it; the mind receives it. The mind does not try to figure it out (that’s the tough one); it holds it there continuously in its mechanical state. Word for word is given by Moses.

Every channel to the soul is thereby full of the Word, Spoken Word, manifested Word, Logos, though it doesn’t seem that way because it’s not doing anything with you and for you at this point. It had already done it!

Now, God says, “Joshua, put that Word in your mouth and speak it. And when you hear it, don’t do a thing with it”. Do you think that’s not tough? Why, people say, “Brother Vayle, that’s exactly how active faith works”.

That’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the Word of God coming into its own in people’s lives. But under the condition of a true revelation where you are not using the laws of faith and the Word of God and end up in Matthew 7, Matthew 24, and in Revelation 20, condemned. There’s a difference… and a big one.

Now, be very careful to understand this: never is an hypothesis or a situation applied to the Word in meditation. It just says, “This is what it is written. I am telling you”. But rather, the Word is applied to the situation though it may be utterly grotesque and utterly foolish to the thinking of mankind.

The lips constantly say what God has said, for there is a Word of truth for the moment of truth. Do you know what the moment of truth is? When you come to face it. When there’s a showdown. What about it? “Aha! We’ve come this far. Now what?” There’s a Word of truth for it.

Here’s an example: Joshua means ‘Jehovah-Savior’ in the Hebrew. In the Greek it’s the same word ‘Jesus’. Jesus came into his kingdom. He told the people that the Kingdom of God was amongst them (Luke 17:20).

That Kingdom of God amongst the people was attacked by the devil. The devil set up three sets of circumstances. And Jesus never argued. He didn’t hypothesize or anything else. He just simply said, “It is written. It is written. It is written.” And he stood there and the devil couldn’t do one thing. And that’s the secret of the mind that takes only the Word of God in the face of everything contrary. That’s true understanding.

According to Hebrews 3:1, we are to consider “the high priest of our confession, even Jesus Christ”. And the high priest of our confession is “to say what God said about everything, and force the mind to close every gate to everything else”. That is the tough one. In other words, “Hear ye Him, and say what He says.” That’s exactly what Jesus said, “ I hear Him. I say what He says. I watch what He does, and that’s what I do.”

Now, you and I do not necessarily get to the second part, unless we’re ordained to it. But the first part, we’re all ordained to it: to say what He says… hear what He says; say what He says. In Hebrews 12:1-3, we find Jesus Christ himself under duress. And you notice what it says… (We’ll just take a peek at it because I think we can finish up tonight without worrying about the full hour and a half getting away on me).

Now, Hebrews 12:

In other words, when we speak what God said, there is a contradiction in nature! What does contradiction mean? ‘Contra’ is ‘against’; and ‘dico’ means ‘to speak’. It’s Latin. So , ‘contradiction’ is ‘a word that is against the Word of God’.

That’s exactly where unbelief set in when Satan came to Eve, and she opened her mind to unbelief… to the contradiction. She stammered and stuttered around what God said. She never actually said exactly what God said. And she never kept repeating it.

Now, if you want to see exactly where that is… we took you there last Sunday, to Romans 4. And in there you see Abraham. And he is the father of Moses by genealogy. He’s there, positively, in the election.

Romans 4:13

It wasn’t from some law that he followed. And you can follow a law of faith. You can work on it. He went by the promise. He went by the actual truth of faith. And what was it? It was the revealed Word of Almighty God that he stood with. “Abraham, you’re going to have a son by Sarah”.

Now, Sarah got all mixed up in it. She said, “Well, take Hagar. When it’s time for the baby to be born she could lie across my knees and I’ll pretend it’s my baby”. You talk about stupid! Oh, brother/sister, Sarah was plumb stupid. I don’t care if she was a… a fine woman sure; I’m not going to run her down.

But, let’s face it, that didn’t get her anywhere. That got her the biggest mess in all the world. And the Arabs and the whole bunch are sons of Ishmael… and Esau, the biggest mess in all the world. They’re causing all the trouble everywhere. Look what they’re doing, getting away with murder, terrorism. For the sake of a dollar nobody is going to raise his head.

What a mess the world is in! Anyway, it tells you down here, Abraham believed God.

Now, watch in verse 19, Romans 4:

Now, that’s it! Why? Because he had the revelation. Now, that’s exactly where we’ve got to stand, the revelation of God. The dynamic revelation makes us strong.

The Bible warns us against saying we’re weak. We’re not to say we’re weak. We’re to say we’re strong. “We shall not die but live”, according to God’s Word.

Now listen, he says here Romans 4:

Now listen: Where did that come from? It came exactly before his rejuvenation. It came exactly from the Presence of God at a certain time. Now, there’s where we stand! Because he raises the dead, which signifies resurrection, and calls those things which are not as though they were.

And the prophet said, “You’re standing right now before the White Throne.” He put us positively into eternity. Stood right there and said, “It’s yours.” Now, that’s what we are looking at, and what comes out of the basic passive faith of revelation, which is the dynamic vindicated Word of Almighty God. Clear our minds of all else!

There will be an active faith that comes forth unto the glory of Almighty God, that numbers us with the hearers of faith. Because it says absolutely in Hebrews 11:40, it says: “They without us cannot be made perfect”.

God having reserved some better thing for us… which is the epiphany of Christ Himself, when He came down and had greater results in Brother Branham than He had in His own body. Right. You’re looking at a true epiphany. People don’t want to believe him. (I care lot.)

Now then, what we are seeing is this: Consider the source and the Word of the source. Consider Him. Consider His Word. “See Him”… that’s what they did. They saw him transfigured. They saw him in a state to which he had not yet come. We can do the same thing right tonight. Then they said, “Hear Him”. Because that will bring you to the state where He is. And we’ll look at that in 2 Peter.

Now, “consider the Source and the Word of the Source”… the Source and the Word are one. There in lies the power we are seeking: an active faith. “My Word is Spirit and Life.” The Word is identical to God.

God tells that to Joshua in verse eight. Joshua is to observe or consider what is written, what he speaks. And he stands there. And you notice, he’s not just to consider what is written; he’s to say it, speak it. Stands there considering the Word, only. Then comes success.

This is the command of God; this is the Presence of God. It is the Presence of God. It says in [Joshua :1] 9 [paraphrased]: “I am with you.” Look-it, the Presence of God, the Pillar of Fire, has not departed us. It only departs those who will not stay with this Word and say it. “Birds of a feather flock together.” True.

Notice, also, the complete denial of emotions. The Holy Ghost is not in the feelings and the emotion. He is either here, or He is not here. You tell this to a bunch of Pentecostals, they’ll rouse and jump and swoon and scream and holler. Oh, they get so emotional, they could do anything… almost fly into pieces. And [you] say, “He is here!” They say, “Blasphemy!” They’ll shut you up and cut your throat. Don’t let your emotions get to you.

He will either fulfill His Word, or He will not fulfill His Word. Joshua knew God was there. Joshua knew God would bring His Word to pass. Joshua did not have one problem with that because he was Word to Word with Moses who was the Word of God to Joshua.

And Brother Branham was the Word of God to us, whether we want to believe it or not, because we didn’t have another source. What he said, that was it. As long as he had Moses’ Word and was ordained to that portion of the Word, Joshua could put the church in order and take it over to the true earthly order in the Promised Land.

Now listen: Moses was gone, but Moses’ Word was not gone. And Joshua was chosen leader to fulfill the unfulfilled part. Now, remember, Brother Branham talks of that. So a lot of people figure he’s got to come back and fulfill what wasn’t fulfilled. That could be true.

But, remember, Brother Branham said, “Jesus had not fulfilled a part of the Word that the Bride must fulfill.” And he said, “When the hand does it, the body does it.” And he was talking of Christ being formed in the flesh of the Bride; and he talked about himself. And we take credit with him. Because, remember, of him… what he gets, we get.

Moses was gone, but Moses’ Word wasn’t. And Joshua was chosen leader to fulfill the unfulfilled part. So, the Book of Confession is basically a book for a leader, where the writer of the book is gone. Now, right there is a Latter-Rain trap, like people saying, “The son of man ministry is in the Bride”. It is not. It’s the Word that’s in the Bride.

Now, watch the warning for today. Since Brother Branham is gone… and people rise up and proclaim that they are leaders. Oh, yeah, they’re in Europe, especially; but they’re over here, too. And they’re going to tell you, “You listen to me, and that’s going to do it”. Now, you think, many times, I may be saying that. But I am not, as God is my judge. That is not true.

Listen to 2 Peter 1:15, Peter is telling the people concerning the end-time:

Now, what things in remembrance? Verse 11

There’s a people coming up at the end-time in a Bride in whom are the virtues, which number seven is brotherly kindness, which is prickly. So don’t try to be what you’re not smooth-tongued, sweet, wonderful… pbbth! Hogwash. You’ve got fish hooks on your elbows, so don’t pretend otherwise.

The ‘Love’ is God Himself coming down to crown and to seal in the church. Because it’s in the Seventh Age that Love comes. And in the Bride is the virtue, brotherly kindness, where Brother Branham said, “You fuss at each other. You’ve got fish hooks on your elbow, sandpaper on your elbow. But if something goes wrong and you see that person suffer, you’ll come and try to help him.”

And you’ll even try to help the guys that you can’t help. That’s brotherly kindness. Love is different. Love is number eight. We don’t have an eight; we have an eighth day, Millennium. But He is here; Love is come down.

That’s why all the gifts you can have, brother/sister, without Him. And you can have all the gifts and not the Giver, you’ll end up in a wrong place. (Right place for the person, but a bad place for the individual.)

All right, listen

Now, he said, “Listen: there’s something greater in manifestation coming at the end-time than I’m telling you about. So you won’t have to miss it,”

Now, the voice did not say, “This is me, as the Son”; it says, “This is my Son”. So, I’m not Jesus-Only; you had better understand that.

2 Peter 1:18-21

Now, that was vindication. Brother Branham brought it out in Who Is This Melchisedec? and right on down the line into Shalom, and so on.

Now listen, 2 Peter 2:1-3

It tells you right at the end-time and make no mistake about it, that there are going to be people who try to take you right away from the vindicated Word. And they’ll do it, too, if you’re not careful. Well, probably, if you’re ordained to be taken away, you will; if you’re not ordained to it, you’ll stay.

All right, go on there, right on down through, and we won’t necessarily take time to it, but it says in verse 12.

That’s what they are at. Whoever told you that… [you could]? have a multiplicity of wives? You’re just a filthy sex-hound, and you know it. That’s all. Put filth above Word of God, every single time. You watch and see; it ain’t finished yet. Right on down there.

And then, it says, here, into 2 Peter 3:2-4.

“The Parousia, where is it?” Who’s going to be saying it? These false teachers! (See?) They’re the ones saying, “Where is the promise of the Presence?” In other words, “Where are these false teachers and these false prophets? There aren’t any around.” Because that was the Presence… “What is the sign of your Presence?” A true prophet and false prophets!

But, notice this: Peter corrects it. And he says, “As there were false prophets, there will be false teachers.” “Why”, they say, “we’ve got the pure Word of God. Everybody’s got the pure Word of the prophet.”

Notice it,

And then they’ll say, “Well, where is the Seventh Seal? It can’t be open because Brother Branham said, ‘According to Matthew 24, (going over the list of all the seals, seven of them) the seventh is missing’. Nothing said about the Second Coming, the return”. That’s right! Nobody knows the day and the hour.

But he also said, “The Seventh Seal was Revelation 10:1-7,” which is the Appearing. So, the Seventh Seal doesn’t have just one point. It’s got to have three points, because God does everything in threes. So the Seventh Seal has what? It has God come down to the prophet. The prophet with the seven thunders bringing forth the mysteries. And the third one is the literal coming of Jesus Christ Himself, and nobody knows it.

And under that, you’ve got the dead coming out of the ground. You’ve got the Bride being changed. You’ve got a lot of things in there, but you can see the whole point as it comes into view. And that’s the way it is.

Now listen: in spite of the fact that our Joshua is the Holy Spirit, He is, and the Holy Spirit is in the Word, and the Pillar of Fire is with us, there is a tendency to depart from the absolute of the Book of Confession, which is the ultimate. We read it… Joshua 1:8, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:2-4 (when he said, “I fear that your mind has been seduced by Satan),

1 Corinthians 4:14-15 (“You’ve got many teachers but one father. I’ve brought you the true Word”), Hebrews 3:1 (Listen to Jesus the High Priest), Hebrews 10:19-25 (At the end-time the gathering together is very important… and remember, the High Priest’s confession again), Hebrews 12:25 (Remember again the voice that speaks on earth).

Remember again 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (the Shout, which is a command which is putting the church in order). Remember also Malachi 3:16-18 (to confess only the Word of God, and then talk it, and talk about it all the time). And remember, God is putting the church in order by the Shout. and we are getting ready for the Rapture.

And let’s see what it says in Philippians 3… [and I’m doing this rapidly, but you understand the message anyway], the 7th verse. [Philippians 3:7]

Now, look-it, not just know the power of the resurrection. Sure. He never got to know that. William Branham got to know it; we got to see it. Paul will simply know the power of the resurrection, in the sense he’ll be raised from the dead. And secondly, he will be in the out-resurrection, because he’ll be in the first resurrection, but he won’t be standing on earth, living, to get it.

Now, he says

What minded? Everything is dung but the true revealed Word of God. I don’t care what your thoughts are and my thoughts are previously on any portion of the Word of God. It is dung if it is contrary to what the prophet taught, because nobody but the prophet has got vindication.

So, we can see that the true confession of faith in this hour is not an adamant attitude toward a promise and then get it through various steps that are taught in the Word whereby we can arrive at possessing things. But it’s an arriving at an absolute with Christ the Word, a true identity with the heroes of faith in the Book of Hebrews, the eleventh chapter, where they had a distinct revelation from Almighty God, a revelation for their hour.

As with Moses in the exodus, the true Word has come, vindicated and proven. All we need, now, is to stay with it. And the Holy Spirit will bring it to life and take us into the Millennium.

But where does this take us in our active faith? It takes us to God’s Book of Remembrance (I’ve already talked about it) in Hebrews 11, where they all stood in the revealed Word, and then went to receiving the promises. But the revealed Word was first. Because, remember, every time you receive a promise of God apart from the establishment of the truth, you get into condemnation.

Now listen, it’s the truth! Start with Cain! He got away with it. And he got a mark, and he was cursed. And he got into everything under God’s high heaven. And then what happened? The children of God, genealogically through Adam and Eve, they began marrying into them. Then everything got worse and worse.

It took a sexual turn, the same as got it turned today. But where back there in those days men went seeking women, beautiful women, the Bible says, at the end-time men will turn in disgust from women and they’ll seek men for sexual gratification. And they’re rotting. And let them rot, as far as I’m concerned.

Don’t ask me to feel sorry or anything else. I’m not going to be. You say, “Well, God could make you sorry.” All right, let God make me sorry. I’m standing to be able to be made sorry by God. I’m a child of God. But if you can tolerate that stuff, where is your “sighing and crying” for sin? You tell me. Something’s wrong somewhere.

Our concern is not mental, physical, financial well-being and preservation, but seeking first the Kingdom of God… the Kingdom of God, as in Luke 17:20-30. All things will be added to us. It will require a separation.

And the separation is taking place now, from Pentecost. And the Laodicean Church Age, it says, we’re “rich, increased in goods, lack nothing, are the Bride of God dressed in His raiment.” And they are “wretched, miserable, naked, and blind”. And they’re already judged, because it’s in the Book of the King. But they turn down the Book of Confession. That’s right.

We are not of those who have faith to move mountains, prophesy, and raise the dead, and then find ourselves lost. We are of those who have a vindicated faith. And now that the prophet is gone, we become more and more Word, piling Word upon Word, until the Spirit of Christ fills the temple (sweet Spirit of Christ), and the sick are healed, and prayers answered, and God is glorified. It is holding our unwavering faith over the Token. Or vice-versa, it’s holding the Token with it.

And where is the Holy Spirit? In the Word of God that is vindicated. That’s where your faith comes from. What good is it to confess the Word that God will not honor on judgment day, as in Matthew 7… “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied? Isn’t it here in Your Book? Lord, have we not cast out devils? Didn’t you tell us to?” “Oh, yeah”, He said, “I did.

Judas himself did that, notice, and he crucified Me; he betrayed Me”. The betrayal of the Age is in the hands of the Pentecostals. Now, you can say what you want and blame the World Council of Churches and a million other things, but the betrayal lies in the end-time people. And the chaff is to be burnt up. I don’t care what anybody says. That’s the Bible.

These promises in Matthew 7 are only temporal results. Let us stand, like Joshua and Caleb, one with the full revelation of this hour and identified with it. Let our faith arise out of that Word, and let us see what God will do in His Bride.

As Brother Branham said, “Take this message for your healing.” He said, “When Christ was revealed, that was the seals.” And he said, “In Him is the Millennium; in Him is healing; in Him is the resurrection, in Him is everything.”

So, look-it, if we’ve got it all right here, this is everything to take us right into the Millennium. And as Israel went into the Promised Land they went in “a people who were totally well”. We are going to receive ownership to the Millennium, brother/sister, in glorified bodies. We will be totally well!

Faith is not to be a struggle over the senses only. In other words, simply applying the laws of faith, struggling against our senses to get a promise. We are no long involved in the senses. Do you think we are? We’re not. We are no longer involved in senses. Paul the Apostle says, “What a man seeth doth he yet hope for?” No way! He sees it. We see it. And hope is greater than faith, faith, hope, love. We stand in a vindicated Word.

Brother/sister, listen: let’s not sell our faith down the river as though it’s sloppy. We have our faith today for a complete glorification. And that’s the greatest there is. And I’ve never known where the whole did not contain the part. But I’ve never found a time when the part contains the whole. Then why settle for less?

Faith is “confessing the Word of promise for the hour”. And out of it can come the active faith that takes over where our senses leave off. Sixth sense, it’s greater than that. You’ve passed it all. All things are now possible, for vindication has proved it. Brother Branham tried to get that across to the people time after time. And once-in-a-while he could do it, and there wasn’t anything [that] stood before the power of God.

Now, I’m closing. (And I’m going to close.) I want to clear up a remark on the Book of Confession. It’s already written. It’s a written book, and spoken by the commander or leader who is Joshua. Joshua is the Holy Ghost to us. Now, I want to ask you a question: If that’s the case, you tell me anything that the Holy Ghost will say outside of this Book? He won’t do it.

If He has vindicated Himself as to who He is… and the chips are down, tonight, on vindication. And Brother Branham preached over eighty percent of every message on ‘presence and vindication’… Elijah on Mount Carmel. And the vindication was proven. The prophet was proven. I don’t care what anybody says. When the prophet is gone, anybody can snipe and say anything they want. But we know the record, so we know where we stand.

Then would Brother Branham tell us anything other than the direct Word of the Holy Ghost? No! Then would the Holy Ghost, now, lead us to anything other than what Brother Branham said? And the answer is, “No”!

But you’ve got preachers who try to tell us, “Hey! Listen, brother, don’t you try to make this the same as what Brother Branham said”. Well, I’m going to tell you, this is exactly what Brother Branham said. But he said it in 20^th Century Americanness. And people just can’t take it, because they’ve got to have the “thees” and the “thous” and the “thuses”.

Since Joshua is the Holy Spirit, there can only be one book in his mouth. That’s where it is… in the mouth. And he doesn’t have to explain it! Brother Branham said, “God doesn’t have to explain anything.” He said, “The revelation, the explanation, is actually God manifesting exactly what it means.” And we’ve had it in our hour. And what does it mean? It means that “He is here”.

And the Word of promise, which we believe, is going to get us out of here and into the Millennium. It’s the Word that takes us into the ark that rises above the flood of destruction and sin. It’s already written in the book. If the Holy Ghost gives revelation, what will He reveal? Only what is in the book. And now, the Holy Ghost is in His own Word. That’s right. And His Word is in the Bride.

Therefore, the same One who brought the Shout is the same One with the Voice who raises the dead. Then, it’s the same Life that’s in you and me that will change every cell in our mortal bodies, and turn us into immortality. And the faith of God, in His own Word residing in us, can also with Him freely give us all things.

Brother Branham in preaching the unsearchable riches of God, coming to us, opening the book, never once took any of the promises from us, not one of them. He didn’t say, “You can’t speak in tongues; you can’t prophesy; you can’t do it”. He said, “Put it in a room where it belongs.”

He never took away healing. He never took away any promise, because you can’t take away from the Word of God. But he showed us the truth of the false who were anointed the same as the true who were anointed. And he brought us a true separation and a true understanding.

Now, brother/sister, unless the people stay with this Message, as Brother Branham brought it, you are going to see this, categorically, that you will not see them in the resurrection or in the rapture. You’re not going to. It can’t be done.

Something is said in the Book of Matthew, a more literal translation by Dr. Weiss: “Everyone, therefore, of such a character that he will confess me before men in the realization of and testimony to his oneness with me, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven in the realization of and testimony to his oneness with Him. But whosoever is of such a nature he will deny me before men, I will deny him before my Father who is in heaven”.

In other words, he tells us categorically we’ve got to be of such a nature, such a character. Here is where real character is. Brother Branham says, “Find that woman of such character she’ll stand still and listen to the message, stand in the waters of separation till she’s cleansed, stand till she’s dressed in the robes which she should have.” “Every one of such a character he will confess me before men in the realization of and in testimony of his oneness with me”. How? By the Word of God.

Jesus always went to that Word. The prophet went to that Word. You and I can do no other. There’s your Book of Confession, brother/sister. The Book of Confession, absolutely, is with every other book. It’s right in this Bible, here… all interrelated, interwoven. But it’s the hour in which it is viewed and by whom , that it makes all the difference.

Now, what did God want for the end-time Elijah? Restore the Word. What Word? This Word. And the Word being restored by vindication, proving it was the truly revealed Word, did it turn the people to God? It did not turn the people to God. It turned them away from God. Absolutely.

What did it do? It separated the elect, virtuous Bride, from the non-elect. But what did the promises do that were turned loose with the vindicated revelation? It brought the church all together. If any people are responsible for Catholicism and Protestantism to get together, it is the Pentecostals. And the one man above all is Mr. Du Plessis, who is known as ‘Mr. Pentecost’. And he’s proud of it. Proud to stand and say, “Look, they’re sheep, just like we are”!

Somebody is lying, and it’s not God’s Word. There are not going to be millions at the end-time, brother/sister. There are going to be very very few. The world won’t even miss them. If the world even knows anything about them they’re going to be glad to miss them. They may take a hand in wanting to make sure they miss them. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I know this one thing: I see enough in this Book of Confession to know this, brother/sister: for this hour there is nothing but a Word.

You say, “Oh, I’m looking for some great acts”.

Go ahead; I won’t discourage you. That’s your business.

“I’m looking for this other thing.”

Ahh, you’re looking at the Book of Kings. I’m sorry. You’re not looking at the Book of Confession. Do you see why it makes so much difference to rightly divide? That’s it.

Let’s rise and be dismissed. Sunday morning we’ll try to go to the ‘Fountains’.

Heavenly Father, we come to You, now, at the end of this little series on books, knowing we’re right back… (and that’s sensible; Alpha is Omega) right back to the very beginning when Your Word was set in a book. And that book, Lord,… one book used all the way through. It wasn’t put upon a shelf, living vital Word of God settled in heaven, Word written in script, Word put on stones, Word put on sheep skin, Word put on scrolls of flax, papyrus (whatever). We don’t know exactly how it was all written, but we know, Lord, You raised up a leader and You said this leader is going to take the people in. Doesn’t have one thing to do with that Word on his own.

It’s a Word that comes out of his mouth and he will listen to it the same as the people. And neither one will be the author of it. Neither one will be responsible for it. Neither one will make it come to pass. Their only responsibility is “just keep saying it; just keep filling the mind with it”. Turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to everything else would take a people into the Promised Land. I believe, Lord, it’s going to take a people right into the Millennium, because I don’t know anything else that’s going to do it. I really can’t see anything else according to vindication by a prophet, that this is it.

Now, Lord, we’re still guilty of letting our minds go this way, that way, and the other way. I do, and so much of the time I’m ashamed of it! Lord, I know we’ve got to begin to address ourselves to the truth as never before. And, Father, (as I’ve preached so many times) we can come to church saying what Paul said, and leave in worse shape than when we came. And that could be right with us tonight from the past and in the future hearing truth but not letting it take its rightful preeminent place which is a Word over every word, the Word of the King over all flesh, the Word of the Holy Ghost to take us in. Because, Father, if You said it, it’s going to be done.

We know the prophet closed his last dynamic message, Lord, the message on the Rapture which came as a bomb shell amongst us all, the true Appearing, what it really is and in there he said (at least three times) something like, “Thus, it’s been spoken and thus it will be”. Now, Lord God, tonight I know that You can help us because You’re the Great One. You love us and we’re trusting You, tonight, to help us to stand where the prophet told us to stand. This Word can’t fail; it’s got to come to pass. There is no way that it can’t come to pass. And if we’re part of it, there’s no way we can fail.

We ought to be joining now in that holy hymn to You, Lord, that signified Your entering into that glory…[above]? We should begin to lift up our heads and rejoice because the King of Glory is in our midst and about to be manifested as such. There were literal gates that the King can enter in and through and go into the Millennium. Father, all these things are ours. But, Lord, only You by Your Spirit can quicken it to us.

Now, Father, whatever we’re supposed to do, there is something the prophet told us to do and how to do it; it’s in Your Word, here. And I know it’s not going to supercede as though it’s something we can do, Lord, that would ever give us any preeminence, or would ever take out of Your hands whatever is to be done. But, Lord, what I believe it would do is to make us conscious of the reality, and us, Lord, happy to be a part of it to the extent that nothing else matters. It’s truly, ‘Live or die, sink or swim, life or death’. This is where we stand.

And I thank You, Lord, You’ve heard our prayer tonight. I believe, having heard it You’ve answered it. And from this moment on, Lord, there’s a refreshing, a quickening. There’s a stepping up. There’s a moving higher in the life of the Word in us, and moving to that end. So, we consecrate ourselves, Lord, to that degree of faith tonight and thank You for Your goodness.

May all the glory and honor by Yours, Lord. We know it has been worthwhile to be a part of the Message thus far. But, Lord, we want to give You glory. And we pray, tonight, we’ve given You a bit of glory by reaffirming the truth and reaffirming ourselves in the truth and with the truth. And unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only-wise God, now be honor, and power, and glory, through Jesus Christ our Savior, and we participating to that end. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you’.