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Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word (65-0822M)
| Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word (65-0822M) |
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1 Let us bow our heads. Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of the great flock, we are so in debt to Thee, Lord, that we could never pay Thee for the love that Thou has shed abroad in our hearts. We feel so unworthy as we bow our heads and stand in Thy Presence. We ask You to cleanse us from all faults and all sin. We pray that You'll strengthen our bodies today. Many are sick and afflicted, as it shows here of handkerchiefs and requests coming in on the phone and everywhere.
3 And we ask that You'll speak to us today through Thy written Word, and may the Spirit reveal to us the things that we have need of, as we have gathered nationwide now, feeling that we are a small people, but have a place among the redeemed, because we have believed on Jesus Christ. 6 I kinda--surprising myself; I told my wife, if she happens to be listening in down in Tucson, that I didn't think I'd have any service when I come back; and I didn't even bring clothes. And I said to my daughter-in-law--she had pressed my coat--and I said, "I'm standing behind the pulpit with... They don't know the trousers is one kind and the coat's another." And so, ones I wore home... But Meda, she got my shirt ironed and everything, so ever don't worry. Everything's fine.
7 Now, we have a request here, that there's a very dear brother... And I think that--that Prescott, I believe, is hooked in this morning, up in--in Prescott, Arizona. Sister Mercier's father is just been on his road here to the meeting I understand, and was--had to be taken to the hospital in a heart attack, Brother Coggins. And also Brother Junior Jackson, I think he's in on the next radio down--or the next phone down in Clarksville or New Albany, and his father is in the hospital, I understand, with serious operation of cancer in the liver. So we want certainly remember those in our prayers. 8 Dear God, as that dear, old, wrinkled-hand man, Brother Coggins, an old veteran of the field, as--laying in the hospital this morning somewhere, suffering from an attack on his heart, God, that poor old heart's went through much troubles. I pray, God, to help him. Grant it. He like--he loves life like all of us does, and he wants to live. Lord God, grant it. We across the nation pray in Jesus' Name for him, that You heal him and bring him out. We believe that You will, and he'll be--come right to the meeting.
9 We pray for Brother Jackson, his precious daddy, laying there near death now. And bring in the world a fine boy like Junior, and I--I--I pray, dear God, that You'll heal him. I know it seems impossible. The medics, the doctors, they--they don't know what to do in that kind of a case... But we remember Brother Hall also, when the very best of the physicians here said (in Louisville)--said, "He's just a few hours to live," with cancer in the liver, and he's living today (And that's twenty-five years ago.) because of Your grace. So I pray, that You'll heal Brother Jackson today, Lord. Let Your grace and mercy be with him. 11 Now, start this morning, I didn't think that I was going to come down at the first place last Sunday. And then again when we announced it, I come down. Brother Neville had me to speak, and then we announced I'd be down today, and it hasn't been notified out around the country to the peoples. And we got this telephone system now, which is very, very fine. The people can set right in their homes or the--gather in their places, their churches, and so forth, and hear the service. I appreciate that. 12 Now, I see laying here, there's been many requests this last week on what I said last Sunday on the message... I believe--I forget what I titled it now. But that I said something about paying your debts. And you know, no matter what you say, it's misunderstood by many, not 'cause they--they don't want to misunderstand it, but you just simply misunderstand it. And now, someone said, "Should we buy a car?" or, "What should I..." Now, that isn't what Jesus spoke of, or the Bible there, that said, "Owe no man nothing." That's lingering debts that you could pay. Pay them. You don't... That's owing no man nothing. It doesn't mean... My, we owe our rent, our telephone bill, we--and whatmore. We--we owe those things, and we pay them. But an old lingering debt that you could be paying on, pay it off. See? Now, don't go with anything hanging on you like that. 13 I remember a time when I was sick once when I was a boy. I came out of the hospital owing about two thousand dollars. And there used to be a drugstore here, Mr. Swaniger; I owed him about three or four hundred dollars in medicine bill. He didn't even know me, And the man... I went to him. I didn't know him, and he'd just send it up there anyhow, never refused to send it; and I said, "I owe you." And I said... I believe, not Swaniger, it was Mr. Mason at--down on Court Avenue and Spring. And I said, "I owe you. And I'm--I'm just still awfully weak, but I'm trying to go to work. Now, if I can't pay you..." I'd just become a Christian; I said, "First thing, Mr. Mason, as my duty to God, I owe Him my tithes. I want to pay Him my tithings first." And I said, "Then my next duty is pay my debts." I said, "My father's sickly, and he--and we got... There's ten of us children in the family." But I said, "I'll... If I can't pay you no more than twenty-five cents on that bill each payday... If I can't pay you even the twenty-five cents, I'll come by and tell you about it. I'll tell you, 'I--I can't do it this time.'" And I, by the help of God, I paid every bit off. See? But that's what I mean. See? 14 Just don't... Somebody say... Oh, some Christian here at the church one time went out and got some work done on a car here, and the man come down... The man said, "I'll pay you. I get paid Saturday," or something or another, and he never paid him. And weeks after weeks rolled by and never paid him, never said a word. And--and the man come and asked me; he said... See, it reflects against the church. It reflects against Christ. If you can't pay him, go tell him, say, "I owe you, and I'm going to pay you. I'm a Christian, but I--I just--I can't do it right now, I've got... I owe this." And you remember, it's on God's books too, you know, that you do. So that's... I'm trying to for myself and for all of us together, try to be ready, for we know we're getting near something, very near of something's going to take place. So we want to be ready. When the coming of the Lord is drawing so nigh now, we want to be ready for that great hour. 15 Now, we want to get ready and speak now on a little subject here that I chose for this morning by the help of the Lord. And we'll speak just as briefly as we can, because of the hookup of the people. I hope you all got a--all across the nation, got a fine morning like we have here in Indiana: nice, cool, fine weather, we're having now since the rain, and it's very fine.
16 Now, I want to read from the Book of Hebrews the 1st chapter and from the Book of St. John the 1st chapter. Hebrews 1:1-3 and St. John 1:1 for a text. My subject this morning is a study in the Scriptures. Now, let's read Hebrews 1:1:
God, who at sundry times... divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets,
But in these last days spoke unto us by his Son, who he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world;
Who being in the brightness of his glory, and... expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
What a beautiful reading. Now, St. John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
17 Now, and my text this morning is: "Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word." Now, where I come to the conclusion to talk on this was, because that... Knowing that what we say we mustn't just say because we're gathered together to just haphazardly speak on anything, but it's something that will help stabilize the people, for we are going to pass through dangerous, treacherous waters. We're already sailing through them. And sometimes, I guess it's with you like it is with me, that seems like that so much of it, it's such a scary. 18 I was just talking to a young minister and his wife in the room just a few moments ago. And both of them are nervous just like the rest of the world, rest of the human beings on earth. I said, "Remember, Satan's got a punch coming at you." I don't care who you are, God... He's got a right to that one punch. Which had you rather be, that punch, be blind, or be an arthritic setting in a chair, or be nervous? See? He's got somewhere he could punch you. He's got a right to that open place. Now, that's the spot you got to keep covered all the time. 19 And to see this nervous age that we're living in... And last week's tapes, I think, will reveal to you the great hideous things that we're going to speak on one of these days when we can get a place sufficient, of the opening of those last plagues to be poured out upon the earth--those Vials, rather, pouring out of the Vials, and the Seven Thunders... And those hideous sights that's coming upon the earth...
20 Men now and people today are in such a neurotic condition, the whole world... You read this last months "Reader's Digest." You notice the subject there; it's on Billy Graham the great evangelist. He got so tired he just couldn't hold his meetings, and he--he went to Mayo's Clinic for a physical checkup. There wasn't nothing wrong with him, only he just doesn't do enough work. And they put him to running: physical exercise. He runs a mile every day. And then, the article goes on to say that science has proved, that today, that young children, these little boys and girls hit their middle age at twenty years old. And by twenty-five, many times in many cases the girls are out of menopause at twenty-five years old. 21 My mother and your mother struck that age about forty-five to fifty. My wife struck that age about thirty-five. Now, it's down to twenty. The whole human race is rotten. Well, if them physical beings of our body is tearing down like that from eating hybrid foods, tensions, that rotten it, does not that also rot the brain cell? Then we can see how women can get on the street naked. We can see how they can speed through the--the streets at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, all these things. It's come to a place where the whole nation, the whole world, not only this nation, but everywhere, mentally gone. 22 And then when we open up those, the Lord willing, on those Seven Vials and show those hideous things... Men will be so insane after while, till they'll imagine they're seeing ants the size of a mountain. They'll be tormenting women, be locusts come upon the earth with long hair to torment women who cut theirs off, hair like women hanging down, and long teeth like a lion, stingers in their tail like a scorpion, and so forth, to torment men upon the earth. But then it'll be too late to do anything about it. You get right now. See? Tormenting...
23 And last Sunday when we was going into those cycles about how that the five senses on the outer realm... That's the inlet, five senses to the body. There's only one way you can get into the body, that's by those five senses: See, taste, feel, smell, and hear; there's no other way to contact the--the body.
27 Today's so confused about the evidence of the Holy Ghost and so forth. Satan can impersonate any kind of a gift that God's got, but he cannot bring that Word, word by word. That's where he failed in the garden of Eden; that's where he's always failed. That's where them... The tape on false anointed ones or anointed ones... They can be anointed with the Spirit, speak in tongues, dance, shout, preach the Gospel, and still a devil. It's the inside. Now, remember, Jesus said. "All the Father has given Me, will come to Me. No man can come except My Father draws him first."
28 Now, the same thing is this: If you are a son of God, and if I am a son of God, or a daughter of God, we were in God at the beginning. And when Jesus became the Fullness of the Word, then we were in Him, germ form. When He was crucified, we was crucified in His body. When He rose from the dead, we rose with Him. And now, since we have recognized it, now we set together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. See? For He... We, if we are sons and daughters of God, we are God's children; then we're attributes of God. Then we were--got Eternal Life. And God is the only Eternal Life there is. Then we were in Him from the beginning. And when Jesus became all that Word, then we were part of Him then. Amen. There you are. When that's in there, there's no devil, no powers, no nothing can ever move it. That's the tie post of the soul.
30 That Laodicean church age, naked, blind, miserable, don't even know it... See, it's not--it's not anointed, anointed with the real Spirit. See that Holy Spirit can fall upon a man in his spirit, but his soul is his germ. That germ is the Word. See? And how... I don't care how much you preach, how well you do this, and how much you love... That's one of the inlets the spirit. You can't love with your body; you love with your spirit. That's one of the inlets. And you can love and even love God, and still not be right. You can cast out devils, and preach, and do these things, still not be right. Jesus said so; said many would come in that day. That Word settles it.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,...
31 Notice. I'm going to speak on this subject of the Bible, Christ Revealed in His Own Word. Where I drawed this conclusion was in my room. Some dear person (may be setting here this morning)... I got a picture hanging in my study up there, that's a picture of Hofmann's head of Christ wrote in the Beatitudes. And right where you would come to a place like you needed a part of the hair, they'd pressed a little harder on the pen as you pass that part. There--there He is, setting in His Word, looking right out: Christ in the Beatitudes. Someone, ever who it was, I thank you for it. And somebody brought that picture and put it in my study there, of Elijah going up in a chariot of fire. We appreciate these things. Many times, big crowds, I just don't get a chance to speak and say these things, but I see it, brother, sister. I--I know it. God knows it.
33 Now, Christ and the Word is the same. See? They say, "How was the Bible..." People says... I was riding with a man not long ago. He said, "Think of it. We here on this earth, the way we are, and we only know or can only say that we're saved by some Jewish fable called the Bible." 35 I know a young Catholic boy one time was--had a prayer book saying prayers and his--for his mother to live. And she died, and he throwed the prayer book in the fire. Well, see... I don't go for the prayer book, but anyhow... See, you take the wrong attitude. You're trying to tell God what to do. Prayer should be, "Lord, change me to fit Your Word," not change, not, "Let me change Your mind; You change my mind. (See?) You change my mind to Your will, and Your will's written here in the Book. And Lord, don't--don't let me go till You got my--my mind set just like Your mind. And then when my mind is set like Your mind, then I'll believe every Word You wrote. And You said in there You'd make everything work together for good to them that loves You, and I love You, Lord. It's all working together for the good."
36 I been this week down in the country staying with some very dear friends. I asked some of them at the table yesterday when we was eating... We always set around and have a little--like a little study on the Bible. Talking about love; there's a certain person said to me; he said, "I believe you're an antichrist." 38 Therefore, if the churches would see that and could believe it in that manner, it wouldn't be one trying to jerk the football away from the other fellow when he's running with it. He'd be protecting that one (See?), when real true motive and objective. Wouldn't be one trying to say, "Hey, I got this too, I--I... This is me; this..." See, God can't use a man. There's so much impersonation follows it, and that's Satan; and the people can't realize that. They're trying to take the ball from somebody that's been give it. Let God raise up a certain ministry and watch how many goes after it. See, see? 39 Now, genuine love for God, "No matter what part I am, Lord, if I can only say a word for It to help protect It, let me do that." See? That's the same thing would be about your wife. If you really love her (See?), it's not a--it's not a--a Phileo love, it's an Agapao love, a genuine love. If she could live with somebody else happier... You're not married now, 'course, you can't...?...
40 And by the way, people listening to these tapes. Some--so many sends in, said, "Why, in the "Marriage and Divorce" you said this and you said that." I said that so many times: these tapes goes only... I'm speaking to my congregation, brother. I'm not responsible for what God give you to shepherd; I'm responsible for what kind of food I feed these people. This is for this Tabernacle only. See? Now, if the people want to listen to the tapes, that's up to them. But I'm speaking to what God has give to me. It was their sins that was omitted. Someone wrote out and said, "Well, I've done this and I've done that. You said our sins..." I--I didn't say that.
41 Notice. Now, we come back; we've got to have something another that we have to hold on to. Something has to be a tie post; in other words, it's an ultimate. And everyone must have an ultimate or an absolute. I preached on it one time years ago, on a absolute, a place that's the last word. Like the umpire at a ball game, if he says it's a strike, that's just exactly what it is. No matter how you seen it, the umpire said it's a strike.
44 Now, there's got to be an ultimate to everything you do. There had to be an ultimate when you chose your wife. There had to be a woman you had to select.
46 Now, if a man said, went to another man and said--heard somebody say, "Well, you should be baptized," and this fellow never... Maybe his... Some church that didn't baptize, they just sprinkle... I think, say for instance, the Methodists, they do baptize if it's requested; I understand. Or maybe the--a Catholic, I think they sprinkle only. So then, if--if a man heard something about being immersed in the water, well, he didn't understand that; he was raised Catholic, so He goes up to the priest and said, "Father, I understand that we're supposed to be baptized by immersing. What does our church say about that?"
48 What if the--if a Baptist brother heard us say that we believe in being baptized by immersing, he'd say, "I believe that,"--and in the Name of Jesus Christ. Now, this--this member of the church goes back to the pastor and says, "Pastor, I heard a fellow say to me that we should be baptized by immersing all right, but in the Name of Jesus Christ."
50 Well, every denomination is an ultimate to their believers. But to me and to the ones that I hope that I'm leading to Christ, and by Christ, the Bible is our Ultimate. No matter... 'Cause God said, "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine Truth." And I believe that the Bible is God's Ultimate. No matter what anyone else says, It's the Ultimate.
51 Let us just read it while we got the time. I believe my... Haven't got too many notes here to speak from. If the Lord tarries, why, we'll try to get from them...
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified... by his angel to his servant John:
Who bare record of the Word of God, and... the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the word of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
52 So the Bible is the complete revelation of Jesus Christ, and It was wrote by prophets, Hebrews 1:1, "In... God, Who in sundry times spake to the fathers by the prophets, in this last day speaks to us through His Son, Jesus Christ," which was the prophets, all of them put together. Jesus was Malachi; Jesus was Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah. All that they were, were in Him. And all that you are, and all I am, is in Him: Words, witnesses of the Word. So It is not a book of systems, a code of moral ethics, neither is It a history book, or a book of theology. It is not. But It's the revelation of Jesus Christ: God Himself revealed from Word to flesh. That's what It is. The Bible is the Word, and God is the flesh. God in... God is the Word, rather, and Jesus being the flesh, It's a revelation how God, the Word, was manifested in human flesh and revealed to us. And that's why He becomes a Son of God. He is a part of God. You understand?
53 Now, He is not... The body is part of God, so much that it's a Son. A Son... As a Catholic puts it, eternal Son (and all the rest of the churches), the word don't even make sense. See? There cannot be eternal and then be a son, 'cause a son is something that's begotten from. And the word "eternal"... He cannot be an... He can be a Son, but He cannot be an eternal Son. No, sir. He cannot be an eternal Son. 55 Now, notice this Bible. Some of them said, "Oh, well, It's done this; It's done that." But let me tell you something; let's just--let's go into the history of the Bible just a minute and see where It come from. It was written by forty different writers. Forty men wrote the Bible over a space of sixteen hundred years apart and at different times, predicting the most important events that ever happened in world's history, and many times hundreds of years before it happened. And there is not one error in the entire sixty-six Books. Oh, my. No author but God Himself could be so accurate. Not one word contradicts the other. Remember, sixteen hundred years apart, the Bible was wrote, from Moses to--to the death of--of John at Isle--or the Isle of Patmos: sixteen hundred years. And was wrote by forty different authors. One didn't even know the other one, and they never had It as the Word. Some of them never even seen the Word. But when they wrote It, and was understood to be prophets, then when they put their prophecies together, each one of them dovetailed one to the other. 56 Look at Peter, who announced on the day of Pentecost, "Repent every one of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins." Paul had never heard nothing about it. He went down to Arabia for three years to study the Old Testament to see Who this Pillar of Fire was that spoke to him on the road, saying, "Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" How could he be wrong? He never even consulted the church at all. And fourteen years later when he met Peter, they was preaching the same thing, word by word. That's our Bible. Let other men's words fail. This... No man can add to It. You don't add no more to the Bible. No, sir. This is a complete revelation. That's all.
57 Like the Seven Seals. The Seven Seals... Someone kept saying to me. "There you're... The Lord will speak to you, Brother Branham, when these seals are revealed and will tell us how to get closer to God, and how to do..."
59 Now, let's just see how this Bible was written. Now, say for instance, from... What if we went now and took sixty-six medical books that deals with the body, wrote by forty different medical schools, a hundred and sixteen--or sixteen hundred years apart? Wonder what kind of continuity we'd come up with? 61 No, there's no continuity to that, but not one word in the Bible contradicts the other. Not one prophet ever contradicted the other one. They was every one perfect, and when one come in and did prophesy, that real prophet raised up and called him down. Then it was made manifest. See, see, see? So the Bible is the Word of God to all true believers.
62 Now, you couldn't get no accuracy in what doctors would agree upon. You can't even get accuracy of them now. You can't get accuracy in science now. 63 And they're going to find out someday that they're not seeing a hundred and fifty million years of light space either; they're going right around in a circle. That's exactly. You're going to find out one of these days that when you go to heaven, you don't fly off somewhere else; you're still right here too, just in another dimension faster then this. Right through this room's coming color. Every color shirt, dress, whatever you got on is eternal, laying right on records, going around and around the world. Every time you bat your eyes, it's right on record. Watch, television will prove that. 64 When you're born, God sets a record on. It don't make... Put a record on, it don't make much noise for a little while, you know; that's the little baby till it comes to accountability. Then the noise starts. He starts saying things and doing things he has to answer for. And then when that life ends, that record or tape is took off and laid in the--in the great big library of God... Now, how you going to get around it at the judgment bar? It's played right back in front of you: Every move you made, every thought that went through your mind. Can you see that? Now, can you see where God... 65 Standing here the other night, and there'd been a man on the platform, tall, bald-headed man, real handsome looking fellow, strong. And he went out... The Lord had told him a whole lot of things about his family and what he should do. And he went out and set down. In a few minutes here come before me another man like that, but he had his head down. I couldn't make out, and I looked at the man again out there; and he wasn't him, because it was something else. And this man, I couldn't find him. I looked around, no body behind me. I said, "The man is setting inside of those curtains there." And it was our--a brother that comes to church here, tall, bald-headed, handsome sort of a fellow setting up there like that. And he had his head hung over, praying, because he was just about to die with stomach trouble. He was going to get a pair of shoes. His wife wanted him to get a new pair of shoes. He said, "No, I don't have to get them, 'cause I ain't going to live to wear them." He was dying. And setting there (You see?), in that dimension... Hallelujah. God just moved over in there and said, "There he sets," just the position he was in. See what I mean? 66 Now, notice. And there is not any error in the Scriptures. Jesus, the Word of God, perceives the thought that's in the heart. The Word of God is stronger, sharper, Hebrews 4:12: "The Word of God is sharper, more powerful than a two-edged sword, even a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the mind." See? Goes way down into the mind, and pulls out, and discerns. What is "discern"? "Make known, reveal out." And that's what the Word of God does. Today we say, "The Catholic church is the Word of God, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Pentecostal, the tabernacle." That's wrong. The Word is the revelation, God revealed by the Word. 67 No, we could've got--get any continuity amongst medics, amongst scientists, different ones. If Einstein had only had the spiritual application, as he had the--the physical application, as he studied the laws of light and so forth, he could've told us something. When I heard his message on that great center somewhere into the skies, that ever contacted with that center, you could create earths, do anything that--the power would be unlimited. See? He had seen that. 68 You see these little pockets going through the air they call "saucers," so forth. People so that... Well, we better leave that alone. "Hear how these people come up missing?" you say. Don't hear from them; they're standing there, and they're not there. That's the way the rapture's going to be. One of them would drop right down, and this terrestrial body will take on a celestial body. And they'll be hide, hair, or bones left. It'll be transformed in a moment of time, dropping right out of space and taking home that... We see all this going on now, and the--and the Pentagon wondering about these lights, and mystic lights, and everything they're seeing in the--in the sky. You seen they had one here in the paper at Jeffersonville this week and so forth, a mystic light saw. Oh, they don't know what that is. But listen, little children, it's going to pick you up one of these days (See, see?); don't worry. 69 You remember, Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom..." What happened just before Sodom? God came down with some Angels, and they had an investigation judgment. Said, "I've heard the cry that is so sinful, so great, so I've come down to find out whether it's altogether the truth or not." Is that right? Watch, that main One that stayed with Abraham could discern the thoughts was in Sarah's heart behind Him. Now, you'd look around just a little bit and notice (See?); watch what It's doing, the same thing today. It's an investigation judgment. When after while the church, when It can stand that place and every seed has been brought to it's spot, they'll be gone. They won't know what happened to them. One will be going one way. See? One will be going over to the pastor's house, and one will be going here or down there; and the first thing you know, they're not there. For Enoch which was the type, God took him, and he was found not. Come down to investigate... 70 The continuity, how that Enoch translation, a type of Israel being carried over in the ark... So perfect... The Word of God is so perfect, even to the Old and New Testament is two halves and one whole. Right. Old Testament's half of It, and New Testament's half of It. Put It together, you got the whole revelation of Jesus Christ. There's the prophet speaking; here He is in Person. See? Two halves and one whole. 71 Now, we don't want to take too much. Now, remember, the Old Testament is not complete without the New. And the New could not be complete without the Old. That's the reason I said, two halves: one whole. For the prophet said, "He'll be here; He'll be here; He'll be here. They'll do this to Him; they'll do this to Him." And here He is, "He was here; He was here. And they did this to Him, and they did this to Him." I just preached on that a few nights ago.
72 Now, in order to study the Scripture... Paul told Timothy, "Study It, rightly dividing the Word of God which is Truth." Then there's three musts in the Scripture. In using God's Word there is three things that you must not do. Now, let's study those for the next ten minutes: Three things that you must not do... And all out in the land wherever you are across the nation, be sure to put these down in your mind if you haven't got a pencil. You must not do these things. We tell you all the time how you must do; now, I'm going to tell you what you must not do.
74 Notice. To misinterpret Jesus in the form of God in a man you would make Him--you would make Him one god out of three. To misinterpret Jesus Christ being the Word, you'd make Him one god out of three, or you'd make Him the second person in a godhead. And to do that, you'd mess the whole Scripture up. You'd never get nowhere. So It must not be misinterpreted. 76 If anybody misinterpret Jesus Christ in the Bible of not being God Himself, make Him the second person, or, one god out of three, this would upset every Word in the entire Bible. It would break the first commandment, "Thou shalt not have any other god before Me." All right. It would make the whole Christian race a bunch of pagan worshippers worshipping three different gods. See what kind of a Bible you'd have? Then it'd make us what the Jews say we are: said, "Which one of them gods is your god?" See? So you see, you can't--you mustn't misinterpret the Bible, for Jesus Himself is the Interpretation of the Bible when He's made manifest in the age that the part of His Body is being made manifest. If it's a hand age, it must be a hand; it can't be a head age. If it's a voice age, well then, it can't be a foot age. See? And now, we're at the eye age. And now, the next is Him Hisself to come. Seeing, prophetic... 77 See, down through the age we started off from the foundation, from the first church age when the Seed went in the ground, the complete Seed. Then it come out through the feet, Luther, come back out then through Wesley, then into Pentecostals, the tongues and the lips. See? Now, it's in the eyes, prophetic, of Malachi 4 and so forth. And now, there's nothing else left for it to come, but Him Himself to step into that, 'cause that's the last thing there is. The next is the intelligence, and we have no intelligence of our own; it's His. See? We have no sight of our own. How can a man foresee those things? He can't do it; It's God Himself. See, it's--it's becoming to a place... And He's governed the body all the way through. Then the complete Body of Christ is revealed in the form of a Bride that was taken out of His side, like Adam did at the beginning--like Adam's was, rather, at the beginning.
78 Yes, God... This would set the whole Bible in a confusion, break the first commandment, and make a god, a pagan god of three. It would just--it would just ruin the whole picture of the Bible, so you must not misinterpret the Bible. Now, that's just one thing.
81 To dislocate the Scriptures, you might put His body together wrong, the foot where the head should be or something. Just the same as a... In other words, you might have Jesus teaching Moses' message. You might have--or even Wesley teaching Luther's age. You might have now, our age teaching Pentecost, the Pentecostal message. You see what a mess it would be in? Pentecost has already showed its colors. Luther's already showed his: went off into denomination; it died right there. The age struck; there it went. 83 I told you the other day; I say it again; that even civilization itself today is absolutely contrary to God. Civilization is contrary to God. Education is a million miles from Him. Science is a million miles. Science and education is trying to disprove God (See?) through theological seminaries, and schools, and rooms of science, and so forth. They've had their shake. How about the vision the other night of the man when he screamed to those scientists down there pouring that stuff in like that. They just turned, and looked up, and went on. There'll be one more ride. 84 Notice. Oh, these three musts, must be. Now, you cannot... Jesus didn't come preaching Noah's message. He didn't come preaching Moses' message, or Moses didn't come preaching... See, don't mislocate the Scripture. It's got to be in the time. Now, you cannot apply... When that great man, John Wesley, come out, or the great man Luther... When Luther came out with his message of justification... Now, when... That was a... Luther was a great man. He called the church out of darkness, and he set justification by faith. And when he did it, they built a organization on top of it; and it died. The Life traveled like it is in a stalk of wheat, right out into the Wesley age to the tassel. Out of Luther come other leaves that died with it, which was Zwingli, and Calvin, and all the rest that come out in that great Reformation. 85 Then along came Wesley, another age that bloomed out into a tassel. Wesley, and Atterbury, and all those, and--and John and--and his brother, and all of them great men of God with a message just swept the country. They organized it; it died. Then it come out looking just exactly like she was going to put forth the grain now, and come to find out, it was a shuck: Pentecost. But back in behind all of it, come a little bud. And you notice, usually... I think in about three or four years after Luther was on the field, that the Lutheran church was organized. Just a short time after Wesley was on the field, it was organized.
86 Tucson we've had a--a program of how the Wesley church--or Methodist church come into existence. And when they come to America here, many of them had come back, said they'd set up a--a charter and so forth from England to bring it over here, and how it was all dramatized out. I seen right then what happened. There she died. 88 A family of friends of mine down in Kentucky just had a little--little baby born the other day, and the mother was up when they was cooking our dinner. And she was helping the other sister cook dinner for a bunch of us men that'd been out hunting. And so the baby got to crying. I was talking. I think the mother felt a little embarrassed, so she runs and gets the baby, and--and starts to--to feed the little fellow. I said, "You know, that's just nature." See? Now, you can't... They have never found any better way for a baby to get what it wants then to cry for it. Now, you might give it a--a book of ethics, and set down here, and say, "I want to teach you theology, son. Now, don't you go to squalling around here like other kids; you're different. Now, when you want to be fed, you ring this little bell over here." Just don't work. No, it just don't work. So when you watch nature... 89 Now, we see where every age, and it was directly designed it out that we're in the last age. The shuck has pulled away, and we've had fifteen years, nearly twenty now, years of the message sweeping across from nation to nation, and this morning hooked up across this nation (See?), and no organization. It can't organize. There's nothing ever been like it or will be hereafter. See? The--the thing that's the matter with the message today is, those who obtain it in their hearts must lay in the presence of the Son to get ripened. See? You can pick up the message, and then let the Son bake all the greenness out of you (See?), make you matured Christians. You see what I mean? God's coming soon to receive His church, and we must have that type of Christians for Him to receive. The--the wheat's got to get ripe. All right.
90 These three musts, must be: Must not misinterpret or mishandle It, misinterpret or dislocate It. It must be kept just exactly the way God said It was. To the world It's a Book of mystery. The people believe It's just a mysterious Book.
91 He said, "My words are Spirit and Life." Jesus said that. Again, "The Word is the Seed that a sower sowed." We know what that's true. It's God in Word form, and It can only be interpreted by Himself. The human mind is not capable to interpret the mind of God. How can the little--a little finite mind interpret the infinite Mind, when we can't even interpret one another's mind.
93 And notice. To whom He will reveal It... And He so designed that He could hide Himself in the Scriptures to the smartest theologian there is. Oh, my. He can just hide Himself, set right there in the Scripture, and you look all day long and never see it, look a lifetime and never see it. He can just hide Himself setting there.
95 You say, "Well, this is Doctor, holy father So-and-so." I don't care who he is; God hides Himself from him, and will reveal it to babies such as will learn (See?), babies of God, predestinated seed.
98 Now, we notice then, it makes It a Book of God and not a book of man. If It was of man... Now, let us look how It would express Itself. Look how It exposes sin of the men who wrote It. Notice the men who--who lived in It's day, Abraham for instance. He's called the father of the faithful. Notice how that... Do you think Abraham would've wrote this Book on himself of his own cowardliness? How do you think that he would've wrote that he lied to the king that morning and said that was his sister when it was his wife? Would It write of his cowardly deeds that he done? Sure, never done that. 100 How about a man writing of the greatest king they ever had here on earth, as crowned king David and his committing adultery? Would those Jews ever wrote of their most noble king being an adulternous? Oh, we have history like George Washington never told a lie, things like that. We say--call that history, but this is a man--a Bible that calls David an adulternous, and he was the king of Israel, an adulternous who was to be the son... Jesus to be the Son of David, the very Headstone, and His father according to flesh was an adulternous. Jews would never wrote a Book like that. Would man write this of his own self? Certainly not.
101 How would that proud nation of Israel (You know how proud they were.)--proud nation of Israel, went and wrote about their own idolatry, wrote about their rebellion against their God, wrote against the dirty, filthy things that they did, wrote out in a Book? They'd have sure hid that. They'd just showed the good things. But this Bible that--tells what's right and what's wrong. It's... Anyone knows that the Jews would've never wrote a Book like that about their own uncleanness, and idolatry, and failure, and everything they had. They'd have never wrote that. Oh, no. Then who wrote It? The Bible said in Hebrews 1:1: "God in sundry times in divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets." Then it wasn't the prophets. It wasn't mortal. God, not prophets in sundry time, but, "God in sundry time in divers manners spoke to the fathers through the prophets."
102 "God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets." Now, II Timothy 3--3:16. Let's see what it says in 3:16.
All Scripture... (Yeah.)... is given by inspiration of... (Prophets? No. Inspiration of what?)... God, and is profitable for doctrine, and reproof, and correction, and instruction in righteousness.That the man of God may stand perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works.
All right then, all Scripture is wrote by inspiration. Jesus here on the earth said that heavens and earth would pass away but His Word wouldn't. He said all Scripture must be fulfilled. So then, the Book is not a book of man's writings; It's a Books of God's writings.
104 Now, we know God chose by predestination His church, His place, His prophets, and all about it. By foreknowledge He predestinated His prophet. And when the age arrived, He had His prophet arrive at the same time and inspired him as He wrote the Bible by him. Now, God wrote the Bible only using the prophet, because that's His way of doing it. So see, it is not the word... So see, It is the Word of God and not the word of man. 105 God is a Person. God can speak. God can talk. God can write. He didn't have to do it that way, but that's the way He--He chose to do it. He didn't have to do it that way, but He chose to do it that way. Now, you say, "God wrote with His finger, His own majestic finger, the Ten Commandments. So God could write It Hisself if He wanted to." See? But He--He chose to write It through prophets (See?), because it was His attributes, His Word, He expressed through them, making it all a part or a part of Him. See? He could write with His finger. He also took His finger and wrote on the walls of Babylon, "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." He wrote with His own finger. 106 God can talk. Do you believe God can talk? He talked to Moses on the mount in a burning bush. You believe that? Yes, sir. He talked to John in the form of a dove. You believe that? Said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm pleased to dwell in." He talked to Him. He spoke to Jesus on Mount Transfiguration before Peter, James, and John. He can talk; He's not a mute. God can talk. So He spoke to--to Jesus on Mount Transfiguration. And He spoke to Jesus before a whole multitude of people, when the people said, "It thundered." But it was God speaking to Jesus. And almost all of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is Jesus speaking. He's God. So God can talk. 107 Took His own fingers and wrote on the sand one day. He spoke; He preached; He prophesied with His own lips; God did when He was made flesh and dwelled among us: God manifested in flesh. If He can write, speak, can't He also tell others what to do? Certainly can. He can talk to them in a human voice. He can write and show them what to do. He has done it. So God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets. And He said on this writing, that not one jot or tittle shall ever pass away until It's fulfilled, and then It's manifested. Then It will pass, because It's manifested, and It can't pass then. But just the Word Itself is made flesh. "Jot" means "small word." "Tittle" means "small mark." Not even one punctuation, one expression, anything shall ever fail in the Word of God. It can't fail, because It's God, God manifested in the form of a human flesh. For it's God Himself in letter form, prophet form, manifested in flesh. Now, that's the reason Jesus could say, "The ones who spoke to you, you call them gods, who spoke to you by the Word of God," said; "and they were gods." Those prophets when they were anointed with the Spirit of God and brought exactly the Word of God, then they were gods. It was God's Word speaking through them. 108 It can... They can only interpret as the Author would permit them to interpret. Now, if you want to find that, that's II Peter 1 and 20 and 21. All right. 'Cause this... Where God... There's no private interpreter; He does His own interpretation. God speaks and interprets It Himself, then reveals it to whomever He will, hides from all others. He don't have to reveal It to anybody, 'less He wants to. And He don't... He--He's expressed His whole thing in the Scripture; therefore, the whole thing is already made known; it's just--He's just setting there watching it happen. No. Just seeing the Body be made and come back to it's--to the form of His Bride again. All right.
109 Believers believe It, like Abraham that called things contrary to It as though it was not. 111 Prophets did not always understand what they were writing or what they were saying, or they would in no wise have said it, if they could've understood it. See? But the Bible said they were moved by the Holy Ghost: moved. When the Holy Ghost moves you, you move. Man... God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the prophets that were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's why all ages, the people who were spiritual consulted the prophets about the times and what was to happen. The prophet-writer must be in constant fellowship with the Author. See? He must live constantly in the Presence of the Author to know what the Book's going to be. See? The prophet-writer, he had the pen and ready anytime, constant fellowship with the Author, which was God, to strike down whatever He said put down. See? Showed what kind of a life He must... A separated life from all of his brethren...
112 Now, that's why the prophet had his mind set constantly on what God said, not what man thought, what the age thought, what the church thought, what the kingdom thought; what God thought. He only expressed God's thoughts to Word, 'cause a "word" is "a thought when it's expressed." You got it now? The Word is a thought expressed, so the prophet was waiting for God's thoughts. And when God revealed His thoughts to him, he expressed it in word: THUS SAITH THE LORD (See?), not "Thus saith I, the prophet, THUS SAITH THE LORD." See? All right. 114 There's many tried to impersonate them prophets, like priests or so forth. And what do they do? Just messed up; that's all. They couldn't do it, 'cause God had selected the man for the age, and selected the message, and even the nature of the man and what would go over in that age--what He could put over, how He could... With the nature of that certain man, He could blind the eyes of others. The words that that man would say, the way he acted, would blind others and open other's eyes. See? He dressed the man in the type of dress that he was, the nature, the ambition, and everything, just the way he had to be, just perfectly selected for that certain people that He'd call for that certain age. While others would stand, and look at him, and say, "Well I can't... There's... I--I can't..." See, they were blinded. 115 Jesus came the same way, dressed--immortal God dressed in human flesh, and because He was born in a manger in a stable full of manure, not a place to lay His head, born, thinkingly with a illegitimate name tacked to Him... See? All these things that He was, and how He come up a carpenter's Son, how He had no schooling, more or less in the world, the wisdom of this world, He didn't have nothing to do with it. None of this world's civilization, education, or anything, He had not one thing to do with it, why, He's God. It would clash. If He tried to go to a seminary somewhere and learn something that these world's churches was doing, what in the... Why, it wouldn't even--why, it wouldn't even--wouldn't correspond at all with His understanding, for He was God. So education, schooling, seminaries, and things is absolutely contrary to the will of God. The whole educational system is contrary to God. Everything teaches away from God all the time. When I hear a man say that he's Doctor, Ph.D., L.L.Q, that just makes him that much farther from God to me. See? He's just educated hisself that much farther from what he really was called to do. That's right. 116 Notice how that now they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now, that don't mean that educated men don't come in. Look at Paul. I guess there wasn't a smarter fellow in his day than Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus. He was educated under Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of the day, great, strict Hebrew, a Pharisee of denomination; and Paul was brought up under him. He knowed all the Jewish religion; but when he come to the church, he said, "I never come to you in the education of man and so forth, because if you would, then you'd trust in that. But I come to you in the power and manifestation of the Holy Ghost, that your faith would be in God." There you are. That's right.
117 Many tried to impersonate these people, but they got the thing all messed up just like they do today.
118 Now, now, we realize then that God sent His prophets. That was the way He had of bringing His Word to the people, through the lips of His prophets. And notice, you know, Moses said, if you want to read it... In Exodus the 4th chapter and the 10th and 12th verse, Moses said God spoke to him. God talked to a man lip to ear, and He said... "I'm slow of speech." Moses said; "I'm not sufficient; I--I--I can't go."
121 So you see, the Bible is God's Word, not man's word. Moses said, "God spoke to me with a voice, and I heard Him. I wrote down what He said." 123 You know, in the Old Testament alone, it's more than two thousand times those prophets said THUS SAITH THE LORD. Now, if a man says THUS SAITH THE LORD, it's not the man talking. If he would, he wouldn't be a prophet, he'd be a hypocrite (See?); 'cause it wouldn't never come to pass. One chance out of ten hundred thousand times (See?) they might guess it. But if it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, the Lord God has said it. If I'd say, "Thus saith Orman Neville..." My brother say, "Thus saith Mr. Mann..." If I'd say, "Thus saith Brother Vayle," out here or some of these other brethren, any of you, I'm speaking what you said. If I'm truthful I'm saying just what you said. And these men being prophets said, "It's not me. I have nothing to do with it, but it's THUS SAITH THE LORD." So the Bible is THUS SAITH THE LORD by the prophets. 124 Notice. They took Christ's Spirit upon themselves and forecast the events that would come to pass. Talk about forecast, they said what would take place down through the ages as they set, stood, laid, walked with the Spirit of Christ upon them; in so much that they acted like Christ. And the readers would read it and think that the prophets was speaking of themselves. You remember the eunuch when he was reading Isaiah 53:1, about how that "He had--wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, with His stripes we were healed?" The Eunuch said to Philip, "Who is the prophet speaking of, himself or some other Man?" See? The prophet spoke as if it was himself.
125 Look at David crying in the Spirit, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? My bones they stare at me (at me, David.). They pierced my feet and my hands (David.). They pierced my feet and my hands, but Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption," as though David was speaking of himself being holy. It was the Son of David, that germitized, spiritual Seed coming down through there. Though David himself was a cocklebur, but on the inside of there was a wheat grain. You get it?
126 Look at Christ standing back here in David. David couldn't even think now. His mind had gone from him, as it were. And he was hanging on the cross, like you see the statue here, hanging on the cross crying, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? All my bones, they stare at Me. They pierced My hands and My feet. They thrust My side." See? "Why art Thou so far from Me? All the bulls of Bashan compass by; they wag their heads, saying, 'He trusted in God that he would deliver him; now, let's see if He will deliver him,'"--speaking the same words. So you see, when God was made manifest on earth here, He said the same words David did. You get it? So you see, It's not the word of man, it's the Word of God. That was God in David. That wasn't David; he didn't know what he was saying; he was just so in the Spirit. That's the way Moses was. He was so in the Spirit, passed out of the dimension that he was living in, and stood there face to face and that burning bush, talking to--to--to God Himself. Said, "Take off your shoes. The ground you're standing on is holy ground." 127 See, they--they're absolutely... It isn't the prophets; it was God, 'cause the prophet of themselves, they couldn't say those things. "Who has believed our report?" Isaiah saying. You see? "Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He shall grow up before us as a calf in a--in a stall..." And how that... "Yet He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, chastisement of our peace upon Him; with His stripes we were healed." We were healed way over here in this age here, in Isaiah, back yonder eight hundred years before Christ. See? "By His stripes we were (past tense) already healed." Oh, my, how the Word of God's so perfect. Trust in It, folks; It's the only thing that can save you.
128 All other words, I don't care how well they're placed, how--who they come from, what denomination they come from, or how smart the man is, is to be absolutely ignored, anything contrary to the Word. If you want to put that Scripture down, that's Galatians 1:8. See? Paul said, "Though we or a angel from heaven would preach any other thing than this that you've already heard, let him be cursed." In other words, if an angel would come to you from heaven, a bright shining angel, and would stand... Boy, that would be bait for this day, wouldn't it? A bright shining angel come up there, and stand, and say things was contrary to the Word, you'd say, "Satan, get away from me." That's right. If he's a bishop, if he's a whatever he is, don't you never believe him if he doesn't speak exactly with that Bible, word by word. Watch him, he will carry you with the Bible now. He will carry you to a certain place and then hook it right there. When you see the Bible saying one thing and he bypasses that, watch him right there. See, that's the way he done Eve. He come right down and said everything just exactly. "Well, God said this. That's right, Eve. Amen, we believe that together."
130 Notice, we cannot; we must not, listen to any other man's word. We don't care how smart, how educated. The Bible in Proverbs says we must cast down reasonings. See? Now, here in this second realm... First realm is your senses of see, taste, feel, smell, and hear; that's in your outer body. On the inner body, which is the spirit, is reasonings, and thought, and so forth. We must cast all that down. Can't reason, say, "Now, wait, if God is a good God..." And we're told so much today that He is. "If He is a good God, then if I be sincere, though I can't see that in that Bible being right, though I be sincere, I'll be saved." You'll be lost. 132 "Well, I spoke in tongues, Brother Branham. Well, don't you believe in speaking in tongues, Brother Branham?" Absolutely. "Well, I shouted, don't you believe that?" Yes, sir. "I live a good Christian life, don't you believe in that?" Yes, sir. But still that don't mean you're saved. You're a good person, clean, moral, holy, good person; so was those priests, religious to the core, so religious till one misconstrued, they'd be stoned to death. The death penalty of fooling with the Word of God was death. 133 That's what's the matter with our country today. The reason we got so many loose-leaf things in the earth today, the penalties are not strong enough. If a man was caught running out with another man's wife, they should both be taken out in public and castrated right in public and turned loose. That's right. If a man's caught doing anything wrong down the road, speeding, he oughtn't to be given less than ten years; he's premeditated murder. See? You put penalties like that on, you'll slow them down. But when some crooked politician can get to this one over here, and pass it off, and say, "Well, he was drinking a little, he was--didn't mean to do that..." And would kill a man, wife, and a whole bunch of innocent children, and let the Ricky get by with it, that's politics. That's the world; that's the devil. 134 God said if a man was caught in adultery or a woman, take them out there and stone them to death. That settled it. See? If you was even caught picking up a--a weight of a stick on the Sabbath day, "Take him and stone him." They lived by that. And now, see, we don't have them kind of laws today, but the Christian, the church what I'm talking to this morning, that law of God is in your heart. See? You have no desire to do it. It's inside here. You want to keep God's law so perfect. No matter what it is, you want to be just what... If--if God needs a doormat at the door, He wants you to be that doormat, you're so happy to be that. No matter what it would be, you want to be the doormat. See? Whatever God wants you to do, that's what you want to do, 'cause it's God. Now, that's where you really find your real, genuine, true love for God.
135 Now, we find out then that an angel would preach anything else besides what's come to--already been said in the Bible, let him be cursed. Nobody can--can't do that; it must be just exactly the way It said.
137 It needs no interpreter, for the Bible said that God does His own interpreting of the Bible. "It's of no private interpretation," said Peter. All right.
139 I just want to--to let you see a little something here if you can stand it. Watch. When Jesus was manifested in the Old Testament as we believe it... Now, you preachers out there, you can argue with it, do whatever you want to, but I'm talking from my--what I think. See? 141 Then He was made actually human flesh and dwelled among us in the Person of Jesus Christ Himself, born of the virgin Mary. He come in that form so He could die and went back into heaven. Now, in this last days He has promised to manifest Himself in the Fullness again of His flesh in Spirit. See? For as it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. Now, look at the Sodom, how it set, and what taken place, and Jesus Christ being manifested in bodily form of His church today (See?), doing the same things, same work, same things that He did all the time, never changes, the eternal One. See? And upon earth today, He has manifested Himself in the human bodies, our human bodies that He has called, and done exactly the same thing He done in sundry time, and in the times of His flesh upon the earth. And doing the same thing today, because God in sundry times spoke to the fathers through the prophets, in this last days through His Son Jesus Christ (See?), the Son being revealed in the last days, God manifested in human flesh, setting just before Sodom's destruction, the end of the Gentile world. You see it? There's three manifestations.
142 Now, the next thing happens, is when it's all gathered up into that one Person, Jesus Christ, Bride and Body at the physical return of the Lord Jesus, making His three times when He was brought on earth, killed, crucified, raised up, manifested Hisself in the form of His Body, which is His Bride, the Woman. You get it? She's part of His body. And the woman and man is just so close together, till they're just almost; they are the same; they ought to be anyhow. There they are. See? They're just exactly manifested the same. She's a part of Him, because She was taken out from Him. And the Bride today is taken out from the body of Christ, which is acting and doing just exactly like He said It would do for this day, the Bride, the Queen, King and the Queen. 143 The entire Bible is the entire revelation of Jesus Christ, making Himself known to every age. He made Hisself known in the days of Luther as a foundation, the church, the foot, the leg, like He did in King Nebuchadnezzar. You remember how he dreamed those dreams. It come from the head down. See? Now, He comes from the feet up. See? In the Babylonian kingdom He showed all those Old Testaments, He come from the head down, until He come down to God Himself become flesh at the foot of the ladder. Now, here in the New Testament He brings Hisself right back up again to the Head again, the Head of gold to be crowned. See? Look, you get it? See, God was in the beginning; and He kept coming down through the prophets and on down until God Himself became human like us, plumb down at the foot of the ladder, a baby born in a manger, hated, rejected, despised, and a bad name, and everything He was. Then He started rising (See?), and from the feet He begin to build the church, the Bride, coming back, on back, and now coming out into the Headstone, where it all joins together and makes the one great transfigured Body of Jesus Christ.
144 God is revealed in every age by his promised Word to that age. Now, let's just look what some of His promises is for today while we're closing now in these last words.
147 I was starting down through the woods, and there laid a cigarette pack. And I just walked on away, I thought, "Well, somebody's ahead of me." 148 Now, we're going to speak about the evening Lights just for a few moments. The Bible predicts that there would come a time right at the closing time, that the sun would come out, and there would be an evening Light. We all know that, don't we? We--we're we who are familiar with our message today from the Lord Jesus, we believe that there'll be a evening Light. And this evening Light... Of course, the great Light will come when Jesus Himself will be manifested here on earth, or up in the heavens, taking away His Bride, and then the millennium will set in. 149 But we've got one of the most dreadful times to go through that ever laid before human beings. Now, I'm just waiting for the hour and when we can get--everybody can get a chance where you can get off from work and spend a few days, and we can get set up somewhere where I can speak on those plagues and things that's to fall in the days, and throw about two or three weeks together, and bring that together, if the Lord let's me live to do it and will inspire me to do so. See how those things will be dropped in and those thunders, then you'll find out what that man and them people has been dreaming about and all these things there; it'll come to pass. See? You'll notice what them revealed, that great thunder a-coming forth out of the--out of the skies. Now... Of course, the whole bunch of you, you know that I know what that--what that means. You see? And... But let's just wait till the time comes (You see?) for it to...?... Now... And it'll be more in season. 150 Now... So we're going to read some of these--these Scriptures in here. Now, in the evening Light come... Now, we notice that it'll have to be the same Light that was in the morning, 'cause there's not one sun in the morning and another sun in the afternoon. It's the same sun; same sun that's in the afternoon is in the morning, same in the morning as in the afternoon. Now, it said the day itself, the day between that time will be kinda like a--oh, a--like a dismal, dark day, could not be called day or night in between that. See, that's the forming of the Body from the feet coming up. 151 When He was here on earth, He was a Son, the Likeness. Then He was killed. The church took His place in martyrdom, and went through the Dark Ages, and begin to build on the foundation coming out. Then where does the sight come from? At the top of the head. See that vision, Nebuchadnezzar? See Him going down from the beginning of the Gentile age before the Blood was shed for them and made an atonement. They were proselytes for Him. But notice it went right down, right down, right down to the bottom in symbol (See?), brought it down; then it started right back, coming back, the church come back from the feet, coming up. Now, it's in the head time--head time. 152 Now, notice the Light... You can't see with your hands, yet it's part of the body. You can't see with the ears, yet it can hear. You can't see with the nose, yet it smells. You can't--you can't see with the lips, though it speaks. See? That was the Pentecostal age. But now, it's in the eye time, the seeing. See? Now, there isn't one moving faculty beyond the eye. Is that right? The next is the Intelligence, which is Christ Itself, Who controls the whole body: no moving motion beyond that. See? Everything else has moved. See? Move your feet, move you muscles in your legs, move everything, move your--your ears, to move your nose, your--the lips, and so forth, but after your eyes, there's nothing moves. That's why they claim that man gets bald-headed quick, is because (See?) there's no exercise to develop the muscles in--in the hair, the scalp. See? And it's not got a cushion so that they can get blood up in there. The blood won't pump through (See?), won't go up and furnish blood, 'course the--the hair root lives by blood. And now, we find out that that part (You see?)... There's nothing beyond the eye.
153 Now, let's find out. It shall be Light about the middle day? At the evening time. What is light sent for? So you can see where you're--how to get around (That right?), see where you're at. It shall be Light about the evening time.
156 A fine minister said awhile ago, said, "Brother Branham, if I could just have the joy of the Lord in my heart..."
We're anchored in Jesus,
The storms of life I'll brave;
I've anchored in Jesus,
I'll fear no wind or wave;
157 Whatever it might be, let it come, what may, what it will, doesn't make any difference; we're anchored right there in Jesus. If I live, I'll live to the glory of God. If I die, I'll die to the glory of God. I--I--I just want... Just--just to the glory of God is what I want to do. When that's all over, I don't want to stay any longer. I want to go to where--to my reward that He bought for me, not what I earned, but what He bought for me, what He give to me by His grace. 158 So we see the evening Light's here. And what does it do to have light, if you don't have any eyes to see how to get around in it. What is the evening Light? The Light comes on to reveal something. Is that right? If there's something here you feel, and you can't understand what it is in the darkness, then turn a light on. It's to reveal. What's Malachi 4 to do? See? Do the same thing. What was the opening of the Seven Seals to do? What are all these denominations staggering around in this...?... It's to reveal, bring out. If you haven't got any eyes, then what's the use to reveal? There has to be eyes first to see. Is that right? It'll reveal Malachi 4, reveal St. Luke 17:30, St. John 14:12, also John 15:24; 16:13, and to also reveal Revelations 10:1-7, the opening of the Seven Seals and the Seventh Angel's Message, to open up, to reveal when the evening Light's come. 159 Now, if a man... In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it. Even their mental faculties are gone, their spiritual faculties of mental--spiritual understanding. See? Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (The power of revelation, they don't even believe in it. See?)... They don't believe in such things as prophets, and so... They don't believe in it. They believe that--that Malachi 4 is to be a certain church or certain organization. When he come the first time he was a man. When he come the second time with a double portion, he was a man. When he come in the form of John the Baptist, he was a man. See? In the last days when the evening Lights begin to shine, eyes will become open and you'll see where you're going. Then the Body is already formed, standing upon it's feet, taking motion, moving by the Holy Spirit. What? The same One | ||||||