Godhead #11
The Supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
July 1, 2000
Father, we thank You for Your
Presence, realizing that You have come down here on Earth to bring the Word,
Your Own Word, to set the Church in order and to bring about a Resurrection and
immortality for the Rapture and the great Wedding Supper. We thank You for that
and for knowing the hour in which we live. We know the Word which is relative
to it and we know our place. Thank You for that, because the knowledge which we
have is from the Most High, even Yourself. We pray that as we study Your Word
tonight and see conditions in the Earth, we will understand more of Your
goodness and graciousness to us, realizing that we have become separated by the
Word and thereby have been separated unto Yourself.
Therefore, knowing that we are with
You and the Word, by grace, we are secure and safe. And no matter which way the
wind blows, how the storms come, the lightning, the thunders, the earthquake;
whatever comes, we know when all is shattered and gone, we will be standing,
because we’re standing with You and know we are on the Lord’s side. We have not
asked You, Lord, to come to our side because we know that would not have been
right from the beginning. But when You invited us to come to Your side we were
glad we came over to the Truth, and we abide in the Truth, and we believe the
Truth abides in us making us one with You and the Son and all one together. We
thank You, Lord that we have understood these things having received them, and
we know they are vindicated to us. We praise You for it in the Name of Jesus
Christ our Savior. Amen. You may be seated.
1. Now,
just before we get into Jn 1:1 again, I think perhaps that you’re aware that since the
last time I was here there was quite a great to-do about the fact of the spread
of AIDS in the world and, especially, in Africa. There has not been a let up in
the press. You can hardly turn to a paper or a magazine or listen to the radio,
or turn on a TV, whatever you want, you’re going to find that more and more
AIDS is sweeping the country. And I’m going to talk a little bit about it
tonight, and I’m going to tell you a few things that you would never know except
I tell them to you, because no one else is privy to what I’m going to tell you.
2. Now
here’s a little article that came in the Dayton newspaper. It says – “AIDS
Worst Is Yet To Come.” “United Nations; UN AIDS experts issued a grim report on
the global epidemic Tuesday, saying that no one could predict when the plague
would be contained in Africa and that half of all fifteen year olds in South
Africa and Zimbabwe would die from the disease. And Peter Piotte, head of the
UN joint program on HIV (AIDS) warned Tuesday that the human toll is only going
to get worse over the next years even if today, by some miracle, all HIV
transmission would stop.” Of course, it’s not going to stop. “The virus has
killed nineteen million people and infected 34 million more, including four
million last year alone.”
3. Here’s
what it also says: “Geneva – AIDS...” This is from the report from the UN, I
guess. “AIDS has killed nineteen million people worldwide, but the worst is yet
to come, the United Nations predicted Tuesday. The disease is expected to wipe
out half the teenagers in some African nations devastating economies and
societies. There is a whole generation, which is being taken out, said Peter
Piotte, head of the UN joint program on HIV (AIDS). He said vulnerable countries
as Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean risk a similar catastrophe unless
they can act now to control infection rates.” We’ll bring that out—how they are
going to do it. “In it’s 135 page report released Tuesday” (It could have been
1335 pages, it wouldn’t make any difference) “the virus has killed nineteen
million people worldwide, up from 16.3 million at the end of ’98.” And
remember, they were boasting how it was going down.
4. You
know, we’re not dumb that we cannot read the papers. The press thinks it’s
above God. All they got to do is say something and – that’s it. “AIDS have gone
down;” it’s gone up. Like the press said years ago that capital punishment
didn’t do one thing to bring down crime. After the stupidity that came out of
Great Britain, after all that stupidity, twenty years, they found that crime
had just gotten worse and worse and capital punishment does deter. But the
press knows everything. Never doubt the press. Doubt God. But never doubt the
press, you know, because, they’re like the Sanhedrin. You know, the Sanhedrin
said when God gets a tough question, He calls on us. I love that one.
5. “The
virus has killed 19 million people worldwide up from sixteen million. It has
infected 34 million more including 5.4 million last year alone. More than
thirteen million children have been orphaned by AIDS.” Now we read that and saw
that the last time I spoke to you. “In sixteen sub-Saharan African countries,
more than one tenth of the population ages fifteen to forty-nine carries the human
immune-deficiency virus (that’s HIV). In seven of those countries, at least one
fifth of the population is infected. One of the countries where twenty percent
of the population is infected is South Africa.”
Now there wasn’t much ever said
about South Africa. It was always Zimbabwe and the rest, but now, we’re examing
South Africa, which actually, has the most, or one of the most, stable
Governments in the sub-Saharan area, .
Now, “which had 4.2 million people
are HIV positive, the largest single national total. The Southern African
nation of Botswana has the worst rate with more than one in three adults
infected which is the equivalent of ninety million out of the US population of
270 million.”
Now they’re very careful that they
don’t tell you one thing about the states. Of course, it’s all hush-hush and
nobody over here has the AIDS. That’s ridiculous to even think so because,
well, the press says so.
6. “With dwindling numbers of economically
active adults left to support the rest of the population, the impact on poor
African nations is devastating. Agricultural production in nations like
Zimbabwe, where two thousand people die each week of AIDS, is falling. Hopes of
better education are also in tatters. The number of new teachers trained in Zambia
is just keeping pace with the numbers felled by AIDS.”
7. Now you know where we go to the Bible
on this: we go to Romans 1, which you can’t put that on the air or talk about this in
Britain. If you even talk about it, you can be fined a large sum of money, put
in jail, etc. I think one Christian group was fined $30,000 just for reading
this. Now, in Romans It says;
(18) For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold down the
truth in unrighteousness.
Now you know that unrighteousness is
a deliberate use of the Word of God outside the framework of the Word, wherein
God said It was to be used. It’s as Cain did the unrighteous thing when he
used, what really amounted to the first-fruit offering instead of the blood
offering. And the Septuagint says, thou has rightly offered, but thou has not
rightly divided; therefore, hast thou not sinned? And Paul confirms that it is
rightly dividing the Word of Truth where you’re supposed to stand. So It tells
you right here that the Truth of God is held down by hypocrites, by people who
use the Bible and deliberately use It wrong so that the truth cannot be given
to the people. So the Truth is held back by organization, and that’s what we
are looking at here.
8. Now It says,
(19) Because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. (Now that
sounds very strange there, where you’d say, because that which may be known of
God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them, but notice the next
word:
(20) For the invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are
made, even the eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse.
So It tells you right here, that
anybody that believes in evolution is a fool because, automatically, people
know there is some God, some sort of a God, some force, some design. And if
they know there’s a design, there has to be a designer.
Now notice how far the press goes in
aggrandizing so-called scientists. They will say there’s no such thing as a
legitimate scientist who believes in creation. Yet they will now go so far as
to admit there is a design. How can there be a design without a designer? So,
you see, these people know better and knowing better, they’re not going to do a
thing about it except try to destroy the very concept of God.
9. Now, when the Truth of God, Godhead, or
Reality is rejected and scorned, here’s what begins to happen:
(21a) Because that when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful;
Now when did that happen? It
happened every time that God sent a prophet, every time that God sent a
messenger, but particularly the prophet, and at the end time, the particular
prophet was William Branham, prophet of God, Mal
4:5-6, the Elijah of this hour, which
people did not even dream would come to the Gentiles. Now you just hold on,
because I’m going to show you something here that you don’t have a clue to but
I can tell you the truth of it.
(21b) Now, they became vain in their reasonings and
their foolish heart was darkened.
(Ps 14:1) And the fool hath
said in his heart, there is no God.
So they’ve got fools hearts. And you
notice how God just brushes the whole thing off and calls them fools. That’s
all—fools. That’s why it’s dangerous to call a man a fool, unless he is a fool.
You can call him foolish, dumb, idiot, dolt, and all the rest like I’m prone to
do, which may be not be polite.
10. Now, with that, the foolish heart becomes
darkened. Now watch what happens from the darkened heart.
(22) Professing themselves to be wise, they
became actual fools. (Now it’s going from the foolish, from fool to fool. You’ve
got a double portion.)
(23) And changed the glory of the un-corruptible
God to an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things. (Now, that took place back there; we’re going to bring you
up to date.)
(24) Wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies
between themselves; (And you know that took place by watching pagan religions,
when Israel stood above it all; the rest were pagans.)
(25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie,
and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed
forever. Amen. (In other words that settles it.) For this, now watch,
(26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile
affections: for even their women did change the natural into that which against
nature: (And we’re talking sexually here now. So let’s just understand
that and not try to change the meaning.)
(27) And likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of woman, burned in their lusts one toward another; men with men
working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meet. (Now, this is the first thing that comes out of rejecting
reality.)
(28) And as they even did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate minds, to do those
things, which are not convenient;
So now
you’re going from inordinate and forbidden sexuality to just anything that’s
extreme. That’s why you’ve got these songs you have today about beating women
up and raping them and killing them. See, they’re gone. They’re going to keep
going. Now watch. What happens after homosexuality?
(29a) Being filled with all unrighteousness,
They now demand access to the
churches, to priesthood, to communion, to every thing that is forbidden them in
the Word of God, and say, “We are just as good as anybody. God does not condemn
us, God loves us, and therefore, we are equal to anybody else.” And now,
they’ve even got laws that you don’t dare say anything. They’re protected, and
you’re unprotected.
There’s a couple homosexuals, one a
lesbian, one a homosexual the other night debating. And the man was clear in
his thinking. He said, “I don’t care what they say about me.” He said, “I want
it all in the open.” But listen to the woman, “No!” She would pin Dr. Laura
Schlesinger’s ears back. She’d put her off the air. She’d do everything to make
everybody ‘shut up!’ so that she can talk. Now if that’s not Sodom, I don’t
what is. The mayor of the hour was poor old Lot, mayor of the town. But who ran
it? The Sodomites ran it. How far away from this is all United States of
America governments?
11. Now watch:
(29b) Fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
(30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.
(31) Without understanding, covenant breakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
(32) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they
which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them. (In other words the whole religious
system goes to this error. And they’re happy with it.)
Now what am I going to tell you? In
1954, Bro. Branham went to India where there was a Mt. Carmel showdown, for all
the great religions of the world were there, the Buddhists, the Mohammedans,
the Christians, Catholics, Roman, no doubt, all the various types, Protestants,
what have you. They were there for the great showdown. When Bro. Branham went
to India, he took with him some people, and I believe, unknown to Bro. Branham,
was one man--I’m not sure that DuPlessis got him there or Ern Baxter. And I’m
going to speak very plainly, and I’ve said it before. And I’m not the least
alarmed to say it, because it’s the truth. Baxter was a womanizer. He even got
drunk on the plane and came off doing the goose-step and everybody laughing at
him. In India, he consorted with women; they came to Bro. Branham and said, “Is
it right for the father to have these women?”
12. But even more alarming than that was the
fact that there was a man amongst them called Count Faery Von Blomberg. Von
Blomberg was the adopted son of, evidently, a Count and a Countess. And he was
recognized as a Christian, evidently Full Gospel Businessmen circles, but he
was a homosexual. And he approached a young man who was a Christian Pentecostal
preacher named Sigfried Encke. I know what I’m talking about, because I know
Sigfried Encke; met him in Columbus. He knew that I was a friend of Bro.
Branham’s and worked with him, so he amazingly told me his story, how that this
man did everything he could to engage him in some illicit sexual affair. And
believe me, I sweat to get around the problem and let him know that Bro.
Branham had nothing to do with anything like that.
13. That was in 1954, when the showdown came.
What am I trying to tell you? The homosexuals were there before, but this is
the first time one was really around Bro. Branham where the light was, whereas
Bro. Branham said, “The prophet is the
revealed Word of God made manifest.” Actually, the prophet is the human
vessel wherein God resided to bring forth His Word. Not like in Jesus, but like
Moses; we’ll read some of that tonight.
Now, that was a very bad situation,
1954, a Pentecostal man supposed to be a great Christian—nobility, a
homosexual.
14. I believe it was about 1956 and no later,
that Leo and Gene, Leo Mercier and Gene Goad, God told Bro. Branham to hire
them; two homosexuals. So I want you to get the drift of what I’m saying. This,
what I’m talking about here, where God made Himself known, and through a
prophet, is where men turned back and the homosexuals were standing right there
to take over. And you’re going to see more and more of it, and you’re going to
see more and more corruption, and you’re going to see more and more people
dying from AIDS. Bro. Branham said there’d come a time when people standing on
this ground here—and I said it even, I think even before he did—because when I
saw that the Scriptures said that God repented He made man, I looked very
closely in the Hebrew to find out what that word ‘repent’ means ‘to be
sorrowful’. And God was very sorrowful concerning the state of man which man
had found himself, and so, therefore, God did not let the last man suddenly
gasp and fall into the ooze and scum of the universe and gag and die with his
last breath. He cut them off.
15. So, all right, now, I said, they were
actually dripping puss from their body, infection, inflammation. And Bro.
Branham had said peoples’ bodies would be decaying even while they were alive.
And we know now, that they’re scurrying to find the last little bit of
antibiotics they can get from the ocean. The Earth cannot purify itself.
There’s nothing left, so they’re turning to the ocean, and the ocean is
corrupt. And really, I don’t think we have any distance to go, because there
are infections right now that nothing can touch except fire. And yet they’ve
found bacteria at the mouth of volcanoes where it’s very, very hot. So you can
see there are bacteria that are so resistant, we wonder how are they going to
be destroyed? They’ll mutate. They’ll survive. But man will not survive them.
So we’re now in a position to understand what I’ve read tonight about AIDS.
16. Okay, let’s just take a picture of what’s
going on in the world today because people simply don’t want to recognize the
actual fact of the matter. There’s a man named Williams up in New York. Here’s
one man up here, Williams. [Bro. Vayle draws on the white board.] This man
peddled drugs. He had AIDS, which is contagious. He gave drugs to one hundred
girls, at least, in high school, for sexual favors. One hundred girls, here.
How many got infected? I don’t know. But here’s a French-Canadian, very
handsome young blond man who was a steward on airplanes that traversed from New
York to Europe. He contracted AIDS, and he infected at least two hundred
people. Do you realize what I’m telling you? You that are monogamous, have kept
to one wife, to one man, do you realize what I’m saying? This man—two hundred!
Let it sink in. If he got two hundred infected, and they’re as rotten as he is,
you can better believe there’ll be five thousand down the line, and they all keep
transmitting the deadly disease.
17. Let’s start again up here with one
hundred girls up here. Let’s say one of those girls had been infected. In other
words she’s known as an easy mark, and she is loose. She’s literally a little
prostitute, which is too bad, but she is. Now I’m going to tell you something:
you can have a lot of guys down here, and as Bro. Branham said, “The man is made to take it; the women had better notice and learn to say
‘No!’” I’m quoting the prophet, and I’m right with the prophet one hundred
percent.
18. Now these guys down here, this fellow
here, likely... I’m just being suggestive to the extent of being very low in
numbers. Let’s say that three of these guys right down here only had three
other women. Now, they’ve contacted her, and they go down here to these three
here, and these three take some more men on. Now notice what’s going to happen.
It’s going to get bigger and bigger. Now, I don’t understand all about polling,
and I don’t understand all about figures, but I do know this one thing: I
quoted you from statistics here months ago that when you have illicit
intercourse with anybody, you have now two hundred partners.
19. All right, let’s just keep looking.
Figures don’t lie, and I’m not trying to scare anybody. I’m just trying to show
you possibilities. All right. We’ve got 35 million people here. Right? Now
let’s just cut that down. Never mind that they’ve had two hundred partners
somewhere, or will have, stretched out. Let’s just put it down to one hundred:
three billion, 500 million. And the world’s only got six billion people in it.
So you tell me now that they won’t be walking this Earth with puss flowing out
of their bodies and their bodies rotting, and I tell you, you are being fooled
by the press. And it’s time to realize that Bro. Branham said, “Science will prove this message correct.”
And science has, because they’re dying right now—living bodies decaying.
20. At the very beginning, when the AIDS came
on the scene, people were more honest and they let you know that many, many
people that were dying of brain problems actually had AIDS. And they let you
know that many, many dying of cancer, it was actually sarcoma that came after
the AIDS. And they let you know. But now they don’t let you know, and you could
even go to prison by naming somebody. You cannot even have anybody in
America—pin it right down—they can take your Social Security Number, they can
do a million things to you, but when it comes to AIDS... There’s where you have
little Ryan White’s dying, hemophiliacs. And there is where you have Arthur
Ashe, the great black tennis player, dying because of an intravenous. How many
have died because of them? And how many are going to die? And It says the wrath
of God comes because of these very things. I’m not happy with the situation,
and I know that you’re not happy with it, but I just wanted you to know how
quickly this could spread. And it is spreading.”
21. And don’t you let anybody tell you that
it came from little green monkeys. “Oh, the little green monkeys had it, and
then a mosquito bit the little green monkey, and the mosquito bit the bird, and
the bird came in with these droppings, and it went into the pigpen, and the
pigs ate it, and then …” Oh, come on. Give me a break! You think I’m going to
deny the Word of God to please homosexuals? It says right here that the
homosexual has brought this on Earth—period. Now you say, “Are you trying to
fight them?” I’m not trying to fight them. “Would you beat them up?” No I
wouldn’t beat them up. “What would you do about them?” I’d just leave them be,
if necessary, pray for them, talk to them; I wouldn’t try to hurt any of them.
I’ve got no fight with them. But I’ll tell you: I’m here to defend the Word of
the living God, because He’s defending me.
22. Remember, when Eve got from behind that
Word, she already died. And when she left that and went to that serpent, she
died a second time. And when Adam came to her, she died a third time.
Everything’s in three’s; don’t think they’re not. So let’s not fool ourselves.
Let’s realize where we’re at. It’s going to get worse.
I know I speak very blunt. Many
times little children hear me, and you parents have got to deal with them; but
you’re going to have to deal with your kids like I never had to deal with mine,
because when my kids were growing up, these things were very, very rare. They
always were there, and they have been through centuries because of the very
fact that God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Fruitful means ‘put you in a
position where you can bear children’. ‘Multiply’ means that you do perform the
act. Bro. Branham said, “When God gave a
command, He made a way for it.” And the way for it is exactly as Bro.
Branham said, “Children are born from
sexual desire.” And that sexual desire can absolutely ruin you and destroy
you, because the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. The body is the Lord’s.
And we are given that, as a woman
is, Bro. Branham said, “She is designed
by God especially to be a sacred vessel for childbearing,” and she simply
is not on the spot. The man is on the spot, because he is usually the
aggressor, but the woman doesn’t usually take much aggression before she falls
the way Eve did.
23. So we have a very great problem today,
and the problem is to flee to Christ, away from these things, and to be more
forthcoming and honest and upright than are those people in the world who say,
“Well, God loves a sinner but hates the sin.” My Bible tells me, “God is angry
with the sinner all the day long.” I’d like to see them get around that verse.
24. I don’t pit the Bible against the Bible.
I say It the way It’s written. That’s why it’s so important to understand
doctrine and live within the framework. And I just say to you, I’m grateful
that my life is past, your lives are here, you’re bringing your children up in
a wonderful way. Don’t forget to counsel them and to be with them and stay with
them and help them through these hard times because, as Bro. Branham said, “This is the most perilous time” and the
only time in the whole Bible that is spoken of as a perilous time is this hour
in which we live.
25. Now I’m
going to take you to John here, and go to Godhead. You have the history now of
homosexuality as you’ve never had it before, and I stand by everything that I
have said.
26. Now in Jn
1:1: “In
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now Bro. Branham categorically said concerning this
scripture, “If you make Jesus the Word, you have three Gods.” Actually, you could have three or two gods. Now he was speaking,
of course, to the Oneness and to the Trinitarians, so he wasn’t talking to
anybody that believed in two gods. So he was saying here: “There is One God,
which we know to be true, and He is the Word.”
27. Now let’s just look at some Scripture
concerning the truth of the Oneness of the Godhead, not Jesus-Only, but the
actual reality that there is one God. In Deut
6:4, “Hear
O’ Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.”
So, you can see here, he’s speaking in terms of sovereign authority, because
the word ‘god’ means ‘sovereign’, ‘standing alone’, so that no one can do
anything about Him or what He does. In other words the whole world stands still
in the Presence of God, completely shackled and completely under His dominion
so that He does exactly what He wants to do. So there’s one God, and actually,
there is none beside Him. Not only is there a Oneness of the Godhead, but make
no mistake about it, there are not two or three of them that comprise a
Godhead. It says over here in Isa 45:5:
(5) I am the Lord, there is none else, there
is no God beside me (The Self-existent One): I girded thee though thou hast not
known me.
And in verse 21:
(21) Tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them
take counsel together who hath declared this from the ancient time? Who hath
told it from that time? Have not I the Lord and there is no God else beside me.
A just God and a savior, there is none beside me.
(22) Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends
of the earth: for I am God and there is none else.
(23) And he said, I have sworn by myself and my
word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, and unto
me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear.
Now also, in Isa 44:24 It says, He is
Lord alone.
(24) Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer that
formed thee from the womb; I am the Lord that maketh all things that stretcheth
forth the heavens alone; (Now in other words it’s not just the heavens alone,
because He did everything else. It’s God alone, stretching forth the heavens) and spreadeth
abroad the earth by myself.
So you
see, He’s all alone, and “by myself” is what He is saying.
28. Also, you notice, in Isa 40:14, He says;
(14) With whom took ye counsel and who
instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge
and showed to him the way of understanding?
So that let’s you know that God is
not only One God, there’s no one beside Him; He’s Lord alone, nobody else, and
He took counsel with nobody. In other words, there’s no higher authority, like
Gnosticism would like to tell you. They have it all worked out in some
stupendously foolish scheme that is antichrist—anti-Word.
29. Now also, you can find that there’s
nobody that can compare to Him. In Isa 40:25:
(25) To whom, then will you liken me, or shall
I be equal? Saith the Holy One.
He’s actually beyond comparison to
the extent that there’s nothing you can compare Him to, because He’s the
creator; He made all things, and He maintains all things. So now you have a
very inscrutable God. You have a God here that unless He makes Himself known to
you, you just merely are at your wits’ end or reliant upon your own judgment as
you look around you and attempt to figure out something about God. Well, you
know, you’re warned in the Ten Commandments, don’t try it. Don’t even begin to
try it. It won’t work.
30. And then, we might also go over here to
Daniel and hear what Nebuchadnezzar had to say after he came back from his
trials of insanity, because he came against God, and now he learns about God. Dan 4:34-35
(34) And at the end of the days, I
Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned
unto me and I blessed the most high and I praised and honored Him that liveth
for ever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and a kingdom from
generation to generation.
(35) And all the inhabitants of the Earth are
reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will and the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the Earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto
him, What doest thou?
Now, you can say what you want, but
that fellow spoke by the Holy Ghost. An old Gentile king, way back there; he
did a very good job. So, to whom can you liken him? Absolutely nobody.
31. And on top of that, nothing else is
allowed to take place under any consideration when you are talking and dealing
with God. You have to deal utterly and absolutely alone according to how God
wants to be dealt with and there’s nothing you can say about how God wants to
deal with you except you understand from God Himself how He wishes to deal with
you and His purposes and whatever and what all He has in mind. So It says over
here in Ex 20:1-3.
(1) And God spake all these words saying,
(2) I am the Lord thy God, which have brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage.
(3) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
So here He is, the One God did it,
and now He says you’ll have no other gods before me, and there certainly isn’t
anybody beside Me, there isn’t anybody before Me, and there’s nobody going to
come after Me. So therefore, I am completely isolated as to being God, and I
must be dealt with according to My Own Godhoodness and what I am bound to do
because of My Own personal Being. See? That’s something that you have to look
at and consider very strongly.
32. Now also, over here in James, we have the
witness of a man who was a Jew or Israelite, the same as was the Apostle Paul.
And in Jas 2:19,
(19) Thou believest there is one God, thou doest
well: the devils also believe and tremble.
Now Bro. Branham mentioned
concerning Paul (Saul) on the road to Damascus when that light struck. Now the
New Testament calls it a light, the Old Testament it was always designated,
pretty well, as a Pillar of Fire. And Paul said you couldn’t tell that Jew to
say ‘Lord’ except he knew that was the same Pillar of Fire, the same one that
Moses had spoken to; because remember, he would have to recognize that, because
Jesus said, “I am the one that Moses referred to.” And then, if Saul did not
recognize that, there’s no way that he would have possibly been a child of God.
There’s no way. It’s just like today.
33. And also, we might go to Luke 4, and of
course, that’s Jesus speaking at the time of the temptation by Satan tempting
him, and he says over here in Lk 4:8,
(8) And Jesus answered and said, get thee
behind me Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him (not them, not them, but him only; and not female either, not her)
but
him only shalt thou serve.
Yet Bro. Branham said, “Jesus is God, but he is not God.” Well,
what do you make of that? Well, the question came up what is the difference
between Jesus and God? And he said, “There
is no difference except Sons have beginnings.”
34. Now, when
he said, “He is God, but he’s not God; and there’s no difference between the
Father and the Son, or Jesus and God, except sons have beginnings,” now what’s
he saying there? He’s saying the very same thing that you and I would have to
say concerning our own parentage, our own specie. We’re here because of our
ancestors, ancestors going back to Adam—unfortunately also to the serpent—but
if there were a pure race here today, it would be Adamic. And the Adamic race
would be traced exactly back to God where God breathed into him the breath of
lives and he became a living soul. And he became the progenitor and should have
been the progenitor of every single male and female brought to this Earth and
come through Eve. But anyway, all in one lump we are of the human species. So
when it comes down to difference, there isn’t any difference. Even as the Bible
said, there is no difference, because all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
35. So, when you’re looking at Jesus being
God and yet not God, you’re looking at the fact also, not of just specie, but
of the incarnation, because Jesus was a man, and the Bible says God is not a
man in the sense that Jesus was a man. We’ll show you that God was a man
another time, bringing out the spiritual as Bro. Branham brought it out to us:
the first man, God; the second, Jesus; the third, Adam. We won’t have time
tonight on that.
But, we’re looking at this where he
was God, but he wasn’t God on the grounds that he said, “I and my Father are
one,” where the Son actually was the body, the flesh, making Jesus the temple
of Almighty God. God was inside of Jesus; Jesus was the flesh. So, therefore,
as you were looking at the Son, he could well say, “He that sees me sees the
Father,” because that is exactly the truth, because the life that was
manifested there in the body came from the life which originally and certainly
was God-life, and that life had to manifest according to specie. And so,
therefore, he said, “He that sees me, see the Father.” And that, of course, is exactly
true.
36. Now let’s go a little bit further. Bro.
Branham said that, concerning Jesus, that he’s God, but he’s not God, and that
God is an object of worship. So we go to Revelation
5:
(1) And I saw on the right hand of him that
sat on the throne a book. Now him sitting on the throne, in other words, he’s got
hips, he’s got buttocks, he can sit on a throne, and he’s got hands, he’s got a
book there, sealed with seven seals.
(2) And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with
a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?
(3) And no man in heaven, nor on earth, no
man in earth, no man under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to
look thereon.
(4) And I wept much because no man was found
worthy to open and read the book, neither to look thereon.
Now you notice the actual fact of
the matter is concerning a man. So you’re not looking for an angel or an
archangel or a cherubim or anybody else. You’re looking for a man. And he
needed a man to open the Book. Well, you certainly have to have someone that’s
in the category of a prophet at the very least.
(5) And one of the elders said weep not, behold the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof. Seven seals are up.
(6) And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the
four beasts, in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain
having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent forth
into all the earth.
(7) And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him
that sat upon the throne. So this, evidently, is a man.
(8) And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four
elders fell down before the lamb everyone of the them having harps and golden
vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.
(9) And they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the
book to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation:
(10) And has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall
reign on the earth. (Well, that’s Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, he’s
a man, because a man had to open a book.)
(11) And I beheld and I heard the voice of many
angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of
them ten thousand time ten thousand, and thousands of thousands (Evidently it’s
millions of them.)
(12) Saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb
who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and
glory and blessing.
(13) And every creature which is in heaven and
on earth and under the earth and such that are in the sea and all that are in
them heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb for ever and ever.
(14) And the four beasts said amen, and the four
and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
So the worship is of Jesus and his
Father. So now God’s an object of worship. You can see right here that he’s
God, but he’s not God.
37.
Now the thing is this: why did Jesus receive worship? Not because he was the
Son of God, no way, shape, and form. He received worship, not because of what
he was, but what he did. And he could only have done what he did because of
what he was. That matchless, perfect character and that beautiful body which
became the blood of God, and became the residence of Almighty God.
38. So therefore, Jesus is worshipped, but
he’s not worshipped as God, and he’s not worshipped because of who he is,
primarily. That is not really correct. He’s worshipped because of what he did,
and he couldn’t have done what he did except for who he is. You follow me? So
therefore, he’s not God, but he can be worshipped in the manner in which it is
dictated by God, because Jesus himself said, “You don’t worship anybody but
God, and only Him do you serve.” And so when Jesus was there delivering us, let
us understand that he was serving God, because he was crucified from before the
foundation of the world, and he said for this cause was I born. Absolutely. So
you can understand, therefore, what we are saying.
39. Now, also with that, we might go to Rom
14:11, and we’ll compare to Phil 2:9-11. And It says: “For it is written, as I
live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess
to God.” “As it is written, as I live saith the Lord,” see? “every knee shall
bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.”
We go to Phil 2:9-11.
(9) Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and
given him a name that’s above every name:
(10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth,
(11) And every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Doesn’t say he’s God, but he’s
getting a confession the same as God is getting a confession and, therefore,
though not equal with God, he is in the throne with God. Eventually he’ll be on
the throne with the Pillar of Fire above God. He’s in the throne, but he’s
under the jurisdiction of the Father, because he who said, “I don’t talk unless
the Father tells me what to say, and I don’t do unless the Father shows me what
to do,” cannot change. That is inviolate; it cannot be altered.
40. So you can see here how that even though
there is one God, and Jesus in not God, he is the Son of God, and he is a man,
because he’s born and he comes by flesh. He had a preincarnation
existence—perfectly fine. God then, incarnated him. So there’s a duality. One
time the Father speaks. One time the Son could speak. But every single time the
Son does it, it’s the Father doing it, because the precept has always been: God
through Jesus creating, maintaining and redeeming. Even now, the same thing
holds good, because the Melchisedec priesthood comes down from God. It’s not a
man. It’s not a man thing at all. The Aaronic is man, absolutely, man dealing
with God. But this time it’s God dealing with man. And God moving all the way
down and all the way through.
41. Now because this is so, we want to read
to you various portions of Bro. Branham’s sermons, just quotes here and there,
which I don’t like to do in a sense of the word, but it’s all right. I prefer
to take it sermon by sermon and topic by topic, as Bro. Branham gave it. But
let’s talk about the supreme Deity of Jesus Christ as has been said.
Now that is actually not a true
statement. Jesus cannot be supreme Deity. He’s not even Deity. When you talk of
supreme Deity, you are talking of the word in the Greek, which is ‘theos’,
which means ‘supreme Deity’. And if Jesus is the Son of God, then he’s merely
the son of supreme Deity. He is not supreme Deity. But let’s look into it.
42. “Now,
if you’re believing right,” this is “Law or Grace” way back in
`54. [LAW OR GRACE JEFF IN V-26 N-7 WED 54-1006] Now remember, when you
are dealing with Bro. Branham’s ministry, the great teaching ministry, you have
to remember what he said in “Spoken Word in the Original Seed”, that this
prophet sows the seed of the entire Bible from the serpent to the Garden to the
prophet in the teaching rain, which is William Branham. He sows it right up to
that time. Then he’s on his own with God; the teaching rain comes. And
remember, it was September 21, 1958, that Bro. Branham opened the subject of
serpent seed and preached it. So he began sowing the seed of the entire Bible
in 1958, and he deceased in 1965, which is exactly seven years. It’s all over at
that time.
[65] Now,
if you’re believing right... If you just confess it with your lips, it doesn’t
do you much good. But from your heart, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of
God, you can’t live the same life you once lived. You can’t if you ever get a
true view of Calvary. Now if you’re just taking a haphazard way, you’re just
fooling yourself. Now there again, you see, it’s holding
down the truth. Even though it’s there, they’re not believing correctly. It’s a
lip assent. It’s not spiritual from the depth. But when you
really get a view of what Jesus was, oh my, how I like to preach the Deity, the
supreme Deity of Jesus Christ, if you could ever realize who he was, and what
he did for you men and women, your hearts would rend within you, and you’d be
willing to throw away the trash of the world and live for him. How marvelous,
and what a person he was if you realize the condescending of God Himself,
unfolding Himself, coming down till He could get to your heart. Then
who’s he talking about concerning the supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ?
God! So don’t just grab something and run with it.
43. [67] When
God the Father, in the form a big cloud, hung over the children of Israel, and
when He settled on the mountain that morning to write the law, why, if even an
animal touch the mountain, he must be thrust through with a dart. Only through
sanctification did He bring Moses up, set Aaron way down at the bottom of the
hill to watch and keep guard. And when that Pillar of Fire settled on that
mountain, the lightning bursted forth and thunders roared and blackness
settled. When Jehovah God, the Creator of all eternity settled on top of a
mountain that He created Himself, the thickness of the clouds a bursting forth
of the lightning, the shaking of the earth, till those Israelites standing out
in yonder camp with the bleeding sacrifice around them said, “Let Moses speak,
not God, lest we die.” Think of that.
That
same, Almighty, great being, humbled Himself and unfolded Himself and came in a
body of flesh (Now listen) into a body of flesh that any man
could touch with his hands. Now what is that
phrase? That’s a phrase: ‘the body of flesh’ is now described that any man
could touch with his hands. A beast touching the mountain had to be thrust
through.
Any man could touch with his hands
is actually an adjectival phrase, but could be held, almost, as a phrase in
apposition to ‘body of flesh’. ‘Body of flesh’: something that can be touched
with your hands, or the body of flesh that can be touched with your hands. See?
The way a woman touched him, and he said, “Who touched me?” You could touch
him.
What’s He doing? Claiming His role, trying to get to man,
then after He went and offered His Own Blood, when no other blood would do...
No wonder He was the priceless price of heaven, no wonder He was the King of
all kings. When He unfolded Himself and came down, submitted Himself in the
hands of sinful men to beat and spit on, bruised and hung on the cross to die.
When He was standing there, someone said, “Well, I could call my” (Now
watch), “I could call my Father.” Now what about that?
See? You have to listen very, very carefully. Remember, God departed Jesus in
the Garden of Gethsemanae. See? You’ve got to put everything together. And you
find, when you believe what Bro. Branham said, you’ll put it together. You
won’t have a lot of difficulty. He said I could call my father and He’d
send me ten legion of angels, but my kingdom’s not of this world.
And the crowd said, “Away with him, away with him.” Why
didn’t he turn and say, “Away with you.” There’s the reason he couldn’t,
friends. Look at it. They were His Own children. To think of a man’s children
crying for their daddy’s blood. If my children were rallying for my blood,
there’d be nothing else I could say – ‘Take me.’ If he refused to do it, he
lost his child, his very creation, his human beings. Now
we know that God created all things by Christ Jesus, and we know positively God
said let us make man in our image, and He’s speaking to the Son. And that has to
be true, because Jesus was the image of God. We’ll talk about those things
later. Maybe tomorrow.
Could you imagine children calling for their father’s blood?
That’s the reason He couldn’t say no. If he said no, they were lost. I’d die
freely for my children; any father would. Look what He was, His Own children
calling for His Blood.
44. [7] [UNWELCOMED CHRIST Jeff In V-26 N-20
SUN 56-0911] I heard Billy was right there, he preached the supreme Deity
(that’s Billy Graham, I think) of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, there’s many
a man, many men stand up and philosophers and so forth, but Jesus Christ was
God Himself manifested in flesh.” Now Jesus Christ was,
when you want to get down to the actual nitty-gritty, if you want to place the
true story... What was it all about? God, manifest in flesh. Even Browning, the
poet, understood that. When he talked about the Arabian, on the way, and said,
“Could it be possible that God actually came down and indwelt a person and
walked among us?”
Brother, I hollered ‘amen’ as loud as I
could, because I know that’s true. I believe that. Well of course, me seeing
the way they treated him, I’d drop right in his place, started right on with
supreme Deity, that Jesus Christ was Jehovah God manifested in flesh.” See? So,
all right, “Well, in doing that, the Lord gave us fifty thousand souls in
that five-night’s meeting.
And then, when they heard we were going
up into Germany... Now there, it’s state and church, which the church tells the
state, and the state does it.
And we’ve often taught many times... I’ve
someone here that’s a Catholic friend, I don’t say this now to be shoving your
church at all. No sir. I have thousands and tens of thousands of Catholic
friends. But we’ve often thought in the early days when the Catholic Church
united with the church and state together in the days of Papal Rome, and what a
persecution it brought about. Brother, the Protestants are just as bad if not
worse. And I’ve said the same thing. I believe that I’d
sooner deal with a Catholic any day than a Protestant who wants to be
argumentative, because the poor Catholic, he doesn’t really know anything. He’d
been taught ‘God’s a great mystery’, so who knows?
Actually, unless you’re really, say
like a Methodist, and only believe in prohibition and take a drink on the side,
I’d sooner deal with you than a Baptist any day of the week, because, you see,
they don’t have to unlearn so much. If you’re not taught something wrong, you
don’t have a bad time of it. You just don’t know. You see, if somebody wanted
to teach you something about electricity (I don’t know the first thing about
it.), you’d have an easier time with me (Why I’m just a dumbbell on things like
that.) than somebody who had it learned all wrong. So, you know, it’s easier.
That’s why Bro. Branham said that.
45. [59]
[BLIND BARTIMAEUS LIMA OH SUNDAY 57-0127E] You know Jairus
said, “Come lay hands on my little girl and she’ll live.”
And the Roman Centurion said, “I’m not
worthy you should come under my roof, but I’m a man with authority. When I say
to this soldier ‘do that’ he does it because he’s under me and I say to this
one, ‘you do so’ and he does it because he has to obey me; he’s under me.”
What was that Roman doing? He was
recognizing the supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was recognizing God
in Jesus the man, who was not only Jesus the man, the prophet, but he was the
Christ, which means Messiah. He said, “You speak the word and my servant will
live.” And what did Jesus say? “I’ve never seen faith like that in Israel.”
That’s what I’m trying to get to you
people; Christ is here. Well how is he here? How is he here? The
Holy Spirit in William Branham for one thing. Also, God standing there in a
Pillar of Fire.
“So believe it. Aftica, India, one
supernatural sign they’re watching for it. And they see that compared with the
Bible, that settles it forever.”
So Bro. Branham’s saying the same
thing that happened there under the Centurion, you can watch me and see what
happens here and now.
They said, “Bro. Branham tell me,
what does it mean why Jesus said, ‘I and my Father are one?’” “You’re looking at me aren’t you?” Well that’ll scare anybody plumb out
of eternity and into hell, if he didn’t belong to God. But that settles it; God
with a skin on it. You know, you just got to let your own thinking go. Why?
Because we’re under vindication. Not indication, vindication. See?
46. Now, “Hebrews, Chapter 4.” This is way
back in '57
[122-5] . [HEBREWS CHAPTER 4 JEFF IN
HEB SUN 57-0901E] Then we find out
the real supreme Deity of Jesus Christ … How are you
going to do it? The whole book here is a revelation of Jesus Christ, and he
came. We find that in sundry times and in diverse manners, God spoke to the
fathers through the prophets, actually in the
prophets, In this last days, in His Son, through His
Son, He revealed Himself. And the Book from Genesis to Revelation is nothing
but one constant, perpetual, revelation of the Lord Jesus.”
Now God revealed Himself in His Son;
that is true. Let’s just take some little picture here now, and make a little
comparison to see how we make out in this subject. So we go to 1 Corinthians 6, and I’ve
already quoted part of It to you in my little preamble. And in 1 Cor 6:19–20:
(19) What? Know ye not your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your
own?
(20) For you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Now
we go to Philippians 2 and see something there. And Phil 2:13.
(13) For it is God which worketh in you, both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. See?
47. Now this puts us following in the steps
of Jesus and a true example to us. Jesus’ body was a temple of the Holy Ghost.
We are temples of the Holy Ghost. It was God in him willing and doing of God’s
good pleasure. It is God in us willing and doing of God’s good pleasure. The
trouble is, as I’ve said many times, we’ve never learned to get out of the way.
And getting out of the way is sowing the Word of God in the face of everything
and anything whatsoever, sowing the Word and standing with it. And not taking
your hand off the plough, and not fainting, because in due season you will
reap, because we are God’s agronomy, God’s farm. We are the farm in which God
has planted His seed. And His seed cannot return unto Him void, and we’ll not
return unto Him void: up to thirty, sixty, to one hundred. God’s going to get
something out of every single one of us. And the more we learn, deliberately
applying ourselves, like the eastern mind philosophy... But this is not mind
philosophy, this is living Word, to which the mind has become obedient,
bringing every thought into captivity and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God which is His Word, because there alone lies the
knowledge of the living God.
48. Now, what does Peter say? Let’s follow
this through. We go to 1 Pet 2:21:
(21) For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.
That’s the very same thing that Paul
said in Hebrews 12, the very same thing [Heb
12:2]: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him,” you know, “he
endured the cross, despised the shame, and hath now set down at the right hand
of the majesty on high” and in all things, is subject to Him.
And also, we have this over here.
It’s a foot-washing scene in Jn 13:15, and it says: “For I have given you an example that you
should do as I have done to you.” Then so, we have this here, the supreme Deity
of Jesus Christ can literally be boiled down to the fact of God in the vessel.
And when you speak of God in the vessel concerning the only begotten Son,
you’re talking in terms of the uniquely begotten one, which means
one-of-a-kind, never before, never now, never afterward, absolute one. And
being the first born, you know as well as I do, that he’s heir to fifty percent
of everything the Father has.
49. Okay, and we find out that he was the one
that was in the burning bush; that’s God. Now this is a strange one, right
here, but watch it: we find out that he was the one that was with God before
the foundation of the world. Now there’s where you might begin to think, “Well,
Bro. Branham really didn’t mean – “If you
make Jesus the Word, you are going to have more than one god.” And also,
you will begin to believe that maybe Jesus is Deity. That’s not so. This will
bring me to the one point that I’ve said before, the crossovers, and where
Jesus was operative, or the Father alone, is the same thing as where Bro.
Branham said, “Sometimes Jesus spoke and
sometimes the Father spoke.” There’s a duality.
50. Now there could be absolutely no doubt that
he was with the Father. He could be in the cloud, the Pillar of Fire. He could
be anything God wanted him to be. But when you come to Melchisedec, he wasn’t.
So these, what I call the crossovers… I don’t know where Bro. Branham is coming
from here. But he said here, and then It says here, and we find out in the New
Testament that he was God and man together. Now there again, I can understand
that perfectly. And I can understand if he was God with the Son back there,
then he could be also human. But at that time, I don’t believe for one minute
that Bro. Branham ever said he was Melchisedec or with him. But I can
understand, if you believe that particular instance, that that vessel was
Jesus, God working through him, I won’t argue with you, because I won’t have an
argument with doctrine. I just let the Word correct the Word. I don’t see it.
But if some people see it, that’s fine by me.
51. And watch. Then, when he left the New
Testament to go into heaven, he said, “I came from God and return to God.” Well,
can God come from God and return to God? Now, if you’re going to believe
something like that, you’re going to get to where the next thing you’re going
to believe, is that Jesus and the Father’s the self-same being, and therefore,
now God will begin to project Himself, extrude Himself, so to speak, and
manipulate Himself and work out here and then come back in again. Now you’re
just as wrong as the Trinitarians who say God is like an egg: the shell and the
white and the yellow. But they actually boo-booed. There’s four parts. There’s
a skin inside the shell. No. No!
52. Stick with precept: the Son was there
before there was a speck of stardust. He was not created. He was
birthed--positively born. Through him God created all things. Bro. Branham
described it. What he did is his business, not mine. I don’t know. But I do
know there is one God with this Son where they used each other, or one was used
by the other. I don’t know. But I do know where the Scripture talks about God,
positively, and the talks about the Son positively, and I refuse to bend from
the precept of one God with the Son, and many children of God. So that we now
are a race of God-people. And that’s what you see as the omega, the New
Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth, the foolish virgin outside, the
wise virgin inside, the 144,000 and the retinue. What they are does not lie in
my domain. All I know is the lamb is on the throne and God, Elohim, the Pillar
of Fire above the throne. That’s it. Now, you believe anything you want, but that’s
what I believe one hundred percent from what the prophet taught. And I will not
vary.
53. And also remember, that many of these
things Bro. Branham said were back before 1958 and the opening of the Seals.
And Bro. Branham himself was corrected as late as 1964 on the evidence of the
Holy Ghost. And in 1965 he brought us what he himself did not know until that
time was what the Bride was waiting for: the revelation of the Rapture.
Correcting. So all right.
54. [122-7]
[HEBREWS CHAPTER 4 JEFF IN HEB SUN 57-0901E] And when Paul met him, He was in the same form that
He was when he led Israel, a Pillar of Fire. Who’s he talking about? “And Paul
looked Him right in the face, being unconverted, and it caused him to have eye
trouble the rest of his days. He went blind for several days. He couldn’t see
nothing at all. He had to be led to a street called straight, and God... Well,
is Jesus God? Now make up your mind.
I’m sorry. I can’t go that way. Now
I’m not going to condemn you if you go that way, because) that’s your
privilege. That’s up to God to correct you. My job is to walk in love if I
possibly can, but it’s very difficult for a guy like me, because I’m a hard
shell and very adamant. But if I feel I love the Lord and serve His children and
I love His Word and stand with it. At least I’m clear in that respect.
“And
God had a prophet down there that He spoke to by the name of Ananias.”
Now who was in the prophets? Was it Jesus or was it God? Well, it wasn’t Jesus,
because God was in Jesus, the prophet, making him more than a prophet. “And by a vision, laid hands on Paul and
said Bro. Saul, receive thy sight. And we found out that the same Holy Spirit,
(now watch) that same Lord Jesus, came
to Peter in a form of light and delivered him out of the prison.” Now he’s using the name, Lord Jesus.
What are you going to do about that? Well, ‘Lord’ can be either Jehovah or
Elohim. But actually, when you talk about ‘Lord God’, It is Jehovah. So
Jehovah, Jehovah Savior. In other words God, the self-existent One, Who came
down in human form, is the same One now that formed in a light and delivered
Peter out of prison. And remember, Bro. Branham said that Jew would never call
anybody Lord, but that which was in the Pillar of Fire that Moses was interviewed
thereby.
55. Now It says here—we find out then—the
same Holy Spirit, the same Lord Jesus; not the Lamb though... There are people
right today, when you say, “Who came down in 1 Thessalonians 4, they say, “the
Lamb.” I beg to differ. Bro. Branham said if the lamb appeared with nail
prints, you’d know it was a false one.
56. [253-525]
[HEBREWS CHAPTER 6 AND 7 JEFF IN HEB SUNDAY 57-0915M] And this marvelous teaching here of St.
Paul, in the backgrounds of the former chapters he has specifically been dealing
with the supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus and Who He was. Christ was God made so
that man could feel Him and touch Him and fellowship with Him. Christ, the Lord
Jesus, was the body that God dwelt in.
Now notice in there, he says Christ,
the Lord Jesus; yet he calls ‘the Lord Jesus’ ‘God’, and he calls ‘God’ ‘the
Lord Jesus’. But he says, Christ, the Lord Jesus. So all right, Lord Jesus
Christ was the body that God dwelt in yet He can be Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
God was made flesh and dwelt among us. 1 Tim
3:16: “Without
controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness” with “God was manifest in
flesh.”
57. The great Jehovah
came down and was made tangible by living in the body of His Own Son, declaring
and reconciling the world to Himself. Christ was nothing short of God and God
was nothing short of Christ. The two together made the Godhead bodily. Now
watch that one. Then who was the body? Jesus was the body, he was the flesh,
made a little lower than the angels so he could suffer; angels cannot suffer.
Neither can God suffer per se.
The Bible said he learned obedience
by the things that he suffered. You tell me when God needed to learn obedience.
Are we going to be like Derschowitz, the great lawyer, who talks about the God
in the Bible, set up the law, and he takes the one where God will not destroy
the righteous with the wicked, and he said, “All the laws of the land are based
upon the Bible.” And he said, “God was Himself learning.” Imagine, God was
learning, “Oh, hallelujah!” Got another Sanhedrin with us.
And yet the Christians, so-called,
are just as lax as Derschowitz. A brilliant man. Should that black man, Graham,
been put to death on the testimony of that woman? By no means; it takes two to
witness. “Well, he was a man that deserved it.” That has nothing to do with it.
In the mouths of two witnesses everything is confirmed; not one. Sorry for
George W. Bush (Governor of Texas), but he blew it. As a Christian, he blew
that wide open. I got no use for the man that went on a rampage and shot people,
raped and stabbed, everything else. No. He deserved to die, you could say.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if he deserved to die. Maybe somebody will get
mad enough and blow his head off. But not in a court of law. Too bad. Right?
Are we going to go by the Word or not? Say, what if he did kill them? Sorry,
sorry. Can’t do a thing about it. It takes two witnesses for his life to be
forfeit.
58. “Angels
can’t suffer. Jesus was the tabernacle that God dwelt in.” Then he
wasn’t God. He was the tabernacle. See? So notice carefully the two together
made the Godhead bodily. Which is true. The Bible said in Acts 7, that’s when
Steven was preaching, “Sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldst not, but a
body has thou prepared me. Howbeit, the most High dwelleth not in tabernacles
made with hands, but a body has thou prepared me.” That in tabernacling or
dwelling in a fellowship with men.
59. Let’s just look at something here now;
and this is a toughy, but we look at the tough ones. I’m not a person who just
is afraid to look at the tough ones. I might not have an answer. That’s okay by
me. But let’s go to Heb 1:8-9. All right:
(8) But unto the Son, he said, thy throne O God, is for ever
and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
(9) Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity;
therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows.
Now, evidently, Paul is quoting here
from Ps 45:6-7, which we’ll read. But according to this written here, and
I’ve looked up—not too carefully, but other versions, at least one—and this is
great for your Trinitarians, and those that would make Jesus Deity. “But unto
the Son, thy throne O God is for ever and ever a sceptre of righteousness and
sceptre of thy kingdom, for thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Therefore God, even thy God...” So we’re talking now as though God is talking
to God.
60. But let’s get back to Psalm 45 and get the exact
quote. Now, if the Word of God can’t be changed, this is a real tuffy. Why is
It being changed? Because that’s not what It says in Ps 45:6-7.
(6) Thy throne O God is for ever and ever: the scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter.
(7) Thou lovest righteousness and hated
wickedness, therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows.
Now it sounds like he’s saying the
same thing, but it really isn’t. “For Thy
Throne, O God, is for ever and ever; thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness;
thou lovest righteous and hate iniquity...”
Now he’s talking here, therefore, ‘therefore God, who is thy God, hath anointed
thee’.
61. So is that what It’s saying here? Well, I
can’t believe for one minute a mistake was made. But if Bro. Branham were here,
I’d ask him that and say, “Is this just not a wrong translation of the very
fact that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ” (and that’s exactly what Paul says
all the way through Scripture) “hath anointed thee and exalted thee?”
So I don’t know how that got there.
Don’t ask me. I’m not infallible. All I know is I look at it, and I simply
can’t believe that I’m going to take any Scripture whatsoever contrary to the
doctrine. There is a little thing in there, and I believe it should say: “God,
even thy God,” because He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if Paul
wrote Hebrews, and it’s claimed he wrote It, there’s no way that Paul could
have changed one iota from the Book of Ephesians which is the blueprint of the
entire Bible from eternity to eternity. And every place, it’s the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
62. Well, we spent two hours since the time
the service started, and I’ve taken the one group of quotes and that is, where
the people believe that Jesus is actually Deity; and he cannot be, because
Elohim is the self-existent One. Jehovah are the titles wherein God relates to
His own family, to mankind. Isaiah is full of ‘Jehovah Elohim’ And when you get
to the Greek it is Theos, which means supreme sovereign God. Jesus was never
supreme. Jesus was never sovereign. Sovereignty came through him as the
obedient vessel. None so blind as the righteous servant. All he could see was
God. All he could see was truth. There was none so dumb as that righteous
servant. He only opened his mouth, because God had him open his mouth. Always
it is that perfect one. Always under the influence of his Father who was God.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And you will find no
place where it puts Father ahead of God. It is always God ahead of Father.
63. So therefore, let not anybody presume
that, because God is your Father, you can deny the position of God as sovereign
God. But if you and I are true children and God is our Father, then we will be
obedient. And that’s where sonship or the adoption, the placing, comes in. And
remember, we have not been left to ourselves, for it is God in us, willing and
doing of His own good pleasure Learning to get out of the way and getting out
of the way is simply sowing the seed of God instead of going our own way. And
what a harvest is there, as was said to Bro. Branham, in that ‘tongues and
interpretations’ in California that time, “What a great portion of heaven as an
inheritance is laid up for you, because you put God first.”
64. In other words remember the old saying: “If
he’s not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all.” Now that’s not really
true, because He is Lord of all, period! Even if you and I don’t make Him Lord
of all, we don’t get by, for all must appear before the judgment seat of
Christ. You’ve got to appear before God and give account to the deeds done in
the flesh. And there’ll be wood, hay, and stubble or gold and silver and
precious stones. And there will be like the man who built his house upon the
rock, and it was solid and nothing could deter him from living in that great
beautiful structure that he was building. You know it’s not just building
something for the Millennium. We do that by hand when we get there. But we’re
laying up treasure in heaven right now, when the heavens and earth will
dissolve and the new heavens and the new earth appear.
65. So, all right, I’m standing tonight with
my faith absolutely congealed and not to be denied as far as I’m concerned.
It’s not that I’m not open to change and understanding and instruction, but
when I hear Bro. Branham say that Jn 1:1, that’s what John says; “In the
beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” When
he said that was God, that’s not the Son, because the Son is not God. He’s an
only begotten Son of God, and we are simply begotten sons, not like Jesus, but
through human birth, through Adam and Eve. Right? Big difference. No one else
had it.
66. So I see him, the Father, and I see the
Son. I do not see Jesus as part of Godhead. I do not see him as Deity.
Remember, Deity is Theos, sovereign God. He isn’t. No. He’s the same
essentiality, same spirit, but he had a beginning. He’s not the Father. He’s
the Son of God, and God is his Father, and he is our elder brother. And
remember, he had to become flesh, like us, to stand for us. And God only became
flesh to manifest Himself, and bring out in perfection that there might be that
which was pleasing to Him in order to eradicate, completely wash away, our sins
until there be no trace and nothing left--all gone. And God did it through that
Son, showing it was God. God identifying Himself with His Own children and
through His only begotten Child, that special one there. I see that, and I
believe that. And no matter how you look at what Bro. Branham said, and what it
seems to appear, you will come back, in ninety-nine percent or greater number
of times, there’ll be a little note in there that leads you to understand
exactly what we are teaching.
67. And I believe we’re teaching it exactly
right, that Jesus is not God, but he is God. He was because … “You’re looking
at me,” he said, “You’re seeing the Father,” right down the line. He can be
worshipped, absolutely, but not because of what he is, but because of what he
did. And what he did was because of what he was. And you and I are in the same
way in our own position. But It stands right there, the supreme Deity is Elohim
Himself, Jehovah Elohim, and His Son is under His care, and we’re under His
care also. And then, later on, tomorrow morning we can go into where we look at
Deity again, but not in the understanding of supreme Deity. So all right. Let’s
bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for as
far as we’ve gone tonight with the quotes of the prophet going into the Word,
knowing, Lord, that You are Who You are: one God. And we know when we finally
come to the place where there is finality, as far as we know, concerning the
Word, but yet going beyond it, it is in new heavens and the new earth, Lord,
the Lamb on the throne, and the Pillar of Fire above the throne, the Son having
handed the kingdom back to the Father, the Father become all and in all, the
Bride, 144,000 and those that were there to be there of creation and birth, the
twenty-four elders, whatever, and those on the outside bringing their glory in.
We see, Lord, that is the finality and the beauty of It all. And I believe,
Lord, we see that tonight, and we see It as we should see It, and we understand
the Truth. And I believe, Lord, we do worship You in spirit and in truth as
much as lies within us in our heart, that is to worship You, because we do want
to worship You and serve You; and we believe that we do. And may we do in an
increasing measure while life is within us and breath within us to do Your will
as You help us to see that that will is consummated. And unto Thee we give the
glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
[Communion service follows.]