Godhead #13
God As Sovereign
August 5, 2000
Heavenly Father, we thank You
for Your presence and Your love. And we know that You understand us, and we
wish that we understood You even better than we do from Your Word. For Lord, at
this time, we have much head knowledge, and we have much heart knowledge, and
we pray, Lord, by Your Own Holy Spirit, You will gather this all together in
our hearts, minds, and soul, and bring it to full fruition where we really
know, Lord, and have that oneness with You as said in the Scripture. And
knowing, not only from the fact, as we said, from our knowledge, but going
beyond that, we walk in the depth of the knowledge, which depth we have not had
previously, and knowing, even as those who memorize certain items, become very
facile at it, having memorized it many times, it just becomes a second nature.
We pray, Lord, that it’ll become, as it were, our second nature, although we
really want it as our first nature, but we do not know how far this can be
carried in the flesh. But we do know that we can bring every thought into
captivity, and we can put everything to the test by Your Word and then walk in
that light, because we do have that ability. Help us, Lord, to ever see that
and, we know, therefore then, we’ll bring forth this conduct we love to have,
knowing first of all conduct cannot be there, unless there is a life that
brings forth that conduct. So, Father, may we ever more eat this bread of life,
ever more receive the life of Your Word, and thereby be strengthened to walk
all pleasing unto You, and our moderation known unto all men, and be as a light
to those who do not have light. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be
seated.
1. Now, going
into the subject which we’d gone into on “Godhead” for many messages now, it
seems, perhaps, that I have not gone into the subject the way I should’ve gone
into it on the grounds that I could have taken a complete series on that
subject and started with various definitions that would make us very familiar
with what we are really talking about, which is God Himself.
2. Most people do
not believe in God as sovereign. This is very true in Christendom, because we
have about, close to a billion Catholics, and if anyone was to teach that
predestination was correct—that it was, as they say, if anyone should say that
he was foreknown of God and was truly predestinated—let that man be cursed. And
we know, also, that except for a few hard-shelled Baptists and, maybe, a few
Pilgrim (not Holiness, but Pilgrim Church)... Pilgrim Brethren, and a few others;
they have no concept of a sovereign God. To them, there is no such thing as
foreknowledge, except an infinite God would know. And they’re happy to leave it
at that. And, as far as election is concerned, of course, that’s a
foreknowledge, they say, “Well, God knew, but He didn’t do anything about it.”
And, when it comes to predestination, it becomes a most horrific thing, because
they simply cannot believe that God predestinates. In other words when it boils
right down to reality, most people do not believe in a God who is God, and who
is actually sovereign.
3. Now, I have a
book here by Dr. Pink on the sovereignty of God, and we will get to it as we
look into it from his viewpoint, which I feel is perhaps the greatest book ever
written on this subject. And I’m told that when I gave this to a certain
minister many, many years ago, he gave it to Bro. Branham, and Bro. Branham was
purportedly to have said, “If this man
were living today, he would believe my ministry.” Well, there’s one thing
about it; Arthur Pink would certainly have believed what Bro. Branham said,
because he never understood sovereignty, and the predestinating work of God, as
did Bro. Branham. Arthur Pink could not take it where Bro. Branham took it. But
Bro. Branham believed, like Arthur Pink, that God is a sovereign God.
4. Now, first of
all, you have to understand what ‘sovereign’ means. ‘Sovereign in power’:
‘possessing supreme dominion, not subject to any other’. Now this means that
sovereign God is without competition, period! There is no one there to compete.
None. Now you say, “What about the devil?” No problem; he can’t compete! If he
could compete, and somehow develop his muscles to the point where he could take
over God, he’d have done it a long time ago. You have to understand, first of
all, that God is completely sovereign. He possesses supreme dominion; He rules
over everything. He’s not subject to anything except Himself. He’s one who
exercises supreme control. He is in control, period. Well that’s a sovereign.
5. Now you can
take the word ‘sovereign’ to ‘sovereign state’. I think Texas uses the word
‘sovereign state’. It was the only sovereign state in American history. They
were all by themselves. They didn’t bow to anybody. They said, “Nuts to you;
we’re it.” I don’t think anybody else did that. That’s where you got these
Texans all blowing so hard about everything. Don’t listen to them. I
understand; that’s history.
6. ‘Sovereignty’
means ‘supremacy’, as God is all-powerful, and His dominion is over all heaven
and earth as to past, present and future, and all that in them is, in those
three periods, and all that will ever be. Complete control, never out of
control, never anything beyond His reach, never anything without His
permission. So, we’ll take some Scripture. Rev 4:11:
(11) Thou art worthy, O Lord, and God (they left the word ‘God’ out
of there, they should’ve had it in there), thou art worthy, O Lord and God, to
receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for
thy pleasure they are and were created.
Now notice. They have the two
tenses. They were created, and they are ‘for Your pleasure’, even now... Yes,
even now.
7. Next, we go to
Col 1:15,
and we’ll learn a little more here. This is Jesus:
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation, or everything created. (Notice, he’s
born. So he’s ahead of everything created.)
(16) For by him were all things created, that
are in heaven, and are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or power: all things were created by
him, and for him:
(17) And he is before all things, and by him,
all things consist.
It tells you right there: He created
all things, and he maintains everything He created, which means He’s in
complete control, He knows everything going on, and He allows everything that
is going on. But remember, as the Scripture says, He makes the wrath of man to
praise him and the remainder of wrath He doth restrain. Nothing ever gets out
of control, period. See?
8. (18) And he is the head
of the body, of the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead;
that in all things, he might have the preeminence.
(19) For it pleased the Father that in him
should all fullness dwell.
Now this makes people who follow the
Jesus-Only line to believe that Jesus is creator, God is the Creator, and so,
therefore, God and Jesus are one—the same person.
Let’s just find out if Paul said
that. So to find out, we go over here to Eph
3:9:
(9) And to make all see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ.
So, Bro. Branham’s revelation, that
when there wasn’t a speck of stardust or an atom or a breeze or anything
else—he should’ve said an atom to begin with—and you have to have an atom. You
got to have everything else too, because an atom is almost as big as the
universe itself, when you bring it down to what’s in it. Anybody who knows how
to study any science at all knows that it’s like a little universe itself. And,
Bro. Branham said, “The light formed.”
And there’s nothing there to form from. So therefore, that which formed was
part of God. And the question came, “What is the difference between God and Jesus?”
And he said, “Essentially no difference
at all except sons have beginnings.” That’s essentially.
9. So here we
have the Son of God, a very part of God, and Bro. Branham told how he stood
there as a child… “We’re looking over a banister now, and as a child playing
before the father’s throne, Jesus begins to create.” And the Bible said God
created by him. You follow me? So the Scripture’s reconciled. We’re not
Jesus-Only at all.
Now, you compare that to Gen 1:1:
(1) In the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth. (Then It said,)
(2) The earth was without form and void.
And it was, and Bro. Branham tells
how it was. And he said, “Millions and
millions, if not billions, of years went by.” And he told how the glaciers
formed certain paths and rivers and described how America was formed. And I
think Bro. Branham even mentioned the fact of Atlantis, which is a sunken
continent, was a great portion of the earth at that time.
10. We go on, and we
see Bro. Branham’s revelation of the future, which is in Rev 22:1–5.
(1) And he showed me a river of pure water of life, clear as
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Now, you’ll notice in there that It says...
Actually, that word ‘and’ could be a preposition, which it could be ‘even’.
Proceeding out of the throne of God, even of the Lamb.
You say, “Why?”
I’ll tell you why: because Bro.
Branham put the lamb on the throne and the Pillar of Fire above the throne.
See?
(2) And in the midst of the street of it, on
either side of the river, was a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of
fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations.
(3) There should be no more curse: but the throne of God, even of
the lamb, shall be in it; and His servants shall serve him:
(4) And they shall see his face; and his name
shall be in their foreheads.
(5) There shall be no night there; no need of
candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they
shall reign for ever and ever.
11. That brings us
all together where Jesus himself said, “I in the Father, the Father in me, I in
you and you in me.” And you have this glorious complex in the world; all things
are of God. That’s why, when they get all shaken down, remember, “Thou alone
remainest,” which is God, and He is the Word, which we’ll talk about later on
again, but not tonight.
So, what we’re seeing here as Bro.
Branham said, “The Lamb is on the throne
and the Pillar of Fire is above the throne. And before they call He answers.”
Now remember, at this particular time, and perhaps, our particular time, today
I’m talking about now, and perhaps even in the Millennium, you have the high
priest, Jesus, and you have to go through him. And it’s asking, coming through
him.
But now it is in such a tremendous,
stable, marvelous condition, that everything falls into line, and nobody even
has to ask anymore, like Jesus said, “You won’t even have to ask in my name in
that day.” And that day’s right there, Bro. Branham talks about. And before we
call… In other words there’ll never be a need to call. Not at all; no need
whatsoever. Every need will be met. And as Bro. Branham said, a glorified body
can travel with the speed of thought. That’s greater than light. What
tremendous conditions we live in. And you can see here that God is sovereign.
He is in complete control. And we’ll find other Scripture concerning that.
12. So that’s the
sovereignty of God that we’re looking at. And as I have discussed Him in His
sovereign capacity, I’ll do so again tonight. And we’ll look at various
thoughts that I have used in order to bring this to more of the definitive
concerning God.
God, Creator and Ruler of the
universe is eternal, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, supreme being. That’s
exactly what He is. And, of course, we know He’s spirit. He’s Eternal Spirit.
You cannot see God in any way shape and form, except in the form that He
decides to use, which is not God Himself, but is that which allows Him a
visibility—gives us some way know Him. And yet when you see that form you speak
of it being God.
13. Now, the word
‘Godhead’ is used in the Bible. I use it a lot. It actually means ‘deity’.
That’s all it means. So ‘Godhead’ means ‘God’, ‘divinity’, ‘a divine person’,
or ‘deity’.
Now, ‘deity’, of course, comes from
the Latin. And you well know, at least I’ve told you on different occasions,
that the English language is fifty-five percent from the Latin, eleven to
fourteen percent from the French, and the rest is a sprinkling, until it comes
to about four percent original language. So we get the word ‘deity’ from
‘Deus’, which is Latin for ‘god’, which does not necessarily mean God—Jehovah
Elohim, period. It means simply a person of superiority. It could mean many,
many individuals of superiority, especially those that seem to have magical
abilities and also horrible morals, when it comes right down to it. But,
anyway, that’s the word we use.
And we have to use it from it’s
original use, because we’re stuck with it and, yet, we have to know the truth
of the real God, even as Paul said to the Greeks, “The unknown god that you
worship, I will reveal him to you.” He said, “You’re smart.” He said, “You’re
clever. You haven’t left anybody out. But,” he said, “I’m going to tell you the
one you did leave out, and that is the real, true God.” And of course, he
proved to those Greeks by vindication, who the true and living God was.
When Bro. Branham went to India, he
didn’t have that kind of reception, because those people over there believed in
God occupying images and people, like a sort of witchcraft, even in a measure
greater than what, I understand, Paul encountered (although he might have, for
all I know). And so, when Bro. Branham prayed in the Name of Jesus Christ, and
the blind man with no eyes in the sockets got brand new eyes in the sockets,
they knew that God was in Bro. Branham. And he tells you how they tore the
clothes off of him—I guess ripped his shoes off—because they were going to
touch God. God was in that person. William Branham was a “god”.
And that’s no different from Haiti,
where you see people, devil possessed, and going around bleary-eyed and
wallowing and almost frothing, everything else, and they’re under the spirit,
and people want to touch them. And anything they touch on the table they can
have, for that’s blessed. And so Bro. Branham actually said the truth, when he
said the police had to rescue him.
14. So, Paul
declared the unknown god. Well now, you and I do not have an unknown god. We
positively know God. That’s a picture of the Pillar of Fire above Bro.
Branham’s head. The Pillar of Fire is not God; God is in the Pillar of Fire,
because God is spirit. That is the Shekinah Glory. Bro. Branham said it was,
which is, in the Hebrew meaning, the glory attendant upon the personal presence
of God; God being present, as Bro. Branham said, “God is here present in a
Pillar of Fire to lead us into the Millennium.” And it’s all through the New
Testament. And look up the word ‘presence’; you’re going to find it. See?
15. So, what about this God? See? What about it? So ‘God’ and
‘Godhead’ are the same word.
16. Now the word
‘Godhood’ is not in the Bible, but it’s in the dictionary. And I use the word
‘Godhood.’ And ‘Godhood’ means ‘the state or quality of being a god’. That’s
the ‘state or quality of that being’. So if it’s ‘Godhood’, or ‘childhood’, or
‘parenthood’, or even a ‘falsehood’, you might say, that’s a state or quality
of what you are talking about. See?
So all right. Remember, as in
childhood, it’s the state of being a child. And look over here in 1 Corinthians
13, and we’ll just look at it, because it’s in the Bible; so it makes a very
good example. In 1 Cor 13:11: When I was a child I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I came to manhood… Now
he’s in another state so the quality is absolutely different. He thought as a
child, he played as a child, he did a lot of things as a child. When he became
a man, and unfortunately, or fortunately, I don’t know how you’re going to put
it, that’s the bar-mitzvah at age thirteen, you’ve got to act like a man, not
like a little kid. That would be a great thing to have kids growing up at age
thirteen and taking responsibility.
I know my brother had to. He was
about eight years old, and he drove about eight horses. At age twelve he could
do about anything. He had to. He was forced to do it. He had no money. He had
nothing. You know, the Bible says: if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Well, he
wanted to eat. We all wanted to eat so we all were workers. He was one of the
best I’ve ever known.
So, you see, ‘hood’ refers to
quality and state. See? The quality, what is appropriate at that particular
time—the state that is in. That’s why Bro. Branham preached on the becoming God
and yet, God is never changing—never, ever. It’s not a change. It’s God
manifesting relative to time and conditions: same God.
17. Okay. Let’s look
at something else in Scripture. We go to Heb 5:13, and It says:
(13) For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the Word of
righteousness: for he is a babe.
Now babyhood is fine. You don’t
expect too much of a baby. It’s a pity that so many people want to destroy
little kids, their childhood, like the little Ramsey [Jon Benet Ramsey] girl.
And women today, dress their beautiful little daughters up and make them sex
symbols and they… I have a hunch that the little girl was murdered by a rapist
that was in that house. I can’t say that for sure, but I read enough articles
that I believe that one day you’d find out that’s exactly the truth. The little
girl was destroyed. And they’re being destroyed all the time, because parents
will not treat children the way they should be treated—like children.
And society is doing a bad thing
even now, for example with Bush’s speech: they’re all screaming you know, about
the need for kindergarten and preschool—why? I never had kindergarten. I never
had preschool. And I could read backwards faster than most people could read
frontwards. My kids never had it. Carol could read the newspaper in grade one.
You don’t need that bosh and bunk. They’re destroying families and everything
else; all in the name of what? Civilization, my foot. It’s gotten worse every
time. The more civilized people are, the more barbaric they are. The more they
have brains the more stupid they are. Why? Because the foolishness of God is
wiser than the wisest of men, and wisdom comes from Satan. He’s a destroyer. So
who cares what they do in politics. I gave up on it a long time ago.
18. So, all right,
‘Godhood’. We’re talking about Godhood now. See? We’re looking at a state or
quality of being. So Godhood would be a state and quality or a quality of being
God. Godhood speaks of what exactly God is within Himself so that He will act
at any given time and on any given occasion exactly and always according to His
essentiality. The perfect Creator and perfect Maintainer, and, at the end, the
perfect Creator Father having fulfilled Himself. Certainly, because God gives
Himself purpose and reason of being according to exactly Who and What He is,
and He can’t do it in any other way. God is simply Himself and acting
accordingly—presenting Himself as to Who and What He is.
19. So, okay. Let’s just take a look at the word, first of all,
‘essential’. ‘One, of, or constituting, the intrinsic’. Well, we’re going to
have to look that word up, aren’t we? ‘Constituting the intrinsic fundamental
nature of something’. ‘Basic’, ‘inherent’, ‘absolute’, ‘complete’, ‘perfect’,
‘pure’, ‘necessary to make a thing what it is’, ‘indispensable’, ‘something
necessary’… Now the noun ‘essential’: ‘something necessary or fundamental,
indispensable, inherent or basic feature or principle’. The synonym
‘essential’, in strict usage, is applicable to that which constitutes the
absolute essence or the fundamental nature of a thing and, therefore, must be
present for the thing to exist and function. It’s indispensable. The thing
cannot be done without it, specified or implied, or anything achieved. So, all
right, that means essential.
20. So what does
intrinsic mean? Well, that’s a good word; I use them both all the time.
‘Intrinsic’: ‘belonging to the real nature of a thing, not depending on
external circumstances; essential and inherent’. ‘Intrinsical’, means it’s
intrinsic or inherent. ‘Intrinsically’ means naturally, essentially inherently.
21. So when you put
the words together, when I call God ‘essentially’ and ‘intrinsically’, I am
telling you that this is a pure God, absolutely pure and daunting, you cannot
stand before Him. There is nothing can stand before Him. He is it. And exactly
what He is as it, He cannot change it, and it will manifest and come forth. You
understand what I’m saying? We’re looking at sovereignty my brother/sister. Put
a loving, omnipotent, omniscient God in view of His children, and you have “our
Father.”
22. So let’s start
over again. I say Godhood speaks of what exactly God is within Himself. You
understand what I’m saying? That’s inherent. Basic, fundamental—this is it.
Without it, there isn’t any ‘it’. So you’re looking, now, at pure, pure
essentiality. And I’ve doubled the meaning, because ‘essential’ does mean
‘pure’. When I use pure essentiality, I’m saying essentiality in a sense that
you cannot use another word; because that’s the word you’ve got to use. Now,
I’m being a real theologian here, because you won’t find this in books. See?
Godhood speaks of exactly what God
is within Himself so that He will act at any given time and on any given
occasion exactly and always according to His essentiality. In other words, as
soon as a dog sees a cat, he’s right after the cat. As soon as a cat sees a
mouse, he’s going to jump on the mouse. God can be seen in nature, though you
can’t understand Him by nature, but God is absolutely revealed in nature, and
Bro. Branham told you in nature, it repeats, and doesn’t change. And species do
not change. The minute it does, it goes sterile.
23. So God is God,
and He cannot help being God. So therefore, He has boundaries, not that He sets
them, but they’re there. God cannot lie; God cannot change. God cannot change
His mind about His Word. Now the more that you listen to me and understand, the
more you’ll understand Bro. Branham’s depth of insight that he had concerning
God. Even to the extent, when he said, “God
knew how many fleas there’d be, how many times they’d bat their eyeballs, and
how many fleas it’d take to make a pound of tallow.” Now Pink never got
that far, because Pink couldn’t take it back to the Creator.
24. So, all right:
...at any given time, always according to His essentiality. [This statement is
in the second paragraph of paragraph 22 above. Bro. Vayle goes back to his
notes and repeats the statement.] Now, if you’ve got a muscle that can only
life 10 pounds, you’re not going to lift 15. So the essential muscle is 10
pound weight that it can lift. Tea is essential; water is essential. Water’s
essential to life. That’s using it another way. But with essentiality, you are
bringing down to what it is within itself, the perfect creator, the perfect
maintainer. But we saw when I read Chapter 25, verses 1-5, the perfect Father.
Now, thus God Himself is limited and
unchanging according to His intrinsicality which manifests in what I call His
Godhoodness. (There is no such word, but it’s good enough for me. I make my own
words up like Father Divine did. Bro. Branham made a few up too.) It’s a good
word, Godhoodedness, or Godhoodness. I don’t care what you call it. According
to that intrinsicality, see?
Okay, childhood is a child acting
out himself. Godhood is God acting out Himself. We don’t expect a child to be
anything but a child and bemoan those who try to change that. God cannot be
anything but God. To know this and be born again is how we learn to love Him
and walk according to His Word—the faith life or walk.
25. Now see, this is
the sovereignty of God, and this is what people don’t believe. They don’t
believe it. And you know why they don’t believe it? Because they’ve got the
wisdom of the devil in them. They think their minds can somehow conjure up and
force God of the Bible to be different from what He says concerning Himself.
That’s why you’ve got the Jesus-Only bunch, who’ll make Jesus God and make the
Son his own father. That’s hogwash. That’s rubbish. And then you’ve got the
Jehovah Witnesses who make Jesus the agent of creation being the first creation
and not the Son of God. Now they’re wrong. See? Sovereignty. You leave God
alone, just the way He is. And you better find out how He is, and leave Him
alone, in His sovereignty and go on and learn how to benefit by and through
this wonderful and only-wise loving God—our Father.
26. So all right,
God cannot be anything but God. Who’d dare to change God or require of God
anything except what lies within Him? And only God’s perfect wisdom can perform
this. In other words you leave Him alone; you can’t change Him. If Bro. Branham
said, “Prayer is not you twisting God’s
arm but waiting before God…” or rather, he said, “You can’t pray and make God change His mind, but prayer is where you
wait before God to change your mind,” or to put it more Scripturally, “to
receive the mind of God,” and “to have the mind of God.” Now two can walk
together—being of one mind—agreeing. Let this mind be in you as it was in
Christ.
He has neither shadow of changing...
There’s no shadow, no changing. That’s in the Scripture. ...and works all
things according to His Own purpose, because it is impossible for Him to do
otherwise being Who and What He is. Now let’s get that flat. This is true; He
is unchanging.
27. Now I’m giving
you, as far as I know, absolute beautiful theology. Maybe I’m not, but you’re
listening to me, sit here, and I’m doing the best I can. Now I’m not a good
theologian, and I’m not a prophet, but I’m doing the best I possibly can to let
you know what the Scripture actually defines as God: God is
sovereign—absolutely truly sovereign. Sovereign love, sovereign wisdom,
sovereign power—or the outworking of God Himself—doing it all for us, because
He is there for us.
He Who is omnipotent is also
omniscient. How can you change Him? Knowing Who He is, and with all His ways so
perfect, who would want or dare to change Him, and being all powerful, who
would dare to challenge Him? And being all wise, your own wisdom would be
foolishness. How could you win a debate? You can’t do it. Job sort of tried it.
Thus, as absolute sovereign, we have
absolute perfection that we are beholding. He is our King; let us praise Him
and let Him rule us forever, even eternally. Now see, that’s what we need to
know about God. Now, let’s go a step further concerning the intrinsicality and
the essentiality of God. Now this is the most that I believe we can apprehend.
The intrinsicality and the essentiality of God, is revealed that that Holy
Spirit of love is revealed to us in the Jehovah-complex as Jehovah-Provider,
Jehovah-Healer, Jehovah-Banner (that’s the protector), Jehovah-Peace,
Jehovah-Shepherd (that’s the great keeper), Jehovah-Righteousness,
Jehovah-Present, Jehovah, the All Sufficient One, Jehovah, the Sanctifier. That
is God, as to His intrinsicality. Let this Divine Ruler, rule in our hearts and
minds and see the stature of the perfect man appear in the born ones of God.
28. Now, you can
just say God is spirit, and He’s a loving spirit. Very good, if He is that,
that can be a god human assessment. But tell me what God has said about Himself
in His omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign position; what has He told me about
the intrinsicality of His all sufficiency and His all supremacy, His all
superior and supreme ways? God Himself must tell us. So this great Creator,
this great Fashioner, this great Maintainer, who has all these things for His
own purpose (and they are in Him), reveals Himself by His Word. Having done all
this, and we part of the picture, where do we come in to anything that is of
benefit to us? What is it all about? Well, the actual fact of the matter is God
is all about us whether we want to know it or not. Do you understand what I’m
saying? Because we are His children, and when it is all over, and the New
Jerusalem is established, you will have only every redeemed son of Adam, for
God was the first man, Jesus the second man made in the image of God, Adam was
the third man made in the image of both which was the same image. But each time
it’s a step-down. And Adam wasn’t God, but he became the precursor, he became
the progenitor of the human race, the children that God wanted to fill this
earth. And now, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all are made alive.
29. And so, you see,
the final scenes of the Bible, and Bro. Branham described it, the Lamb on the
throne, the Pillar of Fire above the throne, the Bride in Mt. Zion 1500 miles
square at the base and 1500 miles high; pyramidal city, 144,000 attendants, the
archangels there, the four great beasts there, the twenty-four elders there,
whatever angels were there; and outside, the other children, every one that
died in Adam but not in the Bride: call them foolish virgin, call them what you
want. They’re all out there, and they’re all around the throne, and they are
the children of God. And they have supremacy over every thing in this earth
with Christ, because they’re with him in the throne. So what is God all about?
He’s all about what I just told you. “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come.”
30. Now let’s look a
little closer, as I read them to you. He is the Provider, He’s the Healer
(that’s in Revelation 2), He’s the Banner, that’s there too, He’s our Peace,
that’s there too, He’s the Shepherd, that’s there too, He’s our Righteousness,
that’s there too, He is Present, that’s there too, He’s All-Sufficient, that’s
there too, He’s the Sanctifier, that’s there too, and every single one is
toward us. And we, having come out of the loins of God are a part of this, even
as Bro. Branham called the Bride Mrs. Jesus, and Messiahettes. Never forget the
sovereignty of God is an involvement with His children. It is there He comes
forth in the sovereignty of all His essentiality in love.
31. Now we could
stand back and like the rest of the folk do and say, “Well, God is omnipotent,
hallelujah, I believe in a great omnipotent God.” Well, fine. What’s that got
to do with me? What’s that got to do with me? How do I tap into it? How’s He to
become available? What are the conditions? Where does it start? What’s going
on? Where does it end? Now you tell me everything I’ve just told you, and you
already know the answer. You are an enlightened people. I certainly hope so,
because I’m enlightened, I’ve been teaching for thirty-some years here. And our
young kids should know more than most adults.
Fellow was here the other day from
another country; a certain brother asked him how did you like the service.
Well, he said, it was deep. And Lloyd said, “Well, he should have asked one of
our six year old kids.” Which is true. Not boasting; just telling the truth.
32. So, all right,
we see this great sovereign God here then, and we understand that the
essentiality and the intrinsicality, what God is, what makes Him up, period. It
all boils down to the devoted Father. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed
be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
give us this day our daily bread; lead us not into temptation but deliver us
from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory—yep, forgive
us, we forgive others, right down the line. That was the disciples prayer that
Jesus taught them. Right down the line. So, all right, we have here then an
understanding before us concerning the great unchanging Almighty God, and He is
completely sovereign.
33. Now, as much
time as I have, I won’t take time perhaps to read the whole chapter, but I want
to read from Dr. Pink. And, actually, I used this book many years ago; I
preached it entirely, and then, having met Bro. Branham, I was able to get to
the source of true knowledge, which is seed, the soul a part of God, understand
what Dr. Pink never came to and never could because it wasn’t his hour. So God’s
Sovereignty Defined... Now some of my thoughts will come from Dr. Pink,
from Bro. Branham, and in my own thinking.
“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the
power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the
heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art
exalted as Head above all”
That was said in 1 Chron 29:11. I suppose
that’s the prayer of Solomon. I don’t know. So Dr. Pink says:
“The Sovereignty of God is an expression
that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious
literature.”
“It was a theme frequently expounded in
the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts, and gave
virility and stability to Christian character.”
34. Remember
what Bro. Branham said about the African that was a slave? And he said he stood head and shoulders above all the rest, and he
said, “I want to buy that one,” he said, “He’s not for sale.” “Well,” he said,
“then tell me, why, why… Do you feed him better? Has he got an education?
What’s with that guy? Is he better than the rest?” He said, “He remembers who
he was. His father was a king, and he was a prince.”
“But, today, to make mention of God’s
sovereignty is, in many quarters, to speak in an unknown tongue.”
That’s
a pretty way of putting it. It’s really blasphemy.
“Were we to announce from the average
pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the sovereignty of God, it
would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of our dead
languages. Alas! That it should be so. Alas! That the doctrine which is the key
to history, the interpreter of Providence,” (the understanding of God, the
opening of it) “the warp and woof of Scripture, and the foundation of Christian
theology, should be so sadly neglected and so little understood.” (I like his
phraseology.)
35. “The sovereignty of God. What do we mean by this expression?
We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the godhood of God. To say
that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God.”
In other words don’t talk about God
unless you know sovereignty. Shut up till you know about it. Now this is
something they knew years ago. If you don’t believe it, you start studying the
old timers. Get back to the Puritans.
“To say that God is sovereign is to
declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand
or say unto Him what doest Thou?”
That’s Dan 4:35. Nebuchadnezzar said
that.
36. “To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the
Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can
defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Ps 115:3).”
“To say
that God is sovereign is to declare that He is ‘The Governor among the nations’
(Ps 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the
course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is sovereign is to
declare that He is the ‘Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords’
(1 Tim 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.”
“How
different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception
of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give
heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of
the Truth.” (Oh, I love his language.) “The God of the twentieth century is a
helpless, effeminate” (Oh, oh, he hit it right there.) “effeminate being who
commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind
is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day
pulpit is an object of pity rather than the awe-inspiring reverence.”
This
man tells of a preacher who was so taken away with God being rebuffed, the
sinner sinning, Satan dominating, that he went around wringing his hands, “Oh,
poor God, poor God. I’m so sorry for God, poor God.” Modern sentimentality,
hogwash, claptrap, and balderdash.
37. “The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity
rather than an object that projects an awe-inspiring reverence.”
“To say that God the Father has purposed
the salvation of all mankind, that the Son died with the express intention of
saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win
the world to Christ;” (Of course, you know that’s theology.) “when, as a matter
of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of our fellow-men
are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the
Father is disappointed, the Son is dissatisfied,
and the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit is defeated. We have stated the issue baldly, but there
is no escaping the conclusion. To argue that God is “trying His best” to save
all mankind, but the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist
that the will of the Creator is impotent, and the will of the creature is
omnipotent. To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the
difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is
Almighty, and God is no longer the Supreme Being.”
38. I see people don’t want
to hear language like that. No, no, they’ll say, “Hold it right there, you
see?” No, I don’t see their tripe. I see this; I see this. You think God didn’t
know Adam was going to fall? You take a pussycat and throw him into the boa
constrictor’s den, next morning the cat’s gone.
“Oh,
poor pussy cat, what happened to you?”
God,
being a Savior, it was necessary that He predestinate a man who would need
salvation in order to give Himself purpose and reason of being, and that’s what
Paul said in Ephesians. You’ll marvel at Dr. Pink, but the point is we
shouldn’t be marveling at him. This should be common teaching.
“To throw the blame, as many do, upon the
Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of
God, then, Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being.”
“To declare that the Creator’s original
plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was
taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen
calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal.”
(Well he said it nicely, I’d just put a little more, you know, interesting.)
“To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny,
and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of
the attribute of Omnipotence. To say that the creature has burst the bounds
assigned by his Creator, and that God is now practically a helpless Spectator
before the sin and suffering entailed by Adam’s fall, is to repudiate the
express declaration of Holy Writ, namely, ‘Surely the wrath of man shall praise
Thee: the remainder of wrath Thou shalt restrain’.” (Now, I used that a while
ago, Ps 76:10.) “In a word, to deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a
path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank
atheism.”
And that’s exactly true, that’s what
they did. When they stripped God of His Godhood, it was gone. I wonder if we
ought to substitute Godhood for sovereignty as we read, or at least consider
the full meaning of sovereignty as we read.
39. “The sovereignty of the
God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is
sovereign we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for His
own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the
Potter over the clay, that is, that He may mould that clay into whatsoever form
He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor, another unto
dishonor.” (That’s Scripture.) “We affirm that He is under no rule or law
outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself,” (And He
can’t help it. See?) “and that He is under no obligation to give an account of
His matters to any.” (Oh yeah, but the preachers today, they’re going to make
God account. Yeah, yeah; yep.)
“Sovereignty characterizes the whole Being
of God. He is sovereign in all His attributes. He is sovereign in the exercise
of His power. His power is exercised as He wills, when He wills, where He
wills. This fact is evidenced on every page of Scripture. For a long season
that power appears to be dormant, then it is put forth in irresistible might.
Pharaoh dared to hinder Israel from going forth to worship Jehovah in the
wilderness—what happened? God exercised His power, God’s people were delivered
and their cruel task-masters slain. But a little later, the Amalekites dared to
attack these same Israelites in the wilderness, and what happened? Did God put
forth His power on this occasion and display His hand as He did at the Red Sea?
Were these enemies of His people promptly overthrown and destroyed? No, on the
contrary, the Lord swore that He would ‘have war with Amalek from generation to
generation’ (Ex 17:16).”
“Again, when Israel entered the land of
Canaan, God’s power was signally displayed. The city of Jericho barred their
progress—what happened? Israel did not draw a bow nor strike a blow: the Lord
stretched forth His hand and the walls fell down flat. But the miracle was
never repeated! No other city fell after this manner. Every other city had to
be captured by the sword!”
40. “Many other instances might be adduced
illustrating the sovereign exercise of God’s power. Take one other example. God
put forth His power and David was delivered from Goliath, the giant; the mouths
of the lions were closed and David escaped unhurt; the three Hebrew children
were cast into the burning fiery furnace and came forth unharmed and
unscorched. But God’s power did not always interpose for the deliverance of His
people, for we read: ‘And others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned and they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, and afflicted, and tormented’ (Heb
11:36-37).”
“But why? Why were not these men of faith
delivered like others? Or, why were not the others suffered to be killed like
these? Why should God’s power interpose and rescue some and not the others? Why
allow Stephen to be stoned to death, and then deliver Peter from prison? God is
sovereign in the delegation of His power to others. Why did God endow
Methuselah with a vitality which enabled him to outlive his contemporaries? Why
did God impart to Samson a physical strength which no other human has ever
possessed? Again; it is written, ‘But Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for
it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth’” (Dan 8:18), “but God does not
bestow this power on all alike. Why not? Why has He given such power to men
like Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller? The answer to all of these questions, is:
because God is Sovereign, and being Sovereign, He does as He pleases.”
41. “God is sovereign in the exercise of His mercy. Necessarily
so, for mercy is directed by His will of Him that showeth mercy.” (Well sure.)
“Mercy is not a right to which a man is entitled. Mercy is that adorable
attribute of God by which He pities and relieves the wretched. But under the
righteous government of God no one is wretched who does not deserve to be so.
The objects of mercy, then, are those who are miserable, and all misery is the
result of sin, hence the miserable are deserving of punishment not mercy. To
speak of deserving mercy is a contradiction of terms.”
Now that’s a good thought right
there. See? He brings it out that they’re not all deserving. Of course, when
you take grace you always want to lump it together and say, “Well, man didn’t
deserve it, but he’s got grace.” But, you’ll notice that grace is extended to
the children of God. There again I have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And
then, in the same Scripture, “Didn’t I make one different from another?”
42. “God bestows His
mercies on whom He pleases and withholds them as seemeth good unto Himself. A
remarkable illustration of this fact is seen in the manner that God responded
to the prayers of two men offered under very similar circumstances. Sentence of
death was passed upon Moses for one act of disobedience, and he besought the
Lord for a reprieve. But was his desire gratified? No; he told Israel, ‘The
Lord is wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said
unto me, Let it suffice thee.’”
In
other words, shut up and don’t talk any more. So, how much good can your prayer
do in the face of a Word that’s against you? See? You’ve got to have God’s Word
for you.
43. “Now mark the second case, ‘In those days was Hezekiah sick
unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him, and said unto
him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for Thou shalt die, and not
live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto God, saying, I
beseech Thee, O Lord, remember me how I have walked before Thee in truth and
with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And
Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone into the middle
court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell
Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy
father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen they tears: behold, I will
heal thee: on the third day Thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I
will add unto thy days fifteen years.’”
Now many people take that as their own promise to themselves
that I’ve seen your tears, and I’m going to… I don’t know that you’re allowed
to do that. I don’t see that that’s an open promise to everyone. That was to
Hezekiah. The open promise is, “I am the Lord that healeth thee,” and there are
certain areas that you must enter into.
“Both of these men had the sentence of
death in themselves, and both prayed earnestly unto the Lord for a reprieve,
and the one wrote: ‘The Lord would not hear me,’ and died; but it was said in
the other, ‘I have heard they prayer,’ and his life was spared. What an
illustration and exemplification of the truth expressed in Rom 9:15!—‘For He
saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion.’”
44. “The sovereign exercise of God’s mercy—pity shown to the
wretched—was displayed when Jehovah became flesh and tabernacled among men.
Take one illustration. During one of the Feasts of the Jews, the Lord Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. He came to the Pool of Bethesda, where lay “a great multitude
of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the
water.” Among this ‘great multitude’ there was “a certain man which had an
infirmity thirty and eight years.” What happened? “When Jesus saw him lie, and
knew that he had been there a long time in that case, he saith unto him,” (not
to somebody else) “Wilt Thou be made whole? The impotent man answered Him, Sir,
I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I
am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up
they bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his
bed, and walked (Jn 5:3-9).”
“Why was this man singled out from all the
others? We are not told that he cried ‘Lord, have mercy on me.’ There is not a word
in the narrative which intimates that this man possessed any qualifications
which entitled him to receive special favor. Here then was a case of the
sovereign exercise of Divine mercy, for it was just as easy for Christ to heal
the whole of that ‘great multitude’ as this one ‘certain man.’ But he did not.
He put forth His power and relieved the wretchedness of this one particular
sufferer, and for some reason known only to Himself, He declined to do the same
for the others. Again, we say, what an illustration and exemplification of Rom
9:15!—‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.’”
Now
this man his hitting a very, very strong chord here, because, you see,
everybody wants blanket coverage. You don’t get it. There’s a blanket coverage
in a sense of the word, in the sense of the word that God compassionates who He
will compassionate—who He will
compassionate—not what you and I say.
“God is sovereign in the exercise of His
love. Ah! that is a hard saying, who then can receive it? It is written, ‘A man
can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven’.” (from above)
45. “When we say that God is sovereign in the exercise of His
love, we mean that He loves whom He chooses. God does not love everybody; if He
did, He would love the Devil. Why does not God love the Devil? Because there is
nothing in him to love; because there is nothing in him to attract the heart of
God. Nor is there anything to attract God’s love in any of the fallen sons of
Adam, for all of them are, by nature, ‘children of wrath’. If then there is
nothing in any member of the human race to attract God’s love, and if,
notwithstanding, He does love some, then it necessarily follows that the cause
of His love must be found in Himself, which is only another way of saying that
the exercise of God’s love towards the fallen sons of men is according to His
own good pleasure.”
(He makes
a note on that:) “We are not unmindful of the fact that men have invented the
distinction between God love and complacency and His love of compassion, but
this is an invention pure and simple, Scripture terms the latter ‘God’s pity.’
He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” (Very good wasn’t it?)
46. “In the final analysis the exercise of God’s love must be
traced back to His sovereignty, or otherwise, He would love by rule; and if He
loved by rule, then is He under a law of love, and if He is under a law of love
then is He not supreme, but He Himself is ruled by a law.” (See, that’s very good.
See? That’s the truth of sovereignty.) “’But,’ it may be asked, ‘Surely you do
not deny that God loves the entire human family?’ We reply, it is written,
‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’”
“If then God loved Jacob and hated Esau,
and that before they were born or had done neither good or evil, then the
reason for His love was not in them, but in Himself.”
47. Now see, here’s where he misses it. Where Bro. Branham said,
“By election, God does not choose this and leave the other.” See? The choosing
is in God, because they’re already chosen in Him, for they were in Him. See?
This is where Pink misses what Bro. Branham could have supplied to him. Seed!
See?)
“That the exercise of God’s love is
according to His own sovereign pleasure” (that’s true) “is also clear from the
language of Eph 1:3-5, where we read, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him” (How could He choose
us in Him if we weren’t in Him? See?) “before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will.” (Now he’s hitting on all eight cylinders on this one.)
“It was ‘in love’ that God the Father predestinated His chosen ones unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ‘according’—according to what?
According to some excellency He discovered in them? No. What then? According to
what He foresaw they would become? No; mark carefully the inspired answer—
‘According to the good pleasure of His will.’”
God
did it. And according to Pink and the Scripture, it was before they were born, before
the foundation of the world, even as Jesus was the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.
48. “God is sovereign in
the exercise of His grace. This of necessity, for grace is favor shown to the
undeserving, yea, to the Hell-deserving. Grace is the antithesis of justice”
(that means the opposite of justice). “Justice demands the impartial
enforcement of law. Justice requires that each shall receive his legitimate
due, neither more nor less. Justice bestows no favors and is no respecter of
persons.” (That’s what it should be. Justice is that, but not American style.)
“Justice, as such, shows no pity and knows no mercy. But after justice has been
fully satisfied, grace flows forth. Divine grace is not exercised at the
expense of justice, but ‘grace reigns through righteousness’” (See?) “Grace
‘reigns’, then grace is sovereign.” (Comes from a sovereign God.)
“Grace has been defined as the unmerited
favor of God; and if unmerited, then none can claim it as their inalienable
right. If grace is unearned and undeserved, then none are entitled to it.” (Now
what does he say about that? “An esteemed friend who kindly read through this
book in its manuscript form, and to whom we are indebted for a number of
excellent suggestions, has pointed out that grace is something more than
unmerited favor. To feed a tramp who calls on me an unmerited favor, but it is
scarcely grace. But suppose after robbing me; I should feed the starving tramp;
that would be grace. Grace, then, is favor shown where there is positive demerit
in the one receiving it.” Well, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, that would settle that for me. But I like the idea of reigning, grace
reigns, because the Bible says so.)
49. “The sovereign exercise of grace is illustrated on nearly
every page of Scripture. The Gentiles are left to walk in their own ways, while
Israel becomes the covenant people of Jehovah. Ishmael the firstborn is cast
out comparatively unblessed, while Isaac the son of his parents’ old age is
made the child of promise. Esau the generous-hearted and forgiving-spirited is
denied the blessing, though he sought it carefully with tears, while the worm
Jacob receives the inheritance and is fashioned into a vessel of honor. So in
the New Testament. Divine truth is hidden from the wise and prudent, but is
revealed to babes. The Pharisees and Sadducees are left to go their own way,
while publicans and harlots are drawn by the cords of Love.” (Sure, because
they were not children of wrath and discredited in the sense of being serpent
seed, they were just sheep gone astray.)
“In a remarkable manner Divine grace was
exercised at the time of the Savior’s birth. The incarnation of God’s Son was
one of the greatest events in the history of the universe, and yet its actual
occurrence was not made known to all mankind; instead, it was especially
revealed to the Bethlehem shepherds and wise men of the East. And was prophetic
and indicative of the entire course of this dispensation, for even today Christ
is not made known to all.” (Now that’s very true.) “It would have been an easy
matter for God to have sent a company of angels to every nation and announce
the birth of His Son. But He did not. God could have readily attracted the
attention of all mankind to the ‘star;’ but He did not. Why? Because God is
sovereign and dispenses His favors as He pleases. Note particularly the two
classes to whom the birth of the Savior was made known, namely, the most
unlikely classes—illiterate shepherds and heathen from a far country. No angel
stood before the Sanhedrin and announced the advent of Israel’s Messiah!”
“No ‘star’ appeared to the scribes and
lawyers as they, in their pride and self-righteousness, searched the
Scriptures! They searched diligently to find out where He should be born, and
yet it was not made known to
them when He was actually come. What a display of Divine
sovereignty—the illiterate shepherds singled out for this peculiar honor, and
the learned and eminent passed by! And why was the birth of the Savior revealed
to these foreigners, and not to those in whose midst He was born? See in this a
wonderful foreshadowing of God’s dealings with our race throughout the entire
Christian dispensation—sovereign in the exercise of His grace, bestowing His
favors on whom He pleases, often on the most unlikely” (so called) “and
unworthy.” (He’s got a mark on that one.)
“It has been pointed out to us that God’s
sovereignty was singly displayed in His choice of the place where His Son was
born. Not to Greece or Italy did the Lord of glory come, but to the
insignificant land of Palestine, not to Jerusalem, the royal city was Emmanuel
born, but in Bethlehem, which was little among the thousands of towns and
villages in Judah (Mic 5:2), and it was in despised Nazareth that he grew up.
Truly God’s ways are not ours.”
50. Now that gives you an
understanding of sovereignty. And now Dr. Pink goes on, which I am not going to
go on, and he gives outlines from this point, on the sovereignty of God in
creation.
Sovereignty of
God in Administration,
Sovereignty of
God in Salvation,
Sovereignty of
God in Reprobation,
Sovereignty of
God in Operation,
Sovereignty of
God and the Human Will (that’ll be a good one),
God’s Sovereignty
and Human Responsibility (that’s a good one),
God’s Sovereignty
and Prayer,
Our Attitude
Toward God’s Sovereignty (that’s the chapter I want to read to you sometime),
Difficulties and
Objections…
You
know, when you understand Bro. Branham, there aren’t any difficulties and
objections. See, this fellow’s got to go the way of all theologians and
scholars and teachers. But a prophet is a different person. He is God to the
people. He’s the living Word of God made manifested, whatever Word that’s to
be.
The values of
this doctrine (that’s a good one), then
Conclusions with
the Appendix:
The Will of God,
The Case of Adam,
The Meaning of Cosmos (I’ve
explained that before), and
others.
51. So therefore, you have
here an understanding tonight of the sovereignty of Almighty God. And in this
sovereignty, we understand, means supremacy as God is all powerful, and His
dominion is now over all heaven and earth as to past, present and future, and
all that in them is, past, present, future. So God is in complete control, and
He’s revealed His will. And Bro. Branham said, “The truth is out, we know the secrets, we understand, when the seals
were opened, it was literally all over.” And everything we have now, this
corrected theology, and Bro. Branham was one hundred percent for the
sovereignty of Almighty God. And remember, predestination (after Bro. Branham
left the scene) was hit with four-by-fours and 15 ton trucks and what have you.
That’s the first thing that got assaulted.
52. And I wondered today if
seed is actually understood amongst the people who claim this message, because
you cannot possibly understand seed without sovereignty and sovereignty without
seed. You cannot understand the purpose of God and how God deals with His
purposes, and how those purposes are consummated, in other words, finalized, as
they’re being finalized today. And you and I, in spite of the fact that we
could jump up and down and scream with everybody else, “Oh, the end is in
sight! Yes sir, the Jews are back in Palestine.” How many are back in
Palestine? And how many are Jews? Did you ever stop to consider the bastard
couldn’t go to the temple for ten generations? And a bastard is not an
illegitimate child, it’s a child of an Israeli man with a heathen wife, a
gentile wife. So let’s say a little girl is born; she’s got to have a child,
got to have a child, got to have a child, got to have a child, by an Israelite
until the body is brought back to a Jew or an Israelite. And if it’s a boy, ten
generations down, that one is brought back. Then tell me, how many Jews are
real Jews? They’ve been marrying red, green, pink, God knows what color. God
knows what people. And the Jews are a people after the flesh. They come in as a
nation. How many are Jews? Well there’s fifteen million Jews, 144,000 are
Israelites, the elect seed of God, ready to go into the temple, because the
temple would be restored in the Millennium. Right? I believe they’ll be there,
and we’re only going to be there by the grace of God.
53. So all right, right
down the line we see the sovereignty of God. And we see Him fulfilling His will which is actually fulfilling Himself—God all
and in all. And I say we could be like all the rest of them; we could be
jumping up and down saying the Jews are back in Palestine, this, that, and the
other, and be off a million miles, because nobody knew the sovereignty of God
to lead to this day through a vindicated prophet what the Bride was waiting
for; and those that claim to be Bride didn’t wait for it, and they didn’t want
it when it came, which was the revelation of the Rapture – shout, voice, trumpet.
And we know, it’s in progress. We’re a part of it, time and eternity have
blended. Mortality giving way to immortality. Someone’s got to be Bride. The
way I feel most of the time, I could be here waiting for the dead to come up,
shake their hands, but, personally I’d like to get away, because most of the
time I don’t feel that well. But see, most of the time, in my spirit, I feel
real good and I feel conscious of things, and I’m happy about things, but oh,
the pain in the back and those things that come with it.
All
right, we’re going to pray, and we’re going to have communion.
Heavenly
Father, we thank You for the time we’ve had together. And it’s good that You
have had a man like Dr. Pink, although he never knew it, and Bro. Branham knew
to lay out to the people, to let the people here in this building and who get
the tapes, to understand there were men who understood this doctrine which has
been lost to the world, and it came back with men like Dr. Pink. But it took
Your prophet, You Yourself, indwelling Your prophet, to bring Your truth to us
today, which we understand. And we are so grateful, where these men of old
faltered, though they didn’t mean to, they couldn’t help it; but we, today, are
walking in the Light, what a beautiful Light, shines on our path.
Bro.
Branham used to sing “We’ll Walk in the Light, What a Beautiful Light.” And
we’re walking in that beautiful light, and, hopefully, Lord, we’re walking as
good solid Christians. And soon it’ll be over in the sense that we’ll have
finished this little part of our journey, and we’re embarking on the great
wonderful next thousands and thousands of years, marching toward Zion. We give
Thee glory, because You’re worthy, and we praise You because You loved us. And
we have the surety and the knowledge, the blessing Divine, the life of the Word
welling up within us, piling Word upon Word. Surely, Lord, mortality will go
into immortality, people sitting here, Lord, and those around the world. And we
love You, Lord, because You loved us. May You get glory out of our lives. In
Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.