Who Is This Melchisedec? #
13
Bro. Lee Vayle
September 25, 1988
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we know that Your descent with a Shout was the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, the revelation of Him for this hour, knowing Lord, that that would be brought to us and as Your Word said, “The people would know their God,” and it would not be a matter of saying to those, “Do you know God?” but in the Bride there would be a real definitive knowledge and we believe that’s what this Message is all about as You as that great Person, Lord, in seeing Your complete fullness as it’s never been seen before.
We ask You Lord to help us to
understand the things that the prophet has set forth in his word, preached to
us in this sermon, Father, because that’s what our heart is set upon at this
hour to know these things, not that we would force issues, Lord, but by grace
we would believe that You would help us to receive the revelation that has been
given to us so we might understand, at least Lord as far as we are able to go and
if there is a limit then we know that that is perfectly satisfactory because,
Father, we would just leave it in Your divine sovereign will. So help us this morning, Lord, as is in so
far appropriate with Thy divine will in this hour, Your divine commission. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
Now, thus far we have been...come up
to about page fourteen in “Who Is This Melchisedec?” and I think this is number
thirteen this morning, if not fourteen, somewhere in that area, and I want to
read some paragraphs out of pages fifteen and fourteen and I will not read them
in the chronological order that Bro. Branham gave to us, but I will read them
sort of at random as I want to do so.
Beginning in 15 and 70.
[70] Before the foundation of the
world his Name’s put on the Lamb’s Book of Life. And we talked about that. Then
from that He became the Word, the theophany, that could appear, disappear; and
then He became flesh and returned back again, resurrected that same body in a
glorified condition. But you bypassed
the theophany and became flesh-man to be tempted by sin. And then “if this earthly tabernacle is
dissolved, which of course it will be except for a few at the end
time, we have one already waiting.” We
have not yet the bodies. That is to
say, the Word bodies or those theophonies.
But look, when this body receives
the Spirit of God, the Immortal Life inside of you, it throws this body in
subjection to God. Hallelujah! So you haven’t received either that
theophonic form, and you haven’t received the immortality though you have the
Holy Ghost that guarantees it.
Now the second one I’m reading is
paragraph 65 on 14.
[65] When Abraham met Him, He was
Melchisedec. He unfolds here what all
the attributes will do in the final end, every son of Abraham. Every son of the faith will absolutely do the
same thing. But I want to watch how we
have to come. Now how we have to
come, and then finally get there, is something he is bringing out in this
message.
Paragraph 64, the one above it.
[64] Now God in this stage of His
creation later formed into flesh Jesus.
From what? From the great
beginning Spirit, then came down to be the Word, bringing Itself out. The Word doesn’t yet make Itself, it’s just
spoke out, En morphe, later He becomes flesh, Jesus, mortal to taste death for
all of us sinners.
Now
you notice He said the name is on the Book of Life, then it’s spoken, and then
it takes that form. Now he’s talking in terms of coming down
through Jesus. Now the fourth
one we’ll read is 67.
[67] Now, we see the attribute,
sons of His Spirit have not yet entered into the Word form body, but--a
theophany. This body, the Word form
body, he said, but--a theophany, he’s saying here that they haven’t entered
into a theophany, a Word form. They’ve
entered into a physical form. This body is subject to the Word and
earnest--waiting for the earnest change of the body.
Paragraph 68.
[68] Now, the difference between
Him and you as a son...See, He was at the beginning the Word, an En morphe
body. He came in and lived in that in
the Person of Melchisedec. Then
later...We never heard any more of Melchisedec because He became Jesus
Christ. Melchisedec was the Priest but
He became Jesus Christ. Now, you
bypassed that, because in that form He knew all things. And you have never been
able to know that yet. You came like
Adam, like me. You became from the
attribute to the flesh to be tempted.
Notice the word ‘became’, there’s a progression there which means something was already there in the beginning and that has come on down, and of course at this particular time it’s come down through flesh, and if you die then you go to the Word form body, come back and pick up your glorified body. But if you don’t die, then you’ll get a glorified body, pick up your theophany sometime in the air before the Wedding Supper. Now it says.
[68] ...You became from the attribute to the flesh to be tempted. But when this life is finished here...”If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.” That’s where we go; that is the Word. It’s not just the Word that says it’s the Word but that’s the Word-body. Then we can look back and see what we’ve done. Now we don’t understand it. We have never become the Word; we’ve just become the flesh-man, not the Word.
All right, that sort of gives you an
idea what we are into and maybe I can do a little bit on the board, maybe I
can’t. Well we’ll see just what we come
up with here. To begin with we just take
a look at God Himself, and we find God is Eternal Spirit, so we make a circle [1] which signifies Eternal Spirit. Writing up hill is not too good and getting
this stuff down where it works isn’t too great.
All right, number one here, we
have...it’s not going to be too good, is it?
Try this one here and get a little more power maybe. So, ‘A’ here, [A] we have Eternal Spirit.
Now, that’s what you’re looking at--Eternal Spirit. Now, within the Eternal Spirit are two major
governing attributes which control all principles and anything, and everything
that will come from God, or be a part of God in any shape whatsoever--and of
course that is [B] omniscience and omnipotence. [Bro. Vayle writes
the underlined on the board]
Now, we know before omnipotence ever
went into any play whatsoever, that omniscience had thoroughly done it’s
work. So, now down here [C] then we realize that nothing is
there, where ever there is, but God. And, in other words, there’s nothing
created at that point. So, we just
keep that in mind and then you listen to what I’m going to read.
This being so, here is the
conclusion or statement that we’re going to draw. Thus if any thing would
manifest prior to creation, anything would be there at all, which we read about
in
It’s very strange but animals
literally can see spirits--man can’t.
Now I can’t tell you any Scripture for that but I think it’s been proven
many times, that animals have a sort of a sense that we don’t have and they can
sense and see things that people can’t see.
Now if you go into spiritism you’ll find that’s true, where a spiritist
in a room can bring something that an animal will see and the dog immediately
bristle, or a cat bristle and begin to spit and bark, and what have you, which
ever animal is there, and they know that something is there. Like when that blob of light that was seen in
Boston, and you saw a picture in Life magazine, was photographed by a policeman
who drew his gun to shoot at it and thought better of it, when it passsed over
a barn the horses immediately begin kicking frantically to break away, and they
couldn’t see it but there was a presence there.
So, what I’m trying to get to you is this, that you’ve got
to let your thinking go and realize that you cannot take revelation as brought
by Bro. Branham and attempt to reduce it to something you’re familiar with. You’ve got to go beyond your own familiarity
and it’s easy to realize this that there’s nothing there but God, then anything
without God creating something extra, whatever that is there would have to be
intrinsically somehow God.
So, all right, I mentioned here that
Colossians 1, is what we were going to read.
Now I’ll take this slowly maybe for the next three to four hours, I
don’t know how long...what I’m going to do because I would like to finish this
up and I don’t know how I’m going to finish this to go on with the rest of the
message. Now, Colossians it says, 12 to
19.
(12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
(13) Who had delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (That’s the only begotten One.)
(14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
(16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
(17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist, (Or maintained.)
(18) For he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.
(19) For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
Actually it should read:
(19) For in him all the fullness of the godhead was pleased to dwell.
So, you’re looking at a picture here
again of God being in Christ. You can
never ever destroy that principle of “the same yesterday, today and
forever.” That what God does is in a
pattern. So God was in Christ and that’s
exactly how that was done--creating all things by Christ Jesus. So, let’s look again at the 17th verse.
(17) For he is before all things, and by him all things are maintained.
Now He is before all things, before
any creation whatsoever, He is before it all and He is responsible for it all.
Okay, let me just read here.
[9] ...First He was not even God, we would just
call Him “the Eternal One.” He wasn’t
God because the word (English word) God means “object of worship.” And there was nothing to worship Him. So He
was the Eternal One, the main fountain of all intelligence.
Now we have up here then a fountain,
up here, and a fountain will bring forth, not bitter and sweet water, it’ll
bring forth only one thing which is spirit.
That’s what it’ll bring forth.
And then until of course it enters into creative acts, and then it
brings forth outside of itself. Do you
understand, it brings forth outside of itself, something which is a
manifestation, or a product, something it’s done? But what comes out of God Himself would be
essentially God. You know? You couldn’t get anything else but that. That would simply be God’s Holy Spirit.
So all right, He’s back there and
He’s the fountain of all intelligence.
That’s the omniscient One.
[9] And in the fountain of all intelligence
there was not an atom, a molecule, anything, light anywhere, star, moon,
nothing else. God, what we know as God, the great Spirit that was Eternal
(never did begin, never would end), He was there. And in Him were
attributes: His attributes to be God,
then His attributes to be a Father, attributes to be a Son, attributes to be a
Saviour, attributes to be a Healer. All
these attributes were in Him. And now all things that have unfolded since then
are just attributes being made manifest.
So what you’re looking at there then
is the essentiality of God Himself, what He was within Himself and that can
never change. That’s simply God
period. Then God begins to move
according to His omniscience and His omnipotence, and then He can do anything
else He wants and it will always be according to the attributes within
Him. See?
So that God is all and in all and
anything then, you understand, that is extraneous, or critical to, or a
hybridization, will all be destroyed, so it goes back in the beginning, go back
to the beginning what it was in seed form, pure seed form, now perfectly
manifested in its product of manifestation that God wants. That’s why when we spoke on the New Jerusalem
it’s little foreign to people’s thinking to look and say;
“That’s God and the fullness of God
manifested.” See? Because it is. And we would say, “Well I think maybe I would
have a little higher scheme than God’s.”
Shows you how stupid you are because that’s
exactly what the Devil said. “I will
ascend above the most high. I’ve got
better thoughts than He’s got. I’ve got
better plans.”
Then God says, “You will go down
where men will narrowly look at you.”
You think you’re so big, you think
you’ve got thoughts. Anybody this
morning thinks He’s got thoughts above the prophet, let me tell you, “You are
sick spiritually,” and I won’t say, “stupid,” but I’m sorry I already said
it. I have a way of double crossing you
and myself. All right;
[10] Now what I mean, attributes His “thoughts.”
And a word is “a thought expressed.” Then that was, then that was in His
thinking. And when He said, “Let there be,” there was. “Let there be.”
So therefore, after God was in this
solitary pattern, He begins moving out of the pattern of the solitary because
now He begins to grace Himself in a complimentary manner and that would be by
one which would be creative. But there’s
something beyond the creative and I want to just read a little further.
[11] Now, remember, you Christians were His
thoughts before there was a world.
That’s right. Then your name was put on a book. Then when
your name was called, you had to start forming.
And your name was called you were in your great, great, great, great, great,
grandfather, grandmother. You come on
down, down, down, and you come down to the point where you were called out of a
sperm and an egg. You’re where the
natural election was, and predestination, called out. See?
You begin to take then from a spirit form, you begin to take then a
tangible, physical form. Okay;
[11] Before there was even a
world, you were in Christ, (amen) in God
in the beginning. Why? Because God was in Christ, never, never
changes His principle. That makes you then, you see, His
subjects. And the whole thing is God,
seeing and so forth. God
making...rather, the whole thing is God
Himself, materializing Himself tangible so He could be handled and seen and so
forth.
Now he’s talking about you and me in
there. See? That’s why John said, “We handle the word of
life.” There’s a relationship. The big Son and the little sons. And that’s what God is, the whole thing.
Like the whole thing of the Seals was Christ. Now watch.
[C.O.D on Genesis]
[22] ...The
first creation was God Himself; Now
that’s a stickler right there. Who
created God? Nobody. God was.
He’s a beginner. Then out of God came the Logos which was the
Son of God; then out of the Logos, which was the Word, came forth the man. Now that’s an absolute statement of
chronological fact. Out of God came
forth the Logos.
And as usual I never know where I’m
at. I’m somewhere but I really can’t
find it too much. Well, let’s...now I
went, let me go back to my statement.
There’s nothing there but God.
Thus if anything would manifest prior to creation, which you read about
in many Scriptures, it is evident that that manifestation would have to be none
other than the Spirit itself, and that Spirit being the Eternal Spirit of God,
then both the Manifestation and the Manifestor is the same, which is God. Right?
Well it’s got to be. What else
you going to do with it? Okay, now
listen.
[30] Now, no one has seen
God. Now the next thing we begin to see,
What’s the first thing we see? Nobody’s seen God. That’s a major premise
that you understand, nobody’s seen God, nobody can see God. It’s impossible. Do you follow? Now just keep alert here because this is good
thinking, is what the prophet said, and I’m going over it time after time with
you because I want it so thoroughly in my mind when we come to what appears to
be an absolute contradiction on Godhead...
Now you want to pass the ice
cubes? I want you all awake. Anoint your eyes with ice cubes or I’m going
to go home and I’m very serious because this is deadly important what we are
saying because Bro. Branham said, You
have got to say the right thing or you are finished. That’s why this church stands on no
nonsense. We are either right or we are
wrong. There is no lukewarm, there is no
sitting on the fence, we have turned a corner and I’m reading what the prophet
said, and I’ve read my notes here which I write down and I think I have the
Spirit of God. Now listen,
[29] No one has seen God. Number one statement. Have you ever seen
Him? No way. No, you haven’t seen Him and you can’t. No man can see God and live. He’s the form of a Spirit. Now,
the next thing we begin to see, by eyes of supernatural looking, we see a
little Light forming out there.
Now, no creation at all. Bro. Branham uses the word ‘forming.’ What, or who is doing the forming? God is doing the forming from God Himself
which Bro. Branham will call, A part of
God. Are you listening? Getting the picture? Now remember, we’re close to Trinitarian
doctrine and don’t think the Trinitarians don’t have a leg to stand on except
they’re trying to stand on three legs and you can’t stand on three legs because
you don’t have three legs to stand on.
In other words, a tripod is always in balance and they think they can
balance, that’s human, but it’s not God because God is not three persons, He’s
a tri-unity.
Now, the doctrine of Bro. Branham
based upon vindication, “Is between Jesus
Only, and Trinitarism.” Quote,
William Branham which I’ll read maybe as time goes on. So something begins to form and if it’s
something forming it is already something which can be formed. So all right, there’s something forming.
[29] ...We see a little white Light forming. What is it?
That what’s called by Bible readers, the “Logos.”
“In the beginning was the
Logos. The Logos was with God and the
Logos was God.” So whatever is here that
we are looking at is either a manifestation which is of the Manifestor so that
the manifestation and the Manifestor is one and the same. Now you could become a Trinitarian out of it
by producing out of the great fountain one coming forth which is the Son. We don’t buy that--and yet we do buy it. We follow Bro. Branham. Now this is tough, and I’m not saying I’ve
got the perfect answer. I’m going over
and over it with you to see what Bro. Branham says and to see where we go
because we must go by what he said. All right;
[29] ...What is that? That was called by Bible readers “Logos,” or
“the Anointed,” or the “Anointing.” As I
was going to say, the part of God begin to develop into something so human
beings could have some type of an idea of what it was.
And it says, a part of God began to
develop. Now God was not created. God already was. So therefore what is being manifested here is
absolutely a part of God, period. It is
God. Now watch.
[31] Now, God gave Himself birth
to this Son which was before there was even an atom.
And everything is made out of
atoms. So what came forth is essentially
God, at least a part of God, and I’ll certainly buy that, the prophet said so,
a part of God, and we’re parts of God, very minute, but something of God, a
portion, now begins to glow.
[31] Now, God gave Himself birth to this Son...
God gave Himself birth. Now what’s to give birth? Very simple, it means to issue forth. As birth is contingent to a conception, and
all mental principle is conception, going through a period of gestation in
order to issue forth. So God stayed in a
position of ability to give birth, and produced. Can you put it any better? I can’t--I’ve just got to believe it. He produced.
[31] ...Which was before there was an atom. And Jesus said, “Glorify Me Father, with the
glory that we had before the foundation of the world.”
Now listen, paragraph 32. He’s just...now this is not in this book
here, see, I’m reading another.
[32] Now in John one He said, “In the beginning
was the Word, the Word was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us.” God unfolding Himself, down to
human being. Now watch how He did
it.
[33] Now, back there, then, when this little halo
comes. Now we can’t see nothing yet, but just by eyes of just supernatural we
see a halo standing there. Now that’s
the Son of God, the Logos.
And he said, “If you make Jesus the Logos you have got three gods.” So Bro. Branham is not talking Trinitarian
language, he is using the name of Jesus the way he used it in Heb 13:8, the way
Paul said;
“Who art thou Lord?”
And the voice said, “I am
Jesus.--who is Jehovah of the Old Testament, and Jesus of the New,” and you’re
looking at strictly God.
Now I know it’s over our heads and
we go “voing” across here, but look--this is what the prophet said and we’re
going to go into it. We’re not going to
try to understand as though we’re going to force issues, we are going to learn
what the prophet said and talk about it, and we’re going to stand on it, that
this is our doctrine because I have found that people in this Message don’t
understand Godhead for nothing and I understand it very little. And if I have what the prophet said, “Which
is a spirit of prophecy, it’s a testimony to Jesus Christ,” I’ve got to have
something somewhere that lights in and shows me something.
Now you don’t’ have to believe it, I
don’t care what you believe. Look, be my
guest, sit here and I’ll be nice to you.
You don’t have to bring any food, I’ll care and ever feed you. But this is White Throne, brother/sister,
whether you know it or not--I do. I do,
and I’m serious about these things here.
[32] ...Now, I can see Him playing around like a
little child, before the Father’s door, with all Eternity. See?
And now, then in His imaginary makeup He begins to think of what things
would be, and I can hear Him say, “Let there be light.”
Now he’s
talking right here about God in Christ creating all things. All things started right there when God begin
to literally form, which form He would bring right down to a human being and
then take it all back to glory.
So you wonder what the value of a
soul is? You see, Jesus died for
it. Can’t understand the things, we’re
not here to. And as I’ve said before, we
can make this Message so academic, we can bring it down to where we understand
things and yet not have reality and it become hard and dry, and eventually
we’ll blow away with it because, let us understand this; Bro. Branham said, “There’s three kinds of believers.” The unbeliever gets mad and walks off. The make-believer sticks around
pretending. I believe the Message, and
I’m not hitting anybody here, you know that.
Look, I could be a make-believer myself--I don’t know. Maybe I’m kidding myself. But the Branham message is full of
make-believers and believers and there aren’t too many real believers and you
can tell because there’s not an understanding in a sense where the Word is.
Now I’m quoting what the prophet
said, and I’m looking at it. I don’t
pretend to understand it all but I do know this one thing, whatever came out of
God is God and pure and simple God, period.
And Bro. Branham said, “That was
the Logos.” He said, “That was the Son of God,” of whom it
is said, “Let us make man in our own image.”
Now, let me look at my notes a
second here. Okay, we go to Col 1:17.
(17) And
he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Now, this is in my estimation the
very Scripture Bro. Branham uses, but he doesn’t quote it all, Jn 17:5.
(5) And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self . . .
Okay? What’s it sound like? Say now, “Lee, you glorify me with yourself.”
I’d say, “Now let me see how this is
done. I’m going to glorify you with
myself, it means that I have got to come in a relationship with you whereof my
person, now, over shadows and over casts you, so that you have intrinsically
everything that is in me, and I am glorious.”
You follow?
Jesus came out of God and He said, “Now glorify me with Your own Self as
in the beginning.”
So we are looking at, whether we want to or
not, we are looking at God and it is a great mystery, but lets take the mystery
a little further and we’re beginning to see something here in the book of
Hebrews. [Chapter 1]
(1) God who in many parts and in many ways spake in times past unto the fathers in the prophets,
(2) Hath in these last days spoken unto us in Son,
God in Son, God in Christ, God in Logos, and what ever would be there will be essentially and intrinsically all God, period. So that if you could dissect and separate, there would be nothing there that wasn’t purely God or I’m reading it wrong.
(2) The last days God has spoken to us in Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
And of course that is...predates
Melchisedec there. Now watch.
(3) Who being the effulgence of his glory, and the express image of his person, (Who being the literal out-raying.)
So what is Bro. Branham trying to
tell us? God began to move in the
literal out-raying of Himself. Wherein
this simple manoeuvre He would begin
moving in a form, which one day would put aside this glory, theophany. Huh? Yup.
Put it aside and take on a lesser form, a human, blood, bone, tissue,
human form, identified thoroughly with the Logos which was...rather the Zoe,
which was in Him, and make a way for our salvation.
Now, we go to John, we already
talked about it, 1 to 5. [Chapter 1]
(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(2) The same was in the beginning with God.
(3) All Things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
(4) In
him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Now in Him was Zoe which was the
ability not as Logos, no, no--Logos couldn’t do it. He had to go beyond the
Logos of the original because Logos cannot be seen though if It wants to be
seen it can be seen, can appear and disappear, but has no relationship to what
lies out here in you and me in the sense of the tangible. It has a relationship but not the
tangible. So therefore, in the Logos was
the ability to come to the place of tangibility, manifestation. And
manifestation is light which means, as Paul said; “Anything which manifests is light.” In other words, gives understanding, gives
knowledge, gives you the ability to apprehend. See?
How
warm is it in here? Check your
thermometers. Now if it’s a little bit
warm, I’m not exactly warm up here. Come
on, get up and check your those thermostats.
Where are we at? Because I want
you wide, wide awake and if I’ve got to freeze you I’m going to get you
awake. Thank you. Now I’m not fooling up here. Look it, please, if you’ve been up late last
night I’m sorry for you but think, because remember, the Word of the Lord comes
to the mind and unless your mind is thoroughly clogged with the Word you get
nowhere and I get nowhere. That’s our
trouble, we’ve got everything clogged but with the Word of God.
Now, I was looking in here. Paul said, “That which makes manifest is
light.” So therefore, God had every
thing in order and perfect out here before He put a man in it. Man is the last of creation, made in the
image of God spiritually and made in the image of a man, of an animal,
physically. So now he’s an *conundrum. He’s a real puzzle. [*Conundrum – a sort of riddle]
So therefore, God had within Him,
and did produce the physical and its manifestation is Light, and everything you
can prove it by the fact that men will take and study a butterfly wing, and
write six volumes on it. Man will study
a dog, ring bells, like the Russian psychiatrist I can’t remember his name right now, it
doesn’t matter. And every time it rang a
bell, he’d give the dog a morsel. Pretty
soon the dog would salivate at the ringing of the bell.
Every single thing that is tangible
in the sense of being apprehended at least to a degree, is Light. The Zoe of God condemns every man because he
knows there’s a God because God is tangible in nature. And any jackass that says there is no God,
and the fools and dupes that keep prayers out of the schools, and allows
everything else, they will burn in the deepest hell there ever was and I will
stand back and rejoice with God. And if
you think I’m after men’s blood, you this morning are ridiculous and you are in
your folly and do not know that judgment is set in the land because of the
Canaanites.
That which makes manifest is
Light. So therefore God begins to be
manifest. Somehow, someway and this
great divine order of God, the great thinker, the great omniscient with the
omnipotent bringing it to pass.
All right, listen.
(5) And
the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Do you think Satan could get a hold
of it? No way. Satan just thought he could get a hold of it
and use God. That’s what Pentecostals do
right today and the Charismatic. They’ll
pay their price for it, they ascend above the Word.
Now, with this you will notice from
the beginning verse 14.
(14) And the Word was made flesh. (Not so! The Word was not made flesh! The Word became flesh. The Word formed Itself. Another piece of formation. Formed Itself into flesh.) And dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
And the man that wrote this was
John, who also wrote Jesus’ prayer under inspiration, “Glorify Me with
Thyself.” So we’re looking at what God
has done.
Now, in other words, verse 14 [John
chapter 1] is the finality of what verse one is all about.
(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(14) And it all became flesh.
You and I, the Son, the lesser sons,
all of it. God Himself became
flesh. That’s why you have the New
Jerusalem exactly as it is according to Bro. Branham when he brought us the
Message.
Now, okay, I’ll read some more notes
here and I hope we’ll get through sometime before Thanksgiving at least. All right, previous to the beginning of Jn
1:1, which became flesh in John 1:14, there was in the major attribute of
omniscience the plan to be Jn 1:14. Jn
1:14, was the plan that God had in mind and the only way it could become
effective was by starting with Jn
1:1. Now that’s what He had in
mind. The reason for Jn 1:14, as opposed to Jn 1:1, is found in Heb 2:9 plus, and in
Phil 2:5-8. So let’s go to Hebrews and read it, and we’ve
read it many times. [Hebrews 2:]
(9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man
(9) We see Jesus, made (formed) a little lower...(Formed, actually formed.) he by the grace of God taste death for every man. (No, every son.)
(10) For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Now just a minute. It says in one Scripture, Paul himself
saying; “All things were created by Jesus Christ.” And it turns right around here and it says,
“God did it.”
God was in Christ. Don’t try to understand it all--just believe
it. Bro. Branham said, “If God did a thing one way one time, He’s
got to keep on doing it or He’s not God.” And the mystery unfolds. God was in Christ. It’s the way it’s got to be. [End of side one, part one]
(11) For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Actually brothers of God in the form
when God took on Sonship. Sons of God,
the whole thing becomes a family unit which is indescribable.
(12) Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
(13) And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
Notice what you see back and
forth--God, Son, and yet they are indistinguishable almost entirely.
(14) Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might overcome and bring to nothing him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
(15) And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Why? Because they’re in a flesh body; Jesus wasn’t to begin with.)
(16) For he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. (He never came down by angels, He came down by mankind.)
(17) Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. (And so on.)