Who Is This Melchisedec? # 22

Bro. Lee Vayle

October 30, 1988

 

Shall we pray. Heavenly Father we realize that for centuries people have been saying that You are here and we know that You have always been here in a certain particular way because the apostle Paul said, “In Him we live and move, and have our very being.” That You have made all things and by You all things are maintained--and then Lord by the Pillar of Fire You are with Israel though You had to leave them; and then after the birth of the New Testament Church You are with the saints by filling them, giving them a portion of Your Spirit. But we know at the end time there was to be, and is, and has been, an appearing of Your Presence Lord in the Pillar of Fire which we know was vindicated.

 

And Lord, here we are at this hour and we are not yet truly solemn and sober, and believing concerning that Lord, “That all things are possible now that You are present.” And we know that the “All things possible,” Lord, are what You’ve laid down in Your Word because we have not been given the right Lord to ask of You those things which You have not set forth in Your Word. 

 

So we pray this morning You’ll encourage our hearts somehow. We don’t know how You’re going to do it; how You’ll bring forth the Word, whatever Lord, but encourage our hearts in such a way to exalt Your Presence Lord and exult in it, O God, and to be very serious and sober concerning it and the Word of truth, Lord, that is come forth in this hour.

 

So Father, we just ask You now to help us bring our thoughts together and say those things, Lord, though they be deep, might be deep and profound, we don’t know; that’s according to what You give us, but may they be easily understood. In all things therefore and the remainder of this service we commit ourselves to you, trusting that You will help us. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

 

 

Now, we’re right up to about number twenty-two, I believe it is in, Who Is This Melchisedec?  and just backgrounding a bit on the subject, “Who is this particular person?”   Bro. Branham took for his reading in the book of Hebrews the 7th chapter.

 

(1)               For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

 

(2)        To whom (That’s Melchisedec.) also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

 

(3)        Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, neither end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

 

Now we know that the understanding that the theologian, the scholars have of this particular portion of Scripture is that wherein it says, “Without father, without mother,” it means that this man did not have any genealogy that anybody could possibly trace. And then when it says, “Also having neither beginning of days nor end of life,” it means that they don’t know when He was born and when He died. And then because He had no children, no issue, because He was cut off evidently somehow, there is no record whatsoever of Him but evidently He was some kind of a priest unto the most high God, which is very strange because God had separated Himself to Abraham and Abraham to Himself so it is not logical to believe--though the theologians are very logical thinkers according to their own thinking. It is not Scriptural nor logical to believe that there would be a priest who could minister to Abraham, a priest of the most high God.

 

So, you understand what I’m saying? That God recognized Abraham and Abraham alone. So how could He have had a priest to minister to Abraham? It’s ridiculous--couldn’t have. So, when you look at this person as merely a human being, without a genealogy, without issue, a once and for all priest and then they have the nerve to go to the book of Hebrews, the rest of this here, (having studied Genesis) and call it a priesthood. That’s more than I can figure because one priest does not constitute a priesthood because you’re looking at a lineage and you’re looking down the road. 

 

So, Bro. Branham being a vindicated prophet, and we believe that he opened the Seven Seals and especially number seven under which were the Seven Thunders, categorically states:  That this person Melchisedec was literally God in a human form. Now this maybe stumbles people but it isn’t necessary to be stumbled on the grounds of Genesis 18, which follows Genesis 14, where Melchisedec appeared to Abraham. Now it says here in chapter 18, verse 1.

 

(1)               And the LORD appeared unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre: as Abraham sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

 

(2)        And Abraham lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

 

(3)        And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: (And so on.)

 

You’ll find out in reading the rest of this that one of those men that--as Bro. Branham said, “Ate the flesh of the calf and drank the milk of the cow”--one of those men was actually called Elohim, and two of them were angels that went down to Sodom to deliver Lot and destroy that filthy city along with Gomorrah. For it says in the 14th verse after Abraham and this person had talked together about Abraham having a son by Sarah, which had been promised him by God, that Sarah laughed. She evidently didn’t really recognize God though Abraham did, Elohim, and she laughed and [God] said:

 

(13)           Why did Sarah laugh?

 

(14)      Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed will I return...

 

Now what was the time appointed? When she would be changed back to a young lady and he to a young man because it’s utterly ridiculous to think that God would have a ninety year old woman have a baby. That’s the utmost of stupidity. And it’s utmost stupidity to believe that a Gentile King, Philistine King would want a ninety year old doughty grandma for a beautiful young wife.

 

Now I know the world’s perverted today and we see that today. Sheez! Well when you see people, like Cher and the rest of them, marry at forty-five years old shacked up with twenty-three year olds I guess you figure grandma at ninety could grab an eighteen year old, I guess--I don’t know. We’re stupid today but that king wasn’t stupid. He had his choice of the fairest in the land. So she was changed back to a young woman. We know that--Bro. Branham saw that, revealed that to us through the opening of the Seals.

 

Now, what we’re looking at here then is the fact that God, when He so desired, took upon Himself some exterior form that people like you and me, Abraham and so on because we’re human, could apprehend it. In other words, say now, “I can communicate and I’m beginning to understand there is something here.” Then God would begin to communicate His Word to whomever He desired to communicate it.

 

Now, you’ll notice if you carefully read the Scripture in the book of Genesis you will find that God was constantly appearing in some form to somebody. Maybe a Pillar of Fire, maybe a cloud, could be a whirlwind, mostly human factor is what He used.

 

Now when you get to the book of Exodus you’ll find again that God is using a factor that He can communicate to man through, which in the case I’m speaking, is a Pillar of Fire in a bush as He attracted Moses. Then having attracted Moses, He sent Moses down to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel with tremendous signs and wonders which would convince Israel and the Egyptians that God had spoken to Moses and would do through Moses what God said He would do. Now that was the idea. But on top of that God literally appeared in a Pillar of Fire with great thunderings, and lightning and earthquakes from Mt. Sinai so they literally heard the voice of God and literally saw what God allowed them to see because no man can truly see God and live--it isn’t necessary anyway.

 

Now Israel was so affrighted by that they said, “All right, we don’t want to see God anymore. We don’t want to hear God anymore. We believe in Abraham. We believe in Isaac.  We believe in Jacob. We believe in you Moses.  Why don’t you go to God and say, ‘Look God here’s what You do if You don’t mind doing it. You speak to Moses and then he’ll speak to us.’”  And God said, “That’s exactly the way it’s going to be from now on.” God speaking in a prophet and through a prophet, and Paul speaking in the book of Hebrews tells us, “That God was in the prophets.”

 

So therefore God was not so much anymore in a whirlwind. God was not so much anymore in a Pillar of Fire, but God was basically, and intrinsically in the prophet to speak to the people, he becoming God to the people but God reserving His rights to be in a Pillar of Fire, or a whirlwind, or a cloud, or a voice, whatever way He wanted to deal with the prophet who would then in turn deal with the people.

 

So, what I’m trying to bring to your attention here is the fact then that if Bro. Branham came on the scene as a vindicated prophet with, “THUS SAITH THE LORD,”--and here’s what I don’t understand about people like this Mr. Weaver writing a book on Bro. Branham and writing against him, and taking the word of some fellow in Germany who believed that Bro. Branham was in spiritism, and defiantly told the world that Bro. Branham was a mesmerizer, that he was maybe a necromancer, a witch, or God knows what, and dare to defile the name of God to this extent; that William Branham used the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and God backed it up.  What kind of a God is that? I wouldn’t give you two bits, or a needle in a haystack for a God like that! Because it shows He hasn’t got any integrity.

 

Let me tell you something, this man Mr...I forget his name, I can’t remember it so I won’t try, but that man will perish in the Lake of Fire after having suffered for impugning God and making God a liar and making the devil a healer. People just don’t want to believe God’s Word.

 

So therefore a vindicated man, [Bro. Vayle points to the picture of the Pillar of Fire over Bro. Branham] and that is a picture taken by a photographer, he didn’t even know he was taking it. Checked out by George J. Lacey with every single conceivable type of expert analysis and said, “That is a picture of a supernatural being and the first one in history.”

 

Now you can do what you want about it, but when a man comes in the Name of the Lord and the thing that he says comes to pass, God says, “That is the man you listen to.”  And I care for no German theologian.  I care for no German period, theologian or not, or any Irishman, or anybody else, or any colour that comes against the Word of the Living God.

 

So we’re looking at a vindicated prophet who said, “That Melchisedec, without father, without mother, would have to have been a direct creation of God.”  Not simply one without a genealogy, without descent. That tells you He didn’t come from anybody and He didn’t have any issue. So He was made like unto the Son of God as a perfect type. And I want to ask you a question: did Jesus Christ, when it comes to His conception, when it comes to His beginning, did He have a father called Joseph and a woman called Mary for His mother wherein Joseph supplied the sperm and Mary supplied the egg and brought forth a child? Now anybody that thinks that Mary supplied the egg is a complete fool. And anybody that thinks Joseph supplied the sperm is even a greater fool because you’re dealing with a virgin birth.

 

And the virgin birth it means: “Without male intervention,” and goes further than that; a women cannot have a child by herself. She does not have the proper chromosomes, I think X chromosomes belongs to both male and female so by parthogenesis she might possibly have a baby girl which is impossible as far as we know, but she could never have a male child because woman don’t have the chromosome. So then did Mary have an egg? No. Then what was she? She was an incubator. So now we have Jesus without a father and without a mother. We’re speaking now in terms of a descent. The only father He could possibly have was a creatorial Father or a creator Father that could have produced that body.

 

So you see, if you don’t understand Scripture you can get all mixed up. You could say, “Well this fellow here he just happened on the scene. Nobody has anything about him, nobody knows. We just let it go at that.” When you go right into Scripture you begin to understand when you’ve got a prophet to give you the keys and all the clues to it; you can find here that this One here which was the beginning of the priesthood, and there was no continuation, and He would have been the head of that priesthood; but you notice it says, “That Jesus became the head of that priesthood.” Now how did He get it? Well we’ll get into that later on if we’ve got time.

 

But in the meantime we’re looking at the statement that Bro. Branham made, “This One here was literally God. God Himself, who made Himself a figure like unto a man. It was a human figure, that stood there and God Himself was that person.”  Now you notice in plain English what we’re telling you then: that Melchisedec is another name for God. And the name for God at this particular point and in this revelation is King of Righteousness, and King of Peace; and at the same time He was a priest ministering. So we see the perfect picture of Jesus in the flesh. The created egg and sperm from the very life of Almighty God Himself, being a King of Righteousness and a King of Peace and ministering, ministering from God to man.

 

Now you notice in here that this One offered the elements of the shed blood and the broken body. And Jesus Christ will offer again the elements of the shed blood and the broken body, He Himself to us, when He is King of Righteousness and King of Peace.  Now that’s what He’s going to do. So you’ve got a beautiful reality here and you’ve got a beautiful reality in Christ. You’ve got a type here and you’ve got a fulfilment in Christ, what we are looking at.

 

Now, let’s try to bring some more thoughts out here. We want to go back to the book of Hebrews again and we’re going to look at chapter...let’s see, let’s look at chapter 11 and we’re going to look at verses 8 to 10.

 

(8)               By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

 

(9)        By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

 

(10)      For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

 

Now, what Abraham was looking for, according to this Scripture, was a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But let’s go back to Genesis the 12th chapter and here we find what God said to Abraham:

 

(1)               ...Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

 

(2)        And I will make of thee a great nation,

 

Now you notice that the genesis, or the beginning, is in Abraham and not in his father. So therefore there is now a genealogy which Abraham himself was heir to a genealogy right back to Adam, right back to Adam through Seth, right on down the line, but God draws a line at the time of Abram’s birth. And He said, “Now it’s going to be numbered from you. It’s no longer numbered from Adam” although it still is by the way because you go plumb back to him. Remember Adam was a son of God. “But now it comes from Abraham.” He said:

 

(2)               I’ll make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

 

(3)        I’ll bless them that bless thee, curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

 

So now we have Abraham here as the head of all the redeemed of all the earth whether they are going to be Jews, Gentiles, red, yellow, green, black, white, purple, who cares about colour or nationality or anything else? It doesn’t matter--he is the one.

 

(4)        So Abraham departed (He was Abram then)...and Abram was seventy-five years old, he went out of Haran.

 

(5)               Took his wife Sarai, took Lot his brother’s son, all their substance; went into Canaan.

 

(6)        Passed through various areas right in there.

 

And then it says in verse 8.

 

(8)               He removed himself from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, (And that’s the house of God.) having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

 

(9)        And then he began journeying.

 

Now, over here in the book of Acts, and I want to try to bring this together for you just...we’re looking at Abraham now and he’s the fellow that met Melchisedec, which was actually God in a human form. And here’s the martyrdom of Steven in the book of Acts the 8th chapter...no I want the 7th chapter, I beg your pardon. And the 7th chapter, he is speaking of Abraham and Moses and the very genealogy of Israel. And it says here in the 8th verse.

 

(8)        And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day, (and right on down, and down, and down.)

 

And he tells you of Abraham. Now watch, the 5th verse is the verse I was really looking for. You can take number four if you want.

 

(4)        Abraham dwelt in the land of the Chaldeans, (He went out of the land of the Chaldeans, dwelt in the land of Haran and he stayed there until his father died then he went elsewhere into Caanan.)

 

And notice now in verse 5.

 

(5)               And he (God.) gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on (Though he set his foot on it.) yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

 

(6)        And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; (and so on).

 

Now, you’ll notice that this is the book of Acts. We looked at the book of Genesis. We came to the book of Hebrews and we found that Abraham was looking for a city which has foundation, who’s builder and maker is God and he was heir to a land, though he walked on it; he did not have the title to it and he could not claim it. So, in his peregrinations--that’s his wanderings around--he was looking for a place to settle. A place that had foundations. A place from which he wouldn’t be moving any longer. A place positively whose builder and maker was God. Now what city is it that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God? New Jerusalem--that’s chapter 21 of the book of Revelation.

 

Now, why I’m saying all this is to bring you back to the 7th chapter of this King. Now:

 

(1)               This Melchizedek, king of Salem (That’s peace.) and priest of the Most

 

High God, (A priest-king.) met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings...

 

Now, this is the perfect type of the Lord Jesus Christ. See? God dwelling in flesh. God dwelling in a human being--and that’s what we’re looking at. Is God, as Bro. Branham said, With skin on it. It’s not badger skins anymore, it’s not goat skins of the tabernacle, it’s a human skin. Just like God was in the prophets.

 

Now, God was in this Man. Now He is a king. Now let’s look at the word king. To be a king you’ve got to have some type of a kingdom or you’re not a king. See? You’ve got to have a kingdom. You’ve got to have that which pertains to a kingdom. So therefore as we look at this particular person here, He must have had a retinue. He must have had a city. He must have had something to match with His title which was king of Salem, king of Righteousness, Priest of the Most High God; because look, how are you going to be a priest to God if there isn’t something there that concerns a priesthood?

 

Now you’ve got two kinds of priests. You’ve got a priest of God and from God that ministers to the people. Then you’ve got a priest of the people that ministers to God. In both cases you’ve got God and people and somebody between. All right, right here then you have got to settle, as Bro. Branham put it, you have got to find then, somebody that He’s ministering from and somebody ministering to. Which we see right here; God took upon Himself a form whereby He was ministering to Abraham and you will notice that He ministered the bread and the wine which is symbolic of the crushed body, the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the shed life and the shed blood. Now that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did. He absolutely ministered to man. God ministering to man in the form of a man. Aaron in a man, which was a man, ministered for men unto God--he offered the blood. So that Jesus Christ fulfilled both of those roles.

 

Now, at the time I’m speaking of, because I was looking down the road a couple thousand years whatever it is, we are looking at a King who must have had a kingdom upon earth. Now this puts God, in my understanding from what Bro. Branham taught, into a very, very peculiar Light because people do not want to believe that God would do a thing like that.

 

Now listen to me, what’s wrong with our thinking is; that we do not think like God and God does not think like us and He does exactly what He wants to do when He wants to do it. How in the world could you have anybody born with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb? Yet John the Baptist was. How in the world could you have a condition like this? And yet there was.

 

Now if you’re going to accept this that this was a King, you are not going to get any historian, you will not get anybody to ever tell you that there is a king without a kingdom. Never has been, never will be because the king is the fellow that makes the kingdom not the kingdom make the fellow. Now if you’d understand that then you tell me who created God? God the great Creator is a King by virtue of the fact that He has a kingdom. Jesus is King by virtue of the fact that He has a kingdom. So therefore by virtue of the fact, there cannot be a kingdom of any description without a king. There’s no way and I look at this and I see here where God came down to earth and did something which is absolutely tremendous, which would be the fore-running of the city which is going to come upon earth with the twelve foundations.

 

Now let’s go back to the book...into Hebrews again. We’re going to go to chapter 13 at this time. Now let’s read a little bit starting with verse eleven. It’s not going to make too much sense but it will make sense.

 

(11)      For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

 

Now it tells you right there, there is a sacrifice made by the bodies of beasts for the sins of the people. The blood is taken and spilled upon an altar, the bodies are taken outside and burnt. That’s one of the types of the sacrifices.

 

Now watch verse 12:

 

(12)      Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

 

They took Him and hung Him...they hung Him on a cross outside of Jerusalem on Calvary’s Hill, a place called Golgotha.

 

Now watch:

 

(13)      Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, (Go outside of the camp, go on out.) bearing his reproach.

 

Now notice:

 

(14)      For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

 

Now what are you looking at? I don’t care where you look when you’re looking at Jesus, you’re looking at a city. That’s right. When you look at Melchisedec who does not appear again until He appears in Jesus, which is God in the human form, where God literally comes down and inhabits a body. Not a body like this one He lived in, back in the days of Abraham--but a body wherein He deliberately by the Life of God moved out, and out of that moving out from the cells of the Spirit, there formed around that, the material of it, which was Spirit--formed an egg and a sperm; implanted in the womb of Mary that brought forth that child.

 

Now it says here, “You have no city, but you go on out to Him and you’ve got a city.” And that’s exactly what Abraham did. He moved out to get a city, we move out to get a city. Now I’m trying to show you something here that’s important. Whether you have believed or not by reading your Bible there is a tremendous importance in believing in the New Jerusalem. Oh I know you say, “Bro. Vayle, I tell you what, if I could just be the sweetest, humblest Christian and if I could be this and that, you know what I’d do? I’d forfeit that city.” You...listen, you shut your mouth. You are so stupid it’s to be sickening--and I’m right with you. How can you say contrary to the Word of God, the shed Blood of Jesus Christ, said purchased all this. How can you not identify yourself?

 

Let me read some more Scripture here to show you what happened back in Genesis is real.  That God did have a city! He did have a King! He did have a Priest that ministered from Him to us! And it doesn’t change. Now I’m going to tell you something, people are so heavenly minded they’re no earthly good. That’s right--too heavenly minded. Look in the mirror anytime you want and if you’ve got what God gave you, you think you got from God something, you’ll say, “I’m a child of God, a son of God, I don’t care what I look like or anybody else looks like.” You’ve got to say what God said about you and you’ve got to look beyond your own image. They couldn’t look beyond the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and see that He was that Melchisedec. He was that King of Righteousness. He was that King of Peace. He was that One that ministered. Sitting here this morning do we really realize it too.

 

Now let’s go a little further and read something else here. In the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews Paul is speaking of suffering with Christ and I’m going to go into that for another whole message which I don’t have time right at this point. I’ve left it for down the road. And he warns us that there isn’t one single solitary son that isn’t corrected by the Father. Whether you’re physical son born in the flesh or whether you’re spiritual son born of God.

 

Now listen: what is the first thing that correction depends upon? Correction depends upon a rule that was not adhered to because it wasn’t known, and broken consequently and wasn’t known. There can be no correction until first of all there is a standard. If there is no standard there is no correction.  I’ve said hundreds of times, I suppose I’ve said it hundreds of times even to you people here; that if there’s no answer there’s no problem. See? There’s no problem. There can’t be. Think it over--there can’t be, it’s impossible. Another thing is there’s never anything lost, it’s only misplaced. We have a wrong philosophy.

 

Now, correction--do you think for one minute if a father said to his child, “Now look, we’re going to show you how to saw a piece of wood. Now your eye isn’t straight like it should be with practice but your hand and your eye will come together eventually. In the meantime we have a thing here called a square and we have a ruler. Now the best thing to do before we cut is to see that the end of the 2x4 is perfectly square or it’s not going to work. So now we put the square at the end of the 2x4 and we can see there’s maybe fifteen degrees out. This is what fifteen degrees is. We mark it. Fortunately we’ve got a saw here, we don’t even have to use our eye on it we just put it against the square because it’s square already and we pull the saw through.” You’ve got a radial saw you pull it through. Say,  “Now the end is square.”

 

“Now here’s what you do, you be sure that this 2x4 is plumb up against this square here, this buttress here, because if it’s off, the saw is going to hit it, you could get cut. The board, the 2x4 come up and knock your head off and if by luck it doesn’t do any of those things it’s going to be crooked because you’ve got to follow the rules.” Now the kid’s a kind of a smarty pants and he doesn’t follow the rules and he gets knocked on the head with the 2x4 and the dad says, “Well that’s bad enough. I won’t have to correct you because I think you’ve done got corrected.”

Well the boy said...and he said, “Now son, look all these marks down here this signifies zero number of inches. This is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, that’s one foot. It goes into twenty-four inches, two foot, thirty-six and up here it’s an eight foot length. Now however you want to cut that, all you’ve got to do is put that 2x4 right there and you hold it right there because the saw hasn’t touched it. By the time you get where the saw is, you simply put your finger there and press it, run the saw through, you’ve got a perfect cut.” And the kid’s kind of cockeyed because he’s too fast. He goes down here and he puts it one inch short. Well the father’s got to correct him.

 

I’m trying to bring out something to show you here: there’s no such thing, because correction, unless there’s something there in the first place, and the correcting of any child of God is to know the revealed Word of God and to act...first of all to believe it and then to act upon. Now if that kid had really believed his dad he’d have been very meticulous. In fact he would have been so close he would have wiggled the thing back and forth. Dad say, “Now look son, don’t get nervous it isn’t all that hard. Just take it easy and just push it right up there.” Now if a kid’s real smart by the time his dad’s through teaching him, now this is just woodwork, he will have picked up a lot of things on his own.  Now you can’t do that with the Word of God. You can’t take from, you can’t add to It.

 

Now I’m going to show you something here. See we’re looking at a correction. Now God has a Word all laid down here, a Word that is perfectly correct, that was given to us under the apostle Paul. But in the very first church age men and women began to leave the Word until right today we have marriages and divorces, churches messed up, people’s lives messed up, everything completely out of cater, everything out of balance, everything bad so that now God did not have in this time a measuring rod for people to measure by. That’s why the prophet said they could get by in all those church ages under the law of the sacrifice for ignorance. Now, in Jesus’ day and Paul’s day, there was no sacrifice for ignorance. Why? Because they knew. Later on the sacrifice for ignorance had to come in.

 

Now, William Branham comes on the scene as the vindicated prophet with the perfect Word of God. I want to ask you a question: then is there a sacrifice for ignorance? The answer is no. The minute you come head on with the Word of Almighty God there is no more sacrifice. Now God had to correct this Word before He could do anything about putting a judgement upon us.

 

Now, after reading--and I’m not going to go through this whole thing--after reading the heros of faith in chapter 11, we get into the picture of Jesus suffering outside the gate. We see Him living the entire Word of God, therefore dying for you and for me because that’s living the Word of God, to die. Then it’s put upon you and me to believe what was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and what was revealed to us by the prophets as Paul said, “My gospel.”

 

Okay, now let’s keep moving. And he says, now he said, “I tell you what.” He said:

 

[Hebrews 12]

 

(13)      (You people live such lives that people cannot be lead astray.)

 

(14)           (Live in peace, be holy without blame.)

 

(15)           (Looking unto Jesus at all times...)

 

(16)      Unless there be a fornicator or profane person like Essau,

 

Now we know that fornication and profanity is not the sexual thing and the physically immoral thing, it’s a type of the spiritual. Now he said, “You be very careful you do not get involved by going and leaving the standard that God laid down.”

 

Now Bro. Branham laid that right on the line for us. This world is judged by one Christ Jesus.  He said, “The Judge is here. The world was already condemned, we’re standing before the White Throne right now, it’s been all laid out.”

 

Now we’ll get back to Melchisedec, we’re coming to Him in that city--don’t worry. Now it says here that this fellow Essau positively, when it was too late, wanted to get what was rejected. You know the foolish virgin come and they come too late and they want to get the oil and there’s only one place where the oil is and that’s in the Word that they rejected.

 

Do you mind...well I wonder, can I stop for awhile and give you a little interjection here, something to think about? We’re going to come back then to where they reject...the foolish virgin rejected at this point right here.

 

Bro. Branham said, “There’s a squeeze coming down.”  It’s over the Trinitarian doctrine which resolves itself in water baptism, Father, Son and Holy Ghost--right?  Just a minute; how many people are baptized in this world in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ or Jesus’ Name? Hundreds and hundreds of thousands. Are all those people foolish virgin? The answer is no. You know as well as I do they’re not. Then what kind of a squeeze is coming down? If they’re in organization, the Catholic church could well go back to its foundations when they baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You get what I’m talking about now? Then the pressure may not be just that you’re baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Let’s read something in 2 Timothy here. Paul says here in 2 Timothy the 2nd chapter, verse 8.

 

(8)        Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

 

(9)        Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of the Lord  is not bound.

 

Where would you and I suffer? Because we believe that William Branham was a vindicated prophet from God. And the Catholic church claims that for its Pope. Now what if the Pope has got to go back and say, “Hey, we blew it. We never should have changed our water baptism.” You can let a lot of people right in there but you’d never let the group of people in that take the Word restored in this hour--can’t do it. So that squeeze is going to be much tougher squeeze than we think it is, much more devious, much more problematic. I just want to let you know this morning, there’s things we can look at every now on this squeeze coming up, which will come. 

 

Now it says here:  [Hebrews 12]

 

(17)      ...When He would have inherited the blessings,

 

See he was rejected. Now remember the virgins come, now remember there’s a group of virgins that come to Jesus and they said, “Lord open the door to us.” And He said, “I used to know you as my wife but I don’t know you as my wife anymore.” They’re rejected. Now let’s read on. I’ve said all this to come to this.

 

(18)           For you are not come to the mount that might be touched, that burned with fire, nor blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

 

(19)      And the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words; which voice that they heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

 

(20)      For they could not endure that which was commanded,

 

See?  What was commanded? The Word of God laid out, the plumb line. Isn’t it wonderful to have instructions, the kind of instructions that you know if you follow them you couldn’t go wrong? The 119 Psalms speaks of that, the Bible speaks of that. “What shall I set before the young men?” The Word of God, they’ll never go wrong. What about the young women? The Word of God, they’ll never go wrong. What about the old men?  The Word of God, they’ll never go wrong. [End of side one] There’s no way to ever go wrong with the Word of God as long as you follow it.

 

Now see:

 

(19)      And the sound of trumpet, ...they entreated (and said, “Don’t...we don’t want to hear from God anymore. It’s too terrible to think of hearing from God, let’s hear through a man.”) 

 

That sealed it in. Now watch.

 

(22)      But you are come to Mount Sion,

 

Now look it, over here we read it. [Hebrews 13]

 

(14)      We have no continuing city, but we seek one.

How are you going to get it? You’re going to go outside the camp where Jesus is. In the Seventh Church Age, He’s outside the church and He doesn’t go into the church. You’ve got to go out. They put Him out. And they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh. How can they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh unless He does something, so radical, because He was a radical, not a hippie, just a radical. He was so radical from the status quo they said, “Get rid of Him.” Then what’s God going to do at the end time through a prophet and through a people that’s so radical they’ve got to get rid of them? “No continuing city.”

 

All right now, here it says here, “God having given His Word and it’s not a Word that passes away, because that glory faded.”  And remember Israel had a great glory--it faded. But the glory in this hour does not fade. So you’re going plumb to a city with foundations from whatever God does at this time. Now that’s what I’m driving at with Melchisedec because in this age God ministers one more time to the people. Now let me prove it to you, let’s keep reading.

 

(22)           You are not come to Mt. Zion but...you are come to the mount Sion, (Not to Mt. Sinai.) unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, (Which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.) to an innumerable company of messengers,

 

(23)      To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, (That’s Christ’s own church. The firstborn from amongst the dead, the first Resurrection. That’s His own church.) which is written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all,

 

Do you realize what he’s saying? Since the Seals are open, since we see the full revelation, the manifestation and Presence of Christ; you are right now right in face of the New Jerusalem, right in face of the Lamb upon the throne, right in face of the Judge that says, “Either come in or get out.” Now look it people, I’m not leading you to believe something ten thousand years down the road--I’m trying to get you to see right now and you know it. I’m not a preacher looking down the road, looking back. I’m a preacher looking now, and if you think I’m not that kind of a preacher get yourself another one because I stand here and tell you I am, and I can prove it by my sermons that I follow the prophet right to the letter. No looking back, no looking forward, looking right now.   Now:

 

(23)      To the general assembly of the church of the first born,

 

In other words, you’re facing right now the Resurrection and with it you’re facing the assembling together of every single New Testament and Old Testament Bride. That’s right, and before you can come on down here in the Millennium remember, the 144,000 got to be disposed of because they come up as a part of the first Resurrection and they serve the Bride as eunuchs in the chamber, but not just one thousand years but millions of years.

 

(23)      ...And to the spirits of just men made perfect,

 

Now, what have you got here? You have got the resurrected first born and you’ve got the first born standing here that don’t die. And so justified your spirit doesn’t leave you. This body you were born with and dropped from your mother’s womb had a spirit right here ready to enliven that little body which contained a soul. But it’s not the soul that gives the body the spark of life--it’s that spirit. See?

 

Now when you die that spirit leaves first and goes wherever God wants to put it because it was allowed of God and came from God but is not the spirit of God. The book of Ecclesiastes, “The spirit goes back to God who gave it.” Jesus said, “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit,” but His soul went down into Hades, the body went a third place--He was split three ways.  Now I’m telling you right here, it tells you here, “And to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Come to a complete conclusion of child training that God gets everything out of you that He wants to get out of you, having put everything in you that He wants to put in you.

 

Now here’s where your standing is: Bro. Branham said, I wish I had it with me I could read it to you right now “Spoken Word Is The Original Seed” and he said, “There’s a super, super, super race approaching unto Christ right now the Headstone.”  And the Headstone is here in the form of the Holy Spirit.  And perfection has come because we have the perfect revealed Word of God and it’s not do this, and don’t do that or the other thing, it tells you the Word of God. What does that perfect Word tell you? Let me read it to you over here in the book of Ephesians in case you’ve got your own ideas. This will tell you what the Message is if you want to know the Message. You say, “Bro. Branham what is your Message?” I’ll tell you what his message is right here. Paul speaking to the church. Eph 1:17.

 

(16)           We cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

 

(17)      That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

 

And it tells you right there, there is an absolute revelation of God Himself in this hour and one of those revelations under the Seventh Seal is concerning Melchisedec. And people go along and say, “Well this fellow Branham, boy did he lay a hard boiled egg. Stupid, stupid, stupid, that shows you what those guys are that get gifts from God and can’t handle it. They get high minded and heady. Now if they were theologians like us.” You bunch of dirty dogs. Why should I talk about a dog—they’re worse than dogs. Oh yes, full of their rotten criticism. Say, “Bro. Branham made a great mistake. He opened the Seals and brought out this junk about Melchisedec.” If you understand what I understand this morning you’ll see something to it the theologian will never see. I’m striving for reality. I know it hangs there and the more I talk about it the more I’m going to get it.

 

I was a school teacher for a little while. Any school teacher knows the first law of Pedagogy is repetition--I don’t care who you are. If you’re not a good repeater you’ll never make a good teacher. You don’t repeat the same thing like an old saw going ding, ding, ding or something but you repeat it many different ways--this way, that way. You teach a thing fourteen different ways, fifteen, twenty times if you have to but you get it across. Bro. Branham told the truth what it was here. Now here it is, the revelation of Him.

 

(18)      The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling,

 

Do you realize that means it’s going to put you back before eternity, before a beginning? That’s going to begin to probe the depths of God? You show me a theologian do it--they can’t even tell you what this means. I read all the books. Every time I go to a Bible store, I tell you, I pick up the first and see what he’s got to say about Eph 1:17-18. Some will tell you it’s the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Some got enough brains to know to tell you, “Well the Spirit will reveal something.” Now what we should do is get all those books and if the theologians are living, phone them and write them and say:

 

“Now tell me kind sir, who’s He going to reveal it to?”

 

“Well I hate to, you know, act proud--could be just me.”

 

Who’s going to believe him See?

 

(18)      The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

 

“What the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” See? What are those things there. Now notice, when you get that far and only when you get that far, and until you get that far, to the absolute revelation, you will never get to the next step which is the Resurrection and the third step is the Rapture. You won’t get it. Now, let’s keep reading.  [Hebrews 12]

 

(23)      ...the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.

 

All right, now remember you’re looking at the Judge. You’re looking at Matthew chapter twenty-five, the ten virgins--the five wise and the five foolish. And the cry went out, “Behold the Bridegroom, come out to meet Him.” They all went out. Now five had oil in their containers.  Now what is the container of the Holy Ghost?  The Word. So therefore the Word was wrong in five and it was right in the other five because God will not put the Holy Ghost upon a Word that is not properly revealed.

 

Now you know that as well as I do. Let’s prove it. Back in the days of Moses there was a man he went out on the Sabbath. He picked up a bunch of sticks to fry his dinner. They said, “Well now Moses, there’s something in the Word that you brought us about this man here. According to the Word that you brought us no man is supposed to work on a Sabbath.” And this man was working on a Sabbath. So they put him in quarantine. After the quarantine, during the quarantine Moses went before God and he said, “Lord, what about this man.” And God said, “Stone him with stones that he die, he defiled the camp.” So they took him out and killed him--capital punishment. They all had a hand in it because they all threw stones.

 

Now you say, “That’s pretty tough.” It is pretty tough. I’m trying to draw you a picture here. That man did not have the revelation of the Word. Only one man didn’t have it, the rest of them did have it. How that one man messed out and everybody else had it is more than I know. That’s wonderful, you’d think there would have been a bunch of them. We thank God there’s only one.

 

Now what we’re looking at here then at this end time and bringing to your attention is the fact that the wise virgin have the Word of God with the proper revelation because the Spirit is in It. The Spirit of God is not in a triune baptism. The Spirit of God is not in a Trinitarian god. The Spirit of God is not in an organization. The Spirit of God is in only one place and that is that Word which is properly revealed--and the wise virgins had it.