RAPTURE #13
The Day of the Lord and the Lord’s
Day #2
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we’re
very happy that You are so gracious to us tonight to let us come together to
worship Your Name and all of us worshiping in Spirit and in Truth. Lord, it’s
wonderful grace given unto us, and we’re thankful for it. We pray now that
You’ll help us in the study of Your Word that we might know these things of
this hour, that the Church is supposed to know: the hour it’s living in, its
place, the deep mysterious secrets of God, and the revelation of the end
time—the Person, God Himself, revelation of the Bride, all of these things
coming in together which we will believe. And this will be the faith of this
hour, and we’re trusting that we are a part of it. We give Thee praise, Lord,
in faith. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. You may be seated.
1. Now we’re going to recap tonight what
we went into on Sunday morning, that is, the recap of “The Day of the Lord and
the Lord’s Day.” Now we’re going to read, of course, first of all in 1 Th 5:2.
(2) For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
And we have a reiteration over here
in 2 Pet 3:10, the first part:
(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a
thief in the night.
But over here in Revelation 1, after
two mentions ‘the day of the Lord’, It says:
(10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day…
Now of course it would be casually
observed that when you have the possessive, or genitive case there, it wouldn’t
much matter whether you said, ‘Lord’s’, (‘d’ apostrophe ‘s’) or whether you
said, ‘day of the Lord’; it would show possession, and I guess people would
automatically think it is one and the same.
However, according to the students
of Scripture, those two phrases are actually different one from the other, and
according, as I say to the Bible students of repute: the ‘Lord’s Day’ is in
contradistinction to ‘man’s day’. Now that’s the first thing we understand. The
Lord’s Day, L-o-r-d’s—it’s in contradistinction to man’s day. Now man has had
six thousand years for his day and is still having his day, though unknown to
him or unemphasized to his conscienceness, man’s day is running out; it is
being cut off at this moment; it is in process of ending. It has to, according
to the “Seventh Seal,” which we’ll read later on.
2. Now ‘the day of the Lord’ is an
expression signifying God’s interposition, or God interposing Himself, or God
taking up a position both against His people or for His people, as the occasion
demands. Now we want you to just get that thought now, because it’s a two-fold
thought in there: the day of the Lord is an expression signifying God’s
interposition—God Himself interposing Himself both against His people or for
His people as the occasion demands. He’s either for the people, or against
them. God is the enemy of the people, or He is the enemy of the enemies of the
people, His Own, according as the occasion demands.
Now, to understand this we take the
case of Israel sinning and rebelling against God, transgressing by idolatry,
and disobedience, which we see an awful lot of through the Old Testament, and
we see God coming against them. They have become the enemy of God, and that’s
the ‘day of the Lord’ as taking His position against them. All right.
3. We go to Amos 5:1‑20, we’re
reading:
(1) Hear ye this word which I take up
against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. (Now God is against
Israel.)
(2) The virgin of Israel is fallen; (She’s
left the Word.) she shall no more rise: for she is forsaken upon her land;
there is none to raise her up.
(3) For thus saith the Lord God; The city
that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth
by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
(4) For thus saith the Lord unto the house
of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
(5) But seek not Bethel, nor enter into
Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
and Bethel shall come to nought.
(6) Seek the Lord, then ye shall live; lest
he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none
to quench it in Bethel.
(7) Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and
leave off righteousness in the earth,
(8) Seek him that maketh the seven stars and
Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day
dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out
upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:
(9) That strengtheneth the spoiled against
the strong, so that the spoiled shall come forth against the fortress.
(10) They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,
and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
(11) Forasmuch therefore as your treading is
upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of
hewn stone, but you’ll not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink wine of them.
(12) For I know your manifold transgressions
and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, they turn aside
the poor in the gate from their right.
(13) Therefore
the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
4. You’ve got the same thing with the
Mafia—politics. People are afraid to even go to the law. You don’t think
anything is new under the sun, just because you’re here in America? They stunk
back in Israel—they stink in America… And they are the people of God? Hogwash.
It’s wrong somewhere.
(14) Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live:
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
(15) Hate the evil, and love the good, and
establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be
gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
(16) Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the
Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all the streets; and they shall say in
all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning,
and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.
(17) And in all vineyards shall be wailing: or
I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.
(18) Woe unto you that desire the day of the
Lord! (Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord.) To what end is it for
you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
Are you thinking? Just keep
thinking. Got a parallel in this hour: “Everybody’s going to go into the
Rapture, hallelujah!” “Millions now living will never die. Glory to God.” “O
the great day of the Lord. Hallelujah!”
Darkness! You do what you want.
(18) ...The day of the Lord is darkness, and
not light.
(19) As if a man did flee from a lion, and a
bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a
serpent bit him.
(20) Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness,
and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? (That’s God against the
people, and notice verse 18:)
(18) Woe unto you that desire the day of the
Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not
light.
5. All right. Let’s go to Isa 2:6‑27:
(6) Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people
the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are
soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of
strangers.
(7) Their land also is full of silver and
gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is full of
horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
(8) Their
land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that
which their own fingers have made:
(9) And the mean man boweth down, and the
great man humbles himself: therefore forgive them not.
(10) Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the
dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.
Now these are the children of God,
you know. They’ve gone into idolatry, the same as we have: “rich, increased in
goods, and don’t lack a thing.” [Rev 3:17] Rich man, poor man, beggar man, a
thief. They are all in there.
(11) The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be
exalted in that day.
(12) For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be
upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and everyone that is lifted up; and he
shall be brought low: (That’s Mal 4:1‑2. You know that, don’t you?)
(13) And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that
are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, (That’s speaking of
powerful men.)
(14) And upon all the high mountains (high
organization), and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
(15) And upon every high tower, and upon every
fenced wall,
(16) And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and
upon all pleasant pictures.
(17) And the loftiness of man shall be bowed
down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: the Lord alone shall be
exalted in that day.
(18) And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
(19) And they shall go into the holes of the
rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory
of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. (You hear the same
thing in Revelation, don’t you?)
(20) In that day a man shall cast his idols of
silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship,
to the moles and to the bats; (They’ll say, “This isn’t working, is it?”)
(21) To go into the clefts of the rocks, to the
tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
(22) Cease ye from man whose breath is in his
nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Now It tells you right there what is
going to happen when people refuse to give pre‑eminence to God. They’re
going to find that everything they depended on isn’t worth anything to them.
Now in here you’ll find a purging: this is significant of destruction, death
and a purging.
6. Now the very sentiment of what we are
reading in the Old Testament is found in the New by measure of a warning—which
warning will not be heeded and judgment must come. 1 Thessalonians 5, speaking
of the time of the Rapture:
(1) But of the times and the seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. (That’s when the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a Shout, with the Voice of the archangel, the
Trump of God.)
(2) For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
(3) For when they shall say, Peace and
safety; (Claiming their refuge is in God when it is not—when it is in the
devil.) sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child; and they shall not escape.
Shall not escape from whom? The Lord
in His day! And He is talking to the Church. He’s not talking out here to a
bunch of hell-bound sinners that don’t know ‘A’ from ‘Z’. You’ll get to some of
that later on. You’ll find out who the enemy really is, which you’re going to
see is this perverted bunch of church members.
(4) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness,
that that day (The day of the Lord, which certainly is contingent to the
portion above, where the living and the dead get out of here—you’re not in
darkness at that day, the day of the Lord) should overtake you as a thief.
(5) Ye are the children of light, and the
children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
(9) For God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
But you will notice he says in here:
(6) Therefore let us not sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and be sober.
(7) For they that sleep sleep in the night;
and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
(8) But let us, who are of the day, be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the
hope of salvation.
Now you’ll notice in here the
warning is sent out. As many people preach their great evangelistic sermons…
“God is your friend today, but your enemy tomorrow.” I wonder if they realize
how far extending that is.
7. Again we saw in 2 Pet 3:2 the same
warning:
(2) That ye may be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the
apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
(3) Knowing this first, that there shall
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
Now that’s at the time when a
vindicated prophet comes on the scene in 2 Pet 1:16‑21, and they are
going to be completely oblivious to it. In fact, I would say many who claim to
be aware, haven’t the foggiest idea as to what’s really going on.
(4) Where is the promise of his presence?
Now that word ‘where’ really has to
do with the physical—that which is translated into the material, like: “Where,
Lord?”
“Well,” he said, “where the body
is.”
But they’ve got this so much in the
physical that they can’t understand the spiritual Presence.
(4) For since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were…
(5) For this they are willingly ignorant of,
that by the word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of the water and in the water.
8. Now what they are willingly ignorant of
is that something has been brought to their attention, which lines with
Scripture, which verifies the day of judgment, both to the purging of the
church and the world, and Israel, and so on, but they refuse to listen to it.
Now let’s go to Heb 10:26. You’ll notice It says:
(26) For if we sin willfully after we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins,
(27) But a fearful looking forward.
Now you’ll notice: those who turned
down the blood in Egypt died, because they could not believe the truth
concerning it. They could not believe what was going on in their hour. The same
thing obtains today: that those who willfully sin, turn down what God is
revealing, or whereby God is interpreting His Word into manifestation, which is
the interpretation, and He lets them know that there is coming a day of
judgment. And he said [2 Pet 3]:
(9) The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a
thief in the night.
9. So the day of the Lord of the Old
Testament has a principle which does not lose its power in the New Testament.
And we see God coming against those who are His people, who call upon His Name,
but as all Israel is not Israel, and the seed of Abraham is reckoned according
to promise, so the church is not all Bride, but Bride is reckoned according to
foreknowledge, election, and predestination.
Now the second thing we saw about
the day of the Lord, is not only is it a time of darkness and trouble for
Israel, gross darkness upon the people, gross darkness upon the church, God has
to deal with them according to their rebellion, their lack of sincerity, they
are “whited sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones,” [Mt 23:27] but also at that
time, unfortunately, the real enemies of God are not necessarily heathen per
se, as we reckon heathen, but the real enemy has always been within the gate.
Israel never had one enemy on the outside until they deteriorated on the
inside. And you will notice here that God rises up against whoever is the enemy
of the election.
10. Now let’s go to Joel 2:30‑31:
(30) And I will show wonders in the heavens and
in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
(31) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
Now notice over here in Malachi 4:
(1) For, behold, the day cometh, that shall
burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts,
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
(2) But unto you that fear my name (Now
notice at the same time slot:) the Sun of righteousness shall arise with
healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the
stall.
(3) And tread down the wicked; for they
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do (The
treading down and turning them into ashes for you.)
(5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
And at that time of darkness...so
what do you want the day of the Lord for? “It’s going to bring darkness,” he
said. But it is also going to bring light because he said,
(6) He will turn the hearts of the children
back to the fathers (and thereby there will be a way of escape.)
11. Now we go back to Isaiah 13, and in Isa
13:1‑11; we’re reading:
(1) The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the
son of Amoz did see.
(2) Lift ye up a banner upon the high
mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the
gates of the nobles.
(3) I have commanded my sanctified ones, I
have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my
highness.
(4) The noise of a multitude in the
mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of
nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
(5) They come from a far country, from the
end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy
the whole land.
(6) Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at
hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. (Now you will notice
that the day of the Lord always has destruction in it: judgment.)
(7) Therefore shall all hands be faint, and
every man’s heart shall melt: (That’s right back to the Book of Revelation.)
(8) And they shall be afraid: pangs and
sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that
travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces as flames. (Now,
sounds like the atomic bomb doesn’t it?)
(9) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: (Now that’s
the earth being purged, as well as the church in Israel being purged. See? God
has always had His way of doing things.) he shall destroy the sinners thereof
out of it. (So how are you going to have them in the Millennium having
children?)
(10) For the stars of heaven and the
constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in
his going forth, the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
(11) And I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the
proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Now that’s said right over there in
Acts 2 also.
12. Now Zech 14:1‑3:
(1) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and
thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
(2) For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and
the women ravished; and half of the city shall go into captivity, the residue
of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(3) Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight
against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
You can see from here what we’re
looking at is that God will deliver according to the principle that lies in the
day of the Lord: there will be a destruction, but there will also be a
deliverance.
Now that’s like what we’ve got over
here in Psalm 27, that Bro. Branham used for the setting of the Rapture. Ps
27:1-5:
(1) The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear? (No one but God of course.) The Lord is the strength of my
life; of whom shall I be afraid?
(2) When the wicked, even mine enemies and
my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
(3) Though an host should encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be
confident.
(4) One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
(5) For in the time of trouble he shall hide
me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall
set me upon a rock.
Now you’ll notice we read the same
thing already over here in 1 Thessalonians 5, which is terribly important to
understand at the time of the day of the Lord, knowing that part of it will be
the great tribulation—that the Bride will not be in it.
(9) For God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. (Which starts with the Blood,
the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and the end time revelation of the prophet at
the time of the Rapture, of the Shout, the Voice, and the Catching Up.)
13. Now, let’s try to put this together, if
we can, reading from “Patmos Vision,” Page 95:
[131] Now John was transmitted from the Isle of
Patmos in the spirit over into the Lord’s day. This is the day of man—men are
fighting but the day of the Lord will come when these kingdoms will become the
kingdoms of our Lord, and of this Christ, then there’ll be the great
Millennium.
Now you can see right there in
contradistinction to man’s day, the Lord’s Day is coming on the scene. But
you’ll notice. Watch how it gets there and what’s involved:
[131] ...The Lord’s day, the day of His coming,
His judgment, that will be the Lord’s day. (Now going on.)
[132] This is the day of man. That’s the reason
they slam you around and do what they want with you. They call you now Holy
roller and fanatic, but there will come a time, see, that they won’t do that.
They’ll scream and fall at your feet. The Bible said in Malachi 4, “You’ll even
walk on the ashes after they’re burned up.”
Now, when is this going to take
place? We’re coming back in Revelation 19. Nobody’s going to be falling at our
feet, before we get out of here in a Rapture, as far as I know the Scripture.
[132] ...They’ll be burned up leaving neither root
nor branch. Exactly what the Bible says, “The righteous shall walk upon the
ashes of the wicked.” That’s exactly. There will not be left root or branch,
nothing to come back to and they’ll be done. Now this is man’s day, man’s
doings, man’s works, man’s church, man’s idea, but the day of the Lord is
coming.
14. Now we can see here that Bro. Branham
agrees that the Lord’s Day is in contradistinction to man’s day. “Today is man’s day, man’s doing, man’s
work, man’s church, man’s ideas,” but Malachi 4 will change that.
Now I’m going to read to you from an
expanded translation from Dr. Wuest in 1 Corinthians 4, to give you a better
idea of what you are looking at. Now Paul is speaking here:
(1) In this manner let a man measure and
classify us as servants of Christ and as those who have been entrusted with the
mysteries of God and their disposition.
Now how did you like that from the
plain Greek? Paul has quite a fat mouth here. He gets up and he flexes his
spirit, and he says, “Bless God, you look at me.” He said, “I’ve got the
mysteries of God, and they’re at my disposition.”
How do like that? Let your tongue
hang out. Well, come on... Interesting. If Paul were here, they would kill him!
You talk about the oath of Columbus perpetrated on him by these so-called sweet
Christians. Yeah, the mysteries of God and their disposition.
I’ve got some twenty dollar bills in
my wallet, and they’re at my disposition, and I’ll do what I want with those
twenty dollar bills. Yeah. I’ll take you all to dinner, if you want to go some
place. The Fu Manchu’s down here tonight…not very many. I could treat the all
of you, as long as you stick within the hamburgers. [Bro. Vayle laughs.]
Well, that’s in my disposition. Well
that’s what it says. Language is language.
15. (2) Under these circumstances it is further
sought in stewards that a man be found faithful.(Now Paul lets you know he is
going to be faithful to God in the revelation when he does it.)
(3) But with me it is a very small thing that I am
being put on trial by you, by the judicial day of mankind.
I want you to get this, because
that’s what you’re looking at: the day of the Lord is judicial. This is man’s
day, which is judicial. What man’s judgment says, man’s ideas, man’s church,
man’s things, man’s this...what he looks at and judges according to his own
knowledge which is a physical thing. Remember: spiritual comes through
spiritual.
(3) But with me it is a very small thing
that I am being put on trial by you, by the judicial day of mankind in fact I
do not even put myself on trial.
(4) For I am not conscious of even one thing
against myself: but not by this means do I stand justified. He who puts me on
trial is the Lord.
(5) Wherefore stop exercising censorious
judgment with reference to anything before the epochal strategic season, until
that time whenever the Lord may come, Who will both turn the light on the
hidden things of darkness and bring out in the open the counsels of the hearts.
And then to each one shall there come his praise from God.
16. Now he’s telling you there’s an epochal
day coming when man’s judgment ceases; and this prophet, William Branham,
pinpoints it at this hour that you’re looking at the Book of Revelation open at
that period, where Paul categorically says, “I don’t have any sense of guilt.”
But he said, “I’m going to tell you something: I don’t stand in that.”
Now here’s what I’ve been warning
people all along; I’ve been telling you: there is no sense of guilt since a
certain date. I saw the same thing in Bro. Branham. But that doesn’t mean
anything, because that’s an experience. Anybody can have an experience. The
trinitarian idolaters can say the same thing. I’m going to tell you something:
I don’t depend on experience. I depend on Word. I don’t have one feeling about
myself to justify or condemn.
Now it’s going to be strange that
I’m talking this way, but I want you to know something. I’m part of whatever
hour this is; asleep, or fooled, or I’m going to walk into something. Now I
know I get hated for talking like this, it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m hated
anyway. So have a field day. Have a ball. Have a big ball, because Bro. Branham
said, “Abraham didn’t even look at what
he did,” because Paul said, “God says I am righteous.” And it’s gotten to a
place where we’re dealing strictly with reality.
17. Now you can tell then from what I read
here: man’s day is a day in which man judges everything according to how, and what,
and where, and when he wants to judge. And he’s abysmally a failure, because
there’s no way he can do it. Now there’s coming a day, which is the Lord’s Day.
Now Bro. Branham said here, “They’ll be
done.” Now, let me get it here now,
“The Lord’s day, the day of His judgment, His coming, His judgment, that’ll be
the Lord’s day.” Now right here he said, “They say anything they want to do. They pull anything in the book.”
And he said, “It’s man’s doing; it’s
man’s church; it’s man’s idea, and man is in the day of his judgment.” And
he says, “You people don’t dare believe
that Branham message.”
And even amongst us say, “You don’t
dare believe in that ‘Parousia’ junk. That’s a lot of puke. That’s a cult.”
That’s fine; that’s fine. I want to
know who came down. I want to know what came down. I want to know who they
thought the prophet talked to. Now his personal tape to me privately, that went
around the world, said, “Now, Lee, you know we haven’t had a prophet that
talked face-to-face with God for two thousand years since the time of Paul
until now.” Now these preachers around the country say they believe the
prophet. What do they believe?
18. Now it’s this hour. Put it down the road
if you want. That’s your business, and they can do what they want. But Bro.
Branham said, “That Lord’s day has got to come and take over a man’s day
and the righteous are going to walk on the ashes of the wicked.” Well
Elijah’s supposed to be here the same time that that great One comes down. I
want to ask you a question: then what’s going on?
I understand, according to
Scripture, the prophet himself said that Heb 4:12 was in full effect:
(12) For the word of the Lord is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Now:)
(13) Neither is there any creature that is not
manifest in his sight (Not ‘its’ sight, but ‘His’): but all things are naked
and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Now you tell me that Bro. Branham
opened that Bible and read every man’s heart. He did not! It was when that One
became present. I want to tell you: the Logos is not this Bible. That’s printed
form. The Logos is a person. We’re not dealing with any of these things we
dealt with fifteen years ago when we couldn’t figure things out. I was as
confused as anybody, but I knew jolly well something was there. Today I know
what’s there.
19. Now, “Today is man’s day, man’s work, man’s church, man’s judging,” but
it’s running out. ...Men fighting, as he said here, paragraph 131.
[131] ...But the day of the Lord will come when
these kingdoms, which they’re fighting for, the organizations, principalities,
and all those things, will be the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and
then there will be the great Millennium. The Lord’s day and the day of His
coming, His judgment, that will be the Lord’s day.
So he’s put an awful lot in there
that is significant of the Lord’s Day that absolutely is identical to the day
of the Lord. Right? Certainly. Now Malachi 4 is going to change that when all
is gone but the Groom, the Bride, and the 144,000 and whosoever, and whatsoever
He might want to have there with him. Now I believe that is, then, what we’re
looking at: Rev 19:11, where He comes with the saints to take the world over,
to destroy the kingdoms of the earth, and establish His own.
20. Now here is what I want to try to get to
you, according to my understanding on this subject: though the day of the Lord
is a day of decisive action and judgmental overthrow, which actual overthrow
might be twenty‑four hours or far less, there is still a period of time
that goes with it and is recognized that that so-called day of the Lord can be
much, much longer than a twenty‑four hour period. It could go over a
period of time which would be called an epochal season or a certain time slot
that must run its course. Now to understand that and see what we’re saying,
let’s go to Zeph 1:8-18.
(8) And it shall come to pass in the day of
the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children,
and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. (So anybody that doesn’t have
the wedding garment on, it’s too bad.)
(9) In the same day I’ll punish all those
that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and
deceit.
They are still, right at this time,
fighting each other to take over. They’re still going to be fighting. There
will be some group. The rest will be making altar calls and filling the altars
with people, but o more getting saved than nothing.
(10) It will come to pass in that day, saith
the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an
howling from the second, and the great crash from the hills.
(11) Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all
the merchant people are cut down; all that bear silver are cut off.
(12) And it shall come to pass at that time,
that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled
on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will
he do evil. (That’s the same thing they said in 2 Peter: “All things continue.
There’s no big change. We’ve got to sit here and watch.”)
(13) Therefore their goods shall become a
booty, their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, not inhabit
them: and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. (See?
Merchandising keeps going on.)
(14) The day of the Lord is near, it is near,
(Now that’s the great day of the Lord) and hasteth greatly, even the voice of
the day of the Lord: and mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
(15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of
trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and
gloominess, a day of dark clouds and thick darkness,
(16) A day of the trumpet and alarm against the
fenced cities, and against the high towers. (In other words there is going to
be a cry against organization...all these big things.)
(17) And I will bring distress upon men, they
shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their
blood be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. (That sounds like the
atomic bomb again.)
(18) Neither their silver nor their gold shall
be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land
shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
All right. You’ll notice that that
is a period of time, because they’re building and planting. It’s not a twenty‑four
hour period, though the wrath, the ultimate decisive action, may not take any
more than minutes. Then again it may.
21. Let’s go to Zech 14:1‑7:
(1) Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and
thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
(2) For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle; the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the
residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(3) Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight
against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Now he tells you: the day of the
Lord—these things will be taking place…then the day of the Lord, the decisive
battle, one day of those particular days.
(4) His
feet stand upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and
the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and
toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the
mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
(5) And ye shall flee to the valley of the
mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall
flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of
Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Now he’s
telling you all these things are going to be going on before Rev 19:11
comes—“seated on white horses.”)
(6) And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(7) But it shall be one day which shall be
known to the Lord, not day, not night: it shall come to pass, that at evening
time it shall be light.
Now that’s been going on for years!
And this the day of the Lord. So you begin to see why the judgments of God are
in the earth and the six Seals opened in 1964 of March.
22. Now let’s look again at verse 6 and 7:
(6) And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(7) And it shall be one day, (Whatever comes
to pass, and how long, is going to be one day—one respite given to us to get
light.)
“The Lord is my light and my
salvation.” [Ps 27:1] He is going to get me out of here. You are not unaware of
that day. It won’t overtake you as a thief. You’re not children of night; you
are of light. God is obligated to give light. He said, “You that call for the
day of the Lord, you understand its darkness? You understand what you’re asking
for when you’re praying for the Lord to come and do so and so, and so and so?”
23. Well they’ve been praying for years.
Like Bro. Branham said, “This couple, the
Moores, that wrote the Herald of Hope: ‘O God, send a prophet! O God, send a
prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet!’”
So the prophet came in their house
and ate.
“O God, send a prophet! O God, send
a prophet! O God, send a prophet!”
So the prophet ate and went out.
“O God, send a prophet! O God, send a prophet! O God, send a
prophet!”
Ah, shut‑up!
Friends that are dead now said that
he should not have said it. His wife tried to stop him. He was not half as
smart as he thought he was.
There are people now in that
never-never land that thought they knew all the answers. That’s why we don’t
have answers here. God has the answers.
24. “That day.” What “that day?” The day of
the Lord coming, the spoil, the feet standing, the people running. There will
be a period of time that we get a chance to escape it. The prophet said that
Zech 14:6-7 was today—in this gloomy period. What’s going on anyway? The prophet
told us.
Now notice again 2 Peter 3, once the
revelation breaks. 2 Peter 3. We’ve read it many times: “scoffers, willingly
ignorant.” They don’t realize that the day of the Lord brings judgment; it
brings darkness; it brings tragedy. But it brings light and deliverance and a
new residence, a new settling down, a new settlement, a new culture, a new
civilization.
Now let’s get the background of 2
Pet 3:3‑12, especially in verse 12. It says:
(12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire be dissolved, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Now that’s the Presence. “Looking
for and hasting.” Now when do you ‘look for’ and ‘the hasting’? You get it over
here in 2 Peter 1, after the stature of perfect man. He said, “If you get
this... The seventh church age comes to God Himself, which is Love...
(11) For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.
25. Now here’s what you’re looking for:
you’re looking for the abundant entrance. You’re looking for the kingdom. And
Peter said, “This is the truth that is under scrutiny: this kingdom teaching,
the Coming.” Now he said, “I’m going to tell you something.” He said:
(16) (I’ve) not followed cunningly devised
fables, when (I) made known unto you. (The preview of this kingdom, when I saw
by vision this kingdom coming into view upon the Holy Mount.)
But he says in verse 18, the word of
prophecy is far more sure than this, because this was only a vision, and the
real thing is coming. Now:
(19) We have the word of prophecy made sure and
you better take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
26. Now he tells you the conditions that
bring about the abundant entrance into the kingdom, that the hour that this
prophecy really comes to pass—not a vision, not a pre‑figure, but the
real McCoy [thing]. And verse 20:
(20) Knowing this, that no prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation.
(21) But prophecy came not in old time by the
will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
He tells you it is going to take a
prophet to bring this to pass. As Paul said, “To me was committed the mysteries
and the disposition.”
To William Branham, Elijah, is
committed this prophetic knowledge that is to break at the end time, in the day
of the Lord and in the Lord’s Day.
27. Now notice 2 Pet 2:1. (It shouldn’t even
be in chapter form.)
(1) But there were false prophets among the
people.
Now he tells you that there were
false prophets, but here you’ve got to look out for false teachers, because it
is the teachers that are going to take you away from the prophet, because as
Bro. Branham said, “Satan can’t duplicate
this.” There’s no way.
There’s nobody going to rise up and
follow William Branham—nobody. They can take a lie and pfap around like these
other guys do, but they always hit a snag. They always manifest themselves. But
you’ve got these teachers that will mess you up. And they’ll sit with you at
your feast.
Like this guy from Washington—nice
looking man sat there. He didn’t know that my wife sat next to him though,
because he didn’t know my wife. So there was a sleeper in the audience. And
while Bob Brown preached, he said, “Amen! Preach it, brother! Hallelujah!” Then
went, “Ha, ha, ha, ha,” behind his hand; but she caught him. Sleaze. Came to my
room and told me that I had to listen to them. I should listen to them?
28. I’m tired of these pastors—yes,
pastors—who keep quoting Bro. Branham to their own end: “The pastor’s ordained to see you through.” And so Bro. Harold
Marconda said, “You let me know what pastor that is. I’ll sit under him,
because I want to get through!”
The word ‘ordained’ is ‘commanded to
be responsible’, but it seems the most of them simply want your pocketbook and
your attendance. We’ve got a small crowd tonight. It doesn’t bother me at all.
This goes on tape. It will get to a very big crowd, don’t worry. They’re sitting
twenty-two deep, fifteen deep, twenty-two deep. Preachers are preaching. I’ve
got no problem if I preach to one or nobody. It doesn’t matter about money.
Lots of money comes in the mail to this church. Right? We get checks coming all
the time over in Columbus. I don’t take it all. I don’t need it. There’s a
difference, my brother/sister: we don’t have to do things like that, and
they’re going to regret it. We’re not through preaching yet.
29. Now It tells you: you’ll never duplicate
this prophet. I don’t care who you are. It’s once for all vindicated, but you
can louse up the teaching. But even then, the elect will never get deceived. So
there’s no problem there. They can try every trick in the book: rape—which they
do—mental rape, mental seduction... They go the whole gambit. I’ve got news:
we’re on to all this. We’re fully aware what’s going on.
30. There is a period there, then, that
you’re literally looking at, and it has to be in the day of the Lord, because
the Bible said so, and William Branham placed it. Now let’s understand
emphatically. Go back to Zech 14:6‑7:
(6) It shall come to pass in that day, that
the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(7) But in that one day which shall be known
to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening
time it shall be light.
Now “come to pass in that day.” It
says, so you’re talking about this time, that the
church is going to know the hour in which it is in. Now that is literally Zeph
1:1‑7:
(1) The word of the Lord which came unto
Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of
Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon the king of Judah,
(2) I will utterly consume all things from
off the land, saith the Lord. (Now you know that’s ‘day of the Lord’ talk.)
(3) I will consume man and beast; I will
consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling
blocks with the wicked; I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
(That’s Malachi 4.)
(4) I will stretch out upon mine hand unto
Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the
remnant of Baal from this place and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
(5) And them that worship the host of heaven
upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that
swear by Malcham; (In other words, you’ve got bastardized religions like
Catholicism today...Mariology Peterology, Paulology...and God knows what.
Idolatry.)
(6) And them that turned back from the Lord;
and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him.
(7) Hold thy peace at the presence of the
Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: ( So he tells you He is going to
be Present and you better know the day of the Lord is here, too, because He
comes with light and He comes with darkness. That’s why it’s such a gloomy,
funny day...a day that’s confusing, but so what? We’re used to confusion by
now, so praise God.) the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his
guests.
Where’s the wedding garments? There’s
a Marriage Supper going to go on. And you know who is going to be around, and
what it’s going to be around? The great Sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself incarnated—yes! Fully prepared through God bringing everything under
His feet. The great Day.
31. Now, so we said Zech 14:6‑7 is
Zeph 1:1‑7, which is Zeph 1:8:
(8) And it shall come to pass in the day of
the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children,
and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
How did you get in here without a
wedding garment? See? And watch: Zeph 1:1‑7, which is based on: 1‑8.
We better read some more.
(9) In the same day also will I punish all
those that leap on the threshold, (We already read that. Verse 14:)
(14) The great day of the Lord is near, is
near, hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; (He is going to
raise the dead.) the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
(15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of
trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of grossness,
dark gloominess, and clouds that are thick and dark.
(16) A day of the trumpet (What about the day
of the trumpet? Well we’ll read that in Amos after a while.) and alarm against
the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
(17) I will bring distress upon men, that they
shall walk like blind men, (And so on. We read all those things.)
(18) And their silver and gold won’t do them
good (Even though they say, “We’re rich and increased with goods, and don’t
need a thing. Right?)
32. Now watch: Zeph 1:16. See? “A day of
trumpet, a day of alarm against the fenced cities”... That takes us to Amos
3:6:
(6) Shall a trumpet be blown in the city,
and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath
not done it? (Or shall not the Lord do something about it? is what it is.)
(7) Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but
he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
(8) The lion hath roared, (Seventh Seal,
Seven Thunders.) The Lord God hath spoken, (Down here on earth.) who can but
prophesy? (It takes a prophet to tell you.)
You’re right back now to 2 Peter,
the Word of the Lord, the prophecy, which is on the scene at this hour, has
been conclusively made known and given to us through the vindicated prophet.
The whole thing is wrapped up. This is it—the hour in which we live—but we
don’t need to be afraid, because we’re children of Light. We’re not back here
with the world judging anymore. We’re in a spiritual vacuum, so to speak. And
by ‘vacuum’ I mean nothing can come into it. ‘Spiritual isolation’, I should
say, which is better.
33. So Zeph 1:16
is Amos 3:6, which is also Mal 4:1‑2, 5-6: wrath, destruction,
immortality, tread down the wicked, Elijah coming, the same time God comes to
set the thing in order, which is also Mt 24:27:
(27) As the light shines from east to west, so
is the presence of the son of man.
...Which is Lk 17:20‑30, the
kingdom here. As Bro. Branham says, in I think “World Falling Apart,” in 1963
in New York, “He is the Kingdom. He is
here. The King is here.”
As it says in 2 Th 2:1, “...By our
gathering together unto him.”...which is a Message, bringing us in, which is,
without a doubt, Zeph 1:1‑7 which we read:
(3) I’ll consume man and beast...
(4) ...Stretch
mine hand out...
(5) I’m going to take in those that
worship wrong...
(6) I’m going to come against those that
turned back from the Lord. (How many left Bro. Branham every time he said
something? Why, the man couldn’t say a thing but they began jibing at him and
running off. Well fine! That’s good! The Bride’s got to be few, so thank God
they did it.) and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him.
(7) Hold thy peace at the presence of the
Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord has prepared a
sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
(8) And it shall come to pass in the day of
the Lord’s sacrifice, I will punish the princes, (When we’re at the Wedding
Supper you watch what happens.)
It’s all going on right now...that
is, to say: what is going on is the sense that we’re rapidly coming into the
complete fulfillment of this whole thing.
34. Now, I don’t
know how quick I’ll cut off here, but we’re going to do some reading. So, we go
to “The Seals,” Page 556:
[103] We must remember that this seventh seal is
the end of time of all things.
Now he tells you. Now the day of the
Lord has got to be part of it. The Lord’s Day has got to be a part of it. So he
tells you: the opening of this has to do with it. Let’s read it:
[103] ...That’s right. The things written in the
seventh seal book, (Sealed up
with the plan of redemption from before the foundation of the world.), it every bit ends. (Well this has got to end too then. The Seventh Seal opened it, set
it in motion. The Sixth Seal set it in motion. There’s nothing that’s not set
in motion.) It is the end. The end of the
struggling world. (He’s going
to destroy it. He said so here.) It’s the end
of struggling nature. (He
said so.) It’s the end of everything. In there
is the end of the trumpets,
(He said so. No more trumpets going to blow.) it’s
the end of the vials, (No
more punishment.) it’s the end of the earth.
It’s the end of time—time runs out. (That’s under the Seventh Seal.)
[104] ...Rev 10:1-7, time runs out. Angel said it,
“Time is no more,” ...in the days of this great thing to happen. Everything
runs out at this time—this is the end of the seventh seal.
Notice.
It’s the end of the church age, it’s the end of the seventh seal, it’s the end
of the trumpets, it’s the end of the vials, even ends the ushering in of the
millennium.
35. Well, we read it. So under the Seventh
Seal that broke, that’s in effect, you are not going to escape the Lord’s Day
and the day of the Lord—His Presence.
[105] It’s just like firing a rocket into the air.
And that rocket explodes here and it goes up, and then it explodes again. It
puts out five stars. One of those stars explodes and blows five more stars. And
then one of them explodes and blows out five more stars, see. It fades on out.
That’s what the seventh seal...it just ends the time for the world. It ends the
time for this, the time for that, the time for this, the time for that.
[106] Now, how is He going to do it? That’s what
we don’t know, isn’t it? We don’t know. It’s even time for all these things,
and the ushering in of the millennium. Notice, the breaking of this seal was so
great that heaven was hushed by it in silence for the space of a half hour.
Now, how great is it?
Now he said, “Listen,” he said, “It’s even
time for all these things and the ushering in of the Millennium.”
Well how do you usher the Millennium
in, except through a Resurrection, and a Rapture, and a Wedding Supper, and
come on down and take over? Well if that’s not the presence of God, you tell me
what it is. Yet people can’t shut‑up and listen. Now he tells you how the
twenty‑four elders quit… Just read your Bible on the twenty‑four
elders, and you’ll find some more thoughts. Okay?
36. Let’s read this. This is about the
cloud, the big cloud up there. He said: [“He That Is in You”]
[23] It was 30 miles high and 27 miles across,
one or the other. Life magazine packed it, May 17 issue. That’s it.
[24] Now there it is, scientifically, proof that
it’s the truth. So therefore we don’t worry about whether it’s truth. Both
scientifically and spiritually; but what was said has come to pass. So the
message of the seventh seals, and their closing, that’s the message of the
entire Bible. The seventh seals closes the New Testament and seals it up.
Now you say, “Just a minute, I
thought it opened it.”
Well it’s how you look at it. First
of all the Seven Seals had closed it. But now that It’s opened, It can’t be
closed. It’s closed it--that’s the end of it--because you can’t add or can’t
take. He knew It was open. That’s the truth.
[24] ...Now, we know that that is by prophetic
utterance, by scientific, and by the Word. Three has given the witness that it
is the truth. Science, prophetic, and here’s the Word. Just like It says Peter
said, “You’ve got this prophecy absolutely made sure.”
When did science ever have a picture
of anything in the past? When did they have that Pillar of Fire and those
clouds? Now people say, “Well, you’re just guessing.”
Well that’s fine. Then we’re
guessing. Wonderful. No problem. The Word said so, but that’s all right. You
see who believes the Word, don’t you?
[25] Therefore, we know we’re at that end time;
we’re here. I don’t know how far away. He’ll never let us know that, because
his coming will be “as a thief in the night.”
So what’s the difference? What do I
care? I’d like to get stolen out of here. There’s no problem to me.
37. Now listen; let’s watch it.
[25] ...Now, my friend, my brother, sister, let’s
get ready, be ready regardless. Let’s just chase ourselves. See, because the
world will go right on. They’ll never even know what’s happened. When the doors
of mercy close, preachers will be preaching salvation, cause the people to
repent, go right on like they always did. It did in other ages and it will be
in this age. The rapture will be so sudden and so quick, the world will never
miss them if they’re gone. That’s right. They’ll know nothing about it. He
comes and slips her away. It’ll be gone and know nothing about it. So be in
prayer for me. I’ll be in prayer for you. We don’t now when that hour will be.
So what’s the difference? You’re
going to get changed before you get snuck out of here. So what’s he telling the
people? He’s telling them that they don’t know, and they should know, and there
are a people that are supposed to know, and they will know. And it’s not the
idea of getting snuck out of here—it’s you better know ahead of time what time
it is and what it takes to get you snuck out of here. Because they are going to
be giving altar calls and it’s going to be all gone and they won’t even know
it. Sure.
38. [“Christ is
the Mystery of God Revealed”]:
[3] The reason there that was such a tremendous
thing that he spoke of it here and showed those Seven Thunders and Look and
Life magazine there packed that “circle of Light.” There they could not
understand and don’t yet but here telling, go there and wait for those
mysteries to be revealed in here months before it happened. Then it happened
exactly the way he said it would do.
So he tells you here about that same
Thunder, the same circle of Lights.
He also
said [The Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, “Laodicean Church Age”]:
[327‑1] Now this messenger of Malachi 4
and Rev 10:7 is going to do two things. According to Malachi 4, he’ll turn the
hearts of the children to the fathers. Two: he’ll reveal the mysteries of the
seven thunders in Revelation 10 which are the revelations contained in the
seven seals. (That’s exactly
what the prophet said.)
39. “Rapture”
[Page 32]:
[157] And those Seven Seals opened, those
mysteries and showing those things what’s happened. I didn’t know it, but
there’s a man standing right here, was standing right with me when you heard me
preach the sermon, “Sirs, What Time Is It?” And that morning exactly where it
said it would be, there stood seven Angels standing right from the Heaven. And
as they went up, and that whirlwind took them up there, we standing, watched as
they went away, science took the picture of it all the way across the nation,
down into Mexico. And there I was watching.
[158] One day when I started to preach those seven
church ages, I called Jack Moore, a great theologian; I said, “Jack, Who is
this Person standing there, There’s One like the Son of man there, hair as
white as wool.” I said, “He was a young Man; how could He have hair as white as
wool?”
[159] He said, “Brother Branham, that was His
glorified body.” That didn’t ring a bell. But I went in the room and started
praying, He let me know what it was.
What was it? It was a Judge. What
was it?
[160] ...He was a Deity, not just a man; He was
God manifested in flesh.
But He never came back in that ring.
It wasn’t the man in that ring. If that was a man in that ring... I don’t know.
I’ve never thought about that. Bro. Branham said, “It wasn’t His glorified form.” So it couldn’t have been glorified
form. Had to be a theophany form. And there He stood like one of those mighty
angels. He stood there, just like when He was in the form of Michael. But there
He stood. All right?
40. Now what’s
he saying? [“Patmos Vision”]:
[131] Now John was transmitted from the Isle of
Patmos, appeared in the Lord’s day. This was the day of man, but the day of the
Lord will come when these kingdoms will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ. Then there’ll be the great millennium, the Lord’s Day, the day of
his coming, His judgment, that’ll be the Lord’s Day.
So look, how much more evidence do
we want of what’s going on? Okay.
“Christ the
Mystery of God Revealed”:
[337]
Notice, being personally identified by
the original headship, we have the answer to the devil’s question. Amen! Glory!
We have the answer to the devil’s question. He, Christ, is risen and has paid
the price in raising up the body. The devil can’t stand it.
[338] That’s the reason these ecumenical kingdoms
are setting up. That’s the reason they’re all coming into what they’re doing
now. The devil, that’s the reason he’s howling the way he is. His scheme has
been uncovered by the risen resurrected Christ in the headship over his body!
So who’s here? Why is Satan howling?
Why are organizations coming up the way they are? Because He’s here. He’s back
to headship.
[339] You think I’m beside myself; I’m not. We’ve
got the devil’s answer. “Not me, but there was Christ the Word living in me.” Now he’s not talking about Paul—he’s
talking about himself. It’s not my ideas; it’s
his power. Not my ideas; his Word.
41. What is it
he said over here? “The day of the Lord,
this is man’s word, this is man’s this man’s that...” What’s this? It’s
coming into full view. That’s what it’s doing. And it’s coming into full view
in a Bride, because how in the world are you going to have a kingdom without
the subjects? How are you going to have the Rapture without the Bride? How you
going to have anything without a Bride? A Wedding Supper?
[339] ....Not my idea; it’s his power. Not my
idea; it’s His Word. He promised it, here it is. He said it would be here, and
here it is. We’ve got His answer.
Now what’s he talking about?
Something Paul wrote or something that’s here? I don’t believe it’s something
Paul wrote. I believe it’s here.
[340] Christ is risen and paid the price for our
redemption. What God in Christ manifested, He gave that flesh and blood, that
in the blood might come the life, and the flesh be redeemed; and that was God
in this redeemed flesh could manifest his Word for the day as He did in that
day. (Now he’s telling you, “As it was in that day, is for this day.”) You see? Oh my!
[341]
Notice it. And we stand justified in the
presence of God as a drop of ink dropping in a full tub of bleach. You’ll never
find the stain of ink no more. It went somewhere. And never come back again.
And when man is truly redeemed (that predestinated seed in its season and
accepts it), his sins are demolished.
In other words we’re truly redeemed,
because we see what we see.
“Oh,” you say, “I’m looking down the
road”
I’m not. You see, that’s where this
church stands. We’re not looking down the road. We’re not looking back. We’re
looking at what’s in front of us. This is where we differ from so many people.
[341] ...It’s gone! It’s separated! It’s dropped
into the ink of the blood...
(He should say, “the bleach of the Blood.”) from
Christ and it’s never remembered. God forgets it and he stands as a son or
daughter in the presence of God. Amen and amen!
42. Now he tells you what’s here.
[342] Now are we the sons of God. Not will be, we
are. Now we’re redeemed. We have Satan’s answer. God has vindicated Himself,
has proved Himself to his promise in this day. Hallelujah! Headship is here.
“Well, maybe He’s not here. Throw it
in the garbage tin. Maybe he’s just carried away with his own blah, blah...his
verbosity, his verbiage, and his hot air.”
Is that what a prophet is all about?
This is what I wonder: what do people believe? I preached a sermon, “God,
Prophet; Prophet, God.” There!
“Oh, Bro. Vayle, I knew it all the
time.”
Oh, sure you did. The simple things are the deep things. God
makes things out of stone; stone—common material. But it takes an expert cutter
to build a pyramid.
[342]
...Headship is here (Amen!)—Christ, the
risen Lord. It’s here. Notice
‘It’—Holy Spirit. And the same power of his
resurrection He ever was, manifesting Himself. There’s the devil’s answer.
[343] That’s the reason this man sitting here
dropped dead the other day, we could say, “Come back, life!”—because the Holy
Spirit said so. That’s why He could do that for that little baby in Mexico that
had been dead for about fifteen hours. The vision came, “Call her back to life.
Let the little baby live.” And the baby that the doctors wrote a statement died
at nine o’clock that morning, eleven o’clock came back to life and living
today.
That’s what Paul said when he said,
“We’ve got this, and we dispense it.” That’s what Paul said in 2 Cor 4: “We
have this ministry.”
“Oh, the church has got it. The
lovely brethren that came together and elected somebody, and they sit together,
and they talked it over. Oh! Those lovely brethren got it.”
Hogwash they got it. They’ve got
it--and it’s herpes--from their sexual intercourse with filth! When they go
down with the AIDS, I’ll laugh my guts out. And if I’m one of them, I’ll go to
hell with bells on, too, just like the rest, because we’re calling the shots.
43. We’ve got a
vindicated prophet—you’ve got a vindicated prophet. It’s this Word, brother. I
don’t care what anybody says. It’s living, and It’s not just a Word—He is here.
Logos is here by the One by Whom all things consist, Who made all things and
consist, and He’s upholding them now. That One is here at the head of the
Church! And that means just one thing: there isn’t nothing but the Church that
has a true relationship to Almighty God. Everything else is relative. But we’re
not even related; we’re Sons—a part.
“I’m tired of being identified. I’m
not identified. I’m a Son.
“Bro. Vayle, you…”
I’m not identified. Look, kid, forget
it: ‘I’m identified’. I’m a Son; I’m not identified.
And he said, “You’re identified as a
Son.”
No way, no way. I’m a Son. Period.
And that’s all there is to it. Don’t tell me anything else. I’m just tired of
all this other flukey stuff thrown here by the theologians.
44. [“Christ the
Mystery of God Revealed”]
[344] What is it? Not them people; the headship
and the body have become one unit. Couldn’t be any other time. It’s God
manifested in his people. That’s the reason the husband and wife are no longer
twain; they’re one. God in His church isone—Christ in you! God, the great
revelation. Glory to God! Ever bearing His name. His name is Jesus, the
anointed. The reason He’s called Jesus, He’s the anointed. And it is the
anointed body of Christ proving, manifested God like that body did. The body
redeemed.
Now it says “like that body did.”
Now listen, who’s doing it? William Branham was doing it, so therefore the body
was doing it—because what’s he a part of? He’s not God, he’s part of the body.
[345] And through there God works his threefold
manifestation. Going to the kingdom, risen, paid the price. We’re redeemed. God
proved it, vindicated it. (See?
Vindicated.) See? And we stand justified in
Christ before Him, because He cannot pass judgment, for He has already judged
that body in which I am a part of it.(But where do you stand then? You’re judged already. How am I a part
of it? Here it is:) It’s in me. “If ye abide in
Me and my words in you, then what you say... Ask the Father anything in my name
and it will be done because it’s there.” Justified! Glory to God!
So, where are you at? Mt 3:12, “The
fan is in his hand.” Mt 22:10: when the Seals are broken, you can’t reseal
it—but it’s sealed in this respect: you can’t add to it. It’s all over. The
whole thing is coming to an end.
45. So we see,
you can’t separate the two days, Lord’s Day and the day of the Lord. You can’t
separate them, but you can identify, so that in identifying and mentally
separating, you can place exactly what’s going on as to intent, and purpose,
and events, and to whom it concerns, and to what concerns. And it works out.
They are together, but instead of a generalization, there is a
particularization, or designation, to make us know we are already thrust into
the hour of destruction which we will escape and are ready to start His Day
with Him.
I maintain we are all caught up into
it, irrevocably, because He’ll lose none, and are a part of it. We cannot be
deceived. The day of the Lord, blinding and opening eyes...blinding eyes,
opening eyes...destroying and saving, which brings the parallelism of Scripture
before us, which people find so hard to understand. In one breath in Isaiah:
blessing, cursing; blessing, cursing; blessing, cursing.
You say, “Oh, it’s going on anyway.”
He’s talking about two things at one
time: light—darkness; life—death; mercy—no mercy; grace—disgrace. What’s the
day of the Lord? The day of the vengeance of our God. Absolutely. They run hand
in hand: blinding eyes, opening eyes; destroying, saving. That’s the day of the
Lord—the Lord’s Day—the great take-over. And there wouldn’t be any take-over
except for the first.
46. So you’re
beginning to see: you can’t separate them. The prophet didn’t separate them.
But the differentiation lies there. The day of the Lord, brother/sister, I
believe we are into, and because of it, the climax, which is the Lord’s Day,
will bring us right down here. And that’s where they’re going to fall and
squall and wail at our feet, and wish they hadn’t done what they had done. But it’s
going to be too late. So we just have one thing to say, and that’s what Bro.
Branham said: “Come into the ark now by
believing His Word and separating ourselves from all unbelief,” and begin
to realize that as it wasn’t done in a corner, but as everything was done back
in the days of Jesus in his flesh, starting redemption, now everything has been
done openly here and not in a corner, to finish redemption, and the Book which
was closed two thousand years ago is open. So this is the day of the vengeance
of our God and comforting those that mourn.
47. This is the
day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day. But it’s to understand what is going on,
what they signify. It’s just like: there is one God, but He is Judge. There is
one God, but He is King. There is one God, but He’s Prince of Peace. There is
one God, but He’s Counselor. There is one God, but He’s Mighty God. There is
one God, but He’s Holy Ghost. There is one God, but He’s Lily of the Valley.
There is one God, but He’s the Rose of Sharon.
You can have four thousand names and
titles—He’s one God. But every one signifies, and you see God before us. Now
it’s what I try to get across to people. To me it’s like that Pillar of Fire,
folding and enfolding, that’s exactly what Ezekiel saw, and he saw the whole
thing heading up to the Son of man—God incarnated, the cherubim, chariot, the
whole thing.
And you see Him coming around and
there He is back in the days of Abraham, and He stands by Abraham, the Pillar
of Fire, God taking the sacrifice, burning it up. ...Coming back with a great
promise...standing one day before Abraham as a man. There He is—Elohim, flanked
by two other men, and there He is the Judge of all the earth, and there He is
the great Destroyer.
48. Now watch
Him keep coming down. He’s the same Pillar of Fire in the days of Moses. He
goes down and destroys Pharaoh, brings the children of Israel out. It’s the
same One doing it. And then He said, “I’m going to take you to this mountain
here, and you are going to be able to worship.” With the Pillar of Fire there.
We’ve got the same thing going on now.
Then one day He came down and became
a man in human flesh. Then He died. He went back again. Now He was the Son of
man, and now He’s come back in the form of the Spirit, Pillar of Fire, William
Branham, there it is. And watch the ministry come forth in the form of the
Spirit through a man. What was He? Son of man, Son of God, Son of man, and so
we see Him folding, and unfolding, and folding, and unfolding, and any turn He
wants to make.
And so you
see the facets, the aspects, and today we are in the progressive and
wonderfully progressive thing we are into which is Shout, Voice, Rapture, and
we are not going to be here when wrath falls. I’m getting out of here. Yes.
Why? Because I’ve separated from all unbelief. I left my creeds and my dogmas.
Everything else has gone down the drain. Why should I fool with it? Let’s rise.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for
Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank You, my God, that he ever lived to make
intercession for us, and we deal with Him Who was God manifest in flesh, who
had a birth different from ours, though coming by a woman, he didn’t come the
way we come. There is something entirely different. He was, and then He changed
the form.
And we can’t understand all these
things, but we appreciate them and thank You for it, that here You are again
now coming down to show that this One, though coming with eyes of fire and all,
to take vengeance, the great day of the Lord, the Lord’s Day, sure, all these
things, but we know that at that time in His Presence, Elijah stands and we
stand and now redeemed. And here we stand without guilt, without fear—nothing
against us, and we know it—that great wonderful day.
What a day that is, Lord, and we
know that it doesn’t mean one thing as though we’re superior to anybody. We
know that, we’ve already discovered that. We know that. We just know that this
is the hour of Your pre‑eminence, O God, and that’s the way we want it.
And if You need us out of the way more and more, which I wish we could get out
of the way more and more, learn how to do it, to be more and more conformed to
Your image which is truly one in the Spirit. Lord, help us.
Help each one, Lord, to just realize where each one is tonight. It’s really safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on that gentle breast. In the pavilion of our God we’re hidden away. The enemies can circle us, let them circle, and they will.
How do we know, Lord, which ones of
us will die? We don’t know. We don’t know all which is coming upon the earth,
and we know we don’t need to know. But we know this one thing, the Psalmist
said it, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, and he will deliver me from
mine enemies.” And when they compass round about me, I’ll just desire this one
thing—His Presence, being in His pavilion, to enquire of Him, just to look to
Him. He’s my headship; He’s my all; He’s my everything. Give Him pre‑eminence
as we ought to.
Lord, we see so much trouble today
amongst men and women that type You and Your Bride, and we see that women do
not give reverence to their husbands, and we realize a lot of husbands sure
aren’t worth it. But when we realize, Lord, tonight that You are our Husband
and You deserve reverence, absolutely, such reverence. How what manner of
people we ought to be, and we want to be that kind of people.
Help us tonight, Lord, to have more
guard upon our very innermost being, as never before, until the outermost being
begins to reflect a little more of what we know to be true and what we believe
to be true by all of grace and nothing of ourselves. “Nothing in our hands we
bring, simply to Your cross we cling.” “Rock of Ages cleft…” Thank God for the
cleaving. Thank God for the Blood. Thank God for the Life. We cannot praise You
enough, Lord. We often sing, “Cry out with a thousand tongues.” It would take
billions of tongues. You’d never do it. Billions and trillions of years. How
could you do it? If we just stood there and looked and said, “Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus.” Eternities and eternities would never fill it. We know that, Lord, and
we don’t say it, because we just want to be saying something. We know it’s the
truth. But, Lord, let it become dynamized living truth as never before.
And unto the King, eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only- wise God, be all power, and honor and glory
through Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. Amen.
“Take the Name of Jesus with You.”