Stewardship
#2
God Owns All
Recognizing/Acting on What He’s Given Us
Shall
we pray. Heavenly Father, we know with Your Presence the weak become strong and
the strong become weak, because all things are level before You. And we know
that You are here, and no one can interfere with what You say or what You
desire to do, because You’re sovereign. And we do not feel neglected because of
that. We do not feel, Lord, that we are playing a role which is unworthy of us.
We’re glad that You are sovereign, because we see we need a sovereign God in
this hour.
We
need You, Lord in Your might, in Your wisdom, to be with us and to help us. And
we are glad to cast ourselves upon You, Lord, and leave every decision to You
that we possibly can, hoping that every decision, Lord, we will leave to You.
And all the things of life, Lord, dedicated to You so that we are one with You,
not only in the understanding that we have a part of You, that You gave Your
life to us and brought us forth here on this earth, but, that You are also our
Father. You are our God, and You are looking out for us.
And
the best thing in all the world we can do, Lord, is to allow You to look out
for us, to take the training, the chastening under Your hand, the bringing up,
educating us, showing us the way of life more perfectly. These things, Lord, we
need this morning, and we know we need them. We know that we don’t have a
choice about them, in the sense that we can make out any other way. There just
isn’t any other way you can make out.
Help
us to be fully dedicated, Lord, to the principle of the passive faith: that You
revealed Your Word and revealed Yourself to us, O God. But also, may we be
enjoined by You, and we join ourselves to You on the grounds of that active
faith wherein, Lord, we can do Your will on earth, here, and fulfill the
ministries of each one You’ve given us.
All
those things, Lord, we desire this morning, and we need Your help. May we,
Lord, not be hypocritical, and simply come to You in prayer, Lord, but may our
conscience be free in our hearts, free to just enter into the service and
worship of our God according to the vindicated revelation of the prophets, and
thereby serve You acceptably. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.
You
may be seated.
1. Now,
last night we started what I hoped we would be able to finish off without
actually entering into a series on “Stewardship”. And as we looked at the
understanding of a steward, we found that, actually, a steward is no different
from a servant, which we found to be a bond-slave. Now a steward, of course, is
a manager. It comes from the fact of being a manager of what is not his own
personal possessions but someone else’s possessions. And it actually describes
a house manager or an estate manager. In other words it’s not something that is
impartial; it’s something which has to do with very personal welfare of others.
So, if we’re given a stewardship, as Paul mentions a stewardship, it has to do,
then, with others. It has to do with how the person conducts himself—what he
does with what is not his own, but is that which belongs to others. How he does
it, then, will affect people. There’s an actual effect to it.
And,
of course, then, it also means he doesn’t just administer in the economy. He
has to actually be there for the well-being of the family, whoever has hired
him. He’s got a very, very important position. But we find out that it’s really
no different from being a servant. In other words a servant is a bond-slave.
It’s someone that has been given the position—not just given a position, but he
has been inducted into that position, usually because of a debt.
2. Slaves
were available at the time of the Gospel. All through the Bible you’ll find
they were available, but they weren’t slaves by reason of being stolen. The Bible
mentions that man-stealers will be condemned to the
And
3. It’s
God’s right to make us bond-slaves, on the grounds that we read, over here, in
Romans 14, where It says here:
(7) For
none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
(8) For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the
Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
(9) For
this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be (In other words he revived. He took up where
He left off at and took up this ministry of intercession for us—and so on.
“Revived that he might be”) Lord (That’s the Master. That He might be
respected; He might be honored) both of the dead and living.
So
therefore, as the Scripture says, “All souls are mine, saith the Lord.” There
isn’t anybody—wise virgin, foolish virgin, serpent seed—whatever—that is not
obligated to God by reason of the fact that they were bought through the Blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, there’s nobody that doesn’t have an allegiance to
Almighty God. Which is proven eventually, as the Bible said, “The day is coming
when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord; He is the
Christ, the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” In other words there’s going
to be a day of reckoning when God will absolutely prove to every single one
that He is their owner, and not Satan. That He is the One to Whom they should
have bowed and given subservience. They should have actually been dedicated to
Him to see that His Will was performed. People just don’t see that today, but
that’s what we want to see in what we’ve been reading about, here, and talking
about last night: The bond-servant and the steward are actually the very same.
4. Now
this steward here, or these servants who are in the house of God, which is the
Body of Christ, the true church, they also have, of course, the false-ones in
the other church. You have many people that try to be good and efficient
servants of God. We’ve got nothing against that. It’s the same as Bro. Branham
said, “People go to church to be good,
not to be bad.” And that’s true, even though the church may teach a lot of
corruption and get the people involved in those things which they should not be
involved in, there’s no doubt about it that people actually want to, you know,
improve their status, improve their relationship to God (whatever thoughts they
have of God). They go to church to be good people and not bad people. But we
know that many, many times they’re entirely wrong. Yet we see them following
certain Christian principles, which God does bless.
And
you can’t deny the fact that, as the statistics come out, there actually were
no Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists that were on relief or had to be subsidized
by the government. I’m not saying there aren’t any now, and I’m not saying
there weren’t such things as ‘Jack’ Mormons—which [ ] is a guy that says he’s a
Mormon and doesn’t live the life—but they’ve been heavy tithers. They’ve been
industrious. The Mormons, especially, went into the health angle. They’re very
very strong in it. As you look around, you’ll see
5. And
it’s been proven statistically, even to the point where you’ll notice when
people begin to make comparison, they want to use a certain group to judge,
(You know, how they have the blind, double-blind tests, and the placebo—this
and that.) they will take and they will go to Loma Linda in California where
there are all kinds of Seventh Day Adventists, and they began using the Seventh
Day Adventists, because they know, according to the Adventists, they don’t
smoke, they don’t drink, they don’t eat meat. They live good clean, (They’re
supposed to live, but don’t you believe it.) you know, good clean lives and all
the rest. But you see, even the world has to recognize the fact that there are
principles that are laid down in life, and those principles must be adhered to.
And when those principles are adhered to, then you get out of life what you
sowed in it.
So
therefore, we find that stewardship and servitude… And that means to understand
that you don’t have a choice: that God has told you what is right. Now you do
have a choice in this sense: I can do it or don’t have to do it. I can use this
the right way, or I don’t have to use it the right way. And then, of course,
people always want to come back, and they claim the grace of Almighty God.
Well, God’s grace will forgive people, and if He requires us to show mercy with
cheerfulness, then God is very happy to show mercy. But the point is this: God
cannot abrogate His own laws; He cannot lay it down. Like Bro. Branham said, “You can be forgiven, but you cannot be
justified on certain principles, because the point is this: if you did it,
there’s no way that you can say, ‘I didn’t do it.’” (See?) Justification
means you didn’t do it. Forgiveness means I did do it, but, you know, I’m off
the hook. Well, you can be forgiven as far as the grace of God is concerned,
but you cannot take the laws of God and turn them topsy-turvy and expect God is
going to work it out for you.
6. So,
we took a lot of Scripture last night as we went into the understanding of
servitude, bond-slaves. And believe me, if you are a bond-slave clean across
the board, then you could not be above a bond-slave, if you were given an
office of stewardship. You can’t do it. The very fact that Christ died for us
and bought us, we are obligated. That’s why there is going to be a judgment.
That’s why the wicked will be judged. You can’t get away from it. There has to
be a judgment. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the
judgment.” (See?) The Bible tells you the way of grace. God sends the light, He
gives the grace, and people must receive. If they don’t receive, then they’ve
got to pay a penalty. There’s no way that you can go to purgatory. The
purgatory you have is right here, now. Your testing, your trials, your
teaching, your training, when God has to lay a heavy hand upon us, it’s for our
own good. He has to help us, like the Bible says, “He that suffers in the flesh
ceases from sin.”
7. Many,
many times people have to go the hard way. As Bro. Branham mentioned that
illustration (that so many people have used many, many times) about the
shepherd in the Orient. He had the little sheep follow him around like a little
dog. He couldn’t get rid of the sheep at his heels. And the Westerner commented
on it.
“Well,”
he said, “You see, that was a little sheep that I had a problem with. I could
never get him to listen to my voice and follow me, and the rest of them do.”
Like
Bro. Branham mentioned the time when he was over there and he saw an Arab (or
whoever it was) leading a bunch of sheep into town. And here was the market
place. And the fruit was there, and the vegetables, and everything was wide
open. And he said, “Oh, oh … here comes a
riot.” He said, “The sheep will smell
that food and boy, I don’t know what that guy is going to do.” And the
shepherd went right down, and the sheep never smelled the fruit, never, you
know, never took any time to munch on anything; just followed the shepherd. And
Bro. Branham’s eyes were about bugging out. Why? Well, the sheep knew the
voice, and they followed.
Well,
the little sheep, he wasn’t going to be too obedient. So, he had a hard job. So
the shepherd just went out one day, and just took and broke his leg and set it
and carried the sheep around, and carried him around, and pretty soon he had
such an obedient sheep he couldn’t get rid of him. He had too much obedience!
[Bro. Vayle laughs] But God, many times, has to do those things for us. But
always, then, we must remember that with any type of servitude and any type of
stewardship, any time there is anything that God gives us (entrusts it to us),
there is a great responsibility.
And
it’s in that area that—it’s like a gray area where you don’t seem to be able to
fit in predestination—there’s a choice there.
8. Now
the predestination that people don’t realize that is there, is not the predestination of you either being a child of
God or not. The predestination (that which stays there) is already there in the
form of rewards that you will get, if you are faithful to what you’re
predestinated to.
Now
you can’t get rid of your sonship. That’s utterly impossible. “I will lose
none!” But you can lose rewards. The Bible distinctly says, “Let no man take
thy crown.” There are those things that are reserved for us; but it doesn’t
mean you’re going to get them, because, if you fail, someone else voluntarily
could take up the challenge and will take up the challenge. There will be
somebody there with the obedient heart that knows positively that he is not his
own, that knows what he has is not his own, positively.
9. All
of these things in Scripture, that I’ll talk about, we’ll take Scripture and
show you that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof .” And
remember, He said to Adam and Eve, “Fill up the earth.” Every single thing
belongs to God. So that’s what we’re looking at as we study this Message and go
into it.
So,
we understand, then, this from the Scripture we took last night: we understand
privilege and responsibility; we understand position and the product that must
come forth; we understand goals; and we understand there’s equipment that God
gives us to use, and an atmosphere, and an attitude to get there. There are
aspirations which are great desires. And God puts those things in our heart.
And with it He gives us something whereby we may not just have an aspiration,
but see it fulfilled. And yet, it will be a Scriptural aspiration.
9. You
can’t ask God for something that isn’t there. It’s like Bro. Branham said, “A deep calleth to Deep.” As I’ve said
many, many times: “If there is not an answer, there can be no question.” How
can you ask a question when there is something not there to be questioned? You
can’t do it. If there’s a question, there’s [got to be] an answer. If there’s a
deep calling, there’s a Deep out there to answer.
And,
if a person has an aspiration, or something from God—like the Bible said, “If
there’s a man that feels he would like to officiate in the
10. It
took me a long time to know my ministry. I hated to be called. I made a bargain
with God, “If You don’t call me, I’ll be very happy. I’ll even be a deacon or
an elder in the church. I’ll live a good life and I’ll tithe. But just get rid
of this stuff of ‘calling’, because I’m not the least interested.” And then,
when I knew I had to answer the call, I couldn’t help myself. And you talk
about a tempest in a teapot. I was like a hurricane. I hated to say ‘yes’ to
God; I was, literally, to the point of defiance. And yet when I said, “Yes,”
the strangest peace came into my life. And I got the same strange peace in
there, because answering the call, I wanted to be an evangelist.
And
I used to hate it when people would tell me Sunday morning and say [they] loved
my message. At night, they never complimented me. Man! I could have poked them
right in the teeth, you know. I was not happy. And when you’re not unhappy you
get obstreperous at times, too, you know. Especially if you can’t really handle
the situation. And I couldn’t handle it. I would preach conviction and
salvation until they would reach out and their knuckles would get white on the
back of the bench, but they would never come forward. It was a devastating
situation I was in. Especially when they would compliment me and say, “Oh,
we’re so happy [about] what you said this morning. How helpful!” Helpful? Who
cares about being helpful! I’m not interested in you; I want the other guy.
Boy, I learned that my ministry was not… Maybe I’m too lopsided now. I don’t
know.
But
you see a definitive call of five-fold. But there’s a legitimate desire in
people’s heart to serve in the house of God. And there are certain requirements
there. And that desire, if it’s one wherein you want to be a true servant and
helping others, God will actually take an elder, and he can take the position
of a pastor, if there’s no pastor. Or he can be, actually, like they often call
an ‘assistant’ pastor, but he can do the full work. And that full work entitles
him also, then, to a living, to a tithe, (to the part of that tithe, whatever
is there) because “the laborer is worthy of his hire” and “thou shalt not
muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” And Paul said, “Does God say that
for the sake of the oxen? Nay, but altogether for our sake.” And he’s talking
about elders.
11. So,
you can see, there are various positions and gifts in the church. In every
individual there is something. Like Iranaeus said, “There are hundreds of gifts
in the Body of Christ”. The poor Pentecostals, they’ve got it down to nine
gifts of the Spirit in the Book of 1 Corinthians 14. And then they turn around
and they forget Romans 12. And Romans 12 is a composite which takes all those
nine gifts and everything else in there, like giving and showing mercy, and
lots of things in there. So there’s nobody in the Body of Christ that does not
have an actual ministry.
In
other words God gives every single person a ministry, and then He turns around
in the parables and Paul’s preaching, and He said, “Now look, you’ve been given
this, and it has been given to you by God. You are now responsible for a
product. I’m looking to you so that your life will manifest this product.” Now,
if I said I’m called to teach, and I can’t open this Bible and start teaching,
there’s something wrong with me. And then, if I teach, and I don’t teach
according to vindication, then I’m a false teacher. (See?) A pastor that says
he’s a pastor and cannot do pastor work, he’s no pastor. The best he could be
is an elder because… And even then, you see, God will help that person, because
there’s something in view that God wants.
12. Now,
what does God want for His Bride? He said, “A five-fold minister in the church
to bring a Bride to perfection.” And that perfection is apart from the Blood.
The perfection of the Blood sets you a hundred percent free so that God can see
you only through the Blood. You are no longer a sinner in God’s sight. He is at
peace with you. You are a child that has been reconciled under the Blood. But
are you reconciled under the Spirit to fulfill the law and will of God? Now, if
you’re truly a five-fold you’ll fight it for a while. Then you get to the place
where you enjoy it; it’s your life. And you’re happy. No matter what the
conditions are, you’re happy. Oh, you’re not happy with [the] conditions, but
there’s something in your heart that has worked out, because you followed the
will of the Lord.
13. How
often, not too many years ago, I was adamant [in] even quitting again. I got my
citizenship here in the States. I was never on relief or anything, so I’d been
clear—over half my life down here as a citizen, paying taxes and everything
else—but how often I used to say, “I’m going to go and get a job somewhere.”
I’d go down the road, slam the brakes on, make a U-turn, (Of course, I’d want
to see that nobody was coming in either direction.) go back home and say, “I’ll
starve first. We’ll die, but there’s no way I’m going to leave the ministry. I
cannot do it.” And you know, God has enabled me to maintain that.
And
one of the greatest things of my life was when I was up there in
He
said, “Doc (he said), what are you doing pastoring? You know you ain’t no pastor.”
Well,
I knew that for years. I just am not a pastor. I’m just not a pastor. If you’re
not a pastor, you’re not a pastor.
14. How
would you like a doctor (and I’m not saying I’m a skilled teacher now, but) how
would you like a very skilled doctor who doesn’t really know, really, enough
about your car to, you know, fix your car. And you’ve got a fellow down the
street that’s not a doctor, but he’s a real mechanic. [He] hasn’t got the
education, perhaps, and various other things, and doesn’t know the first thing
about medicine, but boy can he tune your car. Well, I’d sooner go to the guy
that can tune my car for a tune-up, rather than go to the best skilled doctor
in the world for my car’s tune-up, because he’s not going to do it.
And
that’s the way life is, you see. If you’re trying to fill a position that is
not yours, you’re an interloper. You’re telling God He doesn’t know His Own
business. You’re telling God you’re not a servant except at your own desire.
You can’t do that.
15. And
so, he told me I was a teacher, which I had known by this time that that’s how
it was.
And
I also knew that people, especially in Pentecost, don’t like teaching. They
only like to be told, “Hey! You’re right.” And they like to be told, “Hey!
You’ve got the real thing. Let’s get some more of the same. Let’s pile it
higher and deeper.” And they did, too. Their philosophy is gone to complete
legalism. Their philosophy, their doctrine, no longer contains any thought of
predestination, no longer contains any thought of actual vindication, no longer
can understand that God could be present, because God is ‘simply
everywhere’. “We’ve got the Holy Ghost,
you see”—all inured by years and years of teaching, and you can’t get them out
of it. Only God could get them out of it because only God’s-sheep hear the
Voice. And they will not, when they get loose in an Arabian Bazaar, they won’t
go sniffing the fruit and sniffing the vegetables, because they know their food
is at the end of the village—out there where the still waters are, and the
green pastures. And you’re not going to sit around there for any bunch of food
that somebody has piled for human beings. You know you can’t eat human-being
food; you’ve got to get angel-food. You’ve got to go beyond angel food. You’ve
got to get to the Living Word, or the broken Word of Almighty God, where the
Life is for you. That’s your life. (See?)
So,
we talked about that and we saw then, here, that position demands production.
Your goals—you have to use the equipment. Your aspirations—you have to use that
equipment. And remember, the demands that are upon you, God has given you
provision and given me provision for it. And you’ll always find that it boils
down to sovereignty.
16. Now
I showed you a verse in Scripture the other night, here, in Eph 3:20.
(20) Now
unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, (according: now, in your Bibles It says) according to the power that
worketh in us.
That
is not a real true translation. The real translation is that “God is working in
you, and He is using that power that He put in you.” In other words a sovereign
God does not give anybody a gift, and it says, “Hop to it.” Now I’m sorry, but
that’s exactly what it’s all about.
The
dependency upon God is greater than most Christians even realize. The
dependency… Most people have an idea—and I can understand it—where you can take
certain principles in the Bible, and you can use them, and you can come out on
top. And I mentioned that with the Seventh Day Adventists and the Mormons. They
have financial principles and health principles they lay down. And they follow
those principles, and it’s very good. But, it’s like Paul said, “Bodily
exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things.” You
can manifest certain things in life, but a real true child of God will know
that he is completely sold out to God and His Word—yes or no, nothing between.
He ought to know, and he does know deep within (whether he lets it surface or
not) that this is what I am allowed to do. This is what I’m not allowed to do.
(See?)
17. Now
we know we’re fallible. That’s why we have an intercessor. Like Bro. Branham
said, “We backslide a thousand times a
day.” But listen, that does not obviate the fact that we can grow up in
Christ more and more and more, and Bro. Branham said, “Bringing us to the stature of a perfect man.” In Peter, he said,
“That man, by piling Word upon Word”—which means therefore not just believing
in the sense [that] it’s passive, which that’s the place you start, but going
on to the active—“you can go up to that stature.” where he said, “You’re like a statue.”
And
he likened it to the statue, which is what you see right today in heathenism.
They have a statue, and that statue is supposed to contain the spirit that the
statue represents. And that statue, to them, then, representing all of what’s
out there.
God
wants us to be statues, living statues—that stature of God moving us so that we
are being living and moved by God. And Bro. Branham brought that out. And he
brought that for the end time. Now, that’s a tough one. We studied that in “The
Stature of a Perfect Man”. That’s a tough one, but you’ve got to believe your
Bibles. There is a ministry of the Word that brings the Bride to perfection.
18. Now,
let’s go into Ephesians, and begin to see that (which is chapter 4). And he
said here that when God came down… That’s the same God that came down to
William Branham came down to the apostle Paul. And Paul set the church in
order. Now, how did he set the church in order? He says right here. Now watch.
Go to verse 1 [Ephesians 4].
(1) I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord …
“Now
I’m a steward. I’m a servant. I’m a prisoner.” In other words you’re stuck. The
just Judge of all the earth has said, “Paul, you’re My prisoner. You’re my
steward concerning the mysteries and the grace that I have for my sheep. I’ve
given it to you. You’re my slave.” Didn’t Bro. Branham say, “I’m in a tube, and I don’t quite like it.” Come
on, didn’t he? “I’m in a tube.” Yup.
Now, what are you going to do about it? Paul said, “If I preach to you, and I
know these things, and I myself am not subject to them, I have become
disapproved.” There’s an approval through Jesus Christ and the Blood that God
gives you; but there’s a disapproval from God when we don’t listen to the
Spirit-filled Word, and we know what we should do, and we won’t do it.
You
know, I look back and I’m so happy I stood a few tests of time. I get so
tickled with myself, because I obeyed God. I’m not tickled with myself because
I’ve amounted to anything, because I certainly have not. I don’t need that; I
don’t need that at all. I’m happy because I know that God is in my life, and I
listened to Him, what He wanted, and I didn’t do a good job but I’m still in
there slugging. And, maybe a little bit raunchy, but I’m still in there
slugging.
19. Now
Paul said, “I’m a prisoner. I’m a steward. I’m a slave to God.” Now he said:
(1) …
(I) beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
What
is your calling? Now,‘vocation’ means your ‘true calling’. ‘Avocation’ means
your ‘by calling’. Every one of us here this morning has a vocation and an
avocation. Avocation is what we do for a living, materially-wise (those other
things we’re caught up in of necessity, because we’re here on the earth), but
there’s a vocation which is your true calling of God, that you’re a true child
of God. You have a position. You’re an honored member in the Bride of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you are obligated therefore because you are fully equipped to
let God so move in your life by what He has given you that you can manifest
Him. Therefore, you become a living epistle. You become the stature of that
perfect man. You’re moving in there.
20. Now,Paul
says:
(2) With
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
(3) Endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now
he wouldn’t have said that if there wasn’t a battle. But, we’re obligated.
Yeah! William Branham was obligated, just like Paul. I’m obligated according to
what I have from God. Bro. John is obligated according to what he has from God.
And every woman, here, is obligated, as well as every man, for what you got
from God. And he tells you how to fulfill that obligation, because you
recognize you’re called.
21. Now:
lowly, meek, longsuffering, forbearing. Bearing and forbearing is a great
secret of life. It’s like marriage: you bear and you forbear. You bear what is
said, and you forbear retaliating because there’s no fight until the second
blow is struck. There’s no argument until the second person wants to refute it.
Now you can’t argue with God’s Word. You can’t argue with God. When He said,
“Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord,” He was simply saying,
“Come. And I’m going to give you the reasons why things are so, because you’ve
got to see my side.” It’s the same as when Paul mentioned, concerning a
mediator, he said, “A mediator is not of one. I don’t come on the field and
say, ‘Look, I’m the mediator, and you listen to me.’” But God can and does,
because mediation brings peace. And He begins to show you through the Holy
Spirit how that His way is the right way and the only way. And believe me, it
is! I don’t care what anybody says. It’s just, there’s no way but God’s
way. [End of side one of the first audio
tape.]
And
if you get into God’s way, you are fulfilling the office, and “eye hath not
seen nor ear heard what is laid up there for you” as your possession. And you
can have it, and I can have it, under the conditions set forth. I’m going to
tell you something: There’s somebody [that’s] going to get what you and I have
laid up for us, if we don’t claim that prize. Yeah! I’m not telling you a lie.
I’m telling you the truth. “Let no man take thy crown.” It tells you flat. Paul
said, “I can tell you these things, here, and [if] I myself go out of the road,
I’ll be disapproved of God. I can be a disobedient child, though not a child of
disobedience. But I can be an obedient child! In other words I can show my
obedience as being an obedient child. (See?)
22. Now:
[Ephesians 4]
(3) Endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
(4) There
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope, of your
calling; (Now, see there, “one body, one Spirit even as ye are called in one
hope, of your calling”. One Spirit calls us all. One Spirit gives us gifts.)
(5) One
Lord, one faith, one baptism, (and so on, and so on)
And
then he said:
(7) But
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ.
In
other words every vessel is perfectly fitted. In other words, if you have,
let’s say we have a gas tank. Now, you can take that gas tank into your car. It
could even be plastic or very thin metal, and you’d get by. But you try to use
propane under pressure, and you’re going to find that a propane tank will weigh
so much in your trunk, (or someplace in your car) you’ll forget about propane.
Right? Sure, I’m right! I know all about it. (See?) The vessel is fitted
admirably, perfectly, for the membership and place that he has in Christ. And
everyone has a place, because everyone is a member in particular. There’s no
one that isn’t. Why, He knows His sheep all by name, and they follow Him. He
puts out the stars by name. He brings them all in. He can number the sands of
the seashore, and the stars of heaven. (See?)
23. Now:
[Ephesians 4]
(8) When
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
(9) (Now
that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?
(10) He
that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he
might fill all things.)
The
one that went up there is now in complete charge, on the grounds that nothing
can approach God or be from God except by the Son. The recognition of Mary as
superior to the Son obviates everything the Catholic Church may hope for. And
they’ll go right into devil worship. They’re already in it and don’t even know
it. Maryolatry is the most stupid, foolish thing under high heaven. It’s even
worse than mythology, because we know mythology is wrong. There’s nothing to
it. But we know that Maryology is a real thing, as far as their doctrine is
concerned, and it is horrible.
It’s
horrible even to think that people believe even God had a female spirit. That’s
gnosticism. Gnosticism believes there was a female above the male, and she
cried out and she said, “Listen: Shut up. I’m the one that created you.” That’s
what—gnosticism supercedes itself above Isaiah 40. Could you believe that for
one minute that the devil was a gnostic? “I’ve got a higher revelation.” Do you
know that agnosticism is nothing; forget it. The devil never said there was no
God. He said, “Hey, listen! Let me tell you how it really is.” Come on. [Bro.
Vayle points to the picture of the Pillar of Fire.] There’s the man that
followed Paul two thousand years later. There’s the same Pillar of Fire. Some
people try to place Bro. Branham with Jesus Christ. Forget it! He placed
himself with Paul and with Moses!
24. You’ve
got false teaching everywhere. Some of you sitting here may go for it. Be my
guest. You say, “Bro. Vayle, you don’t have a heart.” How long have I preached,
and how hard have I preached, and how have I tried to show you truth? It
doesn’t mean I’m going to come and lick your boots and live in your house. A
word to the wise is sufficient. William Branham placed himself categorically
right on tape: “Moses and Paul.” He
never said Jesus. Just leave Jesus alone where He belongs—the almighty,
Only-begotten, one-of-a-kind. Nobody like him before; nobody after. Nobody
every will be. Right up there now, sitting on the Throne. Don’t you fool with
his position. Jesus said nobody can take it from him, because God gave it to
him. Nobody can take what you and I have from us. God gave it to us.
But
Jesus himself became a bond-servant in flesh, because he already was the
bond-servant of God. He wasn’t just a son. He was a bond-servant. He was a
steward. He never qualified himself as a steward, and neither did Paul. He
qualified him as a servant, which is a bond-slave. Didn’t he say before he had
a body, “I come to do thy will, O God?” Didn’t he have a covenant, and didn’t
he believe the covenant? Didn’t he abide by it? Don’t you and I have a covenant?
Should we abide by it? See, you’ve got to believe who and what you are. You’ve
got to believe that you’re gifted. You’ve got to believe these things. If you
don’t believe them, what are you going to do?
You
say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, I don’t even know what I have!”
Hey!
Just start living the life. It will appear. Unh? Well, I’m going to take this
peach stone, here, and when it grows into a tree I’m going to keep looking, and
looking, and digging, and prodding, and doing, and…” Oh, for lands-sake! Give
it fertilizer; let the sun and rain hit it. You’re going to have peaches.
[There
is about a 30 -second blank spot on the tape, here, but not on the video. NOTE!
Recheck the video!!]
25. [Ephesians
4]
(12) (Now,
Paul said here that this five-fold ministry was necessary to perfect the
saints—that is, to equip them) for the work of the ministry, the edifying of
the body of Christ (That’s this five-fold ministry has it all; everything is
there for it.)
(13) Till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect (That’s a maturity. The mature) man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ: (which we’re pretty close to now. The last
Gentile could well be in. When it’s in, it’s all over except for child-training).
(14) That
we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine… (Now, notice what maturity brings: That we no more, from this point
on, be no more children. What children?)
(14) Tossed
to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men;
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Now,
if that doesn’t tell you that you’re going to have a perfect, absolute,
vindicated Word of Almighty God sometime before the Bride gets out of here, I
don’t know what it’s saying! Because, how do I know if it’s a wind of doctrine,
or if it’s really the doctrine? How do I know if it’s not cunning craft, or
sleight of hand [ ] that Satan came in, unless I’ve got a standard laid down
somewhere? I’ve got to have something to go by.
26. So,
there’s a perfection that’s going to come by a five-fold ministry. And God help
any five-fold person that doesn’t obey the calling which God has called him, to
bring this Bride to the place where God said she must be. Why do you think
Jeremiah scorned and turned on the false shepherd? Read the Book of Jeremiah
and hear what he said about the false shepherd. Hear what Paul says about the
false people. (See?) Then people say, “Well, you’re preaching judgment.” I can’t
preach this Bible without judgment! Who do they think they are? Who is here but
the righteous Judge? Who knocked at the door? It’s the same One standing at the
door: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” The same One that brought the
ministry of the Son of man back to this earth, talking to William Branham, an
individual. The same One of Jn 14:12: “Greater works shall he do…” It’s the
same One James says, “Behold, the Judge standeth at the door.” Huh! Are we
going to have two people? Don’t be ridiculous!
Many
gifts, one Spirit. One Spirit in the whole church. One Spirit manifesting the
way God wants it. Every single individual brought up and caught up to
perfection, where they’re not moved any longer. This is it: live, die, sink,
swim. And we know it’s it; there’s nothing else out there! How does the Bible
line up except with this Message? Come on, tell me! There’s your Revelation.
There’s your truth, right there.
27. Now
there’s going to be a Bride at the end time. Every single one is going to be in
step. Bro. Branham mentioned that one, over there, in Joel, you know, like an
army going over a wall. He said, “That’s
the Rapture.” Every single one in place; the church in order. And Paul put
the church in order. And he put it in order through the Word of God and
dedicated men—only dedicated, because God dedicated them, and they recognized
their positions. They’re teaching the true Word of Almighty God. And there’s
where your perfection lies in this area. So now, you’ve got a perfection of the
Blood (what God did for you by grace). And now what we see the Holy Spirit
doing in a Bride, we see another perfection. Well, you’ve got two perfections.
What more do you want? You’ve only got two people in Heaven—God and His Son.
. So
now, we’ve got God giving men to the church and giving them ministries, giving
them that which they require (have need of).
28. And
It said here:
(15) But
(holding) the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things …
Grow
up in him in all things? What’s all things? That’s a Rhema—the Word. Growing up
the full Word of God, now, in the Bride through ministries from God, these
people obeying what God gives them to teach, because they’re teaching what the
prophet taught, vindicated, the people receiving it. Now all growing up,
according to what? The Word! That’s
why Bro. Branham kept on saying, “Who is
God but the Word?” Now, you go up to the head…
(15) Into
him in all things, (and who is him?) which is the head, even Christ.
Who
came down? God came down … the same One that led
29. Now
he says here:
(16) From
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every
part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Now,
God came down in the human flesh of Jesus Christ. He’s down here now getting
His Bride ready for the great Presentation. And when that Spirit that’s in our
midst right now—Who has brought us the Word right there in the Pillar of Fire,
Who is going to raise the dead, Who is going to change us—He takes us right up
to Jesus, doesn’t He? And He incarnates Himself. Then we crown Him King of
kings, and Lord of lords. Now, the whole Body is complete. Yup! The whole Body.
Wise virgin—the whole group, right there.
30. After
the Resurrection, White Throne, what do you see? You see all the foolish virgin
outside—could be a billion for all I know. How many? God knows. I don’t know
and I care less. Who is in the
Adam
threw away what? He threw away his stewardship. My! What he had laid out before
him! I read to you last night… And you know what God laid out. He said, “This
is yours! This is yours! Now, there’s a choice: Do you want it, or don’t you
want it? Now, if you want it, you’ll come here. If you don’t want it, you’ll go
there.” What do… He went there! Yeah!
31. Now
the Word of God can’t lie. The Word of God has got to come to pass. So what
happens? It comes to pass through Jesus Christ. Man gets there, but look how he
got there. Wouldn’t it be nice just to think if you could have been born, (no
matter how you were born) but you were born free from all these terrible
conditions that we have in our bodies and outside of our bodies? What kind of a
life would it be, to just be like in a Garden of Eden under God, under the
power of the Holy Spirit? Do you know Bro. Branham said (he told us flat), he
said, “The baptism with the Holy Ghost
literally makes up for what we lost. (He said,) Only the prophets could come near to what you and I have.” Now,
where did it place William Branham and Paul? My! What a position they have.
What a position you and I have! As the Scripture says, “What manner of men we
ought to be .” You just don’t go to the Word and look in it, and then turn
away. James tells you that. He said, “Why do you just go to the Bible and look
in the Bible and forget what the Bible says about you and says to you? Don’t be
that kind of a foolish person!” (See?)
That’s
what stewardship is all about: [it] is recognizing what God has given us and
what we are obligated to. And He has given us the power right within us and
[is] helping us to see that we mature to the position and produce those things
that God wants in us even to the place where we go right to New Jerusalem
singing the glorious praises of God. And he warns us: “There’s a place in here
where you’re responsible”. Don’t think Bro. Branham wasn’t. He certainly was;
he surely was.
32. So
all right. Now, gifts and callings are without repentance. But with them comes
the choice, “Will I take my place as part of the Living Word—a part of God, an
ambassador—and fulfill the role that God has given me? Will I be that one? Will
I be that one?” Now God has protected it right down to the very end, and [at]
the very end we know there is a washing of water by the Word, so the Bride is
spotless, completely justified—she never even did it—there stands before God.
But in that position, the thing is now: Will she repeat what Adam and Eve did?
And the answer is: God, again, has helped us before the debt. As Satan got to
Eve through the serpent and Satan got to Eve, the virgin-born church in the
First Age. And Paul said, “Her mind is already defiled. In her mind, she’s got
a wrong understanding. She’s got a wrong understanding of Jesus. She’s got a
wrong understanding of the Word. At the end time it comes up perfect: God, Son,
Word. What else do you want? All united in us. All that Revelation there. The
Bride cannot fail. She will not be seduced. There is no way the elect can come
into the Judgment. She’s already been judged—the perfect, virtuous Bride of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You didn’t do it. You were tricked into it. (Now we’ll cover
that in a little while and show you why we do have problems. But we’ve got to
wait for that.)
33. Now
I want to go back, then, with what we’re thinking of here. And starting back
there in the Book of Genesis, because I’m trying to show you, here, in this
little series, that Stewardship (as I like to call it, more than servants,
although it’s one and the same thing, when it boils right down to it) which is
like a law of sowing and reaping, except ( in this sense) it is more suited to
this hour to understand who and what we are in Christ and what we have within
us and how God is working in us and through us in order to bring forth what He
desires. And our co-operation, then, is necessary. We have to believe, and we
have to know who we are.
Bro.
Branham made great powerful stress upon, “The
Bride must know who she is.” That the Bride will say before the change, “I
and my Father are one.” She’ll have recognition. He recognized this. [Bro.
Vayle points to the picture of the Pillar of Fire.] And sheep can only
recognize the shepherd. Then, are we not able to recognize all the rest of it?
Certainly we should—even discerning the Body, taking Communion. All of these
things are wide open. They are no more parables. They are no more mysteries.
Contrary to popular opinion among some people that say they believe this
message, the Seventh Seal has been opened! Because Bro. Branham said, “There is silence, but it has been opened.” He
said, “It wasn’t revealed to the public.”
Now they’re running with that! It wasn’t revealed at that time. But did he not
say, “The Seventh Seal is Rev 10:1-7?” Then,
it is revealed to the public. Talk about straining at a gnat and swallowing a
camel! Running from a little tiny mosquito and being clobbered by a lion.
Think, “Ho, here comes a lion. That’s great!” In other words, welcoming error
in the extreme. Listen, I’m going to tell you something: You take away one
Word—take away, take away, take away—nothing left; add, add, add—fifty volumes,
and all perversion.
34. So
all right. We’re going to Gen 1:26-28 (We like these, don’t we?)
(26) And
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth.
(27) So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them. (Now, you can see that, that was the way it was.)
(28) And
God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply,
(‘replenish’ is a wrong word. It really means ‘fill up’ the earth. Replenish
means to do it again, but it wasn’t done before. ‘Fill up’) the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Now,
with that we go to Gen 2:7.
(7) And
the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils, the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Now
Adam and Eve were given full stewardship over the earth, which was, according
to Psalm 24, Ps 50:10-12, and Ps 89:11. All of this is God’s property, because
He created it. So, let’s go here to the Book of Psalms and begin to see what is
very, very correct. And so, we go to Ps 24:1, (and actually, I’ve already
quoted that one) and It says:
(1) The
earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof;… and they that dwell therein.
It
says right here, that God controls everybody and everything that pertains to
this earth. It’s all God’s, and it isn’t anybody else’s. Now we know that man
sold it out, temporarily. Eve caused an interruption, so that God has to
conform to His Own Word, and He does. And Satan, now, is the governor of this
world. He doesn’t own it, but he’s got an interim period, here, that man gave
up. Now see, he had stewardship.
35. Now,
listen carefully. They had stewardship, but they didn’t realize they were
bond-slaves to God. They fiddled with the Word of God. They didn’t take it
seriously.
What
about people [that] say, “Hey! I’m born-again. I can do what I want.”
How
do you know you’re born-again?
“I
speak in tongues.”
That
doesn’t mean a thing.
What
about the guy that tried to teach me his nonsense concerning John 4, where he
said, (Jesus speaking concerning the fact of worshipping God in spirit and in
truth, and then taking Scripture further on.) “The flesh profits nothing.” So
the man put them together.
“Well,
I can do anything I want in the flesh.” He said, “I can drink. I can smoke. I
can commit adultery. It doesn’t affect my ministry and the gifts of the Spirit.
I can go ahead and minister.”
A
truly false anointed-one! Did you get what that man said?
“It’s
okay. I can do what I want.”
And
he had gifts. He could discern like a house afire. He did a lot of lying too,
and I caught him in it. A lot of people got healed. He went to
He
went to
I
don’t know [if] all the papers carried that, John, but I know that one did,
because I saw a copy of it. Yet, he was a woman-chaser, adulterer, a liar, a
thief. I’m going to tell you something: He is going to answer to the fact that
he prayed and got a gift that wasn’t his to begin with. Those gifts were for a
Bride. An anointing to gifts but not to the Word.
Stewardship.
These two people were the stewards of God denying sovereignty of God over them
and what they had. “Okay, we’ll just use it.” Come on! Well, am I right or
wrong? Now, you know I’m right.
36. Now,
let’s go a little further. We go to Psalm 50. And in Ps 50:10-12, we read:
(10) For
every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
(11) I
know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the fields are
mine.
(12) If I
were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness
thereof.
Every
single thing created and every single thing produced from that creation—I don’t
care who uses what in God’s earth—belongs to God. All right? So, what are
people? Stewards—stewards who forgot servitude [and] began serving themselves.
And the Bible speaks of self-serving people. Sociology and good manners (civic)
speaks of self-serving people. And, if you’re not thinking of politicians, what
are you thinking about? And, if you’re not thinking of preachers [who are] off
the Word, what are you thinking about? I hear preachers say, “My sheep.” Pbbtt!
That’s as bad, you know, preacher got sheep… That’s like Moody: one day he was
going down the street and a drunk recognized him.
“Oh,
good-day, Bro. Moody. Hi, I’m one of your converts.”
He
[Moody] said, “You sure must be one of mine, because you ain’t one of God’s!”
[Laughter]
That’s a true story, too. The same as when he [asked], “Do you know grace?”
People said, “Grace who?” This is an actual story. See, the grace of God. He
got so enthused with it.
37. Ps
89:11:
(11) The
heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: ( Now, here is a man giving back to
God what God said) as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded
them. (You made them.)
Now,
let’s see what Paul says over here. We’ve always got to go to Paul, because he
is the last Word, that we know of. He took the Old Testament and gave us what
we needed plus what we needed for this hour (because we’re not Jews, we’re
Gentiles). In
(16) For
by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
(17) And
he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
And
he tells you right there that, not only did He make it all, not only does He
own it all, but except for Him, it would just dissolve and go into space.
Except for God doing what God does, do you realize… (Now listen, I’m just
talking off the top of my head.) but, if you would follow this through
logically, do you realize that, if God let go even of you and me, we would just
simply have to go back to God where we were, the place we don’t remember, and
not having fulfilled the place we’re supposed to go. That shows the true grace
and greatness and marvel of God, without which He would not be fully exposed to
what He really is? Now, would you like that? Well, I wouldn’t like that. Hey!
I’m not [going] through this for nothing. I want to get over yonder. I want to
get passed the interruption.
So,
He owns it all; and the word ‘consists’ means, He ‘maintains’ it. He doesn’t
take His hands off. He is a hands-on God. Yeah! He that sits upon the circle of
the earth, that looks down upon us as little dust mites (and you know what
they’re like), He weighs even the dust that’s in the scales of balances. He
knows ratio, proportion; He knows all about chemistry. He made it, and He
controls it. Oh yes, He certainly does! My Bible tells me that, and I believe
the Bible.
38. Adam
started out correctly, as we saw in Gen 2:19-20. So, let’s go back there and
look at it:
(19) And
out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl
of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
(20) And
Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast
of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Now,
[do] you know who brought the animals and all these before him? God did. But
Adam had a super position. He was the steward. Yeah! Absolutely, for it all.
And God said, “It’s in your hands.” And everything was great while God was
moving on Adam, and Adam was moving the way God wanted him to move, which is
marvelous! “Animals, come here.” Bro. Branham said, “It was all done by the Holy Spirit.”
39. Another
man had that happen one day. Do you know what his name was? Noah. God and Noah
built an ark. God gave Noah the plans. He gave him the material. He gave him
the strength. He have him the family to help him. And the ark was built.
Then
God said, “Noah, it’s time to call the animals.”
Who
brought them in? Who can make the lion lie down with the lamb? Only God, and
God did it. Oh, everything is so marvelous when you have a servant who listens
to God, a servant who does not consider himself any more than he ought to.
And
the consideration, that he can say, “I’m a true son of God. I have been a part
of God. My soul is a gene from God; it’s a part of God. I am that person.”
Well
now, Bro. Branham brought up predestination one time, [ ] much better than I
did, I know, but I got blessed the same way, down in South America. Suddenly it
[was] revealed to me that God, as a parent, would He do less for us than we
would do as parents? (Remember, we took that in the last series, you know…
40.
“Seed of Discrepancy.” And Bro. Branham taught, “The baby’s going to come on the scene. Hey! Going to have a little boy
[or] a little girl. We’ve got the booties made up. We’ve got the crib made up.
We’ve got the room decorated. We’ve got everything on hand here. We’re looking.
We’ve got doctors here, and everything looking to make everything just as great
as we can. He said, Didn’t God do
that? His thesis was, Before there
was ever a fish with a fin, there was water to swim in. Before there was a man,
there was a garden to put him in.”
Everything
is propitious. (See?) So, now … Adam started out correctly, as we saw in Gen
2:19-20 . And he was able, thereby, to maintain his momentum, and yet came to
losing his stewardship because of Gen 3:7-17, because in there we find that he
listened.
41. Well,
let’s go back to Gen 2:16-17.
(16) And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat:
(17) But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day (“of the eating thereof, dying thou dost surely die.” That’s the
original translation.)
And
he died before a thousand years. (See?) Methuselah lived the longest. Adam, I
think, lived 930 and Methuselah 969. But he died before the day was up. Death
entered by sin, and the process moved in, until today we’re dying even before
we’re born. Children with tumors, AIDS, diseases everywhere. Genes that are
shot. Genes that should be there, that are not there. Mutations—you’re dead
before you’re born. Bro. Branham talked of death setting in about age twenty.
And he was right, concerning biological things. But today (and even in his day)
death had already set in. And he recognized that. We recognize it. You’re dead
before you’re born. Why? Because death reigns in our mortal bodies. “In Adam
all die.” It was what happened, because this man, he got off the beaten path of
the Word of the Living God.
42. So:
[Genesis 2]
(7) God
formed Adam of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life (that’s the Holy Ghost).
He,
therefore, became the progenitor of every child of God and through natural
election, based upon supernatural foreknowledge and election, he was able to
give that Life of God that was given to him. Came right down to you and to me
at this hour. Eternal Life—whether people want to believe it or not—is carried
in the human race, because God breathed into Adam the breath of lives. And Bro.
Branham said, “That was the Holy Ghost.” Now,
you go to philosophy, you go to devil worship, you go to false things, and
you’ll find they deny that.
And
you’ll find that Mr. Clinton, the President, is allowing death on every hand
and literally forcing it, loving it, making people believe it, because, “You are
not a person until you breathe.”
He’s
got the word ‘spirit’ all mixed up with ‘wind’. This was not wind, because this
made him a ‘living soul’.
Of
course, he tries to say, “Well, you become a living soul after you’re born out
of the womb.
Before
then, it doesn’t matter.” That’s a lie. Bro. Branham, on vindication, told the
Mormon fellow who lost his baby prematurely, he said, “You’ll see that baby in Heaven.” It was only the spirit granted
that gave that life to the flesh. Now, that spirit that was granted connects
the life of the body to the soul, which is down here in the heart. That’s how
that soul down there gets fed.
43. So
then, he goes on and he said:
(8) And
the LORD God planted a garden, (and so on. And then He said, “Now, don’t eat of
that tree. But Adam did do it.)
Now,
notice what happens eventually because of Adam’s failure—his failed
stewardship. You find the failed stewardship over here, in Gen 3:14-19. (Now
the failed stewardship…)
(14) And
the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou
go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Now
listen: This beast was a very superior beast. He could reason; he could talk.
He was exactly like a man, but he wasn’t. [He was] suave, cultured, everything
there. He was a gnostic. He was the devil. He superimposed himself upon God,
and he said, “I will be above God.”
And
he came, and he superimposed his folly, his gnosticism, upon the Word of God,
and that’s all Eve could see. Now that’s a tragic thing, but that’s all she
could see. This was her choice. She had a third now. It wasn’t “eat-die,
eat-live.” It was “Eat, and you’ll have the best of both worlds.”
There’s
something [that’s] got to be awful funny, you know, when a person can let a
mind go like that.
44. Now,
this woman was the original woman. She wasn’t in the original creation (we’ll
look at that in a second), but she was there.
Now,
It says, here, then… So, the beast fell from his superior position. He actually
did. And he got changed so that the evolutionists can’t figure it out, because
every bone in his body was changed. (See?) But he was part of that change. Not
that we believe in evolution as Darwin said…
And
Darwin recanted before he died. And now you’ve got all these idiots
following—just brainless idiots, that’s all. There’s no proof of mutation
anywhere. Find it. Find us something. For heaven’s sake, find us something.
Find where anything ever changed. Man has messed things up. That’s all.
45. Now:
(15) I
will put enmity between thee and the woman; (There’s enmity there now instead
of friendship. He’s lost his position—lost everything. Lost his body) between
thy seed and her seed; (Now there’s going to be continual warfare down the
road, when there should be peace and loving-kindness, everything else.) it will
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Now, that’s a bad thing.)
(16) Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. (No longer joint sharing of government. The man
who did not do it… She did it. He followed her. Now she’s under subjection.)
(17) And
unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of
it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; (Didn’t say he was; said the ground was)
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. (It’s no longer
pruning trees and picking the fruit.)
(18) Thorns
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the
field;
(19) In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.
As
the poet said… That was Longfellow, I think, that said, “That was said to the
body, not to the soul”. (Tennyson, maybe it was. But anyway, one of the poets
mentioned it. Browning, or somebody.) It was not said to the soul; it was said
to the body.
Now
you can see right here that this fellow who was given a stewardship failed, and
the consequences are here today! There is no such thing as a pebble thrown into
the water, but the ripple goes infinitesimally across waters until it is lost.
It’s
the same thing as the economist said, “Let one person receive even a ten cent
raise in his pay per hour, and though it is infinitesimal, it’ll be felt around
the world.”
In
other words there is no man who lives to himself and dies to himself. There is
no man who commits any sin whatsoever that becomes purely personal, but it has
its influence around and around. How, then, would it be, if there was a Bride
who was one in the Word, one in Spirit, one in love, one in the gifts, one in
the virtues, one as Bro. Branham taught—that perfect stature—what kind of a
Bride would it be? That’s where you get where he said, “How you ought to love each other, you that love this Word!” The
question, then, is: How much do we love the Word? Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?
That’s just the way it is.
46. Now,
so here’s what you find. Now, bring that to Genesis 5.
(5) And
all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty: and he died. (He
never lived it out, when he was not supposed to die or he had the choice not to
die.)
Now, let’s go to Rev 11: