Stewardship
#7
From Eternity to Eternity
Heavenly
Father, we want to thank You again for the privilege of coming into this house
that You have given us, Lord, as our home office, or base, of worship. And we
invite You here that we might be in Your presence and, also, that You might
teach us Your Word more accurately and within greater depth. And may It
penetrate every cell of our being, especially deep down into the soul, into the
mind, Lord, into the spirit, so that we might be truly sanctified in our soul
and in our spirit, in our hearts and minds, and even in our bodies as vessels
of the Holy Ghost, temple, sons of God.
So
Father we just commend ourselves to You in our study and, praying for Your help
and knowing if You give us help then all is well. And we believe even as John
said, “If we ask anything concerning Your Will, You hear us. And, if we know
You hear us, we know we have the petition we desired of You.” So Lord, we know
we have the desire of our hearts answer tonight. That You will show us clearly
Your way and an understanding, in a way, Lord, that will penetrate in the
darkest recesses, if we have any recesses of darkness within our lives,
bringing us into real great and beautiful light as we serve and worship You. In
Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.
You
may be seated.
1. Now
into the subject of “Stewardship”, we’re going to be, actually, not digressing,
(It’s still a part of our study.) but we’re going to be looking at what I might
term as “from eternity to eternity.” And, of course, we’re looking at the fact
in the beginning, when God was Holy Spirit by Himself, all alone, He was, as
you could say, “All and in all,” on the grounds, of course, of the potentiality
that, if anything were to come forth, it would have to come forth from God and
by God. And, then, at the end time, of course, we have the omega where God
becomes “All and in all.”
And,
of course, that “All and in all,” would be the fruition and complete harvest of
the seed that lay within God Himself, because God is definitely a Sower and a
Reaper. Remember, in the parables we found that out. It said, “You reap where
you don’t even sow.” In other words God would be exacting a judgment. So
there’s nothing that’s really away from God and apart from God. God is very
tremendously and marvelously sovereign.
2. So
as we think, then, “from eternity to eternity,” there is a time within that.
And that time, of course, goes way back to the place, which is pre-Ps 2:7. And
we are all familiar with it. It’s strange--actually not so strange--but it’s
right in the book of Psalms, written by David. And, of course, you understand
that David is a type of the prophet king, King Jesus. And so, it’s not strange,
on the grounds, then, that we actually have this in Psalm 2, because Psalm 1 is
talking, “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” [Ps
1:1] That’s a real, tremendous son of God. Even as John said, “A son of God
cannot sin, because he’s born of God, and His seed remaineth in him.” [1 Jn
3:9]
And
then, in here, of course, we find in this Psalm 2 [ ] this tremendous
generation, which is also said in the Psalms concerning Jesus, referring to
Isaiah, who said, “He didn’t have an earthly seed, but he shall see his seed,”
and It says, “A generation shall be given him for a seed.” And this is this
tremendous generation that actually keeps coming down, down, down, as the
children of God. So Ps 2:7: “I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto
me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”
3. Now,
just before that was said, there was nothing but God. Now, of course, you say,
“Nothing but God…”
We
don’t mean that God is inferior, or by Himself was sort of a non-entity. We
don’t mean that. We just simply mean that God—period. And you have no place to
go, no place to run, no place to hide, nothing to come from, nothing to think.
It’s just God, right there, all alone, “All and in all.” He was everything.
4. Now
just at a certain moment comes forth this Son. And the Son, born of God,
because he’s a part of God, God says, “Thou art My son, this day have I started
My generations in thee.” Now I don’t like the Scripture translation that simply
says, “This day have I begotten thee.” Well the point is: what did He beget him
for? See? What is it all about? It’s, “This day have I started My generations
in thee.” And you read your Bible and, if you can’t see generations, you’ve got
worse cataracts on your eyes spiritually than I’ve got on mine physically.
Because generation, generation, generation taken from Jesus, goes all the way
back to Adam. [It] goes all the way back to God. Where does that come from?
Comes right down from the Son. And we’ll get to that as we get into Ephesians.
So
you see here, “This day have I begun My generation.” Now this is the start of time. Before that,
there was actually no time, because God is eternal. Even though Jesus himself
is eternal, he was not separate, as you and I were not separate, even from Adam
way back, and even from Christ, bringing on down till our time of separation
and manifestation, which Bro. Branham said that a normal birth, which is based
upon predestination, election, and predestination, is a whole lot tougher to
fathom and understand than just a virgin birth, where the created seed and egg
was there and—no time at all—nine months, period of gestation, [a] son comes
forth. That’s just as simple as A-B-C. It’s just like cloning, you can…
Actually,
do you realize that cloning is much simpler than a birth, because these people
just manipulate the DNA and the egg and stuff and—whoop-de-do—they got it. The
Bible distinctly says that one of the greatest mysteries of all times is how a
baby is formed in the womb. So we’re looking here at in… What I’m trying to
show you, in my understanding, time begins right here, when… From the All and
in all, began moving down, God into manifestation as to sons, creation, every
single thing else, where it’s moving now in a cycle, until you go right back,
[and] everything is handed back to the Father, and He become[s] “All and in
all.” And with this, I say, this great manifestation of God’s particular
children.
5. So
all right, Ps 2:7 we go over here to Hebrews 1, which is one of my favorites.
It’s so fabulous.
It
says here, second verse, “Hath in these last days spoken unto to us in Son,
(And that’s the Son of God.) whom he hath appointed heir of all things.” Notice
He appointed him heir.
Now
he just wasn’t heir of all things by virtue of being the Son of God, even
though we later on find that the First-begotten is a joint heir with his
Father, and he’s equal with Him. That’s what the Jews understood, when Jesus
said he was the Son of God. They said, “Well, you make yourself God.” They
understood the law of the birthright.
6. But,
when you’re dealing with a person who is a testator, or he’s the owner of, in
this case, the Universe (which wasn’t even there at that time, just God and the
Son talking), He makes a declaration. And He actually makes an appointment of
this one to be His heir. And right here you can see stewardship. Can’t you?
It’s simple as A-B-C. There’s an appointment. He’s given an office; he’s given
substance--great substance. The Bible often tells of the Son with great
substance. So here we find him with this great substance. He’s appointed heir
of all things by whom he made, not the ‘worlds,’ but the ‘ages.’
7. So
right in here now, you can see where I’m coming from. “This day thou art My
son, I have begotten you, you are the beginning of My generations and I have
made it now so that you are heir of all things and by you also are the ages.”
Well eternity is not ages; eternity is eternity. [It] doesn’t have a beginning
and an end. Now, when you talk about ages, then, and these periods, you’re
talking about a time, where time and eternity are actually blended together,
and time is taking precedence, because all eyes are now upon this particular
period of time that we see that the birth of the Son to the end time, when it’s
handed all back and the Father [Who] becomes “All and in all.” Do you see what
I’m driving at? Ok, so we go a little further.
8. Now,
this is not Col 1:13 where the… Well, we’ll just look at it because, you know.
I’m a very poor quoter of Scripture. I thank God I can know where it is. And it
says, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son:” So now it’s not the kingdom now at this
time, he’s heir to it all, but he actually comes in to the time of kingship
which, you can’t miss it, it’s going on even now because he’s on the Father’s
throne, but there has to come a time when he will be king, speaking of now from
David, from thy flesh, descended now, the Son of God, and he will be King, the
prophet King, that David typed.
So,
It says right here now, we’ve been translated, brought over from Satan’s kingdom
of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son. And also, we find over here in 16,
where it says, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and in
earth, invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities,” [Col
1:16] and so on and so forth down the line. (I should have just read the whole
thing together there, but it’s all right.)
9. And
then, also, with that we go into Eph 3:9, whatever It is. Yeah, “To make all
men see the mystery of the fellowship… To make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid
in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” So, it’s what we were was not
looking at the specific creation and the specific kingdom, we were simply
looking at the fact that this one here, way back there, was foreordained as the
Son of God to take this over. So that’s the thing we’re looking at.
And
as I said a while ago, the same quoting [ ]1 Cor
(27) For
he hath put all things under his feet. But when he said, all things are put
under him (now he’s talking about the son), it is manifest that he is left out
that put all things under him. (So it’s somebody’s putting everything under the
feet of Jesus.)
(28) And
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
So,
you see what we’re looking at here.
10. Now
it appears that Ps 2:7, “this day thou art my son,” according to what we read
in Colossians here, the first chapter, verse 13, is to have this kingdom of
which we’ve already spoken, delivered us into the kingdom of His dear son. Now,
you know, a king, of course, is a ruler and he’s the head of the kingdom. Okay.
Now
with that we had Ephesians 3, which we read concerning the fact that he is the
great Creator. Now to putting this together at the time that Ps 2:7 comes into
being, “This day have I begotten thee, this day have I started my generations
in thee, you are my son.” Of course, Scripture tells he’s the Only-begotten
Son. He’s the Son of God in a way that no other person is the son of Almighty
God. And at that time, the door was now opened for him to be the creator and
all those other things.
But
at that particular time, in my estimation and understanding of Bro. Branham, he
was that light that appeared. And that is all we know at that particular time.
But in him and the plan of God was what we’ve already mentioned: creation, a
kingdom, and all these other things, which play a part of time. See? Giving God
a chance in his great drama to play the certain roles that He wants to play and
bring them out the way He wants them to bring them out.
11. [ ]
Also It tells us here that this one, according to Paul the Apostle, who
understood these things from God Himself, that in him the fullness of the
Godhead dwelt bodily. Now he was that firstborn one. So now being a firstborn
one, it would be necessary that he would, then, from this point on, bring forth
all firstborn ones.
Now
you say, “Well, if he’s the firstborn, the others wouldn’t be firstborn on the
grounds that they’re coming after him, because the firstborn means the first
one that came out. The others, then, follow.”
But
you see, we’re looking beyond that, we’re looking beyond the fact that there is
the truth that Jesus was not only the firstborn of Almighty God, called the
Only-begotten, but he was the firstborn from the dead. And, when you’re the
firstborn from the dead, he became a first fruit. And a first fruit means
there’s a whole lot more just like him.
So
all of these that were coming from him would have to go through a certain
process that would elevate them to the same status as Jesus, because, on the
grounds, we come forth with bodies exactly identical to him. Now that remains a
mystery in a sense of the word, but it’s no great mystery. Now I say these
things because I look down the line from the viewpoint way back in eternity,
the starting of time, trying to put them together so we can keep our thoughts
in a proper order.
12. Now
remember, when Jesus said, “Lo, a body hast thou prepared for me.” When was
that said? It could’ve been said… Well, if you prepared a body for me, it had
to be spoken way, way before the time back in the Psalms, and certainly shown
forth in the Book of Isaiah, and also other great references in the Scripture,
that that was a prophetic utterance. And it was also, then, the dialogue and
the conversation with the Father and the Son, as the Father shared His
knowledge with the Son. And he said, “Lo, a body hast thou prepared for me.”
That’s written hundreds of years before he ever had a body. So what are we
looking at when we find that?
It
is now also a part of time where this one will now have a body like unto ours,
because that is what you’re looking at. The body that came forth in the
beginning, which was light; that is not it. The body, which came forth, that
Jesus identified with and manifested through, Michael an archangel; that was
not it. But you’re looking at the body that was made for the suffering of
death, the identification with these sons who were in him, and he the
firstborn, the firstborn from the dead, we also coming from God and born, now
come forth like him. So now you have a beautiful bride just like the husband,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we are looking at.
13. Now
after all this takes place, of course, you understand, which we’ve already told
you, that it’s all going to be handed back to God with the full manifestation
of what came forth with God in time and going on to eternity because there’s
nothing after the Rev 22:21[1]
where you see the Holy City. And Bro. Branham capped it all off by saying the
Lamb is on the throne, the Bride is all around it with the attendants, the
foolish virgin all out there by the millions, for all we know, billions, who
knows, we don’t know, and the pillar of fire above the throne, and before they
call He answers. And that’s what we find in the book of Corinthians, He becomes
all and in all, because everything was subjected to Jesus and put in
subjection. And that’s what’s going on right now: everything is being put in
line, in subjection, so that Jesus can reign through the millennium, come back,
and be at the White Throne when all these other things are taking place. So ok…
14. Now
in eternity, then, there was a spirit being. Now we left a little time lag in
here, from eternity into time, and time down to the end, swinging back into
eternity; and Bro. Branham said they blended again. So therefore, if they’ve
blended back there, that’s alpha; and if they blend back here, it’s omega. It’s
all over. Do you follow what I’m trying to get across? This is not easy, and I
don’t have two or three blackboards here to kind of help, so you’ve got to kind
of visualize. Okay.
So
then, back in eternity, we have eternal Spirit, who is omniscience, love, and
omnipotence. And time begins with Ps 2:7. See? That’s what we’re looking at.
Now looking, then, at a little resumé here: the faithful God, because here is
where the faithfulness of God starts: this day have I started my generations in
you; and, if I have started my generations in you, I will end them in you. And
he does. There’s only those seed of Adam that God placed in Adam coming through
Jesus where the Scripture says, even as all died in Adam, in identical manner,
they[‘re] made alive in Christ.
In
other words it wasn’t your choice and mine. Neither at the end is it our
choice. It is the predestinating God, Who is love, Who is omniscient and
omnipotent. And, as Paul said, they came against him when he preached
predestination, and they said, “Why, who hath resisted His will?” [Rom
15. Now
at this time of the covenant making and the covenant keeping God with His Son,
certain things came forth, which, like, for instance, “I have sworn thou art a
priest after the order of Melchisedec.”
“Oh,
just a minute now. A priest—what in the world is a priest?”
A
priest is someone who stands before God and, accordingly, for himself and those
that he represents, now representing them to God, stands before Him--between
Him and them; and whatever is necessary, he is able to perform just exactly
what God wants. And thereby, there is a beautiful picture of harmony and
sympathy and love and everything’s going to get worked out. See? Now that’s
your looking down; just that one thing.
Then
he says, “I and the children that thou gavest me.”
Well
then, now, God must have given him all of His children. See? Then, Jesus
himself said, in the Book of John, “All that the Father hath given me will come
to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” [Jn 6:37] He said,
“They’re in my Father’s hands.” And he said, “There isn’t anybody can pluck
them out of my Father’s hand.” [Jn 10:29] And you know as well as I do, when
you get it right down to brass tacks, that the Father’s hand was Jesus. They came
out of him [and] became beings, physical from spiritual entities; we’ve talked
about that too.
16. Now
they go right back again just as Jesus was in the bosom of the Father, which is
the harbor, which is the love, which is the care. See? So, it is that you and I
also are carried in the bosom of God. Absolutely. Harm cannot touch us—physical
things, yes. We could starve; we could die; we could have our heads taken off;
we could be boiled in oil; we could die with cancer. It doesn’t matter what
happens. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, and the love of God is predestinating love.
How
you going to miss it? If you and I miss it, then, God missed it. Come on; let’s
be honest. You think God’s got some little stupid target practice going on? Oh
God have pity. It’s no way that God will ever miss. Then again, as It says, “As
in Adam all die, even so in Christ all are made alive.” [1 Cor
17. So
you can see here the first thing we’re looking at, when it comes to time, is
complete stewardship of God, the faithful God. Now just a minute here now,
let’s understand what ‘faithful God’ means. God cannot be faithful to God as
though, “…?…, I’m God, and I’m looking at myself to keep myself God. Oh, I got
to see this part is God and that part is God, the other part is God. I got to
see this action is God and that action is God.” Forget it: God is God.
So
the faithful God is not being faithful to Himself, it’s what He sets forth from
Himself which is the Word, “This day thou art My son, I have started My
generations in you.” And He finishes those generations in him. Are we not the
body of Jesus Christ and everyone put in there? You can see you cannot
misunderstand these things.
So
He is the covenant keeping, He is the faithful God, and all things are going to
be put under the feet of Jesus in this time element of eternity and then it’s
all going to be handled back to the Father.
18. So,
we begin to make some notes here. I hope I can get at least half way through. I
don’t know. Now, at the beginning of time… Number one is Ps 2:7 [and] other
Scriptures such as Heb 1:2. “This day I have begotten thee. You are the
beginning of My generation.” And in Philippians 1, [Bro. Vayle then reads Eph
1:3-4]
(3) Blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ:
(4) According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now
therefore, even before there was a speck of stardust, and the foundation of the
world, before there was any of these things, the covenant already was true: “I
begun My generations in you.” Therefore he must have contained all the
generations. He had to. Well didn’t Adam as far as the human seed is concerned?
What about serpent? What about dogs and cats? See? According to nature and God,
nature runs in continuity, everything must go in continuity. So all right.
19. Now
the next thing we remember is creation comes on the scene. In creation, we find
that according to Col 1:13, rather 16, “All things were created by him,” every
single one. “For by him were created all things, no matter visible, invisible,
thrones, principalities.” That’s why he said in there, by him, he created the
ages. So, as Bro. Branham said, when you open the whole picture up
panoramically, “It’s been Christ all the time.” See? The unveiling of him in
understanding is the unveiling of God. God’s not manifesting through cherubims
now. He left that a long time ago. For two thousand years now to the Gentile
church, he’s been manifesting right down through the Word of the living God;
and thousands of years before that he was doing it also.
20. So
now, also, we mentioned in Ephesians 3, we also have the fact that he was the
creator of all these things upon earth, and nothing was made without him. And
then also, in Colossians 1… say I don’t think I need that one there. In Heb
2:8, I think we’ve got one back in here. Yeah, “Thou has put all things un… all
things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under
him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet the all
things under him.” So we see here, that by reason of creation, which God did
through him and he is heir to all things, we have to realize that it’s at
creation that, at this particular time following Ps 2:7, creation comes in, and
we have the beginning of what we now see into full manifestation, what we know
to have transpired in covenant and promise with the Son, because there’s no
such thing as a plan that was not in God. There is no such thing.
21. So
all right. Creation takes place. The heavens and the earth begin to form,
according to Bro. Branham, after the chaos that was seen there. He describes
it, how that Jesus, the light—the Son—playing around like the Father’s throne,
created the great whirling mass of the sun, universes up there; a part flew off
the sun, came here, became our earth, cooled down. Then, you see the glacial
ages and all the things that Bro. Branham talked about, even relating some of
it to
Now,
at the time of creation, all creatures known as spirit beings are created. And
we don’t have any problem understanding that God, through Christ Jesus, made
every single thing at that time. So all right.
22. The
next thing we notice that the spirit of love, omniscience and omnipotence, has
become Elohim. It become Elohim, which means the great Self-Existent One,
because He is very definitely Almighty God and beside Him there was not any. He
was the “All in all” and, as I say again, once all this transition is gone
through this period, He becomes “All in all” again. In other words, although
all this is here and everything in Divine Order from the New Jerusalem into the
very eternities, there is no way that you can ever bypass God.
And
this is one thing that the Trinitarians just don’t seem to understand: that
Lamb on the Throne is not God. He never was, and he never will be. He’s a god
in the sense that he can be worshipped, like Bro. Branham said, “You can
worship a piano.” Now, not comparing a piano to Jesus, just trying
to show you a play on words. See? But he is worthy of praise and worship and
adoration.
And
in the Resurrection, when they held him by the feet, he never said you can’t
worship me. It isn’t as though he can’t be worshipped, and only in that sense
is he God. But remember, it’s always, “Blessed be the God a Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” And the term ‘God’ always precedes the term of ‘Father.’ In
other words, there’s no way… You can do what you want about it but, let’s face
it, the God of Adam supercedes and was over Adam. And even right today, you can
see the head of the woman is man, and the head of man is Christ, and the head
of Christ is God. And Jesus is the head of the church, physically and totally
in the respect of what God wanted, but above him is God.
Like
you see over the Lamb on the Throne of New Jerusalem and over the Lamb the
Pillar of Fire. You can’t get away from it. There is no vague and stupid
terminology in the Bible. It is merely the stupidity of people who let their
eyes be blinded by Satan. And that’s exactly what the Bible said, “They’re
blind.” And they’re using their fingers for Braille, their senses, and they’re
completely out of the picture entirely. No, they’re blind, just like what the
Pharisee said to Jesus: “Are we blind?”
He
said, “If you hadn’t of said, “we see,” I’d a forgiven you. But now your sin
remaineth.” In other words a blind man telling you he can see when he stepped
off a curb and get hit by a car? He[’s] got a white cane or a seeing-eye dog or
somebody leading him, [and] he says, “Well I’m fine, I can see.”
You
know, it shows you the terrible height of depravity.
23. Now,
next you want to realize this: in Elohim was hidden, but not revealed, even in
Scripture back there at that first few chapters of Genesis, came later on down
at the time of Abraham, and then later on at the time of Moses. In Elohim was
hidden Jehovah. And at the times of the Son’s birth Jehovah is declared, but it
wasn’t declared in the knowledge as it was declared in Revelation 13, where It
tells you the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. So all right.
Already
now we have, though not revealed at that particular moment… Remember Abraham
called Him Jehovah. Then God said to Moses, “By My name Jehovah was I not
known.” [Ex 6:3] So in Him was the name Jehovah. And when you find Jehovah,
which means ‘Jehovah-Savior’, (It was ‘Joshua’ in the Hebrew and ‘Jesus’ in the
Greek.) is ‘Jehovah-Savior’. So Jehovah has several complex titles in there,
and one of them is the healer, is the savior. He’s peace and these others--our
sanctification and those various ones.
So
now He has to be known at that time as Jehovah, because redemption is already
outlined and there hasn’t been one single person who has fallen. Now not even
Satan; he’s a spirit being. He’s a Cherubim. So now, at the time before Gen
1:2,[2]
where we’re talking about the earthly creation—we have in heaven a government
or a theocracy where God is ruling. That’s why Jesus said, Pray that the
24. So
all right. In the heavenly Government of theocracy there’s, number one: Elohim.
Number two is the Son which is born of God and a part of God. Number three;
there are spirit creations as a product of omniscience and omnipotence. So
these creatures were made absolutely according to wisdom and not just strength.
And they’re made also in the understanding of love.
So
all right now, then, at that time, we have worship instituted. And the worship
is in heaven by the angelic creations that God has made.
25. So [
], at that particular time, then, God is manifested in and through the Seraphim
and Cherubim. That’s the first ones we look at. Then, the order would appear as
follows: Cherubim and Seraphim. Now the reason I believe that the Seraphim,
though mentioned in Isaiah, are not inferior to, but below status of the
Cherubim, is because Satan was a cherub, and he was the highest order of all
outside of the Son. So therefore, in ranking with God, would be the Son of God,
and in ranking would be: Lucifer, then the Seraphim, then the archangels, and
then the angels.
26. So,
now we see worship is constituted as (a) the Son, (b) the created
creatures--the spirit beings. Under Son, we find the Son is manifested through
the archangel Michael. And we see Lucifer, on the other hand, is a cherub. And
they’re leading in the heavenly worship of all the hosts at that particular
time.
Now,
under the Son, and at the same time, at that particular period, it would be
under the joint leadership of Michael and Lucifer. And under them at that time
then, will be what Bro. Branham said, “We
came just like Jesus,” or “He came
just like us, except for one thing.” And that was, we cannot remember our
spirit or Word bodies, which Jesus well remembered, which, according to the
Book of John you see it thoroughly outlined that he did remember the glory that
he had at that time. I think that’s perhaps, in John 12.
27. So,
if you go to the Book of Job 38:7, and he says, “When the morning stars sang
together, (In other words, where were you?) and all the sons of God shouted for
joy?” Okay, the word ‘sons’ leave no doubt whatsoever. We have no problem there
at all. That is, when you talk about just sons, they’re sons [ ].
When
you come to the word ‘stars’, of course, you can have a little more of a
problem. But, if you go to Heb
[
] That’s one of my problems. I was studying so hard on that this afternoon,
having made my notes up yesterday, it’s very hard for me to get my thinking
together, because I’m trying to go two sermons at one time and it’s not easy,
believe me. If you don’t believe it, try it sometime. Okay.
28. Now
the pre-existent sons absolutely are there. Let’s go again to 1 Corinthians 15
and find out if it is not so. And certainly it’s so, not because I’m telling
you; but the fact is, it’s right here in the Bible. All right, in 1 Cor 15:41.
[ ]
(41) There
is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another the stars: for one star
differeth from another star in glory.
(42) So
also is the resurrection of the dead. Sown in corruption, raised in
incorruption:
In
other words, coming from the earthly body, and we can be numbered as the sands
of the sea physically, there is within each child of God the Divine Life of God
Himself to be one of those stars. So you see, we are looking at the stars.
There
is also a place in one of the Old Testament books, and you’ll find there also
mentioned that the children of
29. Now,
let’s go and look at something else now. And we’re going to find this, and this
is going to be really the same thing that Bro. Branham said. When he talked
about pre-existence, he also talked of angels and certain other things. In Jude
13, “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out there own shame; wandering stars to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” The blackness of darkness,
wandering stars.
Let’s
go to 2 Pet 2:12.
(12) But
these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of
the things they understand not, shall utterly com… perish in their own
corruption;
(13) And
receive the reward of unrighteousness.
Now,
when you’re looking at all of these, you’re still looking at ‘stewardship’.
You’re still looking at sons with responsibilities. You’re looking at other
creation forms with responsibility. Even as God took on responsibility to His
Own stewardship, Jesus the same, every single entity—bar none—has had a place
in this universe, and every one responsible--every one. Stewardship is a very
tough subject; it takes us all.
30. That’s
what we see back there in the [ ] days of creation, before man was put upon
earth here, and the earth itself was also completely… the universe and all,
started… to bring in to being… [End of side one of the first audio tape.]
Now,
next you’ll see war in the heavens because of Lucifer. And remember the word
‘Lucifer’ means ‘light,’ comes from the word ‘lux’, meaning ‘light’. He was a
light holder, and he perverted the light.
Now
Michael put Satan to rout. He’s cast out of heaven. Then in Gen 1:26, God says
to Jesus, “Let’s make man in our image.” And so now He has Adam and Eve in the
garden. The next thing, Lucifer comes down to
31. Now
let’s begin to understand this. This is why Bro. Branham categorically said, “Communism is
not a religion.” What you’re dealing with is religion. And you can’t
turn anywhere without finding religion. As I said on more than one occasion,
you simply don’t find atheists. You find a few idiots that claim they’re
atheists.
32. By
the way, have you noticed. I think it’s in Time; there’s a little
article there. They’ve got Adam and Eve there with a little fig leaves on
them--little vines on them. And now they’ve found [ ] that what they thought
was a little salamander discovered in Israel a long time ago, a doctor of
science from Edmonton, Alberta and another person took a further look, and it
wasn’t a salamander; it was a serpent with legs. And so they’re now making a
little light of the Bible, “I guess it was a serpent then…”
Oh God have pity; little legs on a stupid
little serpent… That’s not it at all. God took the legs plumb off the serpent.
It was a boa constrictor, he’s got remnants of hips right now. My, my. But you
see, everything Bro. Branham said is being proven by science to their own
folly, because they’re not paying attention to anything.
And
the same thing about that car I was telling you about, how they’re just waiting
for the road for that egg-shaped car, uncontrolled, no driver, just controlled
outside. I got little Becky Branham-Smith’s article the other day. And she
found an article I didn’t know existed. I told you the road was being prepared,
but she said the road is all but prepared, and it’s near
That
gives two visions left, and you don’t care two bits about the burning over of
33. So,
Lucifer in
Now
here’s the beautiful thing you’re looking at. That serpent beast, that Bro.
Branham said was so close to a human being, could cross breed with the human,
bring forth a hybrid that could actually reproduce itself, because it was just
that close, perfectly. Hybrids usually are the end of the trail. But when you
begin to consider this, that right today, you can be eating a tomato with a
fish gene. (And don’t throw up please, because you didn’t even know it.) The
stores are full of engineered products, and there’s nothing you and I can do
about it except pray as we’ve never prayed before over our food. And, if you do
taste a fishy tomato, you know where it came from. [Laughter.] Don’t blame
somebody else.
But
anyway, this hybrid came forth, and he came forth as a wolf in sheep’s
clothing. Religious. Religious. Imitator. Make believer; yet he was a believer,
because the devils also believe and tremble.
“Thou
believest in God. Forget it. The devils believe, and they tremble, which you
don’t do. You want to kill me and cut my throat,” said Jesus. See?
34. Now
note, this beast, a serpent, was like Satan. As Satan was the highest order he
went to the highest order of animal. Now Bro. Branham correctly said, “We’re
mammalian.” But we’re not animals in the accepted sense of animals, because
animals have not the power to reason and do the things we do, prepare for the
future, everything. Most things they do by instinct. They can learn a few
things, but they can’t write their books, communicate. They don’t have what we
have. So don’t pretend for one minute that we’re animal in the sense of animal.
See? We’re mammalian. We’re a high order.
So
Satan goes to the highest order, the highest form of animal, and he didn’t have
a soul. He was upright, and he spoke, and he reasoned, and he could quote the
Scripture. He actually handled the Word of God. And he was a gnostic. He had a
further and a better revelation. And gnosticism has always been the worm in the
apple, “the hair in the biscuit,” as
Bro. Branham would say.
35. Now
this takes us to a comment from a brother in
I
talked to [ ] Brother Bailey, he studied Hebrews, the Book of Hebrews, as Bro.
Branham wrote it, and he can’t find it. So I can’t go by hearsay just because
one preacher said it, but I’m not saying it couldn’t have been said. So let’s
see something. We go to Heb 8:4-5.
(4) For
if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests
that offer gifts according to the law:
(5) Who
serve unto the example and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: See, saith he, thou
make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount.
So
therefore, whatever Moses did in the tabernacle and the arc of the covenant
with the cherubim over the mercy seat, that was already in heaven. No argument,
no problem.
36. So,
let’s go to Ex 25:10-22. Oh, here we are. Okay, beginning at verse 10:
(10) And
thou shall make an arc of acacia wood: two cubits and a half… and so on…
(11) Overlay
it with gold and put staves of acacia wood overlay them with gold, and you put
the staves in the rings to bear the arc, and they’re going to never be taken
away from it. (Then verse ten… sixteen;)
(16) Thou
shall put into the arc the testimony which I shall give thee.
(17) And
thou shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half the length
thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
(18) And
thou shall make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in
the two ends of the mercy seat.
(19) And
one… and make one cherub on the one end, the other on the other, even of the
mercy seat, thou shalt make two cherubims on the ends thereof.
(20) And
the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high covering the mercy seat
with their wings and their face look to one another toward the mercy seat shall
the faces of the cherubim be. And so on…
Now
just a minute. If Satan and Michael both led in the worship, and Michael’s not
an archangel, how could he be a cherubim here? Unless he was a cherubim, and
then, his descent to man, becoming a man, he was a cherub, then he went to
being an archangel. He never went to an angel now, huh-uh, no. Then he came
down, because thou has made a little lower than the angels. That’s the ordinary
ones in there. So there could be something, a possibility, there.
37. But
let’s go to Heb 9:1-5.
(1) For
then verily the first come … ordinances divine service and a wordly sanctuary.
(2) For
there was a tabernacle made the first wherein was the candlestick, the table,
the shewbread, which is called the sanctuary.
(3) And
after the second veil the tabernacle, called the holiest of all;
(4) Which
had the golden censer and the arc of the covenant over around… overlaid around
with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna (that wasn’t in heaven) and
Aaron’s rod that budded (that wasn’t there either. What was there?) the tables
of the covenant.
So,
I doubt very much that Satan had a thing to do with it. But let’s just stop and
say, “What if he did?” Well what if he did—no problem. How zealous was he at
guarding the Word? How good did he keep it? He just took the Word and all the
power of God to destroy the worship in the
38. Now,
as I said, if Satan were one of the cherubim, he would have had to be one
before his fall. Also, the other cherub could not be Michael, as he was an
archangel and, therefore, not Jesus, unless even before he was, as I said, a
cherubim, and then in his descent down into the flesh he became; number one,
Son of God; number two, cherub; and then, still lower, archangel; and then
finally became a man.
And
we do not know this is so, but that’s just a thought as I’m saying. If
something was said by Bro. Branham which I sincerely doubt anything whatsoever
was, I can place it right now and tell you, if he took advantage, once more, of
his office to come against God. He did the things he’s known for: “thou was
perfect until I found you perverting my Word. You were the sum of it all. You
were my great creation, the beauty, the glory. You had it all. You led all the
angels in worship. You were right there on one side with Michael and the sons,
Michael showing himself, manifesting. Your group, cherubims, I manifested
through them, and the seraphim; you just threw it all away.”
39. Hey,
I want to read you something. This is not in my notes, but it just struck me.
Hebrews 6.
(4) For
it’s impossible for those that were once for all enlightened, taste the
heavenly gift, partake the Holy Ghost,
(5) Taste
the good Word of God, the powers of the world to come,
(6) Fall
away, pervert it, and walk off.
Say,
“How can they do it?” Son of God won’t do it. The beast, he will. The serpent
race will. That’s the way they do things. See?
40. So
finally he became a man. However, let us make our point that Satan was the highest
order of creation amongst spirit beings. He led in the worship of God, and, if
he was indeed over the arc of the testament… And he must have, then, been a
steward to keep and defend, undefiled, unperverted, in it’s pure state, the
Word of God as a faithful officer in the worship. I don’t have to believe that
he was over the mercy seat to do that because, I can tell you right now, it was
his job in the leading of worship to be Word-perfect, and he perverted it.
That’s
why Jesus said; “In vain do you worship me having for traditions the doctrine
of men or the teaching of the Word of God.” He said, “Your worship is entirely
vain.” And he put them right with the serpent seed, which they really were.
41. How
many Jews are in the world today? Some say six million, some nine, say fifteen;
God only knows. I don’t, and I don’t care. But, if they’re serpent seed back
there, then you can understand why there’s only going to be 144,000 make it at
the end time. And they are not going to be Bride; they are going to be the
virgins who care for the Bride. See? Okay.
42. But
he perverted the Word. And in so doing, he certainly turned the Word to himself
and his advantage and caused others to follow him and thereby, a large number
of the heavenly host—I think two-thirds—fell with him; and with him as leader,
he thereby gained worship, because he was acknowledged as their master in the
leading of worship. So, therefore, he wouldn’t have any problem directing it to
himself, because they would be looking to him. And he would be their prophet.
And as their prophet, he would be God to them, because the prophet is God to
the people. So way back there it started.
Now
then, the highest animal order, the serpent, takes the Word, as did Satan, and
persuades Eve to change or pervert the Word; and then Adam. And now the beast
is leading them. Now come on, go on back, and say, “Who led them?” If you think
God was leading them, and they were going by the Word, you’re missing
something. They were being led by the beast. Now at the end time, we’re getting
ready for the beast and have to worship him. He’s going to lead them. See?
Where did it come from?
43. Satan
is actually worshipped in the churches today, as Bro. Branham said, “For he was a
leader of worship by creation and in a created office.” So how can
he still not be? He was created to be a leader. A dog’s to be a dog, a horse is
a horse, a pig is a pig, a cow is a cow, an elm tree is an elm tree, an oak
tree is an oak tree, but …?… suddenly, we just go screwy when it comes to these
other.
Forget
it. He was and he is, because all nature’s in continuity. He actually
orchestrated the worship of God and he, himself, as Bro. Branham said, is
worshipped in the churches, in the organizations, and don’t you forget it. You
just believe it and flee for your life. So how can he still not be what he was
created for? because all nature and creation runs in continuity.
44. Now
notice carefully, man is deceived, Eve, the church, into accepting Satan as
revealer or prophet. See? Even headship, by leaving the Word, going to
organization, Eve left her husband for the beast, who perverted the Word. The
virgin church, under Paul, did the same in 2 Corinthians, and a whole false
church of deceived people [ ] now have a devilish ministry which developed.
So
let’s go to 2 Corinthians. [ ] Okay, he says here; “I’ve espoused you to
Christ, but the chaste virgin. But I fear you’ve been beguiled the same as Eve
was.” [2 Cor 11:2-3] And then, now, way over, down below, he says here in verse
13:
(13) For such
are false apostles, (they’re apostles, but they’re false) deceitful workers,
(they’re workers, but they’re deceitful) transforming themselves into the
apostles of Christ. (Wolves in sheep’s clothing.)
(14) And
no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into what appears to be a
legitimate prophet, setting the people in order in worship and taking them
right away from God.
Like
foxy-loxy. When Henny-penny had the revelation, when an acorn fell on her head,
the sky had fallen, she got all the [chickens] running after her, and foxy-loxy
took them right in the pen and ate them all up. Other picture of Aesop’s fable,
I guess, but there you see it.
(15) Therefore,
it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as ministers of
righteousness whose end shall be according to their works, deceitful workers,
receive the wages of deceit, which is death.
And
the higher they pile their works of unrighteousness, the longer will be their
time in the
45. Now,
our subject is still “Stewardship”. We are looking at true stewardship as that
is our part. Stewards hold offices. We know what a steward is. But he [ ] he
also has other names that designate position and privilege.
One:
we looked at born ones, common denomination, neither male nor female in Christ.
How can people talk about a [ ] female holy ghost? Listen, if there’s neither
male nor female in Jesus Christ right now, then that’s the way it was in the
beginning, or there’s something wrong. Alpha’s omega; how can it be? It’s not
‘male and female’; it’s ‘life’.
And
Bro. Branham said, “That is a spirit that He created for the purpose of
propagation.” And remember, in heaven, and we were there, there is
no “marriage and giving in marriage.” And the giving in marriage is for one
purpose, that’s for sexual intercourse and the bringing forth of children. I
don’t care what you put on the act and think about it. We’ll talk about it
tomorrow, if I get that far. But, that’s what it’s for. Another office gone to
hell, as it were.
Listen,
this world’s in a mess. I’m in a mess. You’re in a mess. But it’s time to
repent and get out of it. I would to God I knew the things I’m teaching you. I
had nobody to teach me, nobody to help me, except all error, gross error. Thank
God I knew there was a prophet in the land, …?… I can understand, if you ever
listen to any man, that’s the man you listen to, and he laid it on the table,
brother/sister.
46. Now
they’re born ones. Also, they’re called bond slaves, which are servants. See?
But they’re bond slaves, not to the flesh and to what they were born in to,
because of Adam and successive generations and perversion, but what they’re now
in according to the Word of God. And we go to Col 1:12-13.
(12) Giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light: (Now that inheritance has to come through
Jesus because he’s got it and he’s sharing it. He’s sharing his name with us
too. Sharing the Word. Watch it, thirteen:)
(13) Who
hath delivered us form the power of darkness, and hath translated us (picked us
up and put us) into the kingdom of his dear Son:
47. Over
here in Rev 2:9, “I know thy works, and thy tribulation, and poverty, (thou art
rich) and I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not, but
are of the synagogue of Satan.” They belong to Satan’s church, all the time
claiming God. That’s the way it is tonight. I don’t care if you’re Trinitarian
or Oneness, if you don’t understand the great revelation of this hour--which
Bro. Branham only fully exposed in 1965 in Jeffersonville, when he preached on
“Who Is This Melchisedec?” and laid it all bare under the Seventh Seal, the
great revelation--you still are out there in Satan’s synagogue and his kingdom,
because one word off is Satan’s kingdom.
Now
let’s get the thing flat and straight. “Narrow’s the way, straight is the gate,
few there be that find it.” [Mt 7:14] [That’s right.] Why? Because they won’t
take time to look.
48. Notice
how this ends. In 2 Th 2:3-4, “Let no man deceive any means: for that day shall
not come, accept there be a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition.” Now listen, that can’t happen till the last day. He
becomes the son of perdition though revealed in a minimal sense and here manifested
minimal sense for centuries. We’re talking now about this last day.
This
follows Hebrews 6, the once for all revelation, where people taste the good
Word of God, the power of the Holy Ghost, the world to come, and they manifest
gifts of healing. They manifest great gifts; even raise the dead. They are just
like Judas with offices and power. And they are anointed to those offices by
the power of the Holy Ghost coming forth in energies called gifts. And they’re
blaspheming the very name of God, yet using the name of Jesus even to raise the
dead.
Look
at that Benny Hinn. Did you ever see such ridiculous stuff in your life? Just
blow on them, snap at them; they fall over. Scores of them get healed. They
forget even psychology teaches us that you can work your emotions up till you
swing into faith. People want to dance around the floor and scream, “Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus,” and start shaking and getting yourself revved up, a dozen of you
could get healed. Don’t tell me; I’ve been all through it. I’ve seen the
masters manipulate the people.
But
Bro. Branham came on the scene and even what little he did demonstrated the
angel of God came down and said, “You’ve made a circus out of it.” Let’s get to
the nitty-gritty, where the Word is everything, because the Word is God, the
complete delineation. Bro. Branham said, “This is God in print.” That’s good enough
for me. See?
49. Now,
“Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sits in the
50. Now
the next thing we realize, not only bond slaves with the headship of Christ,
we’re also stewards required to be faithful. Faithful ministers, and they are
ministering another’s goods. Therefore, they must be informed and endowed and
trusted. Look at 1 Corinthians 4: “Let a man so account of us, as the ministers
of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” [1 Cor 4:1] He’s a steward.
It was committed to him, and he’s got to minister it one hundred percent as God
gave it--not one word off. If an angel from heaven came down and tried to
change one word, he said, “Let him be accursed.” See? Not one word could be
changed.
51. Now
notice there’s something else though. We’re also called friends. I didn’t bring
that to your attention, so I’ll bring it to your attention tonight. In Jn
15:13-15;
(14) You
are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.
(15) Henceforth
I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: (now
he doesn’t call them that but they still are, don’t worry; they’ve got to
worship and serve God. That’s the Bible said, that’s our great commandment,
that’s the Ten Commandments.) for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I
have made known unto you.
Now,
notice in here these people now are being given the revelation of Almighty God
by the Holy Ghost so that they’re not just simply servants, they are servants
of a highest order where the servant is now a confidant of the master.
52. Now
let’s go a little further, and we go to Jas 2:23, somewhere in there, we’ll
see. “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it
was imputed unto him for righteousness: and was called the friend of God.”
Now,
if you want to know what it is to be the friend of God, you go to Gen 18:17-18,
just the same as Bro. Branham took us back to Genesis 18 when it came to what
is Heb 13:8.[3]
So now we go to that beautiful chapter of Gen 18:17-18, and It says:
(17) The
lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
(18) Seeing
that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations
of the earth shall be blessed in him?
All
right, put that right in this hour here, the hour before
53. Now,
with that, we go and read Heb 3:1-6.
(1) Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our confession. (Now we’re saying the same things that Jesus says.)
(2) Who
was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.
(3) For
this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who
builded the house has more honor than the house.
(4) For
every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
Now
what you’re looking at right here again, is stewardship, the stewardship of
Jesus; the faithful one filling his stewardship. See? Stewardship is all
through the Bible, the same as sowing and reaping. You can’t get away from it.
(5) And
Moses was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for as the testimony of
those things which were spoken after;
(6) But
Christ is the Son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Which
is what? Confessing what he said and saying what he said; we’re in
conversation. That’s why at the end time in Malachi, we’re saying the very
words of the prophet. He said, “Say what
I say.” We’ve believe what he believed, talking what he says, and here we
are, and God listening. He said, “There are my jewels. They’re the ones.” Now
you can say what you want, but I’m going to tell you, the Bible all comes
together.
54. Now,
in 1 Cor
(10) According
to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder (steward),
I have laid the foundation, another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he builds thereupon.
(11) For
other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
There’s
your stewardship again, see, right down the line all the way through.
55. Now
let’s go into something really interesting. We’re going to go now to Revelation
10. We all know the first ten verses, if we don’t there’s really something
wrong with us, but I don’t think there is anything really wrong with us. And It
tells you here:
(1) The
mighty messenger came down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, rainbows upon his
head, face as it were the sun, feet as pillars of fire.
(2) He
had in his hand a little book open: (That’s the seals all ripped off.) and he
set his right foot upon the sea, and left foot on the earth.
(3) Cried
with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their voices.
(4) Seven
thunders uttered their voices… I was going to write… (and so on, right down the
line. And It said)
(7) But
in the days of the voice of the seventh messenger, when he shall begin to
sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his
servants the prophets.
Remember,
Christ is the mystery of God revealed. So under the seals came forth all the
revelation of what God was doing all through time, which started at this: “This
day have I begotten thee. I started my generations in you.” God was “All in
all,” preached just before; then, now here’s the Son. Now all these others come
in, and then finally, its handed back, after the White Throne, the New
Jerusalem, after the thousand years, Millennium, so on, whatever long it takes,
“All and in all” again. See? You’re looking at that period of time. It’s
winding up.
56. Now,
with that, we go to Hebrews 3. And I’m not going to take time to read this,
because it’s going to take too long. But says here, beginning at Heb 3:7:
(7) Wherefore
(as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if you will hear his voice,
(8) Harden
not your hearts… (And they wouldn’t listen. Joshua could not take them in. [He]
could not give them rest.)
(17) But
(It says) with whom was he grieved forty years? It was those that sinned, (Why?
The sin of unbelief, that’s the only sin there is.) whose carcasses fell in the
wilderness? (They’re just called carcasses. That’s ‘tomah’—talmine poisoning.
Ours is ‘soma’. We’re going to get a glorified body.)
(18) And
to whom did he swear they should not enter into his rest, but them that
believed not,
(19) So we
see they could not enter in because of unbelief.
(4:1) Let
us therefore fear, lest, the promise being left us of entering into his rest,
any of you seem to come short of it.
Now
that promise is the time of his presence. And everybody’s wondering, “When’s it
going to be?” Well, what do you care when it’s going to be as long as you’re
ready? Didn’t he say if the good man had known the hour the thief was going to
come, he’d a been prepared and bonked him on the head? Who gives a rip when it
comes, as long as you’re ready?
Oh,
they’re getting weary; they’re getting carried away. I worry sometime. I hear
women talking: you can name every actor, you can name every movie, and I’m
wondering, “My God, where do they get it?” You must be looking at picture shows
you shouldn’t be looking at. Is that how to bring the families up? Carried away
in these last days said Bro. Branham; getting too careless. I’m getting too
careless. I should be preaching more, working harder, but I’ve… Well, in my old
age, I feel tired, my heads goofy… I’ve got excuses too. But I know one thing;
I haven’t got any excuses before God. Stewardship.
57. Moses
didn’t like his for a while. I’ve got to bear with these like a bunch of
babies. Stewardship. Well, you know what I’m talking about. Right on down here,
all the way down. “There remaineth a rest,” [Heb 4:9] and there’s a rest right
today when we’ve heard the voice from heaven according to Hebrews 12. He has
spoken, ready for New Jerusalem at this time.
They
said, “What is the sign of thy presence?” They didn’t even know, they said
though everybody calls it the sign of thy coming—they didn’t even know about a
first coming, they didn’t know he was going to die. When he died they didn’t
know he’d raise from the dead. And he rose from the dead they didn’t know he
was going to go away. They didn’t know what was going to happen, they knew
nothing. What is the sign of it all? He said these false prophets, all these
things going on, with God Himself standing there in the midst showing who is
God. Thank God we had a faithful steward in Bro. Branham. Now we need some
faithful preachers and a bunch of faithful people.
Now
this true vine will have a counter, false vine, the twins, up to the very end:
born ones, slaves, stewards, friends, and all the enemies of Christ.
58. Let’s
go to Phil 3:15-19, and It says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect…”
We’ve come to perfection, the perfect word. Those that knew the secret, Paul
said, as many as are perfect. He had brought them perfection in the first
Church Age, the truly revealed Word of Almighty God, demonstrated to be the
perfect Word of God by vindication. They had it.
The
rest of them were gnostics, and they said, “We’ve got the perfect word.” Oh,
Paul went so far, [but] “We’re going to take you all the way.” That’s what
Satan said, takes them all the way to hell; then [they] can’t get back. Yeah.
(15) Let
us therefore be perfect, be thus minded, say the same thing. If anything be
otherwise minded God should reveal this unto you.
(16) Nevertheless,
whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the
same thing.
(17) Brethren,
be followers together of me, and mark them which walk, so ye have us for an
example.
(18) (For
many walk, of whom I’ve told you often, and now tell you weeping, they are the
enemies of the cross of Christ:
(19) Whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, and
they mind earthly things.)
Oh,
they’ll tell you they’re spiritual-minded. They’ll tell you they’ve got this
and they’ve got that. They’re liars. They’re just a bunch of dogs at every
garbage tent. Their god’s their belly.
59. I
was appalled the other day to learn that they’re looking into preachers now,
because they’ve got more money than almost anybody else. I thought most
preachers were kind of poor. I sure went through it myself, before I had a
couple of nickels to rub together. And they’re all getting rich, increased in
goods, and don’t lack anything, except God. And they claim they got Him.
They’ve been entirely fooled.
Now
they’re the enemies of the cross. They’re enemies of redemption. They’re
enemies of the strict and narrow life. They’re enemies of those things that God
prevails upon us to do in order to bring forth the character commensurate,
somehow, to His.
60. Now
the two systems: (We’ve got them. They’re here today—one true, one false.) At
the end, they are so close as to be razor-edged in their spirit. The big
problem is Mark 16, taking the place of Acts 1:1, where Jesus began to do and
to teach. This follows the teaching, Mark 16. What we had preceded the
teaching, which is the vindication that proved the teaching was going to be
from Almighty God. It’s based upon Jn 14:7-11, the very presence of God in a
human being. And at the end time ending in the same God in a human being, doing
mightier works than even through the ministry of Jesus Christ.
As
long as there are Judasses who will pray in Jesus’ name and come under the
anointing [ ] of a spiritual office, there will be a true church and a false
church. So close only the very elect will not be deceived. Why won’t they be
deceived? There’s no way they’ll be deceived, because why? They had a
vindicated prophet. Not somebody coming along like the Oral Roberts and Jack
Coe and who… I don’t know how many there are; just dozens of them. They came
with Mark 16.
Now
the church in
But
[ ] let us take heart in this hour. If we examine the worship of God in heaven
as seen by John in Revelation 4 and 5, we learn something that is already in
our day according to chapter 10, where worship of God by true sons is seen.
61. Now
in Rev 4:9-10:
(9) And
when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks unto him that sat on the
throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
(10) The
four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him who liveth forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne saying,
(11) Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive honor and glory and power: for thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Now,
notice nine and ten are different. In verse 9 It says ‘beasts’. In verse ten It
says ‘elders’. In one the beasts are giving honor and glory and thanks. Down
here in ten they are actually worshipping, because they are the sons of God.
62. Now
then, if we read all of chapter 5, (which I will not read but you can read it
for yourself; we just don’t have time) but you go to verse 8:
(8) And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four elders fell down
before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors
which are the prayers of the saints.
(9) And
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out
of every kindred and tongue and nation and people:
(10) And
made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we’ll reign on the earth.
That
is not said by the beasts, because they aren’t redeemed, and they aren’t a holy
nation, and they aren’t priests and kings unto God. So what you’re looking at
here are people worshipping the true and the living God. Huh? That’s the scene
in heaven, right? Well let’s find one that isn’t. Let’s go to Revelation 10.
[End of side 2 of the first audio tape.]
And
I was going to read a lot more but our time has sure gone on.
63. So
all right, Revelation 10; and It said right down here:
(1) The
mighty messenger that came down. (Then It said… Verse 5:)
(5) And
the messenger which I saw stand upon the sea and earth lift up his hand to
heaven,
(6) And
sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven, and things
that therein are, in earth… therein and the earth, and the things that therein
are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time
no longer:
(7) But
in the days of the voice of the seventh messenger, when he shall begin to
sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared the good news
of the gospel by his prophet… by his servants the prophets.
Now
what I’m looking here is the Bible distinctly said, “Because God could sware by
none other, he swore by himself.” The swearing of…?… time, has run out. And
there’s only One that has any inkling concerning time in the heavens as far as
I know Scripture, and that is God Himself. And He would have to pass that on to
his Son, who is not omniscient nor omnipotent. Only as God gave him that actual
talent to do those things at the right and proper time.
64. Now
here’s my estimation, my understanding: we now have in our midst the same One
in Revelation 4 and 5. And I understand Bro. Branham did equate Rev 10:1 to Rev
5:1. And we’re looking at the One, then, today in our midst, the only true God,
and we are actually worshipping now as no other people can worship the true and
the living God. And that is not Jesus the Son; that is God, Elohim, Jehovah
Elohim, right down, Who has come down to restore the proper worship and the
understanding, even as we already know, from the Word of Almighty God.
65. Now
the faithful God had a faithful Son. Now, all stewards are faithful; that is
what they are supposed to be. The Son, steward, became a bond-slave. He died
for us to perfect us by his Blood. He arose a faithful high priest to his
faithful God and standing for us who are the faithful children. He is standing
now for us with all the power of the throne behind him, for all of us, not for
himself. He prayed the Father and God came down to bring all the seed of God
together. That is being done right by the message, 2 Th 2:1.[4]
68. Now…
Then at this time, we are right back to a virgin
Now,
at that time, Paul prays that God Himself will come in our midst as the Holy
Ghost and teach us. Jesus himself said, “I will pray the Father, and He will
send the spirit.” [Jn 14:16-17] Paul’s prayer doesn’t do it. And the guy that
said, “If we’d only prayed, we wouldn’t have had to have Bro. Branham come.”
You
can see the perversion that runs through the world and even the people that
claim to believe this message. Let me assure you, to the best of my knowledge,
the best of my understanding what Bro. Branham taught, we are looking at the
God Who raised Jesus, [Who] has come down in order to reveal to us the deep
secrets of God, the hour in which we live, and the things that we need to know
in order to bring forth a resurrection and put us in a rapture. This is exactly
1 Th 4:16[5]
and many places in the Scripture that you and I can find. And this is what
we’re looking at.
67. Now
Paul was a faithful steward to it. William Branham was a faithful steward to
it. And we, in our turns, are also faithful to this Word and are stewards unto
Almighty God though there are other stewardships in the sense of our conduct
and what we should do and how we should do it.
But
this is the major thing, because without the perfect faith imparted, which is
revelation, it doesn’t matter if you raise the dead and you go down the street
and heal every blind person, empty the graveyards, have a revival that brings
in thirty million people, if not five billion. It doesn’t do one thing, if
you’re outside the Word of God, because you’re in the perversion circle. You’re
not in the circle of Almighty God.
68. So
all right. And because we know, back here in Ephesians, and Paul takes them
right from foreknowledge, election, to predestination. And when they get that
far, he says, “Now look, you were predestinated to the baptism of the Holy
Ghost to seal you in for the resurrection.”
What
was it that the people fought Bro. Branham for as nothing else? They didn’t
fight him on one God. There are a lot of people that believe that. They didn’t
just understand. They fought him on predestination. And there’s hardly a
Pentecostal, there are no Catholics, there’s hardly anybody that believes in
predestination. And those that do, except for William Branham’s teaching, do
not have a clue to reality, because they don’t know they were in him; they were
there.
Now
the Mormons have some little idea, but it’s a perversion. That’s why they got
polygamy. They said, “All those souls are up there in heaven, and we’ve got to
have all these wives to have intercourse with, and they’re going to get
pregnant; we’ll bring all the souls down.” That’s a lie from the pit of hell.
That’s just another excuse for polygamy and indulging in the lust that God
despises. And the waywardness and the cussedness of mankind in this hour who
covers everything up with a show and a pretense. Listen, I’m going to tell you,
the blanket… the veils, and the blankets, the curtains, and everything that
obscures has been pulled away in the apocalypse, which is pulling back, and you
can see what God did and what He’s doing. So God today is right now bringing
His church together, at last getting it ready for the Resurrection.
69. Now
I’m covering much Scripture. I had to delete a lot, as I’m sorry I always have
to do in these sermons, because they’re too long. But since it is
eternity-to-eternity, and alpha has an omega, and omega has an alpha, we go to
Revelation 21, and we could read it. It’s pretty hard. This is the New
Jerusalem, and the glory thereof, and everything that pertains to it. This is
an omega, what you’re looking at. If this is an omega, then there had to have
been an alpha. You can be [sure] about it.
This
must be a scene from heaven or could not be on earth. And Bro. Branham said,
“Every… The
heavens must declare it before it comes to the earth.” It had its
seed way back in eternity. John saw it, the omega, of what Jesus talked about
in John 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” In other words the blueprint was
already there. It was already there in a spiritual substance in a certain way.
It just needed to come into manifestation, and that’s exactly what it is doing
at this particular moment, and will come to the final conclusion.
70. Now
this must be a scene from heaven or it could not be on earth. This is what
Jesus talked about but Paul saw it too. And like John, who saw Satan’s
Jerusalem—Babylon—as well as the New Jerusalem, Paul told the Galatians about
the two Jerusalems. One was heavenly, and one was earthly. Now, if you go to
Galatians 4 and you start at verse 19, you can see it.
(19) My
little children, of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you,
(20) I
desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt
of you.
(21) Tell
me, are you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
(22) For
it’s written, that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid, one by a freewoman.
So…
(23) But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman
was by promise.
What
promise? Do you think the promise to Abraham was any great thing? Let me tell
you something. If that promise had not been made, first of all to Jesus, this
day have I started my generations in you, who cares about Abraham? Abraham blew
it. He listened to Sarah.
She
said, “Have a son by Hagar. [ ] God said you were supposed to have a son.”
Oh,
she blew it, just like Eve. She was supposed to have a baby, but not by a
serpent; but she had it anyway.
Now
remember, Abraham turns around and messes things up, too. But I know one thing
for sure, Abraham could have believed God all he wanted, it wouldn’t have meant
one thing, unless first of all, that covenant, which was in Jesus, “In thee
have I begun my generations,” he was already predisposed, already cut to order.
Like Bro. Branham said, the Bride comes out of a bolt of cloth. There’s a
pattern laid there, the [wise and] foolish virgin; they’re all virgins. But
this pattern’s distinct; this is what God wanted. The others are fine. They’re
going to get there.
71. Then
he said,
(24) Which
is an allegory: for these two covenants; the one of mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar.
(25) And
this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia in answer to Jerusalem which now is, and is
in bondage with her children.
(26) But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
See?
It was already up there. I can’t tell you exactly how it was. I know it was in
the mind of God and what’s in there has to come to pass. But the pattern was
there; it’s the Word of God. And it’s going to come to earth. And you’re going
to find that all of those that are in bondage, all of those are in Satan…
Remember, we’re not in bondage. We’ve been taken out of bondage. We’ve been set
free. We were in the market place, sold under sin. We were bought in the market
place; we were taken out of the market place. We were set free. Whom the Son
sets free is free indeed.
But
these are bound under Satan. And in there you’ve got your slaves; you’ve got
your stewards. You’ve got your friends. You’ve got the whole system. It’s an
imitation of God. But there’s a few people got realit. And I can tell you, Paul
ends up by saying, “Many more are the children of the desolate than she that
hath a husband.” [Gal 4:27] New Jerusalem has a husband. That’s our mother.
That’s where we belong. That’s our source. It was there in the mind of God
before a speck of stardust.
And
in the time that the Son came forth, and now, until the consummation, all these
things in that pattern are coming together, and they’re here. And in it all you
see the King’s stewardship; God, the Son, the faithful ministries, the faithful
people of God.
72. Now
in closing, just to get back to “Stewardship”. If Satan had not vaunted himself
by his office, or Eve, her co-equality with Adam to the extent she acted apart
from her head, we would not have had this false vine and all the sin and
degradation and evil and sorrow and death. Satan perverted the Word. Eve took
it. And Adam backed up her folly.
73. Our
lesson in spiritual principles is this: be not deceived. God is not mocked. You
and I are responsible to God for what He has given us, and what He has, and
where He has placed us. There’s a certain office in there. So as the Bible
said, be not high-minded, but let us keep our minds on God, to follow Christ,
the Word, to perfection, knowing that even one word off is Satan’s kingdom and
death.
But
we have a privilege today of going all the way from the darkness of error to
all the glorious light that there is at this moment. And this is the light,
brother/sister, and a glory that will never fade. Now we’re stewards to it. Now
where do we stand?
So
many people can’t make their minds up. There’s so much indecision, even today.
Wondering, in spite of what the prophet said, there’s no physical evidence of
the baptism with the Holy Ghost. No, you can duplicate everything today and
still not be baptized with the Holy Ghost. There’s no way. He said, “There’s no sensation;” it comes without
it. But how do you know that you’re saved? How do you know you’re born again?
[You know] because you’re standing on a vindicated Word.
Notice
that’s what Abraham finally had to come to. It took him twenty years to get
there. He started with a faith, he knew God, he met with God. And God said,
“Look, you’re going to have a son by Sarah. This is what’s going to happen.”
And It said, “He regarded not his own body now dead, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah’s womb.” [Rom 4:19]
But
I’m going to tell you one thing: that’s a beautiful testimony where God gives
him way more credit than he deserved in my books, because he sure had his time
with the whole problem. But God looked down upon that man’s heart, and he knew
that down in there was that seed that must come forth. It must come forth,
because the promise was given to him, and it…
74. Now
listen, the Word of God cannot return void. It cannot bounce back, it cannot
ricochet, it’s got to be fulfilled in whomsoever the fulfillment is. And
there’s a Word of God in you and me tonight to be fulfilled. I don’t know what
it’s all about. I don’t have to. I know my own calling. I know my ministry.
I’ve got no problems with myself there. My problem is, it’s just one little
thing that bugs me, and that is: am I doing enough, in the sense, am I doing
those things for which I’m qualified, living up to expectations of God, living
up to those things that is given into my hand? I don’t know. I feel like most
of the time like a miserable failure.
But
the point is this: that Word will not return void, there will be not one person
that doesn’t go back to God. Now the big thing is this: are we really faithful?
75. Now
I’ve done this tonight, tomorrow we go into “Stewardship”, and I want to go in
basically and strong into those things where we have failed, but we must begin
now to turn to a brighter light and a greater light and begin to walk in that
light and our lives be regulated thereby. As Bro. Branham said so beautifully,
when they challenged him on the fact that he stayed clean in the ministry, they
said, “Yeah, you can talk, because you’re an old man.”
He
said, “I
was this way as a youth. I’ve never changed my principles, my life, and my way.”
And
Timothy stood there one day, and Paul said, “I know your grandma and your
mother. They’re in the faith, and I know you’re that kind of a boy.” And as I
said sometime ago in a dedication, “We’ve had three generations now, the same
as Paul did. And we’re into a fourth generation, which is deliverance.” There’s
got to be a Bride get out of here, brother/sister. In the meantime it may be
our children are going to make that Rapture standing here. But you and I have a
stewardship, and that is to have the principle and the morals in their lives
and the guiding lights that they will not enter into the folly we entered into.
The
world’s all saying, “Look, I smoked pot. So what? Let the kids smoke pot. I
lived in adultery, let the kids do it.” Yeah, and they’ll reap AIDS; they’ll
reap HIV; they’ll reap the whirlwind; and they’re going to do it, and you and I
may be to blame. Think it over. There’s a stewardship brother/sister.
Friends
that let the master down? Friends that sell out the gifts to the goodness of
God? Doesn’t ring too good a bell, does it? But I’m going to tell you one
thing: there’s such a thing as turning to God in full repentance and making our
lives count. There’s only one person ever lived a perfect life, that was Jesus.
But we can believe it, and we can strive, because that’s our privilege.
Let’s
bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly
Father, closing off now, going into the Lord’s Supper, You’re Communion
service. We just thank You for giving us enough mental impetus and enough
energy, Lord, and those things necessary to attempt to bring forth what we had
in mind. Believing, Lord, that it is fully in line with Your Word and what You
wanted us to see at this time.
And
now, Lord, as we come to the communion service, may it be a time of blessing,
washing away every one of our sins, thoroughly repenting, thoroughly looking to
within ourselves, Lord, in examination. And then, Lord God, taking a stand and
not looking at our lives as though there was something in there that would
either justify or not justify us, (That’s not the point, but looking now to the
Word and coming to that Word and admitting that Word, regardless of what
anybody or anybody else has ever done or ever will do, but standing with it as
true stewards, faithful, O God.
And
walking in the light and being a blessing thereby to anybody whatsoever we can
that others may have the light, the life, if perchance they be out there to
receive it, knowing we cannot go beyond Your predestinating power. But help us,
Lord, whatever predestinating You have done in us, may we fulfill it that we
may see You at that time in joy, and we know the time is not far off. Unto Thee
we give the glory in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
[Bro.
Vayle continues with the Communion service.]
[1] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
[2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
[3] Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
[4] Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by out gathering together unto him.
[5] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: