STEWARDSHIP
#14
Munificent, Magnificent God
Required Purity of the Word
Bro. Lee Vayle
Heavenly Father, we welcome
Your Presence this morning, and, as we said previously concerning marriage,
that love was one of respect, we realize as Bro. Branham dedicated his
tabernacle renewed, rebuilt with greater structure, that he admonished the
people to come with great respect. And we trust this morning, Lord, that we
have great respect for You; that we understand; that we know, in full accord
with the marriage vows, the bonds, the invisible union of Christ and the Bride
this morning and totally respect You.
And we know that that
respect comes by the revelation of the Word, which we know You are Christ that
Word. So help us to be very respectful this morning, to be absolutely one with
that Word, to have no parting of our ways, but adamantly joined in that union,
that there is no separation, neither as Paul said, “Neither life nor death.”
Not in this life, and not death down the road. There is no separation. There is
no way we’re separated from the Holy Spirit, for which we’re very grateful. May
we realize that at all times as we proceed in our life, and even proceed in
this Message. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
1. Now last night, you noticed that we went very heavily into
gnosticism; and there’s, of course, a great purpose behind that. And that’s so
that we get our eyes off everything but the fact of the Bride of Christ, the
original Church, was deceived into sin even as Eve was; and the seed was
planted in there so that there is an intertwining even as there is an
intertwining of flesh of animal and man that came from the garden. And you
cannot actually separate it. You know it’s there. Science has proven it. But
there isn’t one person can tell by the flesh, even if it was thoroughly
analyzed and examined by the minutest of methods, the most intensive methods
that man could ever accomplish. But it has to do with the foreknowledge,
election and predestination of God. And only God knows them which are His,
particularly evident at this end hour. The foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal, the Lord knows them which are His. And of course that seal
goes beyond the knowledge of God simply knowing. It goes [from foreknowledge]
to the [time] that we’re sealed in by the Holy Ghost [and then into eternity].
2. So you don’t bother looking at the Jew. They turned down
God. “He that hath not the Son hath not the Father.” So, don’t look at him and
worry about Rothschild, who said, “I don’t care who makes the laws, as long as
I can make the money.” Or Brandeis, that McVeigh quoted when he said the nation
must be leader, and the nation, the government educates the people. What Mr.
McVeigh also thought, forgot, or didn’t read was that Brandeis was the one that
said that the Supreme Court must no longer adjudicate. It must now legislate.
3. Forget the fact that most of the heads of the federal boards
of our finances, Federal Reserve, have been Jews. Forget all those things,
those Wall Street Jews that Bro. Branham excoriated. Forget all that. The Jews
aren’t even counted. They’re peripheral, until Jesus Christ comes back.
Forget about the Muslims,
Mohammedans, and all those people there. They have not the Son; they have not
the Father. So therefore, no matter what they say… You look at Ishmael; when do
you find a blessing upon Ishmael? He was peremptorily [banished] as an
Egyptian, even though he was Abraham’s son. But look from whence he came. It
was only by Sarah the son was to come.
You go down the road
further and what do you find about Esau? Well, Esau was simply blessed
temporally. There was no Heavenly blessing in there. And though he sought the
birthright continually with tears, it didn’t do him any good.
4. So, what I’m trying to show you is this: you are dealing
with Christianity. You are dealing with Jehovah Elohim. You are dealing with
the chosen people. And in there Satan injects himself; and the people become
animalistic, until at the very end time, It simply says concerning them, that
they are natural brute beasts and animals made to be taken and destroyed. As
Bro. Branham said, they are ‘cannon
fodder’.
5. So what you do is to get your eyes on what Bro. Branham said.
Forget communism; forget the Jews; forget the Mohammedans; forget everything
but the fact the church,
And the old crawdad says,
“Well, I’ve had enough of this. I’m going back.”
And the crab says, “I don’t
like this” and he sidles back; and the lobster goes back. And all of those
things go back. But the fish remain in the net. They are the children of
Almighty God.
6. So what you begin to see then is ‘What happened?’ What
happened? as Bro. Branham taught from the book, how did it all happen; how did
it happen? It happened by the fact that people, given an office--and they were
the elders, given an office--they [were] allowed to preach, and the error came
in. They vaunted themselves by reason of the fact of an office and ministry.
They took upon themselves to advance from where God put them and become what
God had not wanted them to be. Now they are in complete conflict with God.
That’s exactly why you have a conflict at the end time. And that’s why even
after the White Throne, the Judgment, Satan comes back with all the people in
conflict with God and tries to destroy the Holy Encampment, and God destroys
them.
7. And that’s what I want you to get from last night. And I’m
epitomizing it this morning. Don’t you forget it, because that’s what it is.
Politics don’t mean a thing. Forget it. What the Jews do doesn’t mean a thing.
Forget it. It’s all out there. It’s there. Forget about the Cabal. Forget about
the Protocols of the Elders of
What you’re looking at is
gnosticism. And you see it epitomized in the Mormon church [that started in
8. Until now, Christianity is loaded with nothing but insults
toward God--fightings toward God. And the Bible tells us the end time and this
Message, they’ll even deny the very Lord that bought them and say no to Him.
And they’ve done it. They’ve turned to their own ways. So that’s what I was
bringing out last night, and I hope you never forget it. I could preach another
hour on it, but that’s not my point this morning.
9. What I want to look at now, just simplistically, is the
question of “What exactly is the baptism?” “What exactly is the rebirth?” The
rebirth is nothing more or less than the baptism with the Holy Ghost. And what
does the baptism with the Holy Ghost produce? Well, I’ll tell you what it
produced. It produced in Paul, and he said, “Everything I ever had, my status,
everything I was ever positioned in, as in the tribe of
10. And then he said to the rest of them, who didn’t understand,
“If you are really born again, you will take what I say, because it’s the
literal Word of God, and superimpose It upon everything you ever believed.” In
other words you will renew your mind. You’ll black out entirely all the old
[religion] that you had. You’ll be one with the Word of the Living God
delivered by a Prophet.
11. Now that’s where we’re talking about a rebirth. Are you born
again? Well, you can know right this morning. You can know right this minute.
If you’re rising against the Word of God in any form, which is the passive
faith of doctrine, you’re not born again. And if you’re fighting doing the
things that God wants you to do in the Word, which is your active faith, you’re
not born again.
12. So, as Bro. Branham said, come and receive the Token. Get
before God, and ask for the true Holy Ghost baptism, not some pseudo-thing, but
the truth, and you will line with this Word. You cannot help it, because you’re
part of the Word.
You show me where a cow
cell, by a bull and a cow, developing a calf, does not align itself perfectly
with the life, because it’s in there. How are you and I going to say we’re born
again and come against this vindicated Word of God and say, “Well, I don’t care
what Bro. Branham said. Well, I’ve got my own idea. Well, Bro. Vayle, I’ve had
this experience, and I [believe I have the right to believe it my way].”
I showed you last night
what came into my life. If I’d have pushed it, I could’ve gone... God knows
where I could have gone. Right in a path of horror, by learning a key like
Balaam, moving into a genuine gift. Oh, don’t doubt it’s a genuine gift; don’t
doubt it. But it ends up serving the devil.
13. I don’t know if you’re catching all the things I’m saying. I
[suppose I shouldn’t] expect you to, but I sure hope you get part of it.
Because I don’t stand up here, deliver my soul, and open every inch of my soul
and my mind and my body for any other reason than to tell you what is the
truth. Because [listen], I can quit tonight, by tonight, never come back again,
and never tell one more thing, and live my life as a recluse, or some reclusive
area. But I do it for one reason, whether it brings ridicule, that’s fine by
me. Go ahead and ridicule. That’s your privilege. You do what you want, but I’m
telling you, telling you what this Word is all about, and why I preach what I
do [and according to Bro. Branham].
14. All right now. We’re into “Stewardship” this morning, and I’m
simply going to read, because I’ve got a lot to cover, and I hope I can do it. We
have already read many Scriptures on the series we’ve taken concerning
stewardship, especially in the gospels, which we read to you, and showed you
the parables. And we found that the position of a steward was one not only of
honor, but one that involved great responsibility. He was responsible for what
happened [to] what he was given. And remember, he was only chosen, because the
master could see he had the [capabilities] of being one who would be
responsible for what the master gave him. He didn’t just shake a little old
dice and say, “Eenie, meenie, minie, mo. Let’s see if we can find something
here to work on.” He looked, he scrutinized, and he said, “I’m watching.” You
think that Pharaoh took Joseph haphazardly? Why, he knew that Joseph had a
vision. He knew that he was a prophet. He said, “Joseph, come on, I’m going to
use you.”
You think Nebuchadnezzar
gave Daniel [great responsibility] because he heard little things about Daniel
being [a popular] boy that led the parties? No! He said, “That man’s going to
[advise] me. I know him. [I understand. He has great insights.]”
God gave responsible gifts
to responsible people, and they’re responsible [for them]. And you and I are
responsible, and we have everything needed to bring forth what God wants. So
let’s [understand that].
15. Now, the steward was not required to provide any part of the
wealth. It’s a gift, as it were, which he administered for his employer. But he
was bound to be responsible for it. In a case of neglect or wrong judgment,
wherein he lost the employer’s assets, he could be dismissed and even pay for
the loss by restoring what he lost, or squandered, or even be punished by
imprisonment, which length of imprisonment would depend on how much he lost, or
on the actual will of his employer.
You saw that in the
parables. In some cases he might be forgiven, and then there’d be no repayment
required of him. There are many things in life we do that we actually don’t
reap for in the sense that there is a net product in there, but there’s tremendous
embarrassment and shame to know and be held up: failed; when we could not have
failed, because we could have done better.
He was a trusted person,
and it was expected of him to do his best. His personal input was
responsibility. So therefore, he acted very wisely--very slowly.
16. Now in the majority, if not all of the Gospel narratives, we
find that each parable is addressing us all as stewards of the grace of God and
as stewards of the gifts of God. Which, as Paul said, if you’ve got this from God
and you didn’t have it in the first place, don’t you boast as though you’re
anything [or boast as if you’d produced them on your own through some innate
talent].
17. Now these parables are based on Gen 1:26-31, and that means
that we see where God made Adam and Eve responsible to Him, gave them control
over everything, of which they had produced nothing, and they find themselves
in the literal
18. So we have a very [intense] situation here. That’s in Gen
1:26-31. Herein we find a total disregard for the Creator, Who is Adam and
Eve’s master employer. For He was not only their Creator, and Father, He was
their Master Employer. This is why you’ll always find in the Bible, “Blessed be
the God and Father.” No, blessed be God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Notice, God is placed above Fatherhood. Just because he had God as his
Father, did not make him above God, and responsible as though God were some
doty grandfather, as Bro. Branham said. So always watch your Scripture: blessed
be ‘the God and Father’, responsibility, of our Lord Jesus Christ.
19. So, as to their Creator, He was their Master Employer, Who,
when he rightfully and authoritatively demanded their stewardship of the entire
earth--and it’s a promise, too--and its furnishings, be governed according to
successful guidelines that were amply explained and demonstrated, they
disregarded those rules and bankrupted God’s kingdom on earth, and the devil
took over. And for these six thousand years Abraham’s seed, or Adam’s seed, has
been in bondage and can only come out of the pesthouse prison at the first
Resurrection, of which there are two parts.
And there’s a great mystery
there, because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Patriarchs, the beloved of God of
the Old Testament are already in a glorified form. Where are they? Who knows
and whose [business is it]? It’s already been done. [Their in a dimension of
God’s doings.] [ ] So if you’re a resurrected being like Jesus…
Well, He ate a fish sandwich.
You know, for a while I
thought Bro. Branham just sort of threw that in until I read it myself. I had
forgotten I’d read it. And the old song said, “bread and fish upon the fire,
come and dine”. He ate a fish sandwich. Now why would a glorified man eat a
fish sandwich? Hmm, hmm, hmm. Now I’m doing this on purpose, [baiting] to get
you to understand and say, “That’s none of our business;” “none of my
business.” Let’s get with the Word of God, and get to the Word that God gave to
us, and where there’s a performance thereof.
20. Now, this morning the message is going to be very scathing.
And it’s not because I’m a [role model]. And it’s not because I lived it. It’s
going to be tough on all of us, because It is the Word of God. And I am not
going to pull my punches on the Word of God, because I have disobeyed many,
many times, and not been a good example. We cannot afford at this late hour to
jeopardize our lives by not having this absolute the strongest, strictest,
truest teaching possible on the Word of the Living God, and then see if we can
bring ourselves under that Word, to live that Word, to try, to do...and
remember, we can, if we really want to. It’s just, are we going to go with the
world the way Eve started it, or are we going to stay with Almighty God. That’s
the question, and we’re going to look at it this morning.
21. Now there’s another parable we looked at, and it’s in Isa
5:1-7. And I’m going to read it to you, because this is a “Jeremiad”, as it
were, God weeping because of a certain condition. And it’s very early in the
Book of Isaiah, which is a tremendous Book revealing the full plan and all of
God. Now he says here:
1 ...I will sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved
touching his
vineyard. (So this is, as
it were, in this hour, Jesus Christ and His Bride, if you wish to make that
illustration. Although actually, this is God,
Jehovah and the Bride, the Old Testament,
1 ...My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted
it with choicest vine and
built a tower in the midst of it, also made a
winepress therein: and he
looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild
grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of
you, betwixt me and my
vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have
not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild
grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will
take away the hedge
thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down
the walls thereof, and it
shall be trodden down, (and laid waste, and so
on).
There is a perfect picture
of stewardship [wherein]
You notice they made a
little de facto elimination of Baal
and his followers by killing four hundred priests. But if there was only seven
thousand that hadn’t bowed the knee, out of millions, the killing of four
hundred priests didn’t do much good, because [idolatry] was [not] taken out of
the hearts of the people. Because in there was something crying for a
leadership that was not of God, and believe me, the devil will always satisfy
it. In fact, if you and I get a little bit intimidated by obeying God, if we
get our feathers ruffled, and we want an easy way, Satan will come right
around, and in no time at all, he’ll make sure that [we] get [our] easy way.
And then you watch, there’ll be a price to pay, because God doesn’t forsake His
own. [He turns them around by chastisement.]
Paul the apostle said, “I
am persuaded,” he said “that God is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto
Him against that day”--fully persuaded that God would do it. Jesus said--and
this is what Paul based it upon--“Of my sheep, I’ll lose none.”
[We’ll] get there, but in
what condition will [we] get there in?
22. Now having read these verses, it’s not difficult to detect
that the same Spirit that was in Isaiah at the time of
23. Now my major thought on the subject that we are considering is
this: the indescribably munificent, magnificent gift of God. It’s ‘munificent’,
and it’s ‘magnificent’. ‘Munificent’ means there’s a lot of [value] involved;
there’s a lot of goodness involved; there’s a lot of prestige, everything that
man wants--’munificent’.
And ‘magnificent’. He
doesn’t give you a bunch of currency like they had in
The indescribably
munificent, magnificent gift of God’s grace, in whatever form that grace comes,
cannot be scorned or despised by man, without the severity of God’s responding
judgment. In other words, if you turn it down, what have you got left? You’ve
got the devil’s empty, hollow word that destroys you. And yet it’s based upon
what God said, because the devil does not have a word of his own. Come on,
let’s find the Garden of Eden. God gave them life, and He promised them life.
And He said, “Death is there, watch it.”
And the devil came right in
using God’s Word, and he said, “Ahh, come on now, don’t let God [scare] you.
You’re not going to die.” He based his promise on the Word of God, and his
promise was fallacious, because he cannot keep a promise. Why? Because he’s a
liar! And even Abraham Lincoln said there’s no man smart enough to be a liar.
Why? Because he forgets. And he can’t adapt his lie to every single situation.
How many of you ever got caught as a kid in a lie? I did. My
God, I was like a chameleon. I had more colors than God ever gave a chameleon.
[ ]
24. Now grace is unmerited favor, as Paul says, the “free gift”.
And the free gift, or grace, is always unto life. The word of Satan is unto
bondage and destruction, and what he leads people to do about the Word of God
always fetters them and brings them low. That’s why you get these spirits as
the Bible said, they’re peeping and muttering out of the dust. That’s where
they belong--under our feet. And we’re still [foolish]. We stoop to what’s
under our feet. Paul said he buried it as an unsanitary thing. The Bible says,
“All tables are full of vomit.” Oh, how tasty. That’s great. Really, I just
love vomit. Do you know what vomit is? Secondhand word chewed up and spewed
out. The [devil spoiling] God’s great grace and His Manna.
25. It’s always unto life, never changing, never ceasing. It is,
as Paul said in Rom
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not
imputed when there is no
law...)
And that’s true, and we
don’t have any law. We’re entirely under grace. We’re not judged by law. No
way, shape and form. Do you know what we’re judged by? We’re judged by grace, which is the unmerited
favor of Almighty God, positioning us and giving us gifts along with
responsibility to mature into manifested sons of God and take our place in the
economy of Almighty God. And listen, that’s what it’s all about. That’s
freedom. That’s life. That’s love. There’s no law, so there’s no sin. But what
is it? It’s the fact of a person not living within the grace and redemptive
life of Almighty God, and therefore he’s not producing his highest.
26. Now look. You put a seed in the ground that’s properly
fertilized. And that seed has all the elements of the original life that God
gave it, and the original soil is all there, and the sun and the rain come down
upon it. You will get a harvest that the worms and the bugs do not eat, because
a healthy plant is not attacked by a bug or an element. Bro. Branham said that.
27. So here we are. What is it? We don’t produce, because we
simply don’t want to produce, and simply say no to the grace of Almighty God,
and not knowing a fortune lies at our fingertips. How many times did Dr. Williamson out of
28. Let [us admit we’ve] got a freedom today, and a love of God,
and something in [our] souls that I could never ever have had, except [we were]
dedicated to God--”Live, die, sink, swim.” [We] will not turn back! [As for me]
I’m a very casual type of person, to think, well, ‘a bird in the hand is worth
two in the bush’, because I’ve got this thing now, like Eve said, and maybe I
won’t get what God said down the road, so at least I’ve got this, let’s have a
great time. Forget it. Anything I ever gave up I found wasn’t worth giving up,
wasn’t worth having, rather. But everything I found from God, though maybe at
many times I disesteemed it, it turned out great.
29. It says in verse 15, “But not as the offence, so also is the
free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace
of God, (notice, far greater, never to be compared) the gift of grace...by one
man...” and so on.
So you see here right now,
there’s nothing in life that we confront--there is nothing at all in our
bodies, or nothing in our minds, [definitely] nothing anywhere--that preempts
the grace of God, or stands and says, “Look, the grace of God cannot overcome”
[That’s] because this is all a free gift. [We] have it. [We] can do it.
30. That’s what kept
And they saw the
inhabitants of the land. “Oh, my, oh my, we can’t do this. Oh my, we can’t have
it. Oh my, this can’t be done. Oh, my!” They went into a negative confession
[that ended in heart failure]. They never said what God said. And they died.
They wandered and wandered, and God was angry. Do you know why God was angry?
Well, wouldn’t you be? [I know from experience a little bit about that.] I was
angry--very angry, very angry. So I know a little bit what God feels like.
[Just] be nice. [But that doesn’t take the place of obedience. To be ‘obedient’
we confess His Word and stand on It and with It.] [ ]
[ ] By your words you’re
justified; by your words you’re condemned. There’s only one Word that justifies
anybody, that’s the Word of God. And that’s the positive confession. Everything
else is negative. Remember, the devil does not have a word of his own. [ ] I
can prove by the Bible. The devil does not have a word of his own; [he only
takes God’s Own Word and changes It.]
It was God Himself who
confused the languages, the devil never gave the languages. It’s the devil who
takes words and makes them rotten and mean and nasty. It’s the devil that gives
wrong meanings all the time. God is the true etymologist. Satan’s just the
[filthy] etymologist today, because he will take language and destroy it. And
“when language has lost its meaning, there’s nothing left.” Michener said that.
Brilliant man, where he got his philosophy, God only knows. He must’ve had
something from God on that one.
31. Now, as Paul says in Romans, we see the setting for grace. In
spite of everything there is [this] grace of Almighty God. Thus we see that the
gifts of God, of grace, are given to us eternally. Now you can see that by
reading 1 Corinthians 3, where how we build upon the foundation of God, the
gold, silver, and precious jewels, which is New Jerusalem, how we’re laying up,
is eternal. So all these graces that are given us by gifts and ministries are
[without repentance].
It’s just like that
mystical body Bro. Branham speaks of in 2 Corinthians 5, we have a house
eternal in the heavens. I can’t figure it. I’ve tried to, and I’ve got my
explanation to a degree, but I can’t do it. I just leave it sit there. It’s one
of the mysteries. It’s a thing that Jesus had, and we had, but we bypassed, and
we’ll yet get it. I don’t understand it, but it’s there.
32. So the things of God are eternal, when He says they are, and
these things now assume the place of eternality, because the gifts that we have
were resident and are a part of the energies of the Holy Spirit. And in the
proper vessel, those gifts will remain forever; and even at the end of time,
there is no indictment against the gift of prophecy and healing and miracles,
and the gifts of God by grace, even on the devil’s people. The judgment is upon
the people who use them, because they used what was not theirs to be used as
they used it.
33. Now having read these verses and seeing a little of the grace
of God, let us see in the Scripture where grace was frustrated even by the
people, very fine people, even exactly it was Peter. And you’ll find that in
Gal 2:11-21 where Peter set aside the revelation, the true revelation of the
Son of God and the great mystery of grace. The great sermons he preached on
“Christ the Saviour”, and turned around and wanted to inject circumcision as a
part of grace. Now where did it leave the woman? It left her where most people
want her: as nothing but a chattel. And without man, she is nothing.
I’ve got news for every
woman. Bro. Branham said on a tape--I’m quoting Jack Bell, because he found it,
where Bro. Branham said--there’d be more women in Heaven than men. I don’t
understand it; I’m not even going to try. I am more than slightly insulted, to
a degree. [ ] No, I’m not really insulted. I’m puzzled. I’m puzzled, because
Adam and Eve started [as] one; but he said there’ll be more. I don’t understand
it. It’s not a Mormon doctrine, either, nor is it a Mohammedan doctrine, which
in themselves are pure licentious, filthy, rotten, degraded misinterpretation
of [ ] Scripture.
34. So all right. Now notice carefully here, and we go back to
Galations 2, I have to, in verse 20 where Paul says:
20 I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but
Christ lives in me: and the
life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
(So that’s getting out of the way, as Bro. Branham said.)
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God:
Now he tells you
frustrating the grace of God is taking everything from God and then using it
your own way, instead of letting God, Who has delivered you from darkness to
light, use the very ministry and the gifts and the life He has given you, He
being the head, the Creator, the owner; you being the steward. You now,
stewards in your body, your body listening to [ ] your stewardship coming from
God, you listening to God. And he said, “I don’t frustrate the grace of God by
acting independently.” Doesn’t say ‘destroyed’; he ‘frustrates’ it. In other
words, if grace is a free gift, and everything lies therein of the gifts and
the energies and the power of Almighty God, God Himself in you, how can we demand
headship away from God, when God alone knows what is required and how to
produce it? Now that doesn’t mean your mind becoming a blank. “Oh God, I’m
going to stand here now, my mind becomes a blank. Yes, I’m getting to be a
blank. Yes, I think nothing. Yes I know nothing.” It doesn’t work that way.
35. The renewing of the mind comes by the Word of God by the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost is within the Word of God, because the conduit of the
Holy Ghost is the Word of God. So therefore, only can we be enlightened, only
can we be guided, only can we do it as we have this Word of God hid in our
hearts. And not just hidden, but down there anointed to come forth, back to the
mind where we begin to make voluntary actions. In other words voluntarily
listen to God, through His Word, and begin to live the life that God wants via
that proper way, [which is instruction in righteousness, which, in turn, is
revealed Word.]
And there isn’t any other
way, my brother, my sister, to do that. I realize that there are such things as
where you don’t even draw a blank, you’re not even thinking, but suddenly
within your heart you know something. And that’s not ESP. Something really that
you know: this is something I should do. This is something [where] you check
the Word out, check your motive and then go down the road, and you’ll have the
blessing of God upon it.
36. So Paul, all the while being that perfect stature, statue of
God, living and moving as God wants him, as William Branham himself attained,
and you and I are admonished to attain to. He said, “All right, I won’t
frustrate the grace of God, because I know that my life, as a life, is His
life, and the victory and the glory and the power and the crowns and the future
depends a hundred percent upon God, even as I depend upon Him now for my
salvation and justifying me. God, you’ve justified me. Now here’s my life, live
it. I’m your steward. I’m responsible. I want to see it done [your way].”
37 Now, ‘to frustrate’ means ‘to set aside’, or ‘disesteem’, ‘to
neutralize or violate’, ‘to cast off’, ‘to despise’, ‘to reject’, ‘to bring to
nothing’. Now, if you want to read then the second chapter of the book of
Romans, you could do that, verses 1-11. We might look there. [ ]
1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art
that
judgest: for wherein thou
judgest another, thou condemnest thyself
for thou that judgest doest
the same things.
2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to
truth
against them which commit
such things.
3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do
such
things, and doest the same,
that thou shalt escape the judgment
of God?
In other words here are
people looking around, they say, “Well, I can do it, but you can’t. [I] know,
the Word says so, but you [see], I’ve got this freedom here. I’ll just go
ahead. I don’t feel any condemnation, bless God.”
Certainly not, because
you’re not a seed. These people, all the time pointing the finger. Like one
fellow says, “When I point a finger, I’ve got at least three pointing back at
me.” But how many people believe it? The point is for you, that’s not what counts.
But he says here, when you do such like that, you’re despising the riches of
God’s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing the goodness of
God’s leading you to repentance.
He said, “God’s trying to
show you something. Can’t you understand what you’re accusing somebody else of,
and you’re doing it yourself? God’s trying to show you that that’s not the way
to go. The way to go is in the perfect law of liberty, where God has His way in
your life and my life, and we’re all living for Christ. And brotherly love is
flourishing.” And remember, God will render to every man according to his
deeds. That’s nothing but Galatians. A man reaps what he sows. It’s nothing but
the same thing. You sow it; you reap it. [Except harvest is multiplied seed.]
38. And the tragic thing is this: we have not been taught, and we
are not teaching our children, and take them out and say, “Son/daughter, I’m
going to show you kids something. We are going to plant this grain of wheat
here. We’re going to watch it grow. We’re going to water it.”
Like I had on my place. I
go out there, and I was so happy. You know what? I don’t even know how the
wheat got there! And I look out there and I find it’s just a little grain of
wheat fell out here, a little grain of wheat fell there, a little grain of
wheat fell [in another place]. Now then, what happened? I’ll tell you what
happened, like a hailstorm comes. And if a hailstorm comes at the right time--now
anybody farming knows this, unless things have changed since I was a kid [ ].
Now let’s say I have sowed
wheat, and a hailstorm comes, and it knocks that wheat down when it’s just [so]
high. You know what happens? The farmer’ll say, [“Very good.”] Do you know why?
Because the wheat stools [out]. Now instead of one stalk, there could be two or
three stalks. Is that how it still goes, Gregg? [Gregg answers, “Yes.”] It
still goes. See? At first of life you got mowed down, you got kicked in the
teeth, oh that’s okay, Lord, hallelujah, we’ll set another stalk. Pretty soon
there’s three stalks there. So that way they’re in my yard, as far as I know I
had a bunch of them, maybe a sixth of them with three stalks. One grain brought
up three stalks, and on each little shoot up there at the top, there were I
would say, at least twenty berries. Oh, man! Twenty times three; sixty. I
didn’t even plant one. Nature did it. God did it.
39. Now see, if that’s planted in me, look what I can bear,
thirty, sixty, a hundred. In the same time you plant adversity by going against
the Word of God. Take your kids out and show them: “Look kids, if you lie,
it’ll come up maybe sixty times more than you ever thought. If you do this sin
and this thing here, look at this plant. This is what God said, “What you sow
you reap.” But remember what you sow! You don’t sow a nickel and get back a
nickel. With what measure you mete...You sow, you get many nickels back.”
I [told] you how it was. I said I’m determined
to trust God twenty percent on the gross, not ten percent any more. That’s over
thirty years ago. [ ]So, somehow I got two hundred dollars in my hand. I said,
“Okay, Lord, twenty [ ] to a preacher friend of mine; twenty [ ] to a dear
sweet widow who had just lost her husband.” In no time I got twenty,
twenty-dollar bills.
Now if I was going to make
greedy [people] out of you, I’d say, “Oh, you give a dollar and hallelujah,
I’ll get a vision, you’ll get a thousand dollars back.” I’m no Pentecostal
[delinquent], or some Pentecostal [money monger] up here. I’m telling you the
truth. With what measure you mete it’s measured to you. What you sew is what’s
measured back... [End of the first side of the first tape.]
...good or evil on the
premise of sowing and reaping. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. You sow to the flesh, you [reap] carnality [and, finally,] death. You sow
to God, what you get? You get a reward here and a reward thereafter.
40. Now, even oral gifts in the church are based on Paul’s, God
ordained, commandments. I better get that here, because I can’t always quote.
Gal 6:10: “As we have therefore opportunity, [to do] good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” So It tells you right
there, the gifts in the church are used to edify the body of Christ. Bro.
Branham used the gifts of the spirit in a remarkable way. Yet the Holy Spirit
hauled him up short and said, “You’re making a show of these things--making a
circus.” I couldn’t understand that, because I thought Bro. Branham was
wonderfully reverent. I didn’t see a side show. It impressed me: Here is God;
here’s the moving God.
I’ll tell you what it
[might have been]. It was not edifying the body of Christ! because he didn’t
take it right to the Word and say, “Now people, watch this.” And when he did,
which he had to do, he was then edifying the body of Christ, and he put the
church in order and gifts, and they said, “Get out of here Branham, or we’re
walking out.” Well, I’ll tell you what: he put the Bride in order. Listen--and
he warned, he said, “Never take these carnal things down here, when the heaven
is full of the real.” And remember, every carnal thing had its roots in
reality, because it was created by God. And carnality is simply meaning you’re
using it wrong instead of right. You can see from this sermon, the Bible’s
correct when It says, “what manner of people we ought to be.” And Bro. Branham
used that very phrase to my knowledge.
All right, you go then to 1
Corinthians 14 and so on down the line. And in Romans 12, go over and see where
gifts were used. And every time it was for edifying the body of Christ, the
household of God. But the people came running just to see a performance. Did
they understand that His discerning was Heb 4:12? No, they didn’t understand. They didn’t know
it, and they didn’t [want to]. Let’s face it.
41. Now, there is not one seed or born one who becomes a re-born
one, of the spirit, but is a servant like his master. See? A veritable
bond-slave, even as Jesus is, yet he’s in position of trust, as High Priest,
and guarding the Father’s throne. Do you think that Jesus is a usurper? Do you
think he’s anything but a trusted bond-slave? Do you think he’s anything but a
son? Anything but a steward? [ ] What is he within himself in the economy of
God which God has raised up and glorified? A steward. A man who possesses
something he didn’t have on his own but was given him by somebody else and
says, “Here’s what it is, use it.” And Bro. Branham brings that out when he
preached the message down there in Shreveport when he talked about the
Invisible Union and the manifestation of the sons of God, the Son of God
trained by a tutor, and he brings them back to the master; and the master says,
“Oh, you’ve done a tremendous job, this is indeed my son, bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh, mind of my mind.” And he said, “What better teacher than the
Holy Ghost.” And how does the Holy Ghost teach? By Words. And Paul said, “The
words that I give you are the commandments of God Himself.” The same as William
Branham. So there’s where we stand this morning, and there’s nothing you and I
can do about it except rejoice and be glad and take it and run the course of
life with it.
42. A bond-slave, yet taken from the ranks and given different
gifts for different offices and fully endowed and endued and fully responsible
for His services toward God. And all that responsibility is the original
purpose and commission of God to His own. And we can never change it as seen in
the words of the apostle Paul over here in 1 Cor
43. Now, we won’t go into the [content] and the truth of what
we’re looking at unless we go to Rom
44. All right, we have now opened the door very wide to go to 1
Cor 6:12, and here’s where we get into the [hard] part, because this is
something I have not lived. And this is something that you have not lived. And
this is something that nobody’s living. The question is: when are people going
to try to live it? This has to do with the human body. And we go then to 1 Cor
6:12 reading, as I read here, “All things are lawful, all things are not
expedient.” And we know that to be absolutely true. They’re lawful; they’re not
expedient; they’re there. We mustn’t do with them what we are not to do.
45. So in Genesis, the opening Book, where the seed is sown, we go
to Gen 3:8.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the
cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because (you see) I was naked; and I
hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, which I commanded thee that thou
shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Now you’ll notice, he
didn’t give a direct ‘Yes.’ He began hedging. But he said, “Lord,” he said,
“You gave her to me,” he said, “I did it. If she wasn’t there for the taking,
why’d You bother putting her there? Well she’s mine, isn’t she? I’ve got a
right.” Well, come on. Read your Bible. All the beasts had a mate--but not
Adam. Yet Adam had the life of humanity. So he simply took a rib out, put the
flesh on it, put the spirit, the soul in there, now she’s a perfect human being
just like he is. Now the animals don’t multiply by talking to each other or God
giving some special sign. They run by instinct, of course, which is in nature.
So now, he’s got a mate. So now, she’s messed up with the animal.
Your Pentecostals still
don’t believe this. They can’t.There’s no way. They’re naked, wretched,
miserable, blind, and they boast in their money. They hate God and they fight
Him, but they scream ‘they love Him’. Do you believe that? I’m telling you the
truth. I know what it’s all about. I wouldn’t be up here preaching, if I didn’t
know what it was about. See?
46. (13) “And the Lord said unto the woman, What is this that thou
hast done?”
Now, if this woman had
simply eaten a piece of fruit, why would God [ ] say, “What have you done?”
Well, you know what she did. This is not just confession that’s good for the
soul. This unravels a mystery. What really was [ ] this thing that she did
concerning this tree?--which never came out of the ground--because every tree
that comes out of the ground bears a fruit you can eat. [It] doesn’t kill you.
This tree could not have come out of the ground, because it kills you. What
kills you? Sin! Sin entered, and death by sin. Unbelief.
So now she does something
with what she has that is perfect that God gave her that she shouldn’t have
done. And he has done something with [what] God gave him, which is perfect, for
a good and right cause, a righteous cause, and he’s done something he shouldn’t
have done. Now you see, she comes before God. What is going on here? What do you think you can do with what I laid
[out] here? What do you think you’re doing? Tell me. Give me the story now. Let
me get a confession out of you. Third degree. Now, is she going to lie? He
doesn’t lie. He just says, “Well,” he said, “Now, You gave her to me, so all
right.” That ought to fix the case up. So, woman, what about you? You’re
involved, [so] tell me about it. And she said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I
did eat.” He completely seduced me. Tell me, what is immoral in eating an
apple, or an apricot, or a pear or a pineapple? [ ]
47. So she said, “What happened, this serpent here, got me to do with what You gave me, he completely demoralized me, made me immoral.” And that’s immorality, to take exactly what is right and use it against the intent and purpose. So you can take the truth and turn it into a lie! And you can take a truthful thing