CHRIST CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT AND IS VISIBLE AS THE WIFE OF THE LAMB

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2 CHRIST CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT AND IS VISIBLE AS THE WIFE OF THE LAMB Ben Howard

3 2011 All rights reserved. This Book cannot be sold, nor in any way be used for the soliciting of funds. Ben Howard Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A. Website Address: Address: God bless you To My wife Barbara, And to Sister Leah Farruggia, and Sister Virginia Hardwick For your faithfulness assisting in the preparation Of this book

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Unlike Eve, We Waited For The Voice of Authorization to Eat June 1, 2008 Dawsonville, Georgia He Came As a Thief in the Night February 15, 2009 Dawsonville, Georgia Two Parts to a Wedding: Ceremonial and Consummation April 5, 2009 Dawsonville, Georgia God s Foreknowledge in the Present Justifies His Predestination April 12, 2009 Glen Daniel, West Virginia He Has Made Of One Blood All Nations June 27, 2009 Mchacha, Mozambique Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, and God Gave the Increase As We Labored Together July 13, 2009 Chilanga, Zambia How Christ the Mighty Angel Takes On Flesh and Bones In This Last Day October 11, 2009 Dawsonville, Georgia Finding the Little Book within the Big Book October 25, 2009 p.m. Glen Daniel, West Virginia Reaching Forth Your Hand and Taking the Little Book October 25, 2009 a.m. Glen Daniel, West Virginia The Wife Is the Living Epistle A Landmark Message December 27, 2009 Dawsonville, Georgia How Jesus Disarmed Those That Were Armed With The Bible January 3, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia God s Redeemed Family January 10, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia

5 The Wife of Christ Receives Both Legs of the Coming Of The Lord: Remember the Feet! May 1, 2010 Glen Daniel, West Virginia What Kind Of A Sign Are You Looking For? May 2, 2010 Glen Daniel, West Virginia Something We All Need But Don t Have May 9, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia I Am Not A Whit Behind the Very Chiefest Apostles September 5, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia If You Receive another Jesus, another Spirit, or another Gospel It s Not This Word September 12, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia If The Foundation Be Destroyed What Can The Righteous Do? October 3, 2010 Dawsonville, Georgia Reaching the End Time and the Fullness of Christ February 6, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia My Gospel Becomes Our Gospel March 20, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia The Last Trump Message Is Delivered By The Wife of the Lamb May 6, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia Recognizing It s The Lord Himself Taking His Wife May 22, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia The Seal Stamped On Your Passport Authorizes You To Pass the Guards: The Gate Keepers To The The Tree Of Life July 3, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia All That Ever Said Christ Has Already Come Before This Are Thieves and Robbers July 30, 2011 Glen Daniel, West Virginia I Supposed They Would Have Understood But They Understood Not July 31, 2011 Glen Daniel, West Virginia

6 A Perfect Couple with a Perfect Marriage Made In Heaven And Expressed In the Earth December 4, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia The Galilean and the Revelation Chapter Ten Coming Of the Lord December 11, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia The Final Joining Of Christ to the Engaged Bride/Wife December 25, 2011 Dawsonville, Georgia God Gave It All to the Wife of His Son January 1, 2012 Dawsonville, Georgia Prophesying Again Before Paul s Projected Prophecy Comes To Pass: Beyond The Prophesying Unto Nations March 11, 2012 Dawsonville, Georgia

7 UNLIKE EVE, WE WAITED FOR THE THE VOICE OF AUTHORIZATION TO EAT I want to speak on the subject, Unlike Eve, We Waited for the Voice of Authorization to Eat. You ll find when we look at this, the tree of life and the little book as it relates to the bride of Jesus Christ is basically the same. The book that was sealed with seven seals is seen by John as having to do with the church ages in this particular scene. Although the bloody Lamb here means He paid the sin debt for all God s creation. The seven horns and the seven eyes on the Lamb that took the book in Chapter 5 of Revelation shows something that will benefit His wife. It is showing the ending of the church ages. Notice, the little book was sealed with seven seals; and it is for the bride of Christ. We ll be dealing with that in this message, and I also want to deal with the tree of life that was set in the Garden of Eden and show that there was also another tree that was more visible and more assessable and could be approached from the physical standpoint. God said not to eat of this tree; but there was someone there saying, eat this. Note here, that there was nothing said concerning the eating of the tree of life at this time, because that would have been later in God s plan. But standing here in the garden was the serpent saying, Eat this. Now there was an opportunity to present temptation to eat of the tree of knowledge without the tree of life being involved. That has been the picture all the way through, and even up to where we re at today. Especially coming up to the time where we have taken the book and began to eat. There has been a voice that God allowed and it has been more visible, more excitable, and looks like it would be the right voice, rather than waiting on God to tell us to eat. That s the way it s been in this hour. But there had to be somebody to say, No, I m going to wait to take the book. I don t have all the answers on everything; but I m going to stay the course until I see clearer. Because there have been times when we were looking through a glass darkly, and we could only feel our way. The Word says to feel after the Lord. It also says to follow on to know the Lord. That s the way the walk has been in this generation as God began to restore back the Word. Each and every time God was bringing life or giving an opportunity to eat from the book, there was also a counterpart that was more exciting to the human realm and more enticing with a louder voice saying, Come and eat with us. There has always been the other side as God is giving life. That s God s way of testing. Everything that comes into His kingdom He tries. Somewhere we all come through trials and testing to get where God wants us. Yet we ve got our eye on the prize, and we keep going towards

8 2 that regardless of what it looks like otherwise. That s the way it s been with this particular part of the Word of God that we ve been preaching here. There s been a counterpart that looks much better when looking from the natural eye. The speakers have seemed to be more eloquent in some ways, depending on whether you re looking at it in the natural or spiritual. I think an eloquent speaker is one that speaks the Word of God. But we waited, and we ve come into something. We re past the point where the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10, raised His hand to heaven and sware that time is no more. We re past the point where eating of the little book is only done as the ministry feeds it to you. There was a time when it was said, and there was probably a lot of truth to the statement, that you re probably not going to get any revelation until the preacher gets it and preaches it. That s not so now, because as we re baptized into the body of Christ, we all eat the little book, and the body prophesies. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. We all receive of the Lord. Once this takes place and we have begun eating, then the enticement of the other side begins to vanish away. That s because you are in Christ and you can no longer be tossed to and fro. You cannot be lost. You cannot be deceived. Once you eat the little book, once you take it in your hands, there s no way for you to be deceived or tossed to and fro. There s where we ve come. Unlike Eve, who decided, This isn t going like I think it ought to, or I think there ought to be more going on than what is, or look over here, they ve got this and it s working there. They ll say, Look how good everything is working over there. Can this here be God when it s a constant struggle? Well, let us look at Paul. He went up to Jerusalem in Chapter 21 of Acts. He had been in Asia and different places. It s true that he had some large crowds at times to preach to, but at other times he said, No man stood with me, only the Lord. There was a few of the ministers that he thought highly of, but he said, They have forsaken me. One time he said, Only Luke is with me. Then when he went up to Jerusalem, James came out and said, Brother, you see how many thousands there are that believe (in Jesus) and they are very zealous of the law. Paul s presence there started an uproar and they were about to tear Paul apart, but the soldiers came in and rescued him and put him in prison. Then his ministry went into another phase. It didn t end. That s where we get some of these good books like Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, where he tells us, You are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Many of these wonderful things were laid in there, not particularly for them at that time because the church had already began to fall away, but God laid it in there for us. Let s pray before going to the scripture. Heavenly Father, as we ve got your Bible, thy Book, thy Word, open before us, I pray God, that you will anoint us as we read and that you will grant us grace to speak the words you would have us

9 UNLIKE EVE, WE WAITED... 3 speak this morning. I pray that the words as they go forth will find a lodging place in the hearts of the people and they ll, as one said, prosper where you send, and bless, and accomplish that which you ve ordained. I pray, God, for that anointing not only upon myself; but upon the hearers. We ask it in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now reading in Genesis, Chapter 2:8-9, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice this part that says grows out of the ground. This is talking about physical fruit. Then He goes into another realm, which is spirit. Notice the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. The strange thing about this is that it never was authorized for them to eat of the tree of life, but there would come a time when it would be. At that time the tree of life had to do with the reproduction of the human race, bringing forth children as God would give the revelation of the right time for Adam and Eve to come together. We know that they failed to wait for instructions as God foresaw they would, and that s why He made provision. That s why Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. Do you see that? God knew what would take place. The tree of life was there; but God never did say, Go, eat of the tree of life. The Voice of Authorization hadn t come to Eve yet, but it would. It would have been by the law in her body to bring forth. The two trees of Eden were two laws of Eden; but the tree of life never was eaten from in its original form, because Eve couldn t wait for instructions. Instead they ate of the tree of knowledge and not the tree of life. Then God removed it and took it away so that it could not be eaten in that form. God said, Lest you eat and live forever. It could not be eaten in that form; but God s plan hadn t finished yet. His plan was still going and He knew exactly what He was going to do. That Voice of Authorization is in Revelation, Chapter 10 where it says, Go and take the little book. Eve never did get that, because she couldn t wait. There are people today that didn t get that, because they couldn t wait for God s time to take the little book; but formulated their own plan. There was a time in the Bible that s called the kingdom of heaven age, and it has to do with the seven church ages. During that time God specifically permitted certain things to take place, because He knew the tree of life wasn t available in this form. They hadn t been told to take complete possession of it. So He permitted certain things to take place until it ran its course of seven church ages. He said to even let the wheat and tares both grow together. The Bible says to let them all grow together and God would separate them at the end time, and that end time has already come. It s already separated. God has already given us the little book and we re eating and we re not under that church age law anymore, but some couldn t wait.

10 4 Sometimes God lets a trial or a test be there. The serpent had some Word, for he said, Yeah, hath God said. The serpent told Eve, You don t have to wait on God. He told Eve to look at nature and said, You don t have to wait on God. I will show you how to have a child without waiting on God. He persuaded Eve, and she couldn t wait. That is typical of the church (foolish virgins) today, they couldn t wait. They have to get out there and do something themselves rather than come in and wait upon the Lord. The Bible says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they ll mount up with wings as eagles; they ll run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint, (Isaiah 40:31) because they waited. We have waited until we could see the way. The wife has the Word that s brought back again in this hour with the same Jesus, the same power, the same Spirit. Christ and the bride (wife) totally united in marriage. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. So, the tree of life was in the garden and also the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said concerning the tree of knowledge, The day you eat thereof, that day you ll surely die. But I want you to notice the tree of knowledge was good and evil. It is good if you wait till the time. They say it takes time to make good wine. Sometimes you just have to wait on the Lord until He tells you what to do. It wasn t that the tree of knowledge was so bad itself, but it was the usage of the tree. It definitely could produce good, but outside of God s original ordained way it would be evil. It s the same thing today. All the way through there has been another side to this thing. Even as Israel came through the land, the other nations looked good out there. Everything looked so flowery and so good. It was said of the children of Israel that they were just a little, beat down people, but God said He didn t choose them because they were the greatest; He took the smallest number and did it. They were a little rag-tag bunch; but they had the will of God, the Word of God. They had a prophet of God. Of all the groups in the world, and of all the nations in the world, God only sent one nation a prophet. Think about that. Of all the groups and religious systems in the world, God only sent a prophet at that time to the nation of Israel. God sent Moses and said, Go, bring my people out. That s what God is interested in, bringing His people out. Of all the great religious systems, with all their money and finery, with all their systems and assemblies, here came a prophet to a little place in Jeffersonville, Indiana USA. Everybody was in their big air-conditioned places, and here came a man in a little wooden building with no air-conditioning and a wood heater, and when he got through preaching, they just sat around talking about the Word and asking questions. This was a man that God used. He laid hands on the sick and they got well. He had discernment, and yet, there he was in that little place. Others said, Come and join up with us. See, that s what was in the garden. God s law says, There s the

11 UNLIKE EVE, WE WAITED... 5 tree of life sitting here that God wants to give you in His own time, and if you eat it, you will live forever and not die. But the ole serpent said, You re not going to die, you don t have to wait, I ve got another plan. I can send you all over the world. You won t have to worry about paying bills. That s the other side. But trust in God, He will bring you out. Trust in Him, He will show you the way. Trust in Him, He will give you that little book. But on the other side, He s going to let enough things come along so that it will be kind of enticing to go the other way. He lets our human side show. He ll let faults and failures be highlighted so that you ll say, I thought that was God and I felt like it was and I felt good; but I m seeing this thing isn t running as good as I thought it was going to run. Have you got a revelation? There s the tree of life sitting there. God just hasn t said to eat it yet, to take possession of it yet. But Eve said, I m not waiting. Not to long ago, somebody told me that we needed to get the show on the road. In other words, don t fool around and preach little messages to a handful of people. When we were over in one of the African countries on one of our trips, there was this preacher that was having meetings and had gathered in maybe 800 to 1000 people. He said to me, Ben, don t waste your time and money coming to Africa and going to small groups out here. We can guarantee you 10,000 people if you ll come through us and plan it with us. You re going out to those small villages and preaching. You don t have to do that. It s a great waste. To whom was it a waste? It s not a waste. It s right to go where God leads you. Someone could have looked at Philip leaving that big revival in Chapter 8 of the Book of Acts. There were hundreds, whole cities coming out. Devils came out crying with loud voices. People were being delivered. All of a sudden an angel came and messed up his program. God sent an angel and said to Philip, Arise and go down into the desert. There s a man down there who is a eunuch and he is riding in a chariot. Philip could have said, Now, wait a minute, Lord. Are you sure? Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. Am I hearing right? Here are thousands of people and you want me to leave this big meeting and go down there to one person. Lord, that can t be right. And the Lord said, Go. Philip went down and got one converted and he went on his way rejoicing. To vindicate that God was with him Philip was caught up by the Spirit of the Lord and set over in another town. God lets certain things come that looks good. Therefore, we ve all had to walk the straight line, and we ve gotten to the place where He has given us the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10. When we look at Ephesians, Chapter 4, it says you ll reach the perfect stature of the man Christ Jesus; and at that time you ll no longer be tossed to and fro. It s over with, your battle is won, as far as being pulled this way or pulled that way by religious groups, or by big meetings, or by socalled preachers. Put it in the Word, and if it s in the Word, it doesn t

12 6 matter if it s 2 or 200, or 200 thousand. If it s the Word, go with that. If God wants you out here on the desert alone for awhile, then you go on. People say, Well, I believe if it was God that there would be more people, and more of this and more of that. God is going to put something over here with more people, more spirit, more shouting, more talking in tongues, so that you can say, Okay, there it is. One time, my wife Barbara asked this man about baptism and he said, We ll do it whichever way you want, and if you don t want to be baptized then that s all right too. But if you do, then we ll do it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or the name of Jesus, whichever one you want. Look what a crowd we ve got. Look what s taking place. She said, Thank you, but no thanks. That s the way this thing is. There s always the other side pulling, but we ve come through all these things. On the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost, God let the brethren of Jesus Christ eat their portion from the tree of life. There was life there; but they never did take full possession of it because they weren t to be the Gentile wife that is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, as He is the husband and she is the wife, whereas the Jews are His brothers. God did give them life as well as all of His predestinated children. But there is a specific gospel that is for the bride. This specific gospel was put in Paul. Paul said, I am the minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, and unto me is committed this gospel. He said, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body s sake, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24) The thing is that God revealed certain things to him about the Gentiles. Read Chapter 15 of Romans. It says Christ came to the covenant people (Israel) and as a minister to them. Paul was explaining why Jesus came to the Nation of Israel and offered Himself. But then, he went right from that and began to quote scriptures that related to the Gentiles. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. Then in Verse 16 of this same Chapter in Romans, he said, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. He said he wasn t building upon another man s foundation, because it was to be something very specific. He said, For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed. (Romans 15:18) Paul said, I have begotten you. You could have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but I have begotten thee. You don t have many fathers, but you only have one father. It was a similar situation with the prophet of God, William Branham who came and restored us back to the faith of the fathers. That means what the church was taught, taking all that the apostles said collectively without separating the gospel to the Jews and to the Gentiles as defined in Galatians, Chapter 2, as Peter having the gospel to the Jews and Paul having the gospel to the Gentiles.

13 UNLIKE EVE, WE WAITED... 7 But now, God has separated the bride with revelation, and He revealed that there s one father with the gospel for the Gentiles, and Paul was that in his day. He took only the parts of the Word that the other apostles brought that was for the Gentiles and with the furtherance of revelation of the gospel that God gave him; thus he laid the foundation for the Gentiles by the wisdom of God. God helped him connect the Gentile church into that Jewish branch that it might get the life and get everything that Jesus paid for, and by this means, the Gentile bride received it. Does the Bible give life? Yes, there s life there, but it has to be proportioned right. That tree of knowledge was fine and it was good, because everything God made he saw that it was good, and that includes the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of course, this was two laws, but they had to wait on God s time to connect them together and bring forth children with eternal life. This Adam and Eve failed to do, thus the fall of mankind took place. So, how are children brought forth today? They are brought forth in the natural; and strictly by the tree of knowledge, because the tree of life is not in that realm. It s in a new birth realm now. It s in a revelational realm. The latter part of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 3:3 says, Written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God: not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. He s telling them where the real Word is at. This is not talking about the Bible, because Verse 6 says, Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. This says able ministers of the New Testament, and there was very little New Testament written at this time. Just like in Acts, Chapter 19:10 where it says, All they that dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord Jesus. This Word that they were hearing was Holy Ghost Word with life in it. It wasn t the letter of the Word. You say, Are you discrediting the Word of the Lord? No, I m saying that you have to worship God in Spirit and in truth. You have to have the Word and the Spirit, because the next part of this says.., for the letter killeth. The letter killeth (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), unless it is connected to the Spirit (the tree of life). It was the same thing in the Garden of Eden. It will kill you without God s Spirit. It will kill a congregation. A preacher can get up and condemn the people, spewing out condemnation, and all the time quoting scripture while he s doing it. The people walk out, and as Paul said, It slew me. (Romans, Chapter 7) They feel like they went to church and got slain, and when they come out they feel like they ve been cut to pieces. When we go on to Chapter 8 of Romans, he begins to talk about the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death. But notice, here he says the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. There s life. There s the tree of life, the book of life. The Bible says, The tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. The only way you can get to it is by revelation, not by studying, not by learning, not by

14 8 anything; but by the revelation that the Lord gives you of that tree of life. The Apostle Paul was a thorough, perfect representation of the tree of life in his time period. Because God said, I have made you to be a light to the Gentiles. Somebody said, But I thought Jesus Christ was. Well, He was, but it was Jesus Christ in Paul. When Paul walked out there and preached the Word, that wasn t Paul preaching, but it was Christ in him. Paul said, If you re going to preach the letter of the Word, it will kill you. It s got to be the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:6) When the church fell away from the Spirit of the Word, God took the understanding away and sealed it, until now when He has opened the seven seals. The life of the Word did not come back in the form of the little book that we could take possession of until the church ages were over, until the seven seals were opened, and the Angel raised His hand to heaven and sware that time is no more for the kingdom of heaven age. In that kingdom of heaven age, they only got portions of the tree of life (revelation) for the time periods that they lived in as each church age messenger brought his message. During this kingdom of heaven age they had to live among situations and had to be careful to not get deceived. Paul said, There s men among you right now, and as soon as I m gone they re going to rise up and draw disciples after themselves. But today, the only ones that come into this are those that are baptized by one Spirit into the body of Christ, and not a one of them is out to deceive. Not a one of them is out to draw disciples after themselves. They all speak the same thing, see eye to eye, and they recognize Jesus Christ as the head of the church. They recognize the church as a group of people that receives revelation that can even help the preacher. That is baptized into the body. That s taking possession of the little book. Unlike Eve, we ve waited. We didn t jump out there and try to contend with Brother Raymond Jackson on his preaching seven additional men were to come that would be thunders, and his preaching that the seventh seal had not been opened. But we just waited, because knowing God in His infinite wisdom, He would stop us until the Voice of Authorization came to take the little book, and that would make the difference. That s the way God said it would be. He said a five fold ministry would come and feed the church from the hand of God through the ministry. In Revelation, Chapter 10:8-11 we see John, him being a type of this very situation showing the wife of the Lamb. After this is made known, we understand clearly that this is showing the whole body of Christ that takes the little book. Here we see the ministry and all other members of the body of Christ joined together and married to Christ. So unlike Eve, we ve waited for the Voice of Authorization and now we re married to Christ. We ve become His wife. We re clothed in fine linen, clean and white. We waited, we ve come into it, and here it is! This is to those that have revelation, and to them it s just as clear as the noon day sun. He

15 UNLIKE EVE, WE WAITED... 9 comes and His face is like the sun, but it s hid with a cloud. What is the cloud? The cloud is things that God allowed to form to keep us from seeing clearly until that time. The only thing the world sees now is a cloud. They see a little group of people, not many in number; but precious in His sight. Now we can say, I ve found a new home. I ve found a new master. It s not a denominational master. It s Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. I ve found some new food. It s eating the little book and it s as sweet as honey. Can you see the wisdom of God, how that He puts something on the other side to try you, to test you? But somehow, all the time He was doing that, He put a little revelation way down on the inside of the inside, that you felt somehow this is right. You might have said, I may not understand all the ins and outs, but I ve got a feeling this is right. Then the way gets clearer. It says in the Book of Job that the path of a righteous man is as a light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Then the voice is clear. Then that old serpent can t tempt us anymore. God took care of that. God has taken care of anything that would tempt us and try to pull us aside. There s no temptation that has taken us to pull us this way or that way. Since we ate the little book, nothing else will satisfy. Do you see that unlike Eve, we waited for the Voice of Authorization? Unlike all the other movements, we waited for the Voice of Authorization to say, Now, go take the little book! We have taken the little book. We ate it, and now we re no longer tossed to and fro. We re the body of Christ; the joints supply each other, and we re doing just fine. May God bless you.

16 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT Our scripture for this message will begin in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5, and my subject is: He came As a Thief in the Night. Not He is coming as a thief in the night. We often hear sermons that Christ is going to come as a thief in the night, but as this event has transpired we say, He came as a thief in the night. I preached a message once entitled, They Missed His Coming, Have We? It was about the Jews, and how they missed His coming. They missed it, because He came as a little baby laying there in a manger. The parents were very poor and there was no room at the inn for Him; so Mary and Joseph rented a cow stall in a manger, putting a cloth down on the straw where they laid the little baby. So the King of the earth was born, and the whole Jewish nation totally missed Him. Later, He went into the temple at twelve years old and the religious leaders were amazed at His wisdom; the questions He asked, and the answers He gave to their questions on the Word of God. Then He submitted Himself and went home with Mary and Joseph until He was about thirty years old. There was about eighteen years that the scriptures keep silent about and no doubt the question was asked many times, Whatever happened to the young man that came to the temple that day with so much wisdom? But He was soon long forgotten. So we could say, There were so many wasted years. I preached a message in West Virginia some years back entitled, Oh, Those Wasted Years, or Were They? In our own life we may have times when we look back, and it seems like we wasted many years. But no, you didn t waste them because you were maturing; you were getting experiences of life as many different things were happening to you. Everything that has happened to you, somewhere it has made you what you are today, all those experiences combined help make you, and if you take one of them out you wouldn t be the person you are now. All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. So Jesus was absent as far as the scripture records for about eighteen years. Then after this, He came to the river where John was baptizing and was baptized; and then His public ministry began for about three and a half years. And though He was here all that time, yet the people missed Him. Yes, the Jewish nation as a whole totally missed His coming. So when He came into Jerusalem to offer Himself as their king, He didn t come riding in on a great white charger horse all fixed up with all the military paraphernalia on, and people weren t carrying Him on a throne blowing bugles like they would do when a king came. No. He rode in on a little donkey. Some of the common people began to pull branches from

17 12 the trees to lay in the way for the little donkey to walk on saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, to the King. But the religious leaders and the nation as a whole was ashamed of their Savoir and King and rejected Him, even though they had been waiting and singing about the coming of the Messiah, and they still are waiting today. So my question is, They missed Him, have we? The religion of that day missed Him. That s why they said, Let Him be crucified! Pilate, the Roman General, was ready to let Him live saying, I find no fault in this man, so let s just scourge (whip) Him and let Him go, because he wanted to do something to appease the people. But the priest and the other religious leaders cried out, and got the people stirred up saying with one voice, Crucify Him; crucify Him! But Pilate said, It s customary that I release one prisoner at this time of year. So he picked the meanest man he had to compete with Jesus. He said, Now we ve got Barabbas here, which was a murderer and all kinds of things he had done; so Pilate picked Barabbas thinking they would without a doubt choose Jesus to be released over Barabbas. He thought without a doubt they would say, Release Jesus, and keep Barabbas behind bars. But no, they did right the opposite. They said, Release Barabbas, release Barabbas. It didn t matter that he was a murderer and a criminal. Pilate asked, Then what shall I do with this man called Jesus? And in one accord they cried out, Crucify Him, crucify Him. Let Him be crucified! The religious world had totally missed Him. They didn t know He was the Savior of the world. They didn t know He was the one who created the world as He was the Word. As they were crying out crucify Him, crucify Him, Pilate s wife sent a note to him. She was a pagan lady, and Pilate was a pagan also. This note said, Have nothing to do with this just man, because I have suffered many things in a dream because of Him. So that scared Pilate; he knew now he was getting into trouble. So he sent for a pan of water and washed his hands before the people. He said, I find no fault in this man. I wash my hands; I m free from this innocent man s blood. But you can t wash Jesus off your hands. Pilate was the only one that could authorize the crucifixion of Jesus, or let Him go. But because of the persuasion of the people, Pilate delivered Him to be crucified. The same thing happens many times today where people will let other people have influence on them and persuade them to go contrary to what they know is right, because something looks like it would be the most popular thing to do. But in serving God, it s usually never the popular thing to do. A lot of times it s contrary to what most people think. Amen. But we must do what is right in all cases regardless. So the Jewish Nation missed Him. They totally missed Him. He came as a thief in the night, and as far as they were concerned, He was just a little baby in a manger. Now in this last day we find the Lord coming back again, as the Mighty Angel, and the whole religious world has missed His coming. There s a message today; He s

18 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 13 in the message, and still people are missing it. All right, let us pray before reading the scripture Heavenly Father, in Jesus Name, I pray that you will anoint us Lord as we endeavor to minister this Word of God. I pray Lord that you will put the words in my mouth that I may speak words that will be edifying, uplifting, and revealing to the people that will cause a great awakening, so they will realize we surely have arrived at the end time. And give understanding that the Lord has come and it has been as a thief in the night, and the church world, the religious world has missed it. Oh God, just anoint us and bless us we pray as we minister your Word. In Jesus Name. Amen. Now Paul was writing to the saints here in 1 Thessalonians 5:1, and this is speaking of the coming of the Lord. He says, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. In other words, if you are in the light, you re awake, and we have no need because you can see it. Verse 2, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. That s why they missed it. He came as a thief in the night. That s how Jesus came, as a thief in the night laying in the manger. Continuing Verses 3-4, For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye brethren are not in darkness (you understand this, you know what is going on) that that day should not overtake you as a thief. Now, he s saying there s going to be some that this day will not overtake them as a thief. There will be some that are awake, that are knowledgeable, and that are walking in the light in perfect contact with the Lord and know what has happened. Now he continues here in Verse 5, Ye are all children of light (light has to do with understanding), and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. See, he is making such a clear differentiation that we re not of the night; we re not of the darkness. We re children of light; we don t even need anybody to tell you about it. In other words, the Holy Spirit has come into you letting you know, He s here. He s here. He s here today in the power of the resurrected Savior, and He is here in the power of His Word. He s here to make Himself known in the Word. He s here to apply completely that new covenant, and that new covenant is this, that the Holy Spirit will write His laws, not with ink it says.., not with ink, but by His Spirit He writes His laws in your heart and in your mind. He is here writing, using His pen today, and His pen doesn t write natural Word. Many times we will hear preachers preach, when actually they are not preaching as much as exhorting. Because they will take a subject and take certain scriptures to speak about, and all it takes to do that is to have a concordance (Bible dictionary) and get all the scriptures that relates to that subject. You can stand up and read them and put on a dramatic act as you read, but yet the written Word alone is not the real Spiritual Word, that is only the house the Word lives in. That s the garden the Word grows

19 14 in. Jesus said, My words are Spirit and they are life; and they will be written in your heart and in your mind by the Holy Spirit. That s His new covenant. He puts His laws in your mind and in your heart. Paul said, You re not children of night, children of darkness, but you re children of light, just speak the Word with the anointing and God will do the writing. Now notice the title of the subject He Came as a Thief in the Night, and not He is coming as a thief in the night. It is for sure they have totally missed Him today. There are many people still looking for the coming of the Lord, but in the Spirit He has already come and united with the members of His body as His wife in the earth. Now we know there is a physical coming in the sky, but He does not come to earth in the physical at the time of the rapture, we meet Him in the air as a glorified body. But here and now, He is seen in the earth by revelation as the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7-8) She is His flesh and bone, (Ephesians 5:30) as He has descended from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-16) Revelation, Chapter 10, also shows that He comes to earth as the Mighty Angel and puts one foot on sea and one foot on earth, showing He came Himself all the way to the earth as the Mighty Angel to marry His wife. So there can be no doubt this is the coming of the Lord as Paul spoke of it in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, and John spoke the same in Revelation 10:1-2; that s Christ in the earth presently. But when we speak of the physical coming of the Lord, as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, without exception, we are speaking of His coming after the tribulation period to the earth to start the millennium reign. But to get a thorough understanding of what the Bible teaches about the coming of the Lord, it is very important to differentiate between the coming in Revelation, Chapter 10:1 as the Mighty Angel, and His physical coming to earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lord s with His wife, which is raptured (or caught away) before the onset of the great tribulation period. So to have a complete understanding of what the Bible says about the coming of the Lord, we are saying what is needful to differentiate between the coming of the Lord as the Mighty Angel in Revelation, Chapter 10, and His physical coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords with His wife as seen in Revelation, Chapter 19. There is a portion of the Word of God that reveals where we are today and the part that applies to us, Revelation 10:8-11. How can we be the bride unless we recognize the part of the Word that is for us? We have to recognize our part of the Word. Now there s part of the Word that cannot be written in letter, it s only Word that is written in your heart by revelation. It s that little book of Revelation, Chapter 10:8-11 and you eat it; then you begin to prophesy again! Hallelujah! Many years ago, I preached three messages on The Great Commission.

20 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 15 The first commission was Jesus telling His disciples to go preach the Word, but go only to the lost sheep of Israel. Go not to the Gentiles. Go not to the Samaritans. The second phase of that great commission was to start on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost, the Lord told the twelve apostles to be a witness unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Then here came Paul, and he was persecuting the church when God struck him down with a great light and called him to go preach to the Gentiles. God gave him another commission, and the third commission came into play right then. He said, I m going to send you to preach to the heathens, to the Gentiles. The third part of that great commission only started in the days of Paul as he was introducing a Gentile bride to Christ, and he introduced her as a virgin. But he said, I fear as the serpent beguiled Eve, that your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity of Christ. He was giving the virgin a warning to stay with the Word he preached. Then as he went forth preaching the gospel, he realized there were men among them, and that as soon as he was gone they would rise up and draw disciples to themselves. He said, The spirit of iniquity already doeth work. History shows the church fell away; we know that, as the first three Chapters of the Book of Revelation clearly show. If you read about that first church age in Revelation, Chapter 2, Jesus gave a message to that Ephesus church age and he said, Thou art fallen from your first love. But here at the end time, God has sent a message to start a restoration back to the original Word which means that third commission is now taking place. It has brought us back to the same thing Paul preached, and as we go from there to Revelation 10:8-11, it completes the third phase of the great commission, and once again the Word of God is Spirit. He said, The letter killeth, but it is the Spirit that will give you life. God has made us able ministers, not of the letter of the Word, but of the Spirit. So at this time Christ has come back again. Now, I want to inject this in here about this coming so that you will understand. When the church fell away, Christ was seen as high priest. The literal Jesus did not get up and come down to earth, but He projected Himself as high priest and is seen here walking among the seven church ages until all seven ages are over. And now that the church ages are over, we can see that in heaven He takes the book of redemption (the Big Book) that is spoken of in Revelation, Chapter 5, which was sealed with seven seals. In this pictorial scene the bloody Lamb breaks the seven seals. Then the scene changes as Christ, the Mighty Angel, is seen bringing the little book (which is a small portion of the book of redemption corresponding to what Paul said in Romans, Chapter 15, I will not speak of those things which God has not wrought by me ) back to the earth for His wife, which is the unwritten part or prophetic part of Paul s message that is spoken Word. Remember here, that Paul s writings or message is only a small part of the total Bible. But the bloody

21 16 Lamb having seven eyes and seven horns which are the seven Spirits of God is not shown in the earth at this time, but stays in heaven with the Big Book which shows that it has been opened since the breaking of the seven seals in It will remain with the Lamb to show God s mercy to Israel, and continues in a limited way to the foolish virgins and tribulation saints because they didn t get caught away and are still in the earth. They continue to worship God as though the Lord Himself has not descended from heaven as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and Revelation, Chapter 10 says. We see them in Revelation 7:13-14, and it records that they are washing their garments in the blood of the Lamb. This period of time will be similar to what it was in the church age period where the blood had to be applied constantly, keeping the spots out of their garments. That s why people went heavy on taking communion and foot washing while they were coming through that period where it was necessary to constantly remind the church that the blood was continuously being applied as they were reminded do this in remembrance of the crucifixion. But we find in the Book of Hebrews that, We should have no more consciousness of sin. We find in the Old Testament that every year they had to offer a sacrifice, bringing their sins back to remembrance again. But Paul says, Jesus Christ as the high priest entered once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us all, and there should be no more conscience of sin. (Hebrews 10:2) So, therefore as we fully understand that Christ, the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10, has come down (1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4) to this earth to take on flesh and bones, it lets us know that the long awaited promise of His coming to marry His wife has taken place. Now having this understanding, we now know that the purpose of having the Lord s Supper or communion has been completed, but only for His wife. While the church world continues in its old established ways as they failed to realize that the promised one (the Lord Himself) has come, and did not go in with Him to become His wife. (Matthew 25:10) We see in the Old Testament in those sacrifices there was a remembrance made every year of their sins, and so has it been in taking the Lord s Supper or communion. So throughout the church ages the church did the same thing, and it was all right; it was in line because the church was coming through a fallen period. Christ had not come yet as the Mighty Angel of Revelation 10:1, but now, He has come as a thief in the night. But through that time period (the church ages) they had the wine and they would drink it, this being a type of the blood. Also they would eat the bread, this being a type of the body. And every year during the church ages, preachers brought to remembrance the sins of the people. I too have been there as I started in the church ages, but I came out of the church ages into this final stage. So you can see how I started in the

22 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 17 church ages, and the Lord brought me through the first two phases (or stages) of the coming of the Lord into this third and final phase which is beyond the church ages. The Lord has propelled me from Revelation 10:7 to 10:8-11, into this final phase (or stage) of the message with the Word that is written in your heart. That is the only Word that s going to be written in your heart, and it s only going to be written in His wife s heart. We are baptized into His body; we have His mind, and we have His potentials. Now, it s the whole body of Christ that is getting revelation and not just the ministry bringing it, but it s the whole body as the ministry and all other members of the body have come together as one. John in Revelation 10:8-11 is a type of the wife of Christ, and he takes the little book and eats it. Then God says, Prophesy now and finish that third stage of that great commission for the Gentiles before the gospel goes back to Israel. Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings, and that is what we are doing today. Hallelujah! We are not just ministering the natural Word, but we are ministering the life of the Word, which is Christ, the Spiritual Word, as He has come back in this last day. The Spirit of the body had to come before the members could be baptized into it. While the church ages were in process, and while Jesus was pictured as high priest among the seven candlesticks and the church was going on with their church systems, such as having communion, foot washing, and all these things, the bride was called unto the higher calling of being the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7-8) This scripture shows that the wife is clothed in fine linen, (the garment that has never been soiled) clean and white, and is not bound by the church age customs and traditions any longer which are shown as wearing a (traveling) garment, white robes that could get spots and blemishes as the church age saints wore. Sometimes, we try to incorporate customs and traditions in our church s, which means their ways of doing things. But we are no longer bound by customs and traditions because we ve come to the place now at His coming. That is why Christ said, Do this in remembrance of me until I come. This statement is fulfilled for His wife in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16, and Revelation, Chapter 10. Christ was seen for two thousand years as a High Priest walking amongst the seven church ages shown in heaven (symbolically) as a bloody Lamb with seven eyes and seven horns as He walked amongst the candlesticks, girded about the paps with a golden girdle. All this is identifying the High Priest, and we can read this in Revelation, Chapter one. Then, we go on into Chapter 2, and we see each church age as He walked amongst them. But in the last day, here He comes roaring like a lion. Henceforth, we (the wife) no longer just see Him as the High Priest, nor the bloody Lamb that is interceding in heaven for us, nor do we see Him in this manner of do this in remembrance of me, but we see Him as our husband as a marriage has taken place.

23 18 In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 3, the church age ends. Then in Chapter 4, John said, I was picked up in the spirit into heaven and I heard a Voice as a trumpet, and that is what you are hearing if you have been picked up. It wasn t the rapture; it was being picked up out of the age to where the Voice of Christ could be heard. You can t hear this Voice speaking in this manner in the church ages. You can t hear this as long as you re in the church ages. He has called His wife unto Himself. Yes, His wife has made herself ready. Now John in Revelation, Chapter 10, is a clear type of the wife of the Lamb. John is not only a type of the ministry, but all the members of the wife combined as a marriage has taken place. She s the one that went and took the little book and ate it. This message that s going around and around the world is saying that Christ has put His laws in your heart and in your mind, and He has baptized you into His body. He has come, and He came as a thief in the night! Amen! Glory to God! I tell you this thing is so real and so good! Now remember, only the wife is baptized into His body, not the foolish virgins, not the tribulation saints. See, there were other people when Jesus spoke, they heard the natural Word, but they didn t hear the Spirit of it; so is it with this Voice. There are people that this Voice just grabs them, and when it does they can t turn loose from it. If you are one of them, you might go astray, but you ll run right back in. I tell you, God knows our number; He knows who we are. He knows we are part of the wife. He knows what He wants to make us, and He has made us that. Now notice here in 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8, Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breast plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. I want to read a scripture in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 3, and I want to just get a little something there. You that have these other messages about the law and how Melchisedec came see that it was different from the regular priesthood of the Jews; now this message that I am preaching comes as something different. Melchisedec was not part of that priestly order. Paul said, Jesus came in the order of Melchisedec in that He sprung forth from Judah, and there was nothing said about the priest. In other words, He came from a brand new order. After the church ages this ministry has come in a brand new order, it is outside and not of the church ages any longer; but is ministering the little book that shows the Spiritual coming of the Lord. (Revelation, Chapter 10, and 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4.) I hope we all know this, but there have been three great men that have come in our day. There s Brother William Branham, he came and revealed the Son of man (prophet). He would tell people the secrets of their hearts, and that s well known. Then here came Brother Raymond Jackson reveal-

24 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 19 ing to us about Israel, what the trumpets were, and much more of the Word as he obeyed God. So, Brother Branham and Brother Jackson got us through Revelation 10:7, where all those mysteries were finished that related to the church ages and the details of the gospel going back to Israel, but then after that, a Voice spake from heaven. I preached some messages years ago in Midway, and Glen Fork, West Virginia, when the Voice of Authorization spake and said, Go take the little book. It has taken us into a totally new ministry, a new era, where Christ has come. It reveals He has come, and He came as a thief in the night! He begins His coming right through those just mentioned ministries. And now right here, this little ministry has been hid. It started out, and you can get my life story where I was born just weighting 2 or 3 pounds, and they didn t think I was going to live. My sister Stella Mae that is still alive can give you the story. She is over 80 years old now, but she can tell you the story of how my Mama almost died. I was just a little tiny thing and Stella Mae took care of me, making what the old timers call sugar tits to feed me which consisted of taking a small piece of white cloth, rolling it up in a small roll, then dipping it in milk and sugar. She would put it into my mouth over and over again until I was fed, and it helped me to live until I could take milk from a regular bottle. The doctor told them, The poor little thing can t live. The thing is, there laid one, just a tiny little thing that they kept in a shoe box, but somehow instead of dying I began to come out of it. Back in those days in the mountains they didn t take you to the hospital and put you on life support, you either lived or died. But I grew into a healthy baby. We were mountain people and didn t know anything about modern medicine, or the need for education. So I had very little schooling, going only to the fourth grade in a one room building where every grade was in the same room with the same teacher. I know by today s standard that was a feeble start in life, but when we look at Jesus there in a manger, nobody knew about it and He was poor as far as worldly goods go and was uneducated, but when He spoke it was amazing. It was said about Him, How does this man know these things? He doesn t even know letters. Do you see what I am saying? He never learned to read very well. How does He know these things? it was asked. So getting to this place in His ministry, He had to come through all of that. But He came, and they missed Him. Now to this ministry Christ is saying, Go get my wife for me by giving her the revealed Word for this hour, and it is happening all over the world as we are coming into this one mind and in one accord, being baptized into the body as His wife; and John types that in Revelation 10:8-11 for us. That s why we are repeating what is written in Revelation 10:8-11, to go take the little book and eat it, and that s why this message of prophesying is going on all over the world Prophesy again!

25 20 Now let s look to 2 Corinthians 3:2-6, Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: In other words, you re what we believe. Do you want to know what Brother Ben believes? You are what I preach, and you are what I believe. You re our epistles. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God: not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. Now, I want you to notice where this Word is written, no ink or pen can get there; it s written in your heart by the Spirit of God. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. I once preached a message about the natural Word being the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Bible says, The letter killeth. In the Garden of Eden, God said, In the day you eat of the tree of knowledge you ll die. The letter of the Word kills without the Spirit, which is the tree of life that able ministers are able to connect to the tree of knowledge to produce children with eternal life. That s the Spirit of God, the Authorizing Voice that connects (the two trees of the garden) the Word and Spirit together for us. So when you put the Word and Spirit together, it brings forth children with eternal life, and He makes us able ministers of the Spirit of the Word, not just the letter of the Word. Sometimes God chooses someone that doesn t know how to read very much just to confound the wise of this world. So with Christ it is not the letter of the Word, but it s the Spirit of the Word. It s the Spirit of the Word that gives life, the letter of the Word (alone) will never, never, give life. And all of your learning amounts to one big zero unless it is anointed with the Spirit of Almighty God. The only way this can be written in your heart is by the Holy Spirit; not with pen and ink. Amen. We are going to read some in Revelation, Chapter 10, and I want you to notice the title of the message concerning His coming. In the days of Paul, he says, He shall come as a thief in the night. But I am saying, He came as a thief in the night, past tense. He came as a thief in the night. That is not just the natural Word, because with natural Word you would say, He is coming and this will happen and that will happen. But, I am saying by the Spirit of the living God, He has come! Now watch, the same one that was in heaven that walked among the church ages is the same one in heaven with the seven eyes and seven horns, the bloody Lamb that took the book, is pictured as the same one that has come to earth. It s a different projection of Christ than in the church ages. He has come down for His wife to marry her, and for her to be baptized into His body. Hallelujah! We have the mind of Christ; we are His wife, and are no less. Now this started happening in 1963 when the seals were opened. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven,

26 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 21 clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire and he had in his hand a little book open:, (this little book was in the Big Book of Redemption that was sealed in heaven.) It is important to know that Paul did the engagement of the virgin bride to Christ, and he also laid the scripture in the Word for the marriage. But the engagement was stopped at the time the church fell from its first love. So the little book, which was within and part of the Book of Redemption, has been brought to earth by Christ, the Mighty Angel. And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. That happened just exactly in 1963, when the seven angels came. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. Now I want you to watch this, the same one that said, Seal them up in 96 A.D. is the same Voice that is saying, Go get the little book and eat it now. The seals are off. He started this process in 1963 when Brother Branham came first, and then on to Brother Jackson, to tell where Israel fit along with other things that the bride needed before eating the little book. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: Now there is a parable spoken of in Matthew, Chapter 13, that relates to seven church ages, and it s a time period. When the time period comes to an end, He gathers the wheat in the garner on that last parable. Time is no more for it to grow out here in the field, He has come! Time is no more for that age. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Now if you go to Revelation 1:20, when John saw seven candlesticks and seven lamp stands, he talked about the mystery of this. But here he says, When the seventh angel sounds that mystery that relates to those seven angels, seven church ages, seven stars, seven candlesticks, that mystery will be finished. So Brother Branham thoroughly finished it up as the Spirit of the Lord gave him the revelation of the seven church ages and the seven seals. But then there was something that didn t pertain to the seven church ages, which was the fifth seal that dealt with the Jews. Brother Branham cleared up part one of the fifth seal, but God sent an apostle to clear up the second part of this seal. Now this happens as Christ comes, and He came as a thief in the night. And when He came here is what is said, And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book (now notice he specifically says which is open ) which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and

27 22 upon the earth. Notice, here it is pictured as still being in the hand of the Angel, but the Voice of Authorization has spoken and said, Go get the little book. At this time the little book is transposed from the hand of Christ, the Mighty Angel, to John. John takes it, and is shown as being a type of the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. And by now we have been brought to the place where the Bible says there are five ministering gifts which we refer to as the five fold ministry of Ephesians 4: That means the ministry and the members of the body are joined so completely together that there is only one mind and one Spirit as we have been baptized into one body, thus becoming the body of the Mighty Angel in the earth as He takes on flesh and bones. (Ephesians 5:30) Now we can say without reservation that we are the visible body of Christ in the earth. He came as a thief in the night to a world in darkness. Now it is fulfilled where it says, Until we all come together and reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus, and it is here now. Christ has come to earth as the Mighty Angel and has united with His body, this meaning the ministry and all the other members are completely joined together, thus creating the wife of Christ. And now there is the person (Christ s wife) in the earth that has the mind of Christ. She has the ways of Christ, the attributes of Christ, and Christ gave her the little book, which is the Word. And no one gets that Spiritual Word, except the wife. This little book is that Spiritual Word that is written in your heart and in your mind. You have come through the church ages and beyond what Brother Branham said; beyond Brother Jackson s message, and coming to where now there is a Voice thundering out. Now watch; with this little book there is a great transposing; it s transposed from the hand of Christ to the hand of John, which is a type of the wife. In other words, we have the very thing that Christ had in heaven. Watch this next verse, John being a type now, not just a type of the five fold ministry; but he s a type of the body, and within that body is the five fold ministry. John a type of the body said, And I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book There s a people in the earth that absolutely stands in Christ s stead that has His mind, and His work. John took the little book. His wife took the little book. You might say, Well, John is a man, how could he type out the wife? If you will read Ephesians 4:11-13, it says the wife reaches the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. In other words, only the works of Christ is seen as we reach His fullness. The man part simply means it s the works of Christ through His wife. John said, I took the little book. That means it came out of the hands of Christ into the hands of the wife; we have it now. He gave it to us, and what an awesome responsibility. John said, I took the little book.

28 HE CAME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 23 Notice, when he took it he says, out of the angel s hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Now watch this third phase of the great commission come back into focus; it s been reinstated. Remember when Jesus sent the disciples out, what did He tell them? These works that I do, and greater works shall you do. All of them together would be greater than the one man. We ve taken the little book, and He reinstates that commission, the third part of that commission that was cut off at the fall of the Gentile virgin bride, but now God is saying, Go prophesy again! Go preach again! Go prophesy again. Who to? Before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Amen. He came as a thief in the night. Not He s going to come as a thief in the night. When He comes back again to the Jews and to the earth, the Bible says in Revelation, Chapter one, every eye shall see Him. He is coming back to this earth as a physical man after the tribulation period. The angel said, This same Jesus whom you see go away will come back in like manner. Peter in Chapter 3 of the Book of Acts said, The heavens must retain Him until the times of restitution, (until the millennium a future event) and God is going to send the physical Lord Jesus Christ back to this earth again. But getting back now to this present time, it is very clear to us that the Gentile religious world has missed it; have we? Why did they miss it? Because He came as a thief in the night; He came in this message here as the Word is being made flesh and bone. (Ephesians 5:30) In closing, the only Word that can be written in your heart and in your mind is that which is in the little book, because the little book is Spiritual. There is no literal book coming down. A Spiritual Angel (Christ) brings a Spiritual book. It s that Word, it s that tree of life planted again, and it s growing, it s flourishing, it s bringing forth, and we are eating fine. God bless you. It s God s Word. (Singing) You and I are the salt upon this earth, and if we are true to God we re of great worth. But salt has no value, if its savor it has lost; so before you start sit down and count the cost. Count the cost my friend before you take your stand, and be sure that your faith is not in man. Because salt has no value if its savor it has lost; so before you start set down and count the cost. Do you love Him now? Heavenly Father, take these words and use them for your glory and bless them, and may they go and find a place in every heart and mind. We ask it in Jesus Name. Amen.

29 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING: CEREMONIAL AND CONSUMMATION This morning I want to take a little thought: There are two parts to a wedding. There is the ceremonial part of the wedding and the completion or consummation part of the wedding. I read quite a bit on this and found that every society does the ceremonial part of a wedding a little differently. I read some on Jewish weddings and found out that throughout different periods of time the Jews conducted the ceremonial part of their weddings in different ways. So when we look at the ceremonial part (that s what we ve been going through) we read about ten virgins, five wise and five foolish, all are involved in the ceremonial part; but only the husband and wife are in the consummation part of it. I want to explain the ceremonial part, especially to those that have been part of the message and have come so far and rejoiced with us, and many had mistaken it for the marriage, when it was actually the ceremonial part of the wedding, as we all know that in a wedding there is a lot of rejoicing going on. While we were over in Africa driving through the Congo, we passed a group of men and women laughing and rejoicing. We asked, What s going on here? Our driver said, Oh, they ve been over to a wedding ceremony, and they have been drinking banana whiskey. They were just laughing, carrying on and waving at us. You could say, They were feeling no pain! So their part of the wedding was over. But the husband and wife went into their tent or hut and that is where the consummation of the marriage took place. In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, it says concerning the wise virgins, They went in to the marriage and the door was shut. There were many that were involved in this event and they came and wanted to be part of it, but the consummation part of the marriage is only for the husband and wife. Now let s pray before reading our scriptures. Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord, for this another opportunity to come and stand before you and the people with your written Word opened before us. We pray that you will move by your Spirit and touch us by thy Holy Spirit, we pray in the precious name of Jesus. I depend on that anointing, I trust in that anointing, and I ask you for it for the glory of God. In Jesus Name, Amen. Now, I want to speak in a way that will explain and help us to understand all that has gone on as we come to this point that we are living in at this hour. We ve come through the church ages, but according to the Book of Matthew there was a call made that the bridegroom was coming. There were five wise virgins and there were five foolish virgins, and the fact that there was five of each shows a group. There was one group that would be

30 26 foolish virgins and one group that would be wise virgins. Now when Paul began to write about the wife of Christ, he explained that by one Spirit we re baptized into one body. He said, Being many members, yet you re just one body. I want to bring this in because someone said, I don t think that is what Matthew 25:1-11 means, because there were five of them and five is not going to get married to Him. The point is the number five wise and five foolish just shows there are two groups. I m hoping there are tens of thousands in all, from the church ages all the way through, but only God knows that, and I would not attempt to put a number on how many there is. It could run into the thousands, every one that is baptized into the body of Christ; yet, there is one body. (1 Corinthians, Chapter 12) By one Spirit you re baptized into one body, and you as an individual become a member of it. That s what He said when He was giving out the gifts in Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians; to one He gives the gift of discernment, to another one He gives the gift of tongues, and to another He gives another gift. He gives to each one as severally as He will, but He deals with individuals. Yet, when He looks at it, together the whole group is the bride, and the Bible calls her one. Paul spoke of her in 2 Corinthians 11:2, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. The point is, though there be many, yet it is one. Like us here at the church, not only us; but those in Africa and everywhere this Word goes. We re many individuals; but when it s all summed up, we re all together just one wife. So that explains the five here and five there; the different groups (wise and foolish). As I thought about this my mind went back to the group that I just spoke about coming out of the Congo on the little narrow road. The fact is, a little bit of fear struck my heart when I saw them coming right down the middle of the road and we were a hundred miles (more or less) from civilization. But our driver knew exactly what was going on since he was part of the society there. They had a spirit of festivity on them! They were having a good time! They had been to a wedding, see. There have been a lot of people at the wedding, but now we re zeroing in on the husband and wife. The festivities are basically over; it s time for zeroing in on him and her. Although customs are different in the different societies, especially the festivity part, yet the consummation part is the same in each society. The thing is, there s no one certain way for the festivities to be. Even in marriages here in the United States, depending upon the religion and financial situation of those that are getting married and the desires of the bride and bridegroom, they have different types of festivities prior to the marriage. But having said all of that, there s one given, whatever nation it is in, one thing that never changes and is constant in all; that is man and wife coming together intimately like God told Adam and Eve to do. From

31 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING the beginning it has never changed. Sometimes the Jews have as much as seven days of festivities before the wedding. Everybody can be involved, all the families, the neighborhood, and it s a big thing. We find even Jesus going to one of those weddings, and they were running out of wine. You know the story. They came and said, We don t have any more wine. Well, His mother, Mary, looked at the servants and said, Whatever He says unto you, do it. And that is still the thing for us to do, whatever He says to us, do it. So Jesus looked at the servants and told them to take the six water pots and fill them to the brim. (They were three to five gallons each). So they filled them all up and He told them, Dip and taste. They said, It is the best wine! Actually the one in charge of the wedding went to the master of the house and said, What are you trying to pull on us here? You ve saved the best wine for last. (Generally the best wine is set out first.) I think that types out for our day. Jesus turned the water into wine so the festivities of the marriage could continue uninterrupted. There are a lot of festivities that won t be interrupted; they ll keep going right on until the rapture takes place thinking it s the complete marriage. Later on, those that were part of the ceremony (foolish virgins) will come to the realization that was only the ceremony and will begin to knock and say, Let us in. But He and the wife are the only ones that go in the tent for consummation. His wife is not one individual; she s one body with many members being baptized into His Spiritual body. They go into the tent and He knew her there; He loved her and she became His wife. So we go in with Him. Paul spoke of it in Chapter 5 of the Book of Ephesians. He told about a man leaving his father and mother and clinging to his wife saying, For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. So, we can clearly see two groups coming to the marriage, and we ve all enjoyed the festivities. Now the bride and the bridegroom, they enjoy the festivities as much as anybody else. They like to shout, they like to talk in tongues, or whatever it might be. They like to do all those things, but there comes a time when that Word is all the wife wants and needs. She s closed in with Him, and that s where we are at, a time where there are a people that have been baptized into the body of Christ. They have become one with Him and their food is the Word, the little book, and it s as sweet as honey. I ve almost covered what I was going to read here about the festivities of the marriage. As we read in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 22, we read here where the Word gives another approach to it, about a man giving a wedding for his son. And regardless of what type of festivities and regardless of how they go about it, how they approach it, they re all trying to approach one point; and that one point is for the man and wife to

32 28 go in and become one. Everything else before this was festivities. As I read on this and studied the different approaches of different nations, different societies, I found that in China they can put on a real show, and I got to actually see some of the festivities when I was in Singapore. The point is, in different parts of the world they can really put on an elaborate ceremony. But again all of it arrives at one point. I know a lot of people in this country say, This is the way a marriage is supposed to be done. Don t tell me that. I m too old and been around too long and been to too many places to be told that. Usually the bride will want certain things, want it done a certain way and you try to accommodate as much as possible. But I ve been to too many places to think and to accept as a fact that it has to be done a certain way because a certain nation does it that way. You may say, The Jews do it this way, so it s got to be done like them. Well, what about us, we re Gentiles. Well, different ones do it different ways. So the thing is: worldwide there s one thing we can come together on, and that is what a marriage is. It is man and wife becoming one, and God established that in the Book of Genesis and it has never changed. Now God doesn t care a lot about our festivities. If you want to throw a party for a week and have festivities for a week and invite the whole neighborhood, that s all right; it s not going to change the part of the marriage that makes man and wife one. And whatever we do is not going to change that, it still comes back to the same thing. There s nothing to debate about, because everywhere in the whole world it is the same. So that would tear down some of the ideas around those that would want to say, This is the way it is done in this country; so this is the proper way. No, it s not. The proper way for that country is whatever festivities they want; but the coming together is what makes it. I ve repeated myself there enough so I ll go on and read. I m in Matthew, Chapter 22, and this is speaking of a king that was going to have a wedding. Verses 1-3, And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, (meaning this is not a literal happening, but it s something He s using to make comparison) and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, (This was a big deal.) And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Now that was very offensive, not to come to a wedding; especially if the king was giving the wedding. Verse 4 says, Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: Now this was a great offense in the eyes of the king that they wouldn t come to the festivities for his son s marriage. This is a type of God giving a marriage for His Son. That s the point He s making here. There are a lot of people that don t want to come

33 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING to the wedding. But these that came were not to be the wife. They were to be part of the festivities. There are a lot of people that surround the bride of Christ that are helpers and enjoy hearing the Word. They enjoy the fact that there is a marriage taking place. They rejoice and enjoy themselves, even though they re not the ones getting married. See, this king wanted to put on a big deal for the ceremonial part of the marriage, because after all, he was a king. So he had the oxen killed and the fatlings. He said, All things are now ready. And that s what I m telling you today, All things are now ready. We don t have to wait for a certain wheel to turn in order to do it, but we re in it now. Continuing on with Verses 6-7, And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king (representing God) heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. That sounds like Jerusalem as they rejected Christ and were destroyed. (That s in the Book of Luke) But they wanted no part of it. Now God turns to another group. He turns to the Gentiles. Praise God! In one sense it was a great blessing to the Gentiles that the Jews turned it down. If you ll read Romans, Chapter 11, you ll see that because they rejected it, salvation has come unto us. And now because the Gentiles have rejected it, salvation is going back to the Jews. Amen. The next verse says, Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready (we re going to have a wedding one way or another and we re going to have our festivities), but they which were bidden were not worthy. That s the same thing in this hour that we are living in. God sent a prophet to this age to shake the nations. He went around and around the world to wake up a people and let them know that there was soon to be a wedding for God s Son, but most of the church world ignored the call to start the wedding march and come back to the Word. But there were many religious people that did start in the wedding march. So while they were marching they were confronted with even more Word which they refused, and they became foolish by not accepting the furtherance of the Word that was being given to keep them moving towards the consummation of the marriage. In coming to this point, they only wanted to come so far. They wanted to be partakers of the festivities, but they didn t want to be a part of that body, being baptized into the body of Christ, becoming one in that body. Paul taught in Romans, Chapter 15, that this body has one mind and one mouth. Though we be many we have one mind and one mouth. Let this mind which was in Christ be in you. Though we be many, and though there be others around us, when the rapture takes place it s going to leave the foolish virgins here that didn t want to become one with Him; didn t want to be baptized into the body. They d rather go on down the road feeling no pain like those folks were over there in the Congo that had been

34 30 drinking too much banana whiskey! They wanted to shout and rejoice and just feel good, but they didn t want to line up and become part of what God was doing in the day and the hour we are living in. So he is saying here, We re going to have a wedding. All things are ready. The wedding is going to take place. Verse 9, Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. There are many people that are associated in the realm of the marriage that are only there for the festivities that are associated with the process of a marriage. And that was the very purpose of them coming was to be part of the ceremonial part of it. So that is why we can say of assuredly that there are many that are part of the festivity and will only be in this ceremonial part, because the king wanted enough people there to make his son s wedding look good (I m speaking in the natural here). So the king is saying, This wedding has to look good, I m the king. We want a full house so that they will write about it in all the newspapers. He says, Go get some people in. Verse 10, So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, (Now watch this. Don t miss this please!) both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. When Jesus spoke of the parable in Chapter 13 of the Book of Matthew, there in the field was growing wheat and tares together and the servant said, I know what to do with the tares. We ll pull them up and get rid of them. But do you know what the Lord said? No. Let them grow together until the harvest. And that is where we re at now, the harvest. So the good and the bad all had a chance to come and be partakers of the festivity part and the Word, and those that were ordained would see it and get a revelation. Then they would cling to that Word and they would hear the Voice of God; these then begin to eat the little book. Verse 11, And when the king came in to see the guests, (This was just before the marriage now) he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: Now remember he had brought in all kinds. This is not in heaven. This is not in the rapture. This is here on earth. There s not going to be good and bad up there or in the body, but they are only associated in the realm of the marriage ceremony. And there was a requirement that there had to be a certain kind of attire because he furnished the garments. He saw one not dressed properly to attend this ceremony, so the king knew he had not come through the bathhouse, because every one of them was given a robe. Their feet were washed and they were anointed. The king wanted this thing to be right, because his son and bride were going to walk down the isle and be married. Now His son (Jesus is the Son), and His bride (a many member body), and all those that are ordained and predestinated to be part of it are right here at the wedding. Now we find in Matthew, Chapter 25, that there were many that were termed as foolish virgins. And they

35 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING were virgins, they were clean, they came by the bathhouse and were cleaned up and at one time their lamps were burning, but they let them go out. And a lot of people today have let their lamps go out. But to the bride the most special time is coming into this Word and becoming one with Him. She is not just there for the festivities, because she s got one thing on her mind; and that s going to the place of abode where the marriage will be consummated. Only the bride and the bridegroom go there, but the others are involved in all the rest of the marriage. Now getting back to our reading in Verse 11, And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: That means that he wasn t dressed properly, and got in without coming by the bathhouse. You can t be a part of the festivity part unless you come by the bathhouse and get washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. That s why the man that wasn t dressed properly couldn t even be in the festivity part of the wedding. Jesus said, Throw him out! before the festivity started. Now the bride is different, and she is dressed different. He gives her His own righteousness which is the fine linen that has never been soiled, and that makes her to be just as righteous as He is righteous. When that bride comes down the isle, there are no spots and no wrinkles, nothing to get out. In the old days the bridegroom furnished the garment for the bride, but now here in the United States the custom is that the bride s parents pay for the wedding. Other places the groom s side furnishes everything. So the bridegroom here was furnishing the garments. But here at this wedding was a fellow that got in some way or another. He didn t come by the cross. There s just one way to the pearly gates, it s the old cross road (meaning coming by the cross) or the way that s called straight. Some want to get in, but don t want anything to do with the crucifixion and resurrection and righteous living. But here the king saw this man who had no intentions of doing what needed to be done; he had on a garment that was totally unsuitable. We could say it this way: What if we came in here and every body had white suits on and here came a guy with a black suit on and sat down? He would stand out like a sore thumb. It s the same thing if you ve got a congregation that are in one mind and one accord, but another comes in and wants to challenge you on practically everything you say, there s your black suit, see. He s not there for a good purpose to begin with. Watch what the king said unto him. Verse 12, And he saith unto him, Friend, (Being polite; and he may have even known him) how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. This didn t stop the wedding, because he was only attending the ceremonial part of the wedding. The man wasn t wearing the garment that the king had provided for the wedding guests as they came in. That means he hadn t taken a bath. Now the man was speechless. Verses 13-14, Then said the king to the ser-

36 32 vants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Now this man here is not the foolish virgins, because the foolish virgins are not bound hand and foot and cast out, and there s not gnashing of the teeth as it was with this man. This means this man s heart was not right to begin with. See, foolish virgins are in an entire different category because they do love the Lord and they come as far as God ordained them to come. But to be a just God, He gives everybody the same chance knowing who will come and how far they will come. That s why Jesus said, Whosoever will. But the fact is He knows who will and who won t even before the world was. It doesn t mean this one can be saved and this one can t. No, because God justifies predestination by His foreknowledge. Did you hear that statement? That s an important statement. God justifies predestination by His foreknowledge. If you will read Romans, Chapter 8, it says, Who He foreknew, them He also did predestinate. God knows the end even from the beginning. Oh, it s wonderful when you read the Book of Revelation how it tells about the millennium and the new earth and all of that. He shares that knowledge with us. But He also knows who will accept Him and who will not; therefore, He put their names on the Lamb s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And it wasn t like, I don t want this one to go to heaven, but I want this one to go. No, He saw what they would do when the Word came knocking at their heart. That s that man with that black suit on. He didn t want to line up and be part of it. He might have wanted to get some of the drinks they were serving. And they were serving some fatty calves and oxen. They were having a big feast. A lot of people try to get an invitation to a wedding, because if they get to the wedding they ll get one of the best meals they ve ever had, and they can get plenty to drink. There are a lot of people if they can get something to drink go crazy, and some people want to be gluttonous. That man didn t come for the purpose of honoring the king and being a part of the festivities; he was there for another purpose and the king recognized it immediately. And when we come into the house of God, if we re there for another purpose, King Jesus recognizes immediately that we re not there to further what God is doing but we re there for another purpose. So the king said, Throw him out. But it s not so much throw him out but God will let things come along that will offend them to get them out. So God knows what needs to be done, doesn t He? So the king told them to cast him into outer darkness and said, Many are called, but few are chosen, meaning that they were called there, but some of them just didn t want to be part of the wedding ceremony. There was to be a marriage of his son, but these were to be the ones to partake in the festivities. Of course, all that are ordained, when they hear that

37 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING Word they become part of that body and they become part of the bride. But just because they were there doesn t mean they were part of the bride. Do you see it? This is only for those that God ordained and you were part of the Word before the world was. The apostle Paul took this revelation and he said, God has taken out of the Gentiles a people for His name s sake. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and he said, I have espoused you (engaged you) to Christ. In the western world the man gives the woman a ring and says, Will you marry me? And usually a date is set for marriage at that time, now the plans for the marriage will begin. Now since I brought all of that in, I think it would be incomplete if we didn t read Matthew, Chapter 25, starting with Verse one; and it says, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Now watch, here s two groups. Verse 2, And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Now these are groups, He doesn t marry five girls. It s a group. There s a group of wise virgins and a group of foolish virgins. Verses 3-8, They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: (No extra vessel of oil) But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all (the wise as well as the foolish; there wasn t much difference in them) slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (And that s the message that Brother William Branham brought, so that puts the foolish virgins in the category of those that heard the cry, the shout.) Then all (not just the wise; the foolish, too) those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. (So the foolish was awakened as well as the wise. In other words, that group was awakened as well as the bride was awakened, but here begins to be the separation.) And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out (going out). In other words, their lamps had been burning. They went to sleep and let their oil burn out, but the wise carry an extra vessel of oil. That means they had that Word hid in their heart. They were in the Word. The bride will be full of this Word even though you may not see a lot going on; but from time to time He gives a quickening awakening. And the foolish said, Give us of your oil. Verses 9-10, But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Someone might say, He took those five young girls and went into the bride chamber. No. He didn t take five young girls and go into the bride chamber. That would be polygamy. He s not a polygamist. These five represent a body. I m glad it doesn t say, There was one wise and one foolish. God knew what He was doing when He used this number five; we are many members of the body of Christ. His wife is made up of many members and so is it with the foolish virgins.

38 34 There s not just one of them either. So they that were ready went in and the door was shut. Now that is the door of revelation. We ve passed the time where time is no more. We go into the revelation; and the rest of them go on their own way and do their shouting and rejoicing even without this revelation, that s what they want. They don t want this message of the full revelation of the marriage (consummation) that s being given now. Verse 11, Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. That means they actually woke up to the point where they realized, Hey, these people have got something we don t have. (It is beginning to happen at this present time.) They begin to realize and know, We need the deeper things of God. Then He set in the church a five fold ministry, and I brought that message, An Old Testament Prophet Comes to a New Testament Age in 1970 after a 40 days fast, after an audible Voice came through the room and spoke and let me know that Brother Branham had an Old Testament type spirit on him. He had that working within, and through him the five offices were manifested from time to time as he was revealing the Son of man. (Luke 17:30) After this, God took him home. Now God has moved on and let us know that the seven thunders were seven men who were the seven church age messengers and they ve already come and already gone. They re not yet to come; they ve already come and done their jobs and God has taken them home. The wife knows that we ve come through Revelation 10:7 where it says, The seventh angel finished the mystery. And now we have seen Verse 8 fulfilled where it says, And the voice which I heard from heaven spake (The Voice of Authorization spake) unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel... The Mighty Angel which is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus gave John the little book and says, Eat it and keep walking with God. There s some more prophesying to do. And that s deep revelational talking and preaching. The foolish virgins will stay back. But one day they will realize, Hey, there is more to what the previous messengers have preached. The bride realized this and went in and was married and the door was shut. So, we see there are many people who are involved in the wedding ceremony, and when it is over they go on their way rejoicing; but the bride goes in with Him and becomes His wife and now she has one thing on her mind Him. That s why the bride says, I m going in the tent with Isaac, just as Rebecca said. She went in and the door was shut. Then the foolish came saying, I want in, I want in. He said, I know you not. That means Christ doesn t know them intimately, as with husband and wife. That s the reason I wanted to bring in the two parts: the ceremonial part and the consummation part (the coming together as man and wife). Jesus didn t know them in that sense, but He knew they were virgins and they

39 TWO PARTS TO A WEDDING were part of the ceremony, and they will be saved every one of them whose names are in the book of life. It s just that they re not ordained to be His wife. There could be a dozen women out here, and because a man chooses only one of them to be his wife doesn t mean the other ones weren t just as good, it is just that he chose a certain one to be his wife. I read a scripture last week that I want to read again (Revelation 21:9) where John was picked up and he said, And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb s wife. Now I want you to notice two things that he is saying there. Those words aren t just put there to take up space. He makes the statement, The bride, the Lamb s wife, meaning just to call her the bride is not sufficient now that she has become His wife, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, and Spirit of His Spirit. So we understand that everyone that attended the ceremonial part and knew there was going to be a wedding wasn t acquainted with the bride that was soon to become His wife. He said, I ll show you the bride, the Lamb s wife, pointing us to what was told John in Revelation 19:7-8 where it says, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. He puts his very own garment on her, which is the righteousness of God. So we ve come through the ceremonial part, that s the march of the virgins, wise and foolish; but there came a time when you knew who was foolish and who was wise. Remember that until they awakened they all appeared the same. They all rose and trimmed their lamps. But when they checked their supply of oil there was the difference, there began to be the separation of the foolish virgins and the wise. Though they all are good saved people that heard the cry of Matthew, Chapter 25, and all awoke, only the wise had extra oil, so this let us know who the foolish are. They are the people that heard Brother William Branham, but then refused to move on with further revelation as God had another man on the scene, Brother Raymond Jackson, to keep the wise virgins going forward with more truth. Those that followed Brother Branham refused to accept this showing foolishness on their part. Now that God has taken Brother Jackson home, the same thing has happened to those that followed his revelation, not knowing that there was more Word to be manifested for the consummation. They became foolish by rejecting this part of the message, but the wise recognize it, believe it, and come into the consummation of the marriage. So you know you ve got to come by the way of blood; you ve got to come by the bathhouse and the bathhouse is the blood of Jesus Christ. So we see that you can be washed by the blood of Jesus Christ and still not be in the bride. And you can be in the bride and not understand all the

40 36 mysteries of it, because He looks at the heart, the spirit. He looks at the fact that you want to know, you love this, and you know it is right. You might not know how to explain it and you might not know all the details of it, but you re baptized into that body, you re the bride, you are a member of it. He talks about thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold; meaning everybody is not going to be able to answer every question someone might ask. If you can t answer, then say, Ask the preacher. And if he s part of the five fold ministry, he will be able to help you. Now we should be able to see the two parts of the marriage. The ceremonial part, many people are involved, but they don t go into the wedding chamber. Only the bride goes in with Him. Only the bride becomes bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And then we will sail off to glory. The rest will be left and then be killed during the tribulation period. Then after the great tribulation they will be resurrected and we will all be right back together again as soon as the millennium starts. Revelation, Chapter 20, shows them being resurrected and they live and reign with Christ a thousand years. The point is, Christ and His wife goes in, and then they ll come back to earth and she ll blend with all the other saints and become part of the family in the millennium. Glory to God! Aren t you glad to be the bride; to be part of the Word? God bless you. Let us pray: Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you this morning for this opportunity that you have granted to us to come and speak your Word. And we thank you for every one that is here hearing the Word of God, and not only here but wherever this voice may reach. I pray that you will give understanding, that you will anoint and you will let everyone see what special grace God has put upon us by taking us into the chamber with Him and accepting us as the bride with garments clean and white which is the righteousness of God, a very part of the Word, a very part of Christ, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, Word of His Word, with the mind of Christ to know how to operate in this hour. Bless each one that hears this and bless the congregation here, Lord, and I just pray that as we place this Word into your hands that you will take and use it for your glory. We ask it in Jesus Name. Amen.

41 GOD S FOREKNOWLEDGE IN THE PRESENT JUSTIFIES HIS PREDESTINATION God s foreknowledge in the present justifies His predestination. In this message we will understand God better, in the sense of the fairness of God; and we ll see that God doesn t just create somebody in order to give them a hard time or for them to be lost. The fact is it s not God s will for any to perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and He gives us a free choice. He doesn t make us to make any certain choice, but He encourages us and He causes certain things to come our way by His foreknowledge. Seeing what He has ordained us for and seeing what we will do, He allows certain things to come our way to nudge us in the right direction. Saint Paul, for example, looking at the present in Paul s time, he was one of the meanest men as far as persecuting the church. But God looked beyond that and saw what Paul would do when he found Christ. He became one of the greatest ones. He gave his life for Christ. He was one that gave his all to Christ and God foreknew that. The Word of God teaches that God said, I am He which is, which was, and which is to come. He sees what is going on now, presently. That s how God could do what He did when He made His book. But that doesn t say that we have to do a certain thing, He just knows what we are going to do. There s not one predestinated to be lost and one predestinated to be found. God is just and He is justified in all His decisions. He is justified in writing the Lamb s book of life and putting the names on it, those that would accept Him. His foreknowledge of the present (that s today) knows what we re going to do today. He already foresaw all this and we re just living it out as it unfolds. He is here, and He was over there, as it says in the Book of Revelation 1:4. Some of us when asked about this scripture would probably say it is this way, He which was, and is, and is to come. But the scripture says, He which is, and was, and is to come. So the is is present tense, and with each age God is in that age. He is the is. He s not was. So He s looking at each one, dealing with each one, and He already knows. If we try to understand all the fullness of that it would be beyond our understanding: that God is, was, and is to come. When did God begin? God did not begin. He has always been. He has always been and He is always present. Jesus said, I am a present help in time of need. He is always present, not was, and not is to come; but we deal with the present. He is real today, God is today, and our decisions today determine what He has already put on the book because He saw it. That is why He can tell us what is in the new age, what s beyond the millennium and all

42 about it, because He is already there. Knowledge to God is something that goes beyond us, because He knows as much about what is going to happen tomorrow as we know what happened yesterday. If someone asked us what we did yesterday we could tell them. If they asked what you are going to do tomorrow, the Bible says to say, If the Lord is willing we will do such and such. It s not so with God. He can tell you what you will do tomorrow just as well as He could tell you what you did yesterday. He is He which is; He which was, and He which is to come. But we deal with the is part; the present is all we know. We can look back to the past, but only by reading the Word of God can we see the plan that God has laid out. But for us personally, we can t tell what we will be doing tomorrow because we don t know. But, see, God is with us today to help us to make decisions that are necessary for today. He predestinated by His foreknowledge and He is justified in all His decisions; and His decisions are based on what you did with what He gave you. It s not that someone is born to be lost. Looking at some people you might think, If anybody was going to accept God it wouldn t be him or her, because they ve lived such a rough life. But that has nothing to do with it. God can deal with them and He can see over the hill. It s kind of like someone in an airplane. They can look back and see where they ve been, they know where they re at, and they can look down and see what s going on and what s over the hill. You can t see what s over the hill, but the man in the plane can see it all and describe it to you perfectly because his sight is already there; he knows. You can be on a train and with a radio he can call you and say, Be sure you look when you come over the hill around the bend, I want you to look at that farm house and those beautiful horses. He is already looking at them, but you have to get there before you can see them. So God knows what is, what was, and what is to come. Therefore, when He predestinates it s not unfair; it s based on our reaction to what is happening now. What we do influences the predestination of God even though it was done before the world was. He saw what we would be doing here. If that sounds a little deep just hold on a few minutes. Let s read in Romans 8:28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. It takes faith knowing that all things work together for good. Verse 29, For whom He did foreknow.., I want you to hold that. God didn t just get out here predestinating something. He didn t look down on the world and say, I predestinate this one to be lost, and that one to be saved, and they ve got nothing to do with it. No. It s by His foreknowledge; and foreknowledge is. He has knowledge today about what we are thinking, what we re doing, and how we react to the Word of God. It filters right into His predestination. God s always present tense. It may seem mysterious how we affect what God has already done. The fact is God s fore-

43 knowledge of the present justifies His predestination. Millions of years before He ever made any star dust or anything, He already knew we would be sitting here. Even before the world was God knew how many fleas would be on the earth and how many times they would bat their eyes. He said there cannot be anything that God does not know. So by that foreknowledge He is able to predestinate and tell what is going to be. Therefore, someone can t say, Well, if my name is not in the book, then there is nothing I can do about it. See, that is where we re so wrong. God is here this morning. It s what we do now. If this happens or that happens there s nothing I can do about it; it will go the way it is supposed to. Well, we can affect God s predestination. That s why He says to pray that thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Prayer changes things; otherwise it would be useless to pray for this person or that situation. We can affect those things. We can affect the salvation of those that we are ministering with. Paul said, These things I have spoke to you, believe and commit unto other men, for in doing so you will save yourselves and them that hear you. Now how can that be if the names are already in the book? It s because God is here this morning and the decisions we make affect what He did over there; because to Him it is present tense. Now that is the God we are dealing with. There is nothing unfair about God. We cannot accuse God in any way, because He laid it all out. Now there s a rapture going to take place. The process has already begun and people are moving into it. He is sending a message and He makes it available to us. He even has our Spiritual bodies reserved in heaven. The Bible says, If this earthly tabernacle were dissolved we already have a building of God reserved in the heavens. The very moment the life goes out of this body it goes right into that theophany, that Spiritual body; and we never die, we just change dwelling places. It s a graduation from a place where we are blessed of God, where we enjoy God, to a place where it is so glorious that words can t even express it, and He already has these bodies prepared and waiting for us. He did it upon the bases of what you would do when you heard the Word. I have met my theophany (Spiritual body) on a couple of different occasions. Once when I was raising chickens, I had been praying about quitting this job to dedicate myself more to the ministering of the Word, as the Holy Spirit was pressing me to do, but I didn t know when would be the right time to do it. I was in the chicken house there and I was debating in my mind whether to quit my job and start preaching full time. I was so tied up with the job that I could only function locally, because I always had to get back home. I was praying about it and when I walked into the chicken house to check everything before retiring for the day, I turned around and there stood someone who looked just like me, even had the

44 same type clothes on. We were about six or eight feet apart, and we just ran to each other and embraced. He said, Do you know me? I said, Yes, I ve looked for you all my life. He said, This shall be your last bunch of chickens. Then he was gone. After this, I stopped raising chickens and started the church in Dawsonville, Georgia. Then on another occasion, one night I was preaching there at the church. I was getting into the preaching real good and I walked over towards the organ, and when I looked back I was standing by the pulpit, yet I was standing right there by the organ; and everything I would do at the organ, the theophany would do at the pulpit. See, we re getting where that veil between the living and dead is getting thinner and thinner as we get closer and closer, because we ve been translated into that Spiritual Kingdom of God; that s why we re children of light. That s why the things of this world that we used to relish are losing hold on us; it means less and less to us, because there s a call from over yonder! And it takes a certain gospel. The Bible says that the dead in Christ shall rise at the last trump; the last phase of the message of the coming of the Lord. (Revelation 10:8-11) The trump shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise, and the living remainder of His wife shall be changed. This takes place as the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump (or trumpet) of God. The God that is watches over and knows every one that is going to believe it and respond to it. So He makes provisions accordingly. That s by His foreknowledge. There are people that are predestinated to hear this message and to believe it, and they can t do anything else. Nothing else can quite satisfy them. You can t help it, because God foresaw and He already made the provisions. He s already told about it in the Word of God. It s so sweet in your mouth. It s so great. It s so wonderful. The God that is has predestinated us by His foreknowledge of what we would do when this message came knocking at our door. So He made preparation for it, and He has given us the Spirit. He has given us all this, because He saw what was in us and what we would do. Some people say, It could be right, or it could be wrong. I m really not all that concerned about it. I m saved anyway. Well, that s true. And if you ve ever been born again you are going to be there and there s no way to get out of it. But that s not what God is dealing with now. The is gospel is dealing with not only redemption of our soul, but of these mortal bodies. Because Paul said, We travail in pain waiting for the adoption to wit redemption of the body. So, we re not redeemed unless and until our bodies are redeemed and we re living in that glorified body without pain, without any of the infirmities that faces these old bodies. He saw a people that would respond to His Word and He put something in their hearts, because of their honesty and their love for the Word. He put something in your heart and gave you a revelation

45 which makes it shine brighter and brighter. Other people might say it is fanaticism; it s a cult, and many other things. But there are a people that are sold on it. God by His foreknowledge saw what you would do and He saw that even in this time when He is moving and getting His bride ready, He s also present tense calling. We invite sinners to come and sit among us. That s what Christ died for. He died to save sinners. And He is a God that is. I know there is a teaching that one day He is going to get off the mercy seat and there will be no blood on the mercy seat and nobody else can be saved. Well, that s formulated from the mind of man, not from the Word of God. When He died on the cross He redeemed forever. According to the Book of Hebrews, He redeemed forever! When He shed that blood it never loses its power. It was a one time thing. He redeemed every one that will ever accept Him. He reached over and redeemed all that was in the Old Testament. Why do you think that God put that little lamb out there for them to kill, to shed his blood, and offer his blood as a sacrifice? It was only pointing to, because God already saw that His son would come as the Lamb of God and die for the sins of all those that were both in the Old Testament and New Testament, because the Bible says, The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. But it was just as good as taking it away as far as being saved, because God already foresaw what they would do. So what He did before the foundation of the world, He said your name is on the Lamb s book slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation, Chapter 13) He was slain from the foundation of the world to redeem all those names that were in the book. You might say, Preacher, what if my name is not in the book? Let s be sure it is there by what we do. For God is and He is watching it play out present tense. Even though He has already done it, it is still present tense with you; always remember that. God s foreknowledge of the present tense justifies His predestination as far as your destination is concerned. But He lets it play out and lets us make every decision. Whosoever will, He said, Let him come. Well, if the book is already written, how do I know that I m there? God is present. His foreknowledge of the present tense has determined what you re going to do when you hear this truth. Nobody is blocked out. It s just that we block ourselves out sometimes. Even Cain (I was reading that yesterday), when Abel offered his sacrifice to God and God honored it, Cain didn t know exactly what to offer, so he brought the fruits of the ground and offered it. Well, God accepted Abel s sacrifice because he had slain a lamb. But God told Cain, If thou doest well will not thou be accepted? (You can read it there in Genesis, Chapter 4) God knew what he would do, but He gave him that chance and He is giving you a chance today. Had Cain rose up and said, Yes, I need to do like my brother Abel. I need to offer a lamb. Thank you, God, for revealing it to me. Then Cain would

46 have been accepted. But instead, he got mad. And how many people today instead of accepting this after seeing it, knowing it is right, they get upset about it? But there are some that say, Did not our heart burn within us while He spake to us on the way. Yes, God has a wonderful message to the wife of the Lamb. He sends a message knowing there will be people here; He already foresaw it. He already foresaw there would be a message that would cause your heart to burn within you. One Brother said, Brother Ben, when you preach there is a burning in my heart. This Word causes a burning. Brother Enoch in Africa came to a meeting there in Blantyre, Malawi. He had never seen me, and I had never seen him. There had been preachers there in the area coming and reading reports and quoting out of Spoken Word books, and that s what most is doing in Brother William Branham s movement. So he said, Well, I ll go and see what kind of report he s got. But what he saw was this I walked out there on the platform and didn t even open my Bible. I started preaching the Word and the power of God was falling. He said every word was like streams of fire hitting him right in the heart. He s never been the same since. Brothers and Sisters, God has foreseen. He foresaw I would be there. He foresaw that He would anoint me. He foresaw that He would give me a message. And He foresaw a people that would receive it, while there are others that say, Well, it was a pretty good message. He acted a little fanatical though. He should have stood a little straighter. He should have read some reports. No. There are people today that don t want to hear you get up and read a report. There are people today that don t want to hear you get up and read notes that you got together three years ago, because God is a present God now. Can you say, Amen? And God foreseeing this message, He made it up to date, He made it present tense. All these sermons all the way through, almost 2,000 sermons, God has made them present tense. You might say it was before your time. No, God is present. A brother said, When you listen to one of the tapes that were preached years and years ago, it s still so fresh it sounds like it is for tomorrow. It takes God to do that. By His foreknowledge He ordained it. I didn t know words and letters and how to read, but He foresaw that I would get a hold of something. So He gave me a mind to remember. I would listen to a preacher read a scripture; I had it. I d go back and read that same one, because I d remember what he said this word was, and what he said that word was. You can read my testimony on the internet of how that I would look at the word as he read. I would see him use the word t-h-e, and he would call that word the. I d keep watching and then I d see a word called then. I would think, That s that same word; it s just got an n on it. I see how this thing works. Then he d use a word like their. I d think, Wait a minute, that s that same word; it just has ir on it. Then he d say them. I was beginning to get this thing, because them is

47 the with a m on it. So I came on up to where I m at now. See, God foresaw all these things. By His foreknowledge He saw that I would be hungry, so He gave me a mind to remember, so I could read. Because He knew that I would use it for His glory. I don t care much about reading anything else, just the Word of God. I can read other things and occasionally I will be interested in another subject and read some. It doesn t mean that I m limited to reading the Word, but this is my main stay. Preachers have always preached about predestination, and the eternal security of God, and how He predestinated you before the foundation of the world and put your name on the Lamb s book of life. And there began to be a thinking promoted, especially if someone didn t really want go get their teeth in it. They d say, Well, if my name is in the book I ll be there, and if it s not there s no use for me to try. See, He is; and that is today. By God s foreknowledge of the present, it justifies Him to predestinate where you re going to be, because He saw what you were going to do in the present. But here He comes with this message and says, Here it is. That is what He is doing today, He is bringing a message; He s making it available for whosoever will, on the internet through the website it is going all over the world. All you have to do is click a few buttons and go right on it, SoundOfLiberty.org, and there s a message! Go through some of the sermons and click play, and there you are hearing the Word. It s not only available here, but it s in Europe, India, Africa, Russia, and all over. They re coming on and hearing. God saw to it. He is an ever present God and He judges from the present tense. He didn t get back there and judge and let you do what you wanted. He didn t get back there without seeing you and put some names on the book and left off some. No, He is present in His predestination. He s present in His foreknowledge. He sees what we do today, whether we will accept Him. TODAY, remember that. The Bible says, Today is the day of salvation; NOW is the accepted time. There were men in the Bible that God enlightened to the point that they trembled. That s in the Book of Acts where Paul gave his testimony to Festus and King Agrippa (Acts, Chapters 25 & 26). When Paul told them about Jesus, they called Paul in and said, Paul, what is this that you re doing? What are you teaching? Why is everybody so upset? I need to know, because I ve got to judge you. What s going on here? You have turned the world upside down. That s what they said about Paul and Silas in Acts 17:6, These two have come hither that turned the world upside down. It was what they were preaching. So, King Agrippa listened to what Paul said, and do you know what King Agrippa wound up saying? He said, Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And he put Paul forth and said, I ll hear you at another time. But he never did do it, see. Almost persuaded; almost is

48 but to be lost. Almost is past that point where He s got the pen in hand, writing your name in the book. Of course, we know there s no literal book; it s in His mind. He s got a mind that remembers every flea that s ever been on the earth. He knows what happened to it. Now that s what we are dealing with. We re not just dealing with some little mind of man. We re dealing with a great God. We re dealing with a God so great that He can be here today and what we do today determines what He put in the book before time began. And therefore it doesn t mean that your name is on the book of life and you ll be saved, and this man s name is not there so he can t be saved. No. He said, Whosoever will. God gave King Agrippa an opportunity present tense. Paul said, Here it is. King Agrippa said, You almost persuaded me to be a Christian. You re getting under my skin, Paul. You almost got me convinced. Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but everyone else would hear and accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Then King Agrippa put him forth, because they couldn t handle it anymore. I ve seen people get up and walk out. What happened that you got up? Well, I was under conviction and I couldn t handle it anymore. Some will hear this gospel and they will declare to you that it is 100% truth; this is God! You and I have known people that have sat and listened and said it was the greatest thing they ve ever heard. Three days later, Well, I don t know. Maybe I spoke in my haste. Well, sometimes we get excited and say stuff. They let it run off like water on a ducks back. Some do. That determines how God deals with them. See, He s present tense making His determination even though the book was written way back, because He saw all these things and how they would work out. If there s a sinner, run to Jesus and accept Him. Because He foresaw that you would do that. And He put (in His book) This one s mine; this one is mine; this one is mine. God said, I will make a book of remembrance for you. We talk about the Lord a lot. Some people say, Ben, you and Barbara need to get a life. All you want to do is talk about the Lord or do these books and tapes and go to meetings and all this. Get a life! Well, that s what happened. We did! We did get a life. God foresaw it, so He made a way. He made a way and that s why we ve got joy unspeakable and full of glory! That s why there s no mountain before us too steep to climb. That s why there s no ocean too wide to cross. There s no valley too deep to go through. Because my heart is fixed, one in the Bible said. David, he said, My face is fixed like a flint. In other words, that s the way it is. Glory to God! He knows what you will allow Him to mold you into. The prayer is, Lord, mold and make me that which you would have me to be. But when we say that, let s yield to the potter s hand as that Word of God comes forth. If you re a Christian the Word of God is not hard for you, it s joyful for you.

49 I don t have to say, I m this, or I m that. But I ll say this; God has got an apostolic ministry in the land just as He did with Paul. All five offices were represented in Saint Paul and the ministry went out as they received what Paul said. There was Titus. There was Timothy. There was Apollos. And Paul said, See that you speak the same thing, that there be no division among you. It was as though there were apostles everywhere, although there was actually one. Because what Paul was saying was the same thing that Timothy was saying. What Paul said was the same thing that Titus said. What Paul was saying was the same thing that Apollos was saying. Is that right? God foreordained it before the world was. And He calls. He said if you run in a race, if you don t run lawfully you will be disqualified. That s in 2 Timothy. See, there are some qualifications. What is it? Paul said, These things you ve heard me preach, you preach (by revelation) the same thing and teach others that they may teach the same thing too, so that this one mind of Christ will be spread throughout the whole Christianity. And by God s foreknowledge He saw, so He called and anointed certain men that when they hear this they latch on to it. I saw on television some time back where they were training some bulldogs. They d tie something up in a tree so the dog could barely get to it, like a piece of meat on a rope. But that bulldog, once it got a hold of it they had to pry it loose. It just would not turn it loose. It would die there before it would turn it loose. And there are people that would die with this thing before they would turn it loose. The early Saints, the Christians, it is said that all the apostles were put to death except John. We re not sure what happened to John because history is not clear after the Book of Revelation, but we know God kept him alive. He was past 90 years old and his mind was twice as sharp as ours. Everything God showed him he wrote it down with the exception of what the thunders said, and he didn t forget one thing. Everything is just like God showed him on the Isle of Patmos. He got a hold of that and there was no way to get him to turn loose. When God lights a fire, the more you try to put it out the more it s going to burn. It s like God has lit a fire in our hearts and there is no way to put it out. We don t want it to be put out. God foresaw in eating this little book that it would be as sweet as honey and there would be some bitterness to go along with it. But He said to eat it all! Watch this: those He called, He justified; and those that He justified, He s already glorified! He s just waiting for the time period to run out. Because present tense He saw it; He s already justified, and already glorified! He said, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect? Romans 8:31, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now watch what he says in Verse 32, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely

50 give us all things? Now He didn t spare His Son; will He spare anything else? What Paul is saying here, if God went that far, that s as far as you can go. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? He s met our needs! Sometimes He even meets our wants. The next verse says, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God s elect? It is God that justifieth. God justified, so shut up. Amen? Because God already looked over the hill and saw. We look at present day situations, but God has already looked over here. The day before the light struck Paul down, my convictions would be, They need to do something with that man, put him in prison or get rid of him some way. That would have been my judgment. But God said, He s a chosen vessel. Because God could see over the hill and I couldn t. God knew when Paul was so raged, as Acts, Chapter 9 says, That he was breathing out threatening against the church. He was like a wild man. He was like a lunatic saying, Kill them, put them in jail, whatever; stop this, stop this name of Jesus being preached! He was zealous of the law. But once the Lord struck him down Paul knew what the Pillar of Fire was. The Lord struck him down, and I don t know if he was on a horse or not, I imagine he was because he was under the authority of the high priest, so I m pretty sure they supplied whatever he would need. He had papers to arrest anyone that he found worshipping in the name of Jesus. Here came a big light. It was so bright, brighter than the noon day sun, the Bible says. Paul fell to the ground as dead. Then he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me? He said, Who art thou, Lord? The reply came back, I am Jesus, whom thou persecuteth. Paul never was the same. Here s what he said next. He said, Lord, what would thou have me to do? See, that s the question, Lord, what would thou have me to do? The Lord said, Arise, go into the city and it will be told thee what to do. See, the present tense God. And today there is a present tense gospel. Here it is. He foresaw it before the world was. By His foreknowledge He predestinated this gospel to be here and here it is in the present. And if you re here and don t know God the way you would like to know Him, He is here. I am He which is, and was, and is to come. Verses 33-34, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?... Christ died and He justified. Now what are you going to say about it? Think about that. He said, It is Christ that died. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect? It says, continuing with Verse 34, Who is it that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And he goes on with, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? In other words what he is saying here, God has justified and there is no Voice higher. That s the final say. God is the Supreme Court. It is God that justifies and anything under God has no right to say anything. It is Christ that died, who is he that condemneth? No one else

51 can. Then he says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And it goes on. I ll quote this and not read it. In the Book of Acts, to confirm this it says, Known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world. I want to get that scripture, in closing out, on is. God said, I am He which is. That means now. And, I m still the one that was. And I m still the one that is to come. But the is is what I want to deal with. That s where the secret is. That is is present tense. We can say, I m going somewhere, or I ve been somewhere, but I am here. That s the is the present tense. I want to read this one scripture, and then I m going to close out. This is John on the Isle of Patmos here in Revelation 1:4 and it says, John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, Now watch, peace from him which is, that s now, present tense; that s where the peace of God is. It s not, I ll get peace next week, or I ll get peace next month. Peace is here this morning, and Jesus Christ is that peace. He is that rest that we ve entered into. All right, it says, continuing Revelation 1:4, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; I want you to watch. God is first. That s where the foreknowledge comes in, the is today. How many sees it? How could foreknowledge be here today? Because of God s present foreknowledge He s justified in His predestination. Therefore, no one can ever say, Well, if I m predestinated to go to hell, then I m going to hell. If I m predestinated to go to heaven, then I ll go to heaven. I have no choice about it. You have all the choice, because of the is. Some people try to take the scripture and pull it to the side and try to make it say something that would contradict the rest of the Bible; for example where God said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. He did that on the bases of Just follow their lives and you will see why. Esau did everything that was contrary. Jacob did everything that God wanted done. God foresaw it, so He is justified in saying that. He didn t say it just because there were two little children and He loved one and hated the other. No. He was looking at their lives and what they would do, and what they would do when they came in contact with the Word. The Angel of the Lord came to Jacob and he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord all night. Jacob said, I m not going to let you go until you bless me. He touched him on the hip and he had a limp the rest of his life. But Jacob held on. He was like that bulldog, No way am I going to let you go. I want the blessings of God. I want the will of God; and I m going to hold to the horns of the altar until I get it. God foresaw that and His sayings were justified because it was based upon that. Now on the other hand, Esau did every other thing contrary. But see how people take something, if they re not ordained to preach it they ll say, This child was born

52 to go to heaven and this child was born to go to hell. See, that s total nonsense. So, God said it upon the bases of what they did, because He is the I AM. He is He which is, which was, and which is to come. He foresaw the whole scope of the thing. There s no sinner that s going to go to hell that can say, Well, my name wasn t in the book to begin with. There s no other place I could go. No. God put your name on the book based on what you re going to do, because His foreknowledge rests upon is. That is present tense. Yes, there are many people whose names are not on the book of life. But God somewhere or another gave them a chance. But they spurned the mercy of God and went on their own way. Then God is justified in writing His book. God is justified with the revelation you see. There are some people who say, I just can t see that, Brother Howard. Well, let s look at it from this stand point, have you come in contact with truth and you knew if you did accept it that it would put you in a peculiar situation? So you decide to set it on the table, and to push that back. Then later on you may say, I can t understand these things. Why? Well, the God that is came knocking, laying it before you, making it plain as the noon day sun and for some reason, whatever the reason may have been, you say, It sounds good, but you know I always have my doubts! That s an excuse. If you always have your doubts, then whatever God does He s justified in doing. Amen. God s foreknowledge in the present justifies His predestination. How many sees that now? So there s nothing unfair about God. He has never done anything unfair. We look at when the children of Israel were down in Egypt crying out for a deliverer. God had raised up another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph. God sent Moses down there to Egypt to deliver them. He smote the earth with frogs, flies and turned the water to blood. Pharaoh turned right to his gods and priests and he never got an answer from them. But Moses had the answer and said, Here is the answer, Pharaoh. Let My people go. Worship the God of heaven. Pharaoh said, I ll worship my own gods. When Moses came to him and said, God sent me to tell you, Let My people go. Pharaoh said, Your god. (laughing) Who is your god? We ve got gods of all kinds. Look at my god over here (a big statue). I m not going to listen to your god. I ll call my priests in and ask them. But remember when the water was turned to blood, he called the priests in and they couldn t help him. When his cabinets got full and even the meal barrel got full of frogs he called for his priests and his gods, but they couldn t help him. But Moses just spoke a Word and they went away. When fleas infected the place, Pharaoh called his gods, all his priests, his council around him, and said, Take these away. But they couldn t do it. He was looking to his gods. But here s the God of heaven. Moses just spoke a Word, said, Lord, take them away. And all a sudden there

53 weren t a flea to be found. That s our God! There are many examples in the Bible I could gleam from, but I just love telling about how God dealt with Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn t just happen to do it, he had to reject something first, because God sent a prophet that could turn a stick into a serpent. Pharaoh s gods could do that, too. But Moses serpent went and ate up the other two serpents. Now there they stood with nothing. Moses reached down and picked up his serpent by the tail and it became a rod. Was God justified in what He did in Egypt? Yes, He was. The ultimate thing about the story was that He brought the children of Israel out with a great victory. Even after Pharaoh saw what God had done and knew that this is God and knew that Moses God was the real God, the God of heaven, he still wouldn t give Him glory. Just as soon as the children of Israel got out of sight, Pharaoh gathered his army up and said, We re not going to let those people go. We re losing a lot of free labor. We re going after them. So he gathered his army around. They refused to honor the God of heaven. The children of Israel were caught between the Red Sea and the army. Old Pharaoh was dancing around saying, Moses, where s your god at? We re going to mop the ground up with you. God told Moses to hold out his rod and he held it out right over the Red Sea and God made a highway. And Pharaoh s army said, We ll go that same highway. But God let the water cave in and drown them. Was God justified? Yes, He offered them all they needed if they would let His people go. Pharaoh said, We ll let a few of you go. But Moses said, No. All the saints of God are part of this. We re not going to leave nothing behind in Egypt. You re talking mighty big, Moses. I ve got my army. I ve got my council. Look at the god s I ve got, three or four here in the palace. Where is your god? What is his name? Moses said, His name is I AM. Not I was or I will be, but I AM. When Moses called for frogs, they saw the I AM then. How many see that God is justified in His predestination. By His foreknowledge in the present He is justified in His predestination, because He does nothing unjust without giving you a chance. There was old King Nebuchadnezzar, how he said, I m not going to praise God. I ve got gods aplenty. Well, God just ripped him from his throne and put him out there in the wilderness and his fingernails became just like eagle claws. He was a wretched part of a man. One day he looked up and said, I recognize the God of heaven. Do you know what God did? He restored him back to his throne and gave him back all his servants and everything. But I think we get the point of what God is saying. So, don t ever question, I don t know if my name is in the book or not. Well, if you don t, then what are you doing about it? Ever think about that? Do like that Nebuchadnezzar, look up and acknowledge the God of heaven.

54 God bless you today. Let us pray: Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your love, your goodness, and your mercy, and for your mighty, mighty, mighty Word, the mighty plan of Salvation, for the mighty knowledge of God that you have given us. You ve been extremely good to us, Lord, above all the people in the world to bring this and let us see your predestination was based on the foreknowledge of the present. Now we see how you are just and that you didn t make one to be lost and one to be found and made things to go bad for this one and things to go good for that one. But all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. Lord, by your foreknowledge of what we would do even today, it registers in that book beyond the curtain of time. Bless us all together now as we think on the Word of God. And just help us to be all that you would have us to be. In Jesus Name. Amen.

55 HE HAS MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS It s a great pleasure to be with you today. I thank God for you; a humble people that has come together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We ve already had one service today in Salima and the Lord blessed mightily, but this is another service and Christ is still real. He is still the same yesterday, today, and forever with that love of God that just flows forth among us. All right, I would like to read in the Word of God today in Chapter 17 of the Book of Acts and I am going to read Verse 26, And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. Let us bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear heavenly Father, Lord as we come to you once again, I thank you for giving us traveling mercies to this point of the journey. Lord you have taken care of us and you have kept us unto this hour. I pray as we are gathered here that you will touch our spirit as we remember the words of the Apostle Paul where he says, Our sufficiency is of God and as he says further, The letter of the Word killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Lord we just pray in your precious name that you will anoint the people to hear as you anoint me to speak in Jesus Christ Name we ask it. Amen. Now we have read a scripture in your hearing today that God has made of one blood all nations and He has set the bounds of our habitation, showing that God is in control of all things. So the title of our message today is He Has Made of One Blood All Nations. When we begin to look at the sufficiency of the scriptures we see how God explains all things that we need to know on our journey. The scripture we just read is a wonderful scripture and it lets us know we are all part of God s created family. He has made of one blood all nations, and the blood of all is red blood. We could give each other a blood transfusion regardless of what nation we are from. That is the natural lifeline of the body. I was over in Kenya a couple of weeks back and I took a fall and my nose bled profusely for quite a while. But all of a sudden, they gathered around me and prayed and it just stopped bleeding immediately. Hallelujah, our God is a great God! The Word of God speaks of blood and it says, The life is in the blood. The Word teaches that Jesus shed His blood for us, not for one nation, not for one people, but for all those predestinated seed of God. All things are accomplished by the blood of Jesus Christ and we are washed from our sins by His precious blood. So when we look at the blood of Jesus Christ we see that this is God s lifeline to us. Paul spoke of it as the blood of God

56 in Acts 20:28, showing that all God s family is connected to Him and to one another as His children by God s blood line. So now, we see the natural blood of Jesus Christ and what it accomplished at Calvary as it was spilled for full payment of sin. Then, we bring it over into the life that s in the blood where it never waxes old. Now we see two elements of the blood of Jesus Christ and they are the chemistry and the life of the blood. The chemistry of the blood flows in our veins and it can be seen with the natural eye, but the life of the blood is something you can t see with the natural eye. So we have the life of the blood flowing through our veins, that s why each one of us can say, I have the blood of Jesus Christ flowing, not the natural blood, but the life of the blood. Now I want you to notice that all nations are made of one blood, spiritually meaning that all nations receives the benefits of what Jesus did at Calvary; and the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. I preached a message in Kenya a couple of weeks back entitled, Jesus Preached the Gospel to the Poor. After a long fast He came forth preaching and the Bible says in Luke 4:18-19, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Hallelujah! Then, we see John who was in prison sending his disciples to ask of Jesus, Are you the one that should come, or should we look for another? Jesus answered unto John s disciples, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached. (Luke 7:22) Jesus went to the common people for they were the ones that would hear Him in that day, and it s the same thing today. Notice, He is putting a bride together today of many nations and tongues, and this gospel is going to many nations. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 10, He tells us to go take the little book, eat it, and prophesy again before many peoples, nations, tongues and kings (or kingdoms.) The point I want you to see is that we cannot make any differentiation of any kind as it relates to any nation, people, or tongue. God took care of that when He created man. Now we couldn t give a blood transfusion to an animal and they couldn t give one to us. But all people regardless of who they are have the very same blood. God made of all nations one blood, just as God baptized us into the body of Christ by one Spirit and we all have the same life of the blood (Spiritual blood.) Now when we get a revelation of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Word tells us to walk in the light and God forgives us of all sins. It says, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us. I want you to notice that word cleanseth, at the end of it there is an eth which means a continual process. That means we are cleansed, it means it is a continual process and

57 it is applied by walking in the light of the Word. In other words we follow on to know the Lord. God set boundaries for all. He set borders for all, and there is something for the bride of Jesus Christ to enter into. There is a special place for the bride of Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice there are more of God s children than just the bride. He said, All nations are made of one blood. Now bring that over to the Spiritual blood. All the cleansing power of God for His people is by the blood of Jesus Christ, the one blood. It s the one Spirit, but He set certain boundaries and He ordained certain people for different purposes. In the days that Jesus Christ walked amongst us, we find that God anointed twelve apostles who went forth preaching to the Jewish Nation and the blood of Jesus Christ was applied. The Word says, Repent every one of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38) We find there it was basically speaking to Israel. There is one nation there, but when it came over to the Gentiles they too had a Day of Pentecost. When Peter went over and preached at Cornelius house, the Holy Ghost fell on them as well as it did on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost. So Peter said unto them, Who can forbid water that these should be baptized? And they were baptized in the name of the Lord for remission of sins. That one blood spread from the Jews to the Gentiles. God is creating a bride in this hour that is blood bought and blood washed. It is not the chemistry of the blood, but it s the Spirit of the blood. So you can say I have the blood of Jesus Christ flowing in my veins spiritually. Paul spoke and told us that there was a natural man and a spiritual man. The natural man still looks at the natural blood. Many times, people will set up their different statues and crucifixes that are made with hands and they will have Jesus nailed to a cross, a statue of what they think He looked liked. Then some of the statues or crucifixes will have blood running down on them and the people will say, We are cleansed by the blood. But they are only looking at the natural the entire time. The natural blood was shed at Calvary. The Book of Hebrews says, He entered once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us all. He said, It s not like it was in the old covenant where every year they would have to make a blood sacrifice. But He entered in once to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26) And He did it once. Then the life went out of the blood at Calvary. Now we have the life that was in the Spiritual blood. That s how the blood cleanses us when we walk in the light of the Word and it is for all nations, kindred, and tongues. For all nations, kindred, and tongues there is one blood; there s one Spirit of Christ. There is one Spirit of redemption and that one Spirit of redemption is applied to our heart as we walk in the light. That is why it is so important for us to walk in the light of God s Word. Because when we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood

58 of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. But if we say we know Him and walk in darkness the Word says, We lie and do not the truth. Now I want you to notice the important thing here: If you are walking in darkness then you re still in your errors. But we know the bride of Christ has nothing against her at all. She is clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. So Christ took our sins and then He in turn gave us His righteousness. Making us as righteous as He is righteous, and this is applied as we walk in the light. Now when the light moves, we must move where there is light and walk in the light. He says, If we walk in the light as He is in the light. I want you to notice that, as He is in the light. This is, because the light is where the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ is applied, and that cleansing blood here is the life of that blood. Praise the Lord! In the natural blood, all nations are made of one blood. So the natural human family whoever they are or wherever they re at humanly speaking are all kindred by the natural blood that flows in our veins. Color has nothing to do with it, whether you are white, yellow, black, or whatever. We are all created of one blood. He said, All nations. There is only one human blood, although there are different blood types, yet still there is one human blood, and color or nationality has nothing to do with it. If I needed a blood transfusion I would gladly take it from you, and if you needed a blood transfusion I would gladly give you mine (providing, of course our blood type matched.) We could save a life that way, because all nations are made of one blood. Then when we bring it over into the Spirit, He makes no difference. The cleansing power is the same for the yellow, black, or white, whoever it is. That cleansing power is the same for all. It s not one race is less spiritual or more spiritual than another. All nations receive the same forgiveness. All nations receive the same blessings from the Almighty. Now God said that He set boundaries. He deals with the nation of Israel in a different way. And when the gospel goes back to Israel the Bible says, In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. (Zechariah 13:1) They will accept that Lamb of God and what He did at Calvary. Although the blood doesn t exist in its chemistry form today, we can still sing, That precious blood has never lost its power. I feel the cleansing power of that blood today. That is why when we walk in the light it puts a revival in our souls. That inner man is getting a blood transfusion. You can t belong to a system of religion and believe right, because they won t allow it and this stops the cleansing power of the blood. But there is a bride that is without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. Paul said, Ye are the children of light. And children of light can t walk in darkness. Children of light can t be comfortable around those who do walk in darkness. But the children of

59 light accept the Word of God. Paul said in Colossians 1:13, We have been translated into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, We have been made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of light. Now what nation is that for? What people is that for? Do you have to live in a certain place to get that? Do you have to be a certain color or race to get that? The Holy Ghost doesn t have any color to it. All nations are made of one blood naturally, and all God s family has one Spiritual blood flowing through their veins. But there is a special group of people that are called the bride of Christ and they become His wife. The wife of the Lamb, Revelation 19:7-9, His wife hath made herself ready and it was granted to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white which is the righteousness of saints. Now in the Book of Revelation we find the different groups of people. We find a great number of people that go through the tribulation period and this great number has boundaries set for them. The Bible says, They are dressed in white robes, and not with the fine linen which is only for the wife of Christ. The tribulation saints are cleansed by the blood as they wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. But there s a special group that Jesus said, Come up hither (higher), in Revelation 4:1 and this is after the church ages are over. John said, He heard a Voice that said, Come up hither, and he was picked up right to the throne of God. Now the Word of God speaks of tribulation saints and they are a wonderful people. They have the life of God within them and they have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They have the blessings of God upon them and they are ordained for a different purpose than the wife which is united to Him in marriage. To this special group of people (the wife) there is sent a five fold ministry; there is apostolic leadership and they reach the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. They are cleansed by the Spirit of the blood and baptized into the body of Christ. Then we see the foolish virgins; and although they are born again by the Spirit of the blood they fail to walk in the light of this apostolic ministry and therefore are not baptized into the body of Christ. The same thing applies to the tribulation saints. The difference between the foolish virgins and the tribulation saints is very simple. The foolish virgins are the saints that walked with the wise virgins until more truth was revealed. So therefore they are not included in the marriage and the rapture. Those that heard William Branham, but refused to move on with the part of the message that Raymond Jackson brought, many became foolish virgins. Now many of those that heard Brother Jackson refuse to move on into this part of the message, because like those that heard Brother Branham they refuse to accept the furtherance of the message, thus also making many of them foolish virgins. They refuse to accept this final part of the message of uniting with Christ as His wife as she takes the little book of Revelation 10:8-

60 11. So the foolish virgins are those that were partakers of the first two parts of the message, but refused to move into this part which is the marriage to Christ. Now the tribulation saints are all others that are born again but were not affected by the message at all, but have eternal life and love the Lord to a point. That means the foolish virgins and the tribulation saints both miss the rapture and are still here when the tribulation period begins, and together are called tribulation saints. They are clothed with white robes, while the wise virgins has become His wife and been clothed in fine linen, clean and white, and taken in the rapture before the tribulation period starts. That is the difference in the identities of the blood bought groups. All nations, all people, all of God s children have the Spirit of the blood of Christ Jesus flowing in them. I am talking about that spiritual man. There is a great multitude and John asked, Who are these? And the angel said, These are they that came out of great tribulation. (Revelation 7:14) They have the same Spiritual blood. They have the same Spirit of Christ within them. But there is the wife of Christ and God sends her a five fold ministry and she is baptized into the body of Christ. This means that Christ has chosen His wife. This is the people that are the very wife of Christ. His wife hath made herself ready and it s given to her to be clothed in fine linen. She didn t have to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and her testimony in the tribulation period. She is baptized into Him by one Spirit. We are baptized into one body. God set certain boundaries. He gave Esau a certain mountain. He gave Moab a certain mountain, and God told the children of Israel that He would not give them one foot of their land, because He gave them a homeland. Our land is the light of the Word of God that we are living in right now. God gave instruction to Israel; God told the Israelites as they were marching through Canaan land. Don t touch Esau s mountain. I gave it to Esau and I ll not give you a foot of it. And when you pass through the land of the Moabites, don t meddle with them, because I gave them a place. God gave us the best that there is and we are not trying to take in the denominational land. But we come together to make love with Christ through the Word that He has given us. God told Israel, As you march towards Canaan land, don t touch the land of the others because I gave it to them. They were made out of the same blood that the children of Israel were made out of. By one blood He has made all nations and by the blood of Jesus Christ He cleanses all people. Well, there are certain things that God ordained for each nation, just as He ordained us to be the wife of Christ and there s nothing better. Now everybody that is born again doesn t become the wife of Christ, but only those that become one with Him. As God only sent the nation of Israel the prophet Moses, so is it that God only sends His wife a five fold ministry. God only sends the wife of Christ the apostolic leadership, because

61 Ephesians 4:11-16 says, He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then we are no longer tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. We begin to speak the truth in love and the body begins to edify itself. Each member begins to supply the other as we are functioning as the body of Christ. In the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 5, Paul was speaking of the bride only when he made reference to a scripture from Genesis, A man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. They are no longer twain, but one flesh. Watch what he says, This a great mystery, but I am speaking of Christ and the church (wife). So there is a distinct difference. Then in Revelation, Chapter 10, God sends back the little book for the wife. And as He sends back the little book for the wife, He lets her know the little book is open. As the thunders were cleared up by the voice of the seventh angel, there s another Voice from heaven, the Voice of Authorization (the Voice of God) who speaks to John, him being a type of the bride and is told, Go take the little book out of the Mighty Angel s hand. Now everybody doesn t hear that call, because everybody is not the bride of Christ. Now whether you hear that call, whether you are that or not, you still receive benefit of the blood of Christ; but the bride gets the high calling. Paul spoke of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. There is no higher calling than being the wife of Christ. The Bible says, She will speak with one mind and one mouth. Ye have the mind of Christ. That s speaking to the wife. God has the apostolic ministry to the bride to get her married to Christ in this last day which makes her His wife. She is totally cleansed as she walks in the light of the Word. She walks in the light! But while this is taking place, God is still dealing with other faucets of His people. God sent only one nation a prophet and that was Moses sent to Israel, but God spoke to other people in certain ways. They were of the same natural seed as Moses; Esau and Jacob were brothers in the flesh, but one of them received a spiritual desire that the other one didn t have. So by the Spirit of the blood the cleansing power goes to all nations. It goes to all people, whosoever will accept it; but there is a bride that is chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. She is a special people and God has sent her something special. He sent her a ministry that will build her up into the perfect stature of the man Christ Jesus. He sent her a message that is the marriage vows and this ministry gets us married to Christ. We become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. The Word says, He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Husband and wife are the Word in its purest form, the man and woman, Christ and His wife coming together

62 intimately. The act of marriage is a great mystery, but I am speaking of Christ and the church. Christ is moving in this hour for you people to bring you into the bride of Christ. Sometimes the question comes up, Brother Howard, how do I know if I m the bride or not? Can you hear His Voice? Can you hear the Voice of the ministry He has sent you? Are you one with the Voice He sent you? Are you one with that apostolic ministry? As Christ and the church come together, the ministry and all the body of Christ will come together as one. They will have the same thoughts, same mind, same Spirit and the same desires. And when that takes place that is typical of Christ and His bride uniting and becoming one. John in Revelation, Chapter 10, goes and takes the little book and the Word is speaking here in the masculine, but it is the whole church that has come together. That is Christ and the bride united perfectly in one and He begins to feed her. By one blood He did it all. God created all nations by one blood. He set certain boundaries by predestination. So if you want to know if you are predestinated to be in the bride, can you hear the Voice of Christ in this hour? The bride hears the Voice of the bridegroom. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. (Revelation 22:17) So there is one Spiritual blood that cleanses all people, even the tribulation saints and all the others that are born again and given eternal life, although they aren t ordained to be the bride because there are boundaries set. In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, it talks about ten virgins; five were wise and five were foolish. They all had lamps; they all slept and slumbered. They all woke up; but the wise had extra oil, while the other five virgins failed to get more oil. The bridegroom came, and those that were ready went into the marriage. Then the door is shut and there is not anybody else to be in the marriage, and only God knows that time. As long as you can hear the Voice and come, you re the bride. But there was some that came knocking and saying, Lord, open unto us. Christ was their Lord; He knew of them, but He didn t know them intimately as husband and wife knows one another. Those are the ones when the rapture takes place and we go up into glory will be left here in this earth and they will give a powerful witness of the things of God. They ll give a powerful witness of the blood of Christ because the Bible says, They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. That s during the 70th Week of Daniel. Aren t you glad that the one blood does it all, the one blood that has become Spirit? It s the life that s in the blood. As the rapture takes place and God begins to deal with Israel again, He will seal out 144,000 Jews to minister in that last half of the 70th Week of Daniel, and the blood of Jesus Christ is just as powerful. But for now, Christ sends a message where you can become bone of His bone and flesh and His flesh. He wants you to be intimate with Him. But He doesn t want you to look down on other peo-

63 ple that are less enlightened. God told Moses and the children of Israel, Don t meddle with the Moabites. Leave Esau s mountain alone. I gave it to him and I m not going to give you a foot of it. That belongs to them. He set boundaries. He gave Esau that mountain. Leave it alone. Make love with the Word of God. Make love with Christ, and thank God that He has shown mercy upon all. Just because God has set a boundary and given you a special message does not mean that there are not others that are part of God s family and are receiving His blessings. He came and gave that bride the Apostle Paul to preach to them in His day and the message was to introduce a bride to Christ. Paul said, I have espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ that I might present you to one husband. But the Gentile church fell away and went through seven church ages. Now, He sends a message to finish up what Paul began and has taken it on to the marriage. Can you hear it bride? Can you hear the bridegroom talking? The bridegroom is talking today. He is making love to His wife while the religious world is going about with their religious programs and denominations. But we are just having precious union with Christ. It is important to know that He has made all nations, whatever race or color of one blood. When Christ shed His blood we had that blood applied to our hearts, which is that Spirit of the Lord. All nations, kindred, and tongues get that blood applied, all those that accept Christ. But there is a special group that He sends His Word in a special way. He becomes one with her. She was predestinated to be His wife. She was with Him in the beginning. Now she thinks like He thinks, she talks like He talks, she loves like He loves, and she has His mind. The Bible says in Romans, Chapter 15, she has His mouth. Paul said, Let us speak the same thing. Now that excludes denominations with all their creeds and dogma s. But it doesn t mean that many of them have not accepted the blood of Christ. We have many people in our part of the world that will go around testifying, Do you know Christ? They will tell you what denomination they belong to. Then they will begin to tell their creeds and dogma s on what they believe. Well, how about Christ and the bride? God sent the bride a prophet to call her out of denominations, out of all religious systems, and now He has given her apostolic leadership. He s making love to her. He is becoming one with her, bone of His bone and flesh and His flesh as that Spiritual life is applied as she walks in the light of the Word. God bless you. I ve enjoyed speaking with you, and I thank God for you. Amen.

64 PAUL PLANTED, APOLLOS WATERED AND GOD GAVE THE INCREASE AS WE LABORED TOGETHER It s so good to be with you again. I was with you two years ago and was greatly blessed by being with you. It s good to see this good number out on a Monday morning. We thank God for you. We re going to begin our reading of the Word of God today in 1 Corinthians 3:4 and I want to take this thought, Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, and God Gave the Increase As We Labored Together. As we look at the Word, we see the word planted. Planting is a very important thing. You cannot have a crop without planting something. In every new move of God there has to be a planting. We are in a new day, and there is some Word being planted. In the days of Paul, he had the full knowledge that the job wasn t his alone, because he said, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; and we re laborers together with God. So that s what we re doing, we re planting for a new day as we enter into a new phase of the moving of God. We ve come through the seven church ages where God sent seven messengers, and each one of those messengers planted for their time season. There were others that watered the seed; and God gave the increase as every predestinated seed from that time period came in. As each age labored with God, God gave the increase; and the increase was the predestinated for that time period. If God gives the Word, He has predestinated a people to receive the Word. So, planting means there s going to be a harvest; and the harvest of this message is the rapture. Then the angels can sing, Bringing in the sheaves. So God has been moving in a special way through every age, and especially in the days we re living in. Many of us have lived in different parts of the move of God. My ministry began in the 1950s. I saw many plantings and many harvests. I saw the planting and the harvest of the deliverance movement where there were big tents all over the country. Ministers preached healing and deliverance and God gave a harvest. Then that season came to a close, and it began to come into the teaching of the Word. Therefore, as we look at planting of the seed, we look back to the church ages as they were preached. That was a planted seed, and now we have understanding of the seven church ages. There was a message. There s a book entitled, The Seven Church Ages written by the Prophet Brother William Branham, which gives details on this. Also, I was ministering before the seals were opened. The Word was planted that the seals had been opened; and it was explained what the

65 seals were. As God sent that spirit of Elijah back to earth, there was a planting and a harvest. But God didn t use just one man to do the harvesting. He didn t use just one man to work His garden. Paul said, I have planted; Apollos, he did the watering. Then he said, Who is Paul; who is Apollos? They re only ministers by whom you believed. Having said that now, let me read the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:4, For while one saith, I am of Paul: and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? That s looking to the human side of the thing, but this is the work of God. Verses 5-7, Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. He is saying here that this work is of God. God used Paul as that apostle to the Gentiles, and Paul spearheaded the great move in his day. He said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles; I magnify my office. Then he said, Don t get your eyes on Paul; don t get your eyes on Apollos, but it is God that doeth the work. He said what Paul did would be nothing, and Apollos watering would be nothing, if God didn t put His blessings upon it and increase it. Praise God! Brother Ben is nobody. Brother Lovemore is nobody; but it s to glorify Jesus Christ. He s the one who gets the glory. He s the one that adds to. He s the one that gives the increase. So when you plant your garden you put your seed in the ground, you water it, and then you ask God to let it grow. It s God that puts the sun in the sky. It s God that sends the rain. It s God that puts the nutrition in the soil. It s God that causes you to have a harvest. So we re just laboring together with God. Now God has got a harvest. You re the planting of the Lord. You re like a tree planted by the water that stretches forth its branches. There s a message going forth where the tree of life is being re-planted. It s being replanted in this day and this hour. There s not one person planting; there s not one person doing the watering; but we re all working together. The Bible says we re going to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Paul is speaking of that word together when he said, Let there be no division among you; but have the same mind and the same judgment. And he said, We re laborers together. So what we re doing is planting, what we re doing is watering, and what we re doing is saying, Lord, give the increase. In every time period there was a move of God which had a planting. There was a great planting in the seventh church age. God used one great prophet to do some planting, but he used many to water. In the Book of Psalms it says, The Lord gave the Word, but great was the company that published it. This work is of God and we re all equally involved in it. My wife back here at the video camera, she ll take these messages and put them on the internet and the whole world can see and hear them. They

66 can hear Brother Lovemore interpret them. They can hear you saying, Amen. They can hear the rain falling. That s your Amens and Praises! We re expecting a crop, the dead in Christ is going to rise, the living is going to be changed, and together we ll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever be with the Lord. The Bible says in Revelation 10:7, But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. That mystery is the seven church ages and it has brought forth a good harvest. I visited the library of the Voice of God when I was in Zimbabwe. It s a very big compound. There s been a great harvest to that planting and we praise God for it. The harvest has been gathered in, but now there s another planting. After the seven church ages are over, after the mystery of God is finished, after the seals have been opened, then we see the Mighty Angel come down from heaven, which was Christ coming in angelical form. Brother Branham said, I must decrease, but He must increase. Praise God, there has been a great move of God and there has been a harvest, and great was the harvest. The harvest was that evening time. The harvest was what that evening time message produced after the seals were opened, as the Lamb opened them and gave the revelation to Brother Branham. Then there was the Voice from heaven that spake again. The Voice from heaven spake to John and said, Go take the little book which is open in the hand of the Mighty Angel. Now we re getting into another time period. We re going from Revelation 10:7 to Revelation 10:8. In Revelation 10:7, God took His prophet off the scene when the mystery was finished. The world was in the evening light. The Word says at evening time there will be light; and praise God there was light in evening time as that day was coming to a close. But as Brother Lovemore was saying earlier, every morning the sun rises and it sets in the evening time; and the next morning the hand of God gets the sun up. The hand of God is reaching out with the sun for a new day. The Bible says when Christ comes back to earth, Revelation 10:1-7 at the early beginning, His face was shrouded in a cloud, and the cloud stayed around His face until the seven thunders were uttered; until the seventh angel s message was finished. But then the sun broke forth in a new day for those who are married to Christ. The cloud rolled back and the Voice spake from heaven again saying, Come on, it s a new day. Come on, there s still a move of God. John, go take the little book and begin to eat thereof. There s a planting for this message of this hour. When the Prophet William Branham went off the scene, he said to go back to the beginning. When we go back to the beginning we find an apostolic ministry. We find a time when the gospel was in the hands of the Jews, and later God called an apostle for the Gentiles. And as we ve gone

67 back to the beginning, we go back to that new day as it begins. By this time, God has explained unto us where Israel fits into the picture just before this new day of God breaks forth, and is a time referred to as a silence in heaven and it s at the very ending of the revelation of the seals. And in that time period, that transitional period of a silence in heaven God used a man named Raymond Jackson, Jr. to tell us about Israel. He let us know how God was going to deal with Israel. He let us know about the mystery woman of Revelation Chapter 12; and he showed us where each tribe fits. He told us about the trumpets and vials, the millennium reign; and many other revelations he explained. He told us about the preaching of the everlasting gospel and the 144,000 Jews that would go forth and preach it, this transitional time period ending as the Voice spake from heaven again. (Revelation 10:8) As God took Brother Branham off the scene in 1965, He also took Brother Jackson off the scene in the year All of that has been planted and gathered in. There s been a great planting of the Word. God used the Apostle Brother Jackson to plant the Word and let us know where Israel fits. There were other men that watered that Word. A paper called The Contender went all over the world. God gave the Word, but many were those that published it. Now they re still publishing it; and there has been a harvest of that part (or phase) of the message. Now God continues replanting His garden. And when He re-plants the garden, as He is doing now, it s a message that takes us into the final phase, the consummation of the marriage, and Africa is one of the recipients of it. There s a great move of God taking place here in Africa. It s a new day for Africa. It s a new day for the bride, and there s a new phase of the message. This message reaches back and it gets the life of what Brother Branham taught; it gets the life of what Brother Jackson taught, and that life is gathered into this final phase. Then God began to plant this seed. He incorporates all that He has previously done so that the bride will have complete understanding. So in the days of Paul after the Jewish age was over, God planted a brand new garden for the Gentiles. He said that He was going to call out of the Gentiles a people for His name sake, and there began a new day. God made that message so powerful, God made that message so real, and God so anointed that message that people failed to see it was of God. They began to think it was Paul. Some began to think it was Apollos. Paul said, Some of you say, I am of Paul, and some of you say, I am of Apollos. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Paul said, I have planted and God used Apollos to water. But all would be in vain if it wasn t for God giving the increase. All that we do today would be in vain unless God gives the increase. Now we re planting a garden, but before the planting takes place its

68 necessary to break up the fallow ground! It s necessary to break up the clogs. It s necessary to put the seed in the ground. It s necessary to water the seed. And it s necessary to say, Lord, you give the increase. That s what God is doing in this hour. There s a message that God sent to us; He calls it the little book. It was in heaven sealed with seven seals. And when John saw the book in heaven sealed with seven seals a strong angel came forth and said, Who is worthy to take the book and loose the seals thereof? And after the search went all over heaven and earth and there was no one found that could do it, John began to weep. Before coming here, we preached a message over in Zimbabwe entitled Weep Not Little Bride. When John was weeping because no one could open the book, one of the elders said, Weep not John. John, I ve got some good news for you. The Lion of the Tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. Then John saw a bloody Lamb come forth and He took the book; he opened the seals. And instead of John weeping, he began to praise God! Everything in heaven began to praise God! Because Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. With all seven seals being opened, the Mighty Angel brought the little book to earth; although He didn t give it right then, He saved it back until the Voice of Authorization spake and told us to take the little book. It was a saved back message. He tarried and held on to it, until He cleared up another necessary portion of His Word before the marriage could take place. After God took the seventh messenger home, he used Brother Jackson to clear up the second part to the fifth seal showing what will happen in Israel after the wife of the Lamb is raptured and the gospel goes back to Israel. Thus clearing up the remaining revelation of the fifth seal and also placing the revelation of the sixth seal, showing it was the day of the Lord after the tribulation period. Then the Voice spake from heaven again; the Voice spake, and that ended that silence in heaven. It ended that transitional period for the bride to start a new day, for the marriage to take place. There was the Voice that spoke from heaven to start a new planting. It was the planting in the hearts and minds of God s people, this is not the end, but it s the beginning. It s the consummation of the marriage; it s the eating of the little book. When I was in Singapore I preached a message entitled, Is This the End or is It the Beginning? When the Voice said, Time is no more, it was the ending of the seventh church age for the bride of Christ. Then the Voice from heaven sounded and started a new beginning, started a new planting, and that s what this message is all about. As Paul said, I have planted. I can say today, I am planting. There are others watering. But it is God that s giving the increase. He opened the door for the bride as the seven church ages came to a close. It was said at the end of that seventh

69 church age, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open I will come in. At the end of the evening light message He closed the door on the age. Then God started a brand new day. And the day started with the Voice of the Almighty speaking, saying It s not over with yet. Then He said, John go take the little book. John received courage in his heart, and walked up to the Mighty Angel. I want you to notice that John walked up to the Mighty Angel and said, Give me the little book. He was thoroughly empowered to do so. He was authorized to do so because the Voice had said to John, Go to the Mighty Angel. So John had the commission to go to the Mighty Angel and say to the Mighty Angel, Give me the little book. And for the first time the Mighty Angel spoke to John. He said, Take the little book. Now John had the authorization of Almighty God to speak. Sometimes God has to authorize us to speak. John had full confidence to speak. You re in a brand new day. There s a new planting. There s a new watering. There s a new increase being given of God. The book of life is back on earth again, and the Voice has authorized John to go ask for it and take possession of it. So when he walked up to the Mighty Angel, he realized he was fully authorized of God. You can t have faith in God to go take the book unless you know you re authorized to do so. John didn t walk up trembling. John didn t walk up afraid he would get rebuked. John walked up to the Mighty Angel knowing that the Almighty had commanded him to, and the Mighty Angel knew that he came in authority. The Mighty Angel said, Here s the little book. Take it now and eat it up. It will be in your stomach bitter, but its sure going to taste good in your mouth. It s going to be just as sweet as honey. John said, So I took the little book. That had started a new day, because the book that was sealed in heaven was now in the hands of John. After the Lamb had opened the seals, in order for this to happen in this manner, just previously God used a man that had the spirit of Elijah upon him and worked with him just like He would an Old Testament prophet. After the seals were opened, God took His prophet home. But before he went home he said, Go back and preach the revelation that Paul preached. And when God took the prophet home, then the Almighty began to speak again. The same God that spoke to Brother Branham, the same one that spoke to him up in the Sunset Mountains of Arizona is now speaking to His wife. Now that the seals have all been taken off, all seven of them, He opened the book and made it available for us to eat. Now it s important to understand this so that we can go ask for it. There s a door closed to many people today because they claim they can t go beyond what the Prophet William Branham said. God used that prophet in a mighty way but He took him off the scene. Then He gave the book to John. He opened a brand new door. When that seventh church age was over in Chapter 4 of the Book of

70 Revelation, John said, I heard a Voice from heaven saying, John just come on up a little higher. He said, Come on up hither. And when John got into the Spiritual realm he heard a Voice like a trumpet talking. He heard a talking trumpet. That talking trumpet is the third phase (final, completion) of the coming of the Lord. And as John was up in heaven there, then that message of that trumpet reached back and connected with what Paul saw. Because Paul said, The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And John being a type of the bride heard a trumpet begin to blow. That was the beginning of the planting for the final phase. That s what is taking place now. As this trumpet continues to sound, as we continue to eat the little book, the final phase of this, the harvest of this planting is the resurrection of the dead and the translation of the living. When the dead in Christ hear the Voice of the Son of God they will come forth. The Bible says, We which are alive and remain are not going to hinder them that are already gone, but we will be changed in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye; caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So that s what God is doing; He is re-planting. It s a new day. It s a new move. It s a new time period. It s the eating of the little book. It s the re-planting of the tree of life. It s going back to get what Paul prophesied would be here. We find that Paul s message was in two parts. The first part of his message was doctrinal and instructional, and that is what the church stood with through seven church ages. But the other part of Paul s message was prophetic; it was Word that was laid in his writings that was to happen in the last day. Some of the things that Paul prophesied did not happen in his day. He did introduce the bride to Christ in engagement; but the marriage didn t take place then. God took that prophetic part of Paul s message into glory and sealed it up with seven seals. Therefore, when that Lamb came to take the book, He had seven horns (earthly angels) and seven eyes, (Spiritual angels) which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth in all the earth. That represents the seven church ages and the seven angels that were with each age. They only received from the hand of God a survival message during that time. But then when the seven church ages are over with, when the last messenger has come and gone and God finishes up this mystery, then He brings back the prophetic part of Paul s message. In other words, He brings back the Spirit and lays it on the Word. Then that Word begins to live. That Word begins to bring forth a new crop. God does this with the apostolic ministry that is here to start planting along with other ministers that are here to start watering. Then God starts giving the increase to bring forth a harvest in the earth. The dead is raised and we are translated. Now God is enjoying His garden. I want to read a little more here. I want to start back with Verse 4. I want you to get this, because it s very important. Now we re not going to just

71 leave this in Paul s day, because as long as we preach what Paul did and leave it there, then we re preaching a historical part of the Word. But when we preach it we see that Paul laid the foundation for this and God has restored back once again that true living Word, Christ among us. He restored back that apostolic office, and there s a new message coming forth. That does not destroy anything God did in the past, but it places it so that the people will have confidence to go forward and say, Give me the little book. Unless we have confidence we cannot walk up to the Mighty Angel and say, Give me the little book. God lets us see what He has done step by step. We see exactly where we re at; we see the exact Word for this hour, and we can say, Hallelujah! As Jesus said, This day this scripture is fulfilled. Go take the little book. John said, I walked up to the Angel and said give me the little book. This day this scripture is fulfilled. And the Voice of the Almighty from heaven speaking, telling John to go get the little book shows that God has accepted us to be as righteous as Christ. Remember in heaven there was no one worthy all over heaven and earth, or under the earth, no where was anyone worthy. Then the Lamb came and He was worthy. He took the little book. Now He brought it down to earth. Then the Almighty recognized you as being worthy. Remember, no one was worthy; no one could even look (get the revelation of it) at the book, and certainly no one could eat the book. But because of the Lamb and because of what the Lamb did, Christ can now take unto Himself His Wife, and He clothed you in fine linen clean and white. This causes God to recognize the Wife of Christ to be just as holy as He is. Now you re not just a type of the ministry and the church like John was, but you are the wife of Christ. He said to John, Now go get the book and eat it. John went and said, Give me the little book. And the Angel said, Take it and eat it up. John didn t hesitate, he started eating. And we re not hesitating, because of our faith in God. We re not hesitating, because we know the Voice of Authorization has spoken. We re not hesitating, because the Mighty Angel said, Take and eat it. And with confidence we re eating today. We re eating of this new planting. We re eating of the tree of life. There s an apostolic office like in the days of Paul, and we have been planting. There s men like Apollos that keeps watering this same message, and Almighty God looking down began to give increase. Paul concluded saying, You are God s garden. You re God s building. Let s read about it. I Corinthians 3:4, For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? He says if that s as far as you go you are carnal. Verse 5, Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? We could say today, Who then is Ben Howard? Who then is Brother Lovemore? We are only servants that you believe by, but it s God that s giving the increase. God is giving

72 the increase today! I want you to notice, it says, As the Lord gave to every man. He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. God gives these. God gives the increase. The work is of Christ. Verses 6-7, I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. With this mighty work that is taking place today Paul said, You get in a carnal realm if all you can see is man. A man told me last week; he said, We ministers decided to come together. I know we all believe different things, but we all believe in Brother Branham. And since all of us believe in Brother Branham, we come together on that and nothing else matters. Well, that s what some were looking at in the days of Paul. Paul said, Get your mind off of man and get it on God. We re only servants of the Lord. He said, It is God that deserves all the glory. God said, I ll not give my glory to another. We re just laborers in the garden. One is planting, another is watering, and some are bursting clogs. God gave the Word, and many be those that publish it. We re right in the middle of a new move of God and there is a mighty army of God marching forward. The Word said we will have one mind. We will have one mouth. We ll all believe the same thing, because God s anointing will say the same thing. It s God that gives the increase. Verses 7-8, So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I like that. He that planteth and he that watereth are one. We are one in Christ. By one Spirit we are baptized into one body. We become one with Christ as His wife. We are rejoicing in the Lord. The Marriage of the Lamb is come! And he said, Let us be glad and rejoice! Continuing Verse 8, Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. Now I can t make it for you and do your part. You can t do my part. But as members of the body of Christ we can all do the same, because (as we re going to read) we re all working in the same garden. We re all loving God with all our hearts. There s apostolic planting going on today with this new move. God has ordained me to plant. He has ordained others to water. Great is the multitude that publishes the Word; but it is the Lord that gives the increase! I cannot receive what God has for you. You can t receive a reward for my labor, but together we re laboring in the Lord. The Lord says we are one, whether it is planting, or watering, or whatever it may be. Now the weeds that were in the church ages can no longer grow here. They can t grow in this final phase of the move of God. They can t grow in this little book. We are past that period where wheat and tares are growing together. Let s continue reading now with Verse 9, For we are labourers together

73 with God: ye are God s husbandry, ye are God s building. Now that word husbandry is garden. Ye are God s garden, and there s some new seed that is being planted in the garden of God. The planting up to this time was what happened in the church ages and showing Israel s place in the plan of God; but now the planting is for the marriage. This garden comes forth and brings forth the wife of Christ. She has the little book to eat. She has apostolic leadership. She has other ministers speaking the same thing; and they know that we are one in Christ. We have gotten to the place that Ephesians 4:11-16 speaks of where we are no longer tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. The ministry and the rest of the members of His wife are one, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, and as you re united with God s ministry which is in Christ s stead (2 Corinthians 5:20) by the Word, then we re all married to Christ as His wife. That s what John represented in Revelation 10:8-11. Paul said concerning this, He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. And as we all become of one mind, we are married to Christ. We re no longer tossed to and fro. We re the new garden. We re the tree of life, and we all begin to prophesy brothers and sisters, talking about the Word, talking revelation talk. We re one in Christ, because the Spirit is telling you the same thing He is telling the preacher. As it s preached it s quickened to your heart; and all together we re one with Christ. That s John eating the little book. You re God s garden. You re God s building. Verse 10; Paul says, According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. You re God s garden. You re God s building. God used Paul as a wise master builder. He used Paul as a wise planter. What makes me know that Paul was a wise planter? As God s Word was planted for that Gentile church in that day, Paul said, Just because God used me to do the planting, I m nothing without Him. Some of you say, I am of Paul. While others say, I am of Apollos. And just because God used Apollos to water, to preach and encourage you, to give you that Holy Ghost water on God s garden, Apollos is nothing and Paul is nothing. One plants another waters, but let s get our eyes on the one that s giving the increase. It s Christ the Mighty Angel that has come down. Let s get our eyes on Him. His face is shining like the sun! There s a new planting of a new crop and you re that new crop this planting has produced. The harvest is the rapture, the change! Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase and we are laborers together. Now let s bring it up from Paul s day up to this day. God bless you.

74 HOW CHRIST THE MIGHTY ANGEL TAKES ON FLESH AND BONES IN THIS LAST DAY May God s grace be upon on us all today, and as we look to the Word of God we want to gather our thoughts from the Book of Saint John, Chapter one, and from Revelation, Chapter 10. We will also be reading other places as we go along. My subject is, How Christ the Mighty Angel takes on Flesh and Bones in this Last Day. When I speak of Christ and the Mighty Angel here, I m not talking about Jesus our Lord that we are going to meet in the air when He comes in a physical form; but I m talking about His wife that has become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh and she is called by His name. Now the Mighty Angel comes down from heaven and we see Him in the Spirit to begin with. But as we have come into Revelation 10:8-11, we now see the body of Christ as a visible being as He takes on flesh and bones. And that s seen as John taking the little book, him being a type of the wife of Christ. We see that John begins to prophesy showing what the wife of Christ is doing, and we, His wife are given everything that was in the body that Jesus lived in when He was here in His earthly journey. That is what Revelation 10:8-11 is showing us, that we have come to the place where the spoken Word as it was in other ages has now become the living Word in us. In other words, it was spoken then, but it s the living Word now. That is the difference between spoken Word and living Word. So like Jesus, we have become the living Word of God. The prophets in the Old Testament had the spoken Word and they spoke the Word of God, but now we don t just speak the Word of God; but we are the living Word of God. Again this is what Revelation 10:8-11 is all about. Now Jesus Christ Himself comes visibly and we will meet Him in the air as the living Word. Yes, He will be in a visible body to us His wife. Now prior to this, He comes back in the Spirit (Mighty Angel) as a body to be baptized into before the rapture. We are baptized into that body and become the visible body of the Mighty Angel in the earth. That s Christ and His wife as we have become one; the Spiritual marriage is now complete. He is that Word that was with the Father and so are we. That is the fullness of the man Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:13-16). Now remember that Jesus was with the Father in the beginning as the Word. He came and took on human flesh just as we are, and at His physical birth He became a living soul. It was necessary for Him to come in this way as the Bible says, He didn t take on the nature of an angel, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. (Hebrews, Chapter 2) In other words, He became a natural man so that He could be tempted, tested, and tried

75 in all points like as we; and He tasted death for every man. He paid it all, because we couldn t. We were down in a pit and couldn t get out. We were lost. We were on one side of a great chasm and God was on the other side; but Jesus came and He became the bridge for us. He paved the way with a street of gold and we walked across. He made this possible by His precious blood. Yes, He redeemed us so we could be like He is. The Bible says, In Him we live and have our being. It also says, We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God, and we are a member of His body. We are baptized into His body and that body walks, talks, and represents the full attributes of Christ for this day and hour that we are living in. We make up His physical body in the earth, because we are in Christ s stead. We speak the words of Christ and we have the mind of Christ. The Bible says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Paul said, You have the mind of Christ. This is the place we ve come to in this last day. We know that Paul prophesied of it, but it didn t come to past in his day because the church began to fall away and it went through seven church ages. We understand the purpose of that and I am glad it went the way it did, because had the rapture taken place in the first age we wouldn t have been in it. But God knew that down here in the earth there were some more seeds that hadn t come forth yet. There were some more plants (children of God) that would come forth in their season, so God created a season for them to come forth in. This is your season, this is your day, and this is your hour to shine as the brightness of the stars forever. It s Jesus Christ walking around here again in this last day manifested in His wife. So we are a part of Him. How could we be part of Him? We are made of the same thing He is made of. What is He made of? He was the Logos, the thought of God. He was the Word of God, and that Word of God (Plan of God) was with God. Now I want you to notice, this was something that was with God and it was in the thinking of God. It was in the mind of God. God is a Spirit; always will be and has always been. In God s mind, He had all this planned out. He had a time set for Adam and Eve to come, and He knew the fall would take place. I explained the other week about had the fall not taken place, then there would have been sons and daughters of God born that would never have a trial; but then could never project love towards God. But God wanted an opposing voice, a contrary voice saying, You go this way, but then God had His Word that said, You come this way. He wanted you to have a choice; but He knew what the choice would be. And when we get over there, we are not going to roll into heaven like a bunch of robots that couldn t do different. We are going to be there because we chose to do His will. We chose not to live after the plan of the world; but we chose to love Him and go His way, even though sometimes it is a hard way on the flesh. He makes it that way because it is for His glory. Everybody would want to be a Christian if He put us all

76 on a flowery bed of ease and gave us all the money we could spend; then you couldn t keep people out. But He lets you go, some through the fire, some through the flood; but we ve all got to come through the blood. So He is doing it just exactly like His plan said He would, and I love it this way. Hallelujah! I wouldn t have it any other way. Some of us had some rough times growing up and still have times when things are not pleasant, but this is the will of God and we want to walk after the will of God. But there was something that was with God, the Bible says. Now what was that which was with God? It was His Plan/Word; His Word is His Plan. He wanted to have a Son that would come down here and be an example, and He would come and live in that Son Himself. We see when Jesus went to John to be baptized that John refused at first to do it. Jesus walked up to John and said, I want to be baptized. John said, Not so, I have need to be baptized of thee. But Jesus said, Suffer it to be so, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. In other words, He was setting an example for us when He was baptized. Afterwards, He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He neither ate nor drank for 40 days and nights, and the devil tempted Him. He was tempted in all points like as we. The devil showed Him a vision of all the kingdoms of the world and said, All these things will I give thee if thou will bow down and worship me. But Jesus answered back with words that showed what He was made of. He was made out of the Word, so He answered back with the Word. Jesus said, It is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him only shall thy serve. The devil thought, I didn t get Him on that one, but I ll get Him on this next one. So the devil took Him on the pinnacle of the temple and quoted Him a scripture saying, He will give His angels charge concerning thee. The devil thought, I ve got Him now; I ll use scripture on Him, for it is written But Jesus came back with, It is also written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Here was one that knew how to use the Word. The devil had the Word, but he didn t know how to use it; he didn t know how to apply it. Jesus wouldn t clown for the devil then, and He won t clown for anyone now. Amen. He s going to do it His way whether we like it or not; but His bride is going to like it His way. There were other temptations that Jesus went through. Now Jesus was hungry, and the devil says to Him, If you be the Son of God and it is possible that you could be, but I don t know. But I tell you what, you can make a believer out of me real quick you re hungry take these stones here and turn them into bread. Jesus wouldn t do it. He brought the conversation back over to the Word, because there is more to serving God than fulfilling the flesh. Jesus said unto the devil, Thou shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God. (Matthew, Chapter 4) Do you see how Jesus answered everything? That was the Word being manifested; yet He was being tried. Why was He being tried?

77 The Book of Hebrews said, He was tried in every point like as we are, yet without sin. It says, Though He was rich (He owned it all; everything that God owned was His) He became poor so that you could become rich. It wasn t that He didn t have something to eat, He did; but He wasn t going to clown for the devil. So He laid aside the Deity and became a servant. He came down here to show us, and have we learned yet? Let the Word of God come forth! He was tempted and tried. But He had one thing in mind, I ve come to do the will of the Father. And you are here to manifest Jesus Christ for this day and hour as His wife, being Word that is made manifest. You are the literal body of Christ. The Bible says, We become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, and flesh and bone is not spirit. Amen! We are baptized into Him, and that makes us part of Him. There s a literal, moving, functioning body of Christ in the earth today called His wife by John in the Book of Revelation 19:7-8. She has His very mind, she has His very potentials; everything He has, she has. Because the Bible says, He is an heir of God and we are joint heirs with Christ. (Romans, Chapter 8) Yes, we are heirs with Christ; everything He has we are a part of it, because we are part of the same Word. You were in exactly the same place as Jesus before the world was. Because God ordained it in His plan the Word. John said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (the Word was part of God. ) So that is what we are today, we are a part of God, and being part of God we are the body of Christ. And in this last day, He is to take on flesh and bone again in His wife. God sends down the Spirit of Christ for us to be baptized into, and we have become the physical, living and visible part of Christ; walking around here and talking (prophesying) in this last day. When Paul preached the Word of God, Jesus would not have said it different had He stood there Himself, because Paul said, It s Christ in you, the Hope of Glory. We are in Christ s stead by the baptism of the Holy Ghost that God gave to lead and guide us into all truth. And armed with this grace, Revelation, Chapter 10, becomes simple; but only to the Wife which is the Mighty Angel that has taken on flesh and bone, and also brings translation to our mortal bodies. But here He comes as the Mighty Angel, a Spiritual body for us to be baptized into; not just the Holy Ghost, because He was already here as the Holy Ghost before Revelation 10:8-11 came into fulfillment. (Listen to the 1994 audio message entitled Christ Is: The Holy Ghost, High Priest, and Mighty Angel) At this time, those of the wife will come forth from the grave, and we the living along with the resurrected members of His wife will be caught up together to meet Jesus Christ in the air, as it takes all the members of the body to make up His wife. Even when the church fell away, God had other seeds that hadn t come in yet. Now watch this, there s another part in the mind of God. There

78 were seeds to come in this last day as they did all the way through the dark ages. There were many people who gave their lives for truth; they didn t know what you know, but they knew that God was real and they believed. They would say, If I have to give my life to stand for it, then I will. By some accounts, there was about 68 million that were slain for the Word of God in the dark ages. But because there were seed of God in each age, the seed had to come forth, because they are part of His wife. Now how does Christ take on human flesh? He sends the Spirit of the Word, which is His Spiritual body, the very Spirit of Christ comes down in angelical form; it s the Spiritual body for us to be baptized into. Being baptized into the body of Christ is not only having received the Holy Ghost, but is a furtherance of God s plan. There are those who are baptized with the Holy Ghost (foolish virgins/tribulation saints, etc..,) but are not baptized into the body of Christ. (Read the book or listen to the audio entitled Baptized with the Holy Ghost and then into the Body of Christ) Being baptized into the body of Christ means you have given yourself solely to the Lord; being married to Him and nothing else in life means anything, we only want to love and serve Christ. You are one with Him. And finally Saint John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Let s go on down to Verse 14, And the Word was made flesh, that means the Word was something else other than flesh. The Word was Spirit; but it had to take on flesh and bones. What you are seeing in this hour is the Word taking on flesh and bones. Hallelujah! Bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Word of His Word, Spirit of His Spirit! That is why He can put His very own mind in you, and you cannot function well in this body of Christ without the mind of Christ. He gives you His mind, His attributes, and the very Spiritual blood of Christ flows through your veins when you are baptized into that body of Christ. Now I am not talking about the chemistry of the blood here, let me explain the difference. The very blood of Jesus Christ flows through your veins if we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins. That chemistry of the blood paid the price. The Bible says, He offered one sacrifice, He perfected us forever. (Hebrews 10:14) So that blood (chemistry) flowed out of His veins and went into the earth, but the life that was in that blood came back on the believer. The chemistry of the blood doesn t exist anymore, but the life of that blood is just as strong today and will be millions of years from now. That is what happened when Jesus cried with a loud voice and He gave up the Ghost. He gave up His Spirit. That is what came back on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost, that s the blood that cleanses your soul. I heard a preacher say and perhaps he was meaning it in the right way; but he said, When Jesus went up into heaven, He took a pan of His blood with Him and that blood is still steaming tonight. He was

79 preaching telling how the blood saves you. Well, that was chemistry. There was never any blood taken up into heaven, not in chemistry form, but only the life was taken up that was in the blood. That s what is in you. The blood of Jesus Christ flows through you, that Spiritual man. The life of that blood flows right through you, not the chemistry of the blood. There was a life in that blood, and that is what you receive when you repent of your sins. You receive the Spirit of Christ, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses you. You are born again by the blood of Christ; not by the chemistry, but by the Spirit of the living God. That is why the Word says, No man can come to God except the Spirit of the blood draws him, because the blood doesn t exist in any other form after the crucifixion. But the life that was in that blood, what is it? It is eternal life; otherwise we would have to have the chemistry of that blood with us today in order to live forever with eternal life. Jesus said, I don t have to die. He had eternal life in Him which was the life of the blood, but He had to release it for you and me. When they came to get Him to be crucified, He said, I don t have to die. I could call twelve legions of angels. He could have destroyed all those men and saved Himself. But He said, For this purpose came I into the world. Are you willing to say, For this purpose came I into the world to be a witness in this last day of these great things God is doing? Hallelujah! Are you willing to be a witness that Jesus Christ is still alive; that Jesus Christ has a physical body in the earth today and you ve been baptized into it? That Mighty Angel has taken on flesh and bones. That s when we take the little book. That s when we eat the little book. Amen! The Bible says, Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious. We eat that Word of God, not tear pages out of this Bible and eat it, but what we eat is the Spirit of the Word. Now I want you to watch here, The Word was made flesh. And the Word is still being made flesh. It s that same eternal life (don t miss this point) that came into Christ, that same eternal life that caused the virgin Mary to become pregnant. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and she became impregnated and bore a child which came directly from God as a seed of God, as the Word of God. That s what He was in the beginning, He was the Word, and the Word was made flesh. Not some man-made seed. But since that Word became flesh it was a seed of God; then we get that same Spirit within us. The same Word that came within Mary to produce that eternal life it comes into us; but it comes into us after it was tried and tested in all points like as we are. Jesus said, I council thee to buy of me gold that s tried in the fire. What we have has been tried in the fire and this gold has purified itself age after age, after age, until now God looks at it and sees pure gold. Some says, Walk on the streets of gold. Well, I tell you the bride is that city and that street of pure gold is the one way to God, one street to God baptized in Jesus name. Peter told us about it on

80 the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost when the gospel came to the brethren of Christ, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards the Holy Ghost came to the Gentiles at Cornelius house, (Gentile Pentecost) in Chapter 10 of the Book of Acts; while Peter spake the Word, the Holy Ghost fell on them. He said, Can any man forbid water that these should be baptized? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. I m glad to take on the name of the Lord, aren t you? Why would anyone want to be baptized without using the name of Jesus Christ? Somebody says, I m the bride, I ve been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If you are the bride, you re going to take on the name of the bridegroom. The Word is Spirit. God set the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was very visible. It could be approached, because it was knowledge and man was physical. Also, the tree of life God set there; but He didn t give them the commandment to eat of the tree of life in the garden, because that was to come later as they waited upon the Lord for instructions to eat of it. Now concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God said, Don t eat of it in this form. The tree of the knowledge and the tree of life had to go together (be connected together) just like man and wife. Likewise, the written Word and the Spiritual Word have to be joined together. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:6; The letter of the Word kills, (and that is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did) but the Spirit (the tree of life) giveth Life. God would have come to Adam and Eve and said, Join the tree of the knowledge and the tree of life together and bring forth children with eternal life. But the serpent came in and said, I know how to do that without waiting, showing here that he is a deceiver. Now the Pharisees had a religious system and they were eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but when Jesus came with the tree of life, their religious system said, this man is of the devil. Letting us know that being religious isn t having salvation. Did you hear what I said? Being religious is not having salvation; it takes Christ living in you, there s where salvation comes from. The religious Jews were so self-righteous and that made Jesus to look like a sinner in their eyes, because He associated with publicans and sinners. He ate with them. He ate and drank what was set before Him. One of the things they had against Jesus was they said, He s a wine bibber and a gluttonousness man. But He didn t do anything out of proportion. But that was the religious criticism of Him. The fact is, the way He lived and operated compared to what they thought was right, it made Him look very, very bad in their eyes to the point they said, He s of the devil. They said all this, because Jesus was not religious, He didn t fit into their mold. He didn t wear that priestly

81 robe with the ropes and titles. I don t want to say too much about this; but I watched part of the funeral of one of the Senators on television, I think it lasted for a day or two. But there were priest that had on different colors of robes and were carrying something so that when they shook it, smoke would come out and they were shaking it over him. One would get up and say a little something; then another while shaking the smoke over him. I said to myself, If this man doesn t go to heaven, it s not going to be the priest s fault, because they worked two days as hard as they could trying to get him there. So if he didn t make it, he can t blame all the priests. What more could they have done? They put smoke on him, they said prayers over him, and they sprinkled water over him. I don t think they sprinkled any salt on him; I didn t see it if they did. The point being, can you see Jesus coming in there to that funeral? Could you see Him dressed like a common man going to them? Jesus didn t use those big words. That s why the common people heard Him gladly. Well, He is not religious. He wasn t religious then and He s not religious now! Amen! He didn t wear a priestly robe then and His wife is not wearing a priestly robe now. She s dressed in fine linen, clean and white, and that is His righteousness. She knows it s not some natural garment. It s a Spiritual garment; it s the righteousness of God. The Mighty Angel has taken on flesh and bones. The Mighty Angel has a mind. It s Christ in you, the Hope of Glory, and there s a special diet for you. It s the eating of the little book. Just think; it was reserved all the way through the seven church ages. It was sealed up in heaven. I might not have realized the full impact of what I was saying when I preached a message in Zimbabwe entitled, Obtaining that which was previously unobtainable. Because that which was previously unobtainable was sealed away in heaven with seven seals, and the seals weren t even taken off until Now we have it in our hands and are eating it, because His wife has become His flesh and bones. Let s go to Ephesians, Chapter one; and I want to show you the same thing that Jesus was. He was the Word and He was with the Father, and He was manifested in the flesh. I want to show you where you were at and where you are now. See, Paul prophesied and preached as though this would take place in his day, and he thought that right up to just before God took him home. So God let him know right at the last saying, Paul, I m going to take you on. He might not have revealed to him about the seven church ages. I don t know what all He told him, because Paul was picked up into the third heaven and saw things that he didn t care to make known to them. It wasn t for their time and their day. So Paul said, I ve got to go on home. But he said something here in Ephesians 1:1-3, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God; it s by the will of God and

82 it can t be changed; it can t be altered. Job said, God is of one mind and who can change it? Nobody; it will be just like He said. Somebody might say, This man would make a good apostle, because he can preach and speak well. He knows how to say his words good. That has nothing to do with it. Paul was an apostle by the will of God and that is how you are a Christian today. That is how you re part of this bride. That s why you re the wife of the Lamb. That s why you re clothed in fine linen, clean and white; it s by the will of God, and He is of one mind and who can change it? to the saints (not only Paul, but the saints also) which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: I am concerned about your spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and I m here to tell you that religion isn t the way. It s the Word. It s Jesus! Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Verse 4, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.. And what did He choose us for? that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Now how can we be blameless before a perfect God? By accepting the gift of righteousness. Chapter 5 of Romans, Verse 17 lets us know that He gives you the gift of righteousness, and you can t get any better than that. Having predestinated us; that means God foresaw your love for Him. He created you and put His seed in you. Verse 5 says, Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Now whose will? His will. I tell you that God has more to do with this than what most of us think. He knows what He is doing. Sometimes we don t and we stumble along; but all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That settles it as far as I m concerned. He has made us accepted, so everybody else needs to hush. The Bible says, It is God that justifies, then who is he to condemn? It s Christ that died, who are you to say anything? If He thought enough of you to die for you, then there is only one thing I need to do and that is to shut up about it. Going on to Ephesians, Chapter 5, and I just want to get part of Verse 30, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. That means us. That doesn t mean our soul, because our soul is never spoken of as flesh and bone. That soul is that inner person. Paul talks about the strengthening of the inner man. But this is talking about flesh and bones. She is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. It means you re His wife, you re part of Him. He came down and all that He has He shared with you; heir with God and joint heirs with Christ. There is one verse here in Revelation, Chapter 10, and I want to show

83 you what comes down from heaven now, so that you can have this. It says, And I saw another mighty angel (this is Christ Himself in angelical form) now watch clothed in a cloud that means He hides Himself from the world. But we have eyes that pierce right through the clouds. And a rainbow was upon his head (you can go to Chapter 4 of Revelation to see who that is with the rainbow about the head) and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: Now if you will read Revelation, Chapters 2 & 3, there in each church age are shown these identities of Christ. This is the Spirit of Christ (Spiritual body) that comes back to be baptized into. Not only does He come back, but He brings us something. Oh, here He comes bearing a gift. He brings us the little book. Notice, nobody in heaven was worthy to take it, nobody no where, so the whole thing was lost without Him. But here came a bloody Lamb showing what Christ did at Calvary. He took the book, (the book of redemption) broke the seals, opened it, and took from it the portion that is for His wife that is called the little book and brings it to earth. Then the Voice of God in heaven speaks again as He looks down, and He accepts us as Christ s wife. He tells John (who was in type only of the wife), Go take the little book from the Mighty Angel s hand and eat it up. It s going to taste good, but it s going to make your stomach bitter. Why? Because as you have woken up, you see the whole religious world is in darkness and is not to be part of the wife of Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve didn t know the situation they were in until they woke up. They realized that something had happened. There s a message that has come to wake up a people in this hour, and we woke up and we see. We realize religion and the church world is not it. We woke up to truth. We eat the little book. How does the Mighty Angel take on flesh and bones? This is it. In this body, He gives you His mind. He gives you His gifts. He gives you His attributes and it is Christ walking here. Jesus said, These works that I do, you will be able to do the same thing and even more. He was speaking to the Jews, His brethren; but we were grafted in and it came over to us Gentiles. This message could go on and on, but I think we have said what would be profitable here. Thank God for the Word. Do you know what you are? You re the Word. You were with Him. When? In the beginning. Now what was Jesus? He was the Word made flesh. What are you? You re the Word made flesh, and then the Spirit comes down and anoints the Word which is the Mighty Angel anointing upon us as we are eating the little book and prophesying. (Revelation 10:11) Jesus went into the wilderness and the angels came and comforted Him, and He came out of the wilderness in the power and Spirit of God. That s what we have done; we ve come out of the wilderness. The song says, How did it feel when you came of Babylon, came out of Babylon, came out of Babylon, oh how did it feel when you came out of Babylon prais-

84 ing the Name of the Lord? I say, It feels good! God bless you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for your many blessings. I just pray Heavenly Father that you will move by your Holy Spirit, that you will just touch each and everyone in the Spirit. You said you would give us all Spiritual riches. Lord, we are not concerned about a lot of natural riches, just having our needs met. You promised to supply our needs, put food on our table and all these things, but now we are entering into the Spiritual storehouse and receive the Spiritual blessings from thee. Lord, we just thank you Oh God for this Word. Thank you Lord for coming down and receiving us into yourself, by one Spirit we are baptized into you. I just pray now as the people go their way they will water this Word by thinking on it, by talking about it, by meditating upon it, and by realizing that s what we are in you. Bless us all together and may this Word as it goes forth from continent to continent, Lord you know all the areas of the world it will go to and you know all the hearers Lord let it be a call to your seed that the marriage is taking place, those that you predestinated. Let it be a call, now it s time to wake-up, to look up, our redemption draweth neigh. We bless your name and praise you in Jesus Christ name. Amen.

85 FINDING THE LITTLE BOOK WITHIN THE BIG BOOK Today we re reading in Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation. Before reading the Word let us bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord, for another opportunity to open your precious Word. Lord, your precious Word it s the only book in the world that tells where we came from, where we re at, and where we re going. And we just pray, Heavenly Father that you will anoint us to speak things that will be of a benefiting nature to your people and that you will anoint each one to receive. And may the Word of God go forth and accomplish that which you have ordained for the closing hours of human history that we are living in. And we will be so careful to praise you for this in Jesus Name. Amen. All right, now in Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, I want to take a little thought this morning, Finding the Little Book within the Big Book. There is a little book in there somewhere that is very special to a very special few. And that very special few is called the wife of Christ. The bride and the bridegroom become united and we become one flesh with Him. There is a very special part of the Word for her. As we go along today I want to show you what Jesus did at Calvary, and how that He redeemed the whole earth and all things that are therein. Not only humanity, which is at the top of the list, but even all the animals, and all the trees, and all the waters; He redeemed everything and He bought it. Adam one time had control of all of that. He was the king of the earth. God gave Adam the earth and told him to multiply and conquer the earth and so on, but we find that Adam failed. And throughout time God raised up different men to keep truth going forward until Jesus Christ came, the Lamb of God, the real seed of God. We know the story of His life, how He lived here for 33 years and then spilled His blood to redeem this earth and all that it consists of. Now there s an opposing power, that s the devil; we know that. The Lord willing, you will see why that there is an opposing power. Everything that you know that is good that you should do, there s always a voice telling you to do differently. And when you do what is right, go according to the true Voice, He gets glory out of it. In other words, He didn t make you as a robot and program certain things in you and you can t do anything different; like a machine that does a certain thing. No, but He gives you a mind; He makes you a little god, where you can make

86 decisions, you can build things and do things. It s just amazing what God has done. Well, that s just a tiny example of our Great God. Last week s message was a message that we ve heard quite a bit about, and we had some good thoughts about The Daysman Becomes Our Bridegroom. In the days of Job, he said, I would to God that we could understand. I m very fearful of God that if I pray that He might throw me away. And if I wash myself in snow water I still will not be clean. Well, the Lamb of God took care of that. Jesus bought the whole thing. He bought everything back that Adam lost, and Adam had everything. God gave a book here, this Bible, and there s not going to be any other Bible. The Bible says that you can t add to it and you can t take from it, because it is complete. But there s a part in the Bible that s called the little book. Now there are two things that I want you to notice here specifically. When John sees this one on the throne with a book in His hand sealed with seven seals, it s not called little book. That s because when we see the big book of Chapter 5 of Revelation, we see the whole Bible, the entire book of redemption. That s why the elders are saying, Thou art worthy because thou has redeemed us from all nations, kindred, and tongues. But then when you come to Revelation, Chapter 10; Christ is seen here in the form of the Mighty Angel bringing down that part of the big book that is called the little book. Understanding this is very important. I want to show you this before reading. See how big the Bible is? It s a big book, see [holding the Bible]. But this is the little book and I m just going to hold these pages [holding the pages of the 14 Books of Paul s writings of the New Testament]. That s the written part of the little book. The Spiritual part of this little book is what Christ brings down to interpret for us to perfect the Gentile bride, because this book here (the little book) is part of the big book, the whole Bible, but this little book deals specifically with the Gentile bride. Seeing this makes the whole Bible more wonderful to the wife of Christ. Now all the rest of this sealed book is just as important to whom it applies to. All the Word of God is true, but it all does not apply to you as the Gentile bride. Some of it applies to tribulation saints. Some of it applies to foolish virgins. Some of it applies to Israel. But Christ wants you to find the place that applies to you and your time period. Now when Jesus went into the temple (after the 40 days fast and being tempted of the devil in every way) they brought Him a book, and the Bible says that He found the place in Isaiah 61:1 that says, The Lord hath anointed me to bring deliverance to them that are in captivity. (Luke 4:16-21) And there were many things He read there in the Book of Isaiah where it applied to Him specifically. He read that and then He closed the book and He gave it back to the minister at the temple. And all eyes were upon Him, the Bible says. He opened His mouth and began to speak. He said, This day

87 this scripture is fulfilled. And He pointed to a specific place in the Word. He didn t just open the Bible and say, The whole thing is the Word, I ll just find me a place and read. No, there was a specific scripture that applied to Him and it worked for Him. See, that s it. So is it in this day, even as it was in the time that Paul preached to the Gentiles, there were other apostles that preached to the Jewish people. So to a specific people there is a specific Word and that is what we want to find. And as Paul had the Word to get the Gentile Bride espoused to Christ, this ministry gets her married to Christ. Now when we begin to read in the Word of God about what happened in the early church, we find first of all that Jesus went forth preaching. Then He appointed twelve apostles and they went preaching the gospel, but they were told not to go anywhere except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. As the gospel came on over to the Gentiles after Pentecost, it says in the Book of Acts, Chapter 11, They went everywhere preaching the Gospel, but only to the Jews. And as the gospel began to come to the Gentiles, God selected a certain man. Yes, there were other apostles, there were other preachers, and they were doing exactly what God wanted them to do, such as, in the Book of Galatians, Chapter 2, there the apostles had all gathered together to talk about the work of the Lord and what all God was doing. Well, Paul, Titus, and Barnabas went up to set in on the meeting, because they believed in Jesus, too; and as they set there and listened Paul said, They added nothing to me but contrariwise. When they (Peter, James, and John) saw that the gospel of the Gentiles was committed unto me as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship and said, Go. See, as Christ had told Paul, Go to the Gentiles. And Paul said, So has the Lord ordained me saying, I ll send you to the Gentiles and you will be a light to them delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God. You will be a light to them. When we look at this it helps us to understand much of the misunderstanding. Did you catch that? Sometimes we have to understand the misunderstanding. Otherwise we can t have proper relationships with all those that are involved with true Christianity. I m not talking here about denominationalism, a lot of that is tares, and I m not dealing with that now. But there s a specific part of the Word called the little book that s brought down to a specific people. It s not brought down to the tribulation saints. It s not brought down to the Jews that will be converted in the time after the rapture takes place. But God in this hour wants to bring you into a place where you will do as Christ did, as you look in the Word of God you can find the specific place that applies to you; and when you go with that you will be blessed beyond measure and the Word of God will work for you.

88 But as it was said, There are many good preachers. Well, I don t dispute that. But what I m saying is that there is a specific Word for a specific people; and what you have to decide is, Are you that specific people that the little book applies to? Now there are groups all around today preaching, and in the realm of what they are doing they are probably doing just what God ordained them to do. And we re not here to fight with them, nor are we here to argue with them, nor are we here to say they re wrong or right. Because if we do what we re here to do, then we don t have time to say this one is wrong and this one is right. The Word will draw those that the Word is for. Remember when the midnight cry was made we find there were ten virgins, five wise and five foolish. Well, the five wise were ready and they went in with Christ, which types the bride. The others went out doing other things seeking oil. They didn t know the part of the Word that applied to them. They didn t get the little book, but they knew about the Big Book. I turned on the television downstairs for a little bit before coming up and I saw some of the preachers and each one of them was reading from scripture. I noticed one reading from the Book of James and he was saying some good things, it was the Word, but it was not at all in the realm that I am talking about. I couldn t condemn what they were saying and say, That s not the Word. I would have to say it was 100% the Word. And probably for the speaker and those he was speaking to it was 100% for them. But remember this: the five wise virgins went in and the door was closed; and then later the others came knocking and saying, Let us in. Let us be part of this, too. And He says, I know you not. That means there is a bride that has been married to Christ, which means she has become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, now His wife. Sometimes we do damage to the plan of God if we try to bring in someone that God is not leading, that God is not dealing with, that God hadn t called for this purpose. It s just like this: Christ and His wife are in the bride chamber and the door is closed. Well, to bring another woman in there, no matter how good she is, it would be something that Christ would not accept. It would be something that the bride, her spirit, wouldn t accept. Just like a man marries his wife and goes on a honeymoon, the bride doesn t want to take three of the bridesmaids with her into her honeymoon suite. Is that right? Because they are to become one flesh; the bride becomes one with the bridegroom, just Him and her. Therefore, to find that little book that is for the bride is so very important in this hour in order for us to have our thinking straight, in order to see things like Jesus sees them, in order for us to be led by the Spirit, and in order to be established in the way of truth. Because in finding that little book you begin to find your place in Him. Many read some of the things that Jesus said, and everything He said is

89 100% true. But when we read Chapter 15 of the Book of Romans (and this is a scripture that I refer to quite often) we find it is clearly stated that Jesus Christ came to the circumcision to confirm a covenant that God made to the circumcision which was Israel. That s Verse 8 of Romans, Chapter 15; and if you keep reading on to Verse 16 of the same Chapter Paul said, God has made me the minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles. And with that we begin to see God s thought pattern as Paul introduces a virgin to Christ. Now, this opens a door for us to hidden revelation as we realize no place in the Bible did Peter talk about a virgin as the bride. No place did Peter bring in that the church was she and that by one Spirit we would be baptized into the body of Christ. No place did Peter mention there would be a five fold ministry. No place did Peter mention the nine gifts Christ has in His body. No place did John or James write about these things. But there s a little book that was taken away and sealed up, because the church did like Adam and Eve there in the beginning. Paul said, I fear as the serpent beguiled Eve There were other voices in the land. You ll read in the Book of Acts where there were certain brethren of the Jewish religion that went down to Antioch where Paul was preaching to the bride, the Gentiles, and they began to preach, Except you be circumcised and keep the law you cannot be saved. And they preached about abstaining from eating certain meats and drinks. They came as though they had been sent by the apostles. Well, it got the church confused, them knowing that Peter was a great apostle. No one denies that Peter was a great apostle, and no one should; but Peter was not your apostle. Jude was a great man and I praise God for him. And when I get to heaven I certainly want to shake hands with all of those great men of God, those apostles that came even before the church age messengers came and they brought great things for their people. Now Christ sent great messengers throughout the church ages, and we realize that we are living in the generation that saw the seventh church age messenger that came and brought us the Word as recorded in the Word of God, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout First of all there will be a shout go forth, a message to go forth around the world. He will call out a people. And then it goes into another phase (stage), with the voice of the archangel God sent a great apostle whom I honor, Brother Raymond Jackson. He went into the Book of Isaiah. He went into the Book of Zachariah. He went into several books of the Old Testament and showed us exactly what s going to happen to Israel in the second part of that fifth seal. And nobody can argue with him on it. Don t try to say he s not right. He is right. God took him off the scene in 2004 having cleared that up. Why did God do this for you? He did it because He loves you. He wants you to know these things. And isn t it so good? Had not God sent a prophet, we would not know a lot of these things. But

90 He sent a message to call us out and call us together. God is enlightening the bride as to where she is, what she is to believe, and who she is, and what part of the Word of God applies to her. Do you see the big book now? The 144,000 Jews (Revelation, Chapter 7) is in there, and it s in there that they preached the everlasting gospel. All of it is there. But finding within the big book a little book; that is what is opening to you. That s what God gave to you. And having said all of that, bringing you through those stages of the coming of the Lord that is spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, (and this literally takes place in Revelation, Chapter 10) then we find that Brother Raymond Jackson said, The Mighty Angel hasn t sounded. The seven thunders haven t sounded. He said, In my opinion there will be seven men that will come and be seven thunders to finish this thing up. Well, don t criticize Brother Jackson. God had him to say that to stop off there, so that they couldn t cross over without crossing over by revelation. By each step you ve got to move on by revelation. But now God has made known and revealed that the seven thunders has sounded. The Mighty Angel has come down. And the little book is in our hands. And we are eating the little book; see, not the whole Bible. The point here is, in order for Brother Jackson to preach the place of Israel, revealing the second part of the fifth seal, and revealing the things he did, he had to use a lot of the Old Testament. Do you see what I mean? He had to use a lot of the Old Testament because there s where it tells about Israel, what s going to happen to them, getting their land, and all of that. And thank God the big book is open. But the Mighty Angel brings just a little of it down. The little book, again, compared to the Bible, look here [showing the pages of the 14 Books of Paul s writings] this is what is for the Gentile bride. That s the 14 Books (and one of them is just one chapter) that Paul wrote for the Gentiles. Now that is a little book compared to the whole Bible, which is the big book. Are you getting it? Now getting back to my scripture after saying that to show you how it all fits in. I m reading in Revelation 5:1. John speaking, And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book (Now watch this book. He saw a book. The revelation of a lot of these things were sealed away, because we were living in a day that was neither day nor night, but at the evening time there came light to help us see our way) written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Amen. God works in sevens and that seventh seal has a specific meaning for the bride as it points down here at the end time after the seven church ages. Then in Verse 2, And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? Now I want you to watch, Who is worthy to open the book? It doesn t show Christ here opening the book; (it s the Lamb in this pictorial scene) but it does show

91 Christ the Mighty Angel bringing the little book back to earth. He s the bridegroom coming to get His bride. Verse 3 says, And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. It s a sacred book. It was locked away. No man was able to do this. Not anybody. It s said by Brother Branham that it was the book of redemption, what Adam and Eve lost all the way back there in the garden. Someone had to take possession of it, and there was nobody that could do it, nobody in heaven nor on earth, and not any of those that had died and gone on. There s not a soul that could open it or even look at it. That s why God sent prophets from time to time to reveal certain points in here to the people. And John says, Verse 4, And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. Now you talk about something sacred. Think about this just a moment. No man, no where; it was all lost. And the point being, there was no one who had His righteousness. He hadn t clothed anyone with His righteousness, yet. But there is a group that is clothed with His very own righteousness; and the Bible says they are dressed in fine linen, clean and white. It s the wife of the Lamb. When He marries her He takes off all curses; there s nothing against her whatsoever. It s just like when Moses married the Ethiopian woman; Miriam and Aaron began to complain about Moses wife. They muttered against Moses the Bible says. We don t know what all the conversation was; the Bible doesn t record it. But evidently it was severe, because God became angry and He smote Miriam with leprosy from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. Aaron was rebuked, also. Aaron came to Moses saying, Take this off her. Well, Miriam had to go outside the camp where the leper people were and stay for seven days out there. She couldn t be with the children of God, because God got angry with her for speaking against Moses choice of a wife. When Moses married that Ethiopian woman she was Moses bride and there wasn t one thing against her. And God said concerning Christ coming that He would send us a prophet like unto Moses and everyone that will not hear that prophet will be cut off. Well, in the Book of Saint John it says; when Jesus came doing and saying these things they said, Is not this that prophet? That s what Jesus was when He walked among Israel. But when Christ came to the Gentiles, He chose Paul an apostle. He said, Paul, I want you to go. I want you to get my wife engaged to me, which was the Word for that time period. (2 Corinthians 11:2-3) Paul said, I have espoused you as a chaste virgin. Peter knew nothing about calling the church a virgin. But Paul was dealing with the little book. He was dealing with that part of the Word that applied to the Gentiles; and much of it that applied to the Gentiles wouldn t apply to the Jews at all. It is the same thing today. Some Jews will curse if you say, Jesus Christ is the

92 Messiah. And they ll say, He s not my Messiah. When my Messiah comes He s going to take over this earth and set up the Kingdom of David just like it says in the Bible. Well, He is, but God blinded them to His first coming, because God said the king would come riding into Jerusalem. They were looking for Him to come on a great white charger with trumpets blowing, with a band playing; but what did He do? Here came a fellow that wasn t anything beautiful to look at (Isaiah, Chapter 53- There s no beauty about Him that we should desire Him), and He came riding in on a little ass. Do you know who was following after Him saying, Hosanna!? It was the common people, the poor people. The Bible says that He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. So those Jews immediately said, This is not our king. This is a disgrace to us. Look at this nation. Look at all the priests. The high priest knows nothing about Him. When He comes He will come with all the pomp and glory and the trumpets blowing; and He s going to put down all our enemies. Well, do you know what? He s going to come just like that; but it s after the bride is gone, after the tribulation period; then here He comes! He ll come and set His kingdom up right there in Israel just like He said. Do you see how important it is to find our place in the Word of God; what applies to us? So, He s taking a bride out of the Gentiles, and that is not saying anything against the Jews, because they re going to come in and they re going to have the most beautiful spot of land there is. Where the King of Kings will sit on His Throne, and there will be other little thrones (authority) around where the twelve apostles will rule. In Chapter 19 of the Book of Matthew, Peter said, Lord, we ve left everything and followed you. What are we going to have? He said, In the millennium, in the regeneration, you will sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Now that has nothing to do with the bride at all. This is entirely different. But the whole book was opened. We know it all. You know it all. And you had to know it all in order to know what applied to you. You will know this little book; that s what Christ brings down to earth to get the bride married to Him, thus making her His wife. Now I want to drop this in: Many people make such sayings like this, God said. God said. I was led by God. I love God. God this, and God that. Well, when you are speaking of God, who are you speaking of? Paul spoke of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. It gets more personal in this day and hour. It s not just, God said. When you say, God, you re talking about the eternal Spirit that is everywhere present at the same time. My question is, Are you married to the bridegroom? The bridegroom s name is the Lord Jesus Christ. God made Him the head of all things that pertaineth to the church. He is the mediator between God and man. So let s go to Jesus! He s Christ of the little book. We have a close relationship; and to love Jesus you also love God. Christ

93 came as a mediator between us and God, because God is unapproachable. No man can approach Him the way it is. No man has seen God at any time. You can see a light or God can be manifested in a cloud and so on. So as we come to the closing here, let s love Jesus with all our heart. Let s appreciate Christ; and when you say, God says, that puts it totally impersonal. Think on that. If I come to visit you and you say to me, Brother Howard, do you know what God said to me today? God told me I better put some new tires on my car, because these are getting slick. God told me to be sure to check the oil in the car. God told me when the gas register gets down low to put some more gas in it. God told me this and God told me that. How about, Jesus, I love you. Jesus, Jesus, He s the one that I adore. You can see God in Christ. That s the one. God smiles when you see Him in Jesus. So instead of saying, God said this, God did that, how about what Jesus did. Let s personalize Him. We re not talking anymore about someone that is a fire upon the mountain. I could get that scripture in Hebrews, Chapter 12, where he says, You have not come to a mountain that burns with fire (that s what Moses went to). You haven t come to a trumpet that sounds louder and louder. You haven t come to such a fearful sight when even Moses himself said, I feared and quaked, but you ve come to Jesus. You ve come to a heavenly host of angels. You ve come to where the spirits of just men are made perfect. Amen, that s what you ve come to. And I love it right here. Now, continuing just a bit: The big book in Revelation, Chapter 5, says nothing about the little book yet, but in order to take the little book out of the big book the Lamb had to first take the whole book and open it because the little book was hid within it. The big book is the whole Word of God. It s the plan of God from Genesis to Revelation. It s the story of redemption from Adam all the way to the end of the millennium. It s all right here (in the Big Book). But it is not necessary for you to understand or be able to quote it all because God gave you a specific area of the Word. Yes, these are mighty great things God has done for us! When the bloody Lamb took the book He removed the seven seals and opened the book, then out of it He resurrected the little book. Now Christ the Mighty Angel brings it to earth. So it was totally necessary for the bloody Lamb to claim all the redemption and He paid for it there at Calvary. Now listen as we read here. Verse 4, And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the Book, neither to look thereon. Verse 5, And one of the elders saith unto me, (Elders, you re not in the bride realm yet. These elders are strictly the Jewish realm.) Weep not: (I ll never forget the meeting over in Zimbabwe where we preached the message Weep Not Little Bride. They were dancing and shouting, about 400 people there just praising God.) Weep not: (And I m telling you, Weep not today; we have found the way! I have found the way. I have found the little book. I have

94 found what applies to me. And I have found that God is good. But I have found that as He filters Himself down through the Savior, then finally it is Christ that we re baptized into, into His body, then we become a very part of Him; therefore, Christ is an heir of God and we re joint heirs with Christ.) behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda (still in the Israeli realm), the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. Jesus, the Lamb of God is the one that came. He s the one that prevailed. And watch what He said, (here s what John saw) Verses 6-7, And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain (Where did that take place? Where did the slaying of the Lamb take place? Calvary. On Calvary s Cross. When He was dying He said, It is finished. He gave His life s blood for this great plan of salvation; not just for the Gentiles and not just for the Jews but for all nations, kindred, and tongues; all whose names were in the book, He took it and redeemed them.), having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Notice: He took the book, it doesn t say He took the little book here; but the little book was in the book He took. See, He took the whole plan of salvation, but within that plan of salvation there contains just a little part of it that s specifically for a Gentile wife. He let John see seven eyes and seven horns, which are the seven Spirits of God by which God used to show the church ages, and how He broke it up into seven parts using the seven angels as Spiritual messengers to accompany the seven earthly messengers. Verse 8, And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. Notice you ve got elders, four and twenty of them; nothing about the bride whatsoever here, but she s got a part. That s where the Mighty Angel, Christ, brings the little book to her. The point is if we find our place, there was only one that said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. There were twelve apostles that Jesus called to preach to the Jews. But there was only one apostle, and he was not one of the twelve, his job was to get a Gentile virgin introduced to Christ. And he was the one that wrote fourteen books for the wife. So we are dealing with that. Finding the little book within the big book; and when you do that then you can understand all these other things that are going on. This is very important, because it s Christ getting His bride ready to become His wife. So now that we understand there is a big book that once contained the little book, and that no one was worthy to take the big book but the Lamb Himself, so this begs the question, How could John in Revelation, Chapter 10, take the little book since it was a part of the big book in heaven? First of

95 all, as we have been reading, the big book was bought and paid for by Jesus Christ the Lamb of God on the cross by His own blood, so it belonged to Him. Likewise, the little book belonged to us the wife of the Lamb, because He made us worthy by choosing us for His wife. Thus, the Father of Jesus Christ authorizes the wife of the Lamb to take the little book by speaking in a Voice from heaven saying, Go take the little book. Now we can and we have taken it; we are eating it because we the wife are worthy. And now being chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ and recognized and accepted by the Almighty God, then that takes all curses off of us. Now we are given the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and as His wife we are clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:7-8) That s how we got the little book that Christ took from the big book and brought it down from heaven and gave it to us the wife. This is the part of the big book that is ours. All others have their part in the remainder of the book and they will claim their part of the book in their season, as we have claimed ours in our day. Now the elders are praising Him. That s what I wanted you to get. Verse 9, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: (Now watch why he was worthy) for thou wast slain (that was at Calvary), and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; Verse 10, And hast made us unto our God kings and priests:.. Then it goes on to praise. Now we see the big book open, and the seals open and off. We see Revelation, Chapter 10, and here comes one from heaven totally unknown to the church world. Christ, the Mighty Angel has brought the little book back, and I know we ve got it, and I know we re eating it, and I know we are happy, and I know that He has clothed us with His garment and that has taken all the curses off of us for time and eternity. From time to time we hear preachers say, Do this and you ll get the curses off of you. Some say, You can go through this ritual or that ritual and the curses will be taken off. Well, I m not concerned about that. Moses married that Ethiopian woman and that removed all curses from her; so shut up about it! If you think it s safe to talk about it you ask Miriam. Miriam never said another word about it. She was glad the seven days of leprosy and being cast out of the camp was over. That taught her, Watch what you re saying, Miriam. You might not know what you re talking about. Do you love Jesus today? God bless you. I appreciate you. I trust that this has meant something to you. Remember, The Book that was sealed with seven seals contained within it the little book that could not be made known until the whole book was opened. This kept the little book hid until the time Christ marries His bride. But this (big book) is the book of redemption all the way from Genesis to the end of Revelation. And one word can t be added to it and one word can t be taken away from it. I

96 thank God there is a part for us. And you are this special generation that this little book has been brought down to. You have been raised up for this purpose, for this day, this hour, this message, and have found the little book within the big book and it taste as sweet as honey. And there is not anything else that you can eat that will satisfy you. So, God bless you. Amen.

97 REACHING FORTH YOUR HAND AND TAKING THE LITTLE BOOK I want to speak on the subject, Reaching Forth Your Hand and Taking the Little Book. So let s pray before reading the Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this another privilege to open the Bible and read from your Word. As we are reading this morning about this great plan of redemption all the way from Genesis through the Book of Revelation, Lord you have been gracious to us in that you let us see your plan, and then the little book which is for the Gentile bride specifically. Lord, we just thank you for giving us this knowledge. As we continue in the Word I pray you anoint our minds, anoint our lips of clay that we may speak words that would be of an edifying nature to your children here at the end time. We will be careful to praise you in Jesus Name. Amen. I want to go to the Book of Genesis to begin with. That is the seed Book; everything began in the Book of Genesis. I want to show you how Adam and Eve were there and in the presence of the tree of life. They could not die as long as God s presence was there upon them. Now here I m speaking of body, flesh and blood. They were living in the presence of God until they sinned. But when they sinned, God had to remove the tree of life or the anointing of God lest they eat and live forever in a fallen state. So the tree of life was taken away, hid away, and through the different times and different ages God let it come into view through different anointed men to bring certain portions of the Word of God for their time period. We see after the Old Testament period the tree of life came back again through the Lord Jesus Christ, and the tree of life was here in the beginning of the church in a limited way, until the saints fell from grace. Then after the early church had fallen from their first love, the tree of life was picked up and reserved in heaven through the seven church ages, although the life of Christ was seen in a mighty way in the days of Paul before the church fell away. But as the church fell away, we hear Paul saying, There are men among you right now and as soon as I m gone they re going to rise up and draw disciples after themselves. In another place he said, There are those that are even preaching the resurrection has already past and has overthrown the faith of some. I want to put a special note in here as we begin to speak of the tree of life and the little book: As we speak of the church ages and the time just before the rapture, the little book that was hid within the big book that was unsealed by the Lamb (Revelation, Chapters 5 and 6) is released and brought to earth. This little book is for the wife of Christ only. Hereafter we refer to the tree of life and the little book as the self-same thing.

98 See, God knew the early church would not go into the rapture even though Paul in his prophetic writing said, We which are alive and remain will be changed, after the dead are raised and together we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is what we refer to as the rapture. I m so glad that the early church didn t take the rapture. I m very happy for that, because had the early church taken the rapture you and I wouldn t be here partaking of this rapture message; it would have long taken place nearly two thousand years ago. But God delayed it for He knew exactly what He was doing. He took the tree of life away lest they reached forth their hand to take it and live forever in a fallen state. But in this last day He brings it back and tells us to reach and get it; because Christ has taken the curse off of us, His wife, and gave us His own righteousness. And by giving us the gift of righteousness He has made us as righteous as He is righteous. And that has nothing to do with works. It s a gift that Christ gives to us, and because He gave us that gift we re going to be so much in love with Him that we re going to do our best to please Him. So, as we reach forth and take the little book in this hour, it is the commandment that God has given; given from the hand of Almighty on down through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Almighty God tells John, a type of Christ s wife, Go get the little book. We re authorized, we know it s time. God says, You go to the Mighty Angel and take the little book. And John went up to the Mighty Angel and said, Give me the little book. And in return the Mighty Angel which is Christ said, Take it and eat it up. Prior to this time, it was forbidden to take possession of the tree of life, because they had fallen. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil was set in the garden of Eden, and God spoke of the tree of knowledge that they should not partake of it in that form and in that way. Had they waited, God would have given them further instruction concerning this knowledge by revealing the tree of life unto them of how to bring forth children with eternal Life. Notice, not one time did He ever give any commandment whatsoever relating to the tree of life, because that was to follow once they had been tried. God always gives us trials. He gives the true Word and then He allows another voice. But if you re His you know what is right. You re able to discern right from wrong. So, God put another voice in the garden. God gave Adam and Eve the commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge in this form. But there was another voice that came to Eve and said, Eve, go ahead and eat of the tree of knowledge. She said, We may eat of all the trees, but of the tree of knowledge God said we shall not eat or touch it lest we die. And the other voice said, You won t really die. You ll just be wise and you will know what is good and what is evil. You ll be like God. But God didn t want them to have that knowledge yet, that was for a later date as the law of reproduction began

99 to work in Eve. But the serpent said, Go ahead and eat it. So Eve yielded and ate of the tree of knowledge and also gave to Adam. But the tree of life was sitting there. And I m sure we have in our thoughts, Why wasn t something said about the tree of life, what to do with it. Well, that was to come later. God wanted to give a trial (test) first whether they would obey His Word or not. Now in Chapter 13 of the Book of Matthew, He said, Unto him that has, it shall be given, but unto him that has not (not a desire to go on with God) it shall be taken away even that which he has. So there s rules set on the ones God gives revelation to. Those that have a desire, to them it shall be given. He will come right in the midst and He will speak and He will open His Word up. Then on the other hand some have not a desire, and it will be taken away even that which they had; and we ve seen that take place, haven t we? People just lose their desire for it. When it comes to this truth they just lose that burning desire. Somehow they failed to move with God into the thing that God is doing. But the predestinated have followed the Word, and that Word says, Exercise your senses that you may be able to discern good and evil. See, that s what we re to do now in this hour and we ll keep receiving more and more of the Word of God. We ve come to the point (it s on one of the earlier tape messages entitled Passing the Point Where Deception is No Longer Possible) that deception is not a problem, because we know we re not going to be deceived. We have united with Him, we ve gone into the tent with Him, we ve become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and we ve come to the place where we are operating with the mind of Christ. Christ and His wife are operating with one mind, and that is His mind. Now I want to read here in Genesis, Chapter 3, starting with Verse 22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Please notice here, that God has not told them to do anything concerning the tree of life yet; but it was there in the garden. I want to show you the lifting, the taking away of the tree of life; so they wouldn t have access to it in a fallen state. Now when God spoke here live forever, He is not speaking here of the soul as it would apply for that day. He s not speaking of the soul only; but of the physical being also. We become bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh, and that s not speaking of spirit only, but of our flesh also. There are a people that are going to be translated, and have a body like unto the physical Christ as this tree of life, the book of life, or the little book is set back among us and we begin to eat of it. Then we will come to the place where we can say, Oh, death, where is your sting? And those that have gone on can say, Oh, grave, where is your victory? Because there s a people that Paul spoke about, and he included himself; he said, We which are alive and remain till these

100 things take place are not going to hinder those that are gone on; they re going to rise. We re going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. We re going to be given a body like unto His. Yes, we re going to be translated physically. Paul was not talking about a spiritual translation here. Paul spoke of it in the Book of Hebrews saying, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Now he wasn t speaking of death of the spirit or death of the soul; it was our physical being he was speaking of. This is one of the things that Christ is bringing to the final knowledge for the bride of Jesus Christ in this hour; not only is there salvation for the soul, but also complete redemption for the body where the body will not die! The Word of God tells us that there will be a people that will be living and when they pass a certain line, (and only God knows where that line is at) when they cross over that line those that are alive at that time can look death in the face and laugh at it. When death comes knocking at your door, or the hideous creature comes up and says, I ve come to get you, you can say to him, Get lost, because that hideous creature cannot touch you once you pass the place in the program of God where salvation is not only for your soul but also for your body. That s why God has given divine healing from time to time to be a witness that this plan of salvation not only includes something for the soul, not only does it save the soul, but it includes something for these mortal bodies. It was typified with Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was an old man, the Bible says he was good as dead; and Sarah, it ceased to be with her as with women. But God said, You re going to have a child. They waited and they waited and the years rolled by; then He came back again and said, About this time next season. He brought a specific time so they knew when it was going to be. About this time next season Sarah will become pregnant and she will bring forth that child. And remember, she was as good as dead and Abraham was as good as dead. God changed their bodies so this could happen and Isaac was born. And then after Sarah went on to be with the Lord, some forty years later Abraham married again and had six more sons by another woman. Remember he was good as dead before Isaac was ever conceived. People laughed at him because he said, We re going to have a child. But God confirmed His Word and fulfilled it to Abraham. Think about this, 40 years later when Isaac married, Abraham also took a wife and to him was born six sons. What a translation! We read also where God translated Enoch and Elijah. Enoch walked with God and was translated, and Elijah was caught up in a whirlwind the Bible says. This thing that we ve begun to deal with, that we ve got plugged into, it s eternal; it s not something that s going to be gone next year. There came a time, a place, a line, a marker (don t miss this statement) there

101 was a marker. See, Abraham knew that God promised him and Sarah a child, and he knew they were too old; so he knew it was going to take a miracle. So he had to really strain his faith to keep his courage to believe that this is going to be like God said. But then one day God came to him in flesh and said, About this time next season that s when it s going to be. That settled it! Now about the time you see the Mighty Angel come down from heaven and bring the little book, and about the time you realize the Voice of Authorization has spoken and said, Go get the little book, then you re entering into that time period where you can begin to eat that tree of life. It not only will give life to your soul, but also to the body and we no longer have to strain our faith to believe it. Here we see two things about Christ in the New Testament that s outstanding: He came in the form of the Holy Ghost, and people received the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost. We ve followed that throughout time, throughout the church ages, especially in this age, in 1906 when the Holy Ghost came back in a similar manner as on the Day of Pentecost where they began to speak with tongues and have the gifts restored back like it was in the beginning. So concerning the Holy Ghost, He s already here, and that s for the salvation of the soul. Everything for the soul is taken care of under the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You re sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. All of that has been taken care of. The salvation of the soul is only part of the plan of salvation (redemption). But here we are dealing with the next stage of redemption. Let us read prayerfully as we deal with another phase (or stage) of the great plan of salvation which is the redemption of this physical body or salvation of the body. Christ comes down to earth in a different form. He comes in the form of the Mighty Angel. And as He comes in the form of the Mighty Angel, He brings the little book and says, Eat and live forever! Notice, it was hidden, taken away lest they eat and live forever in their sinful state. But here Christ has given us His own righteousness; that makes us as righteous as He is righteous where there s not one sin against us. Now we understand why when we were only living under the baptism of the Holy Ghost (before we were baptized into the body of Christ) we preached, Let the Lord wash you by the washing of the water of the Word. Let him take all the spots and wrinkles out of your garment. It was said, You do that by praying, by fasting, by giving, and by tithing and many different things. But that part comes to a close as a means of obtaining righteousness now that He has brought us the garment that has never been soiled. We now do these things not to get righteous, but because He has given us His own righteousness. Now what we do, we do it because we love Him and not to earn righteousness. There s where the real jewels come in. There s a garment that has never been soiled

102 (Revelation 19:7-8), fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. When Rebecca was on the camel train traveling to Isaac she was dressed in her traveling clothes, she had on her walking boots we would say. She took on a lot of dust (ideas and opinions of men) and different things through the journey. But by the time Isaac got through talking with the servant, she had dressed up to meet him; and had put on the wedding garment that had never been soiled. The scripture doesn t give all the details about it; but it says when Rebecca lighted off the camel, Abraham s servant went to Isaac and told him all these things; he had a time of conversation letting him know how God had led him. (Genesis 24:66) Remember the story of how Rebecca watered the camels? The servant told Isaac about that and all the other things that had taken place. And by the time Isaac went into the tent with Rebecca she had gotten all dressed up and had on a garment (not the traveling garment); she had on a garment that wasn t stained, she had on the best that money could buy for that day, because Abraham had waxed very rich (the Bible says). I m sure they provided her with fine linen, clean and white, the best that money could buy. So she went into the tent and became one with Isaac. (Genesis 24:67) So we see two different garments. Under the baptism of the Holy Ghost we washed our garments, we made them white, we tried to do this and we tried to do that, but we always felt somehow that we weren t quite good enough. No matter how good we were we would feel like maybe I made a mistake here, maybe I m not measuring up. Many times you ve gone into churches and you ve heard the preacher preach, and you might have went there feeling pretty good like you were all right, but by the time the preacher finished preaching you felt like you were probably backslid or worse. But with this garment that He gives only to His wife (a garment of fine linen, clean and white; the Bible says, it s the righteousness of saints) it has never had a stain on it, because it is Christ s own righteousness. The Bible says He was without sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; there s your perfect garment, His righteousness. So there s nothing to hold back the translation of the body. There would be if you were thinking like this, Well, I did a little something last week I think might not have been good; or My life hasn t been something you would want to write a story about. I haven t always done everything just like I ought to do it. Every one of those statements is faith killers. See, doubt and faith cannot exist in the same place. Faith kills doubt. Doubt kills faith. So in order to have perfect faith you ve got to have something perfect to rest that faith upon. Going on now, God said, I ve got to take this tree of life away lest they eat in their fallen state and live forever. Otherwise, there would be a group of people on earth with eternal life but would break the laws of

103 God and feel like, What does it matter, we ve got eternal life anyway. But He said, No, I m not going to let you have it that way. In the days of Paul some would preach a revelation just a little bit different from what Paul preached; some would say, The resurrection is already past. Remember when Jesus rose from the dead all the saints rose with Him and they went into glory? So some took statements like that, Paul talked about a resurrection, but I think it has already passed. The Bible says, Some preach the resurrection has already passed and have overthrown the faith of some. But there was a voice, there was a message, there was a line of truth. There was Christ working through the apostolic office that He set in there for the Gentile bride. But they wanted to deviate from what Paul said and get their own personal revelation. But your personal revelation, I promise you, will never deviate from the apostolic message of this final phase of redemption. It will always stay right with it and never pull off to the side, because many times if there s a side thought going it will begin to gain momentum. And if somebody has a little gripe against the apostolic message then they ll hook onto that and take sides with the error and corrupt the fellowship. It has to be perfectly united together; the same mind and the same judgment. He said, I m going to give them all they need in order to do that and see what they do with it. He set an apostolic message in here that was strong, that was powerful, that took the Word of God and made it live. There was Timothy, and Titus, and Apollos, and others. Paul told Timothy there in 2 Timothy, Those things you ve heard me say, you teach other men that they will say the same thing, because we all have to have the same judgment and the same mind and there can t be one deviating this way and one deviating that way. The mind of Christ is not divided. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Christ has to have His wife thinking His thoughts. That was one of the messages preached in Kalomo, Zambia, The Wife is thinking with the Mind of Jesus Christ. Are you doing it today? Are you thinking with the mind of Jesus Christ? You might say, Brother Howard, how can I get hooked into the thoughts of Jesus Christ, to know what Jesus Christ s thoughts are? Well, as you sit here today He sounds a trumpet, He brings a Word, He put a thought out there, and He put His mind out here and let it be a guideline. He said there in the Book of Romans, Chapter 10; Has not the gospel gone forth? He said, The line has gone all over the world, the line of truth; and His bride will come to that one line of truth. And when you get the mind of Christ you welcome Christ telling you (confirming) through the ministry what you need. Because that s what you ve got on your mind anyway; those are the thoughts you ve already been thinking. See, you were with Him before the foundation of the world. He programmed all of this within you before He made the world. The only thing He does in this last day

104 is bring forth (bring to your remembrance) what He programmed in you. You ll be like that little eagle in the chicken yard; you ll hear a Voice and for the first time in your life you hear a Voice that sounds right! And it will set your heart on fire. Now moving on to the tree of life and by what we ll now read we see that God took His presence away. That s why the Word says, God drove man out from the garden of Eden. They didn t go anywhere geographically speaking, but God just took His presence away and that separated them from the garden environment. As long as they lived in His presence they would live forever. The land area of Eden today is in the exact same place it was when Adam and Eve were here. There s the Euphrates River and other rivers Now the flood came and changed some of the flow of the rivers, but there s still that Euphrates that flows from there as spoken of in Genesis. The Euphrates flows right down by Baghdad. That s going to be part of the natural land area. Now let me read the rest of this here; notice He said He had to move the tree of life lest they put forth their hand and eat and live forever. Verses 23-24, Therefore the Lord God sent him (talking about man) forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and flaming sword which turned every way, (now watch this) to keep the way of the tree of life. Man didn t go anywhere; it was Eden that went somewhere. God picked up His Spirit. Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22, shows Him coming back to that exact spot. That s the city New Jerusalem. What it is, it s not actually a tangible city coming down; there s nothing at all tangible coming down. The only thing coming down is that which had been taken away, that life, the life of God. John saw the city as a bride adorned for her husband come back to that very exact spot. So what happened? He picked up Eden. They could not get back into Eden. It wasn t seen until Paul came and he began to preach, he began to bring a message and it brought it back on a limited scale. Paul said in Hebrews Chapter 12, You ve come to New Jerusalem. You ve come to Jesus. You ve come to the spirits of just men made perfect. That s when you ve come into His presence. Christ brings you into His presence. But He came and He sent a message through the Apostle Paul, and the message was a message of engagement. Now this all ties in together. Christ engages a people through Paul s message. There s two parts to Paul s message: There s a prophetic part of Paul s message that hasn t come to pass yet. We haven t been changed yet. The rapture hasn t taken place yet. The dead is not raised yet. But he spoke as We which are alive and remain, this shall be what takes place. We know that there is a portion out of the book that is to give the Gentile bride life. I want to say this: There are only one people to be raised from the dead to go up in the rapture. It s the bride of Jesus Christ, His wife.

105 Not anybody else, just her. Now the rest will be raised and live in the millennium, but they will stay dead throughout the tribulation period. The wife and only the wife is going to partake of the consummation part of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and that includes the ones that are dead, and the ones that are living. The ones that are living will be changed after the dead are raised. In this (Bible the big book) only a small portion of it is classified as the little book. There are 14 Books. That s what produces a people all speaking the same thing. Just as Paul said, I am THE Apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office. He began to write certain things, and it didn t hinder or contradict any of the rest of the Bible. As you read what Paul said, he talks about God giving us gifts. He talks about My Beloved. He talks about you re in my heart to live and to die. He talks love talk. Paul was talking to a wife. He wrote 14 Books and when God took Paul off the scene He took the anointing off this Word. He took it up into glory and He made it part of the total plan of salvation as the little book. The Mighty Angel comes to earth, and when He came He had a little book. He didn t have the whole Bible; He had the little book which is part of the big book that was opened in Chapter 5 of Revelation. Because it applied to a certain people; it is to give a people the wedding garment, bring them to a place where they would pass that place where the Lord said to Abraham, About this time next year these promises are going to be brought forth. These old living bodies are going to be changed, because He said we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and again I m not speaking of spirit here. I m talking about these old bodies we live in. As God did something for the soul through the Holy Ghost, He is doing something for these old bodies as we eat the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10. He begins to work with that mind. He begins to get your thinking in the right direction. He begins to get you to believe that which is impossible. Paul said, We which are alive. And he s not talking about being alive in the soul only. He s talking about these physical bodies. We which are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord are not going to hinder those that are asleep. They re going to rise. Then we that are still living will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That s the promise that Christ has for you in this hour. What He does is.., He brings back that anointing that caused Paul to speak that; to bring it to pass for us in this day. We can now say, Spiritual Eden is back again. He brings back that anointing and puts it upon the Word that was sealed in heaven for us. That is the picture that Revelation, Chapter 10, shows us. He brings back a little book to a specific group of people and they re Gentiles. It s the bride of Christ, those that are living here at the end time to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye! Once again I want to contrast this. In the Garden of Eden He took it

106 away. Why? So they wouldn t take it and eat of it un-regenerated and live forever. Can you imagine what it would be like in the world if no one had died since Adam and were living in a fallen state? It s already a mad house out there. So what He did, He reached and got that Spirit and took it up. That meant fallen humanity would die physically as God had said. Then the only ones that could come were those whose names were in the book of life, and those that wanted to come to God in the way that God had ordained. Now He brings the little book back; and this time He s not hiding it to keep you from getting it, but He is telling you to, Go get it! Go get it! And when you get it, start eating. That s what we re doing right now, we re eating. We re eating from the tree of life today and by eating of this tree of life we are passing a point. We ve already passed a point where we can no longer be tossed to and fro. (And we don t know how many more God has to come up to this point. That s up to God.) But there s a certain place out here just in front of us where He ll say, About this time the promise is going to be made known to you. And then you ll have the revelation, I m not going to die, but I m going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And at that time you will lose all fear of the death angel as he comes, as hideous as he may look, you re going to say, Peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever I pray Brothers and sisters I wish there was some way that I could quicken this to you. There s no one that can give this to you; you ve got to get it from the Lord. The only thing is Christ sent me with a voice, and now through the tapes and the internet it has gone all around the world. There is a voice; but the only thing the voice can do is bring it to you and let you know He loves you, He cares, but I cannot give you a revelation. I cannot quicken one thing to you. He has to quicken it to you. He has to make it live for you. That little eagle had to jump up and flap his wings in order to get out of the barnyard. I m talking about the story of the little eagle that heard the mother cry and he said, How can I get up? And she said, Just jump up and flap your wings. Well, the little eagle got up to the top of the fence post the first time; flapped around and went back. But the next time it got a little higher. Then finally the mother eagle just swooped under it. When she saw that it was really trying to fly and got up high enough for her to come sweep under it, she swept right under him and took him off into the blue. Christ sees when we re trying to fly, our wings may be a little weak, like Brother Benny Sawyers wrote the song, Fly Little Eagle Fly, said I feel my wings growing strong. Do you feel your wings growing strong? Hallelujah! This is real! The power of God is real! John said, I saw a Mighty Angel. Not the Holy Ghost now. Did you catch what I said there? He said, I saw a Mighty Angel and He had a rainbow upon His head. He had feet like pillars of fire. And He went on

107 to describe Jesus Christ perfectly. But said, One thing I noticed, He had a little book; not the whole Bible. He had a little book in His hand. It was the Spiritual part of what Paul had written; the prophetic part that is being fulfilled to the wife of Christ. Then God thunders His Voice and says, Go take the little book. John and the Angel began personal communication. Did you catch that part? John and the Mighty Angel began a personal (intimate) communication. John walked up to the Angel and said, Give me the little book. And the Mighty Angel said, Here, take it; and eat it up. And I ll tell you this, John, when you get through eating you start prophesying. Prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings. Amen. We ve been eating and now we re prophesying. And this is going to keep on going until it gets to where it literally changes our vial bodies. We ll have a body like unto His glorious body. Paul said you re bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. I want to read in Colossians, Chapter 3; I want you to notice Paul is speaking of Christ. Christ as personal (intimate), the Mighty Angel. It s not so much God said this, and God said that; you re closer than that, see. The Bible says that God is a Spirit. You can t go where God is not. He is a Spirit. He came down in His Son. Paul spoke of Christ, and Christ is related to the human family. So as we read this I will let Paul speak to you of Christ as he knew Him. God is a Spirit that fills all heaven and earth, and even all the great open spans of unlimited space. But Christ is up close and personal, the head of the church. Paul says in Colossians 3:1-4, If ye then be risen with Christ (not Jesus or God, but with Christ. Paul spoke of Christ a lot, more than 400 times, while all the other writers combined used the word Christ just over 100 times. That s that anointing which becomes one with you here, see. Now Peter didn t speak too much about Christ, although he spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, but when Paul opened his mouth that word Christ always seemed to come out) seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. I wanted to read that to show you, none of the other writers wrote like that. Paul knew something about Christ personally, intimately. He said, We henceforth know Him no more after the flesh. Paul didn t walk with Him in the flesh; he knew Him in the spirit all the way, and he knew Him much better than most did that did walk with Him in the flesh. Well, that s what came back in Revelation, Chapter 10. It s the Mighty Angel; it s the Spiritual being; not Jesus Himself in the physical. But when we meet Him in the air, then we ll see Him there like that. But Christ as the Mighty Angel came back as a Spiritual body to be baptized into; we re baptized into that body, we become part of it, a member of that body and then as we progress on we become bone of His bone

108 and flesh of His flesh. And God gives us a body like unto His glorious own, to be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, on earth I long to be like Him. Do you love Him today? How many are glad for the little book that was brought back? It was part of the book that was sealed with seven seals; but this part, this little book was taken (resurrected) out of the big book and brought down here just for a Gentile wife and we have reached out and taken it. God bless you. Amen.

109 THE WIFE IS THE LIVING EPISTLE: A Landmark Message We re reading today starting in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 3; there s something here that I feel is more important today than it has been in days gone by, because of the fact that we ve come into the season where it is being fulfilled. Paul spoke about this setting in his day and now there is a similar setting in our day. The days when Paul preached, many of the things that he preached he couldn t go read it out of the Bible because it was written in his heart and mind. When the gospel came over from the Jews to the Gentiles it took a new move of God and many of the old laws didn t apply. It was the same thing with the Jews that accepted the gospel of Christ, much of the old law didn t apply to them. When the gospel came to the Gentiles through the mouth of the Apostle Paul it was on this wise, as Paul was on his way to Damascus, Christ told him, I m sending you to the Gentiles. He said, I m going to make you a light to the Gentiles. That s why Paul could say, I m in Christ s stead. Many of the things that he preached and taught and wrote he had very little background to base it on other than Christ in him. When he began to write, he began to write to the church that they were living epistles; You are the Bible, he was saying. So I want to take a thought today, The Wife is the Living Epistle. I want to show you, it s not just reading the Word. And in this hour we re living in there s so much written Word, even on the internet and the electronic Bible, any scripture you want on any subject, you can go to it instantly and read it. But that is not the Word, that s only the letter of the Word; the Spirit of the Word is what is important as it is connected to the written Word. Because when Jesus came, the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders knew the written Word better than any one, but when the real Word came they just missed it all together. The thing is, we ve come to that same place again in this hour where people know the Word, they read the Word, and they think if they read the Word they are all right. There s nothing wrong with the reading of the Word of God, but just be sure that the Spirit is there also, because if God s Spirit is not there it amounts to one thing you ve got knowledge. Yes, it s true; you only have the tree of knowledge. Paul said that the letter alone will kill. So the written Word alone is not the living Word. The spoken Word is the original seed. See, the spoken Word. And then when we read what Paul says here, he didn t say read your Bible (the scriptures) and you re going to be all right. There s nothing wrong with reading your Bible; don t

110 get me wrong. Remember the first and of the Word of God is the foundation, but without the living Word (the second and - the spoken Word John 2:22) in this day and hour then we re not in what God wants us to be. We can t be the wife. Christ is living; He is alive and His wife has got to be the living epistle in this hour. So to be the body of Christ is to be the living epistle; not just a church that believes the Bible, but fulfilling the Word of God of what He said would be. I brought in an example last week about John the Baptist and how the Word says, A voice of one crying in the wilderness. It did little good to know that without knowing the fulfillment of it and knowing when he came. Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, they knew that Word; but when the man stood there they didn t even know it. They said, Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you someone else? And when Jesus came, the Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made manifest (made flesh) and dwelled among us. Well, that was the Word. And those that knew the written Word totally, most of them missed the living Word as the living Word walked around here and preached and taught. Many of the things He said was contrary to the thinking of those that only knew the written Word. Jesus brought grace and truth; the spoken Word, and it didn t fit with their religious thinking. (John 1:17) Remember when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath day in the Book of Luke 14:1-6. And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; And answered he, (being a man of wisdom, the living Word) saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. That was the living Word talking. The living Word has always went right among us when here laid the written Word; but all miss it except those whom God puts the living Word in. And He does it by a message. When you see in action what the Word said would be, then that is the living Word. And that is what we have today; we have in action what God said would be, the body of Christ which is His wife. These members are baptized into the body of Christ and have the mind of Christ. And you don t necessarily get the mind of Christ just reading the Bible. Because some of the things that God did in the days of Paul (and He is doing it now) they were hid in God from the foundation of the world and they weren t written; but they were spoken. And that is how it is in this day and this hour; only the living Word has life in it. All the rest is a dead letter of the Word and a good history book unless it comes alive to you. I want to read what Paul said, but let s pray first.

111 Heavenly Father, Lord I just thank you for this opportunity to stand up again and be identified with our Sacrifice, be identified with the Lamb, be identified with the Christ of the Bible, be identified with the Living Word in this day and in this hour that we are living in. Lord, I pray that you will anoint us with that special anointing that it takes for this end time preaching, Lord, that you will anoint us to speak words, live words, not dead letter of the Word, but life giving words and that you will just send it right to the hearts of the people. Lord, bless each one, bless us as we speak. In Jesus Name. Amen. All right, I m reading in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3. I want you to notice here as we read; Paul is addressing those Gentiles that heard him preach. He began to say, Ye are our epistle (you re our letters, you re our words) written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Now there wasn t a thing written down on paper. He says: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ Notice he said our epistle in Verse 2 and here in Verse 3 he says the epistle of Christ ministered by us, what Paul was saying is the same as what Christ was saying. So Paul s epistles of Christ were the same as if it was Jesus Christ Himself talking, because Paul was in Christ s stead. (2 Corinthians, Chapter 5) But he says here, you re the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink. This is some of the things I want to deal with this morning as we talk about the wife of the Lamb. We see here that the Word is not necessarily all written. It s living; not necessarily written. Written Word and living Word are two entirely different things. Because, you see, every church uses the Bible. One preacher on television quotes scriptures and quotes Paul out of the Bible, but he doesn t even believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul quoted very little in his day. You ll not find Paul quoting Jesus very much. Why? He didn t have to quote Jesus; it was Christ in him doing the talking. The message that he had was to a Gentile people and there was no instructions written for the Gentile people. It had to be living, breathing, walking, talking Word in that hour; a church with the mind of Christ. So watch what it says here, Verse 3, Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. That takes it totally out of just reading the Bible. I know a lot of people will say, Well, I read the Bible. I don t have time to read other things. I use my time reading the Bible. Well, there s nothing wrong with reading the Bible; but God has a living Word now, messages that are being written in our hearts that are life giving, that is for our day and for our age. Many of the things that Paul said in his day took place and were fulfilled in his day, because his message was not only doctrinal, but was instruction. Instruction for what they were dealing with then. And many times it was for correction. But then, part of Paul s message was prophetic, to take place here at the end time. God let him see the

112 church as though the rapture would take place in his day and age because he said, We which are alive and remain He wrote it so we would have a foundation in this hour as we preach the Word; and the living Word comes down from heaven, Revelation, Chapter 10, the Mighty Angel comes down from heaven (the Word again). When the Word walked around here in the days of Jesus, you could see Jesus Christ, if you had a revelation you would have known that was the Word made flesh. But the same Jesus has come in angelical form, the same Christ, in the earth again and this time He is also manifested in the flesh, but it is through a many member body. And the many member body becomes just as much Word as He is Word, and we become just as righteous as He is righteous, and we become heir of God and joint heirs with Christ. Whatever God owns or Christ owns it is ours, too. So as the Mighty Angel comes down, He comes down to be a body to be baptized into. See Paul spoke of being baptized into the body. There are two things as we look at the Word of God as it relates to the plan of salvation. One thing is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. With the baptism of the Holy Ghost we re baptized with the Holy Ghost as an individual and the Holy Ghost can lead us and guide us. But when we re baptized into the body of Christ we become part of the body, and we have the mind of Christ. That s why when the rapture takes place just after resurrection He s married only to the living Word, which are both the resurrected and the translated saints, because He is the living Word. He s not going to marry everybody that has the Holy Ghost, because a lot of people that have the Holy Ghost have never brought their minds into subjection to the law of Christ. That s why they will stay in a denomination. That s why they will stay where the Word is not being preached, and they will go places where the Word is not being preached. But the wife has the very mind of Christ and is baptized into the body of Christ. That s why when the rapture takes place there will be many people that are left here, and the Word calls them foolish virgins and tribulation saints. And they will not be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. They ve got to go by the way of the grave. But those that are living that are part of Christ, that are the living Word He s just going to change them because they are His living Word...glorify His Word is what He will do; and if you are the Word you can t help but be glorified. And then there s what is called tribulation saints that will stay right in denomination until the middle of the week. This message of the 144,000 Jews is spoken of in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 7 and 14; it talks about the everlasting gospel, the 144,000 follow the Lamb wherever He goes and they will preach a message, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Fear God. Give glory to Him. That s in the last part of the 70th Week of Daniel, while His wife is in glory, because He has already gotten His wife and taken her into glory prior to this time. His wife here

113 in the earth is not just a church member, not just somebody that knows about Jesus Christ; it s somebody that is the living Word for this day and this hour. And you can t be that unless God has ordained you to be. If He has ordained you to be, you can t help but when you hear that living Word it will pull you right into it just like a magnet pulling steel shavings to it. Now notice the Word here, it s not something that we can read with our eyes. But it is something that is in our hearts. It is written in our hearts. It is written in our minds. It is not written with ink; it s not on paper. What Paul preached in his day originally it wasn t on paper; it was spoken Word. And only later it became written. Some of it was only made part of the Bible maybe a hundred or so years down the road. Many of the letters that Paul wrote were not included in the Bible, but God saw to it that what He wanted was put in the Bible. The thing Paul is saying here is, This is written in your heart. It s not something that you can read. And that is exactly what he is saying in the Book of Hebrews, I ll make a new covenant with them in that day. I will write my laws in their hearts and in their minds. You might say, Brother Howard, are you trying to discredit the Bible, or belittle the Bible? No, I m just trying to get us to see there is a living Bible that is walking and talking and it is founded in this Word right here. This Bible is only the garden that the living Word grows in. In the days of Paul he came with a message. There was an apostolic ministry and there were different arms to that apostolic ministry. There were prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and all of that; but we see that seed as it produced its crop and the stalk died and it lay dormant for two thousand years, He said, I will restore in this last day. There s been a complete replanting of the seed of God in this hour to bring forth the fresh new crop of Spiritual children walking around here being led by the Spirit of God, the Word of God, and they become the living Word. Hallelujah! All right, let me show you another one. Let s go down to Verse 6 of this same Chapter, Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; We ve got to know what the New Testament is. Paul s writings became part of the New Testament after he died; they gathered the letters he wrote and they called it New Testament. So be it. But as it went through the ages and the world changed and we came to the time of rapture, there s another New Testament just like it was in the days of Paul that is written in your heart. There will never be another Bible written, because we can t add to or take from it. But He just makes live what the Bible says. Christ Himself comes back, which is the Word, (Revelation, Chapter 10), and that s such an important scripture where John said, I saw another Mighty Angel come down from heaven. It means Christ in Spiritual form. His feet were like brass, His eyes like flames of fire, and there was a rainbow about His head. Christ Jesus is here today, He has descended

114 down and He is here making His Word live in a people, so the church has become living epistles, not just somebody that knows how to quote the Bible, not just somebody that knows how to preach the Bible, not just somebody that knows how to talk about the Bible; but it is Christ in you the hope of glory! Listen to what he said here now. Again reading Verse 6, Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, In other words, what I m preaching to you I m not reading it. This is God sending it straight to you; that s what Paul was saying in his day. Continuing, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Here s what he is saying, These things that I m saying, if we just quote them that is not where the life is at. It is making them live! And God makes them live as we re baptized into the body of Christ, as we walk with Him, and as we let our lives become all and all for Christ. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life comes, we will appear in glory with Him. Amen. He is our life! Not somebody that can quote scripture, that doesn t give us the life of Christ. It has nothing to do with receiving the life of Christ, being able to quote scripture because My Words are Spirit, and they are Life, Jesus said. The very ones that knew the Bible best are the ones that crucified Christ. It was the very ones that knew the Bible best all the way through each age that when God gave a new move, then the past (previous) moves would try to crucify the new move of God. Now, I d like to read some here in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2, to show you how He leads us by His Spirit. We ve got to begin to move by the Spirit. And we can t do it unless the Spirit is in us and He can t be in us unless we have accepted Him. A lot of people just want to be on the fringes of this thing. A lot of people say, I want religion, but I don t want to be a fanatic. Well, religion is not going to help us a bit and being fanatic is not going to help us any; but being the Word itself, being in constant contact with the Lord. There was a man in Bible days, his name was Enoch, and the Bible says, Enoch walked with God; and he was not because God took him. So Paul is writing here, letting us know that this thing is spiritual. We can t just operate as though we re in this world; we are in Christ. Watch what he says, 1 Corinthians 2:9, But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man (carnal man), the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. The carnal man is not going to get this. But notice as he continues writing, he says, But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now when we begin to talk about the deep things of God we re not going to find it by just reading. We re not going to find it by just living a natural life. Christ has got to become our life and we ve got to have the mind of Christ, as we will see as we read. The next verse

115 says, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? (That s the only way we will know..,) even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. The natural man is not going to know the things of God. It takes a spiritual man to know the things of God because God is a Spirit. And the only way that we will ever know the things of God is through the Spirit of God. And the only way we will know the Word of God, which is the things of God, is to realize there is something living in this day. There is something moving in this hour. It s not the Bible. The Bible hasn t increased a bit since the day it was written. I use the old King James Version, I like it. But it hasn t grown a bit; it hasn t moved a bit, and it won t. But it s still right here. When the rapture takes place there will be many millions of people carrying their Bible around saying, I believe the Bible. You can t find many drunks on the street today that doesn t believe the Bible and doesn t believe in God. But the wife is something entirely different. We ve been baptized into the body of Christ and have become one with Him. We have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. He is a living Spiritual being and so is the wife the living epistle of Christ. And the Word is written in our hearts and in our minds. And we know the things of God. Let s get the next verse, Verse 12, Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, Not the spirit of the world. There s nothing worldly about this. We receive that when we are born into the world; but we get a new spirit, we get a new life, we get a new birth. Last week we brought some things in about the new birth, how with the natural birth no matter how good the mother and father is they can t produce a child with eternal life. Since the Garden of Eden children came by the way of the tree of knowledge, and the Word of God teaches us that we need a new birth. That s what Jesus told Nicodemus, You must be born again. And this new birth has nothing to do with flesh and blood; it is Spiritual. We become part of another kingdom. As we read here we find that we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. That is important there, the Spirit which is of God. We don t just receive God s Spirit in raw form. We couldn t even receive the Spirit of God into our soul and become one with it until Christ came and took on the form of man. He lived here and was tempted and tested in all points like we are, and then went to the cross and died for our sins. Then He came back on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost, not just God s Spirit, but the Spirit which God created, which was of God, and that is the Holy Ghost. But now, in Revelation, Chapter 10:1, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus comes as the Mighty Angel, and that is Christ to marry His wife, making us bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We know that receiving Christ is a bridge between us and God. Now when we receive the Spirit which is of God we can receive it just in the

116 form of the Holy Ghost and God gives us eternal life. And with that Spirit we can walk with God to a certain point. But the wife goes beyond that. We are not just walking with God in that sense; we re part of a body with His very own mind. When He speaks to us, we know it. We know it is Christ talking. We see the Word living, breathing, talking, and walking. We see the very wife of the Lamb where we have become one with Christ; bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit; and we are operating by the mind of Christ. We are not thinking our own thoughts. He s thinking through our mind. That s how the Mighty Angel takes on human flesh. We re baptized into that body; we live in flesh, but we have His mind. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. When He thinks a thought it comes right through our head, because we are living, breathing, walking, and talking Word. That s what Jesus was when He came; He was the Word of God which was Spirit, but He was made flesh through a virgin, Mary. Then He lived the life here. He had eternal life. He didn t have to die. No man taketh my life; I lay it down, He said. When they began talking about Him being crucified, He said, At this time I could call twelve legions of angels. I don t have to die. I ve got eternal life. He was the first begotten of God. He had no sinful nature. In other words, He had no inherited sin about Him because God was His father and is His father. But it wouldn t help us any, other than seeing what God did through Him, but He gave His life to produce a Spirit that was of God. He produced a Spirit that was of God and that Spirit was part of His human spirit and part of God s Spirit. It s called the Holy Ghost. In other words, the Spirit of God took on human attributes. It took on human emotions. It took on human ways. It could feel pain. And He became an example for us. The Bible says He neither sinned nor was guile found in His mouth. And He became the captain of our salvation. On the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost they received a Spirit which was of God. They didn t receive God in bulk form. You cannot receive God in bulk form. You can receive God in the form that is the form of Christ, the form of the Holy Ghost. That is good. That brings salvation to the soul. Everyone that receives Christ in their heart is saved, born again; that saves that soul. But now He promised to redeem the body; not only the soul, but the body. And that is His wife; she and she alone will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. You might say, Preacher, what about these people that are saved? Yes, they are going to have eternal life and their redemption will come as He calls the bodies from the grave. The wife is first, and then after the tribulation all the others that are born again, in that order. And all that have died before us, gone to be with the Lord, which are ordained to be the wife, they will come up first. The dead in Christ are going to rise first. And then when they rise they re going to see Christ walking around here in a body. There are a people that are without

117 spot, without blemish, not because of good works that we ve done, but because He has clothed us with fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. He has given us the gift of righteousness; and He only gives that to His wife. Many have to go by the way of the grave. You can see today as this message goes forth from nation to nation, God has made it available to every person on the face of the earth, but not every person on the face of the earth is going to receive it. Many of them will hear it and walk on their way saying fanaticism! And they ll say, That s not what I ve been taught. I wasn t raised to believe that. And many things they will say. But there is something in a people, we have become the very Word, we ve been baptized into Christ, and we are walking around here as the living body of Christ. We are walking around as that living Word and it is written in our hearts and in our minds. And we don t necessarily have to read it out of the Bible. Now what does the letter of the Word do? Killeth. It takes the Spirit of God; walking by the Spirit. But that Spirit will not contradict the Word for this time period. Continuing with Verse 12, but the spirit which is of God; which first is the Holy Ghost, and then with the Holy Ghost as we walk with God, He baptizes us into that body. And when we are baptized into the body of Christ that gives us what we need to get a glorified body when the time approaches. Now it types out in Abraham; I m not going over there to read as we ve read it many times before. But Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children. Abraham was about a hundred years old; as good as dead. It ceased to be with Sarah as it was with woman. But there came a Voice. There came an Angel. There came God to them and said, About this time next season Sarah will conceive and bring forth a child. And she just started laughing because that was the most ridiculous thing that she had ever heard. But God was going to fulfill His Word. He brought forth Isaac and it was fulfilled right to the letter. Then there was Enoch, he didn t have to die; he was translated the Bible says. And there was another one in the Bible, Elijah; he was picked up in a chariot of fire. He was taken up without seeing death. And Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, there will be a people that are living; We which are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord are not going to hinder them that sleep, they will rise, and we will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. That s where we are at today. The living Word of God. As Jesus was the living Word, He made it possible for us to become the living Word. Verse 12 says we ve received the Spirit which is of God. And why did we receive it? that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That s how we know them. We don t know them by going to school. We don t know them by going to a seminary. It has to be given to us by God. And I m going to say this: We don t even know them by hearing a

118 Holy Ghost filled preacher preach. It has to be revealed by the Lord Himself. Verse 13, Which things also we speak, not in the words which man s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now I want you to notice that. I m not even in the natural realm at all now. We are in the flesh as far as living here in this world. That is our earthly contact, our bodies. We see, hear, feel, taste, smell; that s the five senses. But we re living in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, Paul said, walk in the Spirit. So here, we re of God. We compare spiritual things with spiritual things. The next Verse says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This takes it clean out of the natural. This takes it clean out of what Uncle John thinks. This takes it clean out of what Aunt Jo thinks. This takes it clean out of what the preacher over here thinks. It says, These things are revealed of God comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. And it says they are spiritually discerned. And we have to be spiritual in order to spiritually discern. A lot of people cannot recognize this message. A lot of people cannot recognize this ministry. A lot of people cannot recognize Christ walking right around here among us. And I m not just talking about me as an individual; I m talking about Christ in His body. Paul said it is Christ in you; he didn t say it s just Christ in me. He said it s Christ in YOU the hope of glory! And if Christ is in you then the body is dead. Read in the Book of Romans along the 7th and 8th Chapters. To be carnal minded is death. Paul said there in Chapter 8 of Romans, You re not in the flesh. Now there s a stinger. You re not in the flesh, but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. We re living, we re breathing; it s like we re in a world that is not real. This spiritual world is more real than this natural world ever will be. You lose sight of the things of the world because you re not in the flesh, you re in the Spirit, he says. He said to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. There is a different realm. There are living epistles walking around today and they are the wife. Not somebody that knows how to quote scriptures. Not somebody that goes to church. Not somebody that knows how to sing well. Not somebody that knows how to play instruments good. All those things are good and fine, but Christ is here. He has come down as Christ the Mighty Angel to get His wife, to pick her back up, while the tribulation is going on, to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We ve become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Once we do that we cannot die. The Bible says that Jesus died once. Death has no more dominion over Him. Then if you are Christ then death has no dominion over you. Divine healing only shows that He does something for the body, too.

119 The death angel goes around the earth taking different ones. Just like it did down in Egypt. The death angel came to Egypt to smite the first born of every family. But to the children of God, those that obeyed the Word for that time period, the death angel couldn t come past that blood. That s where the song comes from; When I See the Blood I will Pass Over You. Now what is the blood in this day and hour? It s not chemistry but it s the Spirit. When I see the blood, in the message, because John said, If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with the other and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. That blood follows the Word, the revelation. And there is a period of time, a place we pass, where we go in and the blood is applied to the door, the revelation, and the death angel cannot penetrate that. You say, Preacher, do you mean there is a people that are living that won t die? There is a people living, breathing, walking, talking, that death cannot touch Paul saw it. Do you know what Paul said for us to say to death? Oh, death, where is your sting? And them that have died, Oh, grave, where is your victory? Hallelujah! I ll tell you, to the living saints that have been baptized into the body of Christ and are living epistles in this end time, you re Christ in the earth and Christ died once and death has no more dominion over Him! And we are Christ; we are members of the body. The death angel can come but when I see the blood He said. Where is the blood, may I ask? All we have to do is read the Book of 1 John. When I was over in Malawi in 2006 in the town of Blantyre I preached, The Blood and Word Travel Together. It travels, and then there is a line drawn. It s in the mind of Christ. God knew it; it was drawn before the foundation of the world. And when you pass that line which is drawn there, following the light of the Word and the blood is coming right there, there s your door post. The death angel cannot pass it. There s a people living, breathing, that can say, Death, where is your sting? The fear of death is gone. In Chapter 2 of the Book of Hebrews it says, Jesus Christ came to deliver them that were in bondage of the fear of death all their lifetime. He came to deliver them from that. And this was expected to take place in the days when Paul preached. But I m so glad it didn t. Do you know why? The saints through the ages would not be part of it. We would not be part of it. We wouldn t have been part of it if the rapture would have taken place in the days of Paul. But now that Mighty Angel has come down and He brings that little book. And in that little book it is Christ in you, it s the Word, and with that little book comes blood. And I m not talking about chemistry. I m not talking about blood you can see. The chemistry of the blood spilled into the ground there at Calvary. When Jesus went up into heaven He didn t take one drop of the chemistry of the blood with Him, but it is the life that was in the blood that gets the job done. How could the blood come and cleanse us from sin? No, it s the life that was in that blood. I ve got the

120 blood of Jesus Christ flowing in my body. The one whose blood is flowing in my body has already died. Death has no more dominion over us. There are many that will not die naturally, but if He calls you off the scene, so what. It s just a short-cut. But there are a people that are not going to fear death. We are going to know, We are under the blood. How many ever heard that song Is the Blood Still There? It s about a little Jewish boy who asks his father if the blood was still there. Why? Because the death angel could not pass where the blood was at. It could be making a million miles an hour coming at that home; but when I see the blood I will pass over you. That death angel had to skid its wheels so to speak. That death angel, as soon as it spotted that blood it locked its wheels; it couldn t go any further. Now the blood is applied to us and there s a time, there s a revelation that the living wife will be changed. Notice this, the blood and the Word travel together. It says in 1 John, Chapter One, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, and light is revelation of God s Word, we have fellowship with Him and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. But if we say that we are in the light and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth and the blood can t go with that. It has to be with the light of the Word. The light and the blood - light is understanding, revelation, life. Light always signifies life. Darkness signifies death. They were cast into outer darkness. There s no blood, no light, no life there. But there is still life in that blood. The blood still has its power. The blood has the power to change these old bodies as the revelation of the Word falls upon us; because the reception of the light of the Word of God brings that blood. And remember this, when I see the blood, when I see the light, when I see the revelation, when I see the body of Christ in full unity with the mind of Christ I will pass over you. There s another part of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2, I want to get in Verses 15-16, But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (We don t go to the great white throne judgment. We have accepted Him.) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? (It s asking a question, Who has known the mind of the Lord? Well, I can tell you exactly who has known the mind of the Lord. Paul had the mind of the Lord perfectly and he said you better have. Paul said, Let this mind be in you which were also in Christ. Denominations don t know the mind of the Lord. The world doesn t know the mind of the Lord. Religion doesn t know the mind of the Lord. But God has sent a Word to us and we know the mind of the Lord.) But we have the mind of Christ. Now can you believe that? Yes, looking at the natural it is a little hard. But we think with His mind, see; or rather, He thinks with our mind. I think that would be better to say. The wife operates by the mind of Christ. What we do, it s the mind of Christ not our own mind. Most of the things I do and say and preach I wouldn t do it with my own mind, because it goes contrary to all

121 religions today. It makes people think you ve lost your mind. But we have the mind of Christ, we are the living epistles. I want to say this, I want this to be a landmark message. Only those that are the living epistles are the wife of the Lamb. Religion is not it. It s not them that have the Holy Ghost that have stopped walking in the light. It s those that are baptized into the body of Christ and Christ is using our minds to think. That s why the things that are spiritual, the natural man cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned, but we have the mind of Christ and we know them, see; because Christ thinks through our mind. He speaks through our mouth. He walks through our legs. He sings through us. Now I want to read in Hebrews, Chapter 10, and show you that in the days of Paul he had to go by the Spirit of God, he was forced to. Because many of the things he preached wasn t written anywhere. The Jews had the law, but God called Paul to preach to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles were never under the Jewish law. So if you want to eat catfish go ahead and eat it. Whatever is set before you, eat, drink, asking no questions because the prayer of faith shall sanctify it. Now everything may not be good for you physically. I watch the television sometimes; one time they will say, Don t drink coffee because it is bad for you. Then later they will say, About three cups of coffee is good for you. We can t go by that. Who told Mama and Daddy what to eat and what not to eat? Who told them old-timers? They out-lived us and did more work than we do. When my Mama was old she would get up early in the morning and work in the garden and here I was relatively young and just didn t have the energy to do it. She ate and drank what she wanted and lived a long life. Hebrews 10:16, Paul speaking: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. Now where is it written? It is written in our hearts and minds. It came in letter form later on. Once I preach this we can write it. And it s good, but God is going to keep revealing more truth. We can t just stop. Some of the Bible is instruction that was given for Paul s day. But Paul didn t have possession of the little book as we do. Therefore we go beyond what was known in Paul s day. Verse 17, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now that s the thing about God s children; He remembers our sins and our iniquities no more. Why? Because we are the Word and there is no sin in the Word, in Christ. The Word of God says in the Book of Malachi, Behold I will send you Elijah. That was written Word. But when it was made alive we saw a man walking around here in this hour that came with the spirit of Elijah on him and he went around the world, namely Brother William Branham, to preach the Word. That was living Word. And now God said there would be an apostolic ministry and it is here. He said He would perfect the church and bring it to the fullness. How will He do

122 it? Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers and we would all be one, along with the other members of the wife. I want to quote my title again, because the wife of the Lamb is the living epistle of our day. The Wife is the Living Epistle. God bless you today. It s been good to come here and enjoy the blessings of God, the Word of God. So let s bow our heads in prayer: Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this time that we have had here together this morning, Lord, fellowshipping around your Word. I just pray that you will move by your Holy Spirit upon this Word, and that you will send it wherever you ve ordained; and wherever you send it you said it would prosper. Take this Word, Lord, and use it for your glory and may we as living epistles realize that we have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, the wife of Christ dressed in fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of God, and you have given us that very gift of righteousness in order for us to walk with you. Bless us all together we pray, in Jesus Name. Amen.

123 HOW JESUS DISARMED THOSE THAT WERE ARMED WITH THE BIBLE We re reading today in the Book of Saint John. I love Saint John because it presents some of the things in a way that is more personable than some of the other books. He talks about the love of God more than the other apostles and he speaks much about the Son of God a lot and our relationship with God, and I like that. Someone asked me to explain this about being the bride saying, How could we be called the bride and be sons and daughters too? That is a good question, because the Word talks about being sons and daughters of God. So what I answered was, To God, all His children are sons and daughters, whether Jew, Gentile, or Tribulation Saint; it s all the family of God. So you can say they are sons and daughters of God. From God s view point we are all sons and daughters of God. But from Christ s standpoint we are His wife; we re up close and personal. Remember the message, Being up Close and Personal? So that answered the question. I m going to read now in Saint John, Chapter 8 How Jesus Disarmed Those That Were Armed with the Bible. How Jesus disarmed them, those that were armed with the Bible, those that could quote the Bible better than any other human being living. (I m talking of the religious Jews here.) They had people that did nothing except be sure they had every Word interpreted right. And so when Jesus came, they began to talk about Moses. Moses said this and Moses said that. We re children of Abraham. Jesus said, If you knew Abraham you would know who I am. They had the Word, but He disarmed them by the spoken Word. And that is what God is doing in this hour; He s disarming this religious Gentile world now with the spoken Word as it comes forth in this hour. Now we are living in a particular hour, to you that have computers and know about the different programs of the Bible, where you can take any word and bring it up instantly. You can get little chips with the whole Bible in it and any scripture you need to know. So the Word is just everywhere and in abundance; I m talking about written Word, Bible, here. But there is a famine in the land for hearing the living Word. I preached a message in the city of Kampala, Uganda, entitled, They Were Tried by the Word until the Word Came. That s what the Bible says, God gave them the Word until the Word came. We ve had the written Word, but now the living Word has come. The Bible says in Saint John 1:1-2 and 14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the

124 Father,) full of grace and truth. Now that is the Word. This written Word had its time where much of it is fulfilled; and we understand there is much yet to be fulfilled but there is something (the Word) that is living, breathing, talking, and walking. And Paul said, Ye are living epistles, as he was talking to the people. See, you are the Word. If we have only the letter of the Word it will kill, but it is the Spirit of the Word that will give life. So let s pray before reading. Heavenly Father: I pray now that as we are about to read your Word that you will give us that anointing, because it takes the anointing, Lord, to understand what you are talking to us about. It takes the anointing to bring it in a way that the people can receive it in the proper way. So I pray, Lord, that you will give us that anointing to preach the Word and also grant the anointing to everyone who hears this that they will understand. We ask it in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, how Jesus disarmed them: You re going to find out in this chapter here that they called Jesus illegitimate and having a devil; Him being the very Word and them being the most word-wise people in the entire world (as far as the letter of the Word). The priests didn t work. They did nothing but study the Word and teach the Word as they did the sacrifices, and that s what their lives were about. They were born and raised in the Word and yet when the Word came they said, He has a devil. It s about the same way today, because God s Word has come back and they say it is of the devil. So I m reading Saint John 8:32-33, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.(i like that scripture.) They answered him, We be Abraham s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Notice they began to argue with Him to begin with because what He had was going so far beyond what they had they couldn t even get in the same place that Jesus was spiritually speaking. Jesus said, I go away and you cannot come. They said, Where will He go where we can t go? Well, it s the same thing now because we ve gone where they can t come, in the spirit; so those with just the Word can t go. Verses 34-37, Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham s seed (natural seed, Jews): but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. What is He talking about? They ve spent their lives, since they were little boys; they spent their lives in the Word. And yet here came this man, He didn t have on a priestly garment. He didn t act like a high priest. He talked to the common people. He ate with publicans and sinners. He associated with sinners. But here He came, the real Word. And He said to the religious of that day, My Word has no place in you. Yet, as you will see as we read, they

125 were the most learned people that ever walked on the face of the earth with the Bible in that day and time. They spent their entire lives doing nothing but studying it, being sure they got it; they could quote scripture and get it just right. But when the Word came they denied it and they called it the devil. Thus we came up with the title of the message, How Jesus Disarmed Those That Were Armed with the Bible with the Word, and He did it with His living Word. See, they were armed to the teeth with the Bible. They could quote you more scripture and turn you backwards and forwards with it so long as it was the written Word. But here came the Word in human flesh, a humble man, riding into Jerusalem as a King. They said, He is not our king. We have but one king; he s Caesar. He said, If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. They said, We are Abraham s seed. Jesus said, I know you are Abraham s seed (natural seed). Verse 38, I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. Oh my goodness, that pinched right there real hard. I m doing that which I ve seen with my Father and what you re doing is what you ve seen with your father. And you will find out who He said their father was. Now this is the very Word of God, the Son of God, talking. It wasn t some religious fanatic that didn t know his way around. But God manifested Himself right through this man. It was God speaking. He said, What the Father shows me is what I tell you. Let s read on a little bit more here, Verse 39, They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father, Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. See Abraham s son, Isaac, was the one who had the promise; but Paul let us know that Jesus was our Isaac, He was the promised son. If you were Abraham s children you would do the works of Abraham. Watch as we read. Verse 40, But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. In other words, Abraham loved the truth. You say you re Abraham s son; I come and tell you the truth from God. Abraham didn t do this. You say you re Abraham s children? Yes they were Jews, they had the temple, and the priest had to wear certain linen britches and everything was so sophisticated. But their time was expiring for operation with the written Word as the living Word had arrived. Recently, I watched on television some of the funeral of one of our senators. The priests came by and they sprinkled a little water, and did a little of this, and a little of that. I said, If he didn t get to heaven it wasn t their fault because they worked two days on him, sprinkling water and smoke, trying to get him there. That is exactly the situation that Jesus came into. Moses gave the Word and the rituals and they were to last until the seed should come. God knew they wouldn t move on from their temple worship to accept His Son Jesus Christ and the gospel would go to the

126 Gentiles. Paul covered it in Galatians. The law was until the seed came. And here stood the seed saying, Here I am; the one Abraham said would come. Here I am; the one God said would be here. Here I am; I ve come to set you free. Oh they got so angry, We re already free. We ve never been in bondage. Who are you? You don t even have the priest robe on. You re dressed in common clothes. And the Bible says one of the things that Jesus did was to preach to the poor. (I preached a message on this entitled, Jesus Preached the Gospel to the Poor over in Eldoret, Kenya in 2009.) When John who baptized Him, when he was in prison asked the question, Is this Him that is to come, or should we look for another? He said, Go tell John the poor has the gospel preached to them, and the sick is healed. He said more than once that He preached the gospel to the poor. Well that was one of the things the religious people had against Jesus. He didn t come to the temple. He didn t go to the high priest. He didn t announce Himself as a prophet or priest. He just went out there and started preaching and doing what God said to do. This was the Word that has come. The religious Jews were armed to the teeth with the Word of God and no one could stand against them at all from the standpoint of the letter of the Word. But here came the Word Himself; in the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh, see. He said, My Word doesn t even have a place in you. And they were glad because they didn t want His Word; they would rather have their Bible. They didn t want the Word; they just wanted their Bible. So when the Word came, Jesus began showing them what the Bible said would come; they didn t want it. They didn t believe this was what the Word said. Let me read a little further, Verse 41, Ye do the deeds of your father. You didn t say that, did you, Jesus? You didn t say that to these priests. You didn t say that to these folks that have studied all their lives, given their lives, and dedicated their lives to God, and dedicated their lives to Moses. Surely you didn t say that. That must have been a mistake, a misstatement. You didn t say, You re of your father; you do the deeds of your father. But He did say it. (Now watch, He will tell you who their father is as we go along.) Continuing Verse 41, Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God. We know about your mother. We know she was pregnant before they ever got married. You come in here and try to tell us what to do, you little low down rascal you. We know you were born of fornication. Who are you to come in here and tell us what to do? We ve given our lives. We ve studied all of our lives; and here you come in talking like that. No wonder they said, Kill Him. But Jesus totally disarmed them. Here stood the Word. They had the Word, the Bible, the written Word, but Jesus was the living Word of God. Watch this as we go. They said, Oh, get out of here. We re not born of fornication like you are. We have one father even God. We saw the movie

127 they made on Mary and Joseph. They even got stones to stone her. Joseph didn t know what to do about it, (Matthew, Chapter one) how he could put her away so she wouldn t be stoned to death. See that rumor was ablaze in Jerusalem. Joseph s espoused bride has been unfaithful to him. She s pregnant. She should be stoned to death. Joseph, do you mean you re going to disgrace yourself by marrying her? Joseph thought, How am I going to put her away? They re going to give me trouble all the way through if I don t. Joseph began to think on these things. But here came God sending divine intervention. God sure knows how to disturb our human plans. Joseph lay down and went to sleep and in a dream here came an angel. The angel said, Joseph, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Now God didn t tell the religious world this; He told only Joseph. So the religious world went on thinking that Jesus was an illegitimate child and therefore when Jesus came to give testimony they said, We re not like you. We re not born of fornication. We know all about your birth. Don t come in here telling us what to do. You are illegitimate. You re bastard born. Get out of here. He said, I m sent from my Father. One of the things that was said to Jesus over and over was this, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Verse 42, Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Jesus also said, If God was your Father you would know who I am. But their father was a denominational spirit. Just like the churches today, their father is a denominational spirit. If you take this Word to them; they re ready to kill you! Now they can t legally do it here in the United States, but they do it legally in some other countries. In some of the Muslim countries you can t even take a Bible. Some of the places we (the United States) send our soldiers into; they can t bring a Bible. I say, If they can t bring a Bible they don t go. Can you say, Amen? So Jesus was saying to them here, If God were your Father See Jesus was disarming them. They thought they had Him. When they got mad enough they said, You are a bastard. You are illegitimate. We know all about your mother. We know about the birth. We know that Mary was pregnant before she ever got married. Don t come in here telling us what to do. God always hides His Word in simplicity. It s so amazing that in Israel, the people who were of the lowest occupation were the shepherds. They lay out in the hills and they didn t take a bath very often and they smelled like the sheep. People didn t want to get around them much. Can you think of one of those shepherds going to the temple? They would have met him at the door and told him to go get bathed before you come in here. You can t come in here like that. But do you know what happened? When Almighty God got ready to make the announcement that His Son was born, He didn t go to the reli-

128 gious people, He didn t go to the church, but He went to the lowest occupational people that were in Israel. He went to the people that lived there with the sheep. They smelled like the sheep. They lived in the mountains. And here He sent an angelical choir to sing to them. This day, in the city of David, Christ the King is born! Hallelujah! There s your Word now. Everybody else had a Bible, but the shepherds had the Word revealed to them. Then, not one, and please don t miss this, not a single one of all the religions of that day, which was Judaism, not a one of them knew the Savior was born - not a one of them. But to think these few people up here on the mountain knew; just a few that most of the people would probably hold their noses as they walked by. They wouldn t want to get that stench on them. But God didn t care. The angels didn t care. He saw hearts in them that was waiting on the Messiah. He sent the angels to sing to them. But when He was thirty years old or so, He goes into the temple. He wants to introduce this (the Word) to the people who had the Bible. In other words, here came the Spirit of the Bible right in the temple; but they rejected it. They believed the Bible but they couldn t go anywhere without that spiritual Christ Jesus. It is the same thing today. In Verse 42 He tells them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: (you would know who I am) for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. And He told them as we just read in Verse 41, Ye do the deeds of your father. Verse 43 says: Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. In other words, what Jesus was saying didn t make sense to them; because they couldn t understand the Word. And what is the Word? Jesus said, My Words are Spirit and they re life. Here came a life-giving message, Jesus knew scripture, He could not only quote scripture, but He had the life of the scripture. And Paul said, The letter killeth but it s the Spirit of the Word that makes it live. Notice the next verse now. Jesus is talking back to them. They said, You re born of fornication. We have one Father; it s God. But watch what Jesus said. Verse 44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Oh my! Could a man talk to other human beings like that? Yes, the Word can. Yes, the devil was a liar even back as far as anyone can gleam anything from history and even further back. Satan was a liar. He was a murderer. But he was the most religious person, and still is today. You will never find a person more religious than the devil. You will never find an institution more religious than an institution that s of the devil. It s called the anti-christ spirit. If you will read there in the Book of Revelation about the mother whore which is Catholicism (she had daughters which are Protestant churches) she put to death that Word. So here came the Word right to that Jewish group; He

129 came to bring the life of the Word. But they did not want the life of the Word. That s what Christ Jesus did in Revelation, Chapter 10, from heaven came a Mighty Angel and brought the revelation, the little book, and said, Now eat it! But they said, We don t want it! We already have plenty to eat, so the foolish rejected it. Let s read another scripture now. He said, You are of your father. Your father is a liar, and a murderer from the beginning. He s the father of liars. He can t do anything but lie. Verse 45 says, And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Now watch, the truth and a lie. Again, I want to bring this in: He disarmed them. They were armed to the teeth with the Bible, the Word; that was their life. They lived in and around the temple and studied the Word in their schools. That s why they said about Jesus, How can this man tell us anything, knowing not words. How can He know these things? We know who our father is. We ve studied. We ve got Caiaphas the high priest. A priest had to be raised up in the linage and get all his degrees. But here came the Word. Here came the Spirit to make that written Word live. They said, You re born of fornication. We know nothing about you. But watch how He disarmed them. He disarmed them with the living Word. He disarmed them with the spiritual Word. He disarmed them with the life that the Word should have produced. All the way through the Old Testament the prophecies were to produce the Messiah. Isaiah said, A virgin shall conceive. Why didn t they know that? They could probably quote it, but they thought, This is not the man. If He was the one He would come to the high priest. He would come and get the training necessary to be a priest. Well He didn t have to get trained to be a priest. God made Him the Apostle and High Priest of our profession the Word says (Hebrews 3:1). Let s go on. Verses 46-47, Which of you convinceth me of sin? (In other words, who can show where there is any unbelief in me?) And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God s words: They said, You get out of here. We ve got the Word. We were born and raised with a Bible in our hands. We came into the world with a Bible in our hand. We say this sometimes about someone that is a good mechanic, He was born with a wrench in his hand. These people were born with a Bible in their hand. But Jesus came with the Word and He said in Verse 47, He that is of God heareth God s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Keep in mind now that He is talking to the most religious learned Bible believing people that there was in the world at that time. But they only believed it through their carnal mind. They only believed it by their interpretation. But here came something else. If you will read the Word of God you will find that there is something that comes down that hadn t been here before. We are obtaining that which was previously unobtainable. It wasn t available before Christ came

130 and brought down the little book that was sealed up in heaven and says, Now you eat it. It was the same when Jesus Christ came to these people that had only the written Word; they had the Word until the Word came. They were all right until Jesus came. He tells them that because, You say that you believe. You say that you re in light, and because you say that, you re in your sins. Because here was the Word standing right before them. Verse 47 again, He that is of God heareth God s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Well, who are they of? Verse 41 said, You do the deeds of your father, showing their father was the devil. Yes, they were religious. That s the thing today; there are a lot of religious people. There are a lot of people who know the Bible inside and out. They ll talk about the Bible. They ll tell you about Paul; you can see on the television where they ll trace Paul s journey out. That s all right. But they know as much about Paul, the spiritual Paul, as a June bug would know about putting shoes on a horse. Because you know where Paul went doesn t make you believe his message. Because you know there was a man called Jesus doesn t mean you believe His message. They were up close with Him here and He told them who they were, and He told them what the Word means. He told them, The Word said I would come. When He fasted forty days and nights and came out and went into the temple, He found a place in the book and read it, and it said, The anointing of God is upon me. He sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has anointed me to loose them that are bound. Then He closed the book and gave it back to the priest and said: This day this scripture is fulfilled (before your very eyes). Not a one of them believed it. You say, Why did He say it if not a one of them believed it? God had to give a witness. The Word said the Word would come, so the Word came. He had to be there as a witness. And on the Day of Judgment they ll stand there and Jesus will say, I came and showed you where I fit in the scripture and you said I was of the devil. You rejected me. You crucified me. It s the same thing today. God said there would be an apostolic ministry in this last day to bring the Word of God. Here it is! They do the same thing they have always done, reject it. When Paul came with the Word and went into Asia; do you know how many stood with him? He said, No man stood with me. Only the Lord stood with me. Another time he said, All hath forsaken me except he gave a couple of names. It was the same as they did with Jesus. He said, Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood you ve got no part with me. They said, This is a hard saying. He is a cannibal. He s talking crazy. He s lost His mind. And the Bible says, They walked no more with Him. So there stood the twelve; and Jesus said, I ve chosen twelve of you and one of you is a devil. Will you also go away? But there was a man there that had revelation. That was Peter. He said, To whom can we go? Thou hast the Words of eternal life. He didn t say

131 the priest had it. Peter knew better. He was just an ole rough fisherman with a temper, ready to fight. Because when they came to get Jesus he grabbed a sword, and he was good with it; he cut the ear off of one of those that came to get Jesus. Yes, Peter was ready to defend Jesus. But Jesus said, Put away your sword. This is not my kingdom; my kingdom is not in the natural. Thus God gave Peter a revelation. He was the spokesman on the Day of Pentecost. He became the apostle to the Jews. The roughest one, an ole fisherman who probably couldn t even write his name, but God used him just the same. Continuing on to Verse 48, Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Remember they said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? It was the other side of the tracks we would say. Mary and Joseph weren t rich people and they lived down in Nazareth. They said, You are a Samaritan and you ve got a devil. What are you doing here in this temple anyway? You ought to be somewhere in a slum house. You Samaritan, you ve got a devil. Now that s the Word they were talking about. Yet they had the Bible. There was nobody in the world that knew more of the written Word than they did. But Jesus disarmed them with the spoken Word. See, their heart wasn t right. They just wanted knowledge. They wanted to quote scripture. They wanted to be religious. They wanted the praise of men. That s what the Bible says, You want the praise of men more than the praise of God. But here came the Word, walking, talking, living, just like it was in the days of Paul. He said, Ye are living epistles. You are living Word. The Word is alive; it s walking, it s talking, it s not just the book (the Bible). The book is our foundation. The written Word is the garden that this Word of life grows out of. And in the days of Jesus the book said He would come. It said what He would do and all about it, and yet when He came just like the Bible said He would come they said, You re a Samaritan. You re of the devil. You re born of fornication. That s what they thought of the Word in that day. It hasn t changed either. Why? Because the devil was ruling that religious system and He is still doing it today. See, even in the days of Paul he said, The spirit of iniquity does already work among you. And when I m gone there are men that are going to rise up and draw disciples after themselves, and make a denomination. And he said, But stay with what I told you. Let s go on with Verse 48, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Now is that blaspheming? If it s not, it s so close to blaspheming that I sure wouldn t want to be involved with it. Thou hast a devil, those religious Jews said. Now let s go on. Verse 49, Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishouour me. But did they believe Him? No. I don t have a devil; I m honoring my Father. They said, How are you honoring the Father like

132 you are doing? You come in here telling the high priest these things, acting like he doesn t know what is going on. You have to have a devil. Jesus said, No, I ve just come to honor my Father. I m honoring the Word. The Word said I would be here. The Word said I would do it. And here I am; I am doing just what the Word said, I am honoring God. And you do dishonor me. Verses 50-51, And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. This turned them upside down and inside out. The spoken Word disarmed them. He so disarmed them, opened it up, they were naked before Him. He disarmed them with the real Word and the real Word, the spoken Word, has always been the original Word (it comes first). Once it becomes written it is good, but then carnal man can get a hold of it. And they ll make their own organizations, they ll get their Bible, and they ll learn to quote scriptures and send preachers to the seminaries to learn to preach, that s living from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Just like a lady told me who read my book, The Trail of the Serpent. She called me and said, Ben, I cried all night. I said, What s wrong? She said, I read that book, The Trail of the Serpent, and you said Eve had an illicit affair with the serpent, and said the serpent was like a man. I cried all night. So I waited until the church office opened (which was the First Baptist) and I called Doctor So-and-So and told him what I had read and asked if that was what happened in Eden. He said, We ve got the best books and the most learned men; and when we went to the seminary they didn t teach us that, so sister stay with what we ve been teaching you! So as far as she s concerned there is no such thing as serpent seed. But it is there in the Word, isn t it? I have never seen a snake that could come up and talk to somebody. Amen? And, I have never seen a snake that could do the things which that serpent was doing. See, he was cursed and then he was brought down from a man serpent to being a crawling reptile. But before then he was just like a man except he wasn t a son of God. Ok, let me leave that there. The same thing with these religious leaders here, they were seeds of the serpent, religious seeds of the serpent that could not receive revelation, but could only receive head knowledge. If a man will keep my saying he will never die, Jesus said. Why, we just had a funeral last week; one of the priests died. And you say we can believe on you and never die? Watch as we go along. Verse 52, Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil Keep in mind, they were the most learned people there was, the ones that knew the Bible better than the whole world, the most holy people in the world. There s a saying that goes like this: There; where? In Jerusalem. They; who? The most holy people in the world. Crucified; who? Him; the King of Kings. There they crucified Him. The most holy people in the world crucified the most holy man in the world. That s when Jesus came and said, If you

133 believe on me you will never die I believe that, don t you? If you believe upon Him, accept Him, you shall never die! But when the Word came and told those Jews that, they said, Now we know you ve got a devil. Continuing Verse 52, Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Watch Verse 53, Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Those people should have known. Well, they should have known, and also the people should know today, when we tell them Christ Jesus has come back in Spiritual form as the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10; the Spiritual body for us to be baptized into. He has an apostolic ministry. He has a wife and He is getting ready to glorify her and take her in the rapture. They ll say, You ve got a devil. They might not say it in that many words but basically that is what they are saying. But see, they were learned, they had the Bible, but Jesus disarmed those that were armed to the teeth with the Bible. Verse 54 says, Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: He s saying, The one you re calling your God He is my Father; He is the one honoring me. Keep in mind in order to get the full benefit of this, these were the most holy people, priests, dressed in their priestly garments and they had studied the Word all their lives; and here came the Word. And He totally disarmed them with the Word. Notice Jesus said, My Father is the one you say is your God. Verse 55, Yet ye have not known him; Oh, my! Did you hear that? You don t even know God. You talk about hard. It would be, but He is bringing them life. He s trying to give them life. He s trying to shake them and wake them up. Well, He did; there was a few like Nicodemus and Gamaliel. And there was a few (Saint John, Chapter 7) that He shook to the teeth, almost shook their teeth out, we would say. And a few of them said, Never spake a man like this man, but only a tiny fraction of them. They said, How could a man with a devil talk like He s talking? How could He do these things that He is doing if He has a devil? And one of the big priests came up and said, I ll tell you exactly how He s doing it. He s beelzebub. He is the devil himself among us. He can cast out devils because He is the prince of devils and the devils will obey Him. Wow! The very God manifested in the flesh. See when John baptized Jesus, the Father incarnated Himself in Jesus. That s why Jesus said, These things I m saying, it is not me but the Father which sent me; He s the one doing the talking. Verse 55, Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Watch that; If I said I didn t know Him I would be just like you, a liar. Now He is talking to the most religious learned people in the entire world. And here He stands, He doesn t have a priestly garment on; He

134 doesn t have any credentials showing who He is. He was born in Bethlehem, and raised in Nazareth. He came from a lowly place. His mother was pregnant before she was married; so He is an illegitimate child as far as they knew. And here He is saying that He knows God. No wonder they were ready to kill Him. Let s read another one here. Verse 56, Your father Abraham (They were Abraham s children in the natural) rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Do you hear what He is talking about? Abraham had been dead physically hundreds and hundreds of years. And here come this fellow saying, Your father, Abraham, the one you call your father, he rejoiced to see my day. Well, see it was the seed of Abraham. God told Abraham, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. And Abraham rejoiced when Isaac was born because in Isaac was a prophecy concerning Christ. That birth was a supernatural birth. It typed out something. But remember there were two born to Abraham. One was named Ishmael, born from the bondswoman; that s denomination. Paul told us about it in the Book of Galatians; he typed it out for us. But there was Isaac; he was born after the promise. He was born right through Sarah, an old woman many years past menopause, too old to have a child; but God said, I m going to come about this time next year and Sarah is going to have that baby I told you about. That s the seed he is talking about. Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it. That threw them; that blew their minds. They didn t know what to do with such a guy as this; we could throw Him out, but He is entertaining us with all of His crazy talk. We know He s got a devil. But He was the Word! And they still think the same thing about the Word today. Can you say amen? Let s get Verse 57, Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Now think about this, folks, unless you were spiritual you would think the same things they are thinking. So they said, You re not yet fifty. The fact that they used the number fifty years old indicated that He must have looked older than He actually was, because He had a lot on Him, He being weary went out into the wilderness and tarried all night. He strained to do this thing that He done. You say, Really? Well, in the garden when they were about to crucify Him, the man part, He prayed, and He prayed, and He prayed until His sweat became as though they were great drops of blood. And He said, Father, if there be another way to do this, let this cup pass from me. He was a man facing death. He said, Nevertheless, (I love that word, nevertheless, especially in this setting) not my will but Thine be done, and when He said that the angels came and strengthened Him. Then He said unto His disciples, Let s rise and get going. Let us go. He went and drank the bitter cup. He strained, see. Some of you are not willing to strain a little bit. Some of you want to get on the flowery bed of ease and lay down and

135 float on down the river on your painted canoe that s decked out in flowers. No, if you should reign you must fight. Sometimes you ve got to strain. You ve got to put forth an effort to believe this Word. I m talking about to believe this is it! This is God speaking just like it was in that day! He didn t come to religion. Religion didn t respect Him. All of them left Him many times. He was alone. Twelve people there that God called, one was a devil and the other ten just kind of kept their mouths shut, but only one of them, one ole rough guy, a fisherman, with a temper that could fight a buzz-saw answered when Jesus asked, Who do you say that I am? Peter said unto Him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter knew by revelation! Jesus said, I m going to be smitten and every one of you will leave me. Peter said, You just leave that alone, Lord, don t you talk like that. You re looking at ole Peter now. I ll go with you to death. I ll go with you wherever. If they get you they ve got to come through me. But when the soldiers came and took Jesus, ole Peter began to back off and warm by the enemy s fire. Jesus said, By the time you hear the cock crow you will have denied me three times, Peter. When he heard that rooster crow something struck his heart. He said, This was the Son of God. He told me I would do this. The Bible said, He went out and wept bitterly while Jesus submitted Himself to the cross. I like this: When Jesus rose from the dead He said, Go tell my disciples (and then He put a special note in) and Peter Peter had denied Him. But He said, Tell Peter to come on. I m going to finish this chapter. They said, You re not yet fifty. Verse 58, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. He s talking about that I AM Almighty God speaking through Him. Let s get the next verse. They had been entertained all they wanted to be entertained. They weren t going to take anymore of being told their father was the devil. And watch what they did now. Verse 59, Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, (Notice He went out of the temple; He s right up front in the temple talking to the big boys) going through the midst of them, and so passed by. They wanted to kill Him, but it wasn t time. He said, My hour has not yet come. God bless you today. How Jesus Disarmed Those That Were Armed with the Bible with the Word. When He walked out of there they were all naked, I m talking spiritually. He took that Word, the real Word, to those that knew the Bible; and when He got through they were standing naked before God and He revealed what they were. He showed by their anger and their pitching a fit and by their lack of understanding of the real Word they stood naked before God, and it showed they were murderers; they took up stones to kill Him. He came for one thing, to bring life; but they wanted to kill Him. It s the same thing today. God bless you. Let us pray: Heavenly Father: Lord, I pray that this message as it goes forth,

136 the first message of the new year (2010), that it will accomplish that which you have ordained and it will prosper where you send it. Bless everyone that has come this way that got out in the cold weather to hear the Word. May they go with their cups filled and running over with the good things of God. Lord, we just bless your name and praise you. In Jesus Name. Amen.

137 GOD S REDEEMED FAMILY As we look to the Word of God, I want to speak about God s Redeemed Family and as we look at God s family, we want to look at the different sections of it. We are going to deal with how God redeems all His family, and this is very important. One of the thoughts that I will bring in is the story of Ruth and Boaz and we see that Boaz wanted Ruth. He fell in love with Ruth, but in order to get Ruth, he had to take Naomi. Boaz married Ruth and in doing so he redeemed Naomi. This was the way the law was set up, Naomi was next of kin, so he couldn t get Ruth without taking Naomi; not for his wife, but he had to buy her possessions and take care of her. I am not going into all that part now, but it is a point I want to make a little later. In order to get Ruth, he had to redeem Naomi. I am looking at this: In order for Christ to redeem His wife, He had to redeem the whole thing. So that is one of the thoughts we will deal with. So I want to start in the Book of Genesis (genes) which is a seed book. Let s begin reading in Chapter 1:1 as we begin our journey in the Word of God. But let us pray before reading, Father, I pray that you will bless us this morning and we will be able to speak words to benefit and bless your people and to be of a help. Oh God, as we look at your great story of redemption and see that we are part of it, we thank you Lord for your many blessings upon us. Bless the congregation here and bless the people that hear this Word wherever it goes and we will be careful to give all the praise and glory in Jesus Christ Name. Amen. Genesis 1:1-3, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 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. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Now let s go on to Verse 26, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: (watch what it says here) and let them have dominion (control) over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Now I want you to notice, He said, Let them have dominion. That means control. God made the earth for mankind. I have often said the earth is God s workshop to work out His plan, to bring us where He wants us, and here is where the redeemed family is going to live. He created and put mankind on earth and we will find out here that although mankind failed, God never fails. The Word continues on, Verses 27-28, So God created man in his own image, (that s spirit) in the image of God created he him; (now watch) male and female created he them. We see that God works this thing male and female, Christ and His wife. The devil wants to get it perverted with the so called

138 same sex marriages of two males or two females; but God created it male and female. The fact is Adam was made spirit to begin with. God hadn t put them in flesh yet. Let s read on And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.., which means back somewhere in another part of God s plan the earth was in use in another age. It was during this time that God tried the angels He had put in charge of the earth, but they sinned against God and the earth was overthrown. Now we see here in Genesis, God is putting man on earth and He told them before He put them in an earthly body, He says; Multiply and replenish the earth. He is planting that within the spirit of man to replenish the earth and subdue it. That means make it a habitable place for mankind to live. What He is saying is, Make it the Garden of Eden all over. To begin this process God started the Garden of Eden, it was a small place and He told them, As you need more space, subdue it and take it. Make it the Garden of Eden all over the whole world. But there was another spirit, there was a devil. The devil came into the picture and it was absolutely necessary to have a devil; otherwise we couldn t be tried. This old earth has gone through a lot of trouble, a lot of heartaches, but the whole thing is going to be redeemed, and it s going to be like the Garden of Eden. He is going to redeem the earth and all His family, and all the predestinated ones. Notice what He says, Subdue it and have dominion over it. Take dominion over it, it s yours. It s paid for. You don t have to make payments on it. The point being, God gave the whole thing to mankind to take care of it. The American Indians would say, We can t sell the earth, it s not for sale, God gave it to us. Somehow they had that within them, that they knew it. How can we sell something that doesn t belong to us? We are just keepers of the earth, the chiefs would say; which was impressive as far as I m concerned. God said, Have dominion over the fish of the sea,. and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. We see that is the original commandment of God and that is the way it has to be. Now Adam and Eve were the first son and daughter of God, and God put them in an earthly body. So we come to Chapter 2:7 of Genesis and it says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Now I want you to notice that. He took that spirit that He made and He built a body here out of the dust of the earth. He breathed into that all those attributes that He had created, and that made Adam the god of this earth. Verses 8-9, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; (I preached a message in Zambia entitled, Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, and God Gave the Increase as We Labored together. We labor together; but it is God that

139 makes things grow) the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. Then he goes on and says.., (He now talks about another tree, and this is a tree that can get them in trouble) and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. These are two Spiritual laws that God put in to govern mankind. Now He gave no instruction concerning the tree of life at this point; but He does the tree of the knowledge, because He was going to bring Adam and Eve together and they would have had children according to the plan of God that would have had eternal life. They would be partakers of the authority of God and there would be no death, no one could die. Let s go on to Verse 10, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads..., what I want you to notice is, God created one great place for the rivers to flow from; and that is just like the Spiritual bride. The Bible talks about the River of Life that is flowing now, the water of the Word. There is a great ministry that God set in the earth; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Now Paul was that apostle to the Gentiles, but from the message he preached went forth prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Those are the four streams of water that came forth from the one stream. Like Paul said, I m an apostle, teacher, preacher and that is why he taught the other ministers to teach the same thing as he did, because that is how the church would see eye to eye on the Word of God as they went forth. Paul told Timothy, These things that you have heard of me, go teach other faithful men and they will teach others the same thing, and there is a ministry speaking the same thing seeing eye to eye. That s why Paul said, As this River comes into the Spiritual realm, he said, I would that you all have the same mind and same judgment so there would be no division among you. So the ministry has to start from the stream that God has ordained; then from there it goes to the other streams and it is all the same water, all the same teaching, the River of Life as it goes forth. Now I am going to skip down to Verses 15-17, And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.., that s the fruit, vegetables, and all; but down here is the Spiritual law.., But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now God gave no instruction concerning the tree of life, because He was going to connect the two trees together. In other words, don t go by your own knowledge. But satan came into the serpent when he saw the law of reproduction begin to work in Eve s body. He made his move towards Eve, putting this carnal knowledge in Eve s mind, and convincing her to be with him in the intimate way. Then she in turn brought this carnal knowledge to Adam, and he partook with her thus stopping the connecting of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life together which would have produced chil-

140 dren with eternal life. Not a single one of them would have died. But then there would not be a single one to go through the trials and testings that we go through today. I preached a message sometime back entitled, Unlike Eve, We Waited for the Voice of Authorization to Eat. As you see, Eve didn t wait until God connected that tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life together to bring forth the proper fruit in the way that it would have been, had they waited for instructions before eating. Continuing on Verse 18, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Help meet. Most preachers will say that God made Adam a helpmate. They say, Eve was Adam s helpmate. But that help meet means different, it means someone compatible, suitable, someone that would think like Adam, someone to share with Adam; not just a helpmate, but someone that was part of Adam. So a wife is a help meet, not a helpmate, not someone to work for you or help you in that sense; but someone compatible and we work together. We labor in the things of God, we share what God has given us together, and God put them more or less on equal terms here with Adam being in the leadership position. The old timers, mountain people use to say, If my wife don t do what I tell her, I ll get me a limb off this tree and wear her out, whip her real good, because she is supposed to be my helpmate. She is supposed to do what I say. But that is not the original; that is what man has done, not God. He made man and wife one. Notice, Adam was here in a body. He was now living, he was breathing; he was a human walking around. In Genesis, Chapter one, God created man, male and female created He him. See, it was all in Adam. But then it couldn t work as long as it was all in Adam. So God made a help meet. Let s go on down and read Verse 20,..but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. As with all of God s creation it takes male and female. God is not going to change it here in this last day with the wife of Christ. God started it off this way and that is the way the perfect plan of God is going to work. And in the millennium that is exactly the way it is going to be. So you can about figure out what s going to happen to those that want to change it now. Now some of our states have gotten same sex marriages. Well, let s go back to the Bible. Amen! Many people want to go along with it. Well, I m sorry for you. I read the Word of God and what it says is the way I go, with no apology. Let s continue Verse 21, And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.., now I want you to notice that Adam was made from the dust of the earth, but Eve had a little advantage; she was made from Adam. I know when I went to school the girls would sing, Boys are made of snails and puppy dog tails; but girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Well, the point being made here is that God took a rib from Adam and made Eve. Let s see how He makes her, Verse 22, And the

141 rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Now we have male and female. God created them in the spirit first and told them to multiply and replenish the earth, and then He actually put them into bodies so they could do that. And I tell you there s a people put into a body today, the Word of God says, By one Spirit we are baptized into the body of Christ. Well here comes Christ down to earth in Revelation, Chapter 10; the Mighty Angel comes down and He has a body in the earth that He can do His work through. Paul said, Ye are members of the body of Christ. You are part of the body of Christ and one member can t say to another, I have no need of you. Christ came down and took on a body; the same with Adam and Eve. That s the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10. Continuing our reading.., Genesis 2:23-25, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Not only are they one flesh; but one spirit.., And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now there was the law of eternal life there. There was the law of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they had not partaken of either tree yet; but they were full of the life of God ready to do what God ordained them to do. And that is the way the early church started out, full of the power of God. Paul introduced the bride to Christ as a chaste virgin ready to go forth. The dead were raised, the sick were healed and many, many things took place. They were ready to take the earth; but here came another being Paul said, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3) Also he said, Now the spirit of iniquity is working among you, and when I am gone men will rise up and draw disciples after themselves. In other words, they will get out of that River that God set forth to carry this perfect Water to the nations of the world. They would make their own river and dig their own wells. Now the serpent came Chapter 3:1-2, Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He s twisting the Word here. Remember last Sunday s message, How Jesus Disarmed Those That Were Armed with the Bible. Jesus came with the living Word and disarmed them. Well here comes this being, this preacher we could say, this priest, this denominational leader and he began to talk to Eve, the bride of Adam. He began to say, Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree? He twisted the Word just enough to get her away from God s plan. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: (this is the natural fruit, we can eat of all of these) but notice, she brings in a different tree. Verses 3-5, But of the fruit of the tree

142 which is in the midst of the garden, (which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Now God didn t say you couldn t touch it. See, the Word is beginning to get twisted a little bit here. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: You can have a denomination and still be a good church. You can have a form of worship and still God will accept it. No you can t! It has to be led by the Spirit of God coming like the Word of God said it would be. I tell you, this is working just like God has ordained it to work; even though sometimes it looks a little out of kilter. The serpent continues talking For God doeth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Notice what the serpent says here, Because God does know. Now how did he know about God? Because he (the spirit that he was operating by) existed in a prehistoric age, before God created Adam and Eve. God overthrew his kingdom then in that prehistoric age. Yes, the devil knew about God s working. We could say here this man which was the priest, which was the preacher, which was the leader of the congregation that was not born again; that wanted to put his knowledge forth (the serpent here was like a carnal man, a beast of the field. He was not a son of God like Adam was). He began to tell Eve certain things, just twisting it a little bit, just enough to get her away from the Word. For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall be open, and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil. Prior to this time, they only knew good and had they waited until God said, Now it s time to join the tree of the knowledge and the tree of life together, they would have produced children with eternal life. But here the old serpent says, The reason God doesn t want you to have this is because He wants you to stay dumb. This is the reason they say, We ll go to Bible College and get smart. We don t want to be like some of those dumb mountain preachers. But that s where the life is. Verses 6-7, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, (food for thought) and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Now I want you to watch here, God s Redeemed Family is what I m talking about. Here is how the family failed. The serpent and Eve came together in an illicit affair and broke God s Word. No longer could the tree of the knowledge and the tree of life be joined together to produce children with eternal life. We hear the words today, carnal knowledge some woman who wants to flaunt herself before men; they call her a carnal woman. Carnal men do the same thing, there s your carnal knowledge. Well, Eve got the carnal knowledge here in the garden; but left off

143 the tree of life which is revelation from God. God would have given revelation when it was time for Adam and Eve to come together and bring forth a child, connecting that tree of the knowledge of good and evil with the tree of life, and there would be children born and not one of them would have ever died. But we see it got off track and God allowed it. (When God gets His family over there, and all the members of that family are going to be there, and they all had to come against the devil having one voice saying one thing and another voice saying another, but God s seed stayed with that Word). There are people like Joshua, when other people started going different ways Joshua said, As far as me and my house, we ll serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15) He made a decision. That s why God allowed this in the garden to take place. So everyone that serves God has to make that decision on their own. I can t make it for you; father and mother can t make it for you. You have to make it yourself as God s Spirit begins to deal with your heart. Jesus said, No man can come to me except the Father draws him. And He said, And all that the Father has given me will come. There s not going to be a one of them lost. The book of life was ordained and written before the foundation of the world and now, because of the mess up of the tree of the knowledge and the tree of life, there are multitudes in the earth today that could care less about God. Many of them say there is no God. But the scriptures tell us that, It is a fool that says in his heart, there is no God. (Psalm 14:1) Let s go to Verses 14-16, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Can you see that one? The serpent was a creature that walked around. I am not talking about snakes, there were snakes there already; but God took this man (serpent) from the highest level next to Adam and Eve, stripped him down and threw him on the ground and he became a serpent. But the point here is that he had already sowed his seed; he s already been with Eve. Now watch what it says, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. God is saying, Never more will this thing be possible. I am going to send forth another seed (which would be Christ, seed of a woman), and He will bruise your heel; it will defeat you. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;.. in other words, I will multiply the times this condition in your body will occur and cause it to be unpleasant to you and your kind. So that eternal life was never connected in the woman. Therefore every child that is born into this world has to die unless it accepts eternal life, a second birth. That is why when the seed came back, the tree of life which was Jesus Christ; He said, You can have a new birth to undo all of that. That s why Jesus said, Ye must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

144 Nicodemus asked, How can I be born again; should I go in my mother s womb and be born a second time? No this time it is by Spiritual birth. Everyone that is born into the world that receives eternal life, this side of the millennium, has to be born again by a Spiritual birth. Can you see that? The first birth, they messed it up in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, (not some other creature) and he shall rule over thee. And it stayed that way all through the Old Testament. But when the seed came back it was through the woman, the one who sold it out. It came right back through who? Mary. It came back through the woman. She became pregnant by obeying God; yet the Jews wanted to stone her and even Joseph tried to figure out a way to put her away without stoning her to death, because they thought she had been unfaithful. The religious leaders said unto Jesus, We know ye be born of fornication. But it wasn t, it was the seed of God. Eve broke the Word of God and sold woman out; and He said, Your husband will rule over thee. But here in the New Testament, it s not like that. Now to Adam God said, Because you went along with it, I m going to curse the ground for your sake. Watch what happened that day when the fall took place. Verses 18-20, Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust thou return. And Adam called his wife s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. She was the mother of all living, because there were two children born, Cain and Abel, twin sons begotten of two different fathers, the serpent and Adam. (When we look in the Bible we find no place where it says that Adam was the father of all living, think about it.) Then God drove them from the garden. In other words, He took this from them, the opportunity to live there and live forever. He took that tree of life away. Verses 22-24, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Now notice man was set on a new level. Woman was on a new level, but was it good for them? Ultimately it would be. God made them where they could discern what was good and what was evil, and He put the choice in their hands. From now on, you re not innocent; from now on what you do, you are responsible. Then He goes on to say, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Now they didn t go anywhere physically; He sent them out of that Spiritual realm. So he drove out the man (from the Spiritual garden) and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. I want you to notice that God took it away. That law was never lying there anymore, it was taken away, otherwise they could have realized later on, Well, we ve sinned, and went back and

145 tried to do it the original way. There are people today, churches today that I have been acquainted with and know this is the truth yet they will say, A man and a woman shouldn t have intimate relations unless they are doing it to have a baby. Well, that is total nonsense because God told Eve, I will multiply thy sorrow and your desire shall be to your husband. And God took that eternal law of life away. Now every child born has to get a new birth if they ever desire eternal life. Now we see that is where the human race failed. Let s watch God fix it for His glory. Now let s go to Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, and then I want to make reference to what Jesus did at Calvary. God is going to redeem His family and it is going to be back like it was in the beginning there was man and his wife Adam and Eve. God gave them charge of the earth, to subdue it and take dominion over it. Well, it has come back to a man and a woman; and Paul said, The first man Adam was earthy, but the second man was the Lord from heaven. As Adam was given a wife, so was Christ; and the Word says, He would go to the Gentiles to get a wife for His Son. Acts 15:14 says, Out of the Gentiles He would take a people for His namesake; this is the wife of Christ. We find that Paul introduced the bride; he got her engaged as a chaste virgin to Christ, the Word. It says in 2 Corinthians 11:2, I have espoused you as a chaste virgin. This was the Gentiles; this was God getting a wife for Christ. But just as Eve got led aside by the serpent, so did that early church; they fell. The Bible says in Revelation, Chapter 2, to the very first church age, Thou hast fallen from thy first love. Paul said, There is a spirit of iniquity already working among you. There are men going to lead you aside. That is why they fell and went through the seven church ages. In the Old Testament there was a long period of time where they killed the lamb. But finally the seed was back on earth, that tree of life, the living Word. But those Jews said, This man is of the devil; He s born of fornication, because they didn t have a revelation that He was born of the virgin, Mary. But there was someone that knew, the angel told Joseph,.that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 1:20) So the Jews, they rejected Him and God turned from them. He blinded them, Romans, Chapter 11. God blinded them and got a wife for His Son. Now you are that wife. You are Gentiles. Now the reason I brought that in about Naomi and Ruth at the beginning was, because in order to get Ruth, Boaz had to redeem the whole thing. In order to get the bride, Christ had to redeem the whole thing. Therefore in the Word of God, you ll hear talk about sons and daughters of God. We ve had the question asked, Who are sons and daughters? We are all sons and daughters as God looks at us, but Christ has one wife and it is a Gentile bride. He calls out of the Gentiles a people for His namesake, and Paul introduced the Gentiles to Christ; a Gentile bride that would be married to Him as He brings back

146 total redemption which includes a glorified body. But that sin had to be paid for somewhere down the road, that s why God typed it out in the Old Testament by killing a lamb. The Bible says, To make atonement for their sins. Now the word atonement means covering. Don t miss this, I want to say something here, it means a covering. Their sins were covered; every year they would have to cover their sins. The sacrifice would have to be done over and over again. You get this in the Book of Hebrews. Every year they had to do it all over again cover their sins, kill a lamb. But the blood of Jesus Christ doesn t just cover your sins, it remits them. That s why on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came back, Almighty God wanted to get Israel His wife first, which were the brethren of Christ. It was not the Lamb s wife at Pentecost, but that came later after Israel rejected God s plan. Acts 2:38 gives a clear signal. Peter said, Repent and be baptized (not in the name of Adam that day is over with. Adam lost it, but here came Jesus the tree of life back again) in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission (notice it doesn t say covering but remit/remission; that takes them away as though you had never committed sin at all) of sin and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. When your sins are dropped into the blood of Jesus Christ, it s like dropping a drop of ink in bleach. It just takes it away and it doesn t exist anymore. Now redemption in the Old Testament was when they offered the blood of bulls and goats to cover their sin; there the word atonement was used. That is just like if you get something on your clothes, you might be able to wash it out and it may look like it is gone; but most of the time I find out if it is a white shirt or something that stain will appear again. But the word remission means take it away as though it never happened. Now what happened to that ink that was dropped into that bleach? It broke it up and sent it back to where it came from. The chemistry of it is totally broken up; there is no more ink, it s gone, it s finished. It s the same thing when your sins are dropped in the blood of Jesus Christ, when you repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. It takes them away and God gives you the gift of righteousness. He took your sins and gave you His righteousness and you become as righteous as He is. Amen. You have no sins. That is why God can look at you and you can say, I m as righteous as Jesus is righteous, because He took my sins and gave me His righteousness. Now here is a wife without sin. Here is our Adam which is Christ without sin and He has a wife without sin. Hallelujah! But what did the devil do? The serpent slipped in where the Word says, Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, the serpent says, No let s do it this way instead of using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ let s change all that and use the titles, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and sprinkle them and not call the name because it means the same thing. No

147 it doesn t mean the same thing. He didn t say, Repent every one of you and be baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He said, Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. When it was brought to the church it was the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something, after the Day of Pentecost there is not one single incident in the entire Bible where anyone was ever baptized except in the name of the Lord. There is not one single incident in the Bible where anyone was ever baptized using the titles of, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, until the church fell away and went into the dark ages. In 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea when the Catholic Church began to spring forth that form of baptism started from there. The church fell away from the Word and it stayed that way and God took the little book, took the tree of life and He sealed it away within the Bible. It s the writings of Paul, the Spirit of it. That is why I want to read here in Revelation, Chapter 5. I want to show you a book here. Now notice, two things I want to get. When Eve fell and Adam stepped across the line with her, then the devil had stopped them from getting the tree of life (book of life); but it did not go to the devil. Do you know where it went? It went back to the original owner. Let me give you an illustration so you will know what I am talking about. Like the deed to this property; I could say, I want to give you this whole entire place, but I want to connect one thing to it and that is you that mow the grass every two weeks and that you keep it clean, and that way it is yours forever. But here comes the neighbor and he says, You don t need to mow grass every two weeks. It doesn t hurt anything to let it grow up a bit. You don t need to do that. Well, in that case I could get my deed back; but it wouldn t go to the neighbor, it would come back to me. When the devil got them to break the deed book the Word it didn t go to the devil. No. It went back to God who gave it. Now, here is this book in heaven in Revelation, Chapter 5. And the same thing when Paul gave the message to get the bride engaged to Christ, they fell away. But the tree of life (little book) for His wife didn t go to the devil, it didn t go to the antichrist; but it went right back to the hand of the Almighty and it was sealed within the big book (whole Bible) with seven seals. It stayed there throughout the seven church ages until He comes and brings it right back to earth, this time to marry the bride to Christ; now she becomes His wife. We see this happening in Revelation, Chapter 10. He brings it back and He tells John, Go and take the little book. You re redeemed! Now here s the book in Revelation 5:1-4, And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Here it is, the book of redemption, and only one man could ever get it back. It was the Lord. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? It couldn t be opened until the seals were taken off.

148 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. Here was John the apostle, he knew these things. He said, I wept much because no one was worthy to open or to even read the book. Meaning everything is taken from mankind s reach and is back now in the hand of God in heaven. The church fell. It didn t go into what God said it would. We have lost everything, the earth is not going into the millennium, the earth is not going to be restored and repopulated, because the deed is in heaven and no man can get it. John just began to cry, and the world today doesn t even know about it. But watch what happened here in Verses 5-8, And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, (Jesus of Nazareth) the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the Book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, (that was at Calvary). Here came a bloody Lamb with perfect blood. He s the only one. He came the Bible says, in the Book of Peter, He neither sinned, nor was guile found in His mouth. He was the only one that could do it. Now He was worthy to come and get what Adam lost. He was worthy to get what Paul lost. He was worthy to get what all of them lost. Here comes one that could do it, because He became a Lamb; because He died. I beheld in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts stood a Lamb as it had been slain. That means He was a bloody Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Now watch, these seven eyes and seven horns have to do with the seven church ages as God dealt with them coming through this time period. But here He comes and takes the book. It is no longer in the hand of the Almighty, the deed of redemption that was in the hand of Adam, but Adam lost it and I m glad he did. Do you know why? Because Eve would have had to die for her sins, or she would have been lost. But Adam stepped across the line, across the chasm. Adam would have been saved. Adam would have been a perfect man; but he wouldn t have a wife. He couldn t reproduce himself. He couldn t have a family. So he stepped across and went down with Eve. He paid the price and because he did this, all God s seed would be born, but all humanity would have to die. But here came one that had no death sentence on Him. In the garden He had prayed three times, His sweat became as great drops of blood and He said, Lord if it be possible, is there any other way to get the book back to the people? If there is, let this cup pass from me. But then He said, Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done. And the angels came to comfort Him. Then He was taken to Pilate and to the cross. Pilate said, Don t you know that I can kill you or I can let you go, whatever I want

149 to do? Jesus answered, You can t do anything to me except the Father allows it. He said, No man takes my life, I lay it down. He willingly laid down His life. Why? For you and me. How can we turn our backs on Him now? He died there, and obtained the right to the book of redemption. Now you have everything that Adam and Eve lost and also what the church lost; the earth belongs to you. The Lamb has redeemed everything, all God s sons and daughters, servants, and elders, all of them. Because the Lamb had to buy the whole thing in order to get the little book out. And when He came down in Revelation, Chapter 10, He gave the little book to His wife here. Therefore, when you eat the little book you pass a point as the trumpet (trump) sounds and the dead in Christ shall rise, you ll be changed in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye. You re just getting back what Adam and Eve had to begin with, plus the born again element gets a glorified body to go with it. Continuing Verses 8-10, And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (There s not one prayer that goes unheard) And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. Now the world goes through the great tribulation period and there are many, many people that are not the bride. They are called foolish virgins and tribulation saints, and many of them die for their stand for the Word. The Bible says, They wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. At this time we have already overcome. We have already eaten the little book. We have already been raptured and gone to glory. He redeems the whole family by taking the book of redemption, by opening the seals and He redeems the earth also; but the part known as the little book, Christ brings down to a specific people, and that is the bride of Christ. Now the earth goes into the millennium. Remember God told Adam and Eve multiply and replenish the earth, subdue it and take dominion over it. Well, that will take place in the millennium; there will be a thousand year period of time that we will be conquering this earth and taking dominion, and there will be natural people living on this earth to take care of it. These natural people have never had a new birth. They are just natural people that love God. They will love to farm; they love to take care of the earth. You can t talk to them much about spiritual things; but don t you try to tell them how to plant a garden. They will let you know quickly that they know how to plant a garden. They know how to take care of the land and they will take care of the earth in the millennium. God is going to give them eternal life and they will never die. They pass that

150 great white throne judgment. They will enter into the joy of the Lord just the same as His wife and just like the tribulation saints. They will enter into that joy of the Lord with their natural body living eternally. The Bible says, The nations (natural people) they shall walk in the light of that city and bring their honor and glory into it, and the leaves of that tree is for the healing of the nations. No one is going to be sick, but that is the natural, if they get a little fussing or argument amongst them they will sit under the influence of Christ s wife (the tree of life) and it will just go away. Then eternity will roll on. Because of Him! I can face tomorrow. Because of Him, that s it! He opened the book, because He became a bloody Lamb and He took the seals off. The Bible was opened, and Christ took the little book part of it and brought it down to earth and gave it to His wife. Now getting back to Boaz and Ruth in order for Boaz to get Ruth, he had to take Naomi, too. In order for Christ to get a wife, He had to redeem the whole thing. Therefore, He took the little book right out of the big book of redemption. He opened the seals, so the whole thing could be opened. He redeemed the whole thing and took the little book right out of the Bible. He had to open the whole Bible in order to take from it the little book and claim His wife. God bless you today. How God redeems His family! In the family there are servants, there are sons, there are daughters; and when you look at it from the standpoint of God, we are God s children. But there is a specific group that becomes Christ s wife. She becomes the Eve of the second Adam. When God looks at it, it is sons and daughters. If you will read the first three books of little John, he talks about sons and little children, and then he makes reference to the elect lady and thy sister one time. But we are the wife, we are that elect lady. John made reference to her. And in order for Christ to redeem the wife, He had to redeem the whole thing. And in order for Boaz to get Ruth, here stood Naomi. He had responsibility to Naomi, because she was the first one in line, like the Jews were the first one in line. In order to get Ruth, he had to redeem Naomi. See, there was someone that was in the natural kindred to Naomi, but did not wish to claim or redeem her, so that opened the door for Boaz and he relished the opportunity and did it. So Boaz went into the city and said, Are you going to receive Ruth? And if you do, you re going to have to take Naomi, too. The near kinsman said, I can t do it unless I mar my own inheritance. (Ruth 4:6) That s the way a lot of people are. Denominations can t take this, because if they do it will mar their inheritance with their denominational system. So, Boaz got the elders together and pulled his shoe off as a witness and said, Let it be known that I purchase this. (Ruth 4:8-9) Let it be known that denominations, they don t want it. The Lamb bought it, and in buying it He got Ruth (Gentile wife) and Naomi (Jews). Christ dying on the cross, He got

151 all the children of God, Jews and Gentiles. God s Redeemed Family that s what we see over in the millennium. There will come a time the natural people can t even die. They will take care of the earth and it will be like the Garden of Eden all over; but His wife will be Spiritual just like Christ, bone of His bone, Spirit of His Spirit. Let us pray, Heavenly Father, Lord as we have brought this Word that you laid on my heart, it makes a complete picture and it makes us see, by Him opening the seven seals so the big book could be opened it let the little book out. By Boaz redeeming Naomi he got Ruth, his wife. I thank you Lord for the Word of God. I thank you for your people all over the world whether they are in the bride, wherever they are at, Jews or Gentiles. All nations, kindreds and tongues heard John praising God, because the book was opened and redemption is bought. Christ claimed the redemption that Adam lost of mankind and all the human race. And in Christ claiming it, He got a bride, a Gentile wife. Lord thank you for making us that. I thank you for it and commit this message into thy hands. Use it for your glory I pray in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Do you love Him? Do you see this book of redemption? All the way through it is so perfect and so beautiful, so wonderful. And because He redeemed Israel, He got a wife. Amen again!

152 THE WIFE OF CHRIST RECEIVES BOTH LEGS OF THE COMING OF THE LORD REMEMBER THE FEET! I want to bring to you a message dealing with the subject, The Wife of Christ Receives Both Legs of the Coming of the Lord, Remember the Feet! We will be talking about the Mighty Angel, Christ coming down from heaven to earth in this last day. Now Christ the Holy Ghost was with the early church beginning at the Day of Pentecost which we will refer to as the first leg of the coming of Christ as seen in Revelation, Chapter 10. Here in this last day we begin to see Christ in the fullness of His person, the bridegroom as He comes to take His wife. But this mighty anointing was lost after the church fell from its first love. (Revelation 2:4-5) Now it becomes very clear that was not the coming of the Lord as John saw it there on the Isle of Patmos; although that was Christ in them at that time. Now the Word of God teaches that He put one foot on sea, and one foot on earth. We ll read it in Revelation, Chapter 10. But first I want to tell you about a dream I had when I was doing The Interpreted Book of Revelation in the 1970s; many of you have read it already. I had gotten to a place in Revelation, Chapter 10 that I did not understand and I was saying, Lord, I don t understand what this means that the Mighty Angel came down and put one foot on sea and one foot on earth, and how Christ is in the earth. I believe you ve always been here, but it looks like you are coming to the people again and I don t understand how it fits? I was praying and thinking like this when I fell into a deep sleep and had a dream; it was very real to me. In the dream I was walking through a pasture towards an old farmhouse. I was walking up a little trail just kicking stones around and thinking while I was walking. Well, I got almost to the farmhouse and it appeared as if no one lived there, it was just an old farmhouse in the meadow. So as I walked towards the old house, I noticed the door to the house open as I was approaching and a man came out on the porch. The man had a bullhorn in his hand. It was something like what policemen use to talk through to make an announcement or to direct a crowd. He raised the bullhorn to his mouth and said with a loud voice, Remember the Feet! Then he lowered the bullhorn down to his side, turned around and went back inside the house and closed the door. Then I woke up. Those words were ringing in my ears. Remember the Feet! Remember the Feet! Well, I associated the dream with what I was studying on Christ coming again. But I knew He came on the Day of Pentecost? I couldn t quite

153 get it all together where it would make a complete total revelation. After waking up I thought on it a little; then went back to sleep. Upon waking up the next morning, I began the Book of Revelation 10:1-2 again where I had been studying prior to going to bed the night before. I had read about the feet many times; but it seemed I would read right over the top of it. But this time those words, feet just grabbed me, it was something that I needed to get into my mentality. That s why in the dream the man walked out on the porch with the bullhorn. I couldn t associate anything else with the dream but those words, Remember the Feet! That was the only three words that were spoken; then I began to study and see a picture form and it started to make sense to me. So that is what I want to deal with today and show you where we re at in time. Now we have the understanding that to the bride of Christ both legs of the coming of the Lord are made known; how it fits and we can look back and see how it all began to take place. Let s read here in Revelation 10:1, And I saw another mighty angel come down (now I want you to notice Come down meaning He wasn t here in this form) come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: (that means it takes a revelation to see Him) and a rainbow was upon his head, and his feet as pillars of fire: Verse 2; And he had in his hand a little book open: (now watch the feet) and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. Now in that Verse 2 are two clues that let us know exactly what time period this is talking about and I knew that, but still I couldn t get the meaning of the feet together in my mind. Now the time period here lets us know that He comes with the little book open. That lets us know that this was something that transpired in 1963, because in 1963 was when God s prophet, William Branham was in Arizona and seven angels came to him. Then the Lord sent him back to Jeffersonville, Indiana, to preach the revelation of the seven seals. And each night the Lamb broke one of the seals and sent it down to Brother Branham as he preached them. He said, One of those messengers (angels) brought the revelation of that seal. So the seals had to be off the book before it could be opened. And that did not occur until So let me read it again with that thought in mind. And he had in his hand a little book open. No seals on it, all of them off. We preached a message in this very place on Finding the Little Book within the Big Book. The Lamb unsealed the whole book, the book of redemption for all God s family, and took from it the portion which is called the little book that applies to His wife. And the Mighty Angel brought it down to earth and gave it to John, who was a type of Christ s wife. Christ put His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the earth. God made sure that John knew how to differentiate between the two feet. The word sea has reference to His first coming when the Holy Ghost came on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost; but the

154 left foot on earth is a reference to the United States of America. Now Christ came to earth after He put one foot on the sea, in other words, a portion of His coming had already taken place then in the form of the Holy Ghost to get a bride introduced to Christ. Although the plan was lost during the seven church ages, we now see the full plan of God come into plain view. Everything the church would need, God put it in Paul s mind and he wrote it. He said we would all speak the same thing and he told us the church (bride) would have one mind and be in one accord. Then the great Apostle Paul wrote about Christ and the bride coming together. At the first leg of Christ s coming, Paul engaged us and (prophesied) that we would become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; a marriage would take place and we would reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus here at the end time as both legs of Christ s Spiritual coming is complete. John saw it in Revelation, Chapter 10. Now when we reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus then we have the full knowledge of Christ, because Christ comes down and we are baptized into His body. First comes the baptism of the Holy Ghost and then we are baptized into the body. Now that first part was lost during the seven church ages, and God dealt with the church using the seven Spiritual angels and seven earthly star messengers. That is why you have the seven thunders here at the end of the seven church ages to finish the Mystery of God in Revelation 10:7. This is very important here, because the truth that was brought at the first leg was lost. Christ was seen mainly as High Priest and not seen as the Holy Ghost. He had to make intercession for a fallen church during the seven church ages. That s why the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the engagement part of the Word had to be brought back and restored before the second leg of His coming could transpire. That s why God revealed the mystery of the seven church ages and opened the seven seals; although Brother Branham didn t fully clear up the second part of the fifth seal dealing with the Jews, nor did he fully clear up the sixth seal which is the day of the Lord; but God used Brother Raymond Jackson to bring the revelation of these seals further. Brother Jackson preached a series of messages entitled, The Last 100 Years in several of the Contenders and he dealt with going back to Pentecost where in 1906 there on Azusa street in California, the Holy Ghost came down in a similar way as He did on the Day of Pentecost. As He did, the first leg of His coming (right foot) started coming back, all the way through up to this time. Then after the seals were opened the book is opened then we begin to see the second leg as Christ begins His Spiritual descent; now we begin to see the fullness of Christ coming and that is what Paul wrote about. He wrote that we would come to the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus and not just be a church, not just be a virgin engaged; but he said, You will become the very wife of

155 Christ. Hallelujah! He said, Ye are the body of Christ. Now when we go to Revelation, Chapter 10, we see that He put one foot on sea first. But when that took place the first time, the virgin fell away from the pure Word; then Christ withdrew Himself taking with Him the revelation of the Word that Paul uttered in prophecy about Christ and the bride coming together in marriage to fulfill God s plan of them becoming one. But carnal men took the Word Paul wrote and made churches; they made denominations, and in each age God would move through one of those church age messengers to bring them life for that age. There were seven church age messengers and they came and brought revelation for their age, but the time came that He wanted to restore back the truth that was delivered in Paul s time period. Although that part of the Word alone was not enough to get us where we needed to go; that was just the restoration of what they had back there in the engagement. But it is something we must have. It is something we must see and understand in order to get what God has ordained for us. But since it was lost, there was no one; no ministry could bring it back. So here is what God did. He reached back in the Old Testament and got the spirit of Elijah and He anointed a man, the last church age messenger. He anointed that man with a special anointing and that anointing was this, That both the written Word and the unwritten Word comes to the prophet. Because the Word says, When he comes, he will restore back. Behold, I ll send you the spirit of Elijah and he will restore. But he didn t take us forward to what the marriage is. He couldn t get us married, because he was not a New Testament ministry; but an Old Testament type prophet. He restored us back to what they had; restored us back to the engagement. Also, he brought us unwritten Word such as the seals. Now that is very important to understand. Now, let s look in time to about 1906, the first leg (foot) came again, the leg was beginning to be restored back. Here the first leg of Christ is coming and they were speaking in tongues; they were rejoicing in the Lord and the move of God was just so tremendous, so profound. And as it always happens when a move of God takes place there were those critics that said, Leave it alone, because within two or three years it will blow over. Well, the Pentecostal Movement has gone all over the world. It was like setting a big brush fire and the more they tried to put it out, the more it burned. Then God began to inject Word into this move of His Spirit like He did the early church. They had the blessings; they had the power of Pentecost. Now He is going to put that Word back in there. So the first leg came back as in Paul s day; God raised up a prophet who reached back and showed us why this took place and why the church fell and how it went into the Dark Ages; it was the mystery that John spoke of in Revelation 1:20. And now here at the end time God has revealed this mystery concerning seven stars and seven lamp stands. God said, I am going

156 to finish this mystery, and it is going to be in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when this mystery is going to be cleared up. The mystery is the seven church ages. Therefore, when people refuse to even accept that God has sent a prophet; when they refuse to accept this part, it is impossible to go on towards revelation to becoming His wife. Because that is one of the things you ve got to see that has happened and what God did. This prophet began to say; Remember this; the Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet. And the Word came to him. We brought a message on that in a book that was written in 1970 after I had gone on a forty days fast in the latter part of I preached the message first and then the book came from it that we entitled, An Old Testament Prophet Comes to a New Testament Age. So here came the Prophet William Branham and God anointed him with such power. He told about things that had been hid which had to come directly from God. He told us the names and the time periods of each one of the church age messengers. I have preached it over the years about the church ages, but Christ instructed me to go on to the other part of the Word that applies to His wife for this hour. Most all you here can name the church age messengers and the time periods they existed in. Now this Prophet William Branham was unlike one in the office of the New Testament prophets, in that there was more than one on the scene at the same time. Once I was in another country, and they were saying, The Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet. Well, they wanted me to preach, so I explained the revelation to them about the statement that the Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet. I told them that this was strange language to the New Testament. It is unknown to the New Testament language. Because we have to have the ministry of Ephesians 4:11, and we have to have it in the order it is written. They were shocked! We need to be shaken back to the New Testament understanding of the Word. Well, God now has a man here on the scene to say some shocking things and the reason he does, God has to bring certain things to him the same way He did the Apostle Paul to take this forward to the completion just like John saw it, the fullness of Christ as He comes to earth, one foot on sea and one foot on earth as He wrote in Revelation, Chapter 10. So that first leg began to be restored back in 1906, and then here came Brother Branham injecting the Word into that. When he began to inject the Word into it, there began to be a shaking that took place. We began to see that many that spoke in tongues were doing it because they had learned the ability to speak in tongues, and then it began to go into the worldly realm. It began to go into denominations. In 1914, a preacher during the early restoration made this statement, saying, In Bible days no one was ever baptized after Pentecost except in the Name of Jesus Christ. As he said this, another minister said, Amen, to it. Only those two ministers

157 saw this revelation on water baptism, and they were rejected by a group of some six hundred ministers that heard them speak. After this they started all the denominations, and went their own way with the Trinity Doctrine. Then God began setting people s hearts on fire with the revelation of one God and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ; but once it began to grow it became a denomination like those before them. Well, the Pentecostals proved that only the predestinated would go on with God and accept the Word. Many will accept His blessings; but not Him. When God began to bring the Word further on, the denominations had only a limited understanding. That s why they made their rules the way they did; regardless of what God revealed to you, you couldn t go on beyond their rules. Now the denominational system has grown, until it is a big thing in the world today. This system is part of that church age stalk that the life of God was once in before it died. Revelation 10:6, says, Time is no more for this system of religion. Now John saw what would happen right at the end time, Christ would be in the earth in His fullness, and at this time both legs (feet) are here, standing on sea and on earth; a people baptized into His body and married to Him. Praise God! That s His wife. He comes to her and she recognizes Him, the fullness of Christ, one foot on sea and one foot on earth, and she has the understanding of it. This is not just something that some man has cooked up in his mind. No it fits right here; it lays in the Word and it is for us. So God sent that prophet with the Word that restored us back to the engagement Word. He brought these things and he left it there. When people got to saying that the Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet that was all right, that was fine, because that was what God was doing. But then there came a time when God said, Let s move it on because this is not all there is, there s the second leg to the New Testament; that s the Spiritual part of the Word. Now let s move up to the marriage of the Lamb, to the fullness of the Word where a marriage is taking place. So God took the prophet home when his message was over. But before He did, the seven seals had been opened and the little book brought back to earth. Now we have the Spiritual New Testament, both Word and Spirit for His wife. Now there was Peter and the eleven other apostles of the Jewish category, and they were used of God to produce the Jewish part of the church which was the brethren. That was God s plan to get the Jews, the first leg of the coming of the Lord that was ordained. The gospel went to the Jews first, and they reached the fullness of the stature of what they were to reach as the brethren of Christ. They were never ordained to be part of the wife of Christ. Now that finished the plan of God for the Jewish part of the church completely, because the next thing for Israel is that two

158 prophets will soon be prophesying there; that is when the gospel goes back to Israel. But God had to get the brethren first to rule and reign with Him in the millennium in and around the territory of Israel. In the Book of Matthew 19:27-28 it says, Then answered Peter and said unto Him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He had to get the brethren first before going over to the Gentiles to get a wife for His Son. All of this takes place at the first leg of His coming to the Gentiles; which coming at that time was both to the Jews and the Gentiles. Now we pick up at the place where Paul began preaching, and we have an apostle standing there saying, I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office. Amen. It is said by some that Paul was a prophet; but the Word says differently. The Word says Paul was an apostle; but at times those other offices worked right out through Him. He brought a Word and laid it in here and Christ told Paul, You have finished your job, but I want to tell you there are people among you and as soon as you re gone they are going to rise up and take their own doctrines; take their own theories, and they are going to draw people after themselves. Then when the angel of God talked to John on the Isle of Patmos, he said unto the church, You have fallen from your first love. That first leg was not seen again in its fullness until this last day. In Revelation, Chapter one, we see Jesus walking amongst the candlesticks dressed as a High Priest which was His predominant office at that time. The Holy Ghost was not seen in the manner which He was seen in the early church, until the restoration of the first leg began in There were seven candlesticks and seven lamp stands as we went through that time period of the seven church ages. Martin Luther came out of the Catholic Church in 1700 and preached The just shall live by faith, he knew nothing about the Holy Ghost. There was one time when the Holy Ghost moved upon him and he spoke in tongues some. He said, Forgive me for speaking in that strange language. Then John Wesley came and God moved on him, and he said, We not only need to believe, but we need to live right. It says in Romans, Chapter 8, that you are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. That means there s a change in your life. It s not that you say, I got saved, and then go your own way. There s a definite change. He put His mind in you. He put His attributes in you. But when the baptism of the Holy Ghost came the Pentecostal Movement started and the Wesleyans of course said, This is of the devil. But God said at the end time He was going to bring it back to the original, and He s not going to stop when He gets it back to the original. Hallelujah! Getting us back to

159 the original only accomplishes one thing: it gets us back to the first leg, one foot on sea. Now as we have gotten to this stage, then the other leg of His coming begins to take place and the start of it is clearly seen in 1963 as this coming begins to unfold into three (progressive) phases (stages) which is the shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, making the fullness of Christ walking around here in the earth in His wife. Glory to God! Married to Him, united to Him! God has given to us our portion of the Word. God has made us His heirs and joint heirs with Christ. We have all the things of Christ in us, and He gave us a specific chapter in the Bible. After God used Brother Branham to preach the revelation of the seven seals, He took him home. But waiting in the wings was a man to pick up this revelation taking it on further and bringing things that the wife would need concerning Israel the brethren. One time Brother Branham was fasting and praying because he was going to preach on the seven trumpets, he spoke of this when he was about to preach the Feast of Trumpets. He was praying and he told his wife, Things are just not working. They could get the school building; but they would have to have it one day on and one day off and so on. Everyway and everything he started, there seemed to be a roadblock. He had come all the way from Tucson, Arizona to Jeffersonville, Indiana to preach the seven trumpets, but nothing would work. So he went in a room and said, Lord, I don t understand it. I ve announced that I m here and the people are going to be coming in. I ve announced I was going to preach on the seven trumpets, just like I did the seals and Lord everything is going wrong. Lord, I can t get anything put together to work. What s wrong Lord, what s wrong? And he was in a room praying and here came the angel of God and told him, It is not for the church at this time. You re not to preach on it. So he came out and told his wife, He met me in there; I know what it is now. He told me it s not for the church at this time. Later God used Brother Raymond Jackson to clear up the seven trumpets. When Brother Branham preached the fifth seal he made known that there were two parts of it. The first part showed Hitler and Eichmann and all those Jews that were killed for the Word of God. God used this persecution to drive them back to their homeland. But there was another part to that fifth seal. The Jews were crying out, Oh Lord, holy and true, how long will thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes (the mercy of God, eternal life) were given unto every one of them: and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. This is showing that many more Jews will be killed in the second part of the fifth seal. God gave those predestinated Jews eternal life that were killed for the Word of God. Brother Branham

160 made known the fifth seal was in two parts. One part of it had already happened and he explained it; but then God took Brother Branham off the scene. But here was a man waiting in the wings, and on his mind was what would take place with Israel in the 70th Week of Daniel as the two prophets would begin to prophesy in the first three and half years and the trumpets begin to sound. Even today, the folks at Faith Assembly Church there in Jeffersonville, Indiana, still preach much about what will happen in Israel. They have a train of thinking that was left by Brother Jackson, a certain slant on the gospel right to Israel as they continue to preach that portion of the Word that was left by Brother Jackson. This clearly indicates the portion of the Word that he was to make known revealing the brethren Israel to the bride. God showed Brother Jackson the trumpets, when the two prophets come and how God would deal with Israel as these two prophets, one with the spirit of Moses and the other with the spirit of Elijah would be standing there smiting the earth. (Revelation, Chapter 11) God had a man there to reveal what those seven trumpets were and how they would apply to Israel. God wanted to tell the bride what was going to happen to the Jews, and it wasn t something that was restored back to the bride, because it never was part of the Word that was lost in the other ages. I want you to notice this, God sent a prophet to restore the Word that was part of the Word that the early church had, and also that which was lost in the church ages. Now when God gets that which is restored back, He uses His prophet to bring out of His treasures things old and new. So when God got these things restored back, the ministry of Elijah was over. Now He has restored back what the early church had and many new things such as the opening of the seven seals; thus completing the first leg and bringing us into the second leg. There stood a people that had been called out of denominations; the wisest people on the face of the earth. Then God began moving from another corner we would say; they weren t expecting this. Here came a man that stepped out. Raymond Jackson. He began to tell about Israel. He told how they were going to get all their land and what would happen; thus clearing up the revelation of the second part of the fifth seal. He did a super job, it s wonderful to behold. But when it came to our chapter, Revelation, Chapter 10, Brother Jackson said, Well, the thunders haven t sounded; the Mighty Angel hasn t cried yet; that will take place somewhere out here in the future. God is going to perfect us with the five fold ministry, and then somewhere out here in the future He is going to send seven men (thunders) that will pick it up and do the rest. Well, God took him off the scene saying that, but did God stop moving? No, He hasn t got His wife yet. Not only has He restored back that which they previously had through Brother Branham; but here He used Brother Jackson to bring something the early church didn t even

161 have. God used Brother Jackson to clear up Israel s place in the scripture, in which included the trumpets and the vials; now the second part of the fifth seal is clearly made known to the bride. We were over in the country of Zambia and my wife Barbara was reading in one of the books. She reads a lot and thank God we have some good things to read. But she was reading about the seven church ages and how the first four seals deals with those church ages; but when it comes to the fifth seal, I said in the book she was reading, This fifth seal deals with something else besides the church. All of a sudden the Spirit of the Lord touched her and began to deal with her. She began to talk about how God used Brother Jackson to clear up the rest of the things on the second part of the fifth seal; he began dealing with something that didn t pertain to the Gentile wife of the Lamb. He was waiting in the wings to bring these things and now it is done. Yes, sometimes it s somebody you least expect to know something will come out with a revelation and you will say, I didn t know that. I hadn t thought of that. That s just the way God works. Brother Raymond Jackson cleared all those things up. But when it came to Revelation, Chapter 10, God pulled a veil down, this is as far as I want you to come my servant. So Brother Jackson would read about the seven thunders and say, That is going to take place later on after the five fold ministry gets us perfected. He said it would be seven men that would be in different areas of the world and they would rise up and preach the same thing. That is as good a theory as you could have I guess, until God gets ready to move us on with further revelation, which He has done. God had also during this time something waiting in the wings. That is the way God has always moved. The bride will understand. There are two legs of the coming of Christ to produce the man Christ Jesus in His wife. These things that we have covered so far are absolutely necessary in order to understand the two legs, the two feet of the coming of Christ, and Brother Jackson plays a critical part of this understanding. We wouldn t be where we are now had not God put him on the scene and given us revelation of his place. He fulfilled a step just like Brother Branham did. He fulfilled a step just like each one of those seven church age messengers. But God pulled the curtain down and when He pulls the curtain down we can go no further, and only those at the end time that are to be translated will see the whole picture. There are a people that are living now that are going to be translated, and we get that new body which is complete salvation! So God saved something for us right at the end time. Thank God for all these men who came before us, but when we get to Revelation, Chapter 10, and that s now, He has reached over and gotten married to His wife. Last Sunday s message we brought in about where we have the five fold ministry and the other members which in times past were referred to

162 as shepherds and sheep. But that only applies to the five fold ministry and what they will do until; till we all come together, and we pass that Till of Ephesians 4:13. Then the ministry part of the bride (masculine part) and all the other members (feminine part) are united together in one body and are married to Christ, baptized into His body. Then the purpose of the five fold ministry changes to accommodate the wife of Christ, instead of accommodating the engaged virgin. They begin to speak as a husband to a wife, as Paul spoke in Ephesians 4:15, Speaking the truth in love. They have been given His mind and attributes and are no longer looked at in this manner as shepherds and sheep; but are members of the body of Christ united as one. They are seen now as a whole, the wife of Christ, making up the perfect man. We have reached the stature of the fullness of the man Christ Jesus and are no longer tossed to and fro, because we have His mind. We all are going the same way and have the same revelation; we also see the way God revealed it. He brought it in step by step and we don t have to walk blind folded any longer; we can walk in this with our eyes wide open. This is a revelation from Christ that you and I have and that we can stand on. It s not just my revelation; but it is your revelation. If you sit here and listen over the years and it doesn t become your revelation then something is wrong. This has to be your revelation and not just Brother Ben s revelation. Is that right? You are the body of Christ. You are the wife of Christ, you re married to the Lamb and now we have reached the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. He has given us the full revelation of the Word of God, and now we see Christ in the earth taking on flesh and bones. Just like Paul said, Bone of His bone, flesh of His Flesh, mind of His mind, Word of His Word, love of His love, Spirit of His Spirit, both legs. He put one foot on sea and one foot on earth, Remember the Feet! Hallelujah! Now let s get into our chapter which is Revelation, Chapter 10. We will read Verses 3-4; now watch what He does, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. We have heard the cry, which is the announcement of Matthew, Chapter 25, and He begins making His descent with a shout! Go ye out to meet Him because He s coming, He has started making His descent. At this time the preparatory (transitional period) conditions begin to transpire for His arrival on earth meaning that He would soon be here as is related in Revelation, Chapter 10, and 1 Thessalonians 4:16. This second leg of His coming is completed in Revelation 10:8, as the Voice from heaven speaks again ending the silence in heaven (transitional period) and tells John that Christ the Mighty Angel is here in the earth, Go take the little book. This completes the understanding that He is here in angelical form. All this started in Matthew, Chapter 25, as the messenger made the announcement, Behold the bridegroom cometh. The process was set in

163 motion then. He cried with a loud Voice and it woke us up. There are some people that sleep very sound and you have to holler in their ears to wake them up. But some people you can just kind of whisper in their ears time to get up and they will open their eyes, wake up and be ready to go in a few minutes, while others you have to work with them to get them to wake up. We ve heard the mighty Voice and now we are awake. He has given us time to wake up and wipe the sleep out of our eyes. We have woken up and realized where we are at and what is going on. We realize that it is not in the hand of man any longer in denominational workings of any kind, time is no more for God dealing in the church age manner. God has anointed men that stand forth, and thank God for those that are willing to stand up and tell it just like it is. When they speak His wife knows this is the bridegroom, my husband speaking to me. It s Christ speaking to the church. Don t ever think that Christ doesn t speak through you and to you, because that is Revelation 10:11, And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. It s this prophetic Voice! This is not the nonsense of denominations that are going to pass away and change next week or next month, and just as soon as certain earthly conditions change their revelation changes. I have seen it over the years and if you will listen to the audio message called Bishops, Elders, and Deacons, I believe there were about seventeen preachers sitting there and even some of you were there. They got up and you heard their testimonies (even now some can be heard on this audio message) and they were all saying, This is Christ in the earth. This is it, we ve found the way! Well, as soon as conditions changed in their lives or with something else they said, I don t know about that, it s probably not that way. But when you get the mind of Christ in you, your revelation doesn t change each time conditions change. You have to see beyond that man and ask yourself, Is this Christ talking to me? Well, does it set your heart on fire? Did not our heart burn within us as He spake to us along the way? Praise the Lord! Amen. So the wife gets both feet. The wife and her alone hears His Voice, Remember the Feet. I am not talking about me here in the sense that I heard it there in the dream, but you hear it also when you see the feet. When you know what it is. So the first leg of His coming is restored completely. We got it. We have to have it so we won t be one legged. That s what some of the denominations are, they are trying to walk around with one leg. They say we ve got the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Well praise God for you! You ve got to have it; but let s go on and get baptized into the body of Christ. And in the body there are nine Spiritual gifts, everybody has the same mind, everybody has the same judgment, everybody is going the same way. What is the baptism into the body of Christ? It s receiving the mind of Christ. It s not you go out here and go through some kind of ritual to get

164 baptized into the body. God puts you in the body of Christ and gives you His Mind. Christ gives you His attributes. Christ gives you His life. You will know that it is Christ that has come. That s where your life is at. We are in heavenly places! Paul spoke it and wrote it down; it was the prophetic Word. Here comes Christ in this end time and brings that same thing back that was established under the first leg of His coming which was Paul introducing a bride to Christ, but the second leg gets her married to Christ. Hallelujah! Here stands Christ and His wife. He is a full grown husband and both legs of His coming are completed: the fullness of Christ in the earth. John wrote this and he said when the seventh angel sounds, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, he is going to reach back and clear up the mystery of God; in which we now know after the opening of the seven seals that it was what the thunders were and what they uttered; but people didn t accept it. They thought it was going to be something else and God left it that way. We don t blame the people, we blame God for it. The reason we blame God for it is, because He did it. Jesus walked around here all those years. They ate with Him, slept with Him, and all that. The disciples watched Him walk on water, and the people watched Him multiply the fish and the loaves to feed them. He even walked up to a leper colony and healed ten lepers. He spoke the Word and all ten of them were healed immediately. Then He went on. But He looked back and here came one of them following Him because he wanted to thank Jesus. Jesus asked him, Where are the other nine? They got the same thing this man got; but they went on their way unthankful. Here was one; not only was something done for his physical body, but there was something done for his soul. He came thanking the Lord. It is the same thing today. Many people have heard it; but there are a few that gets revelation of the Word of God for this hour. That s what is meant when I said, God did it. The Bible says, God hid this from the wise and prudent, but reveals it to babes that will learn. So this is all the plan of God even to where we are at today. We are here perfectly in the plan of God and things are coming forth just like God has ordained it. Don t you ever for a minute blame somebody because they don t see it or understand it like you do, because you wouldn t have seen it either if God had not revealed it. So don t say, Those people don t do this and they don t do that. Leave them alone. You go on. Christ is getting His wife while the world and the religious church world are totally blind to what is going on with Christ and His wife. He brings His wife into the tent and they become intimate with one another. Christ becomes one with her, just like Isaac went into the tent with Rebecca and not a single one of the other maidens went in, although they partook of the ceremonial (festivities) part of the wedding, but only Rebecca went into the tent.

165 Now Christ has given His wife a wedding garment without spot, without blemish. She is clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints; and all the rest of the saints we find are washing their robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb in the tribulation period. Well, they have their place. What I m saying here is we have our position to fill and I m so happy for it, so let s don t look down our nose at someone else that God has not anointed and given this revelation to. The wife, and her alone sees the two legs of the coming of the Christ. One leg of His coming came on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost, and through the early part of the church. Then Christ withdrew His Spirit in this form and the book of redemption was no longer available, but is seen in heaven sealed with seven seals. Now He has opened the seven seals and brought the little book part back of the book of redemption and gives it exclusively to His wife, leaving the remainder of the book of redemption for the remainder of God s Family and even the earth itself, because He paid for it all. So the first leg of His coming is restored back, because all things had to be restored that they previously had. Now this second leg completes the picture. I want to show you what the thunder voices said when He cried with a loud Voice, And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, (John was in 96 AD; remember this, God used John to type out the bride here) I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. Now that was John standing there in 96 AD; he saw these things. He heard the thunders and he was about to write all that down, but God wanted it to remain a mystery, because God wanted to keep every age looking for the coming of Christ. Each age went down expecting the coming of the Lord, and when they rise up we will all be together. We might say to Martin Luther, When did you get here, and he ll say, This morning. He s gone into eternity, and there is one great eternal day. When the members of the body of Christ come up, then we are all united together as the wife of Christ. So the Lord told John, Don t write it; but seal it up. There were seven seals and that was what was opened and it has been laid right in your hands. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever who created heaven, and the things that therein are, 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. In other words, we are out of that time period now, and here is something else going now. We know that time is no more for the seven church ages; time is no more for the uttering of the thunders, and time is no more for Him to make intercession for His wife in a church age manner. That time period has come to an end for her because she no

166 longer sees Him just as high priest, but as her husband. He has come to claim her and has given her His very own righteousness of fine linen, clean and white, and she is fully part of Him. (Revelation 19:7-8) Both feet are here, one foot on sea and one foot on earth; here stands Christ and to you that see, His face is shining as the sun. He s real to you. He loves us and we love Him. A lot of people love their big denominations and fancy churches. They confuse love for their church for the love of God. They think they love the Lord by loving some system or some teaching. When you love, be sure you love Jesus the anointed Word. In Revelation 10:7 it says, But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets. This mystery is not sealed any longer. Now remember this was written in 96AD; it s going to stay sealed until the seventh angel sounds his voice, and as he does he reveals what the other six angels had to say. That is what John heard when he heard the seven thunders uttering their voices. It is cleared up today. Brother Branham came and fulfilled that voice of the seventh angel. God also reached over and put the spirit of Elijah on him and he restored back the faith of the fathers teaching of the early church. He is gone. Brother Jackson s gone. We are here and Christ is here. Now the Voice of Authorization says, Go take the little book. And we have been witness to that with our own eyes and our own ears. This move of God, this chapter that God has given to us is cleared up. A man called here awhile back and asked, Brother Ben, don t you believe in the seven men, don t you believe that seven men are going to come? I thought for a second and said, In fact I do. He said, I heard you didn t believe that there are seven men to come. I said, Oh yes. He asked, You believe they re going to be here on earth? I said, Oh yes, yes, I believe I ll meet and talk with them all. He said, Oh praise God, you can be in the rapture now, since you believe that the seven thunders are men here at the end time. Then I said, But Sir, they will not be preaching; their work in that manner is finished. These seven men will come up in the resurrection when all the other bride saints come up. Those seven church age messengers that the seven thunders (Spiritual angels) sounded through in their day are going to stand right there. Yes, before we go up the Bible says, The dead in Christ is going to rise first and together with them we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. How long will that together be for us to blend together? Only God knows that. In Bible days when Christ arose with the Old Testament Saints it was forty days and nights that they ate, drank and talked with Him. So, we will just have to wait and see. Yes, those seven Spiritual angels that was with those messengers came to that prophet. Those seven angels came and met with him in Arizona

167 and uttered their voices right through him. It cleared up the mystery. It s all behind us; we are not looking for nor waiting for that because it has already happened. We love Jesus and we are receiving from Him. We are just eating fine and He has given us plenty to eat, the little book. God bless you. How many sees the two legs of His coming is complete? It is important, because just as God spoke to Paul, just as God spoke to Christ, just as He spoke to Peter and said, Go with these men doubting nothing, now God has spoken again and said, Remember the Feet! Get the feet right and you will have it. Remember the Feet! Now the fullness of Christ is on earth; not just one leg of His coming, not just the Holy Ghost, but we are baptized into His body with His mind, with His attributes and we have become the flesh and bones of that Mighty Angel that comes down, both legs of His coming! Amen. He s come! He s here, hallelujah, He is here, amen! God bless you.

168 WHAT KIND OF A SIGN ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? We ve enjoyed service thus far with the singing, testimonies, and all; it just seemed like there was a special anointing upon it and we re thankful to God for being with us today as always. We re reading today in the Book of Matthew 16:1-4. Let us pray before reading, and please just raise your hands if you would like to be included in this prayer. Heavenly Father, we come now together once again in Jesus Name Lord, we thank you, because you have made a way for us to gather. You said for us to boldly approach the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need. You said that Christ is our access to you and that we can get right to your heart through the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray this morning Lord, for these requests that were given in by the raising of the hands; I pray that you will look at each heart, each need, and answer each one according to thy will. Lord I pray that you will just anoint us to speak the Word, to preach that which you have ordained and Lord that you will take our minds and our hearts, our soul, our whole being over for this little while. Lord may we be an instrument in thy hands that you can use for this little while for thy glory. We ask in Jesus Name. Amen. This morning I want to speak on, What Kind of a Sign are You looking For? What kind of a sign are you looking for here at the end time? I want to deal somewhat with the fact that you hear television preachers and others tell about certain signs in the natural realm that is supposed to happen; especially concerning things about Israel and Russia, and how Russia is going to come down into Israel. Some of them say, When we see this happen we ll know that we really need to begin to get serious with God. All those things are going to happen and definitely will be a sign of the end time, but the wife of Christ is listening for the Voice of her husband which is her sign. Many in the religious realm are looking for and can only see those things in the natural realm, and God is definitely going to do those things and they will be a sign to let them know that we are at the end time. But then, when we look over into the Spiritual realm we get into a different realm altogether. We begin to look for the Spiritual coming of Christ and God s Voice of Authorization to us to take the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10, and eat it. As we do, we begin to see certain things in that which God said. For instance, a marriage taking place; a people being in one mind and one accord, and a five fold ministry just like the Bible said and see it in reality. These are certain things that let us know where we are in the revealed Word. Now I want to read some scriptures here beginning in Matthew 16:1-4,

169 and it deals with Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were experts on seeing certain signs, and they came to Jesus tempting and desiring Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. Jesus answered unto them by giving an illustration of the weather. He said, You can tell when it s going to rain, and when it s going to be bad weather or good weather, because this is taking place or that is taking place. The implication here was that while they were looking at the weather (the natural signs) they were missing the real Spiritual signs. There are signs out here for the world to see. There are signs for the foolish virgins to see. There are signs out here for the tribulation saints to see and there are signs out here for the whole world in general to see. All of them will tell you that we are real close, because certain things are taking place and we are getting into that time where we can look for the coming of the Lord. It won t be something that is out of line, because this and that are happening. We see that Israel is in the homeland and that is a natural sign and the world knows it. I am speaking here of those that are enlightened only in the religious realm and they have their place. But then, He has a bride that has become one with Him and she is looking for different things. She has full assurance where we are at and what is taking place. So I want to read this morning about what Jesus is telling the Pharisees, and how good they could tell the weather. Often times preachers have the signs step by step and can draw it out on a big board what s going to happen; the timeline and all, and I basically agree, but that is not what Christ s wife is looking for. We are not looking for that type of a sign as the basis for our understanding. We are looking for the vindicated Word made alive in a people. We are looking for Christ, the Mighty Angel as He is beginning to speak in and through His wife as she speaks prophesies according to the Word of God. Now I m reading here in Matthew 16:1-4, and it reads like this, The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that He would shew them a sign from heaven. They were asking Jesus for some kind of visible sign, some type of outer sign. There are a lot of people that want some kind of sign today, even when God has the sign laid right before them, but they are missing it. Jesus told them that there was the sign of Jonas in the belly of the whale for three days and that the Son of man would be in the heart of the earth, which was a Spiritual sign. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. (That is totally talking in the natural; it has nothing to do with the spirit at all.) They could read the natural signs. In other words this was something that was happening in the external and everyone could see it. It didn t take a super spiritual person to look at the clouds and if they were low clouds looking bad then you could expect rain, because all the things were there to produce a rain; but that was all in the natural. So to see Israel come back

170 to the homeland that s a totally natural occurrence. It s a sign, it s a happening and it was prophesied to happen and it came to pass, but it s an earthly natural thing. It s not even in the realm of a Spiritual sign for the bride. It s good that we know these things, but while all this is taking place and people are looking at it, they are missing something else, and that s the revelation of the Spiritual Word. Now continuing with what Jesus said, And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. Oh ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? Now I want you to look at that, you can tell by what is going on out here in the earthly realm and know this age is coming to an end. There are many things like earthquakes in diverse places and they have begun to get more numerous, and there are other happenings as you can see. We see what is happening in the Catholic Church and we know that all these things are to come into place; their morality problem and all. The Catholic Church has got to fall even further than she has already fallen. All these are signs and they point to the fact that we are nearing the end of this age. Then Jesus stopped talking about the natural things; the sky, the weather, and all that. He said, Oh ye hypocrites. You can tell about all these things. So what if you can see the clouds, so can everyone else. Basically that s what He was saying, The whole world knows it. There is a program on one of the television stations and this man talks a lot about Israel and what s going to happen. All these signs are good and real and I m glad that we can see them, but if those are all we see, then we are missing the real signs of what Christ is showing in the Spirit to His wife. That s what Jesus was telling the folks here. Watch what He says now, you can read and tell what the weather is, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed. There was a sign here and they clearly missed it. Just like there are people today that are like Peter was when he was asked about the coming of the Lord in the Book of Acts 3: Peter told them, And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began, then all eyes will see Him. Is it so? Yes, it s one hundred percent so, but is that what we are looking for? No, that is not what we are looking for before the rapture. We have been looking for the coming of the Lord in the form of the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10. Paul spoke of Christ s coming in a different way. He said, 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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) Now this is getting

171 into the Spiritual realm. You re getting into the Spiritual realm when you begin to hear the things that God is doing. When you begin to realize that the seals have been opened, and that the little book is brought back and we are eating it and prophesying. God has moved us on to this final stage of redemption while the world and religion as a whole are missing it, because they can only look to the natural events. So what are you looking for? We are looking at the Spiritual move of God. We are looking at Christ Jesus taking on flesh and bones and that s His visible body in the earth. Just as He did when He came to Abraham and Sarah and said, About this time next year the promised son will come. About this time next season, I ll come to you again. Sarah your wife shall conceive. Sarah and Abraham both were just natural people; but Abraham had a revelation. He knew that there was something peculiar about this man. This isn t just an ordinary man. He looks like a man. He talks like a man. He eats like a man (because Abraham sent and got a fatted calf and they ate. Sarah had prepared them a wonderful dinner.) This man was God manifested in flesh, but He looked like a man, He talked like a man, He ate like a man. He probably wore clothes like they wear in that desert kingdom that Abraham ruled over; but there was a revelation about this man. This is not just an ordinary man. There s something about this man that was different. That is what is within the bride of Christ. Now we are members of the body of Christ; we have been baptized into the body of Christ, and Christ has taken on flesh and bones through His wife. There s your Spiritual sign that is only for the wife. In the Book of Ephesians 5:31, Paul spoke of a marriage and he referred back to the Book of Genesis where it is written, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Now that was in the natural to show us what Christ is doing for our physical bodies as we are being changed into His image. That Mighty Angel comes down as a Spirit and takes on flesh and bones. That s what happened in the days of Abraham, God came down in the theophany of Christ. The wife of Christ is more than just a group of people. We are the body of Christ in the earth. This is our sign of what is about to take place. The wife of Christ Jesus is walking, talking, living and breathing and we are partakers. Now there s your sign! The Voice of Authorization is speaking and telling us to go take the little book, and He gave us confidence to do it. We have taken the little book. We have been clothed in His complete righteousness and that quickened us to take and eat the little book, which is only for the wife of Christ. The only way we can be that righteous is to have a revelation of where our righteousness comes from. It doesn t lie in anything we do or say; but it lies in Christ Jesus and Him baptizing us into His body. God doesn t even see us, but He sees Christ, the body of Christ. Hallelujah! He tells the wife, Take that

172 little book and begin to eat. Remember, there was nobody in heaven or the earth, or under the earth could take the book. There wasn t anybody holy enough. There wasn t anybody good enough, because all had sinned and come short of the glory of God. It took the Lamb of God to get the little book for us, and that makes us the wife of the Lamb as we eat the little book that s from heaven. This is where our new body comes into plain view. Jesus Christ overcame the death angel and then died for us so that we wouldn t have to overcome the same way. He destroyed death for us and will even change our mortal bodies as we listen to the trumpet sound. That gives us resisting power against the power of death. Paul had a revelation of this in his day. Jesus Christ overcame death and broke the yolk off His predestinated people, and He was the only one that could do this. Then He gave His life so we could go into eternal life without dying. That s why in this hour, you have to know who you are and where you re from. You have to know you are part of that body in order to be changed. You were with Him from the foundation of the world, otherwise you wouldn t be given these truths; you couldn t hear His Voice. Peter heard the Voice of Jesus Christ, Paul heard the Voice of Jesus Christ as did the messengers through the ages. So now He gives the little book to the body and says, Eat and prophesy. Now the body begins to edify itself in love, and every joint supply. We supply each others needs whether it is a word of encouragement or exhortation, and sometimes prophecy as is needed at the present time as we prepare to take the glorified body. Paul said concerning this move of God, our anointed speaking, that it will bring comfort, edification, and exhortation. That means we exhort one another. This is among us today. One of the signs we are seeing is a people that has the mind of Christ. They don t have their own thoughts, but they have the thoughts of Christ. They don t have their own spirit, but they have the Spirit of Christ. They don t have their own desires in life, but they have His desires. There s our sign, praise God! In Hebrews 2:14-18, it tells us that Jesus Christ completely destroyed death. When the death angel came unto Him he met someone that was more than a man, because He was different from anyone he had ever met. The death angel said, It s time, I have come for you. But Jesus said, I m not going with you. You can t take my life, until it s time for me to lay it down. The devil was there trying to destroy Jesus, but Jesus had some things to do. He had to suffer, He had to be whipped, and He had to take stripes for the healing of our bodies. He had to die on the cross and become the Lamb. So He wrestled with the old devil and He overcame death. It s typed out with Melchisedec in the Book of Hebrews. He prayed and overcame death in that he feared. Here came Jesus Christ and overcame death. Then the death angel had no power over Him whatsoever.

173 Now He is going to lay down His life for us. Paul brought this in the Book of Hebrews 2:9 and 15, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So we can t die spiritually; but also we have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and are changed. Now we can say, Oh death where is your sting? The Mighty Angel has taken on human flesh in us, Ye are the body of Christ, and you have the mind of Christ. Just like in the Book of Genesis when God created Adam and Eve, even before He put them into a body, He called their name Adam. He and she had the same name, because they were of the same material and the same spirit. It s the same thing with Christ and His wife. John wrote about us and said, His wife hath made herself ready. This is it! We are looking to Him and leaning on Him. Also we have disowned any righteousness that we might think we have and we have disowned any religious experience that we think we have. We re saying, Jesus is the one, yes He s the only one. Let Him have His way, until the day is done. So He overcame death and the death angel had to leave. That was one futile visit. He had to go without his subject. Then Jesus couldn t die, didn t have to die, there was no death sentence on Him. He had overcome death. But with you it was different; every human being had to die. They would have had to face the death angel and do what Jesus did struggle with him, fight with him, pray until their sweat became great drops of blood and be in agony like no person has ever been since the world was. Everyone would have had to do the same thing; but Jesus fixed that for us after He overcame death. He looked through the eyes of the predestinated will of God and saw the seeds of God, and He knew everyone would have to come that same way He came. What did He do? He voluntarily died for you and me. He said, No man take my life, they can t do it, I have overcome. We know that Christ died and death has no more dominion over him. There s a body that will not die; there s a body that can t die. There s a body that has become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. There s a body in the earth that is absolutely the literal walking, talking, breathing, thinking body of Christ in the earth, His wife. All God had, He poured into Christ; and all that Christ was and is, He poured into His wife. He s an heir of God and you re joint heirs with Christ. In other words everything that Christ possesses, His wife possesses it also. Amen! That s the sign I ve been looking for and that is the sign I m seeing. I know the other signs are good, but they are like Jesus said about the weather. People can see many things in the natural things and tell you many things that will happen. There are people today that see these natural signs, and they don t necessarily have to be a preacher to know about prophecy.

174 Anyone can know that Israel is in the homeland, because God said in the last days He would bring them back. So that clearly puts us in the last days. He said He would give them back the land and that has basically been taken care of. There is a little more to take, but Israel is going to take that. All these things are coming; but you don t have to be a preacher, you don t have to be saved; all you have to do is look out and see what the weather is. If it is cloudy you can see that it is going to rain. That s a natural sign and everyone knows that. You ve got to know where you re at. You ve got to know that the Voice of Authorization has spoken and said, Go take the little book. That s our sign and we can only know this by the Spirit of Christ, the kingdom of God cometh not by observation, but by revelation of God. So we can have all of these great benefits because Christ went to the cross and willingly died. That s why the Word says, They looked for somebody that could open the book and couldn t find anybody; but then they saw a bloody Lamb come forth and that bloody Lamb was the only one. He took the book and opened the seven seals. No man in heaven, no man in the earth, nobody could claim the book of redemption; it took the Lamb, because He was the righteousness of God. (Revelation, Chapter 5) Now that s what Jesus did on the cross. God took all His goodness and put it upon Christ and that made Him worthy. He was a man that God could find no fault in. There was no guile found in His mouth. There was nothing against Him whatsoever, because God put His righteousness upon His Son. He went to the cross and He was well pleasing to the Father. He said, For this purpose came I into the world. He didn t have to do it. He could have called twelve legions of angels to deliver Him. Keep in mind Christ didn t have to die; He could have destroyed all that were crucifying Him. He willingly went to the cross for you and me. When God saw His Son dying on the cross, no doubt tears fell in heaven to see His Son make such a sacrifice. There He was, a man in agony praying even for those that were crucifying Him. What a sacrifice! Why would Jesus Christ make such a sacrifice? He made the sacrifice for you and me. He didn t have to for Himself. He had it all. He said, No man take my life, I ve overcome death, but now I m going to lay it down for you. From the time that our Lord went from the garden to the cross, no man has ever suffered like He suffered before dying. Then God looked at Him and said, He s a Lamb now. Here s one that is worthy. Do you see what He did for you to make you worthy? Don t you appreciate the worthiness He has put upon you? We read about it in 2 Corinthians 5:21, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All that righteousness that God gave Him, He gave to you as a gift. In Romans, Chapter 5, it says, He gave you the gift of righteousness. Therefore you are as righteous, as He is righteous. When we see

175 that Lamb in heaven, we see what it cost Him to be able to take the book of redemption and open the seven seals. He opened the whole book and took from it the portion called the little book that s for His wife, brought it down to earth, and she is told to eat it. Now we can say, We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That means the marriage has taken place. We have reached the fullness of the stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. It was said about John by the other apostles that he was the disciple of whom the Lord loveth. Saint John was the only one that was specified in this manner. When John wrote, he wrote about love. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. It shows the tone of the wife s voice. So John was a type of the wife in the earth that now has become one with Christ, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and that s marriage. These are the signs; these are the things we looked for, and these are the things we are receiving. Yes, God has given the world a sign and I thank God for it. Everybody that believes the Bible in its raw form is eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They can read it and get knowledge to live by in this natural world, until the tree of life connects itself to the tree of knowledge. When this happens it is a sure sign for the wife of Christ in this hour that our translation is near. She sees the clear picture and knows there s a sign right here among us. Remember the Lamb was the only one that could take the book. He overcame death in the Garden of Gethsemane, and now He could freely give His life to redeem all the family of God. Not only did He give His life for His Gentile wife, but He gave a special portion of the book of redemption, the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10, to us bringing to pass the prophetic Word spoken by the Apostle Paul concerning the catching away. It raises the part of the Gentile bride (and only they will be in this part of the first resurrection) these are they that died during the seven church ages. Then we together with the resurrected Saints are translated and this will be the whole Gentile wife. Then we will be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air for a period of seven years before returning back to earth for the millennium. The Voice of God authorized it in Revelation 10:8 by giving us the little book which produces the translation of the body of Christ, His wife. This is made possible, because the Lamb of God died for us and gave us His own righteousness. The Voice of the Almighty who is the only one that can say what righteousness is, authorized it. When Jesus was called good master He replied, Why call thou me good, there s none good but the Father. But when the Father came into the Son, the Father recognized the Son as righteous. That s why we see the bloody Lamb in Revelation, Chapter 5, one that was worthy to take the

176 book and open the seven seals; He brought redemption down to earth. Then we hear the Voice of the Almighty speaking to John, because He was the only one that could give this type of authorization and He said to John, Go take the little book out of the hand of the Mighty Angel, meaning that He now recognizes John as being worthy. What a revelation, as he was enlightened to this, he saw the sign, and he knew where he was standing. He knew what was going on and he walked up to the Mighty Angel without fear, without trembling, full of confidence and did exactly what the Voice from the Almighty said to do. He knew that this Voice from the Almighty was ending the silence in heaven that the seventh seal speaks about. (Revelation 8:1) The Mighty Angel did not react until John who was authorized by the Voice of Almighty walked up to the Mighty Angel and said, Give me the little book. That meant that instead of seeing the Angel, we now see John as a type of the wife of Christ that could take the little book; that s the Mighty Angel taking on flesh and bones. Now His wife doesn t have her own righteousness, but she has the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and she knows it. There s your sign! Hallelujah! I feel that wheel in the middle of the wheel! Don t you? Praise God! I was reading in the Book of Ezekiel the other night about the beast with four faces, which is a type of the four beasts there in Revelation. Every way that it moved, it went forward. It couldn t go back, because if it went back, it would have a face going forward. If it was going east, it was going forward. If it was going west, it was going forward. It didn t have to turn around. There s only one way, and that was forward, forward, forward. There s no going back; the move is on for His wife. This is the sign I have looked for in my heart all my life. Jesus Christ in the earth being made real through a many member body. Now she says, Give me the little book. And the Mighty Angel speaks back to her intimately, because He received the authorization from Almighty God. We have been given the Father s favor to marry His Son, and we are now living in the Father s favor. All that He has, He gave to His Son and told His Son to share it with His wife by saying unto John, Go take the little book. John went to the Mighty Angel and said, Give me the little book. The Angel spoke and said, Take it and eat it up. I ve paid for it, I ve bought it, and it s yours. It will make your belly bitter, because when you do this, you are not of the world anymore. You don t even think like the world. You don t even see like the world. You don t even smell like the world. You don t act like the world in any way. Now you are married to the perfect Son of God and that s very pleasing to the Father. All that we have come through up to this time were stepping stones that we could step on to get across the river. Not long ago I had a dream that I was standing at the bank of a river, and the dream was so real. I was

177 standing there at the river and I couldn t get across it, because it was quite wide, about fifty feet with the water running very swift. Then something said, Cross the river. Well all of a sudden, a stone came up in the water and I stepped over on it and waited for something to step on next. I actually became a little frustrated, because I couldn t cross over. Then the scripture came to my mind, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. I waited. Then I saw something coming up out of the water and as I looked, it was another stone. I stepped over on it and I waited. Another stone came up and I stepped on it, and then on to another and another. Over a period of time, stones came up about sixteen inches around, real nice to step on and about the right distance apart. Pretty soon I was on the other side, Praise God! Well this revelation will get you across the river. It will get you through the rushing waters to the other side where there is peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down from the Father above. The Father authorized Christ to take the little book and bring it to earth for His bride. But Christ, the Mighty Angel held it in His hand until after the thunders were made known, including Israel s future position as revealed in the second part of the fifth seal which was made known by Brother Raymond Jackson. Now we know why Brother William Branham and Brother Raymond Jackson had to bring their messages first. During this time the Word was so powerful that nothing, absolutely nothing could stand in its way as it went around the world. All this took place during this period of time known to the scripture as the silence in heaven, which time was being completed under the seventh seal. (Revelation 8:1) This brings us to the place where the Mighty Angel makes the announcement that Time is no more, meaning the church ages and thunders have served their purpose for the bride. Now we have the authorizing Voice saying to John, Take the little book and eat it. Only then did John take the little book. Then the Mighty Angel said, Thou must prophesy again. The Almighty didn t speak anymore in that roaring Voice; but He said, You go do it. John, you are his representative; you represent the wife of Christ. That s the body of Christ. The whole body with the ministry right here in the body. The apostolic ministry and all the other ministries are right here in the body with all the other members of the body having the right, the freedom, and the knowledge to contribute and obey God, because they know they are a part of Him, and His wife wants to glorify her husband. That s why He said, Prophesy. Not just preach; but prophesy, because when you prophesy it edifies the hearer. The Pentecostal Move swept through the land and millions were speaking in tongues, but now there s the Voice of Christ speaking. That doesn t mean that God did away with the gift of tongues; but it means that it s not going to be fleshly demonstrations.

178 So, what kind of a sign are you looking for? What are you looking for? There are many things to take place in the natural realm, such as Russia coming down and being defeated in the land of Israel, and we read this in the Book of Ezekiel. Also the temple is to be rebuilt in Jerusalem and the Jews will begin to offer the sacrifice again. All these things are natural signs; and everybody living can see them. Once the wife leaves, then the two prophets come and everybody can see them. The whole earth can see them on television. All the News Channels will be there in Jerusalem reporting, and they will be seen on television following those prophets around. They ll be turning the water to blood; and smiting the earth with plagues as often as they will. They will really give that beast a rough time until they have finished their testimony, and when they have finished their testimony the beast will kill them. They won t even suffer these prophets to be buried; but will gloat over them and take pictures of them. They will laugh and say, Here are your prophets. Do you want to see them? Here they are. But the Spirit of the life of God will enter the two prophets and raise them from the dead. They will rise from the earth, and they will bid this old world goodbye while judgment falls for the next three and a half years of great tribulation. Those are visible signs for everyone to see, but the wife sees Him and is taking the little book and eating it. That s being married; being bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That s the sign we have received. When the death angel comes calling on us we will say, Old fellow, I know you are here on a mission, but you can t win this time, because you have no more sting. I have eaten the little book, and it has done something for my soul and it is doing something for this old body also. Do you see what I mean? There s your sign! Hallelujah! So do you know that the Mighty Angel has brought the little book? Do you know that you re as righteous as He is righteous? Do you know what made you righteous? It s summed up in one thing, it s the Lamb! You can say, Because of the Lamb, because of Him, I can face tomorrow; because of Him, that s all I need. Now all these other signs are also the workings of the Almighty; once the rapture takes place, the Almighty God is going to step out here on the scene again just like He did in the Old Testament before Christ was ever born. He will have two prophets stand there just like He did in the Old Testament; and the Almighty is going to do some things. Then He will cause this old earth to real and rock like a drunken man. There will be a time of trouble like there has not been since there was a world. People will get to such a place and begin saying, It would be better to be dead than to live in this. They will seek death and it will flee from them. Where will the wife be? She has already caught her sign. She s been caught away to heaven. She got the righteousness of God while others look at the sky for the natural signs. Just as God gave Brother Branham a natural sign in the

179 sky and it was even in Life Magazine. The world can see it. Everybody can look up in the clouds, and you can see that cloud. What kind of a sign are you looking for? You want to look at the clouds? You want to look at what Russia s doing? You go ahead and look. You want to look at the ten horns of Europe to see them coming together with one currency; that has happened and the natural man can see it. But His wife has caught her sign and gets the revelation that the tree of life, the Mighty Angel has come and we have heard the Voice from heaven instructing us to take the little book and eat it. That s our sign! We know how to put it in its proper place and move on into the glorified body, which is Christ in the earth. Oh, I just praise God for the wisdom of Paul. We read there in Chapter 15 of the Book of Romans and he says, I will not dare speak of those things which God has not wrought by me. In other words there are so many things in the Bible; but it s not going to help us if it doesn t apply to the wife of the Lamb. Christ brings back that little book, now that s for us. Praise God! Christ in you the hope of glory! Are you seeking after a sign, what kind of a sign are you looking for? The wife has her sign and we are happy with it. We are satisfied with it; the sign has brought us to this hour, and is the person of Christ in His wife and we are rejoicing! Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this gathering together and for your many, many blessings upon us. Lord we have brought the message that you put on my heart and I know somewhere it will be important Lord for your wife to know. As we hear many, many voices telling the natural things that s going to happen and many get so involved with all these other things that they lose the real purpose that you re projecting of becoming one with you, may we be so thankful that you called us to be a member of your Spiritual body, we pray in Jesus Name. Amen.

180 SOMETHING WE ALL NEED BUT DON T HAVE We are reading today in the Book of First John, but first I want to say happy Mother s Day to all the mothers. We all have a mother and they are all precious. One thing about a mother, she will bear with us when we are right and when we are wrong; that s something nobody else can really do like a mother. This morning I want to take a little thought, Something we all need, but don t have, none of us yet have (physically). Something that we all need, and I was thinking, if you want to be an inventor and you want to get rich (of course we re already rich in the Lord, so we don t worry about that) you need to invent something that everybody wants and needs, but no one has. Well, there s something in the completion of our salvation experience with God that we all need, but no one literally possesses in this hour, yet we possess it by faith. There is a message that promises to do that for us and there is a way. Thank God He let us get in the way that s right. The prophetic part of Paul s message promised to provide that when the marriage took place, it s the glorified body. We ve come through many steps to get to where we are today nearing the physical translation. We have come through this message a step at a time, and in earlier times you might have been called wheat, or you might have been called a fish, and at other times you might have been called a sheep and that is all right. All those were stepping stones to get us where we are, but in the finality of it Paul began to speak of us differently describing us in a different manner. He said, I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That is in 2 Corinthians 11:2. But we don t stop there, we come right on over until we get to the place where it says in Revelation, Chapter 19, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Amen! That means we ve crossed the river! We ve reached our destination. We ve obtained that which everyone has been waiting for, the fullness of the marriage which includes becoming bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh; here we are speaking of the natural body. We ve been concerned about getting our spirit right and that was very, very important. But Paul said, I beseech you that you present your bodies unto the Lord as a living sacrifice. He began to talk in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 5, about a great mystery, and now this mystery is made known. He began to compare man and wife marrying and becoming one flesh. He said, This is a great mystery, but I m speaking of Christ and the church. No more is He call-

181 ing us wheat. He s not calling us fish. He s not calling us a lamb. He s not calling us sheep, but Christ is calling us His wife. Those titles of being called wheat, fish, lamb, and sheep are different stages that we came through as the espoused virgin, but now we can proudly say that we are the wife of Christ. So there s a wife in this hour and she s got direct contact with Christ, because He has made her bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. He s not saying anymore, You are little sheep down here and I m the shepherd up here. That scenario has served well through the church ages, because preachers have had to direct the people saying, You re sheep and I m a shepherd, so you listen to what I say. Well, that was all right in it s time period. But Paul looked at it from a different angle, looking at the promise of being the wife of Christ rather than looking at sheep, fish, and wheat; for he said, You and Christ have the same mind. He said, You are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This is going to consummate in you having a body like unto His own glorious body, hallelujah! That s the message for this hour. It s something that we ve all got to have, and that is now beginning to happen, so we can say, It is here now and we re bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; that s marriage. This is something that Christ does for us as we come fully into His predestinated plan. Sometimes preachers come by and say, Brother Ben, the only ones that receive a new body is the ones that have been born again long enough to have reached full maturity. They will say, You can be saved, but you can t be in the bride unless you ve been in this for at least six months. While others say, Two years, or three years, because you ve got to study it all out and get it in you first. Well, that is one way of getting it in you, but that way doesn t really help unless it is anointed by God. I d rather have thirty seconds worth of revelation than have ten years worth of head knowledge, because God moves and leads His people by revelation. Paul, when he began to speak said, It reveals Revelation! Even the Book of Revelation is called revelation. It means that by inspiration you get it (inspired understanding.) Then you got it! So, if you ve been born again for even less than thirty seconds and are predestinated to be a member of His body (the wife) then it s a forgone conclusion that you will receive a glorified body. Now we find here in the end time that there s a message to bring the dead out of the ground and change the living. That s the part of salvation that God is dealing with at this particular time. We ve got to be changed before the rapture. This mortal has got to take on immortality. This carnality has got to take on spirituality. Soon we will get to the place where we can say, I ve received that which everybody was wanting, but nobody has received it. It is by revelation. Now schools cannot teach you this, because it takes the Holy Ghost comparing spiritual things with spiritual things and changing you in a moment and in a twinkling of

182 an eye. Can you receive it? In early New Testament Bible days there were supernatural happenings. I think of Philip down in Samaria, and the Bible says, The whole city came out. The whole city was moved. There were great things taking place. Then the Spirit of God spoke, Go, this revival is over. Now the wisdom of man would say, Stay with this, stay with this revival. But the Spirit of the Lord spoke and said, Go down into the desert, (where there were only a few travelers) Then as he went down, he saw a chariot coming and someone reading. It was a black man from Africa, a eunuch. He was in charge of all the queen s treasures and he had been up to Jerusalem to worship God. He was reading from Isaiah the prophet, He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. That s Isaiah 53:7. The Spirit of the Lord spoke to Philip and said, Go join yourself to that chariot. (He left a big revival and went down into the desert and got on a chariot with a man of a different race.) That s the way God does things. That s revelation. That s leadership. He got up on the chariot and the man said, I m reading. Philip said, Understand thou what thou readest? The man said, How can I except some man tells me what this means? It says here, As a sheep is led to the slaughter. Is this prophet talking about himself or is he talking about someone else? And the Bible says, Philip began at that scripture and preached Christ to him. Then as they went down through the desert they came to an oasis and the eunuch said, Here is water, what doest hinder me from being baptized? Philip said, Thou shalt be baptized if thou believe. The eunuch said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. Then he halted the chariot and went off into the water and was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then, just as soon as he got up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord took Philip on a plain air ride. That s what God can do for us. God is a supernatural God. He is a miracle working God. He can do exceedingly abundantly above anything we could ask or even think. So Philip was found many miles away preaching in another city. And the eunuch went on his way rejoicing and Africa received the message for that time period. That is what God is doing; He is moving supernaturally. He has moved us through many things up to this hour. He has moved us through the time where the written Word had to come to your mind where you could understand and know these things. But now we have come to the time of revelation, a time where God is moving by revelation. So now we have the tree of knowledge of good and evil which is the written Word, and the tree of life which is the life of the Word perfectly joined together producing the redeemed man, both soul and body. I want to bring this in concerning a virgin named Mary and she was just

183 walking, minding her own business when she met an angel of God and the angel said, Blessed art thou Mary. You re going to conceive and the holy one that you bring forth will be the Son of the living God. Mary immediately thought, How could this be, I m still a virgin, I ve never known a man? The angel said, The Spirit of God will overshadow you; you will become pregnant and bring forth the Son of God and He will have no natural father, this will be a virgin birth. The only father Jesus had was the heavenly Father, because that s when the seed came through the woman and He was the Lamb of God that died for the sins of the world. No natural man had anything to do with it. The Bible says concerning Him that, He neither sinned nor was guile found in his mouth, and He overcame death. (Hebrews, Chapter 2, and its typed out in Melchisedec.) He overcame death. He didn t even have to die. Death had no dominion over Him whatsoever. He couldn t die. No way could He die. He overcame death. You and I would have had to overcome the same way He did in the garden; there s where He prayed until His sweat became great drops of blood. He prayed and cried in agony like no man has ever prayed since the world was. At least there s no record of anyone else praying until the sweat became as great drops of blood. The disciples had never seen a man in such foul shape, but watch what Jesus did. He met the death angel that had come for Him. He overcame him, because the sting of death is sin and Jesus had no sin. So here came the death angel to get Him. He said, I m not going with you. The death angel said, I ve come to get you. Nobody has ever resisted me yet. How are you going to resist me? Jesus prayed and overcame death clean and clear, and He didn t have to die. He couldn t die. He said, No man taketh my life from me. There was no way. He overcame death. He couldn t die. Had Jesus not overcame death here, you would have had to come the same way He did. You would have had to meet the death angel and fight with him, crying in agony like you ve never been in agony before in your life. Jesus didn t want another person to go through what He went through; although He was clear and free, He couldn t die, but He said, I lay down my life for you. He went right to the cross. Pilate said, Don t you know that I can take your life or I can let you go? Jesus said, You can do no such thing. All you can do is what God allows you to do. No man can take my life. At this moment I could call twelve legions of angels and destroy you all, but I lay down my life for the people of God. For this purpose came I into the world. Oh God, Thy will be done. Therefore, I possess the power to meet satan, to meet the death angel and resist him. In this hour we ve got to learn that we have power even over the death angel. Is that saying none of us are going to die? That will be according to the plan of God. Even if you do die you will have an advantage, because you will come up first. But there are people that are

184 not going to die, because Paul said, They that are alive and remain till he comes And I m here to announce to you that He has come! He is here! The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God. There is a trumpet blowing today with a message that is going to cause you to take on the very flesh and bones of Christ, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and you will have the same power over death that He had and you won t have to go through the suffering that He went through, because He died for you. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; but He washed it white as snow. He paid it all; that s why we see Him in Revelation, Chapter 5, as a bloody Lamb that came and took the book that had redemption in it. Redemption means redemption for the body; not for the soul only, but for the body. God created Adam and Eve to live forever! He set the tree of life there and they could eat and never die, but satan came in and got them to go another route. So God picked up the tree of life setting guards to guard the way to the tree of life and they didn t overcome death. Although, there was Enoch and Elijah, God took them up as examples to show what He was going to do for the wife of Christ at this end time. Now the death sentence was passed upon all mankind, but here came one that met every condition of God; He overcame and cancelled death out. Jesus overcame death. We could say, He danced on the grave of death. This He did, because He looked through the telescope of time and saw all God s people; how they would struggle to overcome death. Many people struggle in death. I suppose it s the mentality of different people and it can be different with each person. Some will smile and just go on to be with God. There seems to be no struggle, especially if your hand is in the nail scarred hand. You know that as soon as you walk through that door you will get what you ve been looking for all your life, what you were born for, because you are the Word. Jesus was the Word and the Word became flesh. Actually what the people saw walking around, what was hanging on that cross was the Word made flesh. There s eternal life in the Word. Paul s revelation didn t stop short of revealing the fact we would receive a glorified body and he even thought he would be one of them in that hour, but God knew there were seven church ages to come. If Paul would have taken rapture, then you and I couldn t have done it. God looked down with mercy. He brought us this far. Paul knew that salvation meant getting a new body. Paul knew that salvation meant the dead being raised with a glorified body bringing complete redemption. One day Brother William Branham was praying; he said he always had a fear of death. He didn t know what it would be like. One morning he was laying on his bed meditating on the Lord thinking about it and the Spirit of the Lord said, Would you like to see what it is like over there? He said, It would help. All the sudden he felt his self going out of his

185 body. He looked and his body was still lying there in the bed, but here he was in another body and in another place. He said, This is real. He was there with the people who had died and gone on; his wife was there who had died earlier. And there he was with all these people and they were saying, Our precious brother, our precious brother, it s so good to see you. Brother Branham said, These people are real; they re not just spirits floating around, they are real. Well, the Bible says if this earthly tabernacle were dissolved we already have a building of God in heaven. The thing is our mentality changes and causes us to have faith to accept this new body by revelation. This corruptible is going to be changed even while you re standing, walking, talking, or asleep it s going to change you; you will be a young person and you can t die. Now that s what this is all about and that is what is waiting for us. That s why He gives you a message that will give the wife of Christ what everybody wants, but no one has. Even now the bride of Jesus Christ has got it potentially, everything she needs to step right into that body. It s just a time element now holding us back, because by the Word we have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. When God created Eve (Genesis 2:23) He took a rib from Adam and created Eve. Then Adam said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. God took that feminine part of Adam s spirit and put it into Eve. There was man and wife. The man acted like a man and the woman acted like a woman. Typing what Christ did for us on Calvary. Now God wants a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. Anything outside of that is perversion; it s a mixed seed and it has nothing to do in this matter that we are talking about. I want to read some scriptures here that will connect us to 1 John 1:1, That which was from the beginning, (which was with God all the way through) which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life, the Word was manifested. That was Jesus Christ in His physical body as He lived here on earth then. The Word was made visible, and now here at the end time once again the Word is made visible and I m looking upon it today. That s what our hands handle and that s what our eyes see. It s a people that have become the Word by accepting and believing it, because that s what we were in the beginning. As the next verse says, For the life was manifested. I m telling you there s a life that s being manifested today, it causes you to become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Christ says that He gives you His own mind. So we can say with all confidence, We have the mind of Christ. He said by one Spirit you re baptized into His body. In Revelation, Chapter 10, it shows the Mighty Angel coming down which is the Spiritual body of Christ and we are the physical part of His body in the earth, even as it is said about Jesus in Hebrews 10:5, A body hast thou prepared me. That s because we ve been baptized into the body of

186 Christ. That s the way Christ takes on flesh and bone. That s His wife here in the earth. That s what He calls His wife (Revelation 19:7), she s bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh according to what Paul said. That s what is in this message: it is the trumpet sounding, giving us that which all mankind has longed for: it s complete and full salvation (redemption)! Now your soul s salvation is a starter. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost is a starter and that was in the early church, but they didn t take rapture. Paul looked forward to a place where he said, There will come a time when this virgin that I m introducing to Christ will no longer be a virgin, but she will be His wife. There s coming a time when she will become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; Word of His Word. He said, This is a great mystery. God is showing this as a natural marriage; it shows exactly what Paul was talking about when he said here, I m talking about Christ and the church, where you become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That gets into the natural realm and our visible body becomes His (the Mighty Angel s) visible body, because we have been baptized into the Spiritual body of Christ that has come down. Amen. Continuing 1 John 1:2, (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.) Now what we re looking at here is that eternal life that was in Christ. In Ephesians, Chapter one it says, You were with Him before the world was. You re predestinated in Him. Now it s manifested right here in this last day; our hands have handled, our eyes have looked upon. What? That Word of eternal life! Hallelujah! You have become the Word. The Word came down into that virgin, Mary, and something began to happen in her body. Her body began to produce a Word child that was strictly the Word. It says in John 1:14, The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld Him. Here in 1 John 1:2 it says, For the life was manifested Amen, we re showing unto you that eternal life that was with the Father and that eternal life that was with the Father is Spirit; but that Spirit became flesh, visible among us, in a person walking and talking. He went to the cross and died for you so that you could become the very same thing He is. As Jesus died, was buried and raised, you were in Him and died and were raised in His likeness to walk in newness of life. You become that Word, and all that God saw there in Ephesians, Chapter one, we re seeing now in reality. The Word has become flesh. The Spirit has become flesh. It has become visible. The Mighty Angel coming down, the Spirit alone doesn t prophesy, but He uses a vessel to prophesy through. Watch this, John, being a type of the married wife of Christ, the Mighty God said, Go to the Mighty Angel and say, Give me the little book. The wife obeys the Voice and goes to the Mighty Angel and says, Give me the

187 little book. Then the Mighty Angel says, Take it and eat it up. It s so sweet in your mouth, but it will be bitter on your stomach. It won t kill you, but you will die to yourself and all religious beliefs. And because we have taken the little book it causes many people to shun us. Then as you eat this little book, you ll begin to prophesy. The Mighty Angel has given you a prophetic mind. A prophetic mind means you talk about spiritual things, you think about spiritual things, and natural things has very little interest to you, because there s something spiritually turning within you. Like one prophet said, It s like a wheel in the middle of the wheel turning. That s Christ as He comes, which is our life; it has made us just like Him, the manifested Word. Now we can clearly see the life was manifested, the Spirit that has become flesh. That s why we appreciate what He has done for us. We appreciate Him dying for us. He died for us and now we can t die. When you accept Him the Bible says, You ve passed from death unto life. Even those that go on before God gets ready to translate these bodies will rise with a glorified body, and we re close to that time, because there s a message that s here for that purpose. The Mighty Angel has come down. We ve eaten the little book. Read Ephesians, Chapter one, and look around, that Word is made flesh. We see it. We have eternal life. We can t die. I can no more die than God can die, because He lives in me. It starts in the spirit, but it gets out into the body. It gets to the place where we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh as we are seeing now. I m going to read now in 1 John 3:1, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Now don t think the world knows you. They don t know you. They might know your facial features, and when you walk down the street they might call you by your earthly name. They may know who you are that way, but they don t know you, just like they didn t know Jesus. They don t know what is in you. They don t know, I m a child of the king; My Father is rich in houses and land, He holdeth the wealth of this world in His hand. He s got the whole world in His hand. He has accepted me. He sent Christ down manifested in human flesh to be one of us. The Bible says, He suffered in all points like as we, so that He would be able to secure them that were in any temptation. Continuing on with Verses 2 and 3, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Now I want you to notice that. We will have a body when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. In other words, here He is walking with us, talking with us. We re not strangers to Jesus. We ve known Him all of

188 our lives. We ve known Him before the world was. Jesus prayed in John, Chapter 17, Father, give me back that glory that I had with thee before the world was. You were there sharing that glory before the world was. Now in Revelation, Chapter 10, we see the Mighty Angel come down, not a literal body, but it is the Spiritual body of Christ. That is the Spirit of Christ as He comes for His wife, and now she is like Him. God created Adam and Eve and He took that spirit, took that bone, took that rib and made a body for Eve and that was part of Adam, because she was taken out of a man. So Adam could boldly say, This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; spirit of my spirit. It is just the same with Christ as it was with Adam. Jesus is lonely without His counterpart. This was seen in Adam in the garden which was a type of Jesus Christ, but the Bible says, There was found no helpmeet for him. He was lonely. He needed a helpmeet. Jesus needed a helpmeet, so God has created Him one and you re that helpmeet. He said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. I m looking now at flesh and bone that has become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. As God took from Adam certain attributes that He wanted in Eve, He took that part of his spirit and put it into Eve, so is it with Christ and His wife. Notice very carefully Revelation, Chapter 10, it doesn t show the man Jesus Christ coming to earth, because His body is already in the earth which is His wife, a many member body. In Revelation 10:1 it says, I saw a mighty angel., It s Christ s Spirit, not Jesus the visible man. That s why it says Mighty Angel, and an angel is Spirit. He had a rainbow upon His head; feet like pillars of fire and all of those things showing exactly Christ coming to His wife, and His wife now has become flesh and bone. Glory to God, that s why Paul said, You re baptized into the body of Christ, Hallelujah, by one Spirit you re baptized into the body of Christ. Now that doesn t mean just your spirit, but it also means your flesh and bone has become His flesh and bone. We ve been in the spirit of it all along, but now we ve got to the flesh and bone. When John wrote about Jesus he said, Our eyes have beheld. Our hands have handled. We ve saw that Word of God manifested. That s what we are seeing today, the Word manifested. Christ comes and takes His wife, the new Adam and Eve, and without flesh and bones He has no wife. The Bible says, He gives a body like unto His own glorious body. In Romans, Chapter 8, it says, The whole world groans and travails in pain, until the adoption to wit the redemption of the body. Now, when I talk about the redemption of the body I m not talking about the soul, I m not talking about your spirit at all. I m talking about flesh and bone. That is what God said He would do, and here we are, the wife of Christ in the earth. In Revelation, Chapter 10, the Mighty Angel comes to clear up the mystery of God and to marry His bride. Now Jesus is still on the throne at this

189 time in a physical sense, until He gets ready to pick up His wife before the onset of the great tribulation to meet him in the air. It s only after the Mighty Angel has come down and the bride eats the little book and is married to Christ that she becomes bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That s when the dead gets out of the ground as the Bible says, The dead in Christ shall rise first and we will be changed, and then together we ll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Don t miss that word together, because every one that died throughout the ages which are part of the bride of Christ will stand right here. Yes, we are going to be here together. The Word has become flesh and bone. It has absolutely taken this old body and made it new just like the Word made your spirit new. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, Paul said, You become a new creature in Christ Jesus, old things pass away, behold all things become new. He will do the very same thing for the body, and you re not completely redeemed unless and until this body is redeemed. I m happy in this body, although I ve got a few aches, but Paul said, These small things, these minor afflictions which are but for a moment. These light afflictions. He was whipped three times with thirty-nine stripes. He was cast into prison. He was in the sea a day and a night. He was shipwrecked. He was bitten by a serpent. When he looked at it all he said, These small things aren t even worth talking about when compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. There s a people walking, talking, and it s Jesus Christ living, walking, and talking. That s His wife. John said, Our eyes have seen, our hands have handled that Word of eternal life that was with the Father before the world was. (Read Ephesians, Chapter one) You were with Him, and here you are now manifested and brought forth. This is that which everyone wants, but no one has received it yet. Behold now, He sends a message to get His wife. I want to read in 1 Corinthians 15:51 and Paul said, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.., In other words, we re not going to die; we re going to be changed. Paul prophesied this, and now our eyes are looking at this, our hands have handled it. That which everyone wants, but no one has yet. Notice, Verse 52, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: And that is what you re hearing. This message is the trump of God. The Lord Himself descended from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, but the last part is the trump of God. As the trump sounds the dead are getting up and we are being changed. Now watch here, continuing Verse 52, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. There s no death involved in the body. That means Christ has taken on flesh and bones. Now Jesus lived here thirty-three years. He was the Word every day. He was here three and a half years after He was anointed, after God came and

190 anointed Him, and He became just like God walking around. He spoke the Word of God. He said, I do nothing accept the Father shows me. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus said, Have I been so long with you and you don t know me? Everything that God is, that God wants us humans to know, it was represented right there in that man. When we see Jesus we are looking at all that we are to know about God at this time. And when you see the wife of Christ here in this hour you are looking at Christ. You re looking at that Mighty Angel. Remember a few weeks back we had a message, How Christ the Mighty Angel takes on Flesh and Bones in this Last Day. This is what I was talking about. Let s go on to Verses 53-54, For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.., This corruptible, the same body that we are living in now is going to put on incorruption. We re going to be changed. That s when we re going to see the Word walking around that can t die. I see the Word right now and many that have become the Word are not going to die. God may have ordained some to go by the way of the grave, but if I happen to be one that goes that way I want to go shouting the victory! Give me a good send off with a shout of victory! Not so much crying, unless you just want to do it because you miss me; but don t cry for my soul or for my salvation. Verse 54, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. In other words, Death, where are you? Come on death angel. You can t touch me, because He already touched me before you got here with a revelation that I m going to be changed! Verse 55, O death, where is thy sting?... There s no sting there. And then to them that are in the grave, O grave, where is thy victory? They will come up just as sure as they went down and walk among us. They re going to be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; then we that are living will be changed. That s what is taking place, this revelation is causing you to become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, mind of His mind. We are operating today by the mind of Christ, the Mighty Angel that has come down; and the change has begun. I want to say this in closing. The Mighty Angel that came down is like the spirit that God took from Adam and put into Eve. It didn t destroy Adam, but it just made Eve a part of Adam with feminine attributes. This makes us His wife. His wife has made herself ready. So from Calvary there was a rib taken to create and that s what God s been doing, He has been creating. Again Revelation, Chapter 10, shows everything completed in that realm as Christ sends His Spirit upon that body, thus completing His body in the earth as we become His flesh and bone. Keep in mind that when God took a rib from Adam and created a wife it didn t dimin-

191 ish Adam at all. It just made Eve part of Adam and that s why he could say, You re bone of my bone. You re flesh of my flesh. You shall be called woman. And the Bible says, God called their name Adam. That s why we re baptized in the name of Jesus Christ; the whole family in heaven and earth are called by the name of Jesus Christ. Christ comes down from heaven; He comes down as the Mighty Angel. It is the Spirit for His wife so she can be just like Him; therefore, she eats His food, the little book. She speaks with His mouth, prophecy. She thinks with His mind, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. Oh, I ve got to stop on this. God bless you today. I appreciate you. Let us pray: Heavenly Father, We just thank you for this message. We thank you for the Word of God. Now you ve given us something that no one else has received in this bride age, but the bride wants it. You have now given us the message to produce that very thing. And Lord, we ve got something that nobody else has and all of them want it. It s the trumpet message. It s the Word of God. Lord, it s not something that any man does or any man has anything to do with other than being an instrument in your hand. Lord, it s something you do by sending your Spirit. All together we re the wife of the Lamb and you are our husband. We thank you for this, Lord. Bless the hearers and readers of this Word and I pray that you will take this Word and teach it by revelation. Bless each one I pray in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

192 I AM NOT A WHIT BEHIND THE VERY CHIEFEST APOSTLES We re reading in the Word of God today from the Book of 2 Corinthians 11:5. This message and the last two messages will definitely link together in a unique way to help us to see exactly where we are in time. Let us pray before reading. Heavenly Father, we come to you once again, and, Lord, as always we realize our insufficiency to minister alone. But as your great servant Paul said, Our sufficiency is of God. And, Lord, we look to you and depend upon you this morning. Not having anything written down or memorized to give a speech or exhortation by, Lord, we look to you to furnish the anointing to help us say things that would bless your people and meet the needs of your people and Lord, that you could say, Well done thy good and faithful servant when we finish the message today. These things we ask in Jesus Name. Amen. Now reading 2 Corinthians 11:5, For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. When I read this scripture I said, I wonder what that word whit means? I thought that was a strange word so I went to the dictionary. It means a jot, or least bit. I like the sound of it, I was not a whit behind. It means you re not behind at all, not even a little jot. Webster s Dictionary gave several illustrations how the word could be used. One meaning was, Not even the smallest particle. The word whit in this verse means not behind at all. I don t hear that word used very much in our language today. I was not a whit behind. I suppose it was a word more commonly used in that day. I like it. So that is the title of the message today, I Am Not A Whit Behind The Very Chiefest Apostles. Now we re looking at Paul here as he said, I am not a whit behind and seeing why he said it and his purpose for saying it. I believe the Lord is going to bless, and this will be a good message in the sense of helping us get a clearer understanding of all the things we are looking at in this hour that we are living in. In Bible days, apostles were a common thing to speak of and we see that Jesus called twelve apostles. So the word apostle was not a scary word as it is now. If you talk about an apostle these days people will say, Who does he think he is? and What does he think he is? But the apostle is the first in the five fold ministry, and from the apostle the Word goes forth and spreads out to the other parts of the ministry. That s why Paul said, These things you ve heard me teach and preach, you go forth and teach others that they may teach other faithful men. Because it had to have a starting source to flow out into the body of Christ, and when it came to the Gentiles, Paul was undisputedly the apostle to the Gentiles. The Word came forth from Christ unto Paul as he stood in Christ s stead, and in that day he was the only one that could

193 make that claim. He said, In my body is made up of that which was lacking of the suffering of Christ. He said, The mysteries that have been hid since the foundation of the world, Christ has revealed to me. Thus establishing what God had called him for and was using him for. When God struck Paul down at his conversion he said, I m going to send you to the heathen (Gentiles) and you will be a light to them delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God, even though there were Old Testament scriptures that said, Jesus Christ would be the light to the Gentiles. Well, He is the light, but it was through Paul that the light was sent. That didn t make Paul the light, but a vessel the light shined through. In the wisdom of God, He gave us the message last week, Of Such A One I Will Glory! I will not glory except in Him, the inner man, because this outer man has its faults, but there s a gift of God within. Brother William Branham one time was very discouraged. He was a lineman on high powered electrical lines. Just after his wife and baby died, he got depressed and got very discouraged. So one day he was up on the pole working and he decided he would end it all. He reached and got a line that should have burned him to a crisp immediately. But all of the sudden there he sat on the ground beside the pole crying and talking to the Lord. He said, It wasn t so much that God was protecting me, but He was protecting that gift that was in me. It is showing that human flesh is just that, human flesh, showing that we all are just humans and also it s showing that God is God. That makes the difference. When we see it in that order, then we can see these things that God did, knowing it doesn t make the man anything, but it glorifies God. When we see it, then we bring our life in line with what God has ordained for us. So when Paul saw it like this, he said, I m not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. In other words, I m not the smallest particle behind any, now that I know what God has called me to do. Now when God uses a man, the work proceeds and goes forward and everything that God does is ahead of what He has already done. For instance, if an apostle was here five years ago and another one came today, then the one that came today is not behind, but is in front spearheading the gospel of Christ. When we look at the church ages, there were men of God that came through and preached the Word of God and everyone that came after the one that was previously here was not behind, but in front. Paul wanted to make this clear because there were certain people saying, Peter said this. or James said that. or Jesus said this. That was one of the things that amazed me when I began to read the Word. We used to try to quote Christ a lot by just saying what Jesus said, but as we ve progressed onward in the things of God we realize that Jesus many times was talking to the Jews. He was that minister to the circumcision (Romans 15:8). Paul said, Jesus Christ was the minister of God to the cir-

194 cumcision. Then as you read on down through Romans, Chapter 15, Paul begins to show how God was going to come to the Gentiles. He gives several scriptures from the Old Testament and how that it pointed to a time when the Gentiles would see the truth and glorify God. Then when you go to Romans 15:16, instead of Jesus Christ being the minister to the Gentiles, Paul said, I am the minister of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. It was the same Jesus, but in a different vessel. Today it s the same Jesus that was in Paul, but in a different vessel. It s the same Jesus as He walked among the seven golden candlesticks (seven church ages) using the seven (Spiritual) angels and seven church age (earthly) star messengers to make Himself known to each age and the Word was brought up to where we are now. It s the same Jesus, but different vessels. Therefore, when we see the vessel instead of Jesus, we are in danger of missing what God wants us to see. That s why Paul could say, I m not a whit behind. Now when you read the Book of Acts, you will find that the first twelve chapters deal with Israel and what Peter did and what Peter said. Also in Chapter 9, we find Paul is converted when a big light strikes him down. Then in Chapter 10 of Acts, it goes right on over into Peter being on the housetop where he sees a vision of a sheet coming down and all kinds of animals that were unclean for the Jews to eat. The vision was showing Peter had to open the door of salvation for the Gentiles. God said, I ve given you the key. Go on over to Cornelius house and open the door. Well, then you go on to Chapter 11, that s where Peter went back to Jerusalem where all the other disciples were. All of them, without exception, began to come against Peter speaking violently to him saying, Thou went into the Gentiles. Thou did eat with them, all of them were scolding him. That was enough criticism to keep Peter from going to the Gentiles again. You can find in that same chapter how they went everywhere preaching the gospel, but the Bible says to none but the Jews only showing that Peter only went to the Gentiles to open the door for them. After his run in with all those other apostles at Jerusalem, was he about to go back to the Gentiles? Not on your life. One time was enough for him. You can read how they scolded him in Acts, Chapter 11. Then after Chapter 13, from then on, Peter is hardly mentioned anymore. We find shortly after this Luke joined himself with Paul and he began to write, We sailed over here and then we went over there, and so on until Chapter 28, which is the final chapter of the Book of Acts. This chapter deals with what God did through Paul as he ministered to the Gentiles. Now remember, it was Jesus Christ that was to be a light to the Gentiles. When Jesus Christ struck Paul down, He said, You re going to be a light to the Gentiles. You re going to deliver them from the power of satan to the power of the living God. Now it wasn t the man but it was Christ in the man because Paul said, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet

195 not I, but Christ liveth in me. (Galatians 2:20) When you see it like this, then you ve got it right. You can see why Paul could speak with such certainty, such authority and bring the things he brought; yet he was a human in every sense of the word. If you will listen to last week s message, Of Such A One I Will Glory you will find out how he went up to Jerusalem and so on. That message was a necessity before this one, because anything we see in this Word and anything we see in a minister, if it stops with the fleshly part of the ministry, we didn t get what God wanted. It has to be Christ still here speaking just like He did in Bible days. As Christ came back to earth in the first leg of His coming, there in the early church at Pentecost and at Cornelius house, many things were done by Him before the fall of the Church. Then Christ withdrew Himself, sealed the book with seven seals and the Gentile Church went into seven church ages. As the church went into seven church ages, each one of the seven messengers brought certain truths and did what God ordained them to do. Now as the gospel came to the Gentiles, Paul could say, Peter added nothing to me. Later, as the Jewish part of the church was meeting in Jerusalem, Paul decided to go up to one of their conventions, and he with Barnabas and Titus (Galatians, Chapter 2) sat and listened to them. He listened intensely; it may have been for many days, because that s the way the Jews usually had their meetings. After Paul heard them he said, They added nothing to me but contrariwise. When they saw that the gospel of the Gentiles was committed unto me as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter, they gave us the right hand of fellowship and said, You go back to the Gentiles! Those Jews didn t want Paul hanging around with his gospel for the Gentiles, because at Jerusalem the gospel was with and for the Jews. They said, You go to the heathen, the Gentiles, and we will go to the brethren, the circumcision. So when Paul began to preach, the Jews found out that Paul was giving certain liberties to the Gentile Christians that the law wouldn t suffer them to have, such as what they could eat and drink. Some of the Jewish teachers came down to Antioch and said, We re glad you Gentiles believe in Jesus, but unless you be circumcised and keep the law you cannot be saved. Well now, that went contrary to the revelation Paul had. So he went up to Jerusalem and after much disputing for many days they finally concluded that the Gentiles didn t have to be circumcised, but this didn t apply to the Jews. Paul brought letters from the Jewish apostles saying what the Gentiles could do and how to deal with the Gentiles. That went on for a while. Then Paul finally began to get revelation from the Lord. He had a message direct from God that was pure, unadulterated, Jesus Christ speaking through him. Then he discarded those Jewish rituals. That s why he said, The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it is peace and righteousness and joy in the Holy

196 Ghost. And, The kingdom of God comes not with observation, but by revelation. Paul said, God made known to me mysteries that have been kept hid and kept secret from the foundation of the world. He was standing right there in that apostolic office. Then he could say, I was not a whit behind. He said, They added nothing to me but contrariwise. Contrariwise means Paul was able to bring things they had never heard of before and in some cases was different from what the Jews preached. Paul was the one who told us to be baptized into the body of Christ. Paul was the one who told us that Christ was going to have a virgin. Paul was sent to introduce that virgin to Christ and ultimately she would become His wife, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. As the gospel went forth, it picked up a lot of momentum with many ministers and some of them got the idea, Paul is weak, his speech is contemptible, his letters are weighty; we can do a lot better job than Paul can. But God gave Paul certain authorities to speak the Word and he was not a whit behind any. Now before reading the scriptures, I want to say, If I just read what Paul says, you can leave church today saying, Brother Ben gave us a good history lesson. And that basically would be what it is. Unless it is brought up to date and made applicable to us in our day, in our time, then all you did was learn a history lesson. Remember the written Word is the tree of knowledge, but it takes the Spirit of the Word, the tree of life, to make it live. So that s why the title of the message here is, I Am Not A Whit behind The Very Chiefest Apostles. Reading in 2 Corinthians 11:1, Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. Now what Paul considered folly was that he had to project himself a little bit, because the people had gotten their eyes on these other guys coming through saying, We know a lot more and we can do a lot better. Somebody said, Ben is an apostle, but he doesn t know how to handle things. The point is, Paul says, Bear with me and I will tell you a little bit about me if you don t mind. Near the end of this chapter he tells how he was whipped by the Jews five times of forty stripes save one and other things that had befallen him, and yet here he was standing like the Rock of Gibraltar with the Word. He was given a certain job, that s why he could speak like he spoke. He said, Verse 2, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may (this may is a future thing; it was not taking place then) present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul was looking at presenting the virgin. He spoke as though he would be the one to present her. But let s look at it like this: It was Christ in Paul doing the speaking and Christ can use another vessel to do the same thing that Paul spoke of. That s what we want to see, it s Christ all the time, all the way through, doing all the work, and unless and until we see it that way, we re not getting the picture right. Christ in you, he said, the hope of glory!

197 Verse 3, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. He had concern, he had introduced a virgin. I want you to notice: No where did the Jews when they preached to their converts, refer to them as virgins or as her. The Jews are the brethren of Jesus Christ. The Gentiles are the wife or the bride of Jesus Christ. I once said, Concerning the position of Jesus Christ, remember He is our elder brother. That was a statement I had made many, many years ago. Well, later on as someone heard the statement they wrote me a letter saying, Wait a minute, how could this be? If Jesus is our elder brother, how could He be our bridegroom? Is the wife going to marry her brother? I said, That is a good question. Then I said, I misspoke, I should have said it this way. To the Jews, He is the elder brother, but to the Gentiles, He is our bridegroom and husband. So Paul was saying, I m a little fearful here. I know satan is going to come. That is his job and he wouldn t be doing his job if he didn t. I know it s going to happen. He said, I fear he will be able by some means. Any means; he doesn t just do one thing, but he s got a whole toolbox full of tools. Lest by any means he should get you away from the simplicity of this; complicate it. Make you think it s so complicated people can t understand it. It doesn t come by understanding; it comes by revelation, and when the revelation is there the understanding takes care of itself. So the next verse says, Verse 4, For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, (How could you preach another Jesus? Well, it would be anything contrary to what Paul said about Jesus) whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, Now there s a Spirit that goes with this gospel, no doubt about it, if it s the gospel of Christ it is the Spirit of Christ. So if you say, I ve got the same spirit Brother Ben has got, then I praise God for it, because I ve got the Spirit of Christ. I m baptized with the Holy Ghost and into the body of Christ, and Christ leads me and guides me. When this gospel is preached you don t have to buffet a lot of spirits, because we ve all got the same Spirit. We ve all got the same Jesus. We ve all got the same gospel. We re all going the same way. We re all the wife of Christ. Amen! Paul said, When you come together in my spirit. Well, he wasn t talking about his human spirit. My spirit here is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the gospel, the Spirit that is projected by this gospel and it came right through Paul because he said, My gospel. God had entrusted him to preach the gospel and he said, We re in Christ s stead. And that s what you ve got to see. Did you notice I said, You ve got to see! Otherwise you could see Ben Howard, otherwise you could see another speaker that could speak well, otherwise you could see somebody that you like real good and that you felt good around. Therefore, we ve got to eliminate all of that and you ve got to see Christ. Christ in you the hope of glory! (Colossians 1:27)

198 So Paul said, continuing Verse 4, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, (there s a spirit that goes with a gospel) which ye have not accepted, Meaning, here is a gospel and Paul preached Jesus in a certain way and there was a spirit that went with that gospel. So if you accepted another gospel it s inevitable that you accepted another spirit. Then by accepting another spirit, you had to see Jesus in another way to accept another gospel. But Paul had the gospel for the Gentiles, so you had to see what Paul preached in order to be a part of it. So now in this present day, you ve got to see Christ as that Mighty Angel that has come down; that s the way you see Him in this hour. And I m not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles when I preach this; it s thus saith the Word of God. Then Paul went on to say, Some of you might even bear with them that preach another Jesus. Some people will. Some people would like for me to bear with them. And some people, when I lay the Word out here right on the line, they think I don t have the love of God. Some of you are willing to bear with another spirit, another gospel, someone presenting Jesus in a little different way. Paul said, You might even bear with that. That s what he was talking about when he said, Bear with me a little in my folly. Well, the reason he used the word folly is because it should have been unnecessary to say this with all the revelations, with all the Word of God, and it being made as plain as the noonday sun shining in its brightness. But Paul felt it was necessary. So that s why I say today, I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. That is what God called me to be in this hour and He sent me right to Revelation 10:8-11, with the little book, saying, Come and eat. And there is a Spirit that goes with it. Now if you receive another gospel, another Jesus, or another spirit that goes contrary to this, or maybe not totally contrary but deviate from it, then it s not this gospel in its purity. Paul was speaking only of them deviating a little here and a little there which would be another gospel; that s what is called iniquity. The spirit of iniquity does already work. Paul said, Just as soon as I get gone, these preachers, some of them that you think are preaching this just exactly like I am, he says, Watch as soon as I m gone it will create a vacuum that will open up. They will come and try to fill that vacuum and try to draw disciples after themselves. That s right. That s what he said. But let s let Christ fill that vacuum. If something happened to me or any other preacher, yes, it creates a vacuum, but there s a Christ to fill that vacuum with true men of God. Verse 5, For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. Paul was not behind Peter in any sense of the word. In other words, what Paul said prevailed when it came to the Gentiles. He could even say, This gospel that I received, I wasn t taught it of man, neither did I come up to Jerusalem to those that were apostles before me to listen to them and see

199 what they said about it, but I went down to Arabia and after three years I had a gospel and I received it by revelation! Read all of his writings. He said, There are mysteries that have been hid ever since the world was that have now been made known. There is a mystery being made known about the Mighty Angel taking on flesh and bone, and that s a mystery that s been hid since the world was. We are eating the little book and it is giving us eternal life not only for the soul, but for the body. Hallelujah! This gospel that you are hearing now isn t just a flash in the pan, but this has been going since in the 1950s and it has never deviated, it has grown, but has never deviated from the Word. Paul s message grew and we can see the growth, because he got to the place where he said, If you re justified by the law you are fallen from grace, and he said, If you believe this gospel, you are partakers of my grace. The move is on for the wife of the Lamb! The bride has become the wife. The virgin has become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh! There was a preacher not too long ago that had picked up one of the tapes and looked at the title. The title of it was, Baptized with the Holy Ghost and Then into the Body of Christ. He thought, What s Ben saying here, baptized with the Holy Ghost and then into the body of Christ, that s the same thing isn t it? He said he listened to it and it just opened up to him like the sun coming up and taking the darkness away. That s what God can do. Now this gospel is not a little ole something that some man formulated in his mind to go forth and preach. No. It is Christ in you the hope of glory! It is Christ talking to His wife in this day and hour that we are living in. And I m not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles when it comes to this marriage that s taking place now. When it comes to our bodies receiving glorification, there have been mysteries that have been hid since the world was, but now is made plain. Verse 6, But though I be rude in speech, That s what they said. They said, His letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. But that was Jesus Christ talking. God used that vessel and that vessel did just like God wanted him to do. That s why God gave him a thorn in the flesh, and Paul said, Lord, loose me. But God said, No, you just do what I say for you to do. This thorn is not going to be taken away, it s good for you. Again, Verse 6, But though I be rude in speech, (if that s what you think I am) yet not in knowledge; (try me in knowledge) Oh, I could stop on that. I remember sitting in a church in Manila, Philippines, several years ago. It was a service for the purpose that ministers of Manila wanted to talk to me. Why are you here? What are you preaching? We ve got questions to ask you. For the most part they were followers of leaders that had ministered the Word, and the Lord had already taken them home before the time of perfection came into being. We were there about four

200 hours before lunch and about three or four hours after. The Holy Ghost came in and we answered every question that was asked. A brother said to me, Ben, I know Brother Branham spoke in Chicago and there were about three hundred preachers there and they came to challenge him on the Word, but the Lord came in and took over and not a one of them could challenge him. My ears have heard about it, but now my eyes have seen the same thing. After we finished the meetings, the preachers wanted me to come to their churches to preach. See, they said in Paul s day, His speech is contemptible, but Paul said, Try me in knowledge. This message I m preaching didn t come because I heard a preacher and got excited and wanted to preach. No, this came through much fasting, praying, and reading; much dedication. For a long time while I was working at the sawmill, I would fast Monday and Tuesday then eat on Wednesday, because I had service that night. Then I would go Thursday, Friday, and Saturday fasting, eating on Sunday because we had meetings. I did this every week. I would read the Bible over and over and get all the gospel material I could get, not for a year, not for six months, but for over fifty years. On two different occasions, I fasted forty days and nights and many times twenty-five days, studying the Word of God, spending and being spent for the Word. So when you get this message that God has given you, He gave you something that has been tried, tested, and proven in every situation that you can imagine. So I m saying like Paul said, In any way [lest by any means] the ole devil will try to come against you. See, it was the same in the days of Paul, Oh, he s rude in speech. Paul said, It is okay if you want to say that, but try me in knowledge. So we ll leave that right there and go on. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. He s saying, You judge for yourself what your eyes have seen. You judge for yourself what you have heard. Don t judge for five years or ten years, but for over fifty years. God has established something in the earth; He has planted a plant. He said, I m going to water it day and night lest any man pluck it up. But it has continued to grow and the tree of life is growing right out of the Word of God being shown to us clearly (Revelation 10:8-11), and it s that tree of life growing right out of that Word! Here is a message magnifying it in this hour, in this time, in your day, and for you. Now Paul wanted to be humble among them. He didn t want to say, I m a big apostle. No, but watch what he said in Verse 7, Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? In other words, he just came among them and became one of them. That s the way Jesus did with the common people. But some, those high class stuffed-shirt preachers wanted to take advantage of it. He said, Have I committed an offence in abasing myself

201 that you might be exalted? In other words, we want you to be on this level here where you can go to God for yourself; where Jesus Christ can come and reveal Word to you. And that is what He is doing with His wife and it doesn t have to be through the preacher. Amen!! He said in Verses 8-10, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: (in other words I paid my own way) for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me.., I like that, As the truth of Christ is in me. There wasn t any doubt. He knew where he was standing, and so should we. Solomon spoke of this when he said, Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved. I m telling you, as the world has come out of the closet (you know what I mean) here comes the bride leaning on the shoulder of her beloved. All things are being manifested out in the world. The devil is doing his most; so is Christ. As the devil will come down and incarnate himself in the man of sin in the middle of the 70th Week of Daniel, so Christ has come down and incarnated Himself in His wife and He is taking on flesh and bone! Do you love Him today? There s an incarnation that is taking place. It s Christ incarnating Himself in His wife. We are in Him and He is in us; that s what He said over in Saint John, You in me, and I in you. We are baptized into His body. The Spiritual body of Christ has got to be here for you to be baptized into it. And when you re baptized into that body you can say, That body has taken on flesh and bone. Glory to God! Paul continues on; he s telling these folks a few things here in Verse 10, As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. In other words this is a total necessity, and you ve forced me to do it. Watch what he says in Verse 11, Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. Some people say, Ben doesn t have a proper amount of love. He doesn t really try to bring people in like he ought to. And if people are teaching something different, he doesn t really recognize them too much. I recognize one thing, and that s Christ and the Word. Paul said, There s not another gospel, there s not another one you can preach. He said, Some are preaching another gospel, some have another spirit. But I m talking about the wife. Anything outside the wife I m not too much concerned about, because He sent me for the wife; not for foolish virgins. Therefore, we bring the Word of God in. Some say, Ben doesn t try to get people in much. Well, I can t get anybody in and I can t get anybody out. I can t save anybody and I can t cause somebody to be lost. Christ is the head of the church and I definitely, freely back up and say, Lord, I don t know the way but you do. Lord, you know the way and all we ve got to do is follow, so I just want to speak the words you put

202 in my mouth. Yes, this little book is bitter on the stomach, because some of these things are a little strange and may be a little hard to digest. I ll tell you one thing, the more you eat it, the more you ll love it; you ll get to the place where if you re not eating it, it will feel like another spirit. It will sound like another gospel if you re not hearing it, because this is Christ in you the hope of glory! Now here Paul is telling them why he said what he said. Verse 12, But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. In other words, the reason I said, I m not a whit behind is because of these preachers jumping up crowing, making all kinds of claims that they are this and that. Paul said, Let s look and see. Paul tells us how he was whipped and what happened and he takes you all the way back to his conversion. We can only marvel at the man that God used, giving honor to Christ. Also, we give honor to them whom honor is due, as we see the Christ in them. There are some that have said as they see this Word going into all nations, I predicted Ben would fall away years ago and here he is still going. Well, it is Christ. He is eternal. He is ever present. He is fresh and new to me every day. When I get up in the morning, He s not the Christ of yesterday; He s the Christ of today. He is leading me, guiding me, anointing my mind. He is giving me love, power, and a sound mind! Somebody said, Wonder if his mind is good? Well, try me. Try me in knowledge and see. Then you come tell me if it is good or not. When Paul said, Bear with me a little in my folly, actually he was saying, I shouldn t even have to do this. It sounds like folly. So bear with me a little in my folly. The things I do, I do that I might cut off occasion to them that seek occasion. Let s go on to Verse 13, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And the wife knows the difference. There s some that say, I can do it better than Ben can. Well, you go ahead. The road is open before you. I m not going to try to block you; just don t try to block me, because I ll be like a bulldozer pushing over everything in front and I ll keep on going with this wonderful truth. What you do, that s your business. And then he says, Verse 14, And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. I m not too surprised at this, Paul is saying, for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Verse 15, Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers Notice his ministers. You mean satan has got ministers? Yes, he does and I would venture to say he has more than Christ has, because satan deals in numbers, but the kingdom of God cometh not with observation; it s by revelation. The one thing that matters is.., is it the work of Christ? Is Christ doing the speaking? Is Christ doing the leading? If He is then nothing else matters.

203 Again, Verse 15, Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. Verses 16-18, I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. In other words, the Lord isn t particularly anointing me to say this, I just see a need. Do you want to compare? You re trying to belittle me to the point where this gospel is not having the effect God ordained it. He says, That s why I am talking like this. All right, Verses 19-20, For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. In other words, someone that carries on with you, and doesn t even have the Word, you will take that. Some people want to be taken advantage of. They want somebody to slap them a little bit. (I m not talking physically, but spiritually). They want somebody to knock them around a little bit. Paul said, You ve got liberty, but use not this liberty for occasion to the flesh. I preached a message one time entitled, We Have Liberty; Can We Handle It? Yes, the wife can handle liberty. Today there are many ministers and they spend a lot of time preaching that you can t have a television. And there are some ignorant preachers that will say this, If you ve got a television in your house, you can t be the bride. Then some of them say, A woman needs to keep the scissors out of her hair. They bind the people and put them in bondage. Some people love to be in bondage. They love to be told, You can do this, but you can t do that. A woman should have longer hair, unless there s some legitimate reason for not being able to have it longer, but no where in the Bible does it say she can t trim it and keep it looking nice. And to those that say you can t have a television, I will say, If you ve got a television and can t handle it, then I would say to that person, There s some weakness within you that needs fixed. Just like a man said to me, I won t have a computer. They ve got ole stuff that comes on that s down right filthy. I said, We ve had a computer for years and we ve never been on one of those sites. The only way you can get on those sites is to log on to them. So if your heart is right and if your spirit is right you have no interest in those sites. There are others that have a computer, but want to condemn you for having a television, which is foolishness and shows that you are a very weak Christian. Verses 21-22, I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. ( I m addressing that, he said.) Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly,) (Paul said, I m going to speak foolishly. I shouldn t have to do this, but it has become necessary.) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. He s stop-

204 ping up every hole. You put a rabbit in a fence and you stop up every hole that rabbit can t get out. So that s what Paul is doing, stopping up all the rabbit holes. Then he says, Verses 23-24, Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; (Now watch what he says, Let s make a comparison here a little bit, though I shouldn t need to do this. ) in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure ( How many of you have been stripped for the gospel? he s saying.), in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. (But he kept right on going) Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. (He was beat to a pulp, 39 stripes five different times.) He goes on and tells some of these things. But did it stop him? There was something in him, and it was built within him from birth. It was built within him as Christ came; he was an example of Christ. In all these things that took place, nothing ever caused him to deviate from the path that he was to walk, from the gospel that he was to live. Verses 25-26, Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; That s the worst one I think, those false brethren, trying to deviate, trying to stop him. Verses 27-31, In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Then he asked the question. Ok, you all forced me to do it. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. Somebody might say, I m going to stay with what Brother William Branham said. I can say, Brother Branham added nothing to me but contrariwise, in the sense of what we have now and what we had then. I can say, I am not a whit behind Brother Branham in revelation. And somebody might say, Well, I follow Junior Jackson. Paul said, Bear with me a little in my foolishness. But really it s not; it s to help. I m not a whit behind Raymond Jackson in the gospel he preached. Do you know why? Let me explain it. The gospel that God revealed through Brother Branham I preach the revelation and the life of it as it flowed through. What Brother Jackson brought, I preach the life of it. He cleared up certain things concerning Israel and the trumpets and all; I preach that. When you get this message, then you get all the life of the Word of those who came before us had, because this is the full stature of the man Christ Jesus. We ve reached the knowledge of the full stature of the man Christ Jesus and that gives us what Luther had, what Wesley had, what Brother

205 Branham had, what Brother Jackson had, and I m not a whit behind the chiefest apostles. God bless you today. It s Christ in you the hope of glory! This message is sent of God precisely to marry the wife to Christ. That s why it s bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That s why it s the same mind. That s why I preach that you are members of the body of Christ. That s why I m not pointing you to a church system, a denominational system. This message is thus saith the Holy Ghost, ordained from the foundation of the world to be preached to you in this day and in this hour that we are living in. And He so ordained it. He prepared for Himself a vessel, and His wife is that vessel that He comes to. He also prepared Himself a tried vessel, an apostolic ministry with a solid message through much troubles, trials, temptations, with much fasting, studying, and coming out from among the world; and that has been accomplished. This apostolic ministry speaks today and it says, I m not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. So God bless you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray, Lord, you will reveal your will to the wife of Christ, because you are the teacher after all. Lord, it s not just Christ in me; it is Christ in your whole wife. We ve all got the mind of Christ. We all receive revelation. Bless this message we pray and may it accomplish that which you ve ordained. We ask in Jesus Christ s wonderful Name. Amen.

206 IF YOU RECEIVE ANOTHER JESUS, ANOTHER SPIRIT, OR ANOTHER GOSPEL, IT IS NOT THIS WORD We are reading in the Word of God this morning in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, and will take our thought from Verse 4. This is Paul continuing on in his thought of his engaging a virgin to Christ as it says in Verses 2-3, but then it comes down to Verse 4. I will read the scripture first and then I will tell you my title. It says, For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit.., (I want you to watch this) which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. Paul is saying here, I wouldn t be surprised if some of you wouldn t want to bear with it. Now this is the thing we are looking at this morning. He is talking about, if you receive another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel. Now to receive one of these means the other ones go in there too. If you receive another Jesus, then there has to be another gospel. Then if you receive another gospel, you receive another spirit to go with that gospel. So that is what Paul is saying here, and he says that you might just bear with it. We find that Paul came with a gospel that was for the Gentiles and he called it, My Gospel. So I am just going to entitle this, If You Receive Another Jesus, Another Spirit, Or Another Gospel, It Is Not This Word. This will be the line of thought we are going to take this morning. Paul says, You receive another spirit. Now there is a spirit that goes with the Word. As we have come through each move of God, (I have been in this for more than fifty years now) it seems like every church has a spirit, and a gospel, and a Jesus. Now the Trinitarians sees Jesus as the second person in the Godhead, then they put the Holy Ghost as the third person, and God as the first person. Well, the truth is there s not but one person in the Godhead and that is Jesus Christ. Because God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth. So when we see Jesus, we see all of God that we humans can handle. But here Paul is talking about another gospel, another spirit, another Jesus. Now that sounds like somebody that is into something that is extreme, but it s not. Because as we see another gospel, we see that it requires another Jesus. I m going to just back up a bit here and talk about Brother William Branham s message as he came forth. He was a great prophet of God that came forth in his hour, and God put His Spirit and anointing on that messenger. He went forth and God sent him around the world and the work was done that God ordained him to do, and there was a certain spirit that went with that message. Although he is gone, there are still people that gather

207 together in certain places that they call churches and tabernacles just to listen to his tapes, but all the while refusing to move on to present day revealed Word. You don t have to strain your ears to hear them say continuously, Brother Branham said this or Brother Branham said that. You will notice they have such a lovely spirit upon them, carrying over the spirit that God put upon the Word at the time He gave it. But, when we continue on in the Word and let the people know that God raised up other men to take the Word to another level, their spirit will reject it. Then, God raised up Brother Raymond Jackson, sent him and he brought another phase of the ministry and there is a spirit that goes with that. As long as you say, I believe what Brother Jackson says and I am with him, it s a lovely spirit. But if you say, Wait a minute, let s go on with the Word, then the spirit changes. So what kind of spirit have you got now? What kind of gospel? In the days of Paul, he talked about the Spirit of Christ, and his spirit and Christ s Spirit became one. That is what God wants us to do in this hour and He is saying, He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Hallelujah! So Paul s spirit and Christ s Spirit became one. There is a spirit that goes with the gospel to make that gospel go forth and do what God wants it to do. There is a gospel and there is a spirit that goes with it and we see that it all goes together. If you receive another Jesus, then you have to preach Jesus in a different way. Even so, as it is in this hour, we see Christ coming down as the Mighty Angel in Revelation, Chapter 10, with a little book to give and there is a prophetic spirit, because He said, Eat the little book and go prophesy, so there s the spirit of prophecy with this message (gospel). Now when Paul preached, Peter and all the other Jewish apostles were preaching also, and God put His Spirit upon that gospel and it accomplished its purpose as it went forth. Having said that, now I want to go to the Book of Galatians, Chapter one, and I want to show what happened to Paul and how he got his message, a revelation from God, directly from God. Paul began to write to the Galatians telling them that there were other spirits and other gospels. Now I am going to say this just before reading, Peter was the Apostle to the Jews, and there was a spirit that went with that gospel that wanted to put them under the law partially and under grace, so that is how the Galatians were being affected. Paul said to the Gentiles, If you are circumcised as part of your salvation, then you re fallen from grace. Well, the Jews always did that, as they accepted part of the law and even did certain sacrifices as per Acts 21: They had their meats and drinks; also they couldn t eat swine meat and all those kinds of things. But Paul came and he said, Whatever is set before you, eat, drink, and ask no questions. Timothy had a stomach problem and Paul said, Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach s sake and your often infirmities. Paul preached this truth without fear or

208 favor. God raised up a man that was to preach to the Gentiles and God gave a spirit to go with that Word. The Jesus Paul preached, the gospel Paul preached, and the spirit that went with it was ordained of God to get a job done and the job got done. Praise God! Now I want to show you how Paul got his gospel. I ll start reading in Galatians 1:6, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Now watch that phrase unto another gospel. What is another gospel? What was Paul talking about? Anything that was one whit contrary to what Paul said was another gospel, it was for another purpose, and there was another spirit that went with it that would cause them to look at Jesus in a different way. Paul looked at Jesus as being Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul said, For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) Also, By one Spirit you are baptized into the body of Christ. Paul presented a different ministry than Peter or any of the rest of them, because his calling was for a different purpose. He told them that God was going to perfect the church and bring it to the fullness by setting in the church a ministry that would bring this about, namely apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We call this the five fold ministry, and this will be in place until we are united with Him in marriage, thus becoming bone of His bone, flesh and His flesh, which means we have reached the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. At this time, the ministry and the rest of the body of Christ will have the mind of Christ, and all struggles will be over as they all see the Word of God in the full revelation and are now as man and wife in a perfect marriage. Then it s not just the ministry getting the Word, but all of the body is receiving revelation and is edifying one another in perfect communion with one another. Then all the body of Christ (wife) is receiving prophetic revelation as Revelation 10:8-11, tells us. The leadership in the ministry recognizes this new partnership of sharing with the members of the body the revealed Word as Christ the head is giving everyone revelation by anointing all the members to prophesy along with the ministry. The true ministry loves it this way, being enlightened by the other members as we are all a part of the wife of the Lamb. That s why Paul made this amazing statement when he said, It will not only be the five fold ministry which will be here doing this, but this is in the whole body. So, now we can t live under what the fifth church age messenger named Martin Luther said back in the fifteenth century. He had a gospel. God anointed that man and he got the job done. So did God anoint John Wesley and there was a certain spirit there. Then we see the days when the Pentecostal Church was still going forward, that there was a spirit there. Each one had a different spirit and they preached a different gospel. There has been a certain spirit that has gone with that gospel. It is the

209 same thing with the followers of the message of Brother William Branham. The spirit that Brother Branham had was the right spirit for that day, but we have moved on with God to another phase of the gospel. The Spirit of God has moved us onward with this present day truth that we now preach. Once I preached in a certain country where they were saying, The Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet, and God only has one prophet on the scene at any one time. I told them that was strange language to the New Testament. Some of them heard this for the first time and they were so shocked to learn that statement was not even in the Bible, but this is what they were born into and were raised on. They have heard it for years and there was a spirit that went with it. There was a gospel that said that, but that gospel is outdated now. So we don t stop there and go any further, but what we do is we take the life of that gospel and move on with it. Now there is a group that follows Brother Raymond Jackson which is a revelated group of people. They really try to live holiness and that s good, but when you move on a little further in the Word, as far as they are concerned you are wrong. Why? Because they ve got another gospel. They don t believe that the seventh seal is open they don t believe that the seven thunders have already uttered. They don t believe that Christ has come as the Mighty Angel. And they don t believe we have the little book. They are still waiting for it, but we have taken it and moved on in revelation. They have another gospel and there is another spirit that goes with it. It was sent of God for that day, but God has moved us on now because He is taking His wife in marriage. Paul spoke the Word of God in the Book of Romans, Chapter 15, and he said, I am only going to speak on the things that God has wrought by me dealing with this part of the process of Christ getting His wife. So that is what we have to do in this day and this hour is to deal with the things that Christ is using now to get His wife married to Him in completeness, getting us ready for the rapture, to become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and being baptized into His body. Notice what Paul says, You have another gospel. He said, If they come preaching another gospel. And if you preach another gospel, then you have to present another Jesus. Notice this carefully. Christ has come in the Spirit as the Mighty Angel in this hour; it s the Christ of the Bible. He has come back in the Spirit as the Mighty Angel just as He came on the Day of Pentecost as the Holy Ghost. We got a letter this past week about a book that we wrote entitled, The Wife of Christ Receives Both Legs of the Coming of the Lord. Remember the Feet. It deals with the revelation of how Christ comes. Christ is among us in this hour. I know the bodily Christ is sitting up there and He will pick us up one day to meet Him in the air. But

210 this is not Christ as He comes in Revelation, Chapter 10; here Christ is shown coming in the form of the Mighty Angel. Now when Paul presented Jesus, he spoke more of Christ, or Christ Jesus, than all the others put together, because he didn t know Him after the flesh. So when people speak of Jesus, many times they are having reference to the man Jesus Christ, the one who walked around here on the sandy shores of Galilee. He is the one who sits on the throne in heaven and will come again in the same form that He ascended up into heaven, but only after the rapture. So it is true that He is coming back as a literal man, but before He does, He comes back to a people. That Spiritual body in Revelation, Chapter 10, comes down and we are baptized into that body. Paul said, You re dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. He said, When Christ comes who is your life, then you will appear with Him in glory. So the revelation for this hour is to go on with God and as we move with God, we move out of that phase of the gospel that s behind us and accept the life as it moves into this next phase. We move away from the spirit of the previous phase into this present light that is now shining and we walk with that. The wife of the Son of God realizes we are at rapturing time, and there is a gospel for us. Christ didn t die when the messengers died. When a preacher dies, Christ doesn t die. God just moves the gospel on into another phase. The final thing we see in the Word of God, Paul laid in the foundation there would come a time when we would become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, dressed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Brothers and Sisters, that s where we are at. Hallelujah! Now watch, there was a gospel that said, We need to wash our robes and get them white. But now what Christ gives us has never been soiled. We type it out many times where Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for his son Isaac, which is God getting a bride for His Son. She had to travel, and it was very hot in those sandy deserts, so therefore she had a traveling garment on. No doubt she sweated and I m sure her clothes had to be washed; she had to take baths when it was possible. But when she got home to Isaac, while Isaac talked to the servant of Abraham, (Genesis 24:66) we find the servant telling Isaac all things that had happened while Rebecca was getting herself all fixed up in fine linen. The reason I say fine linen, the Bible doesn t give all these details, but Abraham was the richest man in that area and fine linen was the finest material that could be bought. Revelation 19:7-9 shows what the wife is wearing, and it is fine linen, clean and white. So that tells us what Rebecca was wearing when she went into the tent. She got herself fixed and dressed up, went inside the tent and became one with Isaac; and she wasn t wearing that traveling garment into the wedding. That is what has happened to the bride. God has brought us up to this place and now He has clothed us in

211 fine linen, clean and white, where there is nothing against us at all. And what is that may I ask? There is a gospel that tells you what it is, and there is a spirit that goes with it, and there is a Christ that reveals it. That is the righteousness of God, and the way that you obtain that righteousness is that we see ourselves first, we realize that nothing that we have done, or we are doing, or what we will do can give us this, but it is what He did for us. He took your sins and gave you the gift of His righteousness. John told us in Revelation 19:7-9, his wife hath made herself ready. I want you to notice he is not talking about a virgin here. Neither is he talking about a church system here. But through time, God has brought the virgin that Paul spoke of to the wife stage, meaning she is no longer a virgin, but the wife of Christ. That means this is the gospel that takes the rapture, because His wife is the one that is changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye as this trumpet sounds. His wife; she alone is the only one that has fine linen. It s a message that comes forth. It s the gospel that teaches you and leads you as God gives you the spirit that makes you so happy to accept the righteousness of Christ. You are not trying to do other things, because you are happy with this Word and Spirit. In my early introduction to Christianity, I had my traveling garment on and did many things because I didn t understand about the righteousness of God. For example, at one time I wouldn t drink coffee, because the Pentecostals told me that it had caffeine in it and that was a sin. At another time, I was told not to drink cola s; along with a whole list of other things that was supposed to help me to be more righteous. But instead of getting more righteous, I was getting myself into bondage so bad that instead of having peace, I had misery. That was a gospel and there was a spirit that went with that gospel, and that spirit would put you in bondage. But Jesus said, I come that you might be free. He came to liberate us. He set the captives free. So I was caught right in that. That was my traveling garment. One day, I got to seeing that I wasn t getting closer to God, but I was getting further from God. So I went and got me some coffee, cola s, ice cream, and a jar of pickles. I had myself a good time when I began to realize that religion puts you in bondage, but this gospel will set you free. This gospel is not to put you in bondage, but it is to set you free. Hallelujah! Paul said, Anything besides this, you re talking about another gospel. I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel. Which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now what is perverting the gospel of Christ? It is anything contrary to what God is doing for this day and hour. It s the restoration of what Paul the apostle to the Gentiles taught, and the furtherance thereof. That s the gospel and anything contrary to it perverts the gospel. If I say, The Word comes only to the prophet. I am perverting the gospel. You

212 are here living today and there is a gospel for you and there is a spirit that goes with this gospel. It s the Spirit of Christ that has come down upon the Word for this day and this hour. Therefore, because you are predestinated you can t receive another gospel, another spirit, or another Jesus, but you see Christ shining as the brightness of the noonday sun. Now listen. Galatians 1:7.., Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. It troubles you. Why would it trouble you? If you are one hundred percent sure and this has become a revelation to you, then anything contrary to it will trouble you. If someone comes and says, You have to do this and you have to do that, or we need to do this or that, it will trouble you. It s all to spin a web. It s like a spider spinning a web. I tell you that is what they ll do, spin a web for you and get you all entangled in it. But Jesus Christ has come to set you free. Paul said, I marvel that you are entangled. Then he goes on to say in Verse 8, But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. In other words, this gospel is right! Paul was sure that his gospel was right. He said, Don t get disturbed, and don t get entangled. He came with a gospel to set you free. Whom the Son has set free, therefore is free indeed! He said, If you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace, (Galatians 5:4) also the law was a school master to guide us and teach us until the seed should come which is Christ. (Galatians 3:19, 24-25) Hallelujah! And He s already come. We are no longer under the school master of the law (church age law), because whom the Son sets free is free indeed! And He sets you free by THIS gospel. Now as we read on, Verse 9, says, As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. In other words, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and he knew his place and his message. That s why in last week s message entitled I Am Not A Whit Behind The Very Chiefest Apostles Paul said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. He had the truth, and anything contrary to that was wrong and another spirit went with it, therefore it was another Jesus. A lot of people talk about Jesus, but they don t see the Christ of the Bible that lives in us, and moves in us. The only thing a lot of people see about Jesus is to see a crucifix hanging on the wall or erected somewhere, but Jesus now comes in the Spirit. He s not on the cross anymore. He s not in the grave anymore. He rose from the dead and He is not walking around here anymore in His natural body. He ascended on high and He came back in the form of the Holy Ghost. Then He raised men of God up to preach the gospel and Paul said, It is Christ in you, the hope of glory! (Colossians 1:27). It s not Jesus in a tomb somewhere. I heard one man say, I went in that tomb where Jesus was, and I just felt that spirit of God so good. He had gone over on a tour to Israel.

213 He said, I went into the upper room and you don t know how it felt to be in that room where the Holy Ghost came down. Well, it didn t come down for the Gentiles there. He came down at Cornelius house for the Gentiles. So whatever this man was feeling was false. He said, You don t know what it meant to walk down that same street that Jesus had walked down. Well, I ll tell you, I m not a whit concerned about walking down a street that Jesus has walked, but I want to walk where He is walking. Hallelujah! I just want to walk where the Christ of the Bible is walking. It s right here, right through the Word of God, right through this message, and there s a spirit that goes with this message. Let me read a little more here in Galatians 1:10, For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. In other words, I m sold out to Christ and I am not going to worry about whom it pleases or who it displeases. Verse 11, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Now watch, don t miss it! Paul was an apostle himself with direction from Almighty God. The Lord struck him down with a light and said, Paul, you re going to be the minister to the heathen, a light to the Gentiles delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God. Christ came down into Paul in such a way that when Paul spoke it was Christ speaking. He would write things and say things and it was Christ. He hardly had anything left of himself. You read the Book of Ephesians and how it says, We were with Him before the foundation of the world. Paul was over there in prison getting these revelations. You read over there in the Book of Colossians 1:13 where it says, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. We are translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. Then go on down to Verse 24 where it says, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body s sake, which is the church. That s Christ incarnating Himself in a people and Paul was one of the first to say so. He was a wonderful spokesman for Christ, and there was a spirit that went with that gospel he preached. He didn t receive it of man. Peter didn t teach it to him. John didn t teach it to him. It was the Almighty God that taught it to him, because he was that apostle ordained for that purpose. It is the same thing today. Amen! Galatians 1:12 says, For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to tell the story of how he persecuted the church and so on. I want you to notice how he received it. It was by revelation from Jesus Christ. Paul got a revelation from God of the gospel that was to go to the Gentiles. I m not saying this and leaving it as something that happened in that day and age, but I am bringing it up to this time we are living in. Somebody has to get a revelation, and

214 somebody has a revelation of what it takes to get the virgin and Christ married together; for her to become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, the wife of Christ, which takes us right into Revelation 10:8-11, and gives us the little book to eat. Then we are one with Christ, thus becoming His wife and are no longer His virgin. I want to read something here about Paul talking about the spirit, when you are gathered together and (in) my spirit. Paul was talking about a spirit that went with the gospel. I m in 1 Corinthians 5:3, For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit,.. I want you to notice, there s a gospel and there s a spirit. And Paul said, If you accept another gospel, another spirit, or another Jesus, then you re not accepting the gospel that is for the Gentile wife of Christ. So keep in mind that there is only one Jesus, and He is expressing Himself in this day and age as the Mighty Angel. He s Christ in you, the hope of glory! That Mighty Angel! have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed. Verse 4, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and (in) my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. There s a spirit. There was a man who had become one with Christ. Christ had incarnated Himself so much into Paul that when you had the spirit of the gospel that Paul preached, you had the same spirit that Paul operated with. There s a spirit that goes with this gospel today. It causes you to rejoice, it causes you to feel good. It causes you to feel clean. It causes you to know that you are as righteous as He is righteous. It takes away all fear, whether you are doing as good as you ought to do or not. If you love Jesus, you are going to do what you feel is right according to the gospel. And yes, you are going to make your mistakes. Yes, you re going to stumble. Yes, all these things are going to take place, but there is the Spirit of Christ and there is the gospel of Christ. You know, regardless of how good you are, whether you don t eat soda crackers or drink branch water, or don t drink coffee or cola s, you ve still got to have His righteousness; you ve got to be clothed in His righteousness. God only recognizes one as being righteous and that is Christ. And what did Christ do? He gave His wife that same righteousness. Remember up in heaven, Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, when the book of redemption was lying there and there wasn t a soul that could take it, and without it all of mankind would be lost. John began to weep, because no one could open it. But here came a voice. One of the elders said, Weep not John, behold the Lion of the Tribe of Juda has prevailed to open the book and loose the seals thereof. (Revelation 5:5) And John looked and here came a bloody lamb (that s what happened at Calvary) and because of Calvary, He could take the book and loose the seals thereof. And here in Revelation, Chapter 10, He came to earth with the part of that book that applies to us. There were a people here that He gave His righteousness to. Remember, you had to be

215 as righteous as He was righteous in order to take the little book. There was nobody in the world that righteous, and nobody could get that righteousness, so He took your sins giving you His righteousness; therefore, you are as righteous as that Lamb in heaven. God, the Almighty spoke from heaven and said to John, Go take the little book out of the hand of the Mighty Angel, and he took it. Then the Mighty Angel said, Eat it up. Hallelujah! That is what we are doing. That s this gospel and there is a Spirit that goes with it. Anything besides this is another gospel, another spirit, and another Jesus! I m not a whit behind, Paul said. I will read in Romans 15:16, to show you why Paul could talk like he talked, but we want to take a look at Verse 8 of this same chapter where it says, Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision. He had to go preach to the Jews while He was in His bodily form. He couldn t go to the Gentiles. Did you know that before He was crucified, He called the twelve together (Matthew, Chapter 10) and said, Don t go to the Gentiles. Don t go to the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Let me read Verse 8 before I get to Verse 16 and show you why Jesus had to say that. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. That means He was bound by the covenant that God promised Abraham and David, and that covenant was that God would bring forth a seed that would be a deliverer. And He came; it was Jesus. Jesus in His fleshly body only went to the Jews, and He couldn t go anywhere else because of His covenant to Israel. After this was done, Paul gave some scriptures saying that the Gentiles would trust in Him, but Jesus while He was here didn t go to them. He told His apostles, Don t go to anybody but Israel. Do you see why Peter had so much trouble in Acts, Chapter 10, when he was up on the housetop praying when the Lord told him to go to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile? The Lord had to let a sheet down three times and show him all these animals that were unclean to the Jews, and sent him right to a Gentile. And Peter went and opened the gospel door to the Gentiles. If people want to go to Jerusalem and walk where the Holy Ghost came, it came to the Jews there, but let them go over to Cornelius house, because there s where the Holy Ghost came to the Gentiles. Peter went over and preached at Cornelius house and the Bible says, The Holy Ghost fell while he was preaching and he commanded them to be baptized. (Acts 10:44-48). That s the Gentiles Pentecost! And it was only for the Gentiles at Cornelius house. Here we see Jesus first going to the Jews, now He could come to the Gentiles, because God said He would be a light to them. Notice here how Jesus brings the Word to the Gentiles. Paul is telling the Romans in Romans 15:15-16, Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me

216 of God. (And he was the only one given this grace.) That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Now if you wanted to see Christ Jesus, you had to look at Paul and those that followed his message. I m talking for the Gentiles, because he was made a minister unto you Gentiles. Some churches want to put up a statue of Jesus, but we know that He is not on the cross, He s in our hearts. Here in Romans we read that God sent a person, a man named Paul, to reveal Jesus Christ. There s another scripture that comes to my mind over in 2 Corinthians 5:20 where Paul says, We are in Christ s stead. Jesus came first to the Jews to get a predestinated people in the person of Jesus Christ, but when He got ready to come to the Gentiles, He came through Paul using him as a vessel to come through. Even the spirit of Paul and Christ s Spirit blended together so much that Paul could say, When you come together and (in) my spirit. That s why he could say, If you receive another spirit, another gospel, or another Jesus you re cursed. God is saying the same thing again because there s a message, there s a Word, and this message is going to translate your mortal body. Praise God! It s the Mighty Angel taking on flesh and bone. Paul said, We which are alive and remain until He comes.., and He has come! We are not going to hinder those that are dead; they are going to get up one of these days. I don t know when, but they will get up out of the ground and together the Bible says, We ll be caught up together. How long will it be after the resurrection and translation before we are caught up? I don t know. But I tell you we are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Paul said in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 12, starting in Verse 22, You ve come to New Jerusalem, you ve come to an innumerable host of angels; you ve come to the place where the spirits of just men are made perfect. In other words, where they are, that s where you have come. I want to get Verse 16 in Romans, Chapter 15, again.., That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Now you Gentiles, do you want to be offered up to God, do you want to be where God wants you to be? There s a message for you, and Paul brought it. He said, If anybody preach any other gospel than this, let him be accursed. When you are gathered together and (in) my spirit. If you receive another gospel, another spirit, or another Jesus. And every phase of the move of God has a spirit to go with it, has a Word to go with it, presenting Jesus in a certain way. This message that I m preaching is presenting Jesus as the Christ, the Mighty Angel, that comes to us and we are baptized into His body, and we are His flesh and bone. That s what the Bible says By one Spirit you are baptized into the body. So what we have here, glory to God, is not a ministry that fell off the turnip wagon last week, but has been going for fifty years; you can go back and get the

217 tapes, listen to the Mp3 s. Go back as far as you want and you will find that it doesn t contradict, it s laid right in here. The only thing that you can see is growth in it. The same Word, but it just grows. God planted a plant and He has been watering it day and night less someone come and plucks it up. There have been those that have tried to pluck it up; the cankerworms came, the caterpillars came, the winds came, the storms came, but the storms only made it grow stronger like the big oak tree in front of the building here. It s been there probably a hundred years or more, but it has defied every storm that has come this way so far. When the storms come with the winds blowing, it just causes the roots to sink down deeper. It is going to take a big bulldozer to push that up. So will it with this message. There is nothing that can stop this message; there s a rapture taking place. We have already been translated into the kingdom of God. (Colossians 1:13) Notice, Paul was the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Somebody says, Well, I want to see Jesus. If you were a Gentile in the days of Paul and wanted to see Jesus, He was represented through Paul, because the person of Jesus had already ascended to heaven and He wasn t coming back like this until the millennium. So Jesus gave Paul the job of representing Him. The grace of God has been given to me that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, offering up the Gentiles, that you might be accepted being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:15-16) Why? Because the kingdom of God doesn t come by observation, but by revelation, meaning no one can be part of it unless they are supposed to be. In Romans 11:13 Paul said, For I speak unto you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: There wasn t two of that type of apostles. There was only one Paul. God is sending a message in this hour and there is just one, and He has given us a way to know by what you re hearing right now. God has made a way to get it to all nations, peoples, and tongues. We got a letter sometime back telling us that they meet together in huts, take the books, tapes, interpreting this, and there is one Spirit that goes with this message. Let s go to Galatians, Chapter 2, and I want to show you that every message has a spirit as they see Jesus in a certain way as it is ordained of God, and they have a certain way they do things. I m going to read here where Paul decided to go up to the Jews at Jerusalem. He thought, Maybe I can help the Jews, or maybe they can help me. I don t know, but I m going to go up. They were having a convention and you can read about it at the beginning of Galatians, Chapter 2. They even wanted to have Titus circumcised, but Paul wouldn t do it. I m going to read Verse 6 to show you there was a gospel and a spirit that went with that gospel. But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference

218 added nothing to me. Notice that.., added nothing to me. Paul had been with the Lord and had gotten his gospel by revelation. But all those in Jerusalem, all those Jewish apostles couldn t add one thing to Paul. That s why he said, I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. Watch Verses 7-9, But contrariwise If you are contrary to something, then you re different. If I m contrary to you, I m trying to be different from you. What Paul had was contrary to what they had, because he had a gospel for the Gentiles. He had a message, a gospel, he saw Jesus in a certain way and there was a certain spirit that went with Paul s message. But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter. Now notice, there were two gospels. Watch closely, there was the gospel to the circumcision which was the Jewish part. That is what came on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost and on down through to the Jewish church, but the Gentiles Pentecost came at Cornelius house. The apostle that laid the foundation for the Gentiles didn t walk with Jesus in the flesh, but was struck down by a great light on the way to Damascus. Paul didn t see Jesus in the flesh; he only saw Him in the spirit. That is what we do, we see Him in the spirit as the Mighty Angel that has come in Revelation, Chapter 10. Notice, Paul had a gospel and Peter had a gospel. Verse 8, (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) Are you reading it? So who had the gospel for the Gentiles? Paul. If you wanted to see Jesus in the earth in that day, who did you look to? Paul said, That which is lacking of the suffering of Christ is made up in my mortal body. He said, We are in Christ s stead. Now watch again, Verse 9, And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived (recognized) the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, (meaning the Gentiles) and they unto the circumcision, (meaning the Jews). There was a spirit that went with the Jewish gospel, and Paul wasn t comfortable with it. There are certain spirits in certain gospels today that I m not comfortable with. The only way I am comfortable is to believe in the Christ of the Bible that comes down in Revelation, Chapter 10. I am not concerned about where the light has been. I m concerned about where the light is at, as the song says, We ll walk in the light, the beautiful light, come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright. I m saying this, there is a message here, there s a gospel here, and there is a spirit here. To accept this Word, the gospel, the Christ that we preach, there s a spirit that goes with it; it s the spirit of joy, the spirit of peace, the spirit of love. It s the spirit for His wife. It s the spirit that doesn t try to condemn one another in the sense of saying, I m more righteous than you are. We are all the same righteous, if we have His righteousness. If we have that fine linen,

219 clean and white, we all have the same righteousness. There s not one better or worse. We have different callings, but the righteousness of God says, Go take the little book and eat it, and that is what we have done. We have become the wife of the Lamb, clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Yes, there is a spirit that goes with this message. Yes, there s a spirit that goes with THIS gospel, and yes, there s a Christ that goes with this gospel and we gladly accept and praise God for it! And to accept anything that s contrary would be as Paul said in his day, Let it be accursed. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, just thank you Lord for your blessings, goodness, and mercy. I pray heavenly Father as we have brought this Word today, we believe with all our hearts that this was at your direction. It wasn t us speaking Lord, but it was you speaking through a vessel. I pray Lord that you will take it and use it for your glory. May it go to every crack and crevice in the earth, and may as the people hear it, they will gather together in the Spirit of Christ, every one that is baptized into the body. It s the same Spirit that goes with this message. I pray they will recognize Christ and will feel this joy of the Lord bubbling from within. Bless each one that reads and hears this Word we pray. We ask in Jesus Name. Amen.

220 IF THE FOUNDATION BE DESTROYED WHAT CAN THE RIGHTEOUS DO? It is just so good to be here again this morning; we just thank God for all His mercy and goodness towards us, and we really appreciate Him. So we are going to be reading today starting in the Book of Psalms, and there is a scripture that came to my mind that I feel like reading. That Book of Psalms is a beautiful Book. David just started writing psalms and praising God, but in them we find prophecies, and one would have to say his psalms were definitely the inspired Word of God. So we just thank God for that. We will begin reading in Psalms 11:3, and it says, If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? I want to speak on the thought, If the Foundation Be Destroyed What Can the Righteous Do? Now that is what David was saying in the Book of Psalms, What is the righteous going to do if they don t have a foundation, or if the foundation be tampered with? What are we going to do if we don t have a good foundation that s not tampered with? So I feel like this is what the Lord would want us to speak on this morning because of the way it came to me, If the foundation be destroyed. Actually, it came to me when my wife Barbara asked me a question, and I just brought that out. She said, That is strange, because it just seemed like you had the answer and you knew what I was going to ask you. You had the answer right there. That is the way God does sometimes, many times you speak by inspiration. So if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Now let s bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you for your goodness and your mercy upon us, and for the way you are leading and guiding your people in this hour. Lord, I especially want to thank you for the way you are keeping your saints so encouraged, so lifted up, and so blessed. Lord, many times we get to feeling like David did when he said, I ran through a troop, and leaped over a wall, and he danced before you with all his might. Lord, I just thank you for that joy and that Spirit of God that causes our hearts to burn within us as it was with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus as they listened to Jesus. Then as they talked to each other after He made Himself known, Did not our heart burn within us as he spake to us on the way. Lord, I just pray now that you will send your Word and cause the people s hearts to burn within them as they rejoice in thee. In Jesus Name. Amen. Now as we look at this subject of foundation, I have been a builder, and I know something about a foundation. I know that is an important part of any building; especially here in the mountainous areas I would say it is extremely important, because when you build on a mountainside you really have to have a good foundation, or your building is eventually

221 going to crumble. Now I want to read next in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3, where Paul is talking about laying a foundation. Please keep in mind our thought, If the foundation be destroyed, or If the foundation be tampered with, what is the righteous going to do? We have to have a foundation that is not tampered with. There was one in the Bible that spoke of building with untempered mortar and the foundation couldn t stand. We are not building with untemptered mortar as we look at what God is doing in this hour. But I want to speak here and read of Paul laying a foundation, and I am in 1 Corinthians 3:9, and Paul is saying, For we are labourers together with God: ye are God s husbandry, ye are God s building. I want you to notice, We are laborers together. Now we could ask the question, who is that We? It is everyone that is baptized into the body of Christ and has come to the church of the living God. It s not just the preacher, but it is all of us together. We are all building together. That is the way it is, not one man, not one person, but Paul says here, We are laborers together. God sent Paul as an instructor and in Verse 10 it tells that, According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereupon. (Meaning we are the builders.) But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. And here is why, Verse 11, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now we see that is where we start building from; we re laboring together. He s the foundation, He s the Word, and He s the beginning of a new creation. So if you tamper with that, you are not building for Christ, especially when it comes to the Gentiles. God used Paul to call out a people of the Gentiles, and Paul said, I am laying the foundation as a wise master builder, because of this grace that has been given to me. It is so important to build on that foundation just like Paul laid it, which is Christ, the Word. Now in building you can have certain exact measurements and they can be the desired measurement if you are building a square building, and yet the building could end up cockeyed. I got a good experience on this once in building. I left the laying of a foundation to some men that were working with me, and I told them the size of the building because they were doing the foundation for it. I said, Be sure to get it like this, because it has to be right. We were building a metal building, a precut metal building where the pieces were already cut to specification, so the foundation had to be right. So the men were very careful to get it right, and they did get it right as far as the distance from one corner to another measuring along the side of the foundation. It was exactly right. But I walked up and looked at it, and I said, There s something wrong with this foundation here, it s not exactly right. Something is wrong with it. They said, Oh no, and they got the tape and measured it and it was exactly the right measurement. But what they failed to do was this, they failed to measure

222 the hypotenuse of it; that means going from the right corner from the front end, and then to the left corner on the other end. Then from the right back corner to the left front corner, and only then both measurements being the same is it square. So there was one corner of this building that was a foot and one half different. It is what we call cockeyed. So the building would not have fit on that foundation with those measurements. In order to get it perfectly square, it has to measure the same each way triangularly. The men said to me, We never thought of that. So we had to get busy and redo it. Now a wise master builder would have known that it had to measure the same triangularly. But they weren t acquainted with building so much. They knew how to read a tape, a measurement, so they got the measurements right as long as it was measuring a straight line, but they didn t have it square. That is the way people do on the Word. But Paul said, He was a wise master builder. God saw that the foundation was laid, and we can t tamper with it. We have got to go with the foundation as it was laid. We can t build our own foundation, because God gave Paul the grace to know exactly how it should be. I m talking about the foundation for the Gentile bride. So what David said was inspired Word, If the foundation be tampered with or be destroyed, then what is the righteous going to do? Paul laid something in there for righteousness, and we have to have that righteousness that Paul laid in. And the righteousness that Paul laid in is this type of righteousness: it s not what we do, or have done, or what we will do; but it is what Christ did. Paul said, He took our sins and gave us His righteousness. In the Book of Romans, Chapter 5, it says, He gives us the gift of righteousness. Now anytime a gift is involved, if there is any payment involved at all, then it is not a gift. The only thing that is involved is acceptance, and we accept it. We thank Him so much, and we do everything we can to please Him. That is the foundation, but denominations started trying to obtain it by works. There is another scripture here in 1 Corinthians 4:15-16, and it reads like this, For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. In other words, this is the way it is; there are not two or three ways. Though you could have ten thousand people instructing you, yet you have not many fathers, he said, I have begotten you. In other words, I have brought a gospel and I laid the foundation, and he says, No other foundation can be laid. Now that part is very important, because no other foundation can be laid. Think about it! Now going to the Book of Acts, Chapter 20, and I want to begin in Verses 28-30, and use the example about the foundation. The measurements might have been the same in the example I gave you, but I said, One look at the foundation, if you were a builder, one look at it and you could see that something wasn t right about it. Sometimes it is so close,

223 and you have to be wise and examine everything or you won t get it right. It has to be on the true foundation. When we begin to look at the foundation that Paul laid, it was for the Gentiles, and that makes a big difference when we begin to talk about the church today. Because there were twelve apostles to the Jews, and God typed these foundations out as building a wall for the city New Jerusalem (Revelation, Chapter 21.) The point here is each one laid a foundation, the twelve foundations of the wall was named for the twelve Jewish apostles. But Paul said, I laid the foundation one foundation for the Gentile Bride. And that foundation is on the inside of the city with all the other foundations supporting it. The purpose for a foundation is to build something on. Paul said, I laid the foundation, but you are going to be the builders. In other words, What I am starting this is not the end of it, but it is the beginning of it. This has to go on, and on, and the revelation of the Word of God will continue to flow. What I want you to look at here in Acts 20:28, Paul is saying, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseerers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. After Paul said this God revealed to him something, saying, You ve done your job, you ve done it well, and I am going to take you home now. This caused Paul to get the people together and tell them this, he said, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Christ told Paul that there would be those that would come in among them and they would try to tamper with Paul s foundation suggesting that, You do it just a little different. We know Paul was a good man. He did this and he did that and it was wonderful what he did; but let s make some adjustments in it. No. Paul said you ve got to build on this foundation, and there won t be another foundation. Now there will be the building of the building, but not another foundation. You have to have a basis in the Word of God for what you are doing. What Paul is telling here is how some would come in and try to change this, or change that. Here in Verse 30, he then makes an astounding statement, Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. That s destroying the foundation; that s taking it away from what Paul said. In other words, What Paul said was good, but it s not quite good enough, we can do it better. Well, the Word of God says, If the foundation be destroyed, (or tampered with) what shall the righteous do? Because in that foundation he put a righteousness that is unobtainable by any human means. And that righteousness that he put in there, we can t work hard enough for it, we can t pray enough to get it, but what we do is believe and accept it. Once we accept it, we appreciate that He has done so much for us, that we do all we can to please Christ. What we do, it s not to get better, because when you got your salvation it was perfect the day you got it. When Christ came into your heart, He was

224 perfect. Now we can grow in grace and the knowledge of God, and we should do that. But we are not trying to improve on our salvation to make it better. It is already perfect, and when something is not broken we don t try to fix it. Is that right? When your salvation is absolutely perfect, and when there is a righteousness that is absolutely perfect, then we can t improve on that righteousness. But some of them tried. Christ warned them, Even of your selves. First he said, They will come in, and they did that. Then he said, Even of your own selves, see, that s a stinger right there. Even those among you will want to change this just a bit, or that just a bit, to make it more attractive to people. Well, you don t try and make this attractive to people, but you try to make Jesus attractive to people. Amen. Not a church building, not a program, or I think if we did it this way, or if we did it that way, I believe it would be a little better. Well, as long as it is on Paul s foundation, then it s right. You re building on that. He said, Another builds, but it can t be on a different foundation; it has to follow this line. Praise God! Paul laid scripture in, and the scripture is the foundation, and we can t do anything without scripture. Now I want to read Chapter 15 of Acts. I believe it will be profitable for us, since we are dealing with the foundation. It will show us that this thing is real, it s right, it s not something we can do or not do to please ourselves, but Paul is showing a plan where he laid some scripture in here. Now in this last day, Christ the Mighty Angel appears among us, and the building He has put the finishing touches on it. Now I want to show you what Paul is saying, If you are justified by the law, you re fallen from grace, because this is strictly grace; it s without works and you don t change it. It has to be this way. There were some Jews that came down from Jerusalem that thought they had a better idea than Paul did, but the Jews don t have anything to do with this. This is for the Gentile wife. Now God is going to send two prophets to Israel once the rapture takes place. It will be two Jewish men with the spirit of Elijah and Moses. This is in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation where it shows that these two prophets will come in there, they ll begin to prophesy, they ll turn the water to blood, they ll smite the earth, and there will be a revival that will strike over there in Jerusalem like the world has never seen since Pentecost. But we, the wife of the Lamb, will be in glory. So building on the foundation that Paul laid is not something the Jews can tell us how to do, because Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and there weren t two of them. In Romans 11:13, Paul said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office. He wasn t to the Jews, he was to the Gentiles. So these Jews up at Jerusalem heard that the Gentiles were accepting this and that Paul was telling them that they didn t have to be circumcised; they didn t have to do this, or that, and whatever was set before them to eat, drink, and ask no questions. You don t have to get all

225 bound up with do s and don ts. So those Jews said, We can t let that go on like this, because Paul is giving them too much liberty. We need to go down and get this thing fixed. You can t fix it when God gave Paul the revelation to lay the foundation, and it can t be tampered with. No other foundation can be laid for the Gentiles. Paul said, I laid the foundation, but another buildeth thereon. And we are builders to build on it. It has to be like Paul said. But these Jews in Acts 15:1, heard what Paul was doing. It says, And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Oh my, that messed up the foundation. You can t build on that. Because Paul said, Circumcision or uncircumcism availeth (means) nothing, but you are free in Christ. But here came some that said, Wait a minute Paul, you are telling those people that this doesn t matter and that doesn t matter. They came in and tried to push Paul aside and do it a better way. You don t push God s men aside and do it a better way. Paul was the one, and the only one. He said, I am the father of it. You have a lot of instructors, but I m the one that has begotten you. And this is what I have begotten you with, the true Word. So these outsiders came in from Judea, the Jerusalem area, and said, Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can t be saved (you have to do just like Moses said). Well, that wasn t on Paul s foundation. There are a lot of things today that people are trying to do that are not on the foundation. But as God used an apostle to lay the foundation, he has an apostolic ministry to build just like Paul said, and as soon as the wife of Christ sees something that is not like Paul laid it out, they recognize it. For instance, when I drove up on the job site (in my earlier example) they had certain measurements that were right, but I recognized immediately something was wrong with the picture. So something is wrong with the picture if the Word of God says He has set us free, it s not by works, but it s by His righteousness, and then somebody says, You have to do this, and you have to do that, you have to be circumcised, and all these things. Then something is wrong with that picture. Because the truth is what you do, you do it because you love Him, you know it is right, and you just want to please Him. You may say, Brother Howard, are you saying that we don t have to live right? I m saying, If Christ is in you, then He will do the living. He ll live His life out through you. It is not if I do this, I ll be better, or if I do this, I ll be worse. What you do is yield yourself to Christ, and die out to yourself. You die, and your life is hid with Christ in God. It s Christ in you, the hope of glory! Let me read on in Verse 2, When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. Paul said, This is not what God gave me. That s why

226 they had no small dissension. Paul stood firm. He said, I am not going to be moved around; you re going contrary to what God revealed to me when you say we have to be circumcised. Paul wouldn t let it rest. Paul didn t say, Well, I made a mistake. No. He laid the foundation. He was not willing to settle for something that would take them away from the grace of God. Therefore I m not willing today to settle for something if someone tries to put you under works, if you do this or that you will be more righteous. Your righteousness is in Christ. He took your sins and He gave you His righteousness, and you can t get more righteous than that. And because of that, you love Him so much, you appreciate Him so much that you just do everything you can to please Him. Verses 3-6, And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria declaring, the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, in other words, there was a group among them. They could have it if they wanted, but Paul wasn t going to put up with it. Now watch, at Jerusalem they had people up there with different beliefs and some of them were saying, Moses said, Moses said, Moses said. Now I want to tell you something today about this good Word of God, when somebody asks me about the Word of God, I don t have to go back and say this preacher said this or that. No. That s not what you asked. You asked me about the Word of God. Those men of God that He used back there stood with truth for their time period. But we have crossed over Jordan into Canaan s fair land, and we didn t stop there, but we ve come right over into Eden. Look what it says, But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Yes, they were believers. Yes, they believed in Jesus saying, that it was needful to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses. Now watch that. That is what was wrong. He said, If the foundation be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? This would destroy the foundation if they tried to build on it, because there was a certain righteousness and it had no works involved. You didn t have to keep the Law of Moses, because the Word of God says in the Book of Galatians 3:24-25, The law was given as a school master to bring us to Christ, until the seed should come. But when the seed is come, we are no longer under the school master. We are no longer under the law (or church age law). But these Jews wanted to do it differently. See, if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? This would destroy the foundation if it was left that way. That is why God brought something back in this last day, the prophetic part of Paul s message, making it known and revealing it, bringing it in by the little book that is brought down from heaven, a mes-

227 sage that will fit exactly on this foundation. But they commanded them to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider the matter. And when there had been much disputing,.. I like that part, sometimes disputing is good. If somebody comes in here and says you have to have a certain amount of works, and you have to do this or that, you think I won t dispute? Oh, yes I will. I ll say, We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We are made righteous by the blood of Jesus. He took our sins, and gave us His righteousness, and we can t get more righteous than that. There was some disputing going on, because Paul was not willing to have something in that foundation that was different from what God gave him. In order for it not to be, he stood up on his feet, and he stood tall. He wasn t willing, even if it meant disputing with the hierarchy of the Jewish church. The Jews had not recognized it and I m not sure Paul knew all the ends and outs of it; but they didn t recognize that this man right here (Paul) was the man that God had ordained for the Gentiles. So they wanted to keep Paul straight. They wanted to keep a whip on the Gentiles that were listening to Paul, especially when they heard Paul was telling the Gentiles that they didn t have to do this or that, and what ever was set before them, eat, drink, and ask no questions. He even told Timothy to drink a little wine for the stomach s sake. Paul didn t tell them they couldn t eat swine meat, or they had to keep the Sabbath. In Paul s day it was on the first day of week they came together, and Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:2, Upon the first day of week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him that there be no gathering when I come.. The Gentile church worshipped on the first day of the week which is Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Saturday is the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, and that is what they had in the Old Testament. Today some preachers say, We re glad to see you came out on this Sabbath day to worship the Lord. No. The Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day. But when Jesus resurrected from the dead, He resurrected early on the first day of the week, and that is our Sunday; that s our resurrection day. That is when we come together to worship Christ. We can do it seven days a week, because we don t esteem one day particularly higher than another. But when we look at the resurrection, we don t go back to Saturday. Now continuing Acts 15:7-11, And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren Peter saw that Paul was going to argue about this thing, so he stood up and said, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us. And put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which

228 neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. I tell you, old Peter finally had to be honest, didn t he? He said, Our fathers couldn t keep the law, neither have we kept it. Why? Because there was Paul sitting there, and Paul wouldn t leave it alone. They would have rather Paul wouldn t have said anything because it says there, after much disputing. Paul is not going to shut up, so let s do something to get rid of him. Peter went on But we believe through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Then when we go on to Chapter 21 of Acts, we see that Paul went up to Jerusalem again, and when he got up there they were offering sacrifices and doing certain rituals for purification and even got Paul to partake of some of it. But you can t mess with the foundation. It s got to be the righteousness of Christ; it can t be by works. I want to read some scriptures in the Book of Romans 9:30-33, and it tells something about this foundation. It has to be this way, it can t be another way. Let s start with Verse 30 and it says, What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Now what Paul is saying here is, the Gentiles never worked to keep the law, they have never done any of these things. They were just sinners. But they accepted the righteousness by faith and not by works. But the Jews wanted to put forth their works, the circumcision, and all these things, and when you do those things, you destroy the foundation. If the foundation be destroyed, where can the righteous stand? The righteous can only stand in one place, that our righteousness is not by works, it s what Christ did for us. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not obtained to the law of righteousness. The law of righteousness is faith in Jesus Christ, and they hadn t obtained it. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it wereby the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone. As it is written, Behold I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now this thing is a stumbling stone to a lot of people. When we come and say, It s not what you have done, it s not what you are doing, nor is it what you will do, but it s what Christ did at Calvary. A lot of people stumble over that. They say, You give people the license to do any old way they want to. No, I m saying, If Christ is in you, then it s Him that is doing what s to be done, and you can t get more righteous than that. Chapter 10:1-3, Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Many people have a great zeal to do something for God. But the best way to please God is to accept His Word. If you are a Gentile, then find out what Paul s foundation is and build on it. For they being ignorant of God s righteousness. Now I could make a sermon on that ignorant of God s righteousness. Now Paul laid the foundation and

229 he put a righteousness in there; and God has never changed that righteousness for the Gentiles, it s still the same. It s not by works, it s by grace; and the Jews were ignorant. How could that be? How could I be righteous without keeping the law, and without being circumcised? If I eat swine meat, how could I be righteous, and if I drink a glass of wine, how could I be righteous? I m reminded of the old Pentecostals, and many of you came up through that. We couldn t drink coke colas because it had caffeine in it, and it was a sin. You couldn t drink coffee. I tried to go by their foolishness and I m glad I was involved, because I see how foolish it was now that I have come out on the other end. They said, If you like something just give it up for God and you ll be more pleasing to Him. For instance, one Pentecostal preacher said, If there is something you like to eat real good, don t eat it, give it up for God as a sacrifice, then God will bless you for making that sacrifice to Him. So I liked ice cream real good, and I still do. But here was this preacher saying, Give it up for God and you ll get closer to Him. Well, I said, Lord, I won t eat ice cream any more, so I can get closer to you. Well, I quit eating ice cream for a long time, maybe about a year. I wanted some so bad I couldn t stand it; especially when I saw someone else eating it. Then, another preacher came by, and he said, Jesus didn t take the vinegar there at the cross, so if you take anything with vinegar in it, then you dishonor the cross. So I said, Lord, I won t eat any more pickles. So now I couldn t have a cola, couldn t have coffee, couldn t have ice cream, and now I couldn t have pickles. I was getting in bad shape. But one day, God spoke to me, The just shall live by faith, not by works. He showed me that He had given me the gift of righteousness. He made all the sacrifice I need. I went to the store and got some cola s, coffee, ice cream, pickles, and had a good time! See, that is exactly what the Jews were doing. They thought you should be circumcised; you had to do this and you had to do that, then you would be righteous. No. That is destroying the foundation that you re to be built upon. That is what is wrong with the people today. They are in so-called churches that are not on the foundation. When you get on the foundation just right, you will hear this, I laid the foundation, but another will come and build on it. Paul said, God has given me wisdom as a wise master builder to lay this thing just right for that which is coming down upon it. (Revelation 10:8-11) And we are laborers with God. Let s go on with Romans 10:3, They being ignorant of God s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness... That is what the people are doing today, and you will never get anywhere with God like that.., have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And that is very hard for church folks today, even now to submit to the righteousness of God. In order to submit to the righteousness of God, you ve got to have this revelation, there s nothing I can do to be more righteous, absolutely

230 nothing. I m talking about the righteousness of God now. There is nothing I can do to make my salvation better. I can be a better person as I let Christ live in me. It is Christ doing the work. It s not me that doeth the work, but He worketh in me. And if you follow that line, you will exemplify Christ in the earth. Then we can say, Christ in you, the hope of glory! But the Jews didn t submit to the righteousness of God. They thought they had to work. And when you put your works in there, if you put any works at all to be righteous, you re destroying the foundation. And if you destroy the foundation, what can the righteous do? You ve got to come and say, Lord, you live your life through me. You let me die, and you live in me Lord. Lord, I deny any righteousness that I might have. Lord, I accept yours. I deny any religious experience, or anything like that to make me righteous. Lord, it is you and you alone. In Christ Jesus alone for the cleansing this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus. There s absolutely no works that will bring you this righteousness. But does that mean we go out here and do like a wild bunch of hogs? No, because Christ lives in us. The Apostle Paul laid the foundation, and he put this righteousness in there, and when the building is completed there will be an end time message, and it will be speaking of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, without works. John spoke of it and said, The Lamb s wife has made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19: 7-8) That s exactly what Paul put here in the foundation; and so that it would fit upon the foundation, He gives us His righteousness. So is it by works? How about the works? You can and should maintain good works; you can do good works, but not to earn righteousness because righteousness is a gift. And if you depend on one speck, one whit of your works for your righteousness, if you depend on it, then you are denying the righteousness of God, and that is getting off the foundation that Paul laid. If the foundation be destroyed. What are you building on today? Where are you standing today? You ve got to know where you are standing. Paul said, I laid this foundation, I am the father of this, unto me this gospel was committed, not by words of man s wisdom, but it come by revelation. He said, I didn t go up to Jerusalem to learn about it, but I went down into Arabia and after three years I came out. This was made known to me by the revelation of God. No other preacher in the early church or since has preached this righteousness of God up until now to fit on Paul s foundation; but there is a message here at the end time getting the job done. That foundational message got a people engaged to Christ. Paul said, I espouse you as a chaste virgin to Christ so that I may present you as His wife. Well, Paul went off the scene, but before he did, he said, There are grievous wolves that are going to come in, and they won t care about you; all they will want is a crowd and for you to pay your tithes and

231 give them money. Paying tithes are good, but don t do it just because somebody tells you to do it, but this should be in your heart to do it. I had somebody ask me not to long ago, Does it say in the Bible that you have to pay tithes? I said, Under the law it was a commandment to do so, but under grace it is what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. See, there was a man named Abraham and he was the father of faith, but no one told him to pay tithes. We see that Melchisedec came to Abraham, and something inside Abraham s heart said, I want to give you a tenth of all. (Hebrews 7:2) He wasn t told to, but God told him in his heart. No, it s not a law. But if you are born again with Christ living in you, then you do like Abraham did before the law age began, because something within him caused him to give a tenth to the minister of God. Then later on it was put into a law. But what you do now, you do it out of the freedom and love in your heart. If I say you are going to hell if you don t pay your tithes, I m lying. But if I say, Obey Christ, then you will do what is right according to the Word. Let s go back to Romans, Chapter 15, just for a few verses, and I want to show you the foundation. It talks about the foundation, and to show you that we have to be built upon the Word and not our own ideas. I remember hearing a preacher one time say, There s nobody going to preach for me if they have a television in their house. Well, I tell you, I wouldn t want to preach for a preacher like that anyway, because if he is that much in bondage and under the law, there is no telling what else is wrong with him. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His and He knows them that are not His, and salvation doesn t come by works. I want to read Romans 15:4, For whatsoever things were written, aforetime were written for our learning... Now I want you to notice that. We wouldn t know about Moses and many of these things if it hadn t been written for our learning. There was a flood one time and it destroyed the world as it existed in that day. How do we know? Because we find it in the scripture and it was written for our learning. There was a man named Jesus, and He came to a religious world and they crucified Him. We have this in the scriptures, and we know that. The Bible is the only Book that tells us where we came from, where we are at, and where we are going. But the Bible without the Spirit of the Word would be of little value to us, it would only be the tree of knowledge. I am preaching by the Spiritual Word, but I am using natural Word as my foundation to finish out Paul s building, where it says, we are clothed in fine linen, clean and white. Now between the laying of the foundation and the finishing up, there were the church ages. In the church ages we washed our garments, and we had a lot of do s and don ts. We had to wash our garments and make them white. But when we arrive at the end of the journey, into Canaan

232 land, and on into Eden, He takes that traveling garment away, the one that had to be washed. He gives us fine linen, clean and white, which has never been soiled, and that is this message you are hearing today. It s the righteousness of God. Amen! He s giving His wife the fine linen, clean and white, so she doesn t have to worry all the time, Have I done right? If you set out today to go the rest of the day and not do anything wrong, you would be a failure, because the very thoughts of foolishness is sin. But no, you say, Lord, I trust in your righteousness, and let Him live in you; then you have it right. Now getting back to the scripture and it says, Whatsoever things were written afore time was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now I want to show you how important the scriptures are. There was a man that said to me once, We are getting so close to God that pretty soon we won t even need the Bible; we will just walk by the Spirit. Well, that is not what Paul put in the foundation. You are destroying the foundation if you say we don t need the scriptures. We need the scriptures, and we need to know what scripture applies to each situation. If I tell you, Build an ark, because a flood is coming, well, that is scripture, but I would be teaching something to you that was wrong. The flood has already come. If I said, Jesus is going to come and die for our sins, then I would be teaching wrong, because He has already done that. He came and was crucified two thousand years ago to take away sins, and He rose from the dead, came back in the form of the Holy Ghost, and now in this last day He has come back as the Mighty Angel, Christ in you the hope of glory! If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The righteousness is laid in the foundation and if we deviate from it, then we have nothing to stand on. We can go right back to the Word and find how Paul put righteousness in his foundation. There was one apostle to the Gentiles to lay the foundation, and now the righteousness is being capped off here in this end time. Let him that has an ear hear what the Spirit saith to His wife. God bless you today. Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for your love goodness and mercy, and I just praise your name because you are real, and you are moving by your Holy Spirit. Now bless everyone that hears this Word. And Lord may you help us to just look to you, to that righteousness, and be sure that we are built on the foundation, be sure that we don t do anything to disrupt the foundation, because this is sitting exactly on the foundation that Paul laid. There were those when Paul went off the scene that tried to deviate just a bit to draw disciples after themselves, presenting it in just a little different way, But Lord now you have come and you ve presented it, and it is exactly right and it fits on the foundation perfectly and now we have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and Jesus you are all I need. Amen.

233 REACHING THE END TIME AND THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST...In a night vision, the being I saw said, Now that which is to be done will now be done... We are reading today in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 4, and we read from this Book quite often. There is a certain thing that I am looking at from the Word of God, and I am seeing things begin to come into being to bring us to the end time, or to help us see that we are at the end time. There s nothing we can do to bring us to the end time, because God alone does that. But it is a matter of us recognizing what s going on to bring us to the end time and that is what God is showing us by revelation. For example, when the apostles were asked by Jesus, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? They answered by saying, Some people say you are John the Baptist, and that could have been right if you were just guessing. Some are saying, You are one of the old prophets raised from the dead, and that could have been right. All of these guesses could have been right as far as they were concerned. But when God revealed it, then it was settled and nobody had to wonder about it. Then Jesus saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven. It s the same thing with this Word that I m preaching today. That is why there are so many churches today and so many different angles to this thing, because it takes a revelation from God. When God reveals, it s not what I think, it s not what you think, and it s not what somebody else thinks, but it is what He reveals. It is what He says about it, and what the Lord says is always right. But it takes revelation to understand it and place it right. I m going to take a thought here, Reaching the End Time and the Fullness of Christ. The wife of Christ now has the understanding that we reach the end time and the fullness of Christ at the same time. Through the church ages, they didn t have the fullness of Christ. That s why they went into the grave only knowing certain things about the Word, and certain things about Christ. That is why they made their denominations, and that s why most everybody believed in a trinity coming through that time period. It was not until the Holy Ghost had come back in the Pentecostal form in about 1906 that this restoration began in this form, but it was actually in about 1914 when the people began to study the Word of God and God began to reveal the name of Jesus Christ and water baptism according to

234 Acts 2:38. God began to deal with different ones, giving dreams and speaking to them; letting them know that baptism after the Day of Pentecost was to be done in the name of Jesus Christ. The whole Pentecostal movement rejected it, but those preachers that God dealt with went forth preaching this revelation of baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord blessed them. But they too soon made a denomination, and they began to act like the other denominations. It remained this way until God sent a prophet, the seventh church age messenger to restore us back to what the early church taught. Then as we came this far, walking in the revealed Word, God has continued to reveal more of His Word unto us today. But the end time picture of the wife of Christ shows that we reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. And as we have done that, all the rest of the world, and all the rest of what God is doing has been keeping pace with what is taking place with the wife of Christ. Now God opened the seals in 1963, and began to restore back the Word more and more to let us see what happened. At the same time, Israel got most of her land back (1967) in the Six Day War, including the old city Jerusalem, but they haven t fully staked their claim to it all, yet. Everything is coming together here as God brings the church into the fullness, and when we reach the fullness, we have also arrived at our destination. We are not in the process of getting here, but we are here. When you start on a journey, just as sure as you start a journey there is an end to the journey, and we are greatly rejoicing that we have arrived and have been married to Christ. We find God started His church on a journey, and He told how it would be in the church ages. It journeyed through seven church ages, but now there s an end to the journey as it reaches its destination and that is where we have come with joy and are rejoicing with the bridegroom. We have arrived at the end time. The journey is behind us, not in front of us. That s why we see the things we see, and that s why we are receiving the revelation of the things that are coming into place. We have arrived at the time for it to take place, not one day later, and that s perfect timing. In the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 4, Paul gives us a good perspective on this end time. I love the way God gave Paul the wisdom to write about these things even though they didn t occur in his day, because it was to occur when we reached the fullness. At first, Ephesians, Chapter 4, shows the ministry. The ministry is out front and are the ones that are directing and represents the male part of the body, and that part of the body has been doing all the talking. Even in the days of Paul, coming out of the Old Testament, he said in 1 Timothy 2:12, I suffer not a woman to teach (speak), nor usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. And he established the five fold ministry, the male part coming out of the Jewish

235 thinking. But God laid here in the Word that there would be a time that the ministry and the church would come together as one, and it wouldn t be any longer just the five fold ministry alone. Yes, the ministry had an important part, just like Adam had in his day. In fact, he was in charge of the whole earth for some time. I don t know for how long, the Bible doesn t indicate how long he was here before God created Eve for him. So the ministry has been here and it has been doing its job, but that is not what the end time picture shows. It shows a church and it is called His wife, and we reach the fullness of all He ordained for us, even becoming the man Christ Jesus. As in the days of Adam and Eve, God called their name Adam, as we are called the body of Christ. As this takes place, we look on the other side of the picture and we see Israel turn to God, and God said Israel would get all their land back. They (Israel) are the brethren of Jesus Christ, and they are to be blessed. They are to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem as the two prophets of Revelation, Chapter 11, prophesy to them. So with that said, I want to start reading in Ephesians 4:7, But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Paul is talking here about some that have certain gifts from God. If God has given you a gift, He has given you wisdom and power to use it. He expects you to grow by exercising your mind and your gift. The Word of God teaches us that we grow in grace by exercising our gift, and our minds. Don t let your mind go to sleep on you, but think spiritual thoughts. So whatever gift He gives you, He gives you grace to go with it. I remember when it felt like God had called me to preach. I would go for a walk in the woods and start preaching to the birds, and squirrels. I thought I could do pretty well. One night I got anointed in a service. They had asked me to testify; they said, If you feel like preaching, go ahead and preach. Well, God anointed me and I began to preach. I thought it went real good. Brother Billy Andrews, who has now gone on, was in the service and he heard me. He rejoiced and thought that it was good too. But then later on, I was in another service, and Brother Andrews said, We ve got Brother Ben here tonight and we are going to get him to preach. He s a fireball preacher, and he was building me up like that. He continued saying, Are you ready now for him to come? He s a fireball preacher. Well, I didn t know what would happen, or wouldn t happen, but I thought the first time, I had done pretty well. But I got up there to preach, and my mind went totally blank. I had a scripture so I read it; then I said, I m sorry people, I can t think of a thing to say. Then I went and sat down. I said to myself, Lord, if you will forgive me for getting up, I will never do that again. But then I kept feeling like preaching was my calling. That goes to show that maybe I was what is referred to as a stuffed shirt or something. God may have let that happen to me in order for Him

236 to tell me this, If you re going to do anything for me, then it s going to be me. Then later on as time went by, I begin to let God use me. I exercised the gift. (I was still a teenager) It would have been easy to stop, but I kept feeling like, This is what I need to do. It was the same thing with the writing of the books. The very first book was An Old Testament Prophet comes to a New Testament Age. We took weeks and weeks to do it. We would just get a few words. I knew the revelation, but I didn t know how to word things, me being a fourth grader. But later, it moved into other things and other people began to help. That was the way God said it would be, I give you a gift, and I will give you the grace to use it. Now you can sit down on a gift if you want to and say, That is too hard for me. But once you are sure of what God wants you to do, then you have to have that determination to do His will. Ephesians 4:8-9, Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. I like what Peter said about this in the Book of 1 Peter 3:18-19, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison, and brought out those Old Testament saints. He went down there and stayed for three days. When they crucified Him on the cross, there were the Old Testament saints waiting in the heart of the earth for their end time. Now they had their end time then, because they had served their time. Now at the time this took place, hell and paradise were together, but it had two different compartments, paradise was on one side, and hell was on the other side. So Jesus went down there and preached to all those spirits in prison. When He came out, He brought all those Old Testament saints with Him that had died under the old covenant believing in the offering of a lamb, and the blood of bulls and goats in making atonement for their sins. Notice the word atonement which means covering. In other words, their sins were covered up; they were hid. But they weren t remitted and taken away. Now in the New Testament when Jesus died, He didn t just cover your sins, but He completely took them away. It was not atonement for sins, but remission of sins. That is why Peter talked about baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. That means it takes sin away to where it s as though you ve never sinned. Because He justifies you, and justification means it s as though you ve never done it. That is one of the things I have been preaching on to let people see, because many people try and go back and bring their sins up. But Paul said, For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2) He also said in Philippians 3:13,

237 Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Don t drag all that stuff along. In earlier times, even in the USA, the prisoners would have a ball and chain around their legs, and everywhere they went they had to pick that up and move it with them so they couldn t escape. Well, that is the way a lot of people do their sins, they drag them with them. Well, Jesus came to cut those chains loose, to remit sins, to free you, and it is as though you never sinned to begin with. We should only want to remember the things of the Lord, and those are the only things we want to take with us. Remember the sermon that I preached about the worms? It was about the lost; and the scripture I used was, Where the worm dieth not. Everything that you have accumulated here that is unpleasant and bad, unless you get rid of it, you re going to take it with you. If it is tormenting you here, it will torment you there. The rich man said, I m tormented here. But Lazarus, Abraham, and all the others were safe and were not tormented, but they just weren t delivered yet. Jesus came down and was there for about three days preaching to them. I don t know exactly why He took three days, but I know there are three stages many times of what God does. Even at the coming of Christ in the Spirit (the Mighty Angel) He comes with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. This trump of God is the finishing up of the Spiritual coming of the Lord (Revelation 10:8-11) and that is where we are at. When Jesus Christ arose, He brought up all those Old Testament saints. Now the question could be asked, Why did Christ preach to the spirits in prison? The answer is, When Christ went down and preached to the spirits in prison, He gave those Old Testament saints His righteousness, and then there was nothing against them at all. The reason I know this is, because when Paul wrote about Abraham s daily life there were things in Abraham s life we wouldn t want to be identified with, and the same thing with David and Solomon, as well as others. But when Paul spoke of them by the anointing of God here in the New Testament, not one of those things were ever mentioned. See, it was all taken away as though they had never done it. Their sins were totally remitted and they were given Christ s very own righteousness. Thank God! Continue reading He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Now when Jesus Christ left here, He left a ministry to keep speaking in His place, because Christ s aim for the Gentiles was this, to get a wife for Himself, just as it was with God creating a wife for Adam. But this part of God s plan was to get a wife for His Son. In order to do this, He left here a ministry to go forth and do this job in Christ s stead, to bring the ministry and all the other members together in one for His marriage with the perfectly united wife. Paul said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul got her engaged for the mar-

238 riage in his day, but just as Eve fell, so did this bride as the truth got lost in the dark ages. But here was what it was originally supposed to be, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. Now the ministry was given to men in the original when it started out, and it hasn t changed, it is still men. The men are the ministers, but the preachers cannot do any good without all the other members. Christ put His mind in all of the church (wife) so that everybody will think and believe the same thing. And this is what He gave the ministry for, For the perfecting (maturing) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. We are ending the journey now. This is very, very important. I can t overemphasis how important it is, because the time period is over where it is just the ministry and where you can say, We ve got a great preacher. It s all right to thank God for the ministry, but don t overlook the other members of the body of Christ. We are all of equal importance to Christ because we are His wife. God gives gifts to everyone. Then he says, This ministry is to stand out here like Adam was. See, Adam was alone. Adam couldn t reproduce by himself. God made Adam and Eve to come together to be one, and that would have been the eating of the tree of life in that earlier time period. But now it is the Word and Spirit joined perfectly together. Adam was alone, and the ministry here in Ephesians, Chapter 4, is like that type. The ministry alone is not the wife of Christ; it s only a part of it. When Christ was here, He was alone. He was the one that didn t have to die. He was the one that could walk on water. He was the one that could say to the storm, Be still, and it obeyed. But all the time in the back of God s mind there was a Gentile people out here, and Christ was to get a wife out of the Gentile people. That s what Paul s message was about. So God anointed Paul, and he planted the seed Word for us. He preached the Word of God and that s why he said in 2 Timothy 2:2, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also, because it was Christ in him doing the speaking. Paul revealed unto us that Jesus Christ had to be crucified and release His Spirit; otherwise He couldn t send forth His Spirit to be upon us all, thus making us and Him to be of the same Spirit of eternal life. But now, it is a many member body. When Paul was here, God used him to plant that seed in to bring this forth, setting the five fold ministry in perfect order as it flowed through Paul and on to the other ministries. But even with this you still only have the male. You still only have Adam, but you don t have Eve. Now where is Eve? Eve is the rest of the body all together united with the five fold ministry. God took the time through the dark ages to create this. Remember, Adam was created before Eve was, showing that God produces the ministry first. Now through the church ages and after this transitional time period

239 (silence in heaven), we have gotten to the place where Christ has His Eve here, and the marriage is taking place. (Revelation 10:8-11) Now watch what Verse 13 says, Till we all come in the unity of the faith. And that we all is not just the preacher, but it s all the born again that are part of the body of Christ, and this is His wife. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now you don t go any further than that, that s it. Now it s created. Now there is Adam and Eve married. There s Christ and His wife married. There s the ministry and the church all married together as one. That s why we began to talk about the one mind. You don t have one mind if you think one way and I think another way. Years ago we would hear people say, Well, I think it should be this way, or I think it should be that way. Let s get all the elders and deacons together and see what they think about it. Well, that was probably all right in its time period, but now Christ has come down Himself as the Mighty Angel and we are baptized into His body. We all have the same Spirit, the same mind, and the same life, the male and female in one body. Just like Adam and Eve when they produced that child. That child was him and her. It wasn t just all him, nor was it just all her, but it was Adam and Eve perfectly together in one body; that s the wife of the Lamb. That s why to see the perversion going on today of the same sex marriages and all these things, it just makes a mockery out of the whole plan of God of male and female. It is so sinful and ridiculous that we don t even like to bring it into our line of thinking. The Apostle Paul strongly condemned this lifestyle saying, God gave them over to vile affection. (Romans, Chapter one) But let s move on to more pleasant thoughts. Notice here, we reach the fullness; we ve reached the end time. Now we don t reach the fullness until we reach the end time. And we don t reach the end time before we reach the fullness, but it all works perfectly together. Now remember, we don t get ready for the rapture and have to wait a long time for it to take place. When I say rapture here, I m talking about the literal translation of these mortal bodies. And we don t do that prior to Israel getting herself set for the going into the 70th Week of Daniel, to receive her two prophets and her message. It all works in here together, and that is what we are seeing now. Last night I noticed on the Fox News where they had some man on from a university, and they were asking him questions. He had studied about Israel, Iraq, and all these other Middle East countries and he was saying, It will probably be this way. Don t worry about this, because this is going to happen this way. I ve watched it over the years how things have developed, and it is going to be this way. Well I tell you what, It s not going to be that way either. I tell you again, it is not going to be that way. It s like what many say in the church world about the church, We need to do this, and we need to do that. If

240 we do this, then it will work. No, the only way for it to work is if the Lord Jesus Christ is in the church. And then when we look on the other side of the picture when it comes to the workings with Israel, it s the God of the Old Testament. Now just before the protesting started in Egypt we had been talking about the end time and how it was all ending up, and I had a night vision (dream). This was several weeks back before this all started taking place there in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. In this night vision, I was standing at a certain place and there came a being right beside me; and he had his face set as flint towards Jerusalem, in other words, unmovable. This being was liken unto a military person, someone that was going to do a job, and the stern look on his face told me, Don t try to talk to him, but just stay out of his way, because he s going to do a job and he will not be hindered until the job is done. He walked by me, and he didn t even look towards me. He just kept walking, and a voice said within me, Now that which is to be done will now be done. And then during the next few days, I turned on the television and there were things starting to happen in Egypt. Now it s in Jordan and other parts of the Middle East. And the people can t figure it out. They are talking and saying, We don t want Israel to be destroyed. They said, If the Muslin Brotherhood takes over Egypt they will destroy Israel because one of their stated aims is to destroy Israel, and push them into the sea. This Muslin Brotherhood even praises Hitler for what he did. They say, He started the job of getting rid of Israel, and apparently it looks like they would like to finish the job. Well, Israel is the brethren to the Lord Jesus Christ. The USA says, We have stood by Israel, and we don t want them to be run over, or be crushed. They are on their feet now and they have their nation started. We would hate to see Israel be defeated when all those nations come against her. Well, I got one thing to say, Don t worry about the Muslin Brotherhood, because the brothers (Israel) will take care of it. Remember, the Israelites are our brethren. I am saying this in order to differentiate between the wife of Christ and the brethren of Christ. It s not our job, nor is it my job to go over there, but I thank God our country has stood by Israel and God has blessed us for it. But some are trembling and think that Israel will be pushed into the sea. There are many nations that would like to see this happen to Israel, but I tell you, You go ahead and make all your plans, but there is a being that says, Now that which is to be done, will now be done, just don t mess with our brethren if you don t want to be a loser. Well, we can read in the Book of Revelation 7:1, and 9:14-15, there are four angels (powers that are being held back) bound in the river of Euphrates. Then there came another angel descending from the East, which is the gospel angel that has been all around the world and now is coming back into Israel. There was a voice that said, Loose not the four

241 angels until we have sealed the servants of our God in their forehead. This sealing will take place in the first part of the 70th Week of Daniel, while the wife of Christ will be in glory. In other words, He is bringing it all together. But before this happens there is a miracle war to take place. (Ezekiel, Chapter 38) When they get the brethren Israel stirred up, and the God of the Old Testament begins to fight for Israel, I would not want to be on the wrong side then. Soon Israel is going to get back the remainder of all their land. Don t worry about them. I noticed the people that are against Israel demonstrating there in the old city Jerusalem, and they are sealing their own death sentence. There is a power that no one can buck against and that power is the Word, and whatever the Word says, that s the way it is. The Word is a tremendous power and there is no other power anywhere that can stop the Word from being fulfilled. Whatever the Word says, that is the way it is going to be. Jesus Christ said there would be a people, the ministry and the church (wife) that would come together and they would be one. The five fold ministry would be out front with the mind of Christ until then. This ministry here has stood alone, but now Spiritual help has arrived with the uniting of the body and the ministry, which is the body of Christ speaking. Now we all believe the same, and we are all going the same way. What is that? It is Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever! Hallelujah! He s getting the job done, and He has the people to do it with. He s got His wife here, and He is getting her ready. The Word, He said it would be revealed, the fullness of it, and we would come to the fullness of the man Christ Jesus where we would no longer be tossed to and fro. That means we don t have this preacher come in and preach it this way and you say, Well, it sounds like it might be right. Then others say, He had some good points. Then another preacher comes in and leans it another way and some say, You know that preacher had some good points, and he said we needed to do it this way. No. Christ has spoken. Hallelujah! That s not the way it s going to be anymore, because that day is behind us now. He has brought us back home, and now He has given us His mind. He baptized us into His body which makes us the body of Christ in the earth. Christ the Mighty Angel has taken on flesh and bone. We have become bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. That s what Paul said in Ephesians 5:30-32, For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: (this mystery is now revealed and manifested) but I speak concerning Christ and the church. That means He s here walking, He s talking, and He s living. Where? In and through you and me! This power, this angel, this being that I saw in the night vision, he went forth. Just one look at him and you would say, I m getting out of his

242 way. He had one thing on his mind, I ve got a job to do. We can turn the television on and see all of the demonstrations, all the philosophers, and the people that have studied this and studied that. There are some that have studied about Israel that say, I believe it will be this way. Well, there s not a single one of them that will say, Look in the Book (the Bible) and see what the Book says about it. If they look in the Book and see what the Book says, they ll see that God gave that land to Abraham. God gave the land of Israel to the Jews! They will inherit every foot of it, and every power that opposes will be pushed back and eliminated. Somebody might say, Aren t you afraid to say something like that, afraid the Muslims will put you on their bad list? Well, I m on the good list; the good list is that Book that contains the names of the predestinated seed of God, and my name was there before the foundation of the world. They want the Egyptian president to resign. Well, it doesn t matter one way or the other because this is not man s doing. I know just as sure as I stand here today that we ve arrived at the end time, and that all these things will be and there is no stopping it. We re not trying to stop it, but we rejoice in the Lord because God has brought this into being. We know that the time has come for the ending of this present world system. God s Word says in Zechariah 12:2-3, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Verse 6 says, In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. Zachariah, Chapter 12, is a prelude to the fulfillment of Ezekiel, Chapter 38, and as we read this Chapter of Ezekiel, we see that all these happenings are in the natural realm. They need to leave Israel alone! (I know they won t, but I ve got to say it anyway!) Let s stand back and watch the God of the Old Testament as He deals with Israel. But when we look in the Spiritual realm, we see that Christ, the Mighty Angel (Revelation, Chapter 10) has come to His wife who has reached the fullness of Him, while the church world is still looking for His coming. Well, Jesus Christ (the physical man) is going to come again after the rapture, but it will be to start the millennium. Yes, Jesus is going to come as a physical man, but now Christ has come and is manifesting Himself to His wife. So if you want to see Christ Jesus, then look at His wife. I was thinking this morning about that scripture when the disciples began to realize, This is the Christ! The same came to Jesus and said, There s something we don t understand. The Word says that Elijah is going to come first. Elijah has to come before you come. It s laid out in the

243 Word, I ll send Elijah and he ll prepare the way. (Malachi 3:1) Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Why are you here? Why hasn t Elijah come yet? This doesn t make sense. Listen to what Jesus said, Elijah has already come and done what he was supposed to do and you knew it not. Even the apostles didn t know about it. As we see all these worldly events approaching, some are asking, Where is the bride? Where is the coming of the Lord? Isn t Christ supposed to come before the tribulation starts? He came and you knew it not. Amen, He came as a thief in the night, just like He came in that little manger over there. They were waiting for the King to come. He had already come and done what He was to do, and they missed it. I want to bring this in because it is important We watched the Pentecostal movement of years gone by and they had a teaching that you had to get saved (step 1). Then you had to get sanctified (step 2). Then you had to get the Holy Ghost (step 3) and that would make up your salvation (three steps). That s the way God restored it during the reformation. But when you see it from the Bible standpoint, we find there is no place in the Bible for that. It was in one simple step as Peter spoke of on the Jewish Feast Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:38, Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. When Philip was down in Samaria the angel of the Lord spoke to him and said, Go down into the desert, and when he got there he saw a eunuch riding in a chariot reading the Jewish Bible, but he couldn t understand what he was reading. So Philip began to tell him about these great things. The eunuch had already been reading, and God had already been dealing with his heart. So when they came to a waterhole the eunuch said, Here is water, what doeth hinder me from being baptized? Philip said, If thou believeth The eunuch said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they stopped the chariot and Philip baptized the eunuch and he went on his way rejoicing. That was the new birth before the fall, and it was not in three steps. Then the Spirit of God picked Philip up and he took a plain air ride! I like to ride in an airplane. But Philip didn t even have to get into a plane; he just flew over to another town and began to preach the gospel. So that s the way it was in Bible days before it fell away and came back. Now concerning the coming of the Lord, as we ve seen it in this day, watch, don t miss it because I m going to compare it with the teaching of three steps to a new birth as taught by most Pentecostals. They tell the people that you have to get saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost, because that was the way God restored it in the time of reformation as three separate and distinct works of grace to finish their salvation.

244 But now that it s restored there s only one work to a new birth. It tells about it in Acts 2:38. Now watch how Christ began His Spiritual coming to His wife. (1 Thessalonians 4:16) It was with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet (trump) of God. There came a shout, and a message went forth. You can read the early beginning of it in what Jesus said in Matthew, Chapter 25, At the midnight hour there will be a shout (a cry made), Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him. And it goes on down to Verse 11 with the marriage taking place. We can read where Paul wrote about it in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. That was the first stage of it. You begin to feel that God s bringing you into something. Then he goes on to say, With the voice of the archangel, but the finality of it is, And with the trump of God. Paul is showing the three stages here. But when we go over to 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, we read where Paul bypassed the first two stages of it. He said, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (One event) Now it is one event as it all ends up in the trumpet. The other stages have taken place and there is no need to see Christ s Spiritual coming cut up into three stages. If we still try to make three stages of the coming of Christ now that He is here in His fullness, then that s cutting Christ up into little pieces, you re dividing Christ. But when John saw the Mighty Angel come down (Revelation, Chapter 10) he didn t say, There s the shout. There s the voice of the archangel, and there s the trump of God. No. He just saw Him come and put one foot on sea and one foot on earth. That means completion. That means it s over. That means He has got His wife. That s when He gave the little book to His wife and said, Now eat! Praise God! We reach the end time and the fullness of Christ. He brings everything to the fullness. God even starts shaking things up in the Middle East. It s not going to get better, until the plan is completed. They might try to throw a little water on the fire here and throw a little water on the fire there, but in other places it s going to be like throwing gasoline on it. Why? Because the angelic being that I saw in the night vision, he has gone to do what is to be done, and without doubt it is being done. It s shaping the world for the ending of this present world system. However, my main interest is speaking about what Christ is doing for His wife in this hour, because Christ has called me to preach to His wife, (Revelation 10:8-11) as the authorizing Voice from Heaven has told us to go and take the little book, as we have reached the fullness of the stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. The five fold ministry has guided us by the Spirit and brought us to Ephesians 4:13 where it says, TILL we reach the fullness of the man Christ Jesus, TILL we reach that perfect man.

245 Now how can the wife be the perfect man? Because we don t see one another, we see Christ. As long as you see me up here preaching, then you re getting just a little bit of what you need to get. If you don t see Christ, if you don t come to church to meet with Christ, you might as well be somewhere else listening to some of those other preachers, and the majority of them have foolishness instead of the Word. They try to put something together and they re not ordained to it. You won t get much from their preaching. I m not criticizing all of them, because some of them are doing what God ordained for them to do. But there are some stuffedshirts that know nothing about what God is doing in this hour, and you ll get about as much from them as you d get from the tits of a boar hog, because there is just nothing there to get. Amen? But He has something that is real. He has brought the world to the end time. He has brought you to the end time. It will never be the same for you. It will never be the same for the church system. Now the church denominations will go on into the tribulation; many of them will be tribulation saints, and others foolish virgins, but some of them are just tares. There will be some that are foolish virgins and they will know some of these things, but they just don t want to accept the fact that God has sent a Voice; it s Jesus Christ speaking to His wife. And you are His wife, you ve got the same mind, you know Him. Many are worried and are saying, What if this happens? What if that happens? Well, send it on! Amen. Because there is a power that is doing this thing, and if you get in the way and try to stop it or block it, I feel sorry for you. David s face was set as flint. He never looked back and he never lost a battle, and if you would get in David s way then you would need to watch out! He always came out all right, because God anointed him. He s the one that killed the giant that was cursing Israel. David said, Are you folks going to let that giant curse the armies of God? Do you mean you re going to let that uncircumcised Philistine criticize us like this? When the giant said, Send me a man to fight, here came little David out. It made the giant so mad, he said, I didn t say to send me a boy out here to fight. The Bible says David was a ruddy little fellow. They went and told Saul, Saul, you ve got to do something. There s a boy out here that says he s going to go up and fight the giant. So Saul said, Bring him to me. He asked David, What in the world is this that you ve got on your mind? Have you lost your mind? That man has been a warrior from his youth up and here you are just a boy. David said, Let me tell you something, Saul, o king, I was out there looking after my father s sheep when here came a bear and it got one of the sheep, so I just got hold of that bear and ripped him in two. Then another time, here came a lion and I killed that lion to protect the sheep. The same God that delivered that bear into my hands, the same God that delivered that lion into my hands, will deliver this uncircumcised Philistine into my hands. Saul

246 knew a little bit about God and said, Well, if your mind is set on going David, then you put my (denominational) armor on and take my shield. David put that armor on and he couldn t move in that thing. That s just like someone that God has called to preach the gospel, some will say to them, If you re going to preach, then you need to join a denomination. I remember when I started preaching, I told my father, I feel like I m called to preach. He said, Well, son, if you re sure you re called to preach, the first thing you need to do is get you a neck tie and preaching license. If you had seen how we dressed coming out of the mountains, stripped overhauls and all, you would understand why he said, Get you a neck tie and preaching license and then you will be ready. Well, I ll tell you, it takes more than that, doesn t it? Well, Saul said, Put my armor on, David. David put it on and he couldn t move. That s the way it is with a real child of God. If you get in a denomination it will burden you down so you can t obey God. So David took off Saul s armor and just took his own sling, went by the brook and got five smooth stones (the five fold ministry, either one will get the job done). That old giant got so mad and was cursing and foaming at the mouth, and he just went crazy because Israel sent a boy out there to fight with him. He said, You little snotty nose thing. I ll get you on the edge of my sword, hold you up, and feed you to the birds. David said, I m going to take your sword and cut your head off. That giant got so mad that he dropped his shield, and just as soon as that shield came below his forehead, David was winding a stone. He turned that stone loose and he said, In the name of Lord God of Israel, and that stone went right into the giant s skull and he fell dead. So I m telling you, stay out of David s way! And the one I saw (in the night vision) passed by me, I might have wanted to carry on a little conversation with him, but no, he went just straight ahead. I knew he was going to do business and we better stay out of his way, then all of this trouble started happening in the Middle East. There has been a power loosed and you can t put the genie back in the bottle. It s loose! It will line up everything for the end time, and Israel is going to mop the ground up with all those nations around there. Also, something else will take place after Israel defeats those that fight against her; in quick succession there will be other nations that won t like what has happened, that are against Israel and they will align themselves with Russia. This is in Ezekiel, Chapter 38, if you want to read it. They ll come down and boastfully say, We ll show them, and they re going to follow the blueprint that President Bush did when he went into Iraq. He got all these other nations to line up behind him and went into Iraq, and soon destroyed everything Iraq had. When Russia comes down into Israel to destroy them, God is going to turn the elements loose. It s going to start raining, the hail is going to start falling, and when God gets through only

247 one sixth of them will return back to Russia to tell what happened. Then it s getting ready to go into the 70th Week of Daniel. The wife of Christ is going to glory. Now these are the things that are going to happen, but they are not our sign. Our sign is that you become the Word made flesh, (the Mighty Angel taking on flesh and bones) Christ walking around here in the earth in us, and getting us ready to make that change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as the dead raises. Now remember in this trumpet message the dead and living are both here. They both hear this trumpet. So I could ask, Paul, am I doing all right? See, the dead in Christ will rise first. When Brother William Branham was thinking about how it was going to be over there God took him up and he could look down and see his body lying right close, but he was over there with all them that had died and gone on. They said, Our precious brother, our precious brother, it s so good to see you here. This trumpet message breaks through the barrier, it breaks through the veil, and the dead and living together make up the body of Christ. We re caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, because the living and the dead make up the body of Christ as our bodies are changed. That s why the Spirit of Christ comes down in Revelation, Chapter 10, so that the Word could become flesh. Christ has come, and He came to take on flesh and bone through His wife (while others have missed it, and are still waiting for Christ to come in this manner.) But He has come and gotten us ready just before the dead in Christ are raised that are in the grave. Then together we will be caught up to meet the literal (physical) Jesus Christ in the air. We ll stay there in that realm until the tribulation period ends; then we will all come back to earth to live and reign with Christ, the King of the whole earth. This is the end time Reaching the End Time and the Fullness of Christ. That s what we have done. It s not maybe, or perhaps. No. This is happening in real time. Meaning, not in the past, or in the future, but the fulfillment of scripture is presently taking place in us for the rapture, as the natural events for the fulfillment of what the scripture says about the finishing up of world events is taking place. This means God is bringing to an end this present age. And I ll say this: Brother Gerald Cleveland of Anderson, South Carolina, was over here in Dawsonville, Georgia, for a meeting. The next day after he got home, he was on his job and he took just a little break sitting down on a five gallon can before he ate, and all the sudden he went into a vision. There he was on something like a golf course, and there was a cart like a golf cart. I was sitting on the cart and here came a man with an olive complexion that sat on the other seat. And something said, He has joined Himself to Brother Ben. It was an angelic being. Glory to God! That s what makes this work. It s a supernatural power which is supernatural back up. Somebody said, I don t know what makes Ben tick. It looks like he would have been washed up a long time ago. There was

248 somebody that had a dream sometime back and they thought, He s gone this time. It was like I was on the sea and I would go down and after a while I would pop back up again. Then they said, He s gone for sure this time. But they kept looking out on the water and I popped back up again. I ll tell you this, as long as that angelic being is sitting in that seat with me, I ll keep popping back up. And may I say this concerning the other angelic being that I saw in my night vision, As long as that power is in the Middle East, then Israel will survive and not only will they survive, but they will thrive. They are victorious because it s not by their own power that causes them to be victorious, but it s the power of God. They re going to wake up one of these days and quit playing politics with the rest of the world and trust their God. The being I saw in the night vision is somebody that doesn t play politics. He gets the job done, like the one that came and sat down in the cart with me, and He too is getting the job done. So God bless you today. Let s just bow our heads and pray: Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus we come to you now. Help every one here. Lord, we didn t get all of our scripture read about the body, but we ve been over it several times before. But, Lord, I just pray that you will help us all, and may that feeling come upon us that we re at the end, it s over with. Now we can do as John says when the wife has made herself ready, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for the marriage has come and His wife has made herself ready. Also, when we look on the other side of the world, Lord, you re making everything ready over there. You ve sent forth a power to get the job done. And we thank you for your great work here at the end time. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

249 MY GOSPEL BECOMES OUR GOSPEL It is so good to look into the Word of God this morning, and we thank Him for keeping us this past week and for His many, many blessings too numerous to mention. In one day His blessings are too numerous to mention because He gives us air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, and gives us the fellowship of God s saints. He just gives us so many things that we can t name them all. He has been doing this all my life and I m sure you could say the same. Even when we didn t know what we were doing, He did, and that s the main thing. When we didn t know where we were going, He did, and when we didn t know what to do, He knew. That s why He wants us to be led by the Spirit; and at the times when we are not yielded to the Spirit just right to be led by the Spirit, He overshadows that lacking and works things out for us because He saw us before the foundation of the world. The Bible says, He knew the end from the beginning. So with that being said, He wrote the book and put our names in the book and by His foreknowledge He predestinated us. Whom He predestinated, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. We are waiting for the glorified body part of this to be fulfilled and as sure as He did the other part, so will this be. We are reading from 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, and I want to take this thought, My Gospel Becomes Our Gospel. I don t have any notes written down and didn t even have a title until I got up here, so we ll just have to see how it works out as we go along in this message. We ll also see how the leadership of the ministry was projected and how God put it on the scene. In the final stage of it we will see how it becomes all inclusive, and then it is what God reveals to us and not just what God reveals to me. This is the body of Christ, and we all have the mind of Christ. In order to get us to this point, He used a ministry to get out there in front and then it becomes all inclusive as we get to the end time when all the members of the body becomes partakers and we are united together, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. I want to look at Paul as his ministry started out and as he spoke specifically of my gospel. Then later on we find him letting loose a bit as God included other men of God such as Timothy, Titus, Apollos, and others as this gospel began to go forth; then it was very appropriate to say our gospel as Christ anointed faithful men to preach Paul s gospel. When God struck Paul down on the way to Damascus with a great light, Christ spoke to him and said, Paul, I want you to be a light to the Gentiles. But later on when people began to look beyond Paul, he said, Some of you say, I m of Paul, others of you say, I m of Cephas (Peter), and others say, I am of Apollos. Some were saying, Apollos is

250 my preacher, not Paul. While others were saying, I m going to follow Peter, he s my preacher. Paul said, You re only looking to the human flesh. You have to look beyond the flesh and see where the Word is coming from. I ve often said, If the only thing you see is Ben Howard, then you are not looking at the right one. You need to look into the spirit and see where the word is coming from, because my words have to be anointed to be profitable. God has to give a revelation of the Word. Paul said, You re carnal when you only see a man speaking. That s why he said, I planted, Apollos came along and he watered; but it takes God to give the increase. You can plant a seed in the ground and you can water that seed, but unless God blesses that seed it s not going to produce much because that s the way God ordained it. So is it with the Word of God. So Paul starting out had the mind of Christ; but God giving him the mind of Christ didn t mean for him to keep that mind of Christ only within his head but go preach it to others. He gave Paul a gospel that Christ could use to bring us to the place where we would all have the mind of Christ, and that is what this message is all about as we are now the wife of Christ. Before reading the scripture let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray you bless the Word this morning and come and make your Word live. Lord bless us as one to stand to speak the Word knowing that only by your anointing and your blessings can I speak something that would benefit your people. Lord, I just pray you will grant it in the Name of Jesus. Amen. We are reading in 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now Paul is calling Timothy his son here. He wasn t his natural son, but he was someone that believed him and accepted the message. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, Watch the mind of Christ as it came through Paul and him preaching the Word. First, God put it in a vessel. He put it in Paul, but Paul wasn t to keep it; therefore, watch what he says the same commit thou to faithful men, (it spread out) who shall be able to teach others also. This was the mind of Christ as it went forth and it came first through Paul. Paul said many things such as, I am the apostle to the Gentiles, That which is behind in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. I ve fought a good fight, I ve kept the faith. He s saying, God used me to bring something, and this something that I brought is the mind of Christ to get you espoused (engaged) to Christ. It started out with my gospel. Going on to Verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now I want you to notice that verse. There s hardness, there s hard times, this is not always a flowery bed of ease and you have to endure hardness as a good soldier, otherwise, the first little trial that comes along could sidetrack you. Now I want to look at some of the things that the Lord has done here among us. Ever since I have been ministering, I have lived within twenty miles of where I m standing right now, of course I ve traveled some in

251 preaching; but the point is God has been establishing something here. He s not establishing just for me, but He has put something here telling us as Paul told Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier. Don t give up and don t be this way one year and then next year preach another way, regardless of what people do or say, stay right with it. Endure hardness and stay right with the Word, because this is the mind of Christ. It s left in our hands, given into our hands to preach this Word so that the mind of Christ can be spread to all the body of Christ. So if we preach something one year, and then the next year we preach it different, preach it another way, then it shakes the foundation. But God has given us a good foundation to build on, something we can look at and see; and we can see the trials this message has come through over the many years and has never wavered. I began to preach many, many years ago, more than fifty years, and there s been much loneliness at times, even sometimes feeling forsaken, but one thing has been constant whatever happened, whatever the trial might have been, its never deviated; but its stayed right with it. Look at this message as the Lord has ordained it to be put on tape, in book form, now on the internet with the website; and you can look at it and see the growth pattern in it as it grew in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. We see that it hasn t been something where we got a revelation way back there and stopped. No; we ve grown in grace and we ve moved up as God would move us. That is what is important about this gospel, and now the whole world can see the consistency of it. Years ago in the early 1960s, I began associating with a group and God revealed to us about the prophet Brother William Branham. It was so good and so great. Then as I got with that group they all began rejoicing about it saying, Brother Ben believes the message, and we all were being blessed by the preaching of the Word. But they got to a certain place and stopped, they refused to move on with God. It was during this time I was preaching a five fold ministry and that God would use a five fold ministry as He said per Ephesians 4:11-12, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Well, the pastor at the church where I was attending and preaching quite a bit at the time couldn t move on with God s Word. I would preach the five fold ministry is given for the perfecting of the saints and he would call me aside and say, Brother Howard, I know the scripture says that about a five fold ministry and I believe it, but I believe it happened somewhere back in time. If you ll read in the Word you will see that God sent a prophet and that prophet was to finish all the mysteries of the Bible, and I believe you are putting a little too much emphasis on a five fold ministry. We ve got the prophet and there is not going to be any-

252 more prophets and the Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet. Well, I said, Okay, I ll take a second look at it. I was trying to find my way. I just couldn t put what they were saying in the Word and make it line up and dove tail together with New Testament scripture. So at the time in the early 1960s and then on up to the mid 1960s after the death of Brother William Branham and coming on down through time, I couldn t put it together. I couldn t make it work. I said, Someway or the other this has to work because the Word has to be right, and if I build on something I have to see it in the Word. I know that God did a great thing, He sent a prophet and he was the messenger to the seventh church age, but someone is not getting it right because the Word says, First apostles, second prophets. I prayed and said, Lord, you know that I want to follow you through the Word, but this is not fitting right with the scriptures. At this time, I was teaching at a church on most Sunday mornings with a group and I told them about my concerns about the teaching that the Word of the Lord comes only to the prophet, and that it did not fit scripture concerning the New Testament ministry of Ephesians 4:11. The pastor disapproved of what I was teaching because he was preaching that the prophet finished all the mysteries of the Bible. He told me that the two of us couldn t be preaching two different things in the same church. So I said, I understand your position and you are the pastor. After this I decided to resign from teaching on Sunday mornings and came over here to the church in Dawsonville, continuing to minister and this was getting into the mid 1960s. I had begun to pray more, seek God more, and fast more. Then near the end of 1969, I stopped the job I was doing which was raising broiler chickens. Most of you already know the story where the Lord met with me there in the chicken house and told me this would be my last bunch of chickens, and it s very clear as you know all about it. You don t have to say, How do I know that s right? How do I know that took place? See, you were here. You were eye witnesses of a message that started out. Brother Clifford here is among the eyewitness from my birth and on as to what God has done for us in getting this gospel to where it is today. Now it was near the end of 1969 coming into 1970 when I decided, Lord, I need an answer. If I am going to preach, if I m going to be a servant for you and if I m going to carry the Bible around, then I have to be able to put it together and answer the questions. If I m going to be part of it I ve got to see it right, and see what you are talking about. At the time, I lived in a little mobile home (trailer) and so I began to pray and fast for 40 days and nights taking only water, just praying, listening to a lot of Brother Branham s tapes, Brother Raymond Jackson s tapes, some of my own tapes, and reading the Bible. It was like I was against a blocked wall. I couldn t see the end game we would say. I couldn t see exactly what I

253 needed to do, but I knew something didn t feel right when they would say, The Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet. In the first place, it wasn t in the Word, and to say that Brother Branham finished all the mysteries of the Bible, that wasn t in the Bible. But he did finish a mystery (a singular mystery), which was the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, meaning the church ages. We find within the church ages there were many mysteries that related to the church ages, but that s not all the mysteries of the Bible; that was clearing up the mystery of Revelation 10:7. So I began to fast and pray, Lord, how can that be? Your Word says a five fold ministry; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Lord, we see in your Word that you sent seven church age messengers and here s this last messenger, a prophet, and he s given us the Word for this last church age as you said He would. Lord, it s being said we don t need anything else and there s not anything else coming. That s what I was being taught, but it didn t feel right. I tell you, if you re the wife of the Lamb and you hear something wrong it s just not going to feel right, and when you hear the truth it will be like it was with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus when they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32) If you are His and it s Him doing the talking, your heart is going to burn within you. If it is just the preacher talking with his own ideas or opinions, then something is just not going to feel right about it. So I began to fast and pray seeking God, and then all of a sudden on the 38th day of the 40 days fast there came a Voice in the room. If you would have been there you might not have heard it; but to me it was just as audible as it could be, as these words were said, He was an Old Testament type prophet. When that was said, I thought, Who is he? Then the thought came to me, What are you praying about? I had been praying, How does this fit Lord? I can t put it all together; I can t put it in your Word, but I know that if it s right somewhere or another it has to fit in your Word. Then the understanding came to me, that in the Old Testament the Word did come to the prophet, the Word of God came to Ezekiel, the Word of God came to Elijah, and the Word of God came to Amos. See, God had promised in the Book of Malachi and the Book of Luke that He would send Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord and that He would turn the hearts of the children back to the faith of the fathers. He said if He didn t do it, He would have to smite the whole world with a curse, because we had to get out of this denominational mess we were in and get to Christ. So the Voice said, He was an Old Testament type prophet. Okay, now, that began to give me something to go on. If he s an Old Testament type prophet, then his ministry is not going to be identified as a New Testament ministry; he wouldn t be identified as a New Testament prophet of the Ephesians 4:11 order

254 in the New Testament. So I came out of the fast with the answer that I needed as the Lord gave it to me and helped me get it all together. Then I wrote the little booklet with the first publication being in the spring of 1970 entitled An Old Testament Prophet Comes to a New Testament Age. So now it is a known fact that we have had an Old Testament type prophet here in this last day. But what happened was, Brother Branham would say often, The Word doesn t come to anybody but a prophet, so by him making this statement it should have let us known that he was not a prophet of the Ephesians 4:11 order. But many people took what he said without seeing how it fit in the scriptures. So I began to preach that Brother William Branham came as an Old Testament type prophet and that there was still a New Testament ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers that was for the perfecting of the saints. Brother Branham s ministry was not a perfecting ministry, as his ministry was to call us out of denominations and turn us around. Well, most all of the followers of Brother Branham turned away from me and wouldn t have anything to do with me, and many of them still don t today because they think I am going against what the prophet said. But one of the things Brother Branham always said was, Stay with the Word. That s why I always say you can t go against the Words of Christ. We are all in this together showing the one mind. What I preach, you add to, you encourage, and you give me revelational nuggets; because now it s not just my gospel but it is our gospel. We are all part of the same thing, the end time Word made flesh. After this 40 days fast and visitation from the Lord, many of the followers of Brother Branham turned away. Of course, I had already heard about Brother Raymond Jackson and the Word that he was preaching, which was taking us a step further, and I began to associate there somewhat. Then he came here to the church in Dawsonville a couple of times for meetings. That was in the 1970s and we moved on in revelation and we rejoiced in further truth. Soon after this, he began to say that seven thunders were seven (additional) men to come. Someone had asked him, Brother Jackson, what are the seven thunders of Revelation, Chapter 10? His first answer was this, In my opinion, it s seven men that are going to rise up in different parts of the earth and they are going to come and put the finishing touches on everything. In other words, they ll put the icing on the cake it began to be said. Well, I couldn t go along with that because it didn t fit scripture. If He is going to perfect the church using the five fold ministry, where in the Bible do they get it that he is going to send seven men here at the end time and we ll follow those men and they ll say something that is going to get us out of here? Well, that was getting out into no-man s land; it wouldn t fit on Paul s foundation. The thunders were the seven Spiritual angels that were with the seven

255 church age messengers (men) throughout the seven church ages, and gave them a message in each respective age as they came through time. The seventh messenger, Brother Branham, was on the scene at this time and all seven Spiritual angels met him in Arizona in 1963 and sounded their voices right through this seventh church age messenger s voice. (Note: you can read about this mysterious cloud in the 1963 edition of Life Magazine) That is where we get the picture of the face of the Lord in the cloud. As this became clearer, I had to speak with our precious Brother Jackson about this strange idea. I told Brother Jackson face to face, a good Brother, about this inconsistency knowing that I had gotten much revelation from him. It was not to disrespect the man of God, but was intended to be faithful to the Word of God and my conscience. So I said to him at one of the church conventions they were having in Indiana, Brother Jackson, I can t see it in the Word what you re saying about seven more men coming. He said, It doesn t make a bit of difference Brother Ben, let s go eat, because they were serving dinner. But after this, he wouldn t have much to do with me. The people that followed Brother Jackson said, If Ben disagrees with Brother Jackson, I don t want anything to do with him. Well, I had to endure hardness. Yes, a lot of people turned away from me, but I had to stay with that Word. See, that is what Paul is telling Timothy here, Endure hardness as a good soldier. You have to stand, you can t be wishy-washy. There s a Word, there s a message. God s aim here in this end time is to get a wife for His Son. Paul said, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you (this was to be a future event) as a chaste virgin to Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:2) This message that I am preaching is the presenting of the bride to Christ. That s why we read many times in Ephesians, Chapter 4, about the five fold ministry for the perfecting of the saints. That s why this ministry is going to get out there, blasting this Word forth and push back the frontier to get us to the place where we see the marriage of the ministry and all the other members of the body and that s what Ephesians 4:13 means. Until a certain time, then it will become all inclusive. You have this ministry for the perfecting of the saints till we reach the fullness of the stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 4:11-16) Then we completely blend together with the ministry. We began to speak the truth in love, edifying one another, and every joint is supplying the other. It s not just the ministry out there, it is all of us. That is when My Gospel Becomes Our Gospel. It s not just Brother Ben s gospel, but it s our gospel. You are our epistles, written and read of all men; you are the Word. Listen as Paul tells Timothy in Verse 4, No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. That is a good one there. The affairs of this life we don t

256 want to entangle ourselves too much with them because the Word says, You are not your own, for you are bought with a price, and the price was paid at Calvary. You belong to Him, so don t entangle yourself with the things of the world to the extent that it takes you away from the things of God. Some people think like this when they have certain things to do, they automatically use this as an excuse, I have this to do, and I have that to do. But if you are a real child of God; a soldier that is bought with a price and know you are one of His, then you can do those things you have to do, while putting Christ always first and foremost in every decision you make. You cannot make a decision and put Christ second, Lord, I m going to serve you, but I have to do this first. If you can t do it and serve God, then don t do it. That is the way we all have to do all our lives, to do what is right. When I quit raising chickens and moved into the mobile home to obey God, I then began the 40 days fast where the Lord gave me the revelation and message of An Old Testament Prophet Comes to a New Testament Age. I was in the chicken house, and I have told this many times and don t mean to be repetitious; but I want to show this is real and you can have complete confidence in it. It is not something some man formulated in his mind and planned it out, because man can t plan fifty years ahead. Then it comes right down the line all the way to this hour and everything has worked out just like it was said. Right now, you can t plan three days ahead because of the way things are happening in the Middle East and all the rest of the world. It is hard to plan anything with the way the economy is now. God wants us to see what He started more than fifty years ago, and it has not failed or wavered and only God can do that. If you will keep your hand in the nail scarred hands of the man that stills the water, then you re all right, being led by the Spirit. In the chicken house there stood someone that looked just like me and he said, Do you know me? And these words came from within me, I said, Yes, I ve looked for you all my life. He said, This shall me your last bunch of chickens. See, you can t put anything before the Lord. Yes, I was making a good living raising chickens and it wasn t hard work, but it was tying me down to the point where I couldn t maneuver around as far as the freedom I needed to fully obey in preaching the gospel. Everything had to be second place in my life, and the Lord Jesus Christ first place. That is the way it is with all Christians at the end time. There cannot be anything, husband, wife, children, or whoever, or whatever, cars, houses, or lands, wealth or riches; but it is the Lord Jesus Christ first. So we have to put Him first and as we do, we are baptized; this message causes a baptism into the body of Christ. Now there is water baptism. It s the first phase, and sinners can be baptized as well as Christians. There s the first baptism, and quoting what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with the wisdom of

257 words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Then there s the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is given to lead and guide us to deeper truths of the Word, and on to the baptism into the body of Christ to the point where we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This is the wife s baptism and that is done by this message, by taking all our minds together and making the one mind which is the mind of Christ. It is not the mind of a man; it s the mind of Christ and we all get the mind of Christ as the Word is preached. So, now we see it s not My Gospel, but it is Our Gospel. It becomes ours instead of just mine. It has become our revelation. God gives us all revelation. I have been speaking about this especially for the last few years or more, Let God lead you, let God quicken the Word to you and share it with us what God reveals to you, because it s not one man, it s not just my gospel, it s our gospel. When Timothy and Titus went out preaching what Paul preached, it wasn t so much Paul s gospel; but it was their (our) gospel. I remember when we were over in Africa riding in the car and talking as we were going from one meeting to another. Brother Enoch said, This is not just your revelation Brother Ben, but it s mine. God has given it to me. In other words, he heard it, he believed it, he got it, and it s his. He said, And I am going to run with it. Then we said, Run with it Brother Enoch, and that is what he has been doing ever since. He doesn t have to ask me or anybody else because the Lord is controlling this. We all speak the same thing! In Paul s day, if someone came speaking something else, he said, Mark them that cause divisions and avoid them. (Romans 16:17). Then in 2 John 1:10 it says, If someone comes to your house and they don t bring this gospel, don t bid him Godspeed. Paul was trying to make it work by giving strict orders knowing it had to be in complete unity, but it wasn t marriage time and the mind of Christ had not taken effect for the wedding. Well, I m saying this, In our day, God will give you the mind of Christ. We know this that only those that God gives the mind of Christ will understand and see this. We don t argue with them. Why? Because they can t see it unless it is revealed to them, and they have to get that mind of Christ in order to understand. They can have a different mindset and you can talk to them all day, and when you get through talking to them they ll say, That man is mad, they will think you re crazy. But God gives you the same mind and you know this isn t crazy. You know that you ve not gone mad. You know this is the Lord speaking, leading, guiding, and working things out according to His Word. My Gospel has become Our Gospel. When it was first established we could say, My Gospel, because it had to be established first before we could say, Our Gospel. It had to be brought through all the trials and hard times to show that this was for real. Years ago God gave me a dream, and in the dream I was trying to get a vehicle up a mountain and I was pushing hard.

258 I would move it a little bit at a time, scotch it, and move a little more. The mountain was very high and different preachers would come by and they would say, I will help you push this. Well, they pushed on it for awhile and we gained a little bit, but they left and no one would really get in and help to push this gospel to the top. So I had to labor more abundantly and was faithful and now it s at the fullness stage and the trumpet is sounding on top of the mountain. It s the same as it was with Paul when he said, My gospel. He was the one that was ordained to push it, and he stayed right with it and didn t let anything stop him from it. Then after that other people began to get in it, and now at the top of the mountain, My Gospel has become Our Gospel, because Christ put His mind there. But we can look back and see how we have endured hardness! Even Paul said, I ve been shipwrecked, I ve been defamed, and all kinds of things. When I was at a certain place no man stood with me, only Luke is with me. Notice, you have to please Him who has called you to be a soldier. Verse 5 says, And if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. That means there are certain principles you follow in God s Word and you have to do it lawfully according to God s Word, according to the mind of Christ. In other words, if you run in a race and break the rules you are disqualified. You ve got to do it right. You can t go out here and preach this way one year, and another way next year. There are a lot of people that follow after trends. The thing is, God has a gospel here and you have to stay right with it, you can t go with the different trends. Over the years we ve seen many people come and rejoice, shout, praise God, and say this is the greatest thing. Even in one place it was said, Heaven has come down. I remember preaching over in Zimbabwe, and God was blessing and moving. (You can hear the audio or view the video of the message entitled, Obtaining That Which Was Previously Unobtainable in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, on July 8, 2009). The power of God fell and when I got through preaching, a man got up and he was speaking in his language, but all of a sudden he said in English, Heaven has come down. On our way to the meeting we were previously discussing how it looked as though hell had come up on the earth. My wife, Barbara, spoke up and said, If hell has come up, then heaven has come down. She was referring to the Mighty Angel in, - Revelation, Chapter 10 heaven has come down. So we were in this meeting in Zimbabwe and after I got through preaching, this man was speaking and he said, Heaven has come down. Barbara and Brother Enoch looked at one another because that s what we had been talking about in the vehicle on the way to the meeting, If hell has come up, then heaven has come down. Well, these folks at the meeting didn t know anything about what had been said earlier, but God let the man say it to vindicate that this is right. Heaven has come down, and it has come down upon a people with

259 one mind, one heart, one Spirit, one soul. A people that have come together, the ministry and the rest of the body members are united perfectly together as one and it makes up the fullness of the body of Christ, which is the wife of the Lamb. So My Gospel has become Our Gospel. In the early church, Paul s my gospel became their gospel. In that time they were all preaching the Word. When Titus went out, he preached the same thing Paul preached knowing it was right. The reason Paul had to give a warning at all was because they were dealing somewhat in the natural realm because perfection was to be at this end time; but Paul was establishing a way to go. But here in this last day, Christ Himself has come down and personally takes charge of it, and the job gets done. It is no more some preacher, or some church, but it is Christ in you the hope of glory! You are baptized into His body. In Revelation, Chapter 10, He comes down and He gives us the little book, nobody else, only the wife. In that day when Paul preached, only those that were engaged to Christ got Paul s message. The rest of them said Paul was mad and much more. That s why when Peter spoke in Galatians, Chapter 2, he heard what Paul was preaching and said, Paul, you and Barabbas go on to those heathens. They perceived it was right, but they didn t want any part of it. A lot of people perceive this is right but don t want any part of it because they will get a little persecution, or the church world won t accept it. Just like a lot of people that followed Brother Raymond Jackson would get with me saying, Yes, I see what you are saying about the seven thunders. One man said to me, I think I ll talk to Brother Jackson about those seven men (thunders) because I can t see it in the Word either. But he never did, because he loved to sit on Brother Jackson s platform, he loved to be there and get the praise of men. They had a large crowd and he wanted to preach to them. Although he would say, I believe what you re saying Brother Ben, but I m not going to say anything about it. Well, you endure hardness as a good soldier. Here is a message going forth today; it s not only thriving but it is flourishing all over the world, and you can t win if you don t strive lawfully. Continuing on to Verse 6, The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. I want you to notice, there has to be a first; someone has to partake of it. Paul was the first to preach Christ the way he did. He preached Christ by revelation. Then the others were partakers the husbandman, or the leader, or the one that is looking after the garden must first eat some of the fruit and see if it is any good or not. So let the husbandman be first partaker eat some of it and see. In other words, you have to preach this gospel and then it spreads out. Verse 7, Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Now if you are the wife of the Lamb, God will give you understanding. Now everybody may not understand the full details, because you don t do it in a school room,

260 even though they are reading from the same book. There s 30 fold understanding, a 60 fold understanding, and there s 100 fold understanding. But if you are a 30 fold understanding, to God you are a 100 fold, because you are doing what He ordained you to do. Next verse, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. I want you to notice, My Gospel there. There s one other place I want to read where Paul spoke of my gospel and that s in the Book of Romans. But this can t just be my gospel now. It s our gospel, because we are all partakers together. In Romans 16:24-25 it says, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. My Gospel, He gave it to Paul. But when I preach the Word and you receive a revelation from it, it s not just my revelation but it s yours, because I can t give you a revelation, only God can. If you get a revelation you don t say, Thank you Brother Ben for giving me a revelation. No, but you thank God for giving you a revelation. The only thing Brother Ben did was preach. Let s go to Colossians 1:24 and we will read about Paul s troubles, trials, and being in a shipwreck. Then at another time he was beaten and many other things befell him. One time they beat him and left him for dead, but he got right back up and began to preach the gospel. Nothing could stop him. Here in Colossians 1:24-25 he says, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you.., now wait just a minute Paul, I thought Christ suffered for us, and here you are saying I suffered for you. Now what are you doing? What are you trying to pull on us here? Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body s sake, which is the church. Now I want you to notice that. That s a powerful scripture there. How did he suffer? It was because he stayed right there no matter what. Although he was shipwrecked, beaten, put in prison, and all these things, he had one job to do and that is what mattered to him. His job was to bring a gospel to get the bride espoused (engaged) to Christ and nothing, nothing could stop him, even though he was rejected and persecuted; but he suffered all the things that came his way so that this gospel could get to the church. It s the same thing now. This gospel I am preaching gets us married to Christ. I suffered for you! It s been a long hard road, but we finally got to the top of the mountain. Then it is no longer just my gospel; but it is us all, it s our gospel. Watch this next verse, Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God. Now why was it given to Paul? It was given to Paul for you. That s why he suffered those things he endured. That s why he told Timothy, Endure hardness as a good soldier. There have been people that have heard this

261 preaching and gotten up and said, I believe Brother Ben is this, and I believe Brother Ben is that. I believe Brother Ben s an apostle. Even some have said, Never spake a man like this man spake. But a little hardness comes along, a little trial, where are they? Endure hardness as a good soldier. Stay right with it and have the mind of Christ, knowing nothing else will satisfy you. When you eat this little book, oh it s going to be bitter; but you get beyond the bitterness All to Jesus you surrender, all to Him you freely give that honey that made your belly bitter it gets to tasting so good. Moses cast that tree into the water and sweetened the water. The water is sweetened for you when you make up your mind and say, Nothing, nothing, nothing is going to sidetrack me and nothing is going to stop me from putting my all in all in this marriage. All that I am, all that I ever hope to be is Christ s, and this world holds absolutely nothing for me in its present stage. I just want to do something for the wife to help her in her marriage to Christ at all cost. My gospel has become our gospel, and that s when the five fold ministry along with all the other members of the body of Christ is married to the Lamb. Not just the preacher being married to Christ, no, it s all the members; yet we still have the five fold ministry that Christ used to bring us to the fullness of Himself. Its purpose of getting the body married to Christ has been accomplished, meaning the ministry and all that are ordained to be the Lamb s wife is perfectly united in the mind of Christ. I would like to say here that there is not another type of ministry that replaces the five fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11. The ministry and all other members of the body are now married together spiritually, and together we are the wife of the Lamb as Christ came down to earth in His fullness in Revelation 10:1. The ministry involves the whole body of Christ now. This is similar to what we see in Acts 18:24-26, as Aquila and Priscilla, husband and wife together expounding God s present day working; and perfectly together they showed Apollos God s plan. The marriage has taken place, and we are rejoicing and enjoying being married. (Revelation 19:7-8) That s why it had to go forth like it has. That s why we had to push. That s why despite the fact that you see the problems and all the troubles; it s the will of God, because God wanted to show you an example to stay right with it no matter what. My first wife passed away and many things happened. I went through a lot of heartaches, but I didn t miss a sermon. I kept right on going. I stayed single for five and a half years and then God sent me Barbara and we got married. Now Barbara, she s become one of the most dedicated Christians I know; she s very faithful in the work of the Lord. I have never met anyone quite as dedicated. She s been an example to me and helped me to be dedicated. We are all helpers together. We are the body of Christ. We love Him and one another, and together we love and appreciate Him. Do you love Him with all your heart?

262 In closing let us pray. Father, we pray that you will take this Word, that you ll bless it and help the people to understand Lord the things you have ordained. Lord I just pray everyone can say, Did not our heart burn as He spake to us along the way, and they will realize it s not a preacher talking to them, but Christ. Bless us all together in Jesus Name. Amen.

263 THE LAST TRUMP MESSAGE IS DELIVERED BY THE WIFE OF THE LAMB It s good to see each one again, we just thank God that you saw fit to be here this morning, realizing all things are ordained of God as He knows the end from the beginning. I know that to be the truth as we see His plan unfold in our lives. Now today as you know, we ve talked a good bit of late on the last trumpet, so today we are seeing how the last trumpet message is delivered. So that s why I m entitling this, The Last Trump Message is Delivered by the Wife of the Lamb. I entitle the message thus, as opposed to one person delivering the message. I like the scripture that s in the Book of Psalms 68:11 that says, The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. So, here we are speaking of the many. Paul said, I stand in Christ s stead, and he was ordained an apostle to the Gentiles to bring the Word; to be a light to the Gentiles delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God. But it wasn t kept in that one person, because Paul began to spread it out as he told Timothy, Titus, Apollos, and others to take this gospel and go preach it. During the meetings in Chilanga, Zambia, in 2009 at Brother Lovemore Sakala s assembly, I preached a message entitled, Paul Planted, Apollos Watered, and God Gave the Increase as We Labored Together, and that message has been one of the more downloaded messages on our website. The wife of the Lamb receives understanding that this trumpet message has gotten into all the body of Christ as we will now see. So today we want to read the scripture here in 1 Thessalonians, and then I m going back to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12. Now one thing before reading this I want to say, Chapter 12 of the Book of 1 Corinthians shows the ministry of the body of Christ, which is the ministry of the preachers and all other members merged together as one ministry. Then we are married to the Lamb. The Word teaches us that we have this five fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11, as this Holy Ghost works through the ministry to complete the marriage by the apostolic ministry. The ministry through the Spirit and the Word is to lead us and guide us and help us UNTIL; the Bible says TILL we come into the fullness of Christ. And then each member begins to edify one another as the ministry and all other members are totally united together as one in this one body with one mind. This is completed in Revelation, Chapter 10, with John standing there as a type of the wife of the Lamb, which Paul said was the body of Christ. Let us pray before reading the scriptures. Heavenly Father, Lord we come to you now at the opening of thy Word knowing

264 where we stand Lord, realizing it would be of very little value without the anointing of God. It s a fearful thing to stand with your Word open speaking to your wife. Lord I pray that you will help me to move out of the way as much as possible; that you may bring your Word through me to help me to be a vessel, an anointed vessel that I may speak words that will be of an edifying nature to your children and we ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen. First of all we are reading in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, and this is not strange reading to you as you ve heard it read quite often, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. This scripture clearly tells us that when a Christian passes away we definitely should look at it different than someone who has no hope. He says, That ye sorrow not. I know that in the human realm, yes we re sorrowful because we miss someone and it leaves an emptiness, but we have to realize they ve gone on and they re much better off because their battles have been won and all their pain is gone. They will never suffer anymore and all will be happiness. Soon the bride members will rise and the living will be changed and we will all blend together as the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7-8) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring (send) with him. They have come with Him; as Christ came back He brought those theophanies with Him. Then those that are raised from the dead will go into their theophanies and we which are alive will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Now in Revelation, Chapter 10, it shows Christ coming to earth, and we understand that He has come to earth because He puts one foot on sea and one foot on earth, so there is no mistaking where He comes to, it s right here on earth; that s the Mighty Angel of Revelation 10:1. We know by this happening that Jesus Christ will soon meet us in the air, catching us away in clouds of glory, only then will we see Him in a visible body as the rapture takes place. Jesus will not come to earth in a physical body until after the tribulation has all run it s course, then He will come back to earth as King to set up His kingdom. Then the remaining saints will rise from the dead to fill their place in the millennium reign. But for now we see Christ, that mighty anointing. The Mighty Angel takes on flesh and bones, and God is wonderful to make us a part of Him in this manner; that s the many member body of Christ. Paul made it so plain that we can t help but see, and to be sure that we saw, he said it over and over again in his writings, Ye are the body of Christ, Is Christ divided? We are Christ in the earth; we re the physical representation of all that He is. Paul s statements show clearly what his revelation of Christ was. If we had heard him in that day we would probably think maybe he was a little extreme with some of these things. We might have thought like this, He s getting a little fanatical on some of these things. But when we

265 trace it back and see the whole picture, then we know that he was right on target, amen. So he taught that God sends these theophanies with Christ as He makes His descent back to this earth as is seen in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, and Revelation, Chapter 10. So we see what Christ brings with Him, meaning they re here now just for the resurrection and our translation. Paul said in Hebrews 12:22-23, But ye have come unto Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. We re in heavenly Jerusalem where the angels are, where the spirits are, yes in the spirit we re there. Many times we can only see by the eye of faith what s around us. We have in the Word where Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst. That means when we come together only for the purpose of worshipping Him, serving Him, to meet with Him, He said, I will be there. So we see these things, we re in two worlds at the same time. You re in the world physically, but you re not of the world. Ye are made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God sends these theophanies with Christ as He comes to earth, so they re here and that settles that question. Now continuing with the scripture, For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, and Paul begins to tell us how it s going to really happen when this fullness of Christ comes back into the earth. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (or hinder) them which are asleep. He tells us exactly how it s going to be, saying, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Notice here, a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Now when we begin to look at the three phases of the coming of the Lord, the first phase is the shout; the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. And we are aware of what God has done in this time we re living in. God sent a message and it went around the world many times over and it woke up the virgins of Matthew, Chapter 25, and there came a revival to this nation and the Lord permitted me to see it. I go back so far it seems like for eternity. When I say something about the fact that I have been preaching since the mid fifties, people look at me like, You ve got your dates all mixed up. No I just span several moves of God. So what is taking place now is Christ in the earth in the last days revealing the fullness of Himself through His wife. Paul said the last part of this is going to be the trumpet sounding. Let me read it for you, 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: The Word says here when this third part (the last trump) of Christ s coming is completed, this

266 is the time the dead in Christ is going to rise. Don t miss my words here the dead in Christ cannot rise until those theophanies are here. So Christ brings those with Him, and He says it will happen at the last trump. So there s a trumpet sounding; it s a message, and that is the title of my message, so The Last Trump Message is Delivered by the Wife of the Lamb. Now let us read Ephesians 4:13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: Then in the next few verses it goes on to say that we ll no longer be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, meaning we re settled in Him. Then Verse 16 says when this happens the body begins to edify and build up itself, each member supplying the other. It s the body of Christ in action; with leadership in its proper order as Ephesians 4:11 shows. This gives way for the other gifts to manifest themselves in each member. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Now there are diversities of gifts and divers means many but the same Spirit. It s not a different Spirit with every gift; it s all the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Now diversities means that the Holy Ghost is not going to work in everyone the same way. No there s diversities of operation, just like many people coming to church have different personalities. Some when they get really happy they ll start wiping tears from their eyes, while others will say, glory to God, hallelujah! I explained it this way one time when someone asked me, Why do some cry, and others don t? I said, You take an electrical charge wire and get different people to touch it and every one of them will act different, yet they re feeling the same thing. They will react according to their nature. Some will jump, some will yell, some will lie in the floor and roll around, and some will have tears come to their eyes; different ones react in different ways. God works in every one accordingly. Paul made it clear that a brother or sister can have any of these gifts, except in the leadership, the ministry which falls into the five office category of Ephesians 4:11. Verse 7, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. That s why it s given; it s for us to profit spiritually. He gives us riches, spiritual riches. Paul said, Spiritual riches in Christ Jesus. Verse 8, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: Oh, how many times we could avoid getting into some of the conditions we ve gotten into had we have had that Word of wisdom or someone around to give us that Word of wisdom. Then it says, To another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; That has happened to me many times and that works for us all. Sometimes He lets us know some things ahead of time. Verse 9 says, To another faith by the same Spirit; Now I want you to notice this faith, there are people that this faith grows in and is not the gift of faith, but a faith that grew in them over

267 the years as they learned to put their trust in Christ to supply their needs. Now the gift of faith can come upon you like it did when Paul was bit by the serpent, the Bible says that when that serpent bit him he should have fallen dead immediately, it was so poisonous, but he shook it off and felt no harm. There s the gift of faith, and this faith produced a miracle. Paul says here, To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; There are people with the gift of healing and when I get sick, I want them to pray for me. It seems as though that somehow they just believe God especially for healing. They just believe God and it happens, as faith and healing works together. Now this is not just for the preacher. I know in times past it was thought that the preacher was the one with the gift of healing, and if that preacher prayed for you this would happen, and he also had the Word of knowledge, he could call you out and tell you this or that. Well that was the way it happened before the until took place, (Ephesians 4:13) until we all come together, (both body members and the ministers) and reach the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. There was a time that God did isolate and use certain men in this way more prevalent than the other members of the body, but here He puts it in the body. This is the last message, the trumpet, and He uses all. To another the working of miracles; Oh, I could tell you stories here of how God works miracles in our lives everyday, and I know each one of us has a story to tell as Christ glorifies Himself in us. So he says here to another prophecy; Now I want you to notice the words to another. It means just not one person. To another doesn t mean to the preacher. To another doesn t mean you all sit back and I ll get up here and I ll prophesy to you as to what you should think and do and how you should do it. To another, I like that to another member of the body of Christ is what he s talking about. To another discerning of spirits; now that s a good one there. Sometimes I can detect certain things about a person after I m around them for awhile, but discerning here is absolutely different. Paul gave us an example in telling us about this lady who came to them saying to the people, These be men of God that has come to us, and I ll tell you why they re here, they re here to show us the way of salvation. She was making such a ruckus even though she was saying things that for the most part were true. But Paul discerned that the spirit of the thing was wrong. Just because someone comes to church and says, This is the greatest thing I ve ever seen; I m telling you I ve never been in anything so great, doesn t mean the spirit of it is right. I ve had them say, When Brother Ben speaks I ve never heard a man speak like this man speaks. You ve heard it; but watch the spirit. Watch what it produces; consider the end and see what happens. So here s what it was, Paul said to the unclean spirit, Come out of her. It was the wrong spirit even though she was saying some things that had much truth in it, yet the spirit, the motives, the whole thing was wrong from the core out. To another

268 divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. To understand the gift of tongues it s important to understand what it s not, because what is thought to be the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues in the modern Pentecostal Churches is a counterfeit of the real thing. From my experience that I ve seen, I would have to say that s just a fleshly display of emotions and is not the gifts of the Spirit of God. Now that we know what it s not, we can begin to see what the real gifts are. I would like to give an example of how the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation work as they did in the days of Paul. I was on a missionary journey in Mozambique in 2006 and preached in a place called Agua Boa (meaning good water) the message The Authorizing Voice Visits Mozambique. Afterwards while my wife and I was sitting in a vehicle waiting for other ministering brothers, a young lady came to my window and we heard her say, You are a servant of the Lord sent unto us. Then she turned and quickly walked away. It took us totally by surprise, and I made the comment to my wife, That was strange. She thought so too. We just felt something strange about it. Then the other ministers came that we were waiting for, and we left for Blantyre, Malawi. We didn t say anything about it until we got almost to Blantyre, then my wife Barbara mentioned about the young lady coming to the window of the car and saying what she did to me. Brother Enoch Kamanula that was with us asked her, Did you understand what she said? Barbara said, Yes, we both heard and understood what she said; she spoke perfect English. The Brethren started yelling excitingly, It was God, it was God! There is no one in that village that can speak English! And they just kept telling us over and over, there was no one in the village that could speak a word of English. After coming back to the United States, we sent Brother Enoch a picture of the young lady that was in amongst the crowd that we had taken after the meeting, prior to her coming to the vehicle. He went back to the village in Agua Boa to preach and to confirm what had happened. He spoke to the young lady in her native tongue, and found out she couldn t speak a word of English. He asked her did she remember going to the vehicle of the visitors. She said, Yes, I just felt the presence of God and walked over to the vehicle. Brother Enoch asked her, Do you know what you said to Brother Howard? She answered, No, I don t know what I said; I spoke in a language I had never heard before. So these gifts are not just for the preacher, but it s just as Paul said it would be. Here is a scripture that I love, Verse 12, For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. In other words we are Christ in the earth; we are the physical representation of Him. He says in Verse 13, For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. Then the scripture goes on and says, The eye can t

269 say to the hand, I have no need of thee, neither can the hand say to the feet, I have no need of thee. Thus far I ve got the members of the body, but now in Verse 25, this scripture includes the whole body, That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. We can t come to worship with the attitude, I love our preacher and hate everybody else. So if you say: I like the preacher in this assembly but the people, I don t care for them. They re a bunch of renegades, a bunch of mountain folks, a bunch of people uneducated, but I love that preacher. Then you re wrong, because we should have the same care one for the other. Verses 26-27, And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. We re all the body of Christ and not just the preacher. So don t ever say, I believe Brother Ben s the body of Christ, because I m only a member of the body of Christ, I m a minister in the body of Christ. There is but one body of Christ, and that physical part is created as we are baptized into the body of Christ, the Mighty Angel who has come down in Revelation, Chapter 10. It s Christ in you and you in Christ as we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Then Paul continues as he says in Verses 28-30, And God hath set some in the church, Now watch here we ve already dealt with the members showing how it all works, and then he gets to the ministry part, Now God hath set some in the church, first apostles. Yes, that hasn t changed; that s true. It s someone that God uses, someone that God has put that special anointing on for a certain purpose, but it doesn t make them one bit bigger. Because Paul said, I m the least in the body of Christ. He said, I m not even worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the saints and I m not even worthy to be among you. But yet God said, You re my apostle for this job, and the apostolic office is where the leadership comes in. Paul said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office. First apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, but he doesn t give the whole order of the five fold ministry here that s written in Ephesians 4:11. After that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Absolutely not! Have all the gifts of healing. No. Do all speak with tongues. No. Do all interpret. No. But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. And then Paul tells about the love of God in Chapter 13. Now we take this right to Ephesians, Chapter 4, and it fits right with Revelation 10:8-11, the final ministry in the wife of the Lamb showing Ephesians, Chapter 4, and Revelation 10:8-11 are married together producing Christ in the earth. So Revelation, Chapter 10, is for our day, including the Voice of Authorization to go take the little book, and then the body of Christ begins to prophesy; the body prophesies and not just the preacher.

270 Hallelujah! What did I entitle this message? The Last Trump Message is Delivered by the Wife of the Lamb. And inside this body, yes, there are apostles, and the wife of the Lamb accepts the fact that the Lord has called me in that order. Then there are prophets, there are teachers, there are also these other ministries of Ephesians 4:11. The Word says there are also helps and governments, and all these are in the body of Christ. The apostle can t say to the others, I have no need of you. And neither can the other members of the body say they have no need of the apostle, because that s where God puts the leadership first and it flows out to the rest of the body. As Paul says, These things you ve heard of me, go teach the same thing to other ministers so they can teach the same thing and we ll all have the same mind. Paul also said, See that we all speak with one mouth and one mind. (Romans 15:6) God bless you today, let us pray. Heavenly Father we just thank you for the many blessings upon us. Lord, I felt that you put this on my heart and I just pray now as we commit it to you that you ll take it and use it. That it will be as the Word says, My words will not return void, but will go forth and will accomplish that which I ve ordained, and that it will prosper wherever I send it. Now bless the people and we thank you for sending the people this way Lord. I thank you Lord that you have given a spirit to listen real good today and has soaked in this Word. I thank You for it and we pray God that you ll just have your way with all of us, the body of Christ and help us all to know now from henceforth the last trumpet message is delivered by the body, the wife of Christ with the apostolic leadership. We pray as this message goes from continent to continent, that you will open the hearts and ears of the hearers and the readers to let them know that you are still speaking. In Jesus Name. Amen. God bless you today.

271 RECOGNIZING IT S THE LORD HIMSELF TAKING HIS WIFE We are reading in the Word of God today a scripture that we have previously read many times before, and sometimes I get almost embarrassed reading the same line of scriptures because somebody may say, Let s go to a totally different area of the Word. But when we look in the Word of God, we find that Paul had a certain thing to do, and he wasn t going to get involved too much with the other things; but only wanted to involve himself in those things that God had called him to do. The Bible is a big book, and much of it especially in the Old Testament doesn t have application to us specifically, as much of it has already been fulfilled, while other parts of it will take place during the great tribulation and the millennium. Now we are to deal with what is pertinent with us today; not so much what has been or will be, but what is. So we are reading in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, and I want to take the thought, Recognizing it s the Lord Himself Taking His Wife. We know that s what is going on today; it s the Lord Himself taking His wife. The reason I m saying, taking rather than has taken is I want to show how He came into doing it. It is a process, and that process is being completed as we speak. It is being said and done, and the world doesn t know anything about it. It s like when Jesus was born in a manger, no one knew it, not even the king or the religious people, but there were a few people that did know it. It was some shepherds out on the hillside that lived out there with the sheep. It was said they even smelled like the sheep, and the sheep even knew their voice. Some people think, well, if God was going to have a great announcement to make, He would have done it using the church folks of that time or the high priest. But no, there were just a handful of shepherds on the hill and God sent a heavenly choir of angels singing, This day in the city of David, Christ the Lord is born, peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. The greatest announcement came to a few people on a hillside, and the rest of the world knew nothing of what was going on. Even so now there are only a few people recognizing it s the Lord Himself taking His wife. I want to use that word Himself taking His wife. Let us pray before reading. Heavenly Father, I pray Lord you will just anoint us to speak the Word, and I pray Lord, you will anoint the people to receive the Word, because this Word is very important. Not only the written Word which is the tree of knowledge, Lord, but as it is connected to the tree of life it will bring forth the fruit thereof. I pray this morning that we will be able to connect this together by the help of the Holy Spirit and that the people will receive and be blessed by all that you have ordained

272 for us in Jesus Name. Amen. If you would allow me just before reading the scripture, I would like to relate a dream in part, and the reason I say in part is because I don t have it before me, so I might miss some of the details of a dream that Brother Sid Hatfield in West Virginia had. He had a dream, and it seemed on the surface a little strange to me, but I told him to go ahead and send it to me. The dream related to a wedding, and he was helping with this wedding. He was involved with getting things ready, putting up a banner, and just helping to make things ready for a wedding. He said the bride was standing there and she was dressed in such a beautiful wedding garment, she was so beautiful. He said, I so loved her. He was at this wedding, and there was other people coming there. The bride looked so happy and contended. She didn t look like she was under any pressure; she was just so happy and smiling with beautiful fine linen on. He said, I loved her. I loved her like I was the one who was getting married to her, but I wasn t; someone else was. But it was as though I was getting married to her. I was so thrilled and happy. I was just as happy as if it was me marrying her. So after hearing the dream, I thought, now how is this going to fit here? Here s what came to me as I thought about the dream, it s the Lord Jesus Christ who marries the bride which is a many member body, and we, the whole body of Christ, known as the bride becomes the wife of the Lamb, as we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. It s Jesus that takes His wife; it wasn t Brother Sid taking a wife. Now, we are the wife. Praise God! We ve come through all those stages and now the marriage is taking place in its completing stage. Now it is clear why in the dream, Brother Sid said, I wasn t the one marrying her, but I was just as happy as if it was me marrying her. So I just left it there, and the dream has been lying there for quite awhile. It came to my mind again this morning, and I began to wonder about it. It seemed like I began to look into the time of the engagement and the time when Paul said, I have espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ that I may present you to Christ. Then Paul said, I m standing here in Christ s stead. Now hold that part: I m standing here in Christ s stead. Whatever Paul was doing, he was speaking for Christ, he was acting for Christ, and it was actually Christ in him doing the work and speaking. We have been coming through time, up to the very day we re living in, and I m going to go back just far enough to bring in what the early church said about a ministry that would appear at the end time. Paul spoke prophetic words (prophecy) and wrote about it saying, we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. As he brought the Word, he said, We are in Christ s stead. He said, Jesus Christ came as a minister to the circumcision (Jews), but I am the minister of Christ to you Gentiles. (Romans, Chapter 15) He said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. The

273 Lord struck Paul down with a great light and said unto him, You go and be a light to the Gentiles delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God. (Acts 13:47-48, Acts 26:15-18) In the Old Testament it s spoken about the Gentiles telling us they would hear, that Christ would be a light to them, and that they would trust Him. Scattered throughout the Old Testament there are scriptures that indicated strongly that Christ would be a light to the Gentiles. When Jesus walked the sandy shores of Galilee, it was said, Those that sat in darkness saw a great light spring up. This was talking about the Gentiles. When Jesus charged His twelve apostles (Matthew, Chapter 10) He said, Go not to the Gentiles, nor in the way of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So they had a firm commandment from Jesus Christ saying don t go to the Gentiles, and of course they didn t. They went everywhere preaching the gospel, but to the Jews only. (Acts, Chapter 11) That was their charge, to preach the gospel to the Jews only. That s why Peter had so much trouble obeying the Lord that day on the housetop when a vision from the Lord appeared to him and a sheet was let down before him showing all kinds of four footed beasts, everything that would be unclean for a Jew to eat. The Spirit of the Lord spoke to Peter and said, Arise, kill and eat. (Acts, Chapter 10) God was ready to send him to open the door to the Gentiles, because Peter had been given the keys to the kingdom. After the Lord told him this, Peter said, I m not going to do it Lord. Nothing common or unclean has ever come into my mouth. I know you have always told me what to do and I ve always trusted you, but here is where I have to draw the line. Not so Lord. Well, the Lord continued the vision three times, then He spoke again to Peter saying, There are three men at the gate, go with them, doubting nothing. God was now ready to turn another page because there was a wife to get, and that wife for the Lamb is mostly made up of Gentiles. The Jews are known as the brethren of Jesus Christ. When we look at it from the standpoint of God Almighty, we are all children of God, whether we are predestinated to be the wife, foolish virgins, tribulation saints, or Jews; whatever area we fall into we are children of God. I m talking about those who are predestinated and born again. But there is a specific group that is the wife of the Lamb and they are mostly Gentiles. Paul was sent to get her engaged to Christ, and he himself thought he would be the one to present her to Christ in marriage, to be the one and only wife of the Lamb. But the virgin fell from grace down to living on mercy, therefore the marriage didn t take place at that time. Peter couldn t see this, the Jews couldn t see this; but God was doing it anyway. He was closing that chapter of the gospel just going to the Jews. That is where many people fail today; they don t understand where we are today and what God is doing. When God closes one chapter and moves on, then we have to move on with Him. For instance, when we came through the

274 seven church ages, each time period a page was turned. So when that page was turned there never was a time when we could go back to that age as far as applying the principle that was applied to that time, because that was something God was doing for that time period. In the church ages, we see it mentioned in the Sardis and the Laodicea ages. The saints were all dressed in white raiment (robes), but when the gospel comes back again in the end time it s to the wife of the Lamb. It says in Revelation, Chapter 19, she is clothed in fine linen, clean and white. The Lamb s wife has made herself ready. So we are dealing with the Lamb s wife. God anointed Paul to lay in the prophetic Word that would be revealed to the wife of the Lamb here at the end time. Now Paul stood there in the place of Jesus Christ. Paul was not Jesus Christ as an individual Christ, but he was part of the body of Christ, as was the rest of the ministry throughout the ages. It has been as Jesus said, Let the husbandman be first partaker of the fruit. The ministers that God sent have stood in the place of Jesus Christ teaching all the rest of the church (the predestinated) how to become the bride of Christ. I want to show you a time when we come to the place of Ephesians 4:13 Till until we are all united together, the ministry and the church, and then we all together become the wife of the Lamb. As we see this, we clearly understand that it s not the ministry alone getting married to Christ. Christ comes down to earth to marry it s His body. We are baptized into the body by one Spirit, and all together we are the Lamb s wife. Now coming up to this period, (notice the title of the message, Recognizing It s the Lord Himself taking His Wife.) Do you get it now? It s the Lord Himself taking His wife, and He sets ministers here in His stead. We are representatives of Christ, and the Bible says, Give double honor to those that labor in the Word. We do that because of the fact of their dedication; they basically give their lives to the Word. We read where there was a ministry in the early church and the Bible calls it, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers five folds of one ministry; it s the ministry of Jesus Christ. This ministry is given to you for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry to bring us to perfection (maturity), to get us dressed and ready for the marriage. The true ministry will know that the bride doesn t become our wife, you re not the wife of the ministry; you re the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wife of the Lamb, but the ministry is the representative. This way we give all the glory to the Lamb. Many ministers are misguided when they say, The church is my wife. Well, we might have been able to make such a statement and get away with it in earlier times because we were representative of, we were the male part of the body of Christ with the female part representing all other body members. The ministry represented the leadership, representing Christ. That s why Paul said to Titus, Timothy, and the others saying,

275 These things you heard me say, I charge you to go forth and say the same thing. Let no division be among you. He had to stand there firm as he spoke to the other ministers, because he said, I m standing here in the person of Christ; in place of Christ. In the Book of Colossians 1:24-25, it says, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God. Now as his revelation began to break forth, Paul began to get a broader picture of the gospel going from Jew to Gentile. There is a Gentile wife and He gives her a new covenant, which is the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10. We read in the Book of Galatians, Chapter 2; that Paul went up to Jerusalem and they were having a conference. Paul went up by revelation and took Titus with him even though he hadn t been circumcised, him being a Greek. Those Jews said, We are not going to listen to you until you have Titus circumcised. But Paul said, To whom he gave place by submission, no, not for a moment. You Jews got me off course a bit at one time, but now I have matured in the Lord, I see my place clearer. You get out of my way. God has called me to the Gentiles. So finally they said, Paul, we are going to give you a chance to speak. And when Paul got through speaking he said, They added nothing to me, but contrariwise. If you go contrariwise to what someone else is saying, then you re going different than what they are saying. Paul had to say it differently, as he was the apostle to the Gentiles. It had to be this way, because Peter and the other apostles message was to the Jews and their message had a different slant to it. So when Paul got through preaching, Peter saw it. And when it was fully made known, he admitted it. That s why Peter had gone to the Gentiles and opened the door, but after doing this he went back to Jerusalem and left the preaching to the Gentiles to Paul. So when Peter, James and John saw Paul had truth and knew for sure that it was the truth and that there was scripture for what he was saying that related to this, they gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. That s what I like about Peter, when he saw. The Bible says, When they perceived, that means they saw, in other words they got a revelation of who Paul was and what he was to do. They said, Paul, let me shake your hand. You go to the heathen, and we to the circumcision. Now it was established that there was a people in the earth, isolated, and separated from the regular Jewish trend. No more was the church spoken of as Jew and Gentile, but there were a Gentile people who would become the bride, called out from amongst the Gentiles. Nowhere did Peter preach and say, You re the bride, you re a virgin. And nowhere did he say, You re baptized into the body of Christ. Nowhere did he say, You become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Nowhere did he talk about the mystery of marriage as

276 it is in Chapter 5 of Ephesians. Paul pointed to Adam and Eve saying, as Eve was beguiled by the serpent, thus making the connection with what happened in the Garden of Eden. At one time Eve was in Adam, but prior to being manifested in the flesh they were created in the spirit. The wife was created first in God s predestination in the spirit. You were represented in Him before the world was, and just because you came and took on flesh and bone it doesn t do away with that fact. Flesh and blood has little to do with that part. It s God s will that is important here. I want to read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, (those to be in the wife) that ye sorrow not, even as others that have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring (send) with him, (Christ). Yes, God sends the theophanies, and we are all here together. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord Here stood a man saying something to you that wasn t written anywhere. He was speaking by the Word of the Lord, because we are the Word. If you are not the Word, then you are not going to be the wife, because Jesus (Christ) is the Word. The Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Then in Ephesians, Chapter one, it says we were there in the same place that He was. He predestinated us in Him, and made us part of His Word. We are living epistles, we are living Word. So here was Paul standing here talking, This we say to you by the Word of the Lord. Somebody could have asked, Paul, where is that found? He could have said, In my heart. This we say by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. I want you to notice the Lord Himself not somebody else. Recognizing it s the Lord Himself taking His wife, Revelation, Chapter 10, the Mighty Angel For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, (Yes, that message went forth calling out a people, and from among them He takes a wife) with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise. The Voice of the Archangel has its application in all three phases of the coming of the Lord, which is in the form of the Mighty Angel of Revelation 10:1. The reason I say this is, God had Brother William Branham to go forth and call out a people, but then He had Brother Raymond Jackson reach back in the Old Testament to show what was going to happen to Israel, tying it to the trumpets and the vials of the Book of Revelation. God anointed him to do that job, and we were not disappointed as he by revelation cleared up that part of the Word, which included the second part of the fifth seal. Also, he was shown the land that God gave to Abraham Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be your s: from the wilderness and Labanon, from the river, the river

277 Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. (Deuteronomy 11:24) We can see the goodness and mercy of God in this as all these mysteries are made known to the Gentile wife, which includes showing us our brethren Israel. Seeing that we understand what God has been doing up to this time of consummation, what are we looking for now in this final time before translation? We are looking for and seeing the living Word of God manifested in the wife of the Lamb. So I am not going to speak so much about the other things, but I want to speak of those things that God has wrought by me; what God has called me to do. (Revelation 10:8-11) We needed to know about Israel, so God sent it. So during the time of the shout, the voice of the archangel, all that is cleared up to us and made known. During the time that this takes place the trumpet of God begins sounding; the dead are raised, and then we which are alive will be changed and caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. Now watch, the wife of Christ, members of His body, both resurrected and translated are all going to be here. Don t ever think that we are going to be raptured up there and find them somewhere in heaven, those that have died. No, because their bodies are still in the earth. He brought those theophanies with Him when He came. They will soon be united with the earthly part of the body, that s the resurrected glorified body and we will all be here together before the rapture takes place. What we do is this; we take on the Spiritual part of that body because we are still in the natural. What they do is their Spiritual part comes and they take on the natural part that is raised from the dead. Paul said this corruptible has to put on incorruption. This mortal has to put on immortality. Those that rise will be heavenly and earthly, and those that are changed will be earthly and heavenly. If you are partakers of the earthly in the body of Christ, then you will be partakers of the heavenly. That s what Jesus was when He rose from the dead. That is why He could eat and also enter a room with the door shut. This is operating in the natural and the Spiritual as the wife will be doing before the catching away. I want to go to Revelation, Chapter 4, for just a moment, because it is talking about the trumpet. I ll say this while you are turning to Revelation, Chapter 4. In 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, The dead in Christ shall rise and we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye to be caught up at the last trump. The last trumpet is what you are hearing today, the last trump sounding. All the church ages have already taken place at this time and it has put us right in Revelation, Chapter 10, and the Voice of Authorization has already spoken and said, Go take the little book and eat it! When the seven seals were pulled off in 1963, it opened the entire book, but Christ took only the little book, the little part, corresponding to what Paul prophesied in his day. When the book was opened

278 in heaven, the revelation of the whole Word opened up. Now that whole book is open from Genesis to Revelation, we have the peace of knowing God s plan for us. But there is a specific part for the wife. Christ the Mighty Angel says to her, You eat this little book that was taken from the big book (Bible). I know most of you understand this, but I want to show you this special part so you will know you are to eat this part, and when you eat, you prophesy. God said this last ministry will be prophesying again, bringing this message forth, and it will reveal the wife of the Lamb to all those that are ordained to hear with a revelational ear. Here is where I want to go as we are now dealing with this trumpet, the last trumpet in Revelation 4:1; and this is after the church ages, it says, After this, I looked, and many people are not willing to look. There are many people today that doesn t know that there is a message in the world fulfilling Revelation 10:8-11; yet God has it out here on our website and it is getting out more and more as God has so ordained it to be. I realize not many people know that a predestinated seed was born many years back in the mountains of North Georgia, USA. Nobody would have ever suspected that I would be a minister, since I didn t even know how to read or spell words. I didn t even go into a place to eat until I was about twenty years old. I didn t know how to order food or what to do when I got in there. All these things let us know that if God predestinated something, it will get done. So I say unto you, sit back and watch the wonders of God. Watch Him move on the scene. He said He would strengthen His arm. He has a strong arm and has gotten this done regardless of the difficulties. Many said, If you are going to be a preacher, then you will have a steep hill to climb, not having learned to read or any of the modern ways. But what made the difference is this was His will for me. Here in Revelation, Chapter 4, John looked, Behold a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Now here is the trumpet and it is sounding, but it is not sounding in the earth; it s sounding in heaven. It doesn t affect the earth so much here, because it is sounding in heaven. Then John began to see the throne, and the one that sat on the throne. There was lightening and thundering, and a rainbow about the throne. There was Jesus sitting in the Father s throne, and here is the trumpet sounding, revealing, and making known to John the things that needed to be revealed before we get to Chapter 5. Then John sees a book in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, written within and sealed with seven seals. Now all those seals have been opened. Hallelujah! There was a strong angel proclaiming the Word going forth. Then we read on down where John sees seven lamps of fire burning. We know what those lamps are, it s the church ages. The fact that they are burning means the church ages have already come and gone. We

279 are not in the church ages, because they have already come and gone. Now it s time for Jesus Christ the Lamb to marry the living part of His wife now that all the church ages have ended. That s why the book was opened, and the Lamb had to open it. Now watch, don t miss this the Lamb had to open it, but the Spirit of Christ took the little book out of the big book and brought it down (Revelation, Chapter 10) here He comes! That s what we are talking about, the coming of Christ. I had a man asked me the other day, Do you believe we are close to the coming of Christ? I said, I believe He has already come. He didn t say a word, but turned around and walked off. The Lamb had to open the book. He was the only one worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Revelation, Chapter 10, shows we have come to that place And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. That means He s here now; sea and earth are not in heaven. The first time John began to deal with the trumpet he was hearing a Voice, it was in heaven. (Revelation, Chapter 4) It revealed all that was needed until Christ came to earth; then the trumpet began to sound here on the earth through the wife of the Lamb, and Paul called it the last trump. So here He is on earth now. The dead is going to rise while He is here. He brought back the theophanies. He brought back the little book. He brought back everything that pertains to the wife of the Lamb. Then the Lord God of heaven spoke right through that body that is still sitting on the throne, and that body is Jesus Christ. He doesn t come to earth physically until after the tribulation period has run its course. But now, He is our bridegroom and husband, and He s saying, Eat the little book. That s for our translation and rapture as the Christ part of Jesus Christ marries the bride here in the earth making her the wife of the Lamb. I want to read a place in Ephesians, Chapter 4, to go with that dream Brother Sid had. He said, I wasn t the one marrying her, but I was just as happy for her. It was like I was marrying her, I was so happy, and she was too. Well, that s the way it has been with the ministry. We ve worked, we ve preached, and tried to get you ready because the ministry was the male part of the body and you were the feminine part. It is all brought together, and it has been as though it was the ministry marrying her because the ministry and all other members of the body are joined together in one body, all having the same mind. Here is what it says in Ephesians 4:11, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; Here is why He gave these gifts to men, because this represents the male part of the body. Verse 12, For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ..: Now watch, here is the important thing: the ministry and all the

280 members unite together and become one body as the marriage is completed. Verse 13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, not just the ministers coming into the unity of faith, but the entire body. Therefore, in Paul s day he had to charge them, Don t preach nothing but what I preach. You be of one mind. You do this and you do that, because he was like the husband in Christ s stead teaching the wife and bringing her along. But now that she has come to this place, she s matured, she s grown; she s not a little girl anymore. So here it is important to notice that the ministry is not the one getting married to her, but all the members of the body of Christ is married to the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is what happened: the ministry has become part of that body and is now enjoying Spiritual input from the other members as each member (joint) supplies the other, knowing that we are in this together. That is what marriage to Christ is. Now, we don t separate the body in two parts, but the ministry and all other members are united together in one as the wife of Christ. We become the Christ part of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, it is important to note that everything changes with this verse, Till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man.., we have done as John did in Revelation 4:1, we looked and instead of just seeing a virgin, we saw the wife. Look at how it develops, going from a virgin to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: Then we are Christ in the earth. The ministry and the church all together; there is no line of separation. Eve has connected with Adam as it should have been done in the garden, but God wanted to work out other things as you can see. Now we have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, making us all one. It didn t happen in Eden, so that it could happen here and now. So, God in this end time has caused it to happen. Paul introduced a virgin, but now it is no longer a virgin. In Revelation 19:7-8, John calls her wife, and she is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We all together, the ministry and the church, become the wife of the Lamb. The beautiful wife didn t belong to the ministry, she didn t belong to Paul, she doesn t belong to us, but the wife belongs to the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. That s why Paul said, Ye are the body of Christ. We are the Christ part of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth; that s why we took on His name, and we re married to Him. Amen! That s why we are called the body of Christ, not body of Jesus, not church of God, not William Branham, not Raymond Jackson, not Ben Howard, or not somebody else; no other name given we become the body of Christ. Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. We are all one by one Spirit. We are all baptized into that Mighty Angel that comes down in Revelation, Chapter 10. Glory to God! Therefore, we are that beautiful wife; and that is Christ in the earth as we have married the Lord Jesus Christ. Since this has taken place we don t need to say, God always gives it to the ministry first

281 before He gives it to the body members, that s not so now that the marriage is come. Maybe you could say that in times past, before Paul s prophecy came to pass Till we all come together. Now we all have the same mind Ye have the mind of Christ for prophecy! Verse 14, That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Since we are here, I m not worried about anybody deceiving you. There is no way somebody can deceive you. You ve got the mind of Christ, and you don t have to come and ask me everything. Ask Him. You hear this Word and get in it, and that s when you realize you are part of the Word and act accordingly. What is the Word? The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God anointed that Word; it is Christ in the earth. When this Mighty Angel came down, it s just like the spirit that went out of Adam and created Eve, and that was Adam s wife. The serpent interrupted it then and it was interrupted in that first age with the early church. But God ordained it that we would be here and we would come into this great position of being His Son s wife. There was some seed laying here that had to come in, so God let it go through the dark ages, so all the seeds would be tried and tested for His plan. Watch what we began to do Verses 15-16, But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body, not just the head part, not just a part of it, but we all, the ministry and all members has become the whole body, and the whole body is the wife of the Lamb. So you are not my wife, I m talking about the wife of the Lamb. Barbara here is my wife, and it types it out real good on these things. There are many preachers that say, The church is my wife, and I have to tell you what to do. Well, there is no defense for a statement like that in this hour. She is marrying the Lamb. She is not marrying anyone else. She s marrying the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. It s Christ the wife in the earth marrying the Lamb, coming back together to be what we were before the world was. Just like Adam and Eve before sin ever took place, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. You have the mind of Christ. You re eating His food, and wearing His garment. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Notice here, we had a separation in the ministry and the church till we all come together. Once we all come together, then we all together make up that beautiful wife that Brother Sid saw. We are not marrying somebody else, not the preacher, not a denomination, or anyone else. But we are Christ, and we are marrying the Lord Jesus Christ that s the wife of the Lamb. In Revelation, Chapter 19, it says, His wife has made herself ready, and it says, Rejoice, rejoice! The marriage is come! And we are rejoicing.

282 What does it take to makes us happy? Just breathing, we are happy. Our mind is at ease, we are no longer tossed to and fro. We all have the same mind. We are not troubled and torn up. I tell you, there are a lot of people torn up today and troubled in their minds, but we are rejoicing with our husband. Many people know this truth, but they want to fool around with a denominational spirit. You will never have peace of mind as long as this is the case. There is a scripture that says, Happy is he whose mind is stayed upon the Lord. If some denomination is teaching you one thing and you know it s wrong and you know the Word is lying there, and yet you say, Well, I want to do this. Your mind is going to get all troubled, and then only God can help you. When you hear this truth, you can t dabble and fool around and say, Well, this denomination (or group) may be right, I believe part of what they say, and besides I want to try and help them. Well, if you want to try and help them, live right before them, stay with the Word. If they are part of this Word, they will respond to it. I m talking about the wife. I m not talking about any of that out there. So I say, Whatever they do, that s their business. We are recognizing it s the Lord Himself taking His wife, and has basically completed it. So the ministry is not the one getting married to her, but Christ is. We are not the one taking a wife, we are not the one that is getting a wife; He s the one. God bless you today. It s been so good to be in the house of the Lord. I appreciate you and may God give you His very best, may the blessings of God rest upon you. We just thank God for you and I hope this has meant something to you today. He has taken a wife. The preacher didn t. Somebody may say, The church is my wife. No, it s not. We are all united together. The church is one; that includes the preacher, and together all of us are the wife of the Lamb. So the messengers are not taking a wife, but He is. We are rejoicing because the marriage has taken place. Revelation, Chapter 19, Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and the wife hath made herself ready, and it was granted that she should be clothed (arrayed) in fine linen clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad! He said, Rejoice, the marriage is come! I know we all have our difficulties and things go wrong sometimes, but if you rejoice you will get through them a lot better. God bless you, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we bless you, praise you and thank you Lord, for the many blessings of life. Lord, take this Word and use it for your glory we pray, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

283 THE SEAL STAMPED ON YOUR PASSPORT AUTHORIZES YOU TO PASS THE GUARDS +THE GATE KEEPERS TO THE TREE OF LIFE+ Now today I want to take a thought and entitle it like this, The Seal Stamped on Your Passport Authorizes You to Pass the Guards The Gatekeepers to the Tree Of Life. You don t travel without a passport outside your country, and you can t get on an airplane to travel to the different nations without one. When you go into the different countries there are different requirements. In some countries you have to have a visa before arriving, but in all of them you have to have a passport. If you get that passport stamped, it means you ve gone through security and can enter into that country. A passport is a very valuable document when traveling from country to country. Having said this, I m going to begin our reading in Genesis, and you will see immediately that there are some guards guarding the place everyone has longed to be. In order to get there you have to get passed the guards, and you ve got to have that stamp or seal on your passport. The Word of God says in Ephesians 4:30, We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of our redemption. Then, in 2 Timothy 2:19, it says, Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. If you have that seal stamped on you that means you re His. He knows it, and you know it. In the Book of Revelation, there s going to be 144,000 Jews sealed, having the seal of God in their foreheads. All God s children are sealed with the message for their time, which is a passport for their time period. Just as you have to have a physical passport and you can t travel without it, it s also necessary to have a spiritual passport. Now I want to turn our attention to the spiritual passport and its importance in getting by the spiritual guards that guard the way to the tree of life. So let us put on spiritual thinking caps as we make these comparisons. Now there have been different times and a different place, even coming through the Old Testament there s been different times where there was different recognition of seals. Like to the Jews, there was circumcision that was a seal to them. It was a seal that they were a Jew and were under God s covenant. Then there was, if you had the blood applied to the door post, the death angel couldn t get by. We see different groups of people with different seals, but there s one group that has a particular seal that is going to receive the tree of life even before they leave the earth. It s

284 brought to us by the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10, that brings a little book open, and there has to be an authorizing Voice to even authorize us to go do it. We will never be authorized unless we have come to that place in time, and now we have arrived. You have to arrive at an airport in a country before the seal is even applied. Whatever country you are in, once you pass through all the security, once they sign and stamp that passport and put that seal on it, then there can be a dozen armed guards, and all you have to do is hold your little passport up and go right on by. Amen. So, we have a passport, and we have a passport to go to where Adam and Eve were forbidden to go because of their unrighteous act. That unrighteous act sprang from Eve eating of the tree of knowledge rather than by faith. In other words, faith and knowledge sometimes conflicts with one another, but our secret is we have to simply believe God for our righteousness which is our passport to the tree of life. In times past, people sought after it in a different way, but we can t go around it a different way. Jesus gave a parable about a marriage and one man coming in another way besides the door. If he would have come through the door, he would have had the proper garment on. The master came and saw a man there that didn t have a garment on that would be appropriate for attending a wedding, so the master of the house knew he had gotten in some other way than that which was provided. His scheming, planning, and manipulating the rules might have somehow gotten him by, but immediately it was recognized that he was there illegally. As soon as the master saw him he said, Cast him out into outer darkness. So whatever he did to get in didn t help him. See, you can t come another way, you will get cast out, but if you possess the right passport which is the righteousness of God, the door will open to you. We ll read our scripture after prayer. Heavenly Father, we bless your name, and we praise your name, thanking you Lord for this great plan of salvation and for this great country you are allowing us to live in, and for the bountiful of many natural things you have supplied us. We just pray, God, now as we look to your Word. We know that the Word of God is given to us by revelation, and just not by knowledge. Lord, I pray that you will anoint us as we hang on to the tree of knowledge which is the written Word, looking to you for thy revelation, because your servant Paul said, The letter killeth, but it s the Spirit of God that giveth life. And armed with this revelation Lord, help us all to walk right on by the guards this morning and get to the tree of life that you have provided for us, we ask it in Jesus Name. Amen. Now we are reading today starting in Genesis 3:21. If you want to know the truth about something, go back to where it began. Go back to the original and see what it was and then you can know, because God doesn t change His thoughts, but He works according to His will. God chose to save mankind by the shed blood of an innocent one, and He never

285 changes it all the way through. It s the shed blood. Here in Genesis, God clothed them after Adam and Eve sinned, and we are going to pick up the story where God came looking for Adam, saying, Where art thou? The story is in the first three chapters of Genesis, but I want to pick up in Genesis 3:21 after the fall has taken place. It says, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. I want to make a point here concerning the guards of Genesis 3:24. Their sole job was to guard the way to the tree of life, while the tree of knowledge was readily available to eat of any time, even being in a fallen state, dressed in sheep skin which indicated living on the mercy of God instead of having great grace upon you. Eve s actions drew a line between the tree of knowledge and the tree of life; thus the need for guards to keep mankind from eating of the tree of life and living forever in a fallen state. So, after the fall, God killed a lamb instead of Adam and Eve and clothed them so their souls wouldn t be naked before God. Now these clothes no doubt were made of sheep skin, and the reason I say that is because God always talks about the Lamb of God. Although it doesn t specifically say a lamb here, but knowing that God knows the end from the beginning, He knew it would be the Lamb of God. When it is spoken of Jesus, it s spoken of Him as the Lamb of God. We are saved by that blood. So God clothed them in coats of skin, but that didn t authorize them to eat of the tree of life. Now the blood was shed and they were clothed, but they still couldn t get to the tree of life. That s the important thing that I want you to get, because as we go on this journey today, we are going to see there are a special people that are not clothed in white robes, which is the mercy of God. We are not clothed in coats of skin, but we are given fine linen, clean and white, because we don t have anything to cover up because we are clothed in Christ s very own righteousness. We are totally righteous, there s nothing against us whatsoever. The Bible says in the Book of Hebrews, we don t even have a conscious of sin. So we are free, and we have our passport that will put us past the denominations, put us past religion, put us past the power of satan, and put us past the guards that are set there to keep just any one from coming in and eating of the tree of life. At this present time in God s plan the guards keep everyone away except the wife of the Lamb. This begs the question, if it was God s will for us to eat of the tree of life, then why did He set guards to guard the way to the tree of life? It seems He would want us to eat, why guard it? The answer is He wants you to come by revelation and not by knowledge, because knowledge is what the serpent had. He had knowledge and no faith; and don t challenge the serpent with his knowledge. When the serpent came to Eve, she was no match for his knowledge, because he knew all about how things worked and he deceived her. This tree of life is not to be received by knowledge,

286 but it is by faith. Hallelujah! I think about Paul saying that he didn t want to be found righteous by his own works, but it is righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ and that alone. Jesus Christ became sin for us in order to stamp that passport, and He put a seal upon us by giving us His very own righteousness. You have this seal; the Lord knows them that are His. If that seal is on your passport, then walk right by the guards. You can waive at them, smile at them and even frown at them, because you are fixed up to go by the guards, and you ve got to go by the guards in order to eat of the tree of life. I preached a message some months back entitled, The Gate Keepers to the Tree of Life. It showed in Genesis, the Cherubims (angels, the guards) and they had a flaming sword, they were armed real well. They just didn t have a sword, but they had a flaming sword to consume anyone that tried to get by them. Yet, we are to walk past them by faith and eat of the tree of life which we have begun to eat of. We find in the Book of Revelation, the tree of life which is in heaven, but then we ask the question, Are we going to heaven? How about, Are you in heaven? Paul said we ve come to New Jerusalem, and that s where the tree of life is at. This is in Hebrews 12:22, But ye have come to mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. We find the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. Well, we have arrived; we ve gotten by all the guards. We got there by a message, by a revelation, by a Word and we don t get by this way with the clothing of skin or wool or robes. There is only one thing that is recognized, it s the righteousness of God, the fine linen, and that is our seal. That fine linen is given to you by the belief of the Word of God that God is sending only to the wife. He gives us our redemption first by our translation and rapture. Then all the redeemed get their portion of the tree of life at the beginning of the millennium reign. First, He brings down a little book, and that little book is the wife s Word that she believes. This little book is not the whole Bible, and not the whole plan. It s not the seal of God for the 144,000 Jews. It s not the seal for the tribulation saints, and it doesn t provide the robes that the people are wearing in the Book of Revelation 7:13-14 where it says, And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb. We see that this is what God provided for them, as He did with Adam and Eve when He killed the lamb and the blood was shed to cover their sins. That gave them the stability so that they could live here and the wrath of God would stay off. The animal died for them, and they were clothed by the very skin of that animal. In Hebrews it says, But there was a better promise for us. The skin and blood of that animal suf-

287 ficed and it kept the wrath off, but they died and couldn t even come up until the real Lamb came and died. He went down and brought them up. The point is, Paul had a message unlike anything else in the world and there s never been anything like it since the world began, until now. Even the Jewish apostles were so stunned at what Paul was saying and preaching, they said, You go preach to those heathens. Paul, you are going to mess us up if you stay in Jerusalem. Remember sometime back in a message entitled, I Will Not Speak of Those Things Which God Has Not Wrought by Me, and I brought in about the trouble they had in the Jewish churches. Paul would stir up a hornet s nest everywhere he went it seemed. The Bible says in Acts 9:30-31, Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. They sent Paul away and then the Jewish churches had peace, they had rest, and they were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord. These Jewish churches did real good when they got Paul out of the picture. I want you to notice, when I say churches here I m talking about the Jews because Paul hadn t gone to the Gentiles yet, but when he did his gospel fit them like a hand fits a glove. So that is what we are looking at today, a gospel that fits the wife like a hand fits a glove. Have you got your passport stamped? If you have, it authorizes you to pass right by the guards; and they can t touch you because someone greater than them has stamped and authorized it. In Revelation 10:8, there s the Voice from heaven authorizing it, Go take the little book now. That means you are authorized to pass right by the guards and eat the tree of life. Now God killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin and we ll get that a little later, but first let s read more about these trees in Genesis 3:22, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Man now knows good and evil, and that can be very good or very bad, it depends on what you do with the knowledge that you have. If you have knowledge enough to know that you can t get this by knowledge then that s good. Because even though Jesus could raise the dead, heal the sick, walk on water, speak to a tree and it wither away all these things He did yet that wasn t a revelation of who He was and is. By knowledge they knew surely this is of God, even those in the temple. One man said, No man can do these things unless God is with him. That was a common thought among the people, but that wasn t what He was looking for. That wasn t the passport, that wasn t the seal of approval; because knowing that was by knowledge, and that doesn t stamp your passport. I dare you to try and get on an airplane to go

288 overseas. I dare you to try and walk through the airport in another country without having that passport stamped, signed and approved. You can t do it! They all knew that about Jesus by knowledge but Jesus wanted to take them somewhere beyond the borders of the natural mind. Did you hear that? He wanted to take them beyond the borders of the natural mind. He wanted to take them beyond the borders of just the tree of knowledge. He wanted to take them beyond the borders of seeing miracles and knowing something had to be of God. He wanted to take them beyond that, and you can t go beyond that without the revelation. Almighty God stamped Peter s passport, and when Jesus saw that, He said, Praise be to God, flesh and blood did not do this for you. The tree of knowledge didn t do this for you. It was the tree of life. My Father which is in heaven has stamped your passport! And upon this rock, this revelation, I ll build my church, and the gates of hell can t prevail against it. So that takes it out of the realm we are living in, and we ve got to go beyond the realm of knowledge, beyond our minds, beyond just the reading, beyond just knowing in general. Just like this brother, an elderly man that was coming here for quite some time. He said, Ben, I know this is of God, because I watch how everything just falls into place. When you lay it all down and look at it, you have to say it s God. Then the same man, in the same conversation said, I know it s of God, but it s not for me. I like to go to a church that does it a little differently. I want to go where all my friends that I grew up with go. See, that s that old tree of knowledge. You can eat on it and get so fat that you can t get through the doorway, but you haven t gotten beyond the borders yet. You haven t got your stamp on your passport, which means you haven t gotten past the guards yet. In some countries you will need a visa and a passport. So they look at your visa and all; finally when everything is said and done, they sign and stamp your passport, and once they stamp it, put their seal having this seal, the Lord knoweth those that are His once that seal is stamped on there, go ahead and walk through the guards. I promise you this, not a one of them is going to touch you. But then on the other hand, if you try to go past and ignore the one checking the passport, granting you entrance into the country, I promise you, you will not get through the door. That is the picture we are looking at here in Genesis. Verse 23, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Now I want you to notice, God sent him forth from the garden. He sent them forth out of that Spiritual realm. Unless He brings you into that Spiritual realm, you can t get there, but He has given you something to get you there. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day you go right through with your stamped passport into a new body. Hallelujah! Praise God! The wife and the wife alone is the only living element of people that are going to have

289 her passport stamped with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. All the rest will depend on something else, or look for something else. So, God sent a message that has over the years dealt more with the righteousness of God of any message I know of up to this time. Paul spoke of the original when he thought the marriage was going to take place in his day and time. I had a minister tell me some time back (and I think it is important to put it in here), he said, Brother Ben, I like the way you present this wonderful message; you really let us know what the promise of God is for our righteousness, but I do find a fault with it. This minister was talking church age talk. It was in the church ages Jesus said, I have somewhat against thee. If He has somewhat against thee, or you have somewhat against Him (His righteousness), with that kind of thinking you are not going to get by these guards. The point is, he said, You don t bring our works in quite enough. You know there are certain things we have to do to get these things you re saying. Yes, believe and accept it. Yes, but what about the works? The works that you do, you do it because you love Him, and it s Him in you doing the work. He that has entered into His rest has ceased from his own work as God did from His; therefore, there remains a rest for the people of God. I m here to tell you there is someone to stamp your passport and to get you by the guards to enter into that rest that mankind has never known before while living on earth. When God drove man from the garden he was still in the same place, and today the garden is still in the same place. He talks in Genesis here about the River Euphrates coming out of the garden, and it is still there along with the land area. There wasn t one grain of sand taken when God picked up Eden. It wasn t something literal or physical, but it was Him taking that Spiritual tree of life away, that Spiritual environment away; now man could die. While they lived in the presence of God in that environment they couldn t die. In God s presence nothing can die; that s why He had to withdraw His presence from them. It s said that God drove them out of that Spiritual realm, because nothing can dwell in this Spiritual realm but the pure faith and the righteousness of God. When I was in the Congressional Holiness Church many, many years ago, we use to sing this song, Sin can never enter there. It will stop you at the door, bar you out forever more, sin can never enter in. Well, that s the truth. They were telling us we had to live without sin. They said, You ve got to live without sin, and he that sins in the least, then he is guilty of the most. Well, I have died as Paul said, and now there s one living in me and He s never known sin. The Word says, He never sinned, nor was guile found in His mouth. That s the one living through this temple. I am dead and my life is hid with Christ (the anointed Word) in God. That s why it was so important when Paul said, I am dead, I m crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet it s not me living, but it is Christ living in me. Yes, we

290 are still dealing with the human element somewhat, but our heart and soul is fixed on things eternal. Verse 24, So he drove out the man from the Spiritual realm. They didn t go anywhere physically. The only one that went anywhere physically was Cain, and he was sent to another place called Nod. Adam and Eve stayed exactly in the same place physically, but they were driven out of the Spiritual realm. Then the only way they could contact God would be as God ordained to deal with them, maybe in a dream, or vision, or something of that nature. They followed God, we could say, a far off. God drove man out and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. What does it mean to keep the way of the tree of life? There s a way, and you have to have a passport to get on the way. I m in the way, the bright and shining way, I m in the glory land way. There s a way of holiness, nothing unclean shall go therein, and there s a way that the vulture s eye has not seen. The vultures can t see this today, because of the guards of the tree of life, To keep the way, to keep carnal man from eating of the tree of life without revelation and live forever. That s what the guards were set there for. You cannot enter into this by joining a church. You can t enter into this by saying, I saw a miracle happen. This preacher here prayed and he had a miracle. And you can t get into it by just seeing the great things God does out here in nature. Romans, Chapter one, says the things of God are clearly seen by the things which do appear; to know this is knowledge and it s good to know that. You can know that plus this other the tree of life and the tree of knowledge together; there s a team that you can t beat. There s a team that can walk right by those guards, (the tree of knowledge connected with the tree of life) right into the revelation of God. Yes, these guards are to keep the way of the tree of life. Now there was no literal tree, but it was God s law of eternal life. It has been expressed in different ways through time. Jesus was the tree of life when He walked around here. Then it was said you re like a tree planted by the water. A lot of people that see this see it like trees walking. Like when Jesus prayed for that blind man. Some of you need a second dip, because you still can t see clear this tree of life and that Lamb of God that produced this tree of life. But Jesus prayed again and they saw everything clearly. I m telling you, He has sent a message of Revelation 10:8-11 to help you to see everything clearly and to show that God has put His approval on the marriage of His Son. It s the Voice of Authorization that has spoken and said, Go right on by the guards, here is your passport! Do you have the passport in your hand or the seal on your heart?? Having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are His. Our passport has been stamped, and these angels here are guards with a flaming sword waving you on to the tree of life. You can t

291 get through a flaming sword without a stamped passport, but just think, we walked right on through. The angels of God don t move them when they see us coming. When you get your revelation right, you walk right on through, but the guards don t lay down their armament. No, they are there to keep those out that try to get through by their own righteousness. That s why they are there. They are not there to keep them out that have a stamped passport. They are there to see that nobody enters into that country without proper approval. God has put His approval on this and we have passed the place where Paul said in Ephesians, Chapter 4, that He gave the five fold ministry in this manner until we reach the till of that wonderful Verse 13, which brings with it all the other members of the body, which produces our marriage to the Lamb. (Fulfilling Revelation 19:7-8) Thus the five fold ministry and all other members together become the wife of the Lamb, and the body begins to edify one another in love. (Ephesians 4:16) Since this has come into being we have reached the full stature of the man Christ Jesus, and you don t get greater than that or any further than that. At this point we are no longer tossed to and fro. The devil might as well, when he looks at you, go over and sit down and cry. He s not going to be able to pull something over your eyes. That s why I preach the Word, because if someone can t walk by those guards they get into trouble. Well, there was a couple in the Bible days named Ananias and Sapphira who wanted to bring a little deceit in. You can t do it. They didn t get by with it. (Acts, Chapter 5) You can t get by those beasts. They are seen in heaven, the four beasts; eyes everywhere, full of eyes and absolutely nothing can get by them. Some of these passport places, there s absolutely nothing that can get by them. I ve traveled quite a bit as you know, and I had a little tiny pocket knife only about two inches long in my shaving case, it was in the bottom part of the case, and I didn t realize it was there. I had put it there way back before I had started traveling. It went through the x-ray machine and they saw it. They asked me, What do you have in there? They pulled me aside in a little room and went through it, and that s what it was, a little tiny pocket knife. They took it from me and said, You can t get on the plane with this. It was just a little tiny thing. Well, the x-ray machines may miss something every once and awhile, but not these eyes (beasts) you can t get up to the throne where the tree of life is if there is something wrong. You can t get there, because the eyes of these beasts (guards) go every way. The Bible talks about them in Ezekiel; they have four faces and any way they go they are going straight forward, and they never go backwards. This same thing is typified in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They type out the four beasts guarding the Book of Acts. You can t get by these unless you recognize the tree of life and those guards setting there. You can t stumble into this way. You

292 can t learn enough. There s no way you can study enough to get it, or know enough, but it has to be by revelation. There is no way to get revelation unless He gives you revelation. Blessed art thy Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood didn t reveal this, but My Father which is in heaven; here comes the seal for your passport. Peter was given the keys to the kingdom. I remember one night; it s been years ago, I had been asleep and something must have awaken me. I set up in bed and all of a sudden I saw a key dangling out in front of me. (This was before the Voice of Authorization had come) I tried to reach the key. It was about a half inch away from my finger, but I couldn t grab hold of it. It wasn t quite time. Then in 2006, here came the Voice of Authorization, Go take the little book! I was able to get the key. This confirmed what I had already been preaching, preparing the minds of the people. Many messages have come to me over the years and amongst them was the message entitled, An Old Testament Prophet Comes to This New Testament Age. The Lord gave me this message during my first forty days fast, saying, He, Brother William Branham, was an Old Testament type prophet come to a New Testament age. This revelation opened a door, and a lot of people can t pass that guard. There are keepers of the gate today. For instance, there are people that follow Brother Branham today. He said certain things and he left them to become guards. One of the things he said that definitely became a guard was his statement concerning New Jerusalem being like a pyramid. He said a pyramid like a mountain would push up out of the earth and would reach 1500 miles high. Then as he was speaking, he said that New Jerusalem was coming down from heaven and was like a pyramid, 1500 miles high, and he left it like that just for those that would not go on with further revelation. Both of those statements keeps many from seeing the follow up ministry that God had already trained, because here came Brother Raymond Jackson and he cleared this up by telling us that New Jerusalem was the bride of Christ. Now, we see the churches that follow Brother Branham with the pyramid drawn out and hanging on the wall saying, that s New Jerusalem our heavenly home. Well, there s not a word in the Bible about a pyramid. Somebody said, Well, that s the way it is, like a pyramid. Well, Moses was born and raised in the shadows of those pyramids, and not one time did he ever write one word about them. If they had any spiritual implications Moses somewhere would have said, Look down in Egypt, look down where I came from and you will see the big pyramid and that s what New Jerusalem will look like. Well, I know that might rub some feathers the wrong way, but so be it. Brother Branham said, The earth will be burnt up and they will walk out on the ashes of the wicked, and there s not going to be anybody else there but Christ and His wife. Then

293 tell me who they are going to rule and reign over? Then tell me when the devil is loosed at the end, who is he going to deceive? Tell me how are you going to place Isaiah, Chapters 11, 65, and 66 where the suckling child will play with the asp, and the lion and the calf will feed together? But that is an angel sitting there; it is a guard. Why? Brother Branham said it, and they will not dare to cross Brother Branham on it. Well, if you have a revelation of what the truth is, you ll realize God let him say that; and it became a guard to keep out those that didn t want the Word. That s what he saw at that time period; but Christ s wife will come right in and believe all the Word of God. Then Brother Jackson did a similar thing. He said none of Chapter 10 of the Book of Revelation was fulfilled, the Mighty Angel hadn t cried yet, the seven thunders hadn t uttered and there were still seven men to come that would be the thunders. That is what a lot of people are saying today, while we are going on with God s Word. God used him to set some guards there. Why? So that the carnal group that was following him couldn t come to this revelation. The people that followed Brother Branham, not many of them saw what Brother Jackson taught, not many of them could get by the guards. Why? They were carnal minded and not following God by revelation. Those that followed Brother Jackson, many of them can t see this, because God allowed Brother Jackson to set certain guards around to scare them away, to be scarecrows, but those that get a revelation realize Brother Jackson was a man God used. But without a revelation they don t realize some of the things he said became guards; therefore, they can t get by the guards to get their passport stamped, which is a revelation that the Mighty Angel has come down. Although Brother Jackson said the Mighty Angel hadn t come down yet, the members of the wife will get this revelation and pass by the guards by believing the Word that is now revealed by this trumpet part of the message. I had a minister say to me, Brother Ben, the book in heaven isn t for anyone but the bride. That s all it is. It s not dealing with anyone else. That sealed book is strictly for the bride. I didn t say yea or nay, but I just listened. Sometimes that is the way I will do, just listen. If that s their revelation, let them go with it and see how far they get. Then I was in West Virginia in Glen Daniel, it was a home meeting, at the home of Brother Billy and Sister Leah Farruggia. We had some meetings there, and one of the messages was entitled, Finding the little book Within the Big Book. I preached about Christ taking the little book out of the Big Book (the Bible). That book that John saw in heaven is the book of redemption. There are those that say it is for nobody but the bride. Then pray tell me, why are the Jewish elders there? They don t even relate to the bride in that sense. They were in that book, because everybody that will ever be saved, even throughout tribulation, and even over in the millennium, the natu-

294 ral people, and even the whole earth is represented in that book of redemption. We see that Christ took from the book that was in heaven (Revelation, Chapter 5) a little portion, a little book, and He brought it down to earth. That s why in Revelation, Chapter 10, and it s the only place in the Bible that says it, He brought a little book, and that s the passport for the bride to get by the guards. That passport is a Message of Righteousness and it s the only Message that lets you know there s not one sin against you whatsoever. I want to read in the Book of Hebrews 10:16-20; and Paul began to talk about a new covenant. It says, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness (to get by the guards) to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. We want to look at that right, having boldness. How can you have boldness? That means there s no time when you say, I don t know if I am the wife or not. I don t know. I may be or I may not. I don t know. Where s your boldness to go through? The old flesh may kick you around a little bit. The old mind may try to kick you around, but the revelation will hold. If it s by revelation, the righteousness of God, it will hold, no matter what. Walk by the guards! For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. (Hebrews 10:2-3) No more conscience of sin. That is why a lot of people want to call your sins to remembrance; they say, We ll have communion. In the church ages, it was all right, but if you get your passport stamped, then you ve already got by. You don t have to go back and do all those things. In the church ages, when they were doing those things, He said, I have somewhat against thee. But with the wife, He has nothing against her. Therefore, the Almighty God looks down and He approves the marriage of His Son to His wife in the earth. God stamped His approval by sending a message, the Voice of Authorization, saying, Go take the little book, and eat it now! Amen! Then you are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Praise the Lord! Isn t He wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, isn t Jesus my Lord wonderful! Praise God! Praise God! There s one more thing I want to get in Philippians 3:7-8 where Paul said when he got this revelation, But what things were gain to me. Here is what this revelation will do; it s going to mess you up if you eat this tree of life. I guarantee it is going to mess you up. You will never be the same again. You will look at life so differently; it s like night and day. Here s what Paul said when he ate But what things were gain to me, those I

295 counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. That means all these things: houses, lands, cars, money, bank accounts, gold, silver, personalities, acceptance in the community and neighborhood, having people pat you on the back, and accept you in that sense. All these things are nothing to me. I lost all these things for Christ s sake, and I m glad I made the trade. Verse 9 says, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Can you get by the guards? Yes. Well, if you ve got a message you can; if you ve got faith and if you ve got revelation. God has sent a Message of Righteousness that is going forth in this hour that will get you by those guards, and this is it! Remember the scripture I read, You should have no more consciousness of sin, and if you have the right message, you don t have any consciousness of sin, because you know it s not your righteousness. You know that Christ became sin for us that we might become the very righteousness of God and being clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. To His wife that is what is granted. She s got her passport stamped and she doesn t worry about passing those guards. She walks right up to the tree of life, that s this Message, the wife clothed in fine linen, clean and white, with no more consciousness of sin; with boldness to enter into the holy of holies and eat of that tree of life. She has her passport stamped with that seal ready to pass the guards. God bless you. Oh, how we love Him, how we adore Him. He s my breath, my life, my sunshine, my all and all. Amen! Don t you just love Him! Don t you just appreciate Him! Isn t He wonderful! (Singing) Isn t He wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, isn t Jesus my Lord wonderful. Eyes have seen, ears have heard, and it s written in His Word, isn t Jesus my Lord wonderful! That s why, I love Him. Why? Because He first loved me, and He purchased my salvation on Calvary s tree. I can look out on the religious world today and see them going their own way, blind, warmed by the enemy s fire, eating that tree of knowledge of good and evil without it being connected to the tree of life. I can look out there and say, There be I, accept it be for the grace of God. I don t know what I should do this morning, should I run, or turn back flips? This is so good! As one person said, It leaves me speechless! What can we say after this? God bless you. I appreciate and love you in the love of Christ. Paul said, In Christ s stead. But I would re-phrase that and say, In Jesus stead, because it s Christ in His church doing the talking. We are in Jesus stead, because Christ has already come. He didn t split any skies, but He came by revelation to a people. Christ came in Jesus

296 stead, and we are that body of Christ, that has taken on flesh and bones (Revelation 10:8-11) and eating fine; and as Jesus went right by the guards into the holy of holies and so can we. He paid the price at Calvary for that tree of life. It s not us; it s the body of Christ, so He walks right by the guards, and us as members we hold up our passport, stamp of approval, the little book, the Word, the Message, and the flaming swords don t even cut or burn us. Jesus said when you get this, you have His righteousness. You re as righteous as He is righteous. There s nothing against you whatsoever, because He took your sins and gave you His righteousness, and you can walk right by the guards. The holy of holies is open for you. The Lord said this, I ll meet you in there. The door was opened, Come up hither, go through the gate into the holy of holies, and that is where I will meet you. There is where we have come, there is where we are at, and He has met us. In Eden, God drew a line (mark a line) between Himself and Adam and Eve who were over on the other side of the line, clothed in the sheep skin and the blood was applied, but it couldn t get them by the guards. So, we are not looking at wool, we are not looking at a garment that has been washed so much that it s coming apart on us like the traveling garment was that Rebecca wore coming through the desert; but we are looking at fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. He said, With this on, you have boldness to enter into the holy of holies, because you are the Lamb s wife. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I just bless your name and praise you. Thank you for this time of fellowship and rejoicing and the revelation of your Word. I just pray Lord, that today you will go with each one of us and help us to think on these things. Paul said, If there s anything lovely, anything good and kind, think on these things. May we do it Lord. May we let your mind take over these bodies, that we count all these but loss, that we might win the Excellency of the glory of Christ. Bless each one that has come this way, and bless each one that will hear this message, putting your anointing on it Lord, and we ll be careful to praise you, in Jesus Name. Amen.

297 ALL THAT EVER SAID CHRIST HAS ALREADY COME BEFORE THIS ARE THIEVES AND ROBBERS We are reading in John 10:8. Jesus said something here in this chapter about those that came before Him; He said they were thieves and robbers. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. These thieves and robbers are spoken of among other scriptures in Acts 5: There were some who claimed to be the Christ and led many people astray. Then when Jesus Christ did come the world missed Him, except those that saw by revelation. The anticipation of His coming was so strong in the days of the first coming of Jesus Christ that it created the perfect environment for some who wanted to project themselves as anointed leaders sent from God, namely the promised Messiah. It was in such a time that John came on the scene. That is why many mused in their hearts whether he was the Christ or not. So we see the people were ready for a deliverer. Now the door was flung wide open for those that were spoken of in Acts, Chapter 5, and false leaders took full advantage as they projected themselves as the promised one, and many followed them. These are those that came before Jesus Christ came. They stole the position that belonged only to Christ, but the sheep did not here them. They are the ones that Jesus called thieves and robbers. Likewise, here at the end time a similar situation is happening now, the similarity with the first coming of Christ is clear. It has been made known that Christ would come and we know that has taken place in our very day, and we have become the wife of the Lamb, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. There are many religious groups and preachers that have come before this apostolic ministry claiming they are the wife of the Lamb saying, Christ has come to us, but their message shows their lack of Revelation on this third and final phase of the Spiritual coming of Christ revealed by the last trumpet. We appreciate how God does things; He does it in a way that only the elected seed receive it. So I want you to remember here what Brother William Branham said, Along about the time Christ appears on earth for the bride, pointing to a future time that it would happen. Then, Brother Raymond Jackson just flat out said, Christ hasn t come, the Mighty Angel hasn t cried, the seven thunders haven t sounded, and the seventh seal is not open. So this exempts Brother Branham and Brother Jackson from being thieves and robbers. So those are things that God ordained to be said thus, and these statements make real good guards. So we want to take the thought today, All That Ever Said Christ Has Already Come Before This Are Thieves and Robbers. Now as we have already

298 read that prior to the days of the literal coming of Jesus there were people saying, We are Christ, and leading people astray. So, there s a reason I said what I did concerning Brother Branham and Brother Jackson because I wanted to make this point, they did not say He has come. Brother Jackson said, He hasn t come. So they would not fall into this category of those saying He has come, and they didn t take it any further as God took them home. They were special messengers for their time period and did not fall into this category that said Christ the Mighty Angel has come and married His wife. Brother Branham was the messenger to the seventh church age and God let him see only so far, and he didn t see the Spiritual coming as far as we know. So God allowed him to make certain statements to that effect and it put up a road block for many, because God ordained him to take it so far and stop. So was it with Brother Jackson. God allowed Brother Jackson to say things that would be road blocks (guards), because the consummation of the marriage of the Lamb hadn t come at the time they said it. Although the seventh seal was opened at the time the other six seals were, it was still in its fulfillment stage, up until the Voice of Authorization spoke in Revelation 10:8 which completed the revelation therein. Now the coming of the Lord has fully taken place in the manner of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16, as He came with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. During this time of the trump of God the consummation of the marriage is completed; the dead in Christ rise and we are changed. All this happens before the trumpet (trump) part of this wonderful message has completed all of its purpose. Now, I want to continue reading in John, Chapter 10, and this is Jesus speaking here. Let us pray before reading. Father, in the Name of Jesus, we pray you bless the reading of your Word, and Lord that you anoint us to apply it as you have ordained, in Jesus Christ Name. Also, we pray that you anoint the people s ears to hear, that we may all receive that which you are giving, for the glory of God. Amen. In Saint John 10:1-5, it says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. Now as Jesus is speaking and saying sheep, sheep fold, etc, it is understandable now the depth of the sayings of our Lord using the different terminology in making reference to the children of God. We find that God s people were many times referred to in the different periods of time as sheep, fish, and grain. Also, we were known as the espoused vir-

299 gin to Christ, but when it comes to our day, the final phase of it, the Gentile wise virgins are called the Lamb s wife. We are going to show you how all of this comes together. Jesus is telling them here that the shepherd of the sheep, they hear His Voice. They know His Voice, and He calls them by name and a stranger they will not follow. They don t know the strangers voice. There is something that sounds strange about it, so it gives them that little funny feeling when they hear a strange voice and they know there is something that s not quite right about it. So they will not follow the stranger. Verses 6-8, This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. He says it real plain, I am the door. Reading this scripture again in John 10:8, All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. All that ever came before me, He said. Now before Christ came, there were those that had come before Him. We are going to read how they led large numbers of people away in Chapter 5 of the Book of Acts. Even so in this day there have been many that have come before this message saying He has already come and that Revelation, Chapter 10, was fulfilled in the message of Brother William Branham. And that is what Jesus called thieves and robbers as you will see. There are many that say, If anybody would know about the seven thunders whether they have sounded or not, or whether the seventh seal is open or not, or whether Christ has come, it would have been Brother Branham, and since he didn t know, then I m sure nobody else would know. Well, that is their opinions, but the Lamb s wife realizes that when God uses a man to bring truth he only brings it so far and that s his part, then God raises up someone else that He uses to take truth further. But some refuse to move on with further revelation, although they made a start as this is seen in Matthew 25:1-13. We know when this message started it was to the wise and foolish virgins. They both heard it, but the wise were the only ones that could follow it. When the cry was made at the midnight hour it woke all the virgins, and as they began to wake up, some of them didn t have enough oil (revelation) to go on in the journey. Some of them didn t make any preparation. They just said, Whatever will be, will be, having a careless attitude and went on their own merry way. But there were five of them that were wise, that had revelation. They said, I want to be where God wants me to be. They had what they needed. They had oil and could hear the Voice. The others went forth trying to get oil from different sources, but it didn t exist. So while they were trying to get the oil, the marriage took place. Later, the foolish came knocking and saying, Open unto us and let us in, but the Lamb had already taken His wife. The members had already been baptized into the body of Christ and become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, while the foolish were

300 looking at and talking about other things. They never really heard the Voice right, because they went out looking elsewhere to try to get something real. Well, if you have to go see what is out there, then it is obvious you are not hearing the Voice. How many understands what I am saying? If you have to go to this church or that church, or you have to go to this group or that group hoping that someone there will have something to say that will click with you, we only have one thing to say, the sheep hears the Voice, meaning here at the end time His wife hears her husband. Now we have come past this sheep age, as it was in the days when Jesus was walking here. We now realize that it is the wife age. So what I want you to look at here is a similar situation that Jesus was talking about concerning thieves and robbers as it comes to the Gentiles. Many preachers use fancy Greek words, and they want to hide behind them because they don t have a revelation. So instead of preaching the Word in simple form so that it can be understood about the Spiritual coming of Christ, they use some kind of Greek word called Parousia. It means a Spiritual coming, but they won t say that. They say that s the Greek word. Well, if we are going to use a Greek word or something that way, then why don t we talk Greek with everything else? Some want to use a Greek word to hide behind, and it s because they want the people to think they know something. Why not just let the people know what they are saying in simple terms? Instead, they will use this word Parousia. It s just like someone trying to hide behind a garbage can, calling out a word that is not known unless you understand Greek, but the wife knows that it s the Spirit of the Word that gives us all revelation and not the manipulation of words. So Jesus spoke and said, They that have come before this time period, all those before this message that have said the marriage has come are thieves and robbers. All of them that have been saying, Christ has already come before now are thieves and robbers. But in God s provision He has an apostolic ministry that has supplied the product, the anointed Word. So here at the end time we have what Paul prophesied would be here. We have the five fold ministry speaking the same thing; they see eye to eye on this Word perfectly showing this is Christ speaking. Paul was just one man leading the five fold ministry. It came to Paul first and he told Timothy, Titus, and others, These things you ve heard me say, be sure you say the same thing and teach other men to say the same thing. There wasn t fourteen other Paul s out there preaching a little different angle to it. There had to be a clear concise Voice and the sheep (wife) will know the Voice. We can say in this hour of a surety, the wife knows the Voice of her husband, and now it has gone beyond just the five fold ministry and has gotten into the body; all see eye to eye. Let s continue reading in Verses 9-10, I am the door: by me if any man

301 enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Now all that came before Christ, all of them, exception zero, all of them that came before Jesus were thieves and robbers, and those that they led out perished. Somewhere down the road they perished because they were following the wrong voice, but the sheep cannot follow the wrong voice. They were called sheep back then, but it is wife now. She will know His Voice, and a stranger s voice she doesn t know. I want to read just a little here in Matthew 24:23-24, and I want to show you that Jesus prophesied in the last days there would be certain ones saying, Christ has come! He s in the desert! No, He s over here; come and hear Christ! In this message we are going to find out what happened to those that Jesus spoke about here in this chapter. It says, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets.., Normally preachers wouldn t say that I m Christ, but they would say, I ve been anointed to say this. We know Christ means Spirit, the anointing; so they will say, We have the anointing of Christ upon us to speak for Christ. They will say, Let s do this or that. Let s go here or there. Jesus told us what would happen to the people that followed them. He said also, And shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Jesus told us what would be in this day when this prophecy would be fulfilled in our day, but my consolation is this: My (wife) sheep know My Voice and a stranger she won t follow. The Lord put something here so we wouldn t follow after that. He put His Voice here, and that Voice is clearly recognized by the wife of the Lamb. I want to stop here before I read anymore and comment on something that I have been reading about on the Mormon Church. I think that it would be a big stretch to say church if you talk about church in the light of God s Word. I know they went about seeking Zion. There was Joseph Smith whom they called a prophet, and then there was Brigham Young who was also called a prophet. In relationship to the scriptures in Matthew 24:23-26, there is a reminder of what happened as their leaders led a large number of them through the mountains going to Salt Lake City, to Zion. About 240 of them froze to death and died on the way. Some of them they just left where they died because the ground was frozen so hard they couldn t dig a grave. The others just kept on going; they were going to Zion. That is what Jesus was saying. If they say, He s here, then don t follow. There s a Voice, and we know the Voice. That Voice is not trying to take you to a natural geographical area in the earth. We have come to Zion. Paul spoke in Hebrews, Chapter 12, We ve come to New Jerusalem, we ve come to Zion, and we ve come to where the spirits of

302 just men are made perfect. We don t have to go anywhere geographically to get to a certain city in the earth, because we ve already arrived at our City in the Spirit. Notice, Jesus is saying, All that have come before this and claimed it were thieves and robbers. There is a message for your time period that you will hear as the wife of the Lamb. All this other was something that was leading people astray. Christ came to Paul in a real way, through the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the first leg of His Spiritual coming. He gave Paul a message, appointed him and gave him a job; and no one else could do it. It was given to Paul and he said, Even if an angel from heaven come and say it different let him be accursed, because he was sure of what God had called him to do. Christ told him, I want you to be a light to the Gentiles delivering them from the power of satan to the power of God, to bring a message and introduce her, a virgin. Paul said, I have introduced you as a chaste virgin that I may present you to Christ. There were a lot of others that came up in that day saying, Who does Paul think he is? The Bible says that men rose up trying to draw disciples after themselves. They had their own voice, but Paul knew something was wrong with that voice. He said, The spirit of iniquity does already work, because everybody wasn t pulling for the same thing. If God sends a Voice, then we all pull for that same thing. We are one, in one accord, and with the same mind. We speak with one mind and one mouth. Paul said, As Jesus Christ was the minister to the circumcision, I am the minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles. He didn t say we or a whole bunch of others. He said, I am, and all that came before Paul saying I am the one who has the message for the Gentiles, they were thieves and robbers. God used Peter to open the door to the Gentiles, but he didn t go back to them. If you think he did, read Acts, Chapter 11, when he went back to Jerusalem to the other apostles, they began to scold Peter saying, Thou went in to the unclean, thou did eat with them. Peter went about trying to defend himself, but Paul was proud to go and preach to the Gentiles. When Paul went to Jerusalem the churches had a lot of problems there when he would preach, because Paul was injecting something into that Jewish doctrine that didn t quite fit, saying that you don t have to be circumcised, you don t have to keep the law, and if you try to be justified by the law you re fallen from grace. It started so much trouble that even the Jewish leaders went about to kill Paul, but the believers let him down the wall of the city in a basket to get him outside the city and sent him away. When they did, those Jewish churches had peace; they grew and multiplied, but they were not the people that Paul was sent to, because at Jerusalem was the Jewish element of the church. God spoke to Paul and said, I ll send you to a strange people, to a faraway people. In Acts 28:28, He said, I will send you to the Gentiles and they will hear you.

303 Thank God they did hear, and thank God that we are still hearing today. So what we are doing now, we are using what Paul said as a stepping stone to get us on to this. Paul s message brought us into the church age and history shows the church fell away, but God restored back using the Prophet William Branham, so that the apostolic ministry of Ephesians 4:11-16 could complete the stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. Now concerning Paul s message, we can see that it was to take the gospel to the Gentiles and they heard his voice. In Acts, Chapter 13, when Paul went to preach to those Jews, oh, they got so angry and blasphemed, but Paul shook the dust off his feet saying, Lo, we turn to the Gentiles, for thus has the Lord commanded us. He had a job to do; he had a message. That was the Voice of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles and there weren t two or three of them. In this hour as God has restored back the five fold ministry He gave a Voice to bring us to a certain point until a marriage took place. Then, the Voice is in the whole body; all see eye to eye perfectly with the Apostolic Voice of the Lamb. Paul said, We have this till we all come into the unity of the faith, unto the perfect stature of the man Christ Jesus, then we begin to edify one another. We hear the Voice and that makes us willing to edify and we add to one another. So now the ministry and all the other members of the body share this revelation together, as the ministry and the other body members come together, and together we become the wife of the Lamb fulfilling Revelation 10:8-11. Remember, the five fold ministry doesn t go away (you can t say, I have no need of thee), but it works exclusively within the body of Christ, as a marriage has taken place. I want to read in Acts, Chapter 5, to show you there were people coming before Christ came and leading others astray. These people that came before Him saying, I am the one that s been looked for. Even some of the real good people saw John doing the things he was doing, baptizing and preaching the gospel, and the Bible says, They mused in their hearts whether this was the Messiah (Christ) or not. John didn t lead them off anywhere, he made no claim, but I want you to watch what he said when they began to come and ask, Are you the Christ? He said, No, I am not the Christ, I am only a forerunner. I am not even worthy to unloose His shoes. Then they asked, Who are you? John quoted the scripture in Isaiah, I m the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the pathway for the Lord. John introduced Jesus. When he saw Jesus he said, Behold, the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. John had some disciples and when he said, Behold the Lamb of God. This is the one I have been talking about, straightaway two of John s disciples followed Jesus saying, Rabbi, where dwellest thou? Jesus said, Come and see. John didn t have a jealous bone in his body when two of his disciples followed Jesus, because that is what he had come for. The thing is, God has a Voice

304 and it s recognized and it s known and we don t have to crow; but we just speak the Words of Christ and it will find the right place in the heart of the wife of the Lamb. In Acts 5:27-39, we read where the apostles were being beaten for telling the wonderful story of Jesus Christ. One of their own, a doctor of the law, advised them against it. He was a Pharisee named Gamaliel; the same man that Paul referred to in Acts 22:3, whose feet he had learned at. Gamaliel spoke and said, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. Watch, this is what I want you to notice, For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Gamaliel said, You are condemning these men, but look back before this fellow Jesus came there were certain men that rose up and said, I am the Christ. I am the Messiah, and they led a lot of people away and they perished amongst whom was Judas and this Theudas. It s the same thing today they still perish, those that are led away they perish, not so much physically, but spiritually. Spiritually they separate themselves away from the Word. If I am going to be separated from something, don t let me be separated from Christ and His Word. In this day that we have lived in, I ve been preaching since in the fifties and I ve seen different ones rise up and say they were this or that. But there has been a truth laid out over the years, there s been a Voice speaking, bringing us to something, while there have been others that have been led aside. Jesus said, All those that have come before me and said I m Christ were thieves and robbers. Look at those that have come, all down through. That s why I brought it in at the beginning of this message to show you that Brother Branham always said, When He comes, and He ll be here along about the time the seventh seal is opened. It will be along about the time Christ appears on earth for the bride. So he wasn t one of them that said, He s here and I m it. They tried to make him that, but he wouldn t have it. Then Brother Jackson said, He s not here. He hasn t come yet. So Brother Branham and Brother Jackson don t fit in that category that Jesus was talking about. God saw to it that they wouldn t fall in this category of the thieves and robbers that come and say, We re Christ. Christ has come. No, God saved that for a specific time in history and you have lived to see it. Yes, we are living in that time. It s now just like in Paul s day when he said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. He made it sure and steadfast. He didn t

305 hang his head when he said, God has anointed me for this, because he was to introduce a virgin to Christ to become His wife. Of course, it fell away, but it was restored back the same thing he preached and we have taken it on from there, all the way to the wife stage. Now we are here at this special time in Christ because we heard the Voice, and we couldn t hear the Voice unless we were His wife. You hear this Voice because you are the wife and the wife hears the Voice of the husband. You know the Voice of the husband. So all that came before us saying such things as, We are here to get the bride married, they are thieves and robbers. They make their claims, but in the end all perish. Oh, I could tell you stories that would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck of the things that have been said by preachers, especially in the Pentecostal and deliverance meetings; it s ridiculous the things they projected. They are false Christs, false anointed ones, them not knowing Christ in His working through His wife. We see in Revelation, Chapter 10, Christ the Mighty Angel comes down and brings a little book and it is open. It s redemption for the wife only. It is to marry the wife to Christ. It s to make you Christ in the earth. Paul said, Ye are the body of Christ. It didn t happen in Paul s day because the church fell away from the Word and God took Paul off the scene. But here came John on the Isle of Patmos with that prophetic Spirit on him and he began to write about how it was going to be. He told us about Christ s wife and how she has made herself ready and to her was granted that she should be clothed in fine linen which is the righteousness of the saints. Regardless of what has happened, the Word of God just continued to grow, multiply, and prevail. Here we are today and here is the Voice. Here is the Voice of Authorization that spoke and said, Go take the little book. Now that could only happen as God ordained it. I know somebody may say, Well, we can get the same thing. Well, go ahead. Go ahead and get it and let me hear it when you get it. Oh, I believe there are many apostles. Well, now we have already gone beyond that, so I don t know what they are going to say now. We have gone beyond that and passed that till (the until of Ephesians 4:13) and we have all become part of this message. We all have become part of that apostolic message and we are all getting revelation. So if they have four or five apostles out there, we have already gotten through that gate and the gate is closed to all this speculation of the unlearned. So let them have their party out there. They came and knocked, but Jesus said, I know you not. Were they saved? The foolish virgin part of the group was, they were virgins, but they fooled around and tried to get this Word another way. But there were others that Jesus called, False Christs, those that said, He s over here, or He s over there and this is what He is doing in the Word now,

306 without accepting this message. Well, I ll leave that there. God knows what He is doing! I believe it with all my heart. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we bless your name, oh God, you have let us see your program, you let us see why this was and why that was. Lord, you have also let us see we are the wife of the Lamb and you have let us hear your Voice and you let us see Revelation, Chapter 10, Christ coming down and bringing the living Bible for the bride, the wife. And Lord, you have let us hear the Voice of Authorization saying, Go take the little book and eat it, and we thank you for bringing us to this hour. Lord, take this Word and use it for your glory in Jesus Name. Amen. God bless you today.

307 I SUPPOSED THEY WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD BUT THEY UNDERSTOOD NOT Our subject is somewhat of a continuance of last night s message which was entitled, All that Ever Said Christ Has Already Come before This Are Thieves and Robbers. These messages are very personal to the Lamb s wife because of the lateness of the hour we are in. We are getting very close to the rapture and we don t have much time left, and that s why I want to read these particular scriptures. Many years ago, I thought that some day I may speak on them, so the time has arrived. I m going to read in Chapter 7 of the Book of Acts and I want to take a thought, I Supposed They Would Have Understood, But They Understood Not. I assumed they would have understood, but they understand not the Word, meaning what God is doing for this time period. So I preached it supposing they would understand, but they understood not. So I want to pray before reading. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this opportunity that you have granted us to come and stand for you one more time this side of the rapture, which could happen any time now. We just thank you that you made us ready and you ve given us your righteousness and clothed us with fine linen. So we pray, God, that you will take and anoint the Word today, anoint us to bring the Word, and anoint the hearers that hear the Word; and I just pray that each heart will have a room prepared just for the Word of God. As one said one time, Lord, every heart has a place in it that only Christ can fill. I pray that Christ will fill that place today, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We are reading in Chapter 7 of the Book of Acts, and we re looking at a sermon here. This sermon here was preached by Steven, one of God s servants. Although we don t hear a lot about Steven; Chapter 7 of the Book of Acts deals with him. He was trying to tell the Jews why he believed what he believed and why he accepted Jesus Christ as being the Messiah that had been prophesied to come. He spoke with so much wisdom that the Bible says, They could not resist the wisdom by which he spake. And eventually they took up stones and stoned him to death. There was a young man there when this stoning took place named Saul, later his name was changed to Paul, and this is the first mention we have of him in the written scripture. Saul was a witness at the stoning of Steven. I m sure that Saul, now Paul, never really forgot that experience. I m sure that he always felt like there was something that he needed to know more about, but because of his religious teaching and training he went on his own way for quite some time, until the Lord struck him down with a great light. Likewise, we believe for the same thing. We are praying for those

308 that are reading and hearing this Word as it goes on our website that God will strike them down with a great light of revelation; waking them up and letting them realize we are here at the end time. Steven preached this great message telling about those that were before him and how God had moved and why he was preaching and saying the things he preached. Then, he finished by telling about Moses. He said, Moses supposed those that heard would have known that he came to bring deliverance to the people from Egypt s bondage. He supposed they would understand, but they understood not and turned against him. They said, Who are you? Who made you leader of us? Who made you a deliverer? Moses had a hard time leading the people out of Egypt. So Steven is telling the story here. I ll pick up in Acts 7:17-21, But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, See how something was born right in the worst time when the male children were being killed and it looked like they would never get out of Egypt. The king had his thumb on them and he was evilly entreating them, making them work even harder than before. We would have to read in Genesis, Chapter 39, about how they were down in Egypt to get the whole story, but the point I want to make here is that at the worst, darkest time there was a little child born; there was deliverance born. God hadn t forgotten His promise. Some people today look at things like this: Well, you taught us years ago about the church being perfected and you talked about coming together in one mind and one accord There was even one lady that told me, Brother Ben, those things you are telling us sounds good and I wish it would be that way; but you know as well as I do and any sensible thinking person knows that we all have our own thoughts on things. Yes, we can agree on certain things. We can agree to be Christians and we can agree to be civil to one another, but as far as everybody having the same mind, believing the same thing, speaking the same thing, that sounds good on paper, but to put it out here in reality it is just not going to happen. Well, I ve got news for her; it has happened! It s just that in the realm she was associating in it has not happened and it never will, but it has become a reality to the wife of the Lamb. So at the darkest hour hope was born. Hope has been born again in this hour when all the people are saying, It can t be done. It s not going to be done. Well, I have news for you, it has been done! We ve got one mind, one mouth, and we re following one leader which is Christ. Our hero is Jesus Christ and not somebody lifted up among us, but we re all partakers and members of His body. So Moses was born just at the time when all hope was gone. Hope was born.

309 Just at the time when all hope for the world was gone, Jesus was crucified and brought us hope again. This is seen in the two disciples on the way to Emmaus that we speak of many times, as they were walking along and were sad. They said, Just about the time we got our hopes up, and just about the time we thought this was Him and thought we had found it at last, look what happened. Yes, we thought everything was going to be like what the Word said; that God was going to send help to His people to deliver them. Just at the time everything was looking good that s when the unthinkable happened, they crucified Jesus, the one we had our hopes in. They were walking and talking like this, when a man came and joined himself to them asking, What are you talking about? What man are you talking about? How come you are walking along so sad? They said, Oh, you must be a stranger here. You haven t heard about Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God? We really thought we had something going. We thought He was the one, but they killed Him. They took and hung Him on a cross, and now this is the third day and we have given up on this idea of a Messiah and are leaving Jerusalem. They were going on the way to Emmaus, talking like this. Jesus said, Tell me more of this story. They talked on as they walked and when they got to the place where they were going to lodge for the night, Jesus made as though He was going on. Jesus said, You fellows have a good night. I ve enjoyed talking with you today. Enjoy your evening; I m going on down the road. But the two liked His company and asked him to abide with them. The Bible says, They constrained Him. Are we constraining Him to come and abide with us, or are we saying, Okay, it s been enjoyable to talk with you. Be careful because there are thieves and robbers along the way. No, they heard something in that Voice. There was a Voice, and that Voice caused their hearts to burn within them. They said later, Did not our heart burn within us as He spake to us. They said, Look, we ve got extra food here and we have room for you to stay, so why don t you just come on in and abide with us? He said, Well, I would love to, but I need to go on; but thanks anyway. Please, they said to Jesus, Could you just come on in? They constrained Him to stay, and He finally consented to come in and be with them. They prepared the food and got ready to eat. Then Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks; and all of a sudden they got struck down with a big light! Their eyes were opened, the Bible says. They got a revelation! I love that story; it just does something for me. They got revelation and realized who He was; but by the time they wanted to talk more, He was already gone. He had just disappeared. They had walked all day and were tired and weary from the journey, but they got supercharged by this wonderful revelation. Now that is what is happening to the wife of the Lamb. She knows she is married to Him. She knows He s her husband and she is not down and out, but is supercharged. These two disciples got super-

310 charged and ran all the way back to Jerusalem saying, We have to tell the others He is risen from the dead. I tell you, we have to tell the others that the promise of God has been fulfilled and this is right after all. What He said He would do, He has fulfilled it, and here it is right before our eyes. Praise the Lord! Oh, I love that story! I love the way Jesus does it. He didn t come to them wearing some type of priestly robe or something, and spewing out commandments. No, He was just talking to them, insomuch that they didn t know the difference from any other man, with the exception of their hearts burning within them. I love these words He s saying; it just feels right. Then they realized the thing they had been expecting and talking about had come to pass. It s here and this is it! Just like the lady said, That sounds good and on paper it looks good, but to put it into action, it s just not going to be. Well I ll tell you, it has come together. It feels right, sounds right, is right, and has come to pass one people baptized into the one body of Christ by one Spirit. And we now understand we are the body of Christ, the Mighty Angel in fullness, both legs of His coming. (Revelation 10:1) We have been baptized into the Spirit of the Mighty Angel and become His body, the Christ in the earth, meaning we have become His very wife, the physical Christ in a physical body, the wife of our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we are the Christ part of Jesus in the earth with His mind, His attributes, and with His blessings upon us. So in the darkest hour for Israel, a little baby was born. There has been something born; it has been growing. And now it s grown, it s matured, and it has fulfilled God s Word. It has brought us to this place where we are not just a virgin bride, but Christ the wife of the Lamb, with all its blessings. So that is what Stephen was relating here. Verse 20, In which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father s house three months. Now you that have little children and grandchildren, think if you had one that was three months old you ve loved and nurtured, but then take it and put it in the Nile River in a little basket to let it flow downstream in hopes that someone would find and rescue it. This is exactly what happened to Moses; his mother put him in the river, but she was led of the Spirit. You just don t take a child and set him out in the Nile River, and the right one is there at the right time to get him, then get paid to take care of your own child and raise it up as your own. Isn t it so amazing that Moses mother just happened to be nearby when that took place? So when she saw Pharaoh s daughter find Moses, she asked her, Would you like for me to get a maid to tend the baby for you? Oh, I like God s ways, don t you? So Pharaoh s daughter handed Moses over to his mother and said, You take care of him, and she got paid out of the treasures of Egypt; what a miracle. Yes, she was the mother. That was God putting her back with her son. It is so amazing how everything just happened to work

311 out. Not only did they not kill the child Moses, but he was raised up in the lap of luxury. His mother that bore him had grieved to think that he would be put to death as the other male children were, but instead he was protected by all of Egypt. So, let us never doubt that God can make this thing work, and He has made it work! Continuing on with Verses 21-23, And when he was cast out, Pharaoh s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. He saw the slaves out there, but he wasn t taught that he was one of them, unless his mother had enlightened him to this fact or it could have been by revelation that Moses knew. But whichever way it was, he went out there to see about all this. When he was forty years old it came into his heart, he had already gotten over his teenage years and he s matured now, so it came into his heart to go visit his brethren. Watch what it says in Verse 24, And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: Something in Moses wasn t willing to stand there and let his brethren be oppressed, even though he was in line for the throne of Egypt. He valued the riches of Christ more than the treasures of Egypt. (Hebrews 11:23-29) He wasn t willing to let someone do God s children wrong. Think about that one. He wasn t willing to sit back when one of them was being talked about or belittled. No, he stood up and said, Wait just a minute here. These are my brethren. So he stood to his feet and slew the Egyptian. Here is where I am getting my thought, He supposed that his brethren would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. It s the same thing today. It was the same thing when Jesus came. It was the same thing when Paul came. The same thing has repeated itself over and over. So, I supposed they would have understood, but they understand not today that there is a Word, there s a message, there s a wife, and the Lamb has married His wife, sending a Word to her that just sets her heart and soul on fire. You would think after what has happened in the meetings that they had understood. Many of you have seen in the meetings how people would get up and testify, Brother Ben is this, or Brother Ben is that. Even one man said, Never spake a man like this man spake. You would think that they understood, but they understood not. They understood not! They are looking for something else, or looking back at something that was done in the past. They say, I believe this will be when we finally get everything worked out among us. They will never get their differences worked out. God left it that way by the things He allowed our past leaders to say. They made statements that were left with us, and they became guards (gate keepers) to keep the way of the tree of life. They are guards to stop those that are

312 not revelated from partaking of this trumpet sounding Word that is only for the wife. I read last night where one had led four hundred followers out into the wilderness and they were slain. And all those that have come and tried to present the message of the marriage and righteousness of God before this time, Jesus said, They were thieves and robbers. They robbed people of that which was for them; robbed people of the promise of God and from that which is real. So here is one that rose up and said, I m the man. I m the one who has it. But Jesus said, All those that came before me and tried to pull this nonsense, they perish. We have seen much spiritual perishing going on today, because they can t find their way back to what God is doing in this hour. Many times it s because of their stubbornness or lack of revelation or because it won t fit with their program of wanting to be accepted amongst the people. In Acts 5:37 it says, After this man rose up, Judas of Galilee in the days of taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished... Jesus said, All that ever came before me and made the claim that they were to fulfill this part of the Word, (even this message) are thieves and robbers. Think about it. There are many that have gone with the wind. The winds of change have swept them away, proving that they weren t what they said they were. And if you are not what you say you are, Jesus said, They are the same as thieves and robbers. Amen. And all even as many who obeyed him (Judas) were dispersed. There they go, this way and that way, but now there is the Voice of the turtle dove in the land, there is the Word. It doesn t mean because they were scattered that they were permanently lost. These were just scattered, and if there is a place in their hearts for this Word and they were ordained before the world, they will be enlightened to truth. I preached a message we entitled God s Foreknowledge in the Present Justifies His Predestination, which is a message that is drawing a lot of attention. God knows. He could predestinate you because He has already been here and knows exactly what you are going to do. So because He has already been here and saw what you were going to do, then it would be no problem for Him to write your name in the Book of Life and say, This one is mine. Those that He called, He justified and even glorified. He that begun a good work in you will perform it till the end; and the end is a glorified body. Also here in Acts, Chapter 5, we find a very wise man named Gamaliel, and let me tell you what he said about mistreating the children of God. He knew enough about the things of God to know that people don t just get out here, rant and rave, call them bad things and do damage to them, and think they re going to get off free and untouched. But watch this wise man. I don t know, maybe God put a soft spot in his heart for the apostles here but the religious leaders were ready to kill them. Let s watch in Acts 5:38-39 what he says... And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and

313 let them alone: for if this council or work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply you be found even to fight against God. I tell you, it is not a pleasant thing to be at odds with God, and any sensible person wants God on their side. So don t get God s bad hand put on you. If you get God s bad hand put on you, then you are in trouble. So this wise man said, Leave these people alone. There are people that have an idea that this Word that I m preaching is right and have testified to it, but their thinking is, If I accept this message it is going to get me in a bad spot with this one or that one, or with this group or that group, so what I will do is just straddle the fence and resist any further revelation. But now, He calls us to a commitment to His Word; splitting the middle or riding on the fence is over with now. He calls us to give an account. If you are the wife, the body of Christ, and Jesus is your husband, why would you want to fool around with some other fellow you might have been acquainted with somewhere back down the road. No, you say, That is gone with wind! I m in a new world since I have become the wife of the Lamb, old things have passed away. God has begun to bring into being the very thing that He said would be here, and it has always been rejected by all except those that were part of it before the world was. To many people this doesn t look big enough or flowery enough and they will back away from it saying, It could be of God or it may not be. Who knows? What does it matter anyway? We have other things to do. We have to have church. We have to keep the people bound to us because we have to have a choir and enough people to give so we can pay our bills, and on and on it goes. But the Lord s wife knows what is right and she wants what is right. Jesus said, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33) I have seen this for over fifty years now; the Word of God has gone forth to all parts of the world, and all of this has been accomplished without begging for an offering. Yes, it is right to give, but if you have to spend a third of your time telling the people about giving, either something is wrong with you or the people you are preaching to. Just let them know what the Word of God teaches us to do and be led by the Spirit and watch what happens. It will work out all right as we walk in the will of God. I supposed they would have understood. Watch what God said, that there would come a time for this message to go to many peoples, nations, tongues and kings (or kingdoms). (Revelation 10:11) I want to look back just a little bit to see how this came. Yes, God has given a message in this end time for the Lamb s wife; she loves it and enjoys it just as it is with you right now as you are reading this Word from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is what happened in this generation: We know that God sent a prophet, William Marion Branham with the Word of God and there was a cry made. Then all the virgins woke up from their slumber and began to

314 trim their lamps so they could continue their journey. All ten of them had on their traveling garments, all of them, exception zero. They started walking in that stage of the message of His Spiritual coming, and that shout stage was accomplished in the days of the prophet. But five of these virgins discovered that they had practically no oil left. So they went away trying to get oil somewhere else, going to the different religious groups without getting the right oil for the journey. Why didn t they just come to the Word of God and get revelational oil that would take them to the next revelational fueling station on the journey? It was because they didn t want the ridicule for following newly revealed truth. Now all the virgins had on their traveling garments, both the wise and foolish. So compare this with taking a road trip with three fueling stations where you could fill your tank at each station, which would only take you to the next fueling station. At the first fueling station each one could fill their tanks and continue traveling down the road with Brother Branham s message on their way towards home. The Word says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and that s one stage of it. So at this time in your traveling you ve filled your tank with the fuel for that day and passed that one fueling station. I am speaking of a spiritual fueling station to compare it with your spiritual travel. You have to get your tank filled every so often; if you don t you are going to run out of fuel, and then you can t continue on your journey. So the shout was one stage, and all those that did not fill up their tanks with this revelational fuel became foolish virgins and many of them went back into some religious groups. Then from those that did accept the message for that day, some were faced with another stage of God s workings, which is known as the second stage ( with the voice of the archangel. ) And then those that accept the second stage will be faced with stage three ( and with the trump of God ), before their journey ends, with the resurrection of the dead members of the wife and the translation of the living part of the wife of the Lamb. The Trumpet Fueling Station is the last fueling station and will take you to the end of your journey. So many of the saints got a good tank of that high octane William Branham fuel and went on down the road singing as they went with their traveling garments on. This was the first stage of the Spiritual coming of Christ as the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10. Then most of them began to let their fuel tanks run low; but don t worry, there was another fueling station and the name of that station was Raymond Jackson Junior Fueling Station, which was the second stage. But many of those that filled up with Brother Branham s fuel said, I don t want none of that Raymond Jackson s fuel in my car; I ll run out of fuel before I take any of his fuel. You better check it out, for it is good fuel. But some were stubborn and wouldn t refuel saying, That station has the wrong name. So that s what

315 they did; many of them refused to refuel so they ran out of fuel. And that s why they are still on the side of the road waiting for some preacher that quotes Brother Branham to come by with some revelational oil to finish their journey, while refusing the fuel that is in good supply. Thus, they become the foolish virgins of the first stage produced by refusing the furtherance of revelation that Brother Jackson brought. Now getting to those that did fill their tanks with the fuel at the Raymond Jackson Junior Fueling Station. They continued their traveling rejoicing as they went, singing the praises of God for refueling them with further revelational oil, thinking they could make it home without filling their tanks again. They, like the other groups, began to run low on fuel; they were shocked that they still hadn t made it home and would have to refuel, or else be stranded on the roadside like those before them. Don t panic; there s another fueling station with a vast supply of the highest quality of high octane fuel that works well as rocket fuel, and it will get you past the earthly gravitational pull and into the rapture. But most of those that filled their tanks with the fuel from the second stage fueling station named Raymond Jackson Fueling Station slowly began to run out of fuel. They parked by the roadside with their traveling garments on and have become the foolish virgins of the second stage of the journey, simply because they refused to fill their tanks again, and fell in the same snare that those of the first stage fueling station fell into. As those of the first stage refused fuel from the second stage (Raymond Jackson) because they did not like the name of the fueling station, and became the foolish of that era. So has it happened to those that did fill their tank with the Raymond Jackson fuel, and now they have become the foolish virgins of the second stage by refusing fuel from the third fueling station. And of course I don t want to be neglectful here and fail to mention that all along the journey there were tares that were not wise nor foolish virgins, but they were tares from the beginning and are carnal, (Christians in name only) and are lost. There were many that rose up before this message was manifested, saying this and that, not knowing they needed this fuel, because they still had their traveling garments on. Thank God there were some of them that said, Give me some of that good high octane fuel for the third stage. Now I want to summarize here some and put the finishing touches on it. They got that fuel in their car and said, This Raymond Jackson fuel poured into that same tank Brother Branham s fuel was in makes this car run like new. And they went on down the road rejoicing as they went. They went on down the road traveling with their traveling garments on. Then, as they traveled there was another fueling station, another stage of the message, the trumpet (trump) fueling station; and along with this fuel comes the fine linen, clean and white. Here the travelers can take off their traveling garments and get the garment for the wedding, because with

316 this fuel we are married and have now arrived at journey s end being home at last. So while burning Brother Branham s fuel they had the traveling garment on. Also, while burning Brother Jackson s fuel they still had the traveling garment on, going on a journey. But they had to get it filled up one more time to get to the end. Just like the race cars on a race track, sometimes the drivers will have to fill up their tanks three times to get to the end. But sometimes some of the drivers will get a good case of dumb fever and try to stretch their fuel just a little further than it will stretch, running out before they get to the finish line because they didn t make that third stage stop for fuel. They wanted somehow or another to get that advantage, thinking, I m doing good like this, so why should I give up my position by stopping for more fuel? A bad miscalculation! But sadly their fuel tank ran dry short of the finish line and they couldn t take the checkered flag, that s the wedding gown. So those that filled their tanks a second time with fuel said, This Raymond Jackson fuel is burning fine in my car, why should I stop and fill it up again? But they only had enough to get so far, because you have to cross that finish line to get the wedding garment. That wedding garment is fine linen, clean and white, which is this message, bringing to light the fact that it is not our righteousness, but His. It is showing that it s not what we are doing, what we have done, nor what we are going to do, but it is what Christ did for us. Get your tank filled with that fuel and roll on in home as this Trumpet sounds. I thought they would have understood. I supposed they would have understood. I assumed they would have understood, but they understood not. They think they can go on down the road washing their garments, but pretty soon that garment is going to get thread bare, because that type garment was only to travel in. Don t try to enter into a formal marriage with that type garment on. They will throw you out! How do I know? Jesus said, When the man of the house came to look at the guest, he found there a man who had gotten in some other way. He didn t have the proper garment on to attend even the ceremonial part of the wedding. So is it with those that try to make it without getting the final tank of high octane fuel. Some that got the second tank of fuel said, I will run out of fuel before I will stop there for fuel. I don t want any of that old Ben Howard Trumpet Fuel. I am almost home now. But you have to take off the traveling garment and put on the fine linen. One can have a good tank of Brother Branham s fuel, and one can have a good tank of Brother Jackson s fuel, but that s not enough fuel to get home for the wedding, and you can t get home without the final tank of fuel. So if this fueling station is rejected (the trumpet message), it is rejecting the fine linen. It s rejecting the dead being raised from the graves and the living saints getting glorified bodies. So this is the last fueling station to fill up; and after you fill up at this station you can go on in home. This fuel gets higher

317 octane as you go and makes the car run better because you already have the results of the first tank, and you already have the results of the second tank, and the motor is really doing good! All the soot is burned out of the exhaust pipe. This high octane fuel will take you past the finish line, and then there is a celebration. That is why we are celebrating today; we have crossed the finish line and we have filled up with a perfect measure of fuel rightly mixed from all three fueling stations to create this super rocket fuel for leaving this earth. We created this fuel by ignoring all the critics of Brother Branham and Brother Jackson; especially those of Brother Jackson. They said, He doesn t believe in everything the Prophet William Branham said, and he s this and that. He disagrees with Brother Branham on that pyramid being the city New Jerusalem. He disagrees with Brother Branham on whether children would be born in the millennium or not. So they said, No, I don t want any of that Raymond Jackson fuel in my tank; my car will blow up if I put that fuel in it. Well, it s supposed to, because look who is driving it. No wonder. If you are a child of God and you are wise, it will come into your heart what to do. That is what happened to Moses, it came into his heart; likewise it will come into your heart to keep your tank full. Now that we are home we have changed our traveling garments and we have on the fine linen, clean and white, the wedding garment. We have become the wife of the Lamb, because we can hear that trumpet blowing. We hear that particular Voice. In the days when Jesus walked in human flesh, He typed us as sheep and He said, My sheep hear my Voice, and a stranger they will not follow. I even know them by name. The Lord s wife has made herself ready and has come into the city. Paul foresaw it in a prophetic vision in Hebrews 12:22-23 saying, But ye are come unto mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.., and they can t be made perfect without us. It takes all members of the body of Christ, dead and living, for completion of the body. In other words, we are part of them and they are part of us. They fulfilled their part down through time and will have the fine linen, clean and white, by believing what God was giving in their day. Yes, all the saints that kept the Word will have the fine linen, but we as a people living get fine linen even before we are changed. The Bible says, His wife has made herself ready, and it was granted unto her that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white. That means those that are living, and those that will be resurrected, and all those that were ordained to be the wife of the Lamb will be clothed in fine linen, which is the righteousness of God. Well, I thought they would understand this that is going on today, but they understood not. They don t understand. They are looking for some-

318 thing else or thinking it will come another way. But this is it! We have passed all three fueling stations now. God has taken our precious Brother Branham off the scene and our precious Brother Jackson off the scene, their work being done; and they did a super job. But I say now, the trumpet is blowing and this message is doing a super job. It fits the Word like a hand that fits a tailored made glove. So we ve had our tanks filled up with this trumpet fuel, because this is what raises the dead and changes the living. This trumpet fuel shoots us into the sky. The other two stages kept us on the ground, but this is rocket fuel. This last one is rocket fuel and it causes gravity to lose its hold on the wife of Lamb. Well, I thought they would understand, but they understood not. Those that are ordained to understand, they will understand and they will know. There is not a one that is ordained to be in the rapture that is going to miss it. Because something has happened they heard this message and they were made ready. Let me say this, all the other saints that lived through the church ages that were not ordained to be part of the wife, and those saints that are living here after we leave will have their rightful place in God s family. So we can say God is good and exceedingly great! There was a message preached sometime back and it was also put into a book entitled God s Redeemed Family, which shows us all of God s family and their redemption. Jesus brought forth the Old Testament saints first. While His body was in the tomb, His spirit was in hell preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-20), and after His resurrection He brought the Old Testament saints out and they were seen of many in Jerusalem. Then He took them to heaven with Him after His stay here of forty days (Acts 1:3 and Ephesians 4:8-10), thus liberating them. Then after He finished with that order of saints, we see His redemption plan for all the others as it unfolds in the three stages of Jesus Christ claiming all of God s children that He has redeemed. He begins this claiming after the seven church ages are over and is seen as the bloody Lamb that came and took the seven seals off the Big Book and opened it. Revelation, Chapter 5, shows this Book of Redemption as He opened it in heaven. Therefore, it opened the way for Him to take the little book out of the big book of redemption, thus redeeming His wife, as the little book is only for the wife of the Lamb. So He took the little book out of the big book of redemption, and in the form of the Mighty Angel, He brought it down from heaven giving it to His wife, while leaving the rest of the big book in heaven until the time for Jesus Christ to claim all the other children of God whose names are in that book. That s why your churches will go on and there will be people that God has ordained as part of His family carrying on with their part even after the rapture. Remember here that God is the keeper of the book and He knows everyone that s represented therein. Just because Jesus has taken His wife, that s not the end. Others will keep

319 on washing their robes as is shown in Revelation, Chapter 7, which shows the tribulation saints in the middle of the week still washing their garments, making them white in the blood of the Lamb. One of the differences is they will have to go by the grave; they will give their lives for Christ Jesus. Yes, by this time they will know they have missed the rapture, because they didn t fill their tank up in the proper time. They didn t get any rocket fuel to shoot them out of here that is the little book, the rocket fuel. The last fueling station is for rocket fuel. It is the trumpet sounding, and it s the fine linen for the wife. Hallelujah! It manifests the wife of the Lamb, and that sets in motion the redemption of the whole earth. I thought they would understand when they heard this message, how this has come and perfectly placed Brother Branham and placed Brother Jackson, bringing it on up to this time. I thought they would understand. I perceived they would understand. I supposed they would understand, but we are living witnesses they understood not. We have traveled the long road home and we have our rocket fuel in now. We have our fine linen on and we are married to the Lamb. We have become the wife of the Lamb. We are His body in the earth, baptized by one Spirit into the body of Christ; and there is no higher calling. The angels have to back away because now the bride has become the wife. The last time she is seen in the earth she is called the wife of the Lamb. It s not bride, not church, not sheep, not fish, not grain, but it s the wife of the Lamb and she is clothed in fine linen, clean and white. We have arrived! This is that, as Peter said. This is that, which was prophesied and spoken of by the Apostle Paul when he said, We which are alive and remain. This is that! We have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We have His mind and His Spirit; we all speak the same thing, and it is all here now. Here it is, and we can say, The wife of the Lamb, the many member body now sees eye to eye and all speaks with the same mind and same Voice, with the same desires and same ambitions. Do you love Him with all your heart? I thought they would understand, but they understood not. Here it is today; this is it! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for the Marriage has come! God bless you today. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for your goodness and mercy upon us all and thank you Lord for helping us to fill our tank at all these fueling stations, and you finally have given us that super fuel that propels us out of here. Oh God, as we read last night and today, all those that came before this that claimed to have this, they claimed to be preaching this, but they were just out of time with your working. It was an untimely message for them, because you had a time, you had a place, and we have arrived at that. I pray Lord that you will take this Word and use it for your glory, in Jesus Name we pray. Amen

320 A PERFECT COUPLE WITH A PERFECT MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN AND EXPRESSED IN THE EARTH We want to look at a subject this morning which will come on the heels of last week s message entitled A Non-Virgin Becomes a Virgin and Then the Wife of Christ. I want to take this message another step, as these messages link with one another like a chain. Although, they weren t planned that by myself; but God just sees that they go that way. If you miss even one of the messages it leaves a gap. Maybe that s the reason the Word says, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together and even more so as you see that day approaching. It helps us keep up with the movement of the Word. When one is climbing up a ladder or going up a set of steps, if you miss several steps and then you try to step over several steps at once you run the risk of not being successful with that step, see. So my subject for you is, A Perfect Couple with a Perfect Marriage Made in Heaven and Expressed in the Earth. We hear much today about how Hollywood spends thousands of dollars on weddings. Many times people will say, That is a marriage made in heaven, just because it s a big flowery thing. But that doesn t mean it is a marriage made in heaven, does it? I can confidently say most of the time it is not. So before we continue let us pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will bless the reading of the Word today. We know the Word is blessed, but I pray that you will bless us and help us to say the things about the Word that you would have us to say. We know the Word is eternal, and that it s not always written Word; but sometimes it is just spiritual inspiration that comes at the time we are speaking. But I pray, God, that you will help us to put ourselves into your hands in complete surrender that you may use us for this little while. We ask in Jesus Name. Amen. Now in last week s message we talked about a virgin. Adam and Eve both were virgins and they were the perfect couple; but they never did come into that perfect marriage because the fall took place. The serpent beguiled Eve and deceived her and she had an intimate relationship with this man beast before she and Adam ever consummated their marriage, thus stopping that perfect marriage from taking place. And since then no marriage has reached that perfect stature that a marriage is to reach. We know from reading in the Word that there is projected to be a perfect couple with a perfect marriage made in heaven and expressed in the earth that comes into being in this last day. And this perfect couple, the matured man and the matured woman are virgins. The word virgin can be applied

321 to a man or woman, but usually when we hear the word virgin we think of it as applying only to the woman; it means she has never been intimate with a man. And if speaking of a man that has never been intimate with a woman, then he is a virgin, too, if he hasn t known woman. Now in Eden there was a man that was a virgin; there was a woman that was a virgin, and God ordained a perfect marriage. That was the perfect couple and there was to be a perfect marriage to be expressed in the earth, but it didn t work out. The perfect marriage that almost wasn t, now is. It didn t happen with God s first son and daughter, but it happened with His second Son. So we ve got a virgin man now, and this virgin man was born of a virgin named Mary. Now this puts in the earth the only man since Adam that wasn t begotten by fallen man, and now He must have a virgin wife. This is where the many member body of Christ comes into view, and it is the Gentile bride here at the end time which is the final part of the wise virgins that receives the pure virgin Word. This pure virgin Word is the little book brought to us by Christ the Mighty Angel, and the predestinated bride is baptized into His body making her the flesh and bones of Christ, the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now repeating for emphasis; we the wife have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, thus making us the Christ part (wife) of our husband, Jesus Christ. Now throughout the ages God has let certain marriages here in the earth express the perfect marriage. Take Abraham and Sarah, we could say, That is a model marriage made in heaven. Also there was Noah and his wife, and others too numerous to mention here. There are different ones that we could say, What a marriage! or That marriage was made in heaven! or That s a perfect marriage. Well, when we say the marriage was made in heaven, we mean heaven ordained marriage. But in a fallen world it hasn t been all that God meant for it to be up until now. My wife and I have a model marriage; we could say it was made in heaven, that s true, but there are also difficulties along the roads of life with us all. Now we are a virgin bride that has become the wife of Jesus Christ, meaning that He has accomplished God s original plan of marrying a virgin. The plan that was delayed for many centuries now has been fulfilled in and through we which are alive and remain as spoken by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4: Even though we were a non-virgin; now we become a virgin when we obey the Word of God, because it s in the spirit. When you re a non-virgin and become a virgin to the Word, God looks at your whole being as being a virgin. When Jesus got through talking to the woman at the well that had been married five times and living with someone she wasn t married to by revelation, we could say, There goes a virgin. God had taken care of everything by His Spirit. Paul said the same when he was talking about some being fornicators and so on. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) He said in Verse 11, And such were some of you: but ye

322 are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of our God. Now justification means it is as though you never did it at all. It s just like water under the bridge; it s gone and you are free. You become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away and behold all things are new. Ephesians, Chapter 4 says, We are created after the image of Christ. He created us new. Yes, He made us virgins. When we see this, everything becomes very clear. Old things are passed away and behold all things are new. By accepting the true Word for this hour it made us a virgin to the Word, and now the wife. We become the perfect virgin to marry Jesus Christ, thus making us the Christ part of Him, His wife that has taken His name. Yes, I m telling you, a marriage has taken place! As this marriage took place we were baptized into the body of Christ. So our marriage here in the earth expresses the marriage of Jesus Christ to His wife. So let s try to express that even in a fallen world. That means we should pray and choose our mates well in a revelational manner. Although Paul said if you re married to an unbeliever that treats you right, treats you like a child of God and he or she is pleased to dwell with you then don t put him or her away, but live in peace with one another and honor God s instruction. I know people where one serves the Lord and the other doesn t, but for the most part they respect each other and the institution of marriage. In such cases, you ve got one that is born again and serving God and the other that is a good person in the outer realm who loves God and has the utmost respect for their mate, although they are not part of the body of Christ. God will never break up a marriage like that as long as there is mutual respect for one another. Jesus spoke of such cases of the wife of the Lamb saying, the one will not stop the other from being in the catching away if they are a member of the body of Christ. As our Lord indicated, There will be two in the bed, one taken and one left. And there will be two in the field working, one taken and the other left. A man or woman should realize that if either has a mate that is serving God and loving God, he or she is a child of God and part of the wife of the Lamb. So neither can say things and do things to be cruel or to hurt one another without having God frown on the one that causes the hurt. That s like being cruel to Jesus Christ Himself. As much as you ve done to the least of these, my brethren or sisters, you ve done it unto me. That s a child of God, and even though it be husband or wife you had better respect your mate, otherwise you are displeasing God. When it gets to the place where there is no respect and there is unending cruelty by ones mate, then if God doesn t take care of the situation sometimes we have to make other arrangements. That s the time to move on. God doesn t want any of His people to be subject to brutality or cruelty or anything of that nature, whether it is on the side of the man or

323 on the side of the woman. In such cases either the man or woman can be married to another in the Lord without being in adultery, and have a happy marriage in the Lord and be without condemnation. Now back to the one and only perfect marriage, and this is the Lord Jesus Christ and His wife which has taken on the Christ part of His name, thus she is Christ the wife. That s those that are baptized into the body of Christ for this day. So we are Christ s body in the earth. Now since the days of the fall of Adam and Eve there has never been this original projected perfect marriage until now. There s never been an absolute perfect marriage, meaning we all have our flaws. Am I a good husband? I think I am. I try to be. But I ve got flaws and from time to time Barbara has to bear with me. (Barbara is shaking her head that I don t have any flaws. Well, she loves me so she doesn t see them.) But the point is we bear with one another sometimes, since both of us are human beings and know that our only righteousness is in Christ and we stand in that alone. Praise God! We are baptized into the body of Christ. We know that the body is one, but has many members. Since Adam and Eve there has never been that perfect one until the Lord Jesus was born, and that changes everything as He has now given us His righteousness in marriage and we are as He is. The Pharisees came to Jesus tempting Him, asking Him questions about marriage and divorce. They asked Him, How about this, and how about that, and on and on their questions went. He began to tell them what the truth was about what Moses had said. In the days of Moses there was a high priest named Aaron. He was called of God to be a high priest. Much later there was a high priest called Melchisedec in that order, and now Jesus as a high priest in that order. The Bible says in Hebrews 3:1, Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Now what I m about to say may go against the grain for some of those that preached before we came on the scene. Many spoke along these lines giving their best judgment and told what they felt was right. Many times God honored and blessed them for their labors as God had not revealed full truth in their time. God knew that there would come a time of perfection, a time when we would reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus at this end time. So many different teachers and preachers expressed their thoughts and God permitted it. Some of the messengers of days gone by preached that a minister was not qualified to preach unless he had married a virgin. They believed this because in the Old Testament the high priest and he only, had to marry a virgin. And this was because in that time period he was a type of Jesus Christ who will only marry a virgin to the Word. You will find this scripture in the Book of Leviticus 21:10,13. That s why God makes us a virgin to the Word, so that His Son will have a virgin to become His wife, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. She has to be the same Word as He is. Now the regular priest could

324 marry someone that didn t necessarily have to be a virgin. He could marry a widow that had been a priest s wife before. (Ezekiel 44:22) So when Brother William Branham preached a message on marriage and divorce he used the scripture that said the high priest had to marry a virgin. Well, when he preached the message he said, A minister has to marry a virgin. He only quoted that scripture without reading further and he left it there without taking all the scripture on the subject. Soon God took him home before it was corrected. And his followers stopped there without searching further and did like all the other denominations and made it their doctrine, although it is not scripturally correct. Well, this same scenario existed in the days of Jesus earthly journey. Those Pharisees took what Moses said and made their denominations. So when Jesus came preaching the Word of God, one of the first things they came at Him with was this question, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Jesus said, At the beginning it wasn t so. Moses permitted you to do this because of the hardness of your heart, but what Moses said wasn t so as far as restoring God s original plan for man and woman. (Matthew, Chapter 19 and Mark, Chapter 10) Jesus pointed to the beginning, but since the beginning we all have been under a survival law and so has it been in each of the dispensations of time. For an example, there was the Prophet Hosea and God said to him, Go marry a wife of the whoredom, in which he did. (Hosea 1:2) This was God s way of showing what Israel was doing in their backslidden condition. Israel had gone after other gods instead of staying with the Word for their day. Now getting back to the original, we see that God started off with a virgin man and a virgin woman, and He is not going to finish up with anything less. Hallelujah! So between Eden and where we re at now, there were different men of God that He gave permission to make an assertion because of certain conditions. Jesus said, Moses said it, but at the beginning it wasn t so. In Matthew, Chapter 19, Jesus said, From the beginning; then He talked on and said, At the beginning. In other words, since the beginning the things that God ordained for Adam and Eve won t work because the fall has taken place. There hasn t been a marriage that we could say was absolutely perfect, but there will be. So let me sound a trumpet, He sent someone to claim back all that Adam and Eve lost there in the garden. So whatever Moses said, Jesus did not make any attempt to go into what Moses said. Moses gave so many regulations, just read the first five books of the Bible and you can see this clearly. All that happened was typing out these things. The Bible says Jesus didn t come to destroy the law, He didn t come to destroy these things; He fulfilled them. So Jesus said, Whatever Moses said. I want you to notice, He didn t go back and try to unravel or explain what Moses said. Jesus just said, It wasn t like what Moses said at the beginning. Moses permitted that

325 because of the hardness of your hearts. In other words, if a man and woman couldn t get along he didn t want them to fight and argue all their lives. So because of the hardness of your hearts it was permitted. I have read this from the different translations so that nobody can come back and hit me broadside with another scripture they found somewhere, so I did a thorough study of it. The Catholics say unless the marriage was done unlawful it has to stand, and divorce will not be granted. They also have the idea they can grant absolution to a marriage. If a man and woman came and they had money like the Kennedys and wanted to get divorced, the priests could grant absolution and dissolve it. But don t you go unless you have big money. If you have the right kind of money you can go and say to the priest, I ve got a woman here and she doesn t do like I want. This was going on back in the medieval time as some of the kings wanted to get rid of their wives. If they were in good standing with the priest he would grant it. So whatever the situation, Jesus said, It wasn t so at the beginning. Now Jesus could have said something like this when they said, Moses said, Moses said. Jesus could have said, I don t give a pig s ear what Moses said, but I say unto you. He said, It wasn t so at the beginning, or from the beginning it wasn t so. Now coming over to Paul, we find that he spoke about each situation as he had to deal with them; many times giving instructions that he felt was the right thing to do, saying, I suppose this is good for the present situation. (1 Corinthians 7:26) But later he modified some of his earlier instructions as time and his understanding became clearer. Just as Jesus didn t try to unravel anything Moses said. Jesus just said, Go back to the beginning. Have you not read when God made them, He made them male and female. For what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. (Matthew 19:4-6) So I thank God that He has given us a way where we can marry our wives and love them and enjoy God s blessing with the love that He has given to be shared between man and wife. It is the blessing of God for man and woman to enjoy each other as God has ordained. But in this message I am talking about the perfect couple with a perfect marriage made in heaven. Now there is no couple that can stand up and say we are that couple, no. If you are part of the wife, meaning a member of the body of Christ, then you are the perfect wife. 1 Corinthians 6:17, But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. It is what God joined together that no man put asunder. Adam, the first son didn t get his blessing, he didn t get that perfect wife. But to him she was perfect. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She filled the bill perfectly for Adam, although she had already fallen and defiled herself. But Adam wasn t like some of these devil possessed men in our day that don t have an ounce of forgiveness in them. They don t know that Jesus came so that you could become a virgin again.

326 He came so that all your sins could be taken away and you could be washed as white as driven snow, thus making a new creature out of you. Praise God! Do you believe that you are a new creature in Christ Jesus? He makes you a virgin to the Word when you hear the Word of God and believe the Word of God and respond to the Word of God, then you are a virgin to the Word. And if you become a virgin in your spirit it also applies to the body, too, as you believe and accept revelational Word that s quickened to you by the Holy Spirit. Now also do you see this truth about the priest? It was only the high priest that had to marry a virgin. Who is our High Priest? It s Christ. He has to marry a virgin. That s why God made us virgins. He made a way that we could become a virgin. So there is in the earth today a perfect marriage made in heaven and expressed in the earth. And in order to be part of this, by one Spirit you re baptized into one Message, one Word, one Body, and here it is. Amen. I want to say one more thing concerning Paul along with many others that gave their thoughts. Paul was known to say, I don t have any commandment from the Lord. Then he would give his thoughts concerning a situation such as the matter of an unbeliever and the believer in marriage. He said, But if the unbeliever departs, let them go, a brother or sister is not in bondage in such cases. This meaning that they could be remarried and not be in adultery, but they were to marry in the Lord only. (1 Corinthians, Chapter 7) Paul gave his thoughts; he at one time even said, I don t have a word from the Lord. I suppose this is good for the present distress. That was the only thing a man of wisdom could have said because the perfect couple is Jesus and His wife Christ in the earth, and this marriage was not manifested yet. Because in those days and even up to this age we were in a survival type time period, but now all that has changed since the marriage of the Lamb has taken place. Our day is Revelation, Chapter 19:7-8, and this is our perfect marriage. We have gone through this subject showing what Jesus said, I know what Moses said, but it was because of the hardness of your heart that he permitted you. But it wasn t so at the beginning. He said, Moses said unto you, but I say unto you that it wasn t so what Moses said. But he only gave you something so you could survive in the human realm. In other words, God didn t want a man and woman living together and putting knots on each other s heads every day, cursing each other and making each other miserable, so Moses permitted it (he suffered them or permitted them). Moses suffered you, but it wasn t right to begin with. It was right what Moses did because Moses could not bring you back to the original yet, it wasn t time, that s what Jesus was saying. And when Paul gave his thoughts, he said, I don t have a commandment from the Lord, but I am going to give you my thoughts on it. What Paul said would not

327 bring you back to the original. But at the end time there is going to be a perfect man and a perfect woman with a perfect marriage made in heaven and expressed here in the earth reflecting Jesus Christ. All right, I want to read in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 and this is Paul talking, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: (he didn t want them fooling around with denominational nonsense) for I have espoused (engaged) you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Notice that, I may. This signifies that he had a fear that this might not happen in his day by making reference of the serpent and Eve in the garden that stopped the first marriage. Paul couldn t present her to Jesus Christ in marriage because it wasn t time, but he saw it. Well, they had people there that were pagans in Corinth. Actually the Corinthians at one time had temples there with prostitution going on to raise money for the temple. When the sailors came in from the coast, the Corinthians prostituted themselves with the sailors in order to get money for the temple. And that is what some so-called churches are doing today. They say, Send me this amount of money. Give me this, and I will pray for you. As far as I m concerned they can keep their prayers. They are prostituting the gospel. But we are not going to be doing that because we are the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God sends you, He will go with you, and if He wants you to do something, He will meet the need. So here Paul is saying, I have espoused you. Notice, here is an engagement and a virgin, that s all. That s as far as it went in Paul s day. That s like Paul saying, I have laid the foundation. When you talk about a virgin, then you are talking about the foundation that Paul laid. But when you are talking about marriage, then you re talking about the complete building which is finished and that is perfection. Now in the next verse, Paul felt something was wrong and saw that things were beginning to go another way. He said, I have espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds (he s talking about your mind, not physical intimacy, not physical adultery) should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Well, we pick up history here and we look down through the church ages. It wasn t long after this that Paul was put to death and the Gentile church fell away instead of getting married. There was a falling away because as soon as you go to Revelation, Chapter 2 at the very first church age, it says, Thou art fallen from thy first love. It went down, down, down, and went through seven church ages. But God said, I will restore. He has brought us back. That s the Spiritual coming of the Lord, and we see both legs of His coming in Revelation, Chapter 10. He put one foot on sea and one foot on earth, bringing both parts of the coming of Lord: the engagement and the marriage. So God had to restore that first leg of the coming like they had in the early church. He restored back

328 the Word and all the blessings that were in the church at Pentecost. Now we have a restored apostolic ministry in the church with leadership just as Paul s ministry was, and being restored it gets the engagement back intact. Then we come to Ephesians, Chapter 4; Paul said, He has given us this ministry for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry. Verse 13 of this same Chapter says, Till we reach the stature of the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. And this is where the virgin becomes the wife of the Lamb. God has brought His Word to pass, meaning there is in the earth today the perfect couple with a perfect marriage made in heaven, and we are expressing it out in the earth. That is the reason we say, We are the wife of the Lamb. (Perfect) And we were made virgins before He married us. Now I m telling you there is some first time Word that has come down from heaven, the little book that marries us the wise virgins to the virgin Son of God by this trumpet part of this wonderful message, which is delivered unto us in three phases. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 shows this virgin Word. That is what you are hearing now, and it shows us the virgin has now become the wife of the Lamb. Now please notice that everything that was said about a marriage, Jesus said, It wasn t so from the beginning. Moses suffered it. He permitted it. Paul permitted it. Paul said this to you, but I say unto you. Yes, Paul said, I ve engaged you, I ve espoused you. But I say unto you, By this message God made you a virgin Word and you are now married to Jesus Christ. You have become Christ the wife, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And by receiving of His Sprit, we have become Spirit of His Spirit. Paul s message, and please don t miss this because if you do there will be a missing link there and you won t be able to put it all together. Paul s message only engaged a virgin to Christ, and there was no marriage. Even though his revelation was that one day Jesus would take His wife unto Himself. He didn t see the fullness of the marriage; we know that because Paul had been dead for thirty years before the Book of Revelation was ever written. But John wrote in there, His wife has made herself ready. Not a virgin, but the wife. And there s no wife that has consummated her marriage that is a virgin. They can be espoused, because there is two parts to a wedding. There is the ceremonial part where everyone in attendance is rejoicing. But when the marriage is consummated only the husband and wife is there to celebrate that part of the marriage. I can t help but tell about something that happened on one of our visits to Africa while coming out of the Congo in the rain forest. There were some people coming down the road laughing, rejoicing, and having a good time. I didn t know what was going on so I asked our driver, What is going on here? He said Oh, there s been a wedding; they ve been drinking banana whiskey and they are just as high as they can be. Well,

329 I had never heard of banana whiskey before, but as it is often said, we never get to old to learn something new. Well, I ll tell you we haven t been drinking banana whiskey; we are drinking wine, which is that new wine made from an unconventional source. This wine is good that we have, and we don t have to get over a hangover with this Spiritual wine. So they had been to the ceremonial part of the wedding and all the guests were going on their way rejoicing. No doubt the next day when the effect of the banana whiskey was gone and they had what is called a hangover, they didn t feel like dancing. Likewise, there are some people that will have a spiritual hangover after realizing they fell into the group of foolish virgins and missed the marriage that is now taking place. They were drinking banana whiskey and didn t get the new wine that was made from an unconventional source. So there is a perfect couple in the earth, and that perfect couple has a perfect marriage that was made in heaven, and we are expressing it now in the earth. Amen. Now in this message I wanted to show you what Moses said and what Jesus said about it, that it wasn t so from the beginning. It wasn t right, Moses only suffered that. Paul expressed his opinion on this. I m talking about when he said, If you are a virgin, you should stay a virgin. And if you are married be as though you are not married, meaning live a life of celibacy. See, some of the Jews thought that way. When they were talking to Jesus they said, It is better not to get married, isn t it? Jesus said in effect, You will get into trouble if you go that way. There are some that have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God, but this is not for everybody to do because God made woman for a man and vice versa. And there is not any preacher or priest that has the authority to change that, even though there might be conditions that would change it temporarily for a certain time. (I know I am being repetitious, but I want to push this point home.) They were saying, Moses said this, and Moses said that. And Jesus said, I know what Moses said, but it wasn t like that to begin with. Jesus knew why God made man and woman. God knew there would come a time that there would be a perfect marriage again when the thing had run its course. So let me sound the trumpet to you, the trump is sounding for you that have ears to hear, saying, it s now back to what God ordained at the beginning. And I m praying for those that are listening and those that hear. There is a lot of difference in listening and hearing. There were a lot of people listening to Jesus, but a very few heard. So I say this, There are a lot of people listening. But are you hearing this trumpet sound? If you are hearing, then it was quickened to you by the Holy Ghost. Now let s go to Revelation, Chapter 19, to read about this marriage. We have already read where Paul had the message to bring on an engagement and that is as far as it went. There was no marriage of the Lord Jesus

330 Christ to His bride in Paul s day, it didn t happen then. It has happened in our day, and only by this virgin Word has this marriage happened. That s the little book that comes down from heaven that we have never had in the fullness before. That is why God saved the little book back for us. It is virgin Word for the wise virgins of this last trump message (Revelation, Chapter 10:8-11) that gets us married to the virgin Son of God. Notice now, Paul had been dead some thirty years. He was put to death in about 66AD or 67AD somewhere in that time frame. About thirty years down the road the Gentile church had fallen because the Word says in Revelation, Chapter 2, You have fallen from your first love, and it went into the dark ages from there. That is why when Martin Luther came, he said, The just shall live by faith, and people thought he was crazy. Then John Wesley came and said, We have got to live a sanctified life, and people thought he was even crazier. Then in California about 1906, people met together and they began to pray and began to talk in tongues. They didn t have some preacher telling them to. They would just come together and pray and all of a sudden they would begin to talk in tongues, and God would speak and give out messages because He was restoring. Then here came the Word as it began to be restored back, and now here it is in its fullness. It s Christ in the earth with a wife in the earth expressing a perfect marriage. He comes in Revelation, Chapter 10, and what does He come for? He comes to marry His wife. The little book that He brought down from heaven is for the wife because it is virgin Word for the wise virgins, so that the virgin Son of God can marry a virgin woman. Then He takes her home. Now let everyone rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. Revelation, Chapter 19:7-8, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: (watch not an engagement) for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife (not espoused woman) hath made herself ready Now here is what He does for her; this is a gift. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. That s why you ve got to believe this message of righteousness that is going forth saying, It s not what we ve done, can do, or will do; but it is what He s done. And because He has done something for us it is seen working itself out into the outer-man. We express it in the earth. Paul said, I would that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. It s not saying, Oh, I m righteous. Well, if you are it will come out, it will express itself. Jesus said one time, Clean the inside of the plate and the outside will be clean also. That means you can t say, Hallelujah, it doesn t matter to me if I do this. It doesn t matter what I do. No. If that inside is clean, then the outside will be clean also.

331 Now do you see that the perfect marriage didn t happen in Adam s day? Jesus told the Pharisees, Because of the hardness of your hearts, because you couldn t forgive and forget, because this woman might have made a mistake in her earlier times, you want to fuss and bring it up every time you get upset. Moses allowed you to put her away, but from the beginning it wasn t so. It s not because Moses didn t know what he was talking about, but God just made a way because it wasn t time for the perfect marriage to take place. So can you see why Jesus said, It wasn t so at (or from) the beginning. What Moses said wasn t right when he spoke it, in the sense of it being the perfect marriage here at the end time when the perfect marriage would take place. So the marriage of the Lamb has come, and by one Spirit we are baptized into the body of Christ. And only those that are part of the wife will be baptized into that body. So if God has given you a good companion, husband or wife, to travel with down here and they love the Lord and share everything both natural and spiritual, you should be so happy and praise the Lord continuously. That is my message today. There is a perfect couple with a perfect marriage made in heaven and expressed in the earth. It is Christ and His wife. There is no other one that is perfect. I know my wife Barbara says that mine and her marriage is perfect. Well, it is as perfect as it can get in the human earthly realm and I thank God for it. But there is only one perfect marriage. It s the Lord Jesus Christ and He shares His name Christ with us, making us Christ the wife. Let us pray. Father, in the precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord I just thank you that you have granted this time of coming together, honoring you, and speaking of your Word. Lord we thank you for accepting us as the wife of the Lamb. Oh God, I just pray that you help us to walk worthy and as Paul said, Walk worthy of the calling of whereby you were called. Help us all to take a second look at that, walking worthy of the calling whereby we are called. Help us to be sure we are walking in a way that is honoring you in all things. We ask these things in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

332 THE GALILEAN AND THE REVELATION CHAPTER TEN COMING OF THE LORD My subject today is The Galilean and the Revelation Chapter Ten Coming of the Lord. Our scripture begins in Acts, Chapter one, and this is Luke s account of what happened as he was inspired of God as what to write. So first of all I want you to notice that there were only the Jews at their Feast of Pentecost, and this was an opportune time for God to pour out the Holy Ghost upon them. In fact there was not one single member of the Gentile part of the church there partaking of this Pentecostal blessing, but it was only Jews with the exception of a few Gentile proselytes that came under the Law of Moses at the insistence of their Jewish masters. This was the only way they could participate with the Jews in their feasts. So the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost was upon the Jewish church, keeping in mind that this Feast of Pentecost was strictly a Jewish feast day. This was the case on the Day of Pentecost as the Holy Ghost came into the church at Jerusalem. And this was Christ coming back in Spirit form known as the Holy Ghost fulfilling the first leg of His coming to the Jewish church. As we see the vast difference in the dealing of God with the Jews and Gentiles, it becomes very clear in the way Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the two different people. This was and is seen in the way each people looked for the second coming of Jesus Christ to the Jews, and Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. You will see this in our message today. So let us bow our head in prayer before reading in the scripture. Heavenly Father, in Jesus Name, I pray Lord that you will just move on the scene today and give us more understanding of the Word as you do each time we gather together. Also, thank you for choosing us to be part of the wife, the beautiful wife of the Lamb. Not only that, but also help us to see the other people that are not the wife but have their place, and it s a place that they are happy and satisfied with. You said there is a great calling, a high calling, in which Paul the apostle to the Gentiles spoke of. I pray Lord that you will just help us to appreciate this high calling that you have called us to, while acknowledging the place that you gave others that are to be part of the church and the kingdom of God. We ask this in Jesus Name. Amen. All right I am reading here in Acts, Chapter one, which is Luke writing; he was the one that followed Paul around. He was a doctor to begin with, but he found a better calling in his life. So he assisted Paul and recorded what he said and did; and of course there is the Book of Luke that he wrote also. So he is writing here in Acts 1:1-3, saying, The former treatise

333 have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus begin both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. This scripture shows that Jesus was here with the resurrected saints for forty days as He instructed the apostles, and speaking to them things concerning the kingdom of God before He ascended up into heaven. Paul recorded that He was also seen of some 500 people at another time. This is infallible proof of His resurrection. Verses 4-5 says, And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Verse 6, When they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Notice they asked Him, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Will you come and sit on your throne at this time just like the prophets said you would and take over the earth? They asked this because the prophets said He would sit on the throne forever there in Israel. Here is how Jesus answered them in Verse 7, And he said unto them, It is not for you know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. By revelation Jesus knew that it was not going to be at that time, and it would do them very little good if they knew exactly the times and seasons. This is something that the Father keeps to Himself, Jesus said. Then He goes on to Verses 8-11, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said.., (now watch, I want you to notice this) Ye men of Galilee.., ( Ye men of Galilee, meaning the Jewish people are going to see His coming different than what the wife of the Lamb see His coming.) Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, (it doesn t say anything about Christ here) which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. That means their natural eyes will see Him. In other words, He is going to come back to earth in like manner as He went away. He will be coming in the clouds right down to this earth in Israel. Well, that is the way that Jesus is coming to the Jews, and that is what we call the Galilean coming. I want to get one more scripture here in the Book of Acts, Chapter 3. This is concerning the time they asked Peter if he could explain more

334 about the coming of the Lord; this was right after a lame man was healed. Peter and John were on their way to the temple, and the people began to ask about when Jesus Christ would come again. Peter began to tell them certain things about how they had crucified the Holy one, saying in Verses 17-18, And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, (crucified Christ) as did also your rulers. They did it through ignorance, but it was God s will. As Jesus said, For this purpose came I into the world. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. In other words this was written back there and it was fulfilling scripture. But what I want you to notice specifically is these Verses where it says, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: This Verse 21 is a verse that I want you to put special emphasis on. It says, Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. The word restitution means the millennium, or the restoring back of the kingdom to Israel. Heaven will hold Him until He gets ready to redeem this whole world, the time of restitution, until the beginning of the millennium. And that s when He is going to come back as a visible King with His wife who was raptured before the great tribulation. It says in Revelation, Chapter one, that every eye shall see Him. He will come back in a cloud as a visible man, and every eye shall see Him. This is the Galilean coming. Jesus explained it there at Galilee, and Peter continued this explanation after the Day of Pentecost. The twelve Jewish apostles didn t know that Christ would come back in the form of the Mighty Angel to the Gentiles or that the Gentiles would be accepted into the kingdom of God. They knew not there would be a spiritual group of people that God would deal with in the spirit, and they would become the wife of the Lamb. In Matthew, Chapter 10, Jesus (before He was crucified and went away) called His twelve Jewish apostles unto Him and charged them saying, Go not to the Gentiles. Go not to the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And they obeyed Him and went to the Jews. We see that their gospel was to Israel and they were not to go anywhere but Israel. But when the age changed; when the Jews rejected Him, then God turned to the Gentiles. And when He did, He raised up a man named Paul. Paul said, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. His revelation and teaching on the coming of the Lord was entirely different from the way the Jews spoke of Jesus Christ s coming. Many Gentile churches are looking for Jesus to come back to earth in a visible form. Well, if you see Him coming in this manner, it simply means you have missed the rapture and you are not part of the high calling, because He comes to His wife as the

335 Mighty Angel and marries her. (Revelation, Chapter 10) There are many saints that think this way concerning the Galilean coming because they mistake it as the Revelation, Chapter 10, coming of the Lord. Even the Apostle Peter s thinking was not geared to the way God dealt with the Gentiles. This can be seen in Acts, Chapter 10. So it would be unlikely that those he preached to would see the Spiritual coming of Christ, the Revelation Chapter 10 coming. That is why Peter had so much trouble there on the housetop. He was there praying when the Lord spoke to Him. Peter was hungry and the Bible says, He would have eaten. He might have been fasting or he just might have been hungry. The thing is, the Lord gave him a vision and he fell into a trance. In this vision he saw all manner of beasts, and it just so happened that everything he saw was unclean for a Jew to eat. So here was Peter on the housetop seeing all these things that was unlawful for a Jew to eat. And the Spirit of the Lord said, Arise, kill, and eat. This was going contrary to what Moses said. (We could say it was going contrary to what a prior message said.) No doubt Peter thought surely the Spirit of the Lord is not telling me to go contrary to all that I have ever been taught. Even contrary to what Jesus Himself said. But they had moved into another time period. God had gotten His number of predestinated seed out of the Jewish people for the purpose He had ordained at that time, and now His plan was to come to the Gentiles. That is what God let Paul understand when He struck him down and said, I am going to make you a light to the Gentiles. You are sent to deliver (turn) them from the power of satan to the power of God. So from here, God began a whole new thing. And that is what people fail to understand about the church today. We have now come out of the church ages; we are not in the kingdom of heaven age. We are in the kingdom of God and baptized into the body of Christ. In Colossians 1:13, which is one of my favorite scriptures, Paul is speaking here saying, Who have delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. We have been translated; we are not part of that church age system, and it makes the difference. We know that some people are not going to understand because they are not supposed to. That s why Peter even argued with the Lord until he realized, this is God speaking to me. So he said to the Lord, Not so Lord, I am not about to do this. I am not going to kill and eat those things you are showing me because nothing common or unclean has ever come into my mouth. I haven t eaten any of this type meat all my life, and now you are telling me to do what Moses told me not to do. He struggled with it, but obeyed God even against his previous teaching. We could make a long story of how Peter went to Cornelius house and began to preach the Word, but I think it would be sufficient just to mention it. Now to Peter all of this was contrary to what Jesus personally had told him. Here was a man being told to do exactly contrary to what Jesus

336 had said to do. This was a challenge to Peter, just as it is a challenge to us when God shows us that He wants us to move on to more truth for the present time. This was what was happening to Peter as the gospel to the Jews only was changing. Now there would be the gospel to the Gentiles also, and Paul would be the apostle to the Gentiles. (Romans 11:13) Since that time the Jews began rejecting God s plan, and Jesus came in the Spirit to Paul telling him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. There was a change, and they went into another age. It was coming time for the Lord to get a wife, and He was going to take her out of the Gentiles, a people for His namesake. (Acts, Chapter 15) The Lamb s wife are Gentiles, see, the Jews are His brethren. So as Christ comes to the Gentiles, it is a coming in the Spirit as the Mighty Angel; it is the fullness of His coming as seen in Revelation, Chapter 10. This is not the Galilean coming where everyone is going to look up and say, Here He comes just as He went away. If you look up and see the Lord Jesus Christ coming in that manner, then that means you have already been through the tribulation period and you are not the wife. Because she was raptured away before the tribulation period began, and she is the only one dressed in fine linen, clean and white. So she will be the one that is coming back with the Lord of Lord s and King of Kings as His Queen. Now it is easy to see why I entitled this message like I did The Galilean and the Revelation Chapter Ten Coming of the Lord. The Galilean coming is what most people see, because that is His physical coming back to this earth with His wife. So it s very easy to see the difference in that coming, it was not to get His wife. She has already been raptured at this time. Amen. Revelation, Chapter 10, shows us the complete coming of Christ, the Mighty Angel, for His wife as He takes on flesh and bone in marriage; and now we are called the wife of the Lamb as is confirmed by Revelation 19:7-8. I want to go to 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, to show you that the coming of the Lord in this chapter is for the wife of the Lamb, and also to show that it has been taking place in the Spirit for the last few years. It is in Revelation, Chapter 10 that we see the complete coming of the Lord to marry His wife and take her to heaven before the tribulation takes place. And the same one that s raptured is the one that comes back with Him. Now as the coming of the Lord began to take place it was in three phases; and as we see the final phase we see Him standing on earth (one foot on sea and one foot on earth) with the little book open in His hand. It s all coming to completion now. This means the Spirit of our Lord Jesus sent the Christ part of Himself, the Mighty Angel to earth, and all that are part of His wife are baptized into His Spirit. Thus becoming Christ the wife of the Lamb in the earth; taking and eating the little book and prophesying just before she is caught up in the rapture, and that is completion for the rapture. This message makes it easy to understand the Spiritual coming

337 for the wife, and also clears it up about the Judean or Galilean coming like the many denominational churches teach. The first time Christ came in the Spirit it was in the form of the Holy Ghost as He came to the Gentiles. That s in Acts, Chapter 10, when Peter was preaching to the Gentiles, and this was after he saw the vision while praying on the housetop. (Acts 10:9-16) Peter didn t want to go because he wasn t fond of the Gentiles and you can see this in Acts, Chapter 11, at Jerusalem. So when Peter left Cornelius house after the Holy Ghost fell, those Jews which were in Jerusalem didn t like it at all as it is clearly seen in Acts, Chapter 11. Then over in Galatians, Chapter 2, when Peter saw Paul s message was to the Gentiles, he said, You go on to the heathens! So it is not a bad thing to be a heathen in that sense because they are the ones that become the wife of the Lamb. The Jews say we are Gentile dogs. Well, the Lord took us from the gutter-most and took us to the utter-most. Hallelujah! I will read this about the coming of Christ for His wife as it completes itself in Revelation, Chapter 10. But first I will be reading in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, (those that have already passed on) that ye sorrow; not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him (or send with Him). Those are theophanies. Those are the spiritual bodies that Paul was speaking of in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, If this earthy house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. Well, Christ comes and He brings them. And as this coming completes itself, every one of those that are part of His wife will be here. Paul spoke of it in Hebrews, Chapter 12, he said, We have come to the spirits of just men made perfect, we ve come to angels. It is all here in the spirit. Hallelujah!! The Spiritual coming of the Lord has taken place, and this is the way it happened. Verse 15, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, Now Paul is speaking by inspiration here and this is not written anywhere. It doesn t have to be written to be the Word of God, because there is a part of the Word of God that is not written. What he s saying is not written anywhere prior to the time he said it. Watch now, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord; that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (hinder) them which are asleep. For the Lord himself (He is going to bring new revelation that is not written. Galileans you can t receive this, it is not for you, but Cornelius house, you can!) shall descend from heaven with a shout, (that shout has gone forth, it has already unfolded) with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Now you will not find this written anywhere else. What happened was this: Christ brings down those spiritual bodies and they are united with the natural body. I am sounding a

338 trumpet to you that this has been unfolding for quite some time. There has been a shout and we heard it and it brought Revelation, Chapter 10, into plain view, and we see Christ as the Mighty Angel as He was shrouded and hid in a cloud when He came to earth. He cried with a loud Voice and that was when the seven thunders (Spiritual angels) uttered their voices though the voice of the last church age messenger. That was the revelation of the seven church ages and what the seven messengers said. All of that is finished now and it is water under the bridge. Now here stands Christ, the Mighty Angel, with a little book in His hand. It is Word that is not necessarily written Word, but it is revelational Word. Revelation, Chapter 10 shows Christ, not the Lord Jesus Christ, but Christ the wife. I preached a message two or three years ago entitled, The Coming of Christ Jesus Precedes the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anytime you use that word Christ, it means anointing, and that is Spirit. Revelation, Chapter 10, shows Him not as a person but as an Angel, meaning He comes in the Spirit, and He is here today. We are not going to see Him physically until the dead are raised and we are caught up to meet Him in the air, and then we will see Him face to face. Verses 17-18, Then we which are alive and remain (that is us today) shall be caught up together... That means those that have died and those that are living are here together. That is what Paul saw and prophesied in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 12, where we have come unto New Jerusalem, we ve come unto a heavenly host of angels, we ve come to Jesus and the spirits of just men made perfect; and it is playing itself out here on earth. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words. Now to complete the revelation for the title of the message today, I want to go to Revelation, Chapter 10, and this is something that has taken place as the Lord has come to earth. First, it was a shout. A message went forth around and around the world and woke up a people. There was a shout! There was an awakening. It was Christ Jesus coming back again, a Spiritual coming. Hallelujah! Not physically, but in the Spirit. He begins to make His descent. He came with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, meaning this Word went forth into a teaching phase; then it folds over into the final phase which is the trump of God. That is what is blowing today, raising the dead and changing the living. What a wonderful day we are living in. Amen. I want to read Revelation 10:1, and John is writing here. This is not the Galilean coming that we read about where you are going to look up and see Him coming in the clouds. No. Here is what John says, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven,.. Now I want you to know, He

339 is not here in the form of a person; but this is Christ the anointing coming in an Angelical form. Jesus is still on the throne in heaven and we are not going to see Him until we meet Him in the air. Continuing, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, Now this clothed with a cloud (shrouded in a cloud) means it takes a revelation to pierce through and know where He is and what He is. He had a rainbow upon His head (you will find this also in Revelation, Chapter 4, one setting on the throne with a rainbow about the throne). and his face was as it were the sun He is your husband. It says, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; And he had in his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. That is when the thunders uttered and the seven church ages and the seals came about. So here He is; He brings back a gift for us His wife, a little book (unwritten Word) which is revelational Word. It bears witness (has its footprints) in the scripture. One said, The scripture beareth witness. Paul bore witness that the dead in Christ were going to rise. Paul bore witness to the Spiritual coming of the Lord, saying, The Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. All those things that Paul wrote in a prophetic manner now has and is coming to pass as we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Here is the Mighty Angel, which is not Jesus Christ, but it is Christ Jesus. So if you are not raptured you will not see Jesus the person until after the tribulation period. But now He is here as the Mighty Angel and says to His wife, Go take the little book and eat it. And we have obeyed Him. These messages are the Word that is in the little book that the Mighty Angel brought down from heaven to marry His bride to the Lord Jesus Christ as she becomes the Christ in the earth, the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation, Chapter 19:7-8) We have become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This little book comes down from heaven and causes us to become the wife of the Lamb. This message is food for His wife only, and that is what we are now. His wife has made herself ready. How many sees the Galilean coming? The Galilean coming is not what Paul saw. The Galilean coming is not what John saw. John saw an Angel, and when we look at the attributes of this Angel we have to say, This is Christ! That is why Paul said, By one Spirit you are baptized into the body of Christ. That s why we say the Mighty Angel takes on flesh and bone, and that s us His body in the earth and we are called the wife of the Lamb. God bless you today. I trust that these words have been a help to you, and that you see without doubt this Spiritual coming of Christ before the Galilean coming. So when someone says to you, One of these days Jesus is going to split the clouds and come down here and I am going to look up in the clouds and see Him. Well, we don t say they are wrong. They

340 may not be wrong because that is probably the way they are going to see Him. But we see Him in the Spirit. We see Christ, not just Jesus Christ. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, and you are baptized into the body of Christ. That is the Revelation, Chapter 10, coming of the Lord as John saw it. He has come for His wife, meaning we have passed the virgin stage and are now in the wife stage. We did it by eating the little book and becoming what He is, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. There is much more we could say about this, but I believe the essence of the message is now clear. From now on we should know concerning the coming of the Lord, what He spoke to the Jews doesn t apply to the Gentiles, and what He spoke to the Gentiles doesn t apply to the Jews. Because when the Jews see Him coming, we are going to be with Him! Amen. God bless you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your Word. I pray God as we spoke these words today, realizing as we do, there are many other things that could have been said and many other scriptures that could have been read that would tie in with this. But Lord, we feel this is enough to let us see this message is here to help us. I pray that everyone that reads this message, you will quicken it to their heart and they will get a new burning inside and they will say, Did not our heart burn within us as He spake to us along the way. God, I pray you bless each one in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

341 THE FINAL JOINING OF CHRIST TO THE ENGAGED BRIDE/WIFE Today my subject is The Final Joining of Christ with the Engaged Bride/Wife. The reason we put bride/wife is because at the time of the engagement we can only use the word bride; but once we reach the place just beyond the marriage ceremony we soon drop the word bride and say, This is my wife. That s the way it is just before the rapture as is seen in Revelation 19:7-8, where wife is the only identifying word used; it s the wife of the Lamb. Because the bride during the engagement doesn t necessarily become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, but the wife always does. So, what we are looking at here is the final joining, and in order for there to be a final joining to take place in this time period before the rapture, there had to be something leading up to it. There had to be an understanding of how we arrived at this place in the Word. So before reading I want to ask the Lord s blessing upon the Word and the hearers. Heavenly Father in the Name of Jesus, Lord as we stand here today Father, we stand depending upon you to give us something that will help us in our journey here below. Father I just pray that you will anoint us to speak the Word, and anoint the people to receive the Word. Lord if you will give us the anointing, then we will be able to say it in a way that it can come together for those that it is intended for, and that would be the wife of the Lamb. Oh God, we just ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I want to read a scripture in the Book of Joel. Now the Book of Joel basically refers to Israel, the restoring back of Israel; also many of the things that apply to Israel in the natural apply to the bride spiritually. In Joel, Chapter 2, God is going to restore Israel back just as He restored the Gentile bride back to her engagement. I ve read the history of Israel coming through the ages; the trouble they had which parallels with what happened to the church, and it still does even now. So I m going to read Joel 2:23-25, he says, Be glad then ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former of rain moderately... I want you to notice that. and he will cause to come down for you the rain (regular rain), the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The Word says here that God is giving rain, the former rain, and the latter rain all this in one month and God is doing it now; He is giving us the whole package. Verse 25 is the verse I want to get some thoughts from, it says, And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you. Now I want you to notice here that He is restoring years, and here s how the years get restored. Paul got the bride engaged to Christ; but it fell away and it went

342 through a time recorded in Matthew, Chapter 13. This time period is called the kingdom of heaven age. And during this time period many things began to happen differently from what it did in the early church. In this time period the seeds of the denominational churches were sown and many people got different ideas of what the church was or what it ought to be, especially when they got away from the Word that Paul preached. This caused the Gentile church to go into time, already fallen, and that stopped the engagement period. So we had to get back to the engagement for the marriage because the engagement time had stopped, and a church age time began as seen in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation. So between the engagement and the marriage there is a block of time. That was the mystery age (the mystery of God) to be made known by the seventh church age messenger. (Revelation 10:7) God put this time between the former rain and the latter rain, and in the Book of Joel, God simply called it the rain. So what God is going to do is hook together the engagement and the marriage. He is going to take out a block of time as though it didn t exist, so that the engagement and marriage will happen as though there was no long time period between them; making all the rain in one month. God is the creator of time, and He is going to undo that block of time called the kingdom of heaven age. Then we will be right back to the kingdom of God. John saw this in Revelation, Chapter 10, when this Mighty Angel came down to earth. The Mighty Angel stands on the sea and on the earth and declares that time is no more, meaning that this block of time that was there is not there any more between the engagement and the consummation of the marriage. So what we saw at the beginning of the Gentile church disappeared during the seven church ages, along with all seven church age messengers as they finished their work and God took them home. Now we know many things that were done during the church ages would not be acceptable now in this living element of the wife of the lamb. And when we see this we realize that God took that block of time out, because those of the seven church ages are already laid away in the grave. Now the time comes for God to reintroduce the bride to the Lord Jesus Christ so she can be as she existed in the time just like it was when the gospel first came to us Gentiles. That was the first leg of His coming, and it is now restored back to that again. This means we as a wise virgin have been reintroduced to Christ. So in Matthew, Chapter 25, we see a people that had come to the place where they loved God, they served God, and walked with God to the best of their ability. We also see here two types of virgins: wise and foolish. The midnight cry of Matthew, Chapter 25, that started with the big healing meetings that took place became more pronounced, and is known as the shout. Now we see the cry/shout as one event to wake up and to teach a people. It started at midnight; there was a cry made. Those

343 that were awakened began to move with the cry and began to check their oil. Some found that they only had very little oil and their lamps were already going out, (the foolish virgins). They turned to the wise virgins immediately and begin to ask them for some of their oil. By this time the voice had become the shout; it produced a message to take the virgins onward as they journeyed towards the marriage of the Lamb by walking with the revealed Word, and this continued for the next few years. This shout shows the church ages and the opening of the seven seals. This had to take place before the marriage could be completed. God took the messenger of the shout part of Christ s Spiritual coming home. But God had already made provision to continue the flow of oil to take us on the way to the wedding. The wise virgins had oil in their vessels to refill with as needed and moved with God towards the marriage. Now we come to the final chance to obtain enough oil to get us to our final destination, and the wise responded in a positive way. As in each case, when more revelational oil was offered the wise virgins accepted and the foolish still remained foolish and without revelational oil. Again we come to the time to move on to the third part of the journey and on home. There is three phases of the Spiritual coming of Christ and we see Him in Revelation, Chapter 10, as the Mighty Angel standing here on earth. And as God brought truth there were the wise virgins that followed the path to perfection, while the other group known as the foolish virgins stopped at each phase of the message. And it s sad to say when the rapture takes place they will still be foolish and left behind. We see that anytime God moves and gives more revelation, He makes it clear. But because of past teachings people who refuse to walk on with further truth, it s sad to say that some of them are either tares or foolish virgins. So many of the followers of the seventh messenger to the age falls into this category of foolish virgins, because when God sent more truth to push us on they refused to walk in further truth, while the wise virgins walked on with the Word because they were wise from the beginning. So is it this way with those that refuse to move from the second phase on into this third and final phase of this wonderful Word that is completing the plan of God in this last hour. This truth fits us like a perfect pair of gloves fits the hand. So we see that God has now set this in motion by sending the third phase of Christ s Spiritual coming. Here is where the second group was tried as to whether they would continue in truth and show they were wise and could walk on into the third phase. And those that could not walk on with truth showed that they were the foolish virgins of the second phase of the message by rejecting the third phase. Now we see the shout and the voice of the archangel have brought us up to the trump of God. This trump of God is the last phase and it brings to completion the Spiritual coming of the Lord back to earth again. And God has author-

344 ized us to take the little book and eat it, while the foolish virgins of the other two groups even refuse to recognize that there was more truth coming. So this truth moves us on and leaves the foolish virgins doing foolishly as they did all the way through the first and second phases. But the wise virgins continued to walk in this truth and became the wife of the Lamb. Now the foolish virgins and the wise virgins were all dressed alike at the beginning of their journey. They were all dressed in their traveling garments as they traveled together. Yes, at the beginning they are all dressed alike and both groups were washing their garments from the dust and grime of the church age, until the third phase of the message. Then the wise virgins become the wife and are given fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of Christ. This new garment was given to us as we became Christ the wife, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh in the only perfect marriage made in heaven and expressed in the earth. So when Paul spoke of the washing of your garment and getting the spots and wrinkles out (Ephesians, Chapter 5) this applied to all the church, especially this last age. The fact that we kept our garment washed and wrinkle free while waiting for the time of marriage prepared and supplied the wise virgins with everything necessary for the wedding garment of fine linen, clean and white. This shows the perfect righteousness of God in Christ. It is important here to understand that the virgins were all dressed the same in their traveling garments on a journey. But in this final end, we have come through all the washing and are given a new garment as we become the wife of the Lamb. John saw us dressed in this garment of fine linen, clean and white, which has never been soiled and never will be. So the washing doesn t apply any longer to us, the Lamb s wife. (Revelation 19:7-8) In the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 4, Paul begins to tell us something here about a rest and ceasing from our own works. Now this sounds easy, but facts are that it is not possible until we are married to the Lamb of God. We break loose from the denominational spirit; the way they say things should be done, and also away from our own works. We enter into that rest which is Christ, the Mighty Angel. He doesn t take away works, but He just takes away all our self-initiated works and our denominational teachings. So there are works even as we have completely entered into Christ s rest, but it is works that are initiated and inspired by the Spirit of Christ. Otherwise our works will get us in the same condition that they got the children of Israel into in Chapter 9 of the Book of Romans. Paul had a message about this righteousness of God. But they, the Jews missed it because they sought it by works as they went about establishing their own righteousness, thus denying the righteousness of God. Our righteousness is a gift of God given to us without works. Let us

345 not deny the wonderful gift of righteousness by our works. Because when we were operating by works, Jesus said, I have somewhat against thee. But by doing only His works, He has nothing against us at all. Perfect works is Christ initiating it, giving a revelation, and He has a way of doing that. He puts His mind in us and we get to the place where our mind and Christ s mind is absolutely one and the same. We not only have the same mind, but the same Spirit also. He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. Hallelujah! (1 Corinthians, Chapter 6) You have the mind and Spirit of Christ Jesus. When we begin to look at it this way, we are separating ourselves and cutting loose from denominationalism. Here we keep in mind that the little book which shows perfect righteousness was picked up as the church ages began, and after this the works became the works of man. As you read about the church ages, it says, I know thy works, and thy last works be more now than at first. It began to sound something like this, Thy works, thy works. And it became mostly works. There are many people that still do works trying to be righteous. This can be seen clearly in the Mormon religion today. They have to serve two years as a missionary and do certain works for the Mormon Church, and much of their plan of salvation all hinges on works. I was reading some in one of their books and the writer was saying, We do all we can for Jesus Christ, and then He will do the rest. Well, that is putting our works ahead of His works. That s the way it has been throughout the church ages. But what we do now is let Jesus Christ do His work in us and lead us and guide us, because our works will come to naught. So we see what Paul is referring to here in Hebrews 4:8-10, it says, For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. Some of the translators say, If Joshua would have given them rest. We can look at it this way. Joshua got Israel over into Canaan land, but beyond Canaan land there is another land which is called Eden, and only God can take you there by revelation. Yes, it s only by revelation that we can get by the guards that keeps the way to the tree of life in Eden. Remember that there was fighting going on in the land of Canaan, but in Eden there is no fighting. Because God placed those guards there in Eden to keep out all those that would want to fight and not come by revelation, meaning you can only go into Eden by the Spirit of God. By revelation we have now passed all the guards that were set in the way, because we were told to take possession of the little book and eat of the tree of life and live forever. Paul understood this wonderful plan of God by revelation, saying, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. And then he tells us that when we have ceased from our own works we have entered into this rest. For he that is (is present tense) entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. And this is something the wife has

346 accepted. This rest is wonderful as we have ceased from our own works. When we read about Jesus Christ, He was at rest knowing that the works were the Father s works in Him. He had no plan of His own. It is the same thing today. When I go on missionary journeys to the different countries many times the ministers will ask, Brother Ben, will you give us a copy of your program? They want to know where I will be and what I will be speaking on and what I will be doing. But the point is I don t have any program other than go into the city and it shall be told thee what to do. That is the only program that I use. That is what the Lord told Paul, Go into the city and it will be told thee what to do. That is ceasing from your works; that is ceasing from saying, Oh, we will do this or that. Well, it is hard to break loose from that systematic training that we have had on how to have church, because that is the way of religion. When Jesus Christ came in Bible days, one of the reasons they couldn t understand who He was and is was because everything He did was contrary to the training of the priests. There was one day when He went into the temple and they were buying and selling sheep for sacrifices. The exchangers of the money were there cheating the people so much that Jesus called them thieves. (John 2:14-16) I have seen this many times when visiting a foreign country and have to exchange my money for theirs. They have several booths set up to exchange your money. And we always check with the different exchangers because many times they charge differently for the same exchange. They are making money by exchanging your money for their money. So this is what they were doing there in the temple. The Jews couldn t put Roman money into the treasury because it was an abomination to them, so they set up exchange booths. They would have to take the Roman money that was used elsewhere and would trade it for the Jewish currency, because they needed Jewish currency for the purpose of giving into the temple treasury. And everyone was making money on the exchange. Well, Jesus looked upon them as a den of thieves. In other words, what they were doing was charging excessive fees for the exchange of the money. Jesus looked at them and saw that they were there for one thing; that was to squeeze every penny (coin) they could out of the man that wanted to buy a sheep to sacrifice and give an offering. They were selling doves and sheep, and Jesus got so angry when He saw that going on that He plaited Himself a whip and began to drive those men and animals out of the temple grounds. So instead of trying to deal with the money changers, He just ran them out. He turned the tables over and whipped the men and ran them out saying, Take these things hence; make not my Father s house an house of merchandise. So what Jesus did didn t fit with their religion; He couldn t wear their religious coat, and neither can you if you re the wife of the Lamb. You could wear that religious coat coming through the church ages, but God has restored back those years

347 that was seemingly lost in time. God gave time and He can take time away; He can undo time. So what God did in this day, He undid time. In other words, He took out everything between the engagement and marriage, and restored the engagement back as it was under Paul. And now that both legs (feet) of the coming of Christ are fulfilled in Revelation, Chapter 10, this means that we go straight from engagement to marriage. Now the time that is called the kingdom of heaven age is over, which was the mystery of God that was finished by the seventh messenger. That is why the Mighty Angel swore that, Time is no more. In this kingdom of heaven age, Jesus was seen as the High Priest in that time period, meaning Jesus Christ was making intercession for the fallen church. He had to do this until the church was restored back to the original Word, re-engaging us here at the end time for our marriage to the Son of God. That s why we had to completely get all denominational smell off of us, because one can t be baptized into the body of Christ with a denominational stench on them. We have already come through the bathhouse and have been washed by the water of the Word, and have become part of this message that re-engages you to Christ. And now this first leg of His Spiritual coming is restored back. So everything between the first leg of the coming and the second leg of the coming are laid away in the ground, until all the living part of the body comes to the revelation of this Word. Then we can say that God has put it together and restores back all the years, and those that are laid away will be resurrected back to life. Then we can say the marriage has completed itself and Christ the wife is ready to be raptured as we have been clothed in fine linen, clean and white, and are caught away until the tribulation period is over. Then we come back to earth with our husband who is now King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now for a reference point on righteousness, let s look at the Jewish part of the church at its beginning in Acts 4:33. The Bible says, And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. They were not living on the mercy of God, but they pleased God so much that God put great grace upon them. And that is what this message is today for the wife, it is great grace, it is fine linen, clean and white, it is the trumpet sounding. It s the second edition of the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10. It was reserved in heaven and brought down to the body of Christ, and is joined right back with the prophetic part of Paul message. Now within Paul s message there was a part of it that was for instruction and another part of it was for doctrine, but then there s the prophetic part. The prophetic part of what Paul said wasn t fulfilled in his day, scriptures like, For this we say by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump God: and the

348 dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17) It also says in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. And now we are saying by the Word of the Lord, All this is being put together for us right by this message. By God s divine knowledge and mercy He gave certain parts of the Word to the Gentile church to help them get through this deceptive church age. But the prophetic part of Paul s message is only for the wife here at this time of rapture. God picked up this prophetic Word because the engaged virgin had fallen and there was not a marriage to take place at that time. But now the trumpet is sounding. God sends the prophetic Word back again; it is this message that is going forth around and around the world, and it disregards all of the rules and regulations that were instituted by man in the seven church ages. Hallelujah! God let Paul lay certain things in the Word to help them survive on through the church ages as Christ was the High Priest walking among them. But now the High Priest age is over for the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ. She is now part of Him, being bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and even Spirit of His Spirit. So now we can see how important it is to understand why He had to take the book in heaven and come back as the Mighty Angel. Also, we know that the perfect marriage has taken place and we understand that it was ordained in heaven by God Himself before the foundation of the world. I want to read some in Revelation, Chapter 5, which prepares us for Revelation, Chapter 10, as Christ puts one foot on sea and one foot on earth; this is the fullness of Christ standing here that we become one with. Yes, He s the one that we are married to, and we are recognized as the Christ in the earth by God Himself. We are the body of Christ in the earth being reconnected with that prophetic Word that Paul wrote about. So, God temporarily took away that block of time that He allotted for the church ages so that the living element could be connected with the prophetic part of Paul s message; making just one message for those of the engagement of Paul s day, and those that are hearing this in our day. God wants us to be connected exactly with the engagement, and this prophecy is fulfilled in our day. Therefore, we can say, We are those that are alive and remain as the coming of the Lord is fulfilled, and will not prevent (precede) them that are asleep; they will rise first and we are going to be changed. This meaning that just before our bodies are changed God restored that block of time as He raises all those church age saints from the dead. Then we are connected together as the wife of the Lamb, one body. Then together we are caught up to meet our husband Jesus Christ

349 in the sky to return after the tribulation period to start the millennium. Now let us read this in Revelation, Chapter 5, and you will see that we are coming out of the church ages here as that time period is over. There is a big book (entire book of redemption) in heaven that is sealed up; that s why they made denominations because they could not see the full plan in the Word. The Word of God was basically sealed up from our understanding with the exception of a little here and a little there. So we read that John was picked up into heaven as time came for the seals to be pulled off the book and for it to be opened. We made a great discovery concerning this book of redemption that was for all mankind, because hidden within it was a little book that was a total secret known only to God Himself. John saw a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes, and at no time prior to this or after has Christ been seen in this manner. So what does it mean? God is showing us that the horns and eyes through the church ages showed that the church age saints were a part of the Lamb by being a part of His head (the horns and eyes). These are the seven church age messengers as they ministered with the support of the seven Spiritual angels. This produces that part of the Gentile body of Christ that they ministered to in their day. This shows that they are part of the wife of the Lamb to be manifested in the resurrection, and will be joined with the living saints that are changed at this time into a glorified body and raptured away. So once the book of redemption is opened and all the seven seals are taken off, the Lamb is seen no more as having seven horns and seven eyes. This means that all the members of the body from that block of time are in. Now those that are alive and remain are changed as time dictates. These are the ones that see this message (third and final phase) believe it, and are part of it. All the others that are to be a part of the wife are those that were laid away, waiting for the resurrection to be joined with the living to complete the wife of the Lamb. Revelation, Chapter 5:1-4, And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Now God takes this time of sealing the church ages and cuts it out temporarily so that the engagement of Paul s day and the marriage of this day can happen as though there was no interruption to the marriage. This was done as God produced in the earth exactly what Paul foresaw without an elapse of time between the two ceremonies, engagement and marriage. That s why the engagement was restored to produce a living virgin to be married to the Lamb. Now here stands the perfect wife prophesying for a short time as a witness to those that scorned her message as she speaks of the things that pertain to this going away ceremony. Then He restores the years that the church age saints lost, those that died during the long church age day. They become one with the living perfect wife that receives glorified bodies at this time, and are all raptured together as the wife of

350 the Lamb. Now we can see clearly how God joins us together with the first church Word (Paul s message of engagement) as it was before the church ages began. Because God has joined the engaged virgin part of the Word with the wife s part of the Word here at the end time, and that is the perfect marriage. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither look thereon. This is the book of redemption and it had to be taken and opened. Adam actually lost it in the garden. He lost the deed to the earth and all that was rightfully his, him being the first created son of God. Then Jesus Christ came who was the first begotten Son of God who died on the cross for the right to claim all that Adam lost. He bought it back and made it possible for us to receive our full redemption. Verse 5, And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and loose the seals thereof. There was a Lamb that came forth, and this signifies what Jesus Christ did at Calvary. He has prevailed to take the book and loose the seven seals and open it. But He didn t do it until this day and hour that we are living in. It was already paid for, but there were certain things that had to transpire before He claimed it. Now out of this book He is going to take a little book and bring it back to earth and connect it exactly with what Paul preached; the prophetic things he said would be. Paul was only to engage a virgin; that is why he always had being a virgin on his mind as indicated in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 7. If you are a virgin stay a virgin, don t get married. Well, in this time we are not talking about staying a virgin, but we are talking about marriage. We have marriage on our mind; not just a staying a virgin. First, she becomes a virgin because she accepts the Word, and when she is united to Christ she becomes the wife of Christ. She is no longer a virgin, but wife. In other words, she becomes bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and that is now. Notice Jesus Christ has prevailed to open the book and loose the seals thereof. Verse 6 says, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. (Now this is where the Gentiles come in.) There is redemption within the book for all of God s children. The first part of this book (the big book) in heaven was the Old Testament writings that dealt with all the predestinated seed of God from Adam and all the way to the beginning of the eternal age, which starts after the millennium. But the part called the little book belongs only to the Gentile wife. The seven horns and seven eyes deals with the Gentile church exclusively. Also represented here are the seven church age messengers and the seven Spiritual

351 angels. This is all part of the Gentile realm. This is where the little book comes in, and it s only for the wife of the Lamb. There stood a Lamb that had been slain, and that was for all of God s creation. But here the plan goes into another phase of it, a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. When Jesus walked around here we didn t see a little lamb walking around with seven horns and seven eyes on it. But this was indeed the same Lamb that died on the cross, which was none other than Jesus Christ. So symbolically speaking it is seen here what happened during the seven church ages. In Revelation, Chapter one, that Lamb stood there as the High Priest and made intercession until the church ran the course of time which is called the kingdom of heaven age. But this time ended for the wife when the Mighty Angel said, Time is no more. Then the Voice from heaven spake, Go take the little book and let the marriage complete itself as you eat the little book. Notice the little book for the Gentiles is going to come out of the big book. It says in Verse 7, And he came and took the book (that s the big book, the whole thing) out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Now that means He bought redemption for the Old Testament saints as well as the New Testament. Then the Mighty Angel brings down the little book part of it, and that s for the final joining of Christ to the engaged bride/wife. Now we have become the wife of the Lamb. And becoming the wife of the Lamb we are called Christ. Ye are the body of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. We have the gifts of Christ. We have the attributes of Christ. By one Spirit we are baptized into one body. That s what He does. We are Christ in the earth married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like Eve was married to Adam and there was one name, He called their name Adam. They call us Christ in the earth, Hallelujah, because we are married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone told me not too long ago that this book in Revelation, Chapter 5, didn t deal with the Gentiles. It was said, It talks about the elders and the four beasts and all this, but where are the Gentiles in Chapter 5? This was someone who was saying that the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10, was for Israel. Well, it is very simple to see who it is for if you will listen to the trumpet sound and get the eye salve that has been given and cease from your own works and enter into the rest of God. The seven horns and seven eyes all have to do with the Gentile church ages. Also you will see in Verse 9 that it speaks of all that s redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. That settles it for everyone that accepts the Bible as the Word of God. That is the only way that you can understand and receive this trumpet part of the message, meaning the third and final phase. Verse 8 says, And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and

352 twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. Yes, if you took that verse out and stopped you might get away with saying it was only for the Jews. Now watch, Verse 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 has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. See, it doesn t stop with the Jews, but it brings it right down to every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And that is where the little book was found that the Mighty Angel brought to us the wife. From here I am going on to Revelation, Chapter 10. It says here in Revelation 10:1-2, And I saw another mighty angel, angel simply means Spiritual being. This means that the only way you can see the Lord Jesus is in Christ as He takes on flesh and bones in His wife. You are not going to see Him in a physical form at this time. This is a different coming from the Galilean physical coming. But He comes here in the form of an Angel. come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it was the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand (the wife s marriage certificate, the second edition to Paul s prophetic part of his message) a little book open. It is open to us. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the earth. Which simply means this, He is here in His fullness as Christ. This shows it s not only the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but the fullness of Christ is represented here by both legs of His coming and we are baptized into His body. So in order for this to take place God had to undo time meaning the church age period, showing the saints that were laid away in the grave and waiting for God to restore them back to life. They are rejoined with the living saints as the wife of the Lamb. He takes the engagement and puts it together with the marriage. He takes the virgin that Paul introduced, and now we see her as part of the wife with this little book. It is all put together, and we are the wife of the Lamb. And then when the resurrection takes place after God gets through dealing with us as He is doing now the dead members of the body of Christ will come forth first and they will blend with us the living part of the wife. And the only ones that are coming up in this part of the first resurrection are those Gentile bride saints; it s the wife. This excludes the Jewish part of the saints that did not accept Paul s message. They are resurrected in their order after Jesus Christ our Husband and King returns with His wife after the tribulation period. The little book is for His wife and for her alone. This is her (our) part of redemption. So those saints that died during the church ages that met the condition for being part of the wife in their day and time will complete the members of the body of Christ. But first God restores back the living element. Joel said, All that the canker worm ate; all that the cater-

353 pillar ate.., all the problems and troubles of the Gentile church didn t stop it. He restores the whole thing back, starting first by restoring the living element of the bride saints. I am only talking to the wife of the Lamb here. Paul told them to do certain things, but if I tell them to do the same thing it wouldn t work now because that was instruction for his day. Paul said, I suppose this is good for the present distress. If we take that out of his day and put it in the present, we will get into trouble with it. Leave it where Paul left it because God is giving us something new and fresh, putting His Word on display in our hearts and minds. It is the little book, the prophetic part of what Paul introduced. It is fulfilled in us. It is the second edition to Paul s prophetic letter. God says, Go take the little book. Has He told you to go and take the little book yet? That is what this message is doing today. The final joining of the engagement with the marriage, thus we become the wife of the Lamb. The living and the dead saints, God connects together making the one body. So every one from Paul on down through time, all that is ordained to be the wife will stand here together as we go up in the rapture, married to Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for this time of fellowship, I pray that you will take this Word Lord and that you will use it for your glory. The places where we didn t bring it all out, I pray that by the Spirit of God you will reveal it to your children. We ask it in Jesus Name. Amen.

354 GOD GAVE IT ALL TO THE WIFE OF HIS SON I want to take a thought from the Word of God, God Gave it All to the Wife of His Son or to the wife of the Lamb, which is all the same. The wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus we come to you now. We just ask that you would anoint us and bless us that we may be able to speak words that would benefit your people, Lord, especially the wife of the Lamb. And we know that for the last few years, Lord, you have been getting a wife for your Son, actually all the way back from the days of Paul. But the living element, Lord, you ve been getting us perfected, getting us into the Word, and letting us have a good clear view of the Word. As you said in your Word, through the church ages we looked through a glass darkly, but in this hour we will see eye to eye on the Word and it will be as clear as crystal. So we thank you for it and I pray that you will bless the people that hear this that they will understand and be blessed, also. We ask in Jesus Name. Amen. Now we are reading today in Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation. This is a chapter that we spoke on in an earlier message, and it is very rich in the wonders of God. The great plan of salvation or redemption is seen in such a marvelous way. So I want to continue surveying the wonders of God in this chapter. God s plan is displayed here in the most sacred way. We see a chapter here that speaks of a book sealed, which we realize is the book of redemption, and it shows the redemption of mankind and the earth. The redemption that s seen here spans all time and eternity. All the people of God in Verse 9 are shown as the redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. That covers the whole scope of redemption. In this chapter, God allows the book to be unsealed by the Lamb who bought it back after Adam had lost it. He did this on Calvary as He died for the sins of the whole world. Once this book is opened, the Lamb begins the process of claiming what He has redeemed. First of all, He shows what each of the seven seals were concealing; and since the initial opening we have continued to receive further understanding of the seven seals. This is especially true with the fifth seal that has two parts to it which deals with the Jewish people as to what has and will happen to them. The second part of this seal shows Israel in the last half of the 70th Week of Daniel, while the seventh seal is sandwiched between the first and second part of the fifth seal. As these seals were opened, they clearly showed the time that we are living in. We understand that this happened in 1963 as God revealed to the seventh church age messenger the revela-

355 tion of them one at a time, until all seven were made known. Now the whole book of redemption can be and was opened. At this time the Spirit of the Lamb which is the Mighty Angel took from the whole book of redemption a small book and brought it down to earth; known in Revelation, Chapter 10, as the little book. Now for the sake of giving identity to the book of redemption we will call it the big book; this represents everything that the Lamb redeemed which is all creation. Now we want to concentrate on the part of the book of redemption that is called or named the little book by John in Revelation, Chapter 10. This chapter is the only place in the Bible (big book) where the little book is mentioned. So its importance is seen here only as it relates to the wife of the Lamb and her prophetic message just before she is raptured. God showed Paul the coming of Christ back to the earth in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, saying, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.., first there is a shout, and followed with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: Revelation, Chapter 10, shows the completion of the Spiritual coming. This prophetic writing by Paul shows that as Christ comes back to earth with the final message, it s given in three steps or phases. In God s wisdom He chose to give the little book as a gift to the wife of His Son in this manner. The first step of Christ s coming was the shout. This took place during the message of Brother William Branham, starting as the midnight cry of Matthew, Chapter 25 to begin the message, and later it s called the shout of 1 Thessalonians 4: This message was also one of the seven voices of Revelation, Chapter 10, to finish the mystery of God. This has been fulfilled, along with the voice of the archangel. Then the trump picks up both parts and puts it together for us. Now the way God gives this gift (little book) shows a divine purpose that has been hid in God since the world began. He lets us get a glimpse of His wonders by dropping in clues along the way in His Word, and this is for His pleasure. He said as much in Deuteronomy 29:29, The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us. Also in Ephesians 1:5, it says, Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. This helps us much as we see how He gives this gift of the little book to the wife of His Son, and how it accomplishes His purpose of giving her a test along with this special gift. God gives this gift by sending it in three steps or phases, starting with Brother Branham bringing his part of the message of the Spiritual coming of the Lord. He brings the gift wrapped in a beautiful concealing revelational cloud, saying, This is the promised gift from the Father. This is for your marriage to my Son. Please keep it close by as others may be offering gifts, so stay with this gift from the Master. The bride took it and treasured it as she kept it close to her while rejoicing greatly. Then while still rejoicing, behold, another messen-

356 ger arrived with another part of the gift, saying, I ve come to bring you a wedding gift from the Father. As he presented it to her, she stood in disbelief remembering she had been warned about someone offering another gift to her. But the messenger seemed sincere and legitimate. He said, Would you sign here for this package please? As he offered the package she looked at him, saying, I will have to think about this. But he assured her with confidence, saying, You will need this as it is part of the gift (or message) that you have already received. This is the second part of it. She said, Oh, I don t know. But then it came into her heart by revelation as he explained the further instruction to her. Then she gladly signed and accepted the gift with great joy, not knowing that the warning from the first messenger was a test from the Father. But she passed the test well and was overjoyed having received the two parts of the gift from the Father. But while she was still filled with great joy and was almost beside herself with excitement, there came another messenger arriving with a third package. The messenger said, I have a gift for you from the Father. But she said, Oh no, I have already received my gifts from the Father (the test is still going on) it came in two (phases) packages, and I have been warned about accepting other gifts. But he assured her that he was sent by the Father with this gift (message) and that it was part of the original gift (message) she had already received. The messenger said, My orders are not to leave this gift with you, because the other two parts of the gift are not complete without this third part; I am to stay for the wedding to put it all together for you. I am to connect it together with the other two parts of the gift for the wedding. She said, I didn t know the gift (little book) would come in three packages. But as he explained it to her, then the whole plan began to make sense as it was put together for her. Now her understanding was made clear. And from the little book (gift box) she received what every bride longs for, a wedding gown made of fine linen, and oh, it is so clean and white. It is dazzling and fits perfectly. And also, this third part gift box contained the Father s final instruction to her in Revelation, Chapter 10:8-11. Then after this, it was brought to her remembrance the prophetic Word concerning the translation and rapture. This is completing the final part of the gift; it completes the wedding, and then she s raptured away in the arms of her husband. So having said all that, we are going to begin reading in Revelation 5:1; And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Now those seven seals are important because it puts a time element in for us to see when this happened. These seals have to be taken off the book in order for it to be opened and revealed. It has all taken place in our day. Seven angels came down from heaven to the messenger and opened the seven seals. Now up to this time the church had certain truths and certain revelations but the

357 time of perfection hadn t come, yet. But now we are coming to a time where the end of all things is at hand. Remember the night vision that I had sometime back where the angel or the being (whatever it was) walked by me and his face was set as flint. It looked like he was going towards the Middle East heading to Jerusalem. I started to say something to him, but the way he looked I knew to just keep my mouth shut. So that s what I did. But there was a voice within me that said, Now that which is to be done, will now be done. And that s when the whole Middle East started breaking, the trouble started, and it s not going to stop until the will of God is wrought. This thing has started; the Spiritual coming of the Lord has now become a reality, and we are in the time of rapture. Christ comes first to the wife in the form of the Mighty Angel. He gets us ready, completes the wedding, and He takes us up. So, this all started unfolding in 1963, as this book which was in heaven was unsealed. Verse 3, And I saw a strong angel (not just an ordinary angel, but this angel was to make an impact) proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. Now this book here was sealed away and there was no one able to get it. We see it was only the Lamb that could qualify to take the book and open the seals; He became worthy when He died for our sins. He paid for it; He bought back the book of redemption. God gave it to Adam, but he disobeyed God and forfeited the right to the book and it went back into the hand of the Almighty God, the original owner. So Adam couldn t bring forth all that God ordained for this earth as God told him to do. Now we understand that before he sinned there was no death, no sorrow, no thorns, and no thistles. Now that s the way it s going to be again as the Lamb claims all that Adam lost. So, no man was worthy in John s vision. He says here in Verse 4, And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. No one from Adam s seed could even look at it. The only thing we knew about the book was that it was written within and sealed with seven seals. Meaning the Spirit of the Word was sealed with seven seals and could not be released until the Lamb broke the seals, thus making it possible to understand the plan of God for a fallen church and our place as the wife of the Lamb. The church made their organizations and that stopped it from reaching the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus, which is the marriage of the Lamb. So we find here that no man was worthy and John was weeping. And Verse 5 says, And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. The elder was saying to John, This book has been paid for; He just hasn t claimed it yet. Now it s important

358 to watch the Lamb come out and claim what He has redeemed. The book was sealed up and it was in the hand of the Almighty God. Almighty God still had it and no one could get it. Nobody could step forth and claim what Adam had lost. But it was told John that the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed to claim it for us. Now watch what he says here, Verse 6, And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders (elders-jewish realm), stood a Lamb (watch this Lamb) as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Now I want you to notice particularly here, when we see the seven horns and the seven eyes we are dealing with the Gentile bride here at the end time. We are seeing her as she existed in the seven church ages. And here there were seven church age messengers (natural men). Also, with each one of the seven church age messengers there was a Spiritual angel. But before the church age began, Paul was the apostle to this Gentile virgin before she fell. Then when the fall took place the scene changed and it went into the church ages. This is seen in Revelation, Chapters one through three, showing Jesus Christ is High Priest during this time. Then after the church fell and went into the church ages, we are no longer looking at the original Gentile church. That s why Paul had to step over into the first church age as the star or messenger of that first age, and the church ages had begun. Someone asked me this question, Where does Revelation, Chapter 5, speak about Paul and the Gentiles? I said, Paul represented one of the horns on the Lamb. As the church by this time was in the hands of the Gentiles as it passed through seven church ages. And as the church ages passed, we find in Revelation 4:5, the lamp stands with seven lamps burning, meaning that all the lamps have been lit and the seventh one was burning very brightly at the time the seals were being opened. So while this was transpiring in heaven, the seven seals were opened. This happening took place as Christ through the message of Brother William Branham accomplished this wonderful part of restoring back God s plan for His children. Verse 7 is revealing the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. And when Jesus was here as the Lamb of God, He did not walk around here on earth with seven horns and seven eyes. He was not seen like this before this time period, nor has He been seen like this since that time. This is showing redemption for the church coming through seven church ages. The horns and eyes are showing that each of the seven ages participated with and was a part of the body of Christ, even in the darkest church age. Now Verse 7 says, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Now watch this book as it goes from the hand of the Almighty into the hand of the only one that is worthy, one that paid for it all and bought back all that Adam had lost. Here came one to claim

359 it back. When Adam lost it, he lost both mankind and the earth. He lost the animal kingdom, the fish in the seas, and the fowls in the air. He lost everything. But Jesus Christ paid the price and bought it back. He reached His hand out and claimed it. It went from the hand of the Almighty God to the hand of the Lamb of God. Now we clearly see complete redemption coming into play, and the first thing that happened after He took the book was that He began to open the seals and reveal what the seals were concealing or hiding. The seven seals had to be taken off the book before it could be opened. Jesus Christ was the only one worthy to take the book of redemption. But He did not take it because of His status of being the Son of God or that He was the King of the earth. But He could only take the book of redemption because He became the Lamb of God, and died to pay the sin debt forever for the children of God. Thus buying back all that was lost in the Garden of Eden. Remember here that Adam and Eve forfeited their right to be the king and queen of the earth, and all that is related to it. They sinned against God s Word and lost it all. This redemption that Jesus Christ paid for on the cross included all the predestinated seed of Adam. This also included all those that had died in the faith up to that point, but could not be set free in the sense of going to heaven to rejoice in the liberty of the children of God. That is why the first thing that Jesus did when He was crucified was to descend into the region of the lost and claim all of God s children that had died before the price was paid for their sins. Now that their sins were paid for on the cross, He went down and brought out of prison all that had kept the Word and died in the faith, from Adam up to that time. They were waiting for their redemption to be paid for. This is seen in Matthew 27:51-53, Ephesians 4:8-10, and 1 Peter 3: But the remaining predestinated seed could not be claimed at this time as they had not come into the world yet. But their names are also in the book of redemption as the seed of Adam. Now as we re looking into our time period, and incidentally I ministered before these seals were opened. I ministered before the church ages were preached. I began to minister in the 1950 s. I began back there in the seventh church age and I was preaching things that related to the church age, and strangely enough it was right on target. So God has been with us bringing this Word and keeping it fresh for us. And now we see how He opened the book after all seven seals were opened. That exposed and revealed the Word of God and now it is given to the wife of the Lamb. The seals were opened so that the whole book could be opened and we see the whole plan for us the wife. After this, God took the messenger home as his work was done. The seals were opened in 1963 and God took him off the scene in But he left us with the book opened. He left us with the seals off. The church ages were ending. The mystery of God was finished. Now the mystery of God spoken of in Revelation 10:7 is the mystery con-

360 cerning seven church ages. Jesus spoke of it in Matthew, Chapter 13; He gave seven parables and in each parable certain things would transpire as we came through the church ages. The Bible says that in the days of the voice of that seventh angel (seventh church age messenger) when he begins to sound, this mystery (singular) of the church ages would be finished. After that time the Word has been exposed from the beginning of the Book of Genesis all the way through the Book of Revelation. Now the whole Word is open and is explained to the wife of the Lamb. Now put on your revelational thinking caps here. The Lamb is the only one that could take the whole book of redemption because it was His to take, He said, For this purpose came I into the world. So no one could take this book; but He did give us something we could take. He takes out of the book of redemption a small portion of the book called the little book. This contains the final instruction for the wife to complete all her purpose here, and she is raptured into glory. Now the book was opened while still in heaven, meaning all seven seals were opened by the ministry of Brother Branham. And when the seventh seal was opened the Bible says, There was a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. This silence in heaven was a transitional period bringing us from the time the church ages ended and up to the time that God told us to go take the little book out of the Angel s hand. During this time, God sent Brother Jackson to fill in this transitional period with a message that brought us up to the time of us taking the little book. Then the Voice from heaven sounded ending this silence in heaven time period. During this silence, God used Brother Jackson to clear up the second part of the fifth seal, which had two parts to it. That s why he could preach the seven trumpets, and reveal the second part of that fifth seal. That s why he could tell us what the seven vials were. That s why he could tell us about the city New Jerusalem showing us that it wasn t a pyramid as was taught. He told us about the Eternal Age where the natural people would come into the city and bring their honor and glory. He told us what would happen in the 70th Week of Daniel and that it was a seven year period and not three and a half years. Now we know the truth about this. There are seven years left to Israel. In the beginning of that week there s going to be two men with the spirits of Moses and Elijah on them; they will prophesy to Israel. They will turn the water to blood; they ll smite the earth with all manner of plagues. Their message will seal out of the nation of Israel 144,000 Jews to preach the everlasting gospel in the last three and a half years of the 70th Week. Yes, this 144,000 Jews will preach the everlasting gospel to warn the inhabitants of the earth with their gospel. And unless we see it this way, we cannot put it together right. Now about the big book that was opened in heaven, the revelation of that was cleared up for the wife during the first and second phases of the

361 coming of Christ as the Mighty Angel came back to earth. But even after all of this God still has something in reserve. There is a little book to deal with. But first we had to get step one and step two behind us and cleared up before we could move on. Now we have understanding of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation as God has made it known to us. He has given us that written Word, but then He still has something in reserve for us. (A saved back suit) It s the fine linen, clean and white. It s the little book. It s the spoken Word for this hour. It s the second edition of Paul s prophetic letter, and God gave it all to the wife of His Son. So don t think that you re going to skip what Brother Branham said and his preaching and just disregard it and say, We don t need that anymore, then you re wrong. He taught us how to dress, how to act, and many things concerning holy living, although more and more many wants to look like the worldly group. The reason for this is a total disregard for the Word and Godly principles, while saying, I m the wife of the Lamb dressed in fine linen, clean and white. In situations like this please ask yourself, Is Christ living His own life through me? So we had to hear that shout. And upon hearing the shout, then we hear the voice of the archangel as it continued. It s a teaching message. God raised up Brother Jackson with the continuance of the revealing of the Word. The whole book had to be unsealed, and the little book had to be taken out and brought down to us (the wife) here on earth. But before this happened, what s in this big book has to be cleared up for the wife. This has to already have happened before the little book can be given to us to eat, which it has. Yes, that has been accomplished and we are prophesying, thus connecting with the prophetic part of Paul s message, which says, We which are alive and remain will be changed just after the dead are raised. This is all completed as we are raptured together to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the days when the Bible was written, it s very clear that neither Peter nor any of the other eleven Jewish apostles saw the Spiritual coming of Christ. Although John wrote about it in a prophetic way in Revelation, Chapter 10, but he didn t interpret his writing because it is for our day. But Paul the apostle (Romans 11:13) to the Gentiles prophesied (announced) this message coming to us; and now it is brought to pass with this trump sounding. As God has given to the Gentiles the revelation of the Spiritual coming of Christ, it goes beyond what was taught by the twelve Jewish apostles. (Please refer to the book entitled, The Galilean and the Revelation Chapter Ten Coming of the Lord which makes all this very plain.) So as we see this Spiritual coming, as I said earlier, it takes three steps or phases to make it clear to the wife of the Lamb. It was seen in part under step one and step two; but in step three it becomes a complete event. God wanted to keep it a total secret until this third step of Christ s

362 coming was completed. Now the foundation that Paul laid (1 Corinthians 3:9-11) was this message that was ministered to us by the one apostle that was separate from the Jewish twelve. Although there are still some Bible teachers that have not yet been enlightened to the fact that Paul was not one of the twelve Jewish apostles. But it s clearly seen in the scriptures that he was not part of that group of the twelve. Those that say that he was, theorizes that in Acts, Chapter one, when Matthias was chosen by the casting of lots to choose one to take Judas s place, they see this as an uninspired exercise and was disregarded by God, saying, God doesn t recognize their choice that was arrived at by the casting of lots. But He does when He s giving inspiration for such an exercise. There is an example of just such a happening in the Book of Jonah when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to that great city and cry against it for their wickedness. But Jonah ran from the Lord and fled on a ship going to Tarshish. Then the Lord sent a great wind into the sea and the ship was about to sink. The shipmaster and the others knew that there was someone on board that shouldn t be there. So they said everyone to his fellow, Let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. So they started questioning Jonah, and he told them of his plight. Then Jonah told them to cast him overboard and the sea would be calm, so they casted Jonah overboard, and it was so. (Jonah, Chapter one) This casting of lots was the same as in Acts, Chapter one, and in both cases the results was affirmatives. Need I say more? Okay read, Proverbs 16:33, Leviticus 16:7-10, Joshua 18:6, 1 Samuel 14:42, Nehemiah 10:34 and 11:1. Yes, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and was not one of the twelve to Israel. Paul also taught us that in Christ there is no difference recognized between the Jews and Gentiles in the body of Christ. This is clearly seen in Ephesians, Chapters 2 and 3. But as a nation, Paul differentiated between the Jews and the Gentiles. Again, those that are predestinated to be a member of the wife of the Lamb are all just one body. Because here the middle wall of partition is broken down in the body of Christ. This only applies to the wife and not the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel and the Jewish part of the church is shown in Romans, Chapter 11. Also, Galatians, Chapter 2:6-9, shows that there was a gospel for the circumcision (Jews) and a gospel for the uncircumcision (Gentiles) and it also show the distinction between the two gospels. Paul and Barnabas was given the right hand of fellowship and told that they should go unto the heathens by the Jewish apostles, and they would preach unto the circumcision (Jews). The early Jewish church as was seen at Pentecost and shortly thereafter were the apostles that went and preached to none but the Jews. Acts, Chapter 11:19, speaking of the Jews, Now they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Steven travelled as far as

363 Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. Of course these Jews are not considered as being part of the wife. They never did receive Paul s gospel of grace that he preached to the Gentiles, and they weren t supposed to. Paul s message espoused a chaste virgin to Christ to be married to Him. The Jews of the Jewish church are the brethren of Christ and are not represented in the rapture of the wife, because that is only for her. But the members of the body of Christ whether they are Jews or Gentiles are all in the same body. This is very important to understand because all of those that s outside the body of Christ, though they be born again and are living for God, they will not rise from the dead at the same time the wife is resurrected. But they will rise from the dead seven years later. This is clearly seen in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 11:18 and Revelation 20:4-6, which is at the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to earth with His wife to begin the millennium reign. This is essential to understand that there are three parts of the first resurrection. This is the order of it. The first part took place when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Matthew 27:52-53 shows this to be true. The second part is when the dead members of the body of Christ raise from the dead, and the living are changed. We see this as we read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15: After seeing the resurrection in this manner we can see the twelve Jewish apostles are raised from the dead at the time Jesus Christ and His wife return back to earth to start the millennium reign, as only the saints that are ordained to be a part of the wife will rise from the dead at the time of the rapture. But as far as all of the others that are part of the redeemed family of God, which are the foolish virgins, the tribulation saints, and the Jews that were killed for the Word of God that was shown us by the opening of the fifth seal, they come forth in their resurrection at the beginning of the millennium reign. Please notice here, that only those Jews that received Paul s gospel of grace, (without works, without the Law) are part of the wife of the Lamb, and of course they will be raised from the dead and raptured as members of the body of Christ. Because in the body of Christ, the wife, is where Paul said that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Again, remember here, we are only speaking of the wife of the Lamb as she is shown in Revelation 19:7-8. When reading what God revealed to Paul, we are assured and it s very clear from the scripture that Paul was not the twelfth apostle to Israel; he was the one for the Gentiles. Now that that s settled, we move on. Now that we have gotten to where we are today it is wonderful, especially after hearing preachers take extreme positions on the standard of the dressing of our sisters in the Lord. For they preach many things without having any common sense about it. Evidently they have never lived

364 in the mountains and had to live off the land. When my mother took us kids with her to pick blackberries, she d put on those bib overalls and a big long sleeved shirt because those berry bushes had so many stickers. In fact, there were hundreds of them on each stalk. So anyone that picked those berries had to be covered well, otherwise one would get cut very badly by the briars. So my mother would wear those bib overalls when she picked those berries. So, my friends this is a legitimate reason for wearing that type garment. In cases like this it s perfectly all right to wear men s overalls. Our God is a sensible God, and His people are a sensible people that can make sensible decisions. And the wonderful thing about this is that with those berries she picked she could make one of the best blackberry pies I have ever eaten. It tasted especially good during the cold snowy days. Oh, what I wouldn t give for a big helping of that blackberry pie today! Even God Himself would have trouble resisting that pie. She canned the blackberries in half gallon jugs; and during the cold winter months she would pull a can of those blackberries off the shelf and make a pie and sprinkle sugar on top and a little cow butter. I can still taste it! So she had to protect herself from those briars; that s why she put on her overalls to go pick those blackberries. Are you going to tell me that she s going to hell because she wore overalls and long sleeved shirts and a scarf over her head? No, she did that to keep from being cut to pieces while picking those berries to feed a whole crowd of hungry kids throughout the winter months. She got the job done. That s the way it was done in our mountains with us poor folks, we always found a way to survive whatever the circumstances. So in the first step of the message there were some extremities. But here came the second step of the message, clearing up many of these things. That s just another reason for this second step, because we couldn t understand what was going to happen to Israel without knowing the second part of that fifth seal. It tells about the trumpets, the vials, and all these things. So if we go another way we aren t going where we need to be. Now remember, all the seven church age messengers died and their revelation stopped at their deaths. As the seventh church age was ending and all the seven seals were opened, we see that the seventh one was different from all the other six. At the opening of each of the seals something was said to give us a clue as to what they meant. But when the seventh seal was opened God didn t give a clue as to what it was. There was just silence. It contained a secret known only to God. John saw the seventh seal open, but God did not elaborate on its contents for John to write about it. This remained a secret from the opening of the seven seals during the week of the 17th, 18th, 19th, etc., of March in 1963, and lasted until the Voice of Authorization spoke from heaven during meetings in West Virginia on the 17th, 18th, 19th of March in 2006 telling us to go and take

365 the little book and eat it up, and then go prophesy to the nations. Brother Jackson brought his message during this silence in heaven or secret time period. So as it happened, when God took Brother Branham home, the seventh church age was ending. But the apostleship of Brother Raymond Jackson was beginning; his message began to shine very brightly until his death in December of Now we can say with all assurance that the secret of the seventh seal is known. Christ is here in the earth in His fullness. God spoke from heaven in 2006 and said, Go take the little book, and eat it up and prophesy again. God was telling us to take full possession of the little book. At this time the last trump/trumpet (third phase) of the message began to make itself known in a greater way. Now we know and can see that it has been going for many years, but God did not bring it to the forefront until now. But it has been taking place, and we are realizing that we are the final group of we which are alive and remain. Soon we will be changed, and along with the raised dead will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air and to be with our husband forever. Let s go to Revelation 10:1-2, And I saw another mighty angel (that s Christ Spiritual coming) come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head Here He is; He comes to earth. He is not in His physical body; but His Spirit comes which is Christ, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ for the members to be baptized into. Thus, becoming bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; making us the wife which is the Christ part of the Lord Jesus. He comes to get His wife, and brings something to her that you can t have unless you have accepted these other two parts. and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. Now watch here, the fullness of Christ Jesus came to earth in the form of an Angel, and He brings something for His wife because the wife is going to become the Christ in the earth as she eats the little book. Notice the Lamb was the only one that was worthy; the Spirit of the Lamb is now seen as Christ in the earth. And now there s a people on earth that s worthy because we have accepted His righteousness. All these things have been happening right before our eyes and many have missed it. The Mighty Angel is here in the earth doing what He s supposed to be doing, and the followers of the first and second phase (stage) of this message are missing it. Many of them are saying the Mighty Angel hasn t come. And many people say, When the Mighty Angel comes seven thunders are going to utter. Well, the voices of those seven thunders are the voices of the seven Spiritual angels that sounded through the seven earthly church age messengers and have already been cleared up through the voice of Brother Branham. Revelation 10:6, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who creat-

366 ed heaven, and the things that therein are, 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. It says when this takes place that time is no longer. That ends the church ages as far as the wife being in them. And as all of this has come to an end there s a people here that becomes one with Christ, the Mighty Angel in marriage. Verse 7, But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Now that all this has happened we are armed with this revelation of fulfillment. Now we go on down to the next verse. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And here stands a people in this end time, hallelujah, which Christ has made worthy. They have taken the three steps. He gives the whole thing to us the wife of His Son. And as we have become His wife, He takes away all the curses from us and there is nothing against us at all. Notice He gives us the little book which means that by the Word of God we ve become one with Christ. We ve reached the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. We ve become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We ve got our part, the little book that has been hidden within the same book that the Lamb took in heaven, and we ve got to have His righteousness in order to take our part of it. The Bible says, He took our sins. He became sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God. And then He sends us a message. The message has gotten us ready, prepared us, and brought us to maturity. The Lord Jesus Christ s bride is not a little girl. We ve matured because we have reached the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. We ve come to maturity. We are married to the Lord Jesus Christ; He has given us the little book to eat for our translation. And we have taken the little book out of His hand. God said, Go take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. The next verse is very important. It says, And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. Now I want to ask you today, can you walk up and say, Give me the little book? Have you heard the prophet s message? Do you accept what Brother Jackson brought? You might say, I m just going to accept what you preach Brother Ben. Well, if you do, you will get the life of these other two steps also. And I m only standing here because they came. Had they not come I would not be here. Had they not come and preached what they preached I couldn t be preaching what I m preaching. If God had not used Brother Branham to preach the seals then the book could not have been opened in heaven, and the wife could not have understood it from Genesis to Revelation. And now the Mighty Angel says, Take the little

367 book. He was here with Brother Branham. He was here with Brother Jackson. But He didn t authorize them to take the little book. That has taken place in this hour of the third phase. And now because we have obeyed Him and pleased Him, because we ve walked uprightly before Him, because we ve loved Him with all our heart, because we have given our entire life for Him, because we re dead and our life is hid with Christ in God, and because we ve said, Be it unto me according to thy Word, we feel worthy to say, Give me the little book. Some people say, Brother Ben, I just don t feel worthy of these things. Have you come through step by step with the revelation of this Word? If so, you are this Word. This is your life. This is you. You can t separate yourself and the Word. You and the Word are one. You and Christ are one. We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. God gave unto the wife of the Lamb the whole thing. Therefore, we ve got the whole revelation of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and have perfect understanding, because as Christ the wife we have the knowledge of God through the Lord Jesus our husband. Now Christ started giving me this message many years ago in the 1950 s. It s been progressing right through the years and now after all the years of preaching, He says, Go take the little book. It was authorized for the entire body of Christ, and we have taken the little book. Isn t it wonderful to know that it has been brought down to us? Now we are eating it and enjoying every bite of it. So the Mighty Angel is here. And the Father s Voice has spoken from heaven and authorized us to go take the little book, so that leaves us without an excuse before God. And now we know we are worthy because we have become one with the Lamb in marriage, as the marriage is consummated. God bless you today. He has given His wife the whole thing. So let us bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we bless your name today and thank you for this Word. I pray that you will send forth this Word; that it will accomplish that which you ve ordained, and Lord that you will be pleased. Father, I know that there is much, much more to this; but you re giving it to us a step at a time. And, Lord, you ve made us your wife and you ve shown us that we ve come through the shout, the voice of the archangel, and we needed that before we can hear this trumpet roaring out with a message around and around the world saying, Eat the little book and enjoy, because you re the wife of the Lamb. In Jesus Name, bless the people that hear. Amen.

368 PROPHESYING AGAIN BEFORE PAUL S PROJECTED PROPHECY COMES TO PASS: Beyond The Prophesying Unto Nations We thank God that we have arrived at the place where all the promises of God that He made concerning the wife of the Lamb is now fulfilled or being fulfilled, which brings us to our scripture. Before I read the scripture I d like to say, It s clear that Jesus Christ started His church first with the Jews on the Day of Pentecost; then it came over in the realm of the Gentiles and He started it on a journey, and now we ve arrived here at the end time. That s why God has revealed His Word to us, the wife of His Son. I m going to read today Revelation 10:11 and we re going to minister on the Word of God as it applies after the prophesying of this verse is completed. As Paul s vision of the wife s final moments come into our revelational view, it shows that it s time for the living members of the wife to receive the fullness of the projected events fulfilling Paul s writing of we which are alive and remain. Now we understand that part of Paul s message was fulfilled back there in the time of his writing. We can look back to the time of his writing and see part of it, knowing much of the things he said was Word for the church as it existed then. But there s a prophetic part, a projecting forward part. Paul in his vision did not see many of the things that John wrote about in the Book of Revelation. I say this because he did not make reference to those future happenings in his writings. When he was writing, his thinking was that he would still be living when it all took place, he said, We which are alive and remain. He included himself in the fulfillment of his end time projection. But as history lets us know the church fell away and Christ didn t come in His fullness as expected by the early Gentile church, which was the engaged bride. Paul actually thought he would be the one that would present the virgin that he introduced to Christ in marriage, but it wasn t to be at that time. Now we understand that it will be Christ, the anointed body in the earth that we are baptized into that does the presenting. It s the Christ in the earth as the wife presenting herself to her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, as a perfect wife. Paul s message pointed forward to this in Ephesians 5:27, saying, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but it should be holy and without blemish. At this time we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh (Ephesians 5:30-32) and have also become Spirit of His

369 Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17) But he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. So we have come to a place where we are no longer tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, and the body is edifying itself in love. So what happened in Paul s day was that the church came up to a certain point and stopped. It appeared as though it was going to be perfected in the time of Paul s writing, but then it suddenly fell from its first love and instead of going into perfection, the engaged bride now called church went into a dark age and almost went out of existence. So since Jesus didn t come as Paul thought and projected that left us with a dilemma of what happened and where to go from here, as this was most unusual because they had a promised event taken out of their reach. That means we as believers deserved an explanation of why He didn t come. For example, if I tell you that at three o clock this afternoon I ll come for you, and three o clock comes and goes leaving you waiting; then four o clock comes and goes; then five o clock comes and goes and I haven t come yet, then I would owe you an explanation of why I didn t come. There could be a reason. Something could have happened that would completely change things making it impossible to arrive at that time. Now what would my obligation be to you? In a case like that I would be obligated to give you an explanation of why I didn t come. And if you re a reasonable person and I had a legitimate reason for not coming at that time you would say, I understand. But if I gave you some flimsy excuse and said I stumped my toe or I just decided to go another way or do something else, those wouldn t be legitimate reasons and you would not hold me blameless. It s the same thing with the Lord Jesus Christ. That s why in the Book of Revelation, Christ gives us His explanation of why He didn t come and fulfill the things that He inspired Paul to write. The church falling away from His Word is definitely a legitimate reason. He tells this in the beginning of the Book of Revelation, Thou art fallen from thy first love. (Revelation 2:4) And even before this there were other signs of falling as shown by Acts 20:29-30, 2 Thessalonians 2:7, and 2 Corinthians 11:2-3. The spirit of iniquity began to work among them and they didn t go into the prophetic Word, which still lays there to be fulfilled in our day and our age. And we who are alive today are the people that are the beneficiaries of it. When Jesus Christ gave His explanation, He showed the seven church ages and their falling away. And we have come through those. That is history. I had a dream back in 2005, where I was at this old light house, which at one time was used to give light to help the ship masters to find the way to shore. I had this dream just after I had preached a series of messages going into the historical things of the church ages which were entitled, Paul s Foundation and the Seven Church Ages, Paul s Foundation and the Seven Seals, and Paul s Foundation and the Seven

370 Thunders. And something within me in the dream said, I won t be coming back here anymore. So I will never preach another series of messages dealing with the historical part of the church ages and seals because that is fulfilled; it is finished. And it is the same thing with some of Paul s message; part of it was fulfilled in his day. Much of it was instruction and some of his instruction was only for that time, so we don t want to bind the Lamb s wife today with yesterday s rules because we don t have those same conditions in this day. When scriptures live out their lives, then they become the historical part of the Word. But there is a part of the Word that Paul projected forward that is yet to be manifested and that s for us now. So I m going to entitle this message, Prophesying Again before Paul s Projected Prophecy Comes to Pass: Beyond the Prophesying unto Nations. Now that we have gotten to Revelation, Chapter 10, it shows Christ is back on earth. That means that we re getting into the realm where everything is going to be fulfilled for the wife of Jesus Christ. That means the thunders have already uttered their voices and cleared up the church ages; letting us know that they are over. The seven church age messengers have already come and gone. Then there was this space of time called a silence in heaven; this is the time period which God allowed for the clearing up of things that was left unclear by the last church age messenger, thus giving the wife understanding. And as a bonus God also showed us what is going to happen with Israel as the rapture takes place; at which time the world goes into the 70th Week of Daniel. Brother Raymond Jackson was very instrumental in the revealing of this part of the Word. So now that we have the understanding of this it leaves us with Revelation, Chapter 10:8-11. Verse 8 shows a Voice speaking from heaven, saying, Go take the little book. And we have done that. We ve taken the little book and eaten it; we are receiving life from it and prophesying to the nations of the world, and that put us in a new era of time. It s not a church age. It s not the silence in heaven for half an hour. But it s the winding up of the wife s journey here on earth as the dead members of the body are raised, and we the living are changed and together we are raptured (caught away) to meet our (other half) the literal Lord Jesus Christ in the air. Let s pray before reading. Father, in Jesus Name I pray, Lord, that you will just bless this morning and that you ll just take and anoint us, Father, that we will be able to speak words that will be of a benefitting nature to your wife. We pray that when we leave here today that we will leave with our cup filled and running over and the joy of the Lord will be renewed in our lives. I just pray, Lord, that you will just help us with this Word. It s your Word and you will furnish that anointing, and I believe it. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. We re reading in Revelation 10:11, it says, And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

371 The prophecy that s spoken of here is the message that is now taking place and going forth. But there is something after this. Revelation, Chapter 10:11, takes place before Paul s final prophetic projection comes into being. This prophecy of Thou must prophesy again is going forth now because it has to precede the final projected prophecy of Paul, which says, That we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Paul s projection is for those that are alive and remain. We are that group that is alive and remaining, and this prophecy is fulfilled in us. So it brings us in giving this explanation. There are those that remained from each of the seven church ages; then when another age began the remaining saints of the just past age moved over into the beginning of the new age, and became a part of the saints of that age. But at the end of the seventh church age there is not another church age for the living to move over into. This is where a time period that is known in the scripture as the silence in heaven for half an hour begins to come into the picture. Since there were no other church ages, the mystery of God was finished. (Revelation 10:7) This mystery related only to the church ages and that was over with at the death of William Branham. This mystery is a singular mystery and did not relate to all the other things that were needful for the wife of the Lamb to understand before the marriage and rapture. And here is where the ministry of Brother Jackson, the apostle of this silence in heaven time period comes into plain view and shines forth the light for those that are alive and remain from the seventh church age. I am speaking only of the predestinated seed that heard the revelational truth that God gave this apostle. It was during this time that the silence in heaven period was manifested; bringing us a furtherance of truth beyond what the messenger to the seventh age left us with. This revelation continued to breathe life into the whole message as there was further revelation to go on to. This posed an insurmountable obstacle for those that remained of the followers of the seventh church age messenger. Because here God was giving more truth, but they had been told to stay with what was said by that messenger. So the furtherance of the truth that God was sending became a trap because they refused to move on into it. I preached a message some years ago about this entitled, That Which Should Have Been For Your Deliverance Has Become A Trap To You. And this being so, they had no other option but to stop and become foolish virgins or just a religious order where the tares love to dwell and flock together. This message that the apostle brought for this silence period has brought us to Revelation 10:8-11. His work being finished as God called him home in 2004, having been faithful to his calling. Now, it has become imperative for those which are alive and remain that heard and believed the apostle for that time period to move into the final part of this message that God has sent. And that is the message you are reading in this book as we have

372 taken the little book and eaten it. And it has produced this book that is the materialization of Revelation 10:8-11. Yes, that book has materialized and now we hold it in our hands. This is the message that the Angel gave John to sound forth, and when it has accomplished its intended purposes then all things have been fulfilled. We will say as Jesus Christ did when the purpose of God was fulfilled in Him, It is finished. Then will be brought to pass 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, which shows both the resurrection of the dead members of the body of Christ and the translation of the final part of we which are alive and remain members of the wife. And off with the husband we will go, dressed in fine linen, clean and white. So what we are dealing with in this message is what Paul said would happen after our commission was finished. Revelation Chapter 10:11, precedes the fulfillment of overcoming the last enemy called death. This is the witness of the wife, showing she has overcome death. Soon we will be beyond the prophesying of Revelation, Chapter 10:11, and at the final end of this we are going into a glorified body just as the Lord has said. And it has all began to come to pass as this whole world now is shaking. I have spoken of this before and would like to tell it again here. It was at the beginning of 2011 that I had the vision of someone walking by me, like a military person. His face looked very stern like he had something on his mind and nothing was going to change him. And I thought about one in the Bible that had his face set as flint. He didn t even look at me, but looked straight ahead. In the vision I was going to say something to him, but when I looked at him I knew to leave him alone that he had a job to do. And a voice said within me, Now that which is to be done will now be done. And within days the uprising began to break loose in Egypt in a major way; then it went on to other places and now it s in many other countries of the Middle East. It s not going to stop because God is shaping that Middle East just like it s got to be for the end time. He s shaping Europe like it s got to be. He s shaping the United States of America like it s got to be. He s getting everything ready to bring to pass all the prophecy of the end time. These conditions are like going through a funnel that gets smaller and smaller the closer we get to the very end. I worked for a man that owned a farm. He had many cattle that he would move from a pasture on one side of the road to another pasture on the other side of the road. He came up with a plan of how to get the cattle across the road to the other pasture. He had a fence made in the shape of a funnel. It funneled up to the place where the cattle crossed the road bringing them closer and closer together, until we got them to the place where they crossed the road. It was easy to get them to cross the road because the cattle behind would push those in front and they couldn t turn back; they had to go forward. It is the same thing with the world today. It s like being pushed through a funnel. Conditions are pushing the world into the place where all things that relates to this hour are being ful-

373 filled, and it can t turn back. Everything begins to funnel in, funnel in, and now everything is right here together for the end time. Look at Europe how it s about to go under financially, and the United States of America is just one step behind them. The prophecy concerning this will be fulfilled as they are casting their shadows before them. We are witnessing the beginning fulfillment of future happenings, which is all explained in our book entitled The Interpreted Book of Revelation. There is a system that has enough gold that it has accumulated over the centuries to influence world conditions in order to bring it under her control. She will gain control over the entire prophetic world. That s when one can t buy or sell without accepting and being part of that system that will exist in the prophetic world; it s called taking the mark of the beast. Then as one crosses the seas and comes into this western hemisphere, especially here in the United States of America, there will be a similar system to that of Europe and many of the Middle East countries that will be sucked in by the system in Europe. The systems in Europe and the United States of America are the beast and the image of the beast. So we are at the end time, and many are saying that they are not seeing anything going on with the wife of Jesus Christ. But that s because they are looking for it in all the wrong places. But much revelation is being imparted to us as Christ has come down to earth to make live what Paul said would be here. And Christ in the form of the Mighty Angel dwells among us as we have been baptized into His body. We heard the Voice from heaven, when Almighty God spoke and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the Angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth. And we ve done that! We went to the Angel and said, Give me the little book. And He said, Take it, and eat it up. (Take possession of the anointed Word.) So we took possession of it. We ate it up. It was sweet in the mouth, but bitter on the belly. We possessed it, and it possessed us. That brings us to the place where the prophetic part of Paul s message is being fulfilled in this our day and in this our time. Christ has prepared His wife to move on to the final part of our salvation, which is the resurrection and translation of our bodies. He has done this by sending this Word a little at a time, because we could not receive it until this hour. That s why this book is the furtherance of the little book that we ve been prophesying out of. Go prophesy again before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. Well, this is happening right here today, right now. We re not waiting for it. We re not looking somewhere out in the distant future for it. It is taking place now and we re not looking back. God is moving forward, and now He has gotten us ready to take our flight. He has actually started the process of changing these vial bodies. He has already changed our mentality to the point that we ve got a mind that fits directly into that new body, because our thinking and His thinking is the same just as the

374 Bible says, We have the mind of Christ. And the preacher that is ordained of God to bring forth a message for the wife, we know, it s not necessary for him to quote Paul to prove that he s right in what he s saying on the subject matter for our day. This is because we have been baptized into His body and have become the visible Christ in the earth that has taken on flesh and bone. We are speaking His Word as we preach and teach by revelation because we are speaking His mind. It was in 2008 when I ministered on a message that raised eyebrows; it was for a purpose and it was accomplished. I entitled the message, Paul s Futile Attempt to Micro-Manage the Church. (The audio is still available) I dealt with a condition that Paul perceived was a need for leaders (that later became rulers). His concerns were that the church wasn t glorifying God in their worship services, so he made strong suggestions on what they should do as far as worshipping God. Paul told them how to use the gifts of the Spirit, who could preach, how many could speak in tongues, and many other things he instructed them to do as the church had begun to fall from direct leadership of Christ. As Paul s concerns grew they dictated his thoughts on how they should conduct their services in details, thus removing the need to seek in a greater way for His Spirit to speak and to lead them. After this, they went into a fallen state. But we see that before this God put leadership in the body of Christ instead of rulership. That s why we conclude that there is no preacher that God has called to be a ruler over the wife of His Son. Before the fall in the Garden of Eden, God made Adam a leader and not a ruler. For example, when Eve fell from God s standard of being equal with Adam who was the leader of this perfect team, then and only then God made Adam her ruler, saying in Genesis 3:16, Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And that trend continued until Jesus Christ paid the sin debt on Calvary. Then God restored back the equality between man and woman. Now man is the leader with the woman as a coequal partner. So we can say God put rulership in, but Jesus Christ replaced it with leadership. So we see the same thing happened when the fall of the church took place. It was not Paul that fell to a lower level, but it was the church that fell, thus falling from the state of being equal with the ministry to the place where the ministry and the other members where on two different levels. And this produced a condition that caused the ministry to be on a higher level than the church. This placed the ministry in a position of rulership rather than leadership, the same as with Adam and Eve. But Adam chose to go down with Eve, as they lived in a state with Adam being the ruler. Because he was not deceived, but his love for Eve compelled him to go with her. Adam chose to live in Eve s world with her, rather than living alone in his own

375 Spiritual environment without her. Paul did exactly what Adam did. He went down with the engaged virgin, choosing to go down with her rather than let her go alone. And they would wait for the resurrection in the last day. Now we understand why he made rules for the church to survive on until they made their long church age journey. Until they reached the until of Ephesians 4:13, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, which is fulfilled in us which are alive and remain. Now we can see clearly what happened in the early church that started out with leadership and why after the fall Paul set rulers in the church, saying, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. And also, Obey them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. And last but not least, Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. (Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24) Now that we have reached the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), the Lord Jesus Christ has given leadership as the need for rulership has changed. This has happened as we have come to the fullness of the Word, with all members having one mind the mind of Christ. And with the mind of Christ we have all that we need, which has now been provided for us; it s called the leadership of Christ. This is in no way saying that we don t have or need ministers to assist us in our walk with God, but they are leaders (not rulers) under Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. And now we realize Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and there is no one but Him that can say who is and who is not qualified to minister the Word of God. All that kind of rulership of lording over God s people has faded, and in His wife it doesn t exist any longer. Because God has given the mind of Christ to each member of the body to discern when one is and is not speaking with the mind of Christ. So when the church fell away Paul followed God s example of what He did when Adam and Eve fell in the garden. For God put Eve under rulership, and so did Paul set rulers over the church after it fell. It remained that way until after Ephesians 4:13. (Paul set rulership in, but Christ the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10, replaced it with leadership.) And then all Godly rulers became Godly leaders instead. The body members and the men with ministering gifts all became one. See, Eve went out there and she listened to the wrong voice and the fall brought all of humanity into this sad situation that s in the world today. But don t you kick Eve too hard for what she did. In fact, I want to walk up and shake hands with Eve. For if Eve had not done what she did and the fall had not taken place, then there would not have been the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the glorified saints. We would be just natural

376 people living on this earth with eternal life, which would have been good; but if you ve got something good and there is something better why not take it. Although the natural people will have eternal life, they will not have glorified bodies. The wonderful thing here is God showing His eternal love for us. But the sad part is that Jesus died on the cross to pay for those sins. The Bible says, He endured as seeing that which was set before Him. He knew that there would be a few hours on that cross; the suffering and the pain, but He was looking beyond that. That s what we are doing today. We re looking beyond our backaches, our headaches, and all our agonies as we re seeing the people with glorified bodies and with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with bliss that words can t even express! Now that s what you ve got to thank Eve for. Otherwise we would be the natural people that are going into the millennium, and we would be the caretakers of the earth like Adam and Eve and their families would have been had not the fall taken place. Instead of having glorified bodies we would have to plant potatoes, pick beans, and do all the natural things that we do in this earth we live in. Although we would live in a perfect natural body without sickness or pain or death, we would not have a glorified body and live in bliss as the wife of the Lamb. Now we ve come through Revelation, Chapter 10, and the prophecy of Verse 11 is being fulfilled as you read this. And now we move uninterrupted into what Paul said, That we which are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord are going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the dead members have risen, and together we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That is where we are at today. It s this prophetic realm that we have come into and this message is stirring the heart of the wife as it is happening. This prophecy of Revelation, Chapter 10:11 could only go forth in the third and final phase of the Spiritual coming of the Lord. It s clear that the first two phases has already taken place at the time this prophecy is in process. At this time we have the full Word of God to preach again before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. As this prophecy is being fulfilled, then comes into being the Word that was spoken of by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: After this there s no more preaching to the nations by the wife of the Son of God. She s experiencing her final day in the earth while the dead are being raised. Then the living are translated as the time of the rapture has arrived for the wife of the Lamb. This includes all those that are raised from the dead and we which are alive and remain until this time. Truly this is a time of great joy and rejoicing. (Revelation 19:7-8) So we are arriving at the place beyond Revelation 10:11, where this prophecy has gone forth. And we are in the land of the fulfilled prophecy that was prophesied by Paul for the wife as she leaves this earth. This is the secret place between the prophecy of Revelation 10:11 and the prophe-

377 cy of Revelation, Chapter 11. Paul said all of this would be as the trump of God is sounding and the dead in Christ are rising and the living are changed. Christ brought our theophanies, our spiritual bodies with Him when He came; and now there s a sounding in the earth of a trumpet to bring out of the earth those that have gone on before us, and we are caught up together with them. And now time has blended with eternity for the wife of the Lamb. This is complete redemption of body, soul, and spirit. Now we can say assuredly that we are no longer temporal, but have become an eternal being, as our body, soul, and spirit, the whole person has become one with eternity. Graves are bursting, saints are shouting, heavenly beauty all around! Father, in the Name of Jesus we pray you bless this Word. Take it and use it for your glory we pray. In Jesus Name. Amen. Behold, this is the revelation of the Mystery of Our Marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ

378 OTHER BOOKS BY BEN HOWARD The Interpreted Book of Revelation (English & Chichewa) The Rule Book and the Ox in the Ditch It Won t Matter After We Make the Crossing Old Testament Prophet Comes To a New Testament Age (English, Chichewa & Cebuano) The Voice of Authorization (English & Chichewa) Unity through Leadership (English & Chichewa) The Deeds of the Nicolaitanes Taking Only What Belongs To Us; Leaving the Rest Alone Eating the Little Book Let s Do It Again, But Right This Time! The Faith of the Son of God (English & Chichewa) Are You A Seventy Times Seven Christian? (English & Chichewa) Possessing the Kingdom of God The Trail of the Serpent The Ministry and Redemption From Whence Came The Word Unto You? (English & Chichewa) Bishops, Elders, Deacons, & 5 Fold Ministry (English & Chichewa) The Mercy and Grace of God (English & Chichewa) And The Word Was Made Flesh Having the Right Slant on the Gospel Getting the Edge The Bread Basket, Who Has It? Ministries of/with Similarities The Creation of the Seven Angels and Their Purposes Their Voices Finishes the Mystery of God Predestinated and Manifested Children of God How God Has Led Me Testimony of Ben Howard Submitting Yourselves One to Another (English & Tonga) Fallen From Grace The End Time Appearing of Christ The Holy Ghost and Pentecost The Connect and Disconnect of the Jews and Gentiles Baptized With the Holy Ghost and Then into the Body of Christ Connecting the Dots on the Coming of the Lord How God Lets Us See Our Fallibilities (English & Chichewa) Being Joined Unto the Lord Their Mystery and our Mystery Truth, Error, and Apostasy Christ Is: The Holy Ghost, High Priest, and Mighty Angel The Anointed Church How Christ Continued His Ministry to the Jews and the Gentiles

379 The Word: Both Doctrinal and Instructional (English & Chichewa) Where Dwelleth Thou in the Ministry of the Coming of the Lord After Two Days, We Lift Up the Voice Together! When Preparedness Meets Opportunity Bewitched by Satan s Religion (English & Chichewa) Why Jesus Christ Became a Living Soul Can You Take It? The Spiritual Conscience & Natural Conscience I Will Not Speak of Those Things Which God Has Not Wrought by Me (English & Chichewa) Is There A 5 Fold Ministry, If So, Where? (English & Chichewa) Let Us Now Turn the Corner: Evening Light Before Sunrise The Anointed Church The Two Ands and the Seven Seals (English & Chichewa) AUDIO MESSAGES AND BOOKS At present there are over 2000 Messages by Brother Ben Howard that have been recorded on tape, CD, DVD, and Mp3 s. Many of these have been put in printed form, and we will continue to add more as time permits. Please feel free to visit us at our website often as new materials are constantly being added, or write to our postal address below. Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A. TwoAnd@soundofliberty.org

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382 Ben & Barbara Howard Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 6 Revelation 19:7-8