The Son of Man: Who Is He? – Faith Assembly Church

I AM FORCED, BY CIRCUMSTANCES, TO TRY TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS THAT SEEM TO BE CAUSING SOME FOLKS A LOT OF TROUBLE. WHO IS THE SON OF MAN, THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT? DOES THAT TITLE BELONG ONLY TO JESUS THE CHRIST, OR COULD IT BE RIGHTLY APPLIED TO BRO. WILLIAM BRANHAM ALSO? WHY DO SOME SAY THAT BRO. BRANHAM WAS GOD? WILL HE REALLY BE RESURRECTED BEFORE THE OTHER SAINTS? THESE ARE ONLY A FEW OF THE MANY QUESTIONS THAT ARE ASKED BY SINCERE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN FED A LOT OF JUNK, BY MEN WHO CLAIM TO BE PREACHING THE MESSAGE BRO. BRANHAM DELIVERED TO THIS AGE, AND I WANT TO ANSWER, WITH THE SCRIPTURES, AS MANY OF THEM AS I POSSIBLY CAN, IN THIS MESSAGE. BUT MY MAIN EMPHASIS IS GOING TO LEAN TOWARD SCRIPTURES THAT WILL PUT THE SON OF MAN TITLE UPON THE ONLY ONE ANY OF US HAVE ANY RIGHT TO PUT IT UPON, AND THAT IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO SOME, IN THIS FOLLOWING OF BRO. BRANHAM’S TEACHING, THE SON OF MAN TERMINOLOGY HAS BECOME SO BIG, AND SO GLORIOUS, THEY HAVE LOST SIGHT COMPLETELY, OF THE ONLY PERSON THAT TITLE BELONGS TO. THEY SEE ONLY WILLIAM BRANHAM. THEY INTERPRET THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY BELIEVE ABOUT BRO. BRANHAM; NOT ACCORDING TO WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT HIMSELF, NOR WHAT HIS APOSTLES LATER WROTE ABOUT HIM, THEREFORE WHEN SOMEONE LIKE ME, STANDS UP TO PREACH A MESSAGE FROM THE BIBLE, AND FAILS TO MENTION BRO. BRANHAM’S NAME AT LEAST ONCE IN EVERY TWENTY WORDS, THEY WILL SAY, THAT JACKSON IS NOT EVEN IN THE MESSAGE. WELL I HAVE NEWS FOR THEM, IF WHAT THEY PREACH, IS THE MESSAGE, I THANK GOD THAT I AM NOT IN IT. I RESPECT THE WORD OF GOD TOO MUCH, TO ACT THAT FOOLISH.

LET THE BIBLE SPEAK FOR YOU

Let us open our Bibles to the epistle to the Galatians, chapter 1, verses 11-17, and read what the apostle Paul wrote to them concerning his own personal revelation, and then we will go to Matthew 8:20, where we will find Jesus calling Himself the Son of man, for the very first time. Jesus did not present Himself as the Son of God, in His first advent; that was a revelation to various ones that believed on Him. You search your Bible, and you will see that Jesus always referred to Himself as the Son of man, and no man ever referred to Him like that. He was T-H-E Son of man, not A Son of man. He was the one and only Son of man, as we deal with the scriptures in the New Testament. God used that term with some Old Testament prophets, that were to prophesy some far reaching prophecies concerning Jesus the Christ, but let us leave it right there, and not try to make the Bible say something, it simply does not say. I want you all to take note of the scriptures we are going to use in this message, for somewhere down the road, you are going to meet someone that will try to tear this message all to pieces. That is just how the devil works. Out here in the Gentile church world at large, they deny the fact that there even was a prophet to this Laodicean age, so you have two extremes to contend with. One bunch knows God sent a prophet to Laodicea, but they do not know how to receive the prophet’s message without deifying the prophet. And the other bunch absolutely rejects the idea of a Gentile prophet altogether. Regardless of what scriptures you show them, they will not get a revelation, for their minds are set against the whole thing, but nevertheless, let the scriptures speak for you, when you are defending what you believe. By the time we get finished with this message, you are going to see why Bro. Branham just simply tore denominations all to pieces, when he began to go into the scriptures and speak by the anointing of the Spirit of God, showing what the true church is to believe, and what she is to be. That is why I have said, Any preacher who fails to get a revelation of what God is doing in these last days, if he really does love God, he will not be left here forever, just being a stumbling block to others; God will take him in death. None of us can put one person into the kingdom of God, nor can we take one out, but there are a lot of people that just simply stand in the way, and others stumble over them. God Himself is the author of life, and He is the administrator of that life, to every individual soul, but He uses human instruments to accomplish His will and purpose, and a lot of people worship those human instruments instead of the God of the benefits they enjoy.

“THE SON OF MAN” IS A TITLE

Alright now, Galatians 1:11, “But I certify you, brethren, (This is the apostle Paul) that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversion in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with the flesh and blood; Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.” Now Paul was a Jew, but he was the apostle to the Gentiles in that first age, and most of the New Testament epistles were written by him, and this is what he had to say about how he received his revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep this in mind, and let us go to Matthew 8:20, where we will find the setting for our message title. I believe this was the first time Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of man. Remember now, Saints: This is only a title. Dr. Scofield refers to it as a name, but it is not a name; it is only a title, just like father, or janitor, or bookkeeper. It is a title that speaks of a relationship to something. In the case of Jesus Christ, that Son of man title carried the reality of His complete humanity. He was a perfect man in every aspect of His makeup, and that being true, there was no higher office that He could hold as a man, than prophet. He was presenting Himself to mankind in His prophetic office, when He walked upon earth among men. Now God Himself called Ezekiel, son of man, for Ezekiel was the son of a man, and he was going to prophecy of the glorious Millennium age, the time when Jesus Christ would then be King, and rule on earth for one thousand years. But my point is this, Whenever that term was applied to a man in the Old Testament, somewhere, the scope of that man’s prophecy was going to reach out to Jesus Christ. When you look at Ezekiel, Daniel, and men like that, they were outstanding prophets, and yes, they were each one the son of a man, and the highest office they could possibly hold in the spiritual realm, was the office of a prophet. There were two categories of prophets, forth tellers, and seers. Isaiah and Jeremiah were mainly forth tellers. But Elijah and Elisha were seers. Of course these other prophets had visions also, but they were in a limited scope, compared to these that were seers. God would just unctionize them to come forth with utterances, or writings, and it was like that, all through the law dispensation, and every one of those men God used like that, were sons of some physical fleshly man. That son of man title set them apart from the mass of humanity, as special instruments for God to use, but there was no deity attached to the title itself.

JESUS WAS A PROPHET

In the 7th chapter of Acts, you find Stephen quoting something Moses said to the children of Israel over in Deuteronomy, Moses was the very type of Christ, and he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, “The Lord God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall harken.” God had already said to Moses, “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” This lets us see that Jesus Christ was definitely ordained to be a prophet, and we can say this, He was the prophet of all prophets. None could exceed Him. When the scripture says that He had no need that any man communicate with Him, it simply means, that He knew everything about every man that ever stood before Him for any reason. No other prophet that has ever lived, could equal that. Some people think just any prophet knows everything; but that is not true. Even Jesus Christ Himself, did not know everything about things that pertained to other dispensations, when He was here on earth; He stated that Himself. But speaking of the hour he lived in, here on earth, the Bible says, He knew all men. God would not let any critic, nor devil, come into His presence without Him know-ing the spirit that was in the person, and all about the person. He could answer questions before they were even asked. Look how it was with Nicodemus. He came to Jesus and started talking, and Jesus just picked it right up, and said to him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He knew what Nicodemus had on his mind, so He just got right to the point with him. He did a similar thing with Nathanael, when Philip brought him to meet Him. When Jesus looked up and saw him coming, He said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (That was quite a statement to make about a man He had never laid eyes on before.) Nathanael was really surprised by that statement, and said, “Whence knowest thou me?” (In other words, How do you know that? Or, What do you know about me?) Jesus answered back, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” That really got old Nathanael’s attention; and he answered right back, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” He sure did not call Him the Son of man. He called Him the Son of God, because they all knew that when the anointed One would come, that is who He would be. Jesus never did say, I am the Son of God, directly, but He was forced to say certain things as those Scribes and Pharisees contented with him. Nevertheless the term Son of God, spake of His deity, therefore He left that to every person’s individual revelation. You just have to realize that Son of God means offspring of deity, and Son of man means offspring of humanity, and it takes a revelation to get that terminology straightened out in your mind. Jesus truly was begotten by the very Spirit of God, making Him the Son of God. But God allowed the physical flesh to gain its substance through the natural course of reproduction, therefore the actual flesh of Jesus was not necessarily to be looked upon as offspring of deity, since it was of substance from Mary’s human makeup. In other words, To understand every little detail requires one to become very technical, and that usually is not necessary, but to get this terminology placed where it belongs, I believe we should endeavor to do so. Jesus had no hereditary traits of either Joseph or Mary, because He was born from a created embryo, placed in the womb of that young virgin by the Spirit of God. But every ounce of His physical flesh was attained from the very elements of the body of the young woman that carried Him in her womb for nine months. Therefore that gave Him His humanity; He came forth from the womb of a woman, just like every other little child that was ever born into this world, and He came forth of a line that was of the seed of King David, that He might one day sit upon the throne, ruling in the stead of His father David. You just simply have to define the two elements, or substances. The element of life itself, which came from God, the Father, bypassing Joseph’s and Mary’s genetic line, and then the very flesh and bones of His body, that came from the human sub-stance of Mary’s very own body, made Him both Son of God and Son of man. Now some will say, But we are all sons of God. Yes, but we are sons of God through His natural law of reproduction by earthly parents, and we all have those fallen attributes in us by heredity, and Jesus was completely free from the hereditary nature of fallen mankind. Therefore let us try to get a picture in our minds, for the sake of understanding this message, and see Jesus Christ as Son of God on the divine side, and Son of man on the human side. He was not just A Son of God, but T-H-E Son of God. He was not just A Son of man, but T-H-E Son of man. It is important that we see the difference. He was that special Son of God, and that special Son of man.

THE SON OF GOD — A SERVANT

We started to read Matthew 8:20, and never did get to it; so let us do that right now. In answer to a very bold statement made by a certain scribe Jesus said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” As I said already, This was the first time Jesus referred to Himself in this way, but let us understand also, that this was the only way He referred to Himself in the natural course of conver-sing with those that followed Him. Now if He, being man, in perfect physical makeup, and possessing all the qualities of man in His human feelings, and such like, then we should realize also, that as the Son of God there would be a time also, when He would possess all of those divine qualities that we know the invisible God must have. But as we see Jesus coming on the scene, here in Matthew 8:20, He is not presenting Himself to mankind as the Son of God, but rather as the Son of man, for He was on earth at that time to fulfill His prophetic officework. But I thought He came to be King, some will say. You just have to realize that He gave the nation of Israel the opportunity to accept Him as their promised Messiah, and that would have made Him King, but God knew that they would reject Him’ as their Messiah, and in the mind of the Father, every other detail was already foreseen and worked out. Jesus did not get His hopes all built up, and His heart set on being made King at His first advent. He Just simply yielded Himself to the will and purpose of the Father, presented Himself to the nation of Israel, and accepted the outcome of it all as the will of the Father. Ile willingly accepted this relationship with mankind, referring to Himself as the Son of man, and because He had a God invested calling to fulfill, there was no higher office in the realm of God’s calling than the office of a prophet. The Jews referred to Him as the prophet of Nazareth. They always referred to their seers, or foreteller’s as prophets. But the nation as a whole, did not even receive Him as a true prophet of God, no more than they received Him as their Messiah. Therefore those who did believe on Him, and receive His word, could only do whatever He instructed them to do, for they were the minority. Paul was a Jew, but we find no record where he ever referred to Jesus as anything but the Son of God, for by the time Paul comes into the picture, Jesus had already passed through the stage of His purpose, where He would be a prophet, or the prophet of all prophets. Paul had a revelation, that Jesus was the son of God, and he had a revelation of what this perfect God had accomplished on behalf of lost mankind. Therefore He dedicated the remainder of his natural life, to the task of getting men to see and understand what God, through His only begotten Son, had done for them. He wrote to the Corinthians, how that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, had been raised from the dead, and become the firstborn among many brethren, a new family, in which a divine nature would be expressed. It all looked forward to a time when God the Creator would become the all in all to His whole family of redeemed children. God the Father, a sovereign Spirit, was the designer of this great plan, and Jesus, His only begotten Son, was the medium through which His whole redemption plan would be administered. His humanity furnished the necessary elements to constitute an acceptable earthly sacrifice, or a sacrifice of earthly substance that would be acceptable to God, to atone for man’s sin once for all, and the life that was in that physical form was the very life of God. Hallelujah! That made Him sinless. He had no inherited sin, yet He was willing to be made sin for us, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God for ever more. What a beautiful picture. What a beautiful story. He humbled Himself, and became a servant, in order that we might be set free from Satan’s bondage, and become redeemed sons of God. Is it any wonder that Paul would write, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, (or of the same Spirit substance) thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross?” Did he not sum it all up in a few words? Though Jesus became a servant, He always conducted Himself as the divine Son of God. He did not seek to be made King, at that time, nor to be addressed as Reverend, or anything. like that; He took the place of one that could be ordered, Go do this, or that, and bring me so and so. In other words, a servant. He cared nothing at all about those titles men enjoy being called by. He just wanted to serve lost mankind, and show us that there was something in Him that we needed, and that He could give it to us; the very nature of God, and He did it by taking upon Himself the lowest role in life, as far as worldly recognition is concerned. He carried the greatest message mankind has ever heard; yet He had no campaign manager; no one to set up meetings for Him, and take up collections. He had one man that took care of the money, and he turned out to be a traitor, and a crook. He never advertised His meetings ahead of time, and He seldom ever told anyone ahead of time, when he was going to leave, and go someplace else. One day He is in one place, and the next day He is some place else. Why? Because He was led by the Spirit of God, and God cannot be predicted ahead of time. He never did anything just for the sake of drawing attention to Himself. He never clothed Himself in any way that would attract attention, and certainly, no one could point to any place, and say, There is where the Rabbi lives, for He plainly said, “The Son of man has no place to lay His head, meaning, no certain place that He could call home. He had no earthly headquarters, he left no bank account for anyone to squabble over, nor any earthly possessions. Yet the Bible teaches us that we are joint heirs with Him in God. He was made poor, that we might be made rich. In what? Worldly goods? No. Rich in our spiritual possessions in Christ Jesus.

JESUS IS THE SON OF MAN

Bro. Branham at a campaign meeting. Bro. Branham was a great servant of God, but he was not The Son of Man. It is blasphemy to say such a thing!

Dr. Scofield notes that Jesus referred to Himself no less than 30 times as the Son of man, in the four gospels, or maybe we should say, No less than 80 references if this title in the four gospels. After referring to Himself as the son of man in the verse we read, Matt. 8:20) you can go right on over to the 13th chapter where He is giving the seven parables, and you will find Him using this same terminology, and He leaves no doubt that He is the only one this term applies to. He spake the first four parables in the hearing of the whole multitude, and then He sent the multitude away, and went into a house where He communed only with His immediate disciples. The first parable was about a sower that went forth to sow. The second was about good seed and tares that were sown in a field. The third, a grain of mustard seed, and the fourth about a woman that hid leaven in three measures of meal. The kingdom of heaven was likened unto each of these, and also the other three that He spake, after they went into the house. But I want you to notice something here. As soon as the disciples were able to get alone with Jesus, in this house, they wanted to know more about that second parable. That was the one that had really caught their attention. Therefore in verse 36, of the 13th chapter of Matthew we read these words, “Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. Then He answered them, He that sowed the good seed is the SON OF MAN; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. (Notice now) THE SON OF MAN shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” That was quite a bit of scripture to read, but I wanted you to see that this dispensation of grace begins and ends, with the same SON OF MAN. The Son of man (Jesus) was the sower of the good seed in the beginning, and the same Son of man is going to send out His angels to bind up the tares, and get them ready for burning. But in our day, all because of certain things that were said, and things that were exemplified and demonstrated, certain one’s are wanting to change the whole structure of the meaning in the Bible, and make William Branham the Son of man, and his preachers, the angels. Brothers and Sisters: What I am going to say, is going to make a lot of people mad, but I have to say it anyhow, because it is the truth. Anyone who believes that, may as well just go on and shake hands with the Pope. You can find just as much salvation in the Catholic Church, as you can in a doctrine like that. All who believe like that, will end up in the same place as those that worship the Pope. Furthermore if any of you have trouble understanding what I mean, see me later, and I will explain it to you. Jesus Christ is our only hope of salvation, and when people rob Him of what rightfUlly belongs to Him, and bestow it upon someone else, they are going to have to answer to God for it. It was not William Branham, that shed his blood upon that old cross, to set us free from Satan’s bondage; it was the Lord Jesus Christ, and you be sure you never forget that, no matter what some of those idolaters may tell you. Our authority is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ; not the gospel of William Branham. Furthermore the gospel Bro. Branham preached was the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is that bunch of carnal minded preachers that hung around him, and all those that they have 3ersuaded later, that try to put 11M in the place of Jesus. In the 19th chapter of Matthew, Jesus mentioned how hard it would be, for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, and then aid, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, then a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. His disciples were amazed, to hear him make such a statement, and one of them asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” But those statements caused the disciples to do some thinking, and then Peter said to 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, (That will be in the glorious Millennium) ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Well, needless to say, There are a lot of carnal minds that believe Bro. Branham is the Son of man, that shall sit in the throne of his glory. Listen to me saints, That is not going to be Bro. Branham sitting on that throne; it will be the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt Bro. Branham will sit on a throne, just like all other saints, for the Bible tells us that we will even judge angels, but that is as far as you can go with this thing, without leaving the scriptures. We can go to the 20th chapter of Revelation, and see the Gentiles position in this Millennial setting. In verse 4, John saw thrones, and those that sat upon them were there to judge, but you can be sure of this much, No Gentile will rule over Jews, and no Jew will rule over Gentiles. The Church has been called out of all races of people, and every race will be fully represented in the Millennium. I will just have to say, Those who try to deify Bro. Branham, have no scriptural vision whatsoever, of what God is doing to redeem His lost sons and daughters back from their lost estate. God revealed many things to man) people through the ministry of Bro. Branham, but that did not put any deity upon Bro. Branham any more than the apostle Paul, nor any other man that has ever been used of God in an extraordinary way.

HOW GOD’S SON IS REVEALED

At this time, I want to go back to Galatians, back to the scripture we read at the beginning, and take a closer look at this man Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, Chapter 1, verse 15, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” All right now, what do we see here? We see a Jew, declaring without a doubt whatsoever that he has been called of God, taught by a divine revelation, and made a vessel that God could reveal His only begotten Son through. When you reveal something, you sort of take the wraps off, and give a I better view. Is that not right? If you are looking for something to come, you do not have to remove obscurities, you just wait for its appearance. But Paul confessed that it was the purpose of God, to reveal His Son in him, so I ask you, How was it to be done? Do you think God changed the shape of Paul’s nose? Or the way he combed his hair; Was it the . physical flesh of Jesus Christ, that God revealed through the apostle Paul? Of course not. You will say. Well how did He do it? By giving him a revelation that he could preach and teach to others, that allowed them to know exactly what had been accomplished for them at Calvary. There was absolutely nothing physically, to be revealed to anyone. That is why I say, Let the Bible do the talking, for it is in Paul’s own words. Naturally he was not the only writer of the New Testament epistles, but he did write about fourteen of them, and he is the one that made this bold statement; that it was the purpose of God, to reveal His Son in him. Alright then, To whom was Paul sent? To the Gentiles. What was our background? Pagans, worshippers of devils, believers in deities of every kind, and worshipping in total ignorance. But praise be to God; for the promise He made to Abraham included us also. “In thee and thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” God promised Abraham a son, and that promise reached all the way down to Jesus, for He is the one through which all the families of the earth are blessed. Isaac was a type of Jesus, and a lot of people read the Bible, and think that promised son was completely fulfilled in Isaac, but you need to see Jesus as that promised seed of Abraham, through which the blessing should come. The Bible does not speak of Jesus as the son of Abraham, except in the genealogy in the 3rd chapter of Luke, which runs from Joseph all the way back through Abraham and Adam, to God Himself. Of course we know that Joseph was not the genealogical father of Jesus, but according to natural reckoning, Joseph was looked upon as His father, and that gives Him a racial identity. In other words, He was not an Egyptian, nor an Anglo-Saxon, but a Jew, of the seed of Abraham. His racial identity is of the line of people that were called Hebrews by the Egyptians, when they sojourned in Egypt for 430 years. But that promised seed did not come just to save a race. of people; He came to save a family of all races, from all nations. But even though He had a racial identity, this is not what Paul was called and ordained to reveal to lost mankind. Not the flesh itself, but the God who walked in that flesh. In other words, To reveal the Son, was to reveal the Father also, for no revelation of the Son of God is complete, without a revelation of the Father also, for they are one, one Spirit.

WHY PAUL PREACHED WHAT HE DID

Jesus appears to Paul on the Damascus Road

Alright now, How did Paul get his revelation? He took his Old Testament scrolls, and went into the Arabian desert where he could be alone with God, and the Lord showed him right from the very scriptures he and his forefathers had always read, just exactly who Jesus was, and what he had done for lost mankind, to redeem them back to God. You do not read that part in Acts, where Paul gives his testimony, but here in Galatians, he says, “But I certify (or assure) you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me (or by me) is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, The Lord appeared to him in visions, while he was out there alone, and taught him what he knew, before he ever even went up to Jerusalem, to communicate with the other apostles. The Lord first appeared to him in the form of a great light, while he was on the road to Damascus, to arrest christians, and said to him, “Saul, Saul, (That was his name before the Lord changed it to Paul.) Why persecutest thou me? and he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks!’ In other words, When you persecute my people, you are persecuting me. It was not the physical flesh of Jesus that Saul was persecuting; it was His mystical body. that HE was to be exemplified in, that Saul was persecuting. Over in the 26th chapter of Acts, where Paul was giving his testimony to King Agrippa, he said that light that shined round about him was brighter than the noon day sun, and the voice that spoke to him out of that light, was in the Hebrew tongue. Nevertheless the Lord did get his attention, turn him around, change his name from Saul to Paul, and give him a revelation of His plan and purpose in this grace age, and send him to the Gentiles with the Gospel message. As I said, Paul was a Jew, and after his experience on the road to Damascus, God spoke to another Jew, named Ananias, and told him to go into the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man called Saul, of Tarsus: for he prayeth, and bath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands on him, that he might receive his sight. Saul had been blind from the time that great light struck him, and the men with him, had to lead him into the city, but the Lord had been dealing with him in a vision, so he would be ready to receive Ananias, when he arrived at the house of Judas to pray for him. But when the Lord spake to Ananias to go, he answered back, “Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, (This is why Paul could write like he did, to the Galatian saints.) to bear my name (That means, To carry my name.) before (or unto) the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Brothers and Sisters: There is a certain responsibility that goes with carrying the name of Jesus. That is why, without a revelation of the compound application of that name, so many preachers fall by the wayside. Without that revelation, it is very difficult to bear the persecution that accompanies it, the name Jesus. Needless to say, Ananias obeyed the Lord’s instructions, and went to Saul, and when he entered into the place where Saul waited, he put his hands on him, and called him Brother Saul. Then said to him. The Lord, even Jesus, that ap-peared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. (We are reading from the 9th chapter of Acts.) And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.” Of course the trinitarians will tell you, that he was baptized in the titles, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but I am here to assure you, that he was baptized exactly according to the formula given by the apostle Peter, in Acts 2:38, in the NAME of JESUS CHRIST, for the remission of sins. A lot of people do not know the difference between SIN which is unbelief, and SINS which are sinful manifestations of the flesh. The shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary, cancels out the sin of unbelief, the very moment you scripturally believe the gospel message, for you cannot have belief and unbelief both at the same time, about the same thing. Therefore the blood cancels our debt for unbelief, but it takes scriptural baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, to remit the sins of the flesh, that we have committed because of our unbelief. A person who refuses to be baptized scripturally, has not fully believed unto justification either, or they would not refuse to obey the word of God. You cannot obey the instructions, or comply with the words of Matthew 28:19, unless you know what the name is, that those titles belong to. True salvation is not just following a certain formula of religion, laid down by some denominational system. True salvation comes, when an individual believes and obeys the word of God, that comes to them in the form of a revelation in their spirit. If you only have a mental concept of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the devil can take that away from you,, but when it gets down deep within you, and becomes something so real to you, that you could not disbelieve it under any form of persecution or pressure, you are eternally secure, sealed into the family of God forever, and there is no way the devil can take that away from you. That is why the true church is a living example of the Lord Jesus Christ; they are reflecting to the world the very nature of the one that paid the price for their redemption from the clutches of Satan, because they have His Spirit in them. In John 14:15-17, Jesus Himself said to His disciples, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, (which is Spirit only, and not a person of flesh and bones) and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, (Why?) because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: (That pertains to all who are without a true revelation of who Jesus Christ is, no matter how many years they have had their name on some church roll.) but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, AND SHALL BE IN YOU.” Alright now, He was telling His disciples, that even though He was going to leave them, as far as His fleshly I presence was concerned, He would still be with all of those that love Him, and keep His commandments, for He was going to place His very Spirit within them. In verse 18, He said, “I will not leave you comfortless; I WILL COME TO YOU.” His Spirit, in them, would be their Comforter, their guide, their teacher, and their light. Therefore let us go to verse 26, and see this there. “But the Comforter, (The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ) which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE SHALL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” I believe the Holy Ghost did exactly what Jesus said He would do, when He came. He recalled to their remembrance, all the things that He had said to them, in the 31/2 years he walked among them, and taught them what they meant, so they could preach those same things, and then write them down in a record, for those that would come along later, to read, and when they read them, and believe them, the same Holy Ghost comes to them, to teach them all things also. That is how this gospel has been kept alive through almost two thousand years of time. This is confirmed in the 17th chapter of John, where Jesus is praying to the Father on behalf of all those that have been given to Him. In verse 17, He said, “Sanctify them (How?) through thy truth: thy word is truth. (In verse 8, He said, “I have given unto them the words which thou gayest me: and they have received them.” So what Jesus has taught them, is the truth He is referring to specifically.) As thou hast sent me into the world, (with a message) even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (Notice now. This next verse reaches all the way down to you and me.) Neither pray I for these alone, (His immediate disciples) BUT FOR THEM ALSO WHICH SHALL BELIEVE ON (NOT ON THE POPE OF ROME, NOR ON WILLIAM BRANHAM, BUT ON JESUS CHRIST) THROUGH T-H-E-I-R WORD.” It is through their word, that we have become believers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and have been privileged to be sanctified by that same truth, which is the word of God, delivered to lost mankind by His only begotten Son, that referred to Himself constantly, as the Son of man. Hallelujah! That is why I have to preach Jesus Christ, instead of some man that also preached Jesus Christ when he was alive, and among us.

WE ALL SHOULD EXEMPLIFY CHRIST

I just cannot seem to impress upon you enough, that it is Jesus Christ that is to be revealed to lost mankind. None of us can say anything that will reveal His physical flesh to you, what He looked like, how He combed His hair, and that kind of thing, but every true believer will see His character, His attitude, His obedience to the Father, and His total purpose, by a revelation of the Spirit, before the rapture ever takes place. We are not going to be perfected in glory; we are going to be perfected here, through a revelation of His word, or we will not be going with Him to glory. Everything of His total makeup has been given to the Church; not just to a few select ones, but every individual one of us, and for what purpose? That we may reflect Him in our daily lives, to the world around us. Now do not let that statement cause you any problem, for we are not all called to be preachers. But we are everyone called to exemplify His character and obedience to the Father. The point I am making is that we have the Spirit of Christ in us, if we have truly been born again; and every attribute of His total makeup lies with that Spirit. Therefore every one of us has the same potential, whether we have the same calling or not. Every worthwhile thing we do or say, has to be done by the enablement of His Spirit, and only by the leading of that Spirit. That is why it is wrong to become overzealous, and just tell everything you know, to everyone you meet. That is fleshly zeal, for God does not operate like that. I always think of what Paul said, in the 12th chapter of 2 Corinthians, when he was telling how he was caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Even though he did not come right out and say he was speaking of his own experience, it is obvious that he was, for in verse 7, he said, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” In other words, while he was out there in the Arabian desert, seeking God for some answers to the many questions in his mind, he was caught up into “paradise” and shown things that were just for his own personal, spiritual good. He did not even know for sure whether he was in the body, or out of the body; he just knew that he saw and heard things, that he was not allowed to tell, nor write. God was equipping him for the calling wherein he was called, to be His apostle to the Gentiles. He was a Jewish man, who had been raised up in Turkey, among Gentile people. He could speak Greek as fluently as he could speak Hebrew. He knew the culture of Gentiles, and he had studied their religious habits, and the way they think; therefore he was well equipped, from the standpoint of the flesh, to take the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to them. But he had not had a personal encounter with Jesus, during the time He ministered on earth, as the other apostles had, so he had to be dealt with in a way that would give him a complete revelation, first hand, so that he could have perfect understanding of what God had called him to do. But it was not the purpose of God, for him to tell every Gentile he met up with, all that God had told and shown him, while he was caught up to the third heaven, into what he called paradise. By the same token, God showed Bro. Branham many things during his lifetime, as He dealt with him, that I feel would have been better, if he had just never mentioned them to others. Right today, some are teaching doctrines, from things God showed Bro. Branham, just for his own spiritual benefit. Gentiles are as carnal, and natural minded as they can possibly be; Therefore they will grab the least little thing, and immediately jump to conclusions with them. That is why the denominational church world is in the shape it is in; they heard a few things that were not presented in the right way, and immediately, they jumped to conclusions, called Bro. Branham a devil, and accused him of starting a cult, when in fact, the man was sent to this generation, to give every one of them an opportunity to forsake their man made religions, and return to the word of God. Needless to say, the reason they act like they do, is because they refuse to see themselves in the scriptures. They want to justify everything they are doing, and continue to treat what they teach, as the law and gospel everyone should follow. That being true, they do not even realize that Jesus Christ is sending forth His angels to bind up all these tares, and get them ready for burning, even while He is still in His intercessory office work as high priest. Some of these who claim to be looking for Him in the rapture of the church, will not see Him, until He comes in wrath, at the end of the great tribulation. No, I do not take pleasure in saying these things., but they are the truth, and I am obligated to present the truth that God reveals to me from His written word. Just burying your head in the sand like an ostrich, will not stay off the reality of what is coming upon this old world. Refusing to acknowledge the truth of God’s word, will not keep it from coming to pass, exactly as it is written.

MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

Coming back to what the apostle Paul said about God revealing His Son in him, when he was writing to the Galatians, we just have to realize, that as Paul went out to the various Gentile regions, God anointed him to preach the gospel to them in such a way that they could see the reality of Gentiles being included in the same plan the Jews had benefited by, those that received the gospel. But at no time was the flesh of Jesus Christ ever presented to any Gentile, for their spiritual benefit was to come to them without ever having known Him after the flesh. Let us turn in our Bibles and read 2nd Corinthians 5:14-21, where you will see the point we are trying to make. “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: (Notice what he said there, he is not trying to portray a physical man to any Gentile.) Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who bath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” Paul knew exactly what he was saying, and what he meant, when he said, He Ath committed unto us the word of, or ministry of reconciliation. Just think, when Paul came to the Gentiles, who had never seen such a display, nor heard such wonderful words in all of their lives, he came with a revelation, and the authority to pass that revelation on to them. What he preached to them was so precise, so exact, that God literally justified those pagan sinners who believed and obeyed what they heard him preach, right then, and there. God trusted Paul, and Paul knew God trusted him, but look what the devil did with Paul’s revelation, as soon as all those old guardians of the faith passed from the scene of life. As long as any man preached the same revelation Paul preached, it accomplished the same objective of God in reconciliation. But there came the time when the devil used carnal men, to divert the true formula of how this reconciliation was brought about, and he eventually established him a system of religion, which looked like, and in most ways appeared to be the same thing Paul ministered. But the truth is, That system was administering death, instead of life. They were deceived and misled, and there was no more reconciliation. That caused God to have to honor the true heart with life, even though there was no ministry of reconciliation functioning. That causes some to ask, If God then, would grant life to those who had never heard the true gospel, why do you say He will not still do the same thing? Simply because God has restored back to the Church, that which the devil robbed her of centuries ago, and men love that old tradition too much to accept God’s truth, when they hear it. Therefore their very rejection of truth, rules them out of the picture. Those great doctors of divinity, could never humble themselves enough to admit that they have been wrong in what they have believed and taught to others. Every last one of those denominational systems, believe that what they have is the right thing, and that everyone else will eventually have to come to what they believe. Maybe I should say, That is what they believed for years, until the devil began forming an image to the old ten horned beast of Revelation 12 & 13, and now they are so completely under his control, they say, Well, doctrine is not all that important anyway, just as long as we all love Jesus, and love one another. We ought not let doctrines keep us from fellowshipping together, for we are all striving for the same place. It just goes to show that the devil does not give up. He does not care if church people use the name of Jesus, just as long as he can keep them from getting a revelation of that name. I have news for him though, Every predestined seed of God, here at the endtime, is going to get a revelation of that name. Right now, God is allowing them to use the name Jesus, and abuse it, because it is serving a purpose of His total plan. They are gathering the tares together, getting them ready for burning. What does the devil care, what happens to them, just as long as he can keep them from serving God in truth? He loves confusion, and he will go to any extremes to create it. One thing is sure though, Paul was not confused, and there are saints around this world today that are not confused, but the masses of religion are, because they have not received the word of reconciliation.

A TRUE APOSTLE —AND FALSE APOSTLES

Let us read the last two verses in that 5th chapter now, to get the rest of what Paul had to say about those who had the ministry of reconciliation committed to them. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 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.” Brothers and Sisters: Paul was very zealous for God’s heritage, and he knew that this ministry of reconciliation was all tied to the fact that believers were to understand God’s true way. I can truthfully say, It is easy to see why God ordained Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and chose to reveal His Son in him, for it is not necessary for a person to see the physical flesh of Jesus Christ, in order to receive a full and complete revelation of His place in the plan of God. The Jews saw Him, and then had Him nailed to an old cross. But we Gentiles believed, because we saw the other side of Him, that the Jews did not see. How did we see? By a revelation of the Spirit of Christ, as the Spirit would take the things of Christ, and show them unto us, just like Jesus said He would do, when He came. Saints: That is the eternal God, in His office work as the Holy Ghost, that takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, and shows them unto us pagan Gentiles. Bro. Jackson, ‘ why do you refer to us as pagans? Simply because of our ancestral background. Furthermore a per-son without God is little above that, no matter how educated he may be, There is another part of Paul, I believe we should look at right here. It is found in 2 Corinthians 12:11-13. “I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong.” Now what is Paul saying in these verses? Let us couple them with what we read in chapter 5. First he said God had committed to him, the ministry of reconciliation. How did it work? Oh Gentiles, I beg you, come on, it is your time to be reconciled to God. God loves you. God wants to rescue you, out of your confusion of deities, and idolatry. That sounds like something you might hear from some of these preachers of our day. But Paul had a message that explained all of that; therefore he could stand there with authority, and put out the plea, and he knew God would use that, and those Gentiles would be brought under conviction, and broken down, and their eyes opened up to something they had never seen before. They could be reconciled to God, brought to a relationship that would put them on talking terms with the eternal Spirit, whom they could not see with their natural eyes, but they could see all they needed to see, with their spiritual eyes. That is what the gospel message did for them, and this Corinthian church had been founded like that. But between chapters 5 and 12, Paul is faced with a problem. Those antagonizers, critics, and Anti-christ ambassadors had been on the road, trying to block the plan of God from being fulfilled. They would come professing to be something themselves, and denying what Paul had preached to them, saying that they had a better revelation than what Paul had. So Paul has heard about it, and when he comes to chapter 12, (which was not divided into chapters and numbered verses when it was written) he deals with that situation. That is exactly why he said, I am become a fool in glorying. But I have to do it for your sakes. In plain, simple words, that is exactly what he was saying, You make me act like a fool. I would not even do this, because Jesus Christ Himself did not go around boasting and bragging, that He was anything. He made Himself nothing, that helpless mankind might be made something. Paul had the simple message, that Gentiles can see Christ by a spiritual revelation, yet here comes those perverts, those workers of iniquity which Paul also warned the church at Thessalonica to beware of, for even in 54 A.D. their impact was already being realized. These fellows always exalt themselves, instead of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they find fault with every true man of God, and try to tear down everything he has already built up. That caused Paul to have to say some things, he would not have otherwise said. Look in verses 12-15, of chapter 11, for just a moment. “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. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 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.” This is what caused Paul to say, If I have to brag on myself a little, in order for you to see the difference between me and those workers of iniquity, I will do it, but I had rather brag on Jesus Christ, for it is only because of His sacrifice, that we even have this privilege. Of course these are not the worth Paul used, but I believe they convey what Paul was feeling at the time he was writing this epistle. In his Philippian epistle, I he said to them, “Beware of dogs, I beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” That word concision, is translated from a Greek word that means, to cut down, mutilate, or destroy, so you can see what those carnal teachers were trying to do. They were following Paul, and everywhere he established an assembly of believers, through the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would come right behind, claiming to be important ministers of the gospel, and they would tell those new converts that they needed to be circumcised, they needed to abstain from eating certain meats, and all such things as were taught under the law, in the Old Testament dispensation. That is what caused Paul to have to write like he did, in the 3rd chapter of Galatians: “0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the SPIRIT by the works of the law, or by the HEARING OF FAITH? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (That is what a lot of people try to do. They get the idea that they can do some extra special deeds that will add to their perfection, but perfection is not by the deeds of the flesh at all. Perfection is by the Spirit, when we receive a revelation from the word of God, and discipline our old carnal flesh to walk in that revelation. Paul continues on.) Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Do you see why there is a lot more to being a faithful servant of God, than just passing through somewhere, preaching a tear jerking message that gets a lot of people to the altar, and then just tell them to go join the church of their choice, and attend services regularly? Those new converts have to be taught, and instructed in ways of true righteousness. Otherwise they are a ready prey for these ministers of Satan, who are always just a few steps behind, ready to pounce upon every little lamb they see. In the 11th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, verses 2 & 3, he says to them, “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, AS THE SERPENT BEGUILED EVE through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the SIMPLICITY that is in Christ.” Brothers and Sisters: The true gospel of our salvation is not complicated, is not secretive, does not require one to know any certain man in this life, and certainly comes from no book other than the Bible. Therefore anyone who tries to tell you anything different, is one of those ministers of Satan, trying to pervert the truth, and corrupt your pure minds. Any person that tells you, that any reference in the Bible of the Son of man, is speaking of Bro. Branham, is not a minister of Jesus Christ at all; he is a minister of Satan, and a worker of iniquity. There is no point in beating around the bush about a thing like this, while innocent minds are being abused by these perverted, self appointed, so called preachers. We have a Bible foundation for everything we preach and teach, and anyone who uses anything other than the Bible to preach from, is a false minister, and will perish with his own kind. I am not opposed to someone reading a book, that someone else has written, and using material from that book to stress a point, if what is in that book is of a true Bible foundation, but there is no book other than the Bible, that God has authorized His called out ministry to preach from. Therefore if it sounds like I am being rough on some of these preachers, maybe you ought to remember, that the apostle Paul referred to that kind, as dogs, evil workers and destroyers. He is the man chosen of God, to reveal His Son through, and there was no time in his whole ministry that he ever exalted his own flesh as being of any benefit, except when he was forced by circumstances, to reveal the facts that if flesh were worth anything spiritually, he stood head and shoulders above those that were stirring up all the trouble. I do not know what Paul looked like; that is of no importance whatsoever. He might have been as ugly as any man you have ever seen, but he had a true revelation of Jesus Christ, and he had the Holy Ghost anointing to make that revelation come alive to those pagan Gentiles, wherever he went, and that was all God called him to do. It was the same way with Bro. Branham; it was not his flesh that God wanted believers of this age to see; it was the revelation that he preached, by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, that God wanted His true church to receive. All of those manifestations, that could be seen with the natural eye, were simply God’s vindication of His servant, and to get the attention of the people. There were many miraculous healings in his services, and they got a lot of attention, but God does not have to have Bro. Branham pray for a sick or physically afflicted person, in order to heal that person. We have witnessed that fact, over and over, again and again, in the last 20 years. I have said many times, God used that little man in a way that I have never known Him to use any man since the days of the first advent of Christ, but I am fully persuaded, that God will not accept any person who defies the man who was only an instrument in the hands of his God. Jesus Christ was revealed through him, but that is no reason to attribute deity to him, for Jesus Christ has been revealed through a lot of men in one way or another, in the past nineteen hundred years. Furthermore you have not seen it all yet, for God will yet use other men, in an extraordinary way, before this age closes completely out. You believe me though, it will not be done for the purpose of anyone’s flesh being lifted up. God is giving some hungry souls a revelation, that will lift them up out of traditional religion, and cause them to follow truth, right on into perfection..

PEOPLE HEAR WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR

I sometimes compare modern religion, and the way people shop around for it, to the way people shop in the various supermarkets, for groceries. You can just watch them; they are looking for bargains, and at the same time just sort of investigating, to see t what various things are like. They will squeeze the tomatoes, squeeze the cabbage, squeeze the lettuce, the apples, oranges, and even the potatoes, and then, they may not buy any of them. Furthermore, after they do all of 1 that squeezing, most of them do not know a bit more about that product they squeezed, than they did before they squeezed it. That is the same way a lot of people shop for religion. They go from church to church, check the entertainment programs offered, the tone of the preacher’s voice, how many hand shakes they get, how hard the seats are, and how long they have to sit there, in order to be able to say they have been to church, but they care precious little about what is being preached, and most of them would not recognize truth if they heard it. All they are looking for, is something to soothe their conscience. Brothers and Sisters: I do not know whether all of you sitting here in Faith Assembly, realize the importance of this message or not, but you believe me, among all of this religious confusion, there are still a few hungry souls that desire to walk in truth, if they can just find that truth somewhere. They hear one thing in one place that claims to be preaching the truth; they hear something different, in another place that claims to be preaching the truth, and none of it is really satisfying the hunger down deep within their souls. They know that some of what they are hearing is truth, but it seems that there is always something added, that leaves a question in one’s mind. You just cannot imagine all the questions that people ask, all because certain people who claim to be preaching the end time message to the church, are preaching nothing but quotes from Brother Branham’s messages, and their own private interpretations as to what he meant. They tell people that the Bible contains the words of God that Paul preached for his day and age, but that God sent Bro. Branham to preach His word, for this age, implying of course, that people ought to study Spoken Word books, instead of the Bible. Some even say that Bro. Branham WAS ELOHIM, others, the Word, but the one you hear the most, is that he (Bro. Branham) was the Son of man. Now as I said before, Son of man is a title that speaks of the humanity of Jesus the Christ. But they will say, Well Bro. Branham said, It points to the fact that Jesus was a prophet. Of course that is true; but what does it take to be a prophet? A man. Did you ever hear of a baboon being a prophet? Of course not. Only men are prophets. Angels could come, and say the same things; but would you say that they are prophets? No. You would say, That was an angel of the Lord. My illustrations may be considered crude, but I believe they get my point across to those who have ears to hear. Even though Jesus was the perfect Son of God. He was also T-H-E Son of man; He was a perfect man. It was not the will of God, for Him to go around saying,I am the Son of God. That was to be left for those to say, who received that fact by revelation, from the things they saw and heard, as Jesus went about revealing the Father. He revealed the redemption name of the Father, the words of the Father, and the works of the Father, and because of that, some received the revelation that He was the Son of the one He came to reveal. When asked, Peter declar-ed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” That was a revelation. Nathanael declared, “Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel!” Yet there were many that saw Him only as a prophet. He was the prophet of all prophets! but only those who received a deeper revelation of who He was, even knew that. When He entered Jerusalem, and the elders heard all the noise the people were making, and asked what it was all about, the answer they received was, It is the prophet of Nazareth, Jesus. Some called Him a prophet, some called Him the son of David, but only those who received it by revelation, called Him the Son of God. As I said, He always referred to Himself as the Son of man, and only indirectly inferred that He was the Son of God. When He said one day, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, the scribes and Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy and sought to kill Him, saying, Not only does he break the Sabbath, but says that God is his father, making himself equal with God. No. He did not make Himself anything. Everything He was, He was that, by the will of the Father In the 3rd chapter of John, we see where John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” Jesus was not bragging; He had every right to say, “My Father worketh hither-to, and I work,” (John 5:17.) That is just like any son who loves and idolizes his father, (If I may use that term) what he sees his father do, he does. Jesus was not trying to be anything; He was just yielding His life to God. To say that He was equal with God was not a correct term, but you have to realize that from the time John baptized Him, and the Father came down, to indwell Him, everything that the Father is, was also in His Son Jesus. Furthermore Jesus did not say He was equal with God, that was what the Jews said, as a result of what He said. It is always like that, you say one thing, and people hear something else. Brother Branham made reference to Luke 17:30, about the Son of man being revealed, and someone of those who were always looking for something to run with, asked him, Are you the Son of man? Brother Branham replied, I am A son of man. He never claimed to be any more than he was. It was that gang that hung onto every word he uttered, that has always tried to elevate him above what God called him to be. I have never understood why they try to make so much out of this Son of man, in the first place. When Jesus was crucified, that ended the Son of man office work, His prophetic ministry; He will never use that title again. He is in His high priest officework now, and has been for over 1900 years, and when that is finished, (and let me say this, He has never left that intercessory work for one moment during all that time.) The next title is King. He will be King of kings, and Lord of lords, and His bride will rule with Him for a thousand years. Praise God! Prophet, priest, and then King, in that order, and true saints of God will accept a true revelation of these office works, and they will not try to bestow honor upon other human flesh, that the Holy Ghost anoints to reveal the plan and purpose of God through. What a person speaks by revelation is one thing, because it will always harmonize with the scriptures, but when someone speaks something, and then tries to make the scriptures agree with his statement, that is just plain foolishness.

TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

After baptizing Jesus, John bore witness that he saw the Holy Ghost descend on Jesus.

Let us just read verses 31 through 36, of the 3rd chapter of John, and see what John the Baptist said about this one he had baptized, and witnessed the sign, God had instructed him to watch for. In the 1st chapter of John, verse 33, John says, “He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” He had seen that sign, and there was not one doubt in his mind when he saw Jesus passing by, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” So let us read these verses here, in the 3rd chapter, and see what John said about Him, when his disciples questioned him about Jesus also baptizing disciples. You can read the verses leading up to this later, but for now, let us just read, starting in verse 31. “He that cometh from above is above all: (This shows that John had an understanding, that the man called Jesus whom he had baptized, was of spiritual origin. His term, from above, different fates between Him and every other man.) He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth o His testimony. (This lets us know that He was supposed to speak things that earthly men could not possibly understand, until the Spirit of God opened their understanding, and gave them a revelation. We are born by a natural law, and we are of the earth, and without the Spirit of God, we are limited to earthly things, but they had one standing among them, speaking of spiritual things, things that come from the mind of His Father.) He that hath a received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. (No. He received the Spirit of the Father in its full measure, placing within Him every attribute of the Father; But I want you to notice this next verse, how John reveals that He is the Son of God.) The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things unto His hand. (He certainly did not refer to Him as the Son of man, did he? What the Father had given unto Him, was all things pertaining to what the omnipresent God is. It was not a wheelbarrow full of earthly junk.) He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.” In other words, God had invested in His Son every attribute of His divine makeup, that He might display the Father, or reveal the Father, to those that were foreknown of God from before the foundation of the earth. We can say it like this, When the Son was here on earth, He revealed the Father. But when the I Son was taken to glory to fulfill His office work as high priest, the Holy Ghost was sent back (this is to the Spirit of God in another office work) to reveal the Son. That is how God revealed His Son in the apostle Paul, through the Holy Ghost that was in him. Just as the 1 Son glorified the Father, in His ministry, the Spirit of the Father now glorified His Son. Even though the Son Himself, always referred to Himself as the Son of man, the Spirit of the Father that t was in Him, and that is now in all who truly believe, causes men to refer to Him as the Son of God. Do not ever think the devil did not know that He was the Son of God. In the wilderness of temptation, – what did the devil say to Him? “IF THOU BE THE SON OF GOD, command that these stones be made bread.” He knew he was the Son of God, and he wanted him to yield to the temptation to exercise the power of God to satisfy His flesh. But that perfect Son said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” That is why I have said many times, He was born, the Son of God, but He was not the Christ until He was anointed by the Father, at the Jordan River, the day He was baptized by John. Then He was Jesus the Christ, for the word Christ means, the anointed, or the anointed one. In other words, the first thirty years of His life, Here was the SON of God, He was perfect humanity, He was the Christ to be, the prophet to be, the high priest to be, and the King to be. All of these potentials lay there within Him, but time alone e: moved Him from one objective to h the next one. He never performed one miracle before the time He T was baptized, and neither did he prophecy. That is why we need to let the scriptures talk to us; because for too long, tradition has had Him as a little boy growing up, out creating birds, and all C sorts of things. Before age thirty, He could not have created anything, no matter what, nor performed a miracle, for He plainly confessed, that it was not He that did those wonderful works, but the Father that dwelt in Him. Concerning the things He 12 would say, He confessed- over and over, The words that I speak unto you, they are not my words, but the words of Him that sent me. That is the sense in which we have to read and understand John 1:14, “The Word was made flesh, n and dwelt among us.” God’s word, which was God’s thoughts, were expressed in, and through, that living form. Too many people read that verse, believing that I Jesus the Son, existed with the ti father in creation as the Word, and that the Word became flesh, a i and came to earth, and all such as that, all because of certain statements Jesus made, one of which is John 6:38, where Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” If you believe Jesus existed with the Father, as a person, from before the foundation of the world, then just forget about the virgin birth, and forget about your salvation also, for without the virgin birth, there would have been no sacrifice found among men, worthy to pay our sin debt, inherited from our father Adam. Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, existed only in the mind of the Father, before God created n that little embryo in the womb of the young virgin that gave birth to Him in due process of time. This is how the Word was made flesh, but some people will just take one verse of scripture, and build their complete revelation off of it. I always say, Every true revelation will be able to stand the test of every scripture in the Bible, for God does not change His word around to suit every person’s carnal ideas.

JESUS — PROPHET —PRIEST — KING

The Son of man went to the cross and died. That ended T-H-E Son of man ministry. The new covenant message has been delivered. That is why Jesus said, “It is finished.” He manifested the Father’s redemption name, He manifested His word, and His works, and then He was crucified, buried, resurrected, and caught up to sit at the right hand of the Father, and now the world must see Him as the Son of God, who died on the cross to be the Savior of the world, if they see Him at all. He was never to be seen as the Son of man any more. Prior to His death, no man ever saw Him as anything more than just a man, except by divine revelation. The human side of Him everyone could see, but the divine side could not be seen, with the natural eye. Therefore if the divine side of Him had to be seen and 1 understood, only by a divine revelation, in the days when He was still on earth, how else could anyone see him today, when there is no flesh involved in any way? These trinitarians who call Him the second person of the trinity, have never seen Him; they are only repeating something they have heard from someone else who has never seen Him either. If they could truly see Jesus as the Son of God, by a divine revelation, they would not still be trinitarians. They claim they can see three persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and they will tell you that the Father was in the Son, without batting an eye, seeming never to wonder how a person could be in another person, and still be two persons. They say that God the Father is the Father of Jesus whom they call the second person of the trinity, seemingly never to wonder about Matthew 1:20, which says that Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost. That would make Jesus have two daddies, and that is bad enough, but they even believe that somehow Jesus was with the Father and the Holy Ghost as a person, in creation, and that all three are equal in authority. No wonder the Bible calls all of that, Babylon, for Babylon speaks of confusion, and this world of religion is surely a huge mass of confusion. One thing is sure, you will never get a trinitarian to agree to explain the Godhead to you. They say it is a great mystery, and that we are not supposed to understand it. Well I have news for them; We have young children at Faith Assembly, that know better than that. They can tell you in a minute, that Jesus the Christ was the only person of the Godhead. They will also tell you that Father, Son, and i Holy Ghost are not names at all, but titles belonging to three office works of the ONE true and living God. That one God is a sovereign Spirit that dwelt alone before anything was ever created, and at that time, He was not even God, because there was nothing to worship Him. (God means object of worship.) He begat a Son through creating a cell of life in a young virgin woman, and allowing her body to furnish the necessary nutrients and substance to form His body, making the flesh of that Son of God of the same substance as the flesh of every other human. Yet He was without the hereditary sin and I nature of all other humanity, because His birth bypassed the genes of both man and woman, thereby making Him perfect man. At about age 30, the Father incarnated His perfect Son, and the Spirit of the Father, and the spirit of the Son merged into one Spirit, yet there remained two intellects, both that of the Father and that of the Son. That is why, from the same mouth, you would hear words like this, Ask what you will, and I will do it. That was the Father speaking through the lips of His Son in whom He dwelled. But at other times, through these same lips, you would hear, “I will pray to the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” That was the Son speaking, and the Comforter He spake of, is what the trinitarians call, the 3rd person of the Godhead. But that Comforter is not a person at all. It is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, merged into a perfect unity, and after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son, that Spirit was sent back to earth to indwell every true child of God. As a matter of fact, without that Spirit you are not a born again child of God, for it takes the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost, to constitute the new birth. That is why the apostle Paul said, in Romans 8:9, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” In verse 11, he said, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by His I Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Brother, do not ever think the apostle Paul did not understand the Godhead, just because he used terminology at times, that made it sound like he was referring to more than one when he would speak of God. I guarantee you one thing, God would never choose a trinitarian to reveal His Son through, and then leave that man a trinitarian. That was not a problem in the beginning though, for all the apostles were Jewish men, and no true Jew ever believed God to be anything but one.

THE TWO ADAMS

Let us look for a few minutes at the two Adams, from Paul’s writings in 1st Corinthians 15, for that deals with what God’s sons should have been like, and what redemption is. We will just start in the last part of verse 44, for it is a long chapter. “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam (That was our ancestral progenitor.) was made a living soul; (he died) the last Adam was made a quickening (life giving) spirit.” Now we know, this first Adam which was made a living soul was a created son. Is that not right? Nevertheless he was a perfect son of God, up until the transgression. But the transgression cut off the flow of his perfection, before he ever begat sons and daughters. That is why he is referred to by Paul, as earthy. Let us read on, verse 46. “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy,” The very moment he partook of the transgression, that flow of eternal life was taken from him, and he became an earthbound creature. From then on, he would only think and exercise himself through the five senses. He was completely cut off from the spirit world; therefore he could no longer think and act as a divine instrument. What Paul is describing here, is the effect the fall had on the first Adam; for when he was created, I he was as perfect as perfect could I be, and the Spirit of the one that I created him, was in him. He had that Spirit in him which is eternal life, but the moment he sinned, that Spirit departed from him, and sin was imputed to him instead, and every offspring of man since that day has had that inherited sin in him, or her. That is why we had to be redeemed. That is why another perfect Son of God laid down His life, a sacrifice, to pay that sin debt that Adam incurred, and could not pay. Do you know why man could never pay his sin debt? Simply because God required a perfect sacrifice, and man could never produce a perfect sacrifice. God Himself, in due process of time, had to take the initiative to redeem His fallen sons and daughters back from Satan’s dominion. This Son that was foreordained to redeem lost mankind, was not a created son, like the first one; God created the cell of life, and allowed the body of the young virgin woman to furnish the rest of what was needed, to bring forth that Son of God. This Son was perfect all of His life, but until age 30, when He was baptized by John, and the Spirit of the Father anointed, or entered into Him, He did not have that divine quality that the first Adam forfeited. Then when He did receive it, He was immediately put to the test by Satan, to allow Him every opportunity to either obey His Father, or forfeit. God knew this one would not sell out to the devil though; that is why the Bible says, He was as a Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world. In the foreknowledge of God, the Father, He was our redeemer before we ever even needed one, before the first Adam was ever created. Now without the Spirit of God, man today, is concerned about only what he can know and partake of through his five senses. He has to see it, hear it, touch it, taste or smell it, or he will have no part of it. That leaves God out of the picture altogether, for before anyone can ever feel the presence of God, he has to exercise a faith that reaches out beyond the five senses. Otherwise that person will go through life living strictly for earthly things, all because Adam forfeited that Spirit of eternal life that dwelt in him, and allowed him to see as easily into the spirit world, as he could the visible world. Alright let us finish verse 47. “The second man (second Adam, Jesus the Christ) is the Lord from heaven.” Well we know in what sense Jesus Christ was the Lord from heaven. The God from heaven, the great eternal Spirit indwelt Him. The physical body itself certainly did not come down from heaven, down from a throne of glory, like so many people picture Him as doing. The Father, which is Spirit, and not a person, incarnated His perfect Son, and the two became a perfect unity. This was God’s objective with Adam, before the fall, He was in the same body of flesh and bones with him. But God had told him, concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, The DAY you eat (or partake) thereof, thou shalt surely die. The moment Adam partook, the Spirit of God departed from him, and the moment that Spirit of eternal life departed from him, he died spiritually, and started to die naturally. Decay started to take hold of his natural body that very moment, and it never could have, if that Spirit of eternal life had not separated from him. God and man was no longer a unity, but that is what redemption is to bring man back to. That is God’s end objective. Paul wrote it in his second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 16. Let us read it. “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” There is coming a day, after redemption is completed, that God will dwell in all of His redeemed family in the same measure He was in Adam before the transgression. That is what redemption is all about; God desires such a relationship with His lost family, but He has to get them all reconciled back to 1 Himself first. Alright we have two more verses here in 1 Cor. 15, t before we move on, verses 48, 49. t “As is the earthy, such are they I also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly, And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we I shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” The point is, Jesus being the seed of woman, and referred to here, as the second Adam, by Paul, because he was born of woman, and because he carried all the virtues that we should have been born with, if not for Adam’s transgression. In other words, If Adam had obeyed God completely, every little baby that would have been born into this world through him, and his seed, would have possessed that same quality of eternal life, right from birth. There would have been no need for redemption.

SEEING JESUS CHRIST IN THE BIBLE

Let us return now, to the 13th chapter of John’s gospel, for the 19th & 20th verses. I read them in the beginning, but I want to bring them back in right here. “Now I tell you before it comes, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me: and he that receiveth me receiveth Him that sent me.” It is important that we catch the significance of what Jesus is saying here. He is going away, and something is coming to take His place. Of course Jesus knew when He was saying that, that in the moment when they would believe, they would no longer be able to see His flesh at all. What a battle they fought in their minds. They had walked with this person for 3 1/2 years, and they had witnessed all the miracles that were done, and they had heard Him explain the scriptures like no man they had ever heard before, yet the devil was right on their heels, Are you sure he is the one? When He went to the cross, and died, they were really disillusioned, and some of them said, We thought this was He, that should have delivered Israel, but look what has happened. This just goes to show that no matter what they had witnessed in that 3 1/2 years, without the Spirit of God in them to give them understanding, they could not help but feel that all their hopes were shattered. But, Praise God, Jesus knew that once they received the Holy Ghost, (that Spirit of truth) it would override all those physical barriers, and brother, I can say the same thing today. Those disciples had the written word; that foretold all that was taking place, but without that Spirit of truth to open these scriptures up to them, they just as well had been reading poetry. It is the same way today; God sent a little man among us, and he demonstrated the power of God like no other man we have ever known, and we enjoyed being in his presence. But when he preached, it went over the heads of a vast 1 majority of those who heard him. He did not have much of an education, and certainly no theological degrees to boast of, and many times his vocabulary was such that if you did not know him personally, you might not even know what he was saying. Yet there are ever so many self appointed preachers running the roads today, claiming to be preaching Bro. Branham’s message, and without that Spirit of truth in them to give them understanding, they still do not know what the message was. They are so busy searching for some hidden mystery in the messages he preached, they have overlooked and missed the whole purpose for which God sent him to this age. That is why they keep believing that God will have to resurrect him, and allow him to finish his ministry. He finished it, and they missed it. They held onto his flesh so tight, they could never see anything beyond his flesh. Alright then, what did Jesus mean? I tell you before it comes, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He, WHO? The Son of God. They had seen Him as the Son of man, but whoever received the Holy Ghost, would see Him as the Son of God. “He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me.” Yet He would not be physically in the picture at all. Saints: I am glad I saw Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, even while I was still in an old dead system of religion. No, I never did see Him as a physical being, and I do not know what He looked like, but I saw Him in the Bible. I saw something that penetrated my soul, and made me want to be like Him. Oh yes, it was with a limited understanding, but the grace of God reached down and saved my soul, and let me see enough to keep me pressing on. Then when God led me out of the Methodist Church, and allowed me the privilege to sit under the ministry of Bro. Branham, I saw the Jesus of the Bible stand head and shoulders above every other man. Bro. Branham’s simple country language, and country terminology made that Bible come alive to me. Hallelujah! That is what Jesus was talking about; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me.” My brothers and sisters, in that first church period, every one of those men were sent out by the Holy Ghost. Peter, Matthew, John and those, had walked with Jesus in the flesh; but shortly after the Church was born, here came Barnabas, Titus, Judas, Silas, Agabus, Saul of Tarsus, and ever so many more, that had not walked with Jesus in the flesh. All of this was brought about through His high priestly work, and that is why He said, “He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and He that receiveth me receiveth Him that sent me.” For instance, When you read the gospel that was preached by Paul, and see how He presented Jesus the Christ, you cannot help but have fellowship with the Father. When you reach out by faith and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you receive God, the Creator of heaven and earth, for the Spirit of the Father, and the Son are one Spirit. When the apostle Paul (a man who had not known Jesus Christ after the flesh) preached to those old Gentile pagans, that Jesus the Christ was the very Son of God, and that they could be redeemed from their wicked ways by the sacrifice He offered up, they heard him. Brother! He was not using a lot of big words, he was giving them a pure revelational flow from the very throne of grace, in the simplest language he could possibly use. Brother, that penetrated those pagan minds, and the Spirit of God pricked their hearts, and the devil’s playhouse was torn all to pieces. Wherever Paul went, it stirred up the devil’s camp, because Gentiles believed the gospel, and were added to the body of believers. They could believe in something they could not see with their natural eyes, simply because they were made to see with their spiritual eyes. They saw this Son of God exemplified through the life of Paul. These men who were true ambassadors for Christ, present-ed to their hearers a living Savior, but they could not present Him in fleshly form. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians, in his second epistle, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” IN CHRIST’S stead, is what we need to catch there, for Christ was not there in flesh; not in His own I flesh. He had to be seen through the way His ambassadors exemplified Him. Because as Paul said, God hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation.

THE GOSPEL OF (NOT ABOUT) JESUS CHRIST

Paul wrote the most books of the New Testament and spent the most time explaining the Godhead.

As we read the New Testament, we realize more and more, It was Paul that really explained the Godhead. It was Paul that really explained the fundamental principles that constitute repentance, accepting Christ, and being baptized in His name, for the remission of sins, and being filled with the Holy Ghost. He explained how the body of Christ is a mystical body, and he explained the earthly function of that body. But the devil did not like it, so he brought in his counterfeit apostles, to mislead and deceive, and after so much of that over so many centuries of time, it got to the place where the Son of God was not exemplified at all. That is why all those years were known as the Dark Ages, the true gospel light had just about gone out, as far as what was called the Church was concerned. Paul did not come explaining a message about a man; he came preaching and demonstrating the man. It is one thing to tell someone about someone, but it is quite a different story when you tell them what that someone is, and what He can be to them. Most all of the vast number of religions in the world today, are about a certain teacher, or a certain prophet, and it is all historical. But the Christian faith was never to be about a man, but was to be, and is to be a living reality, because of the gospel of a man, Jesus Christ. I do not know if you caught the significance of the difference there. A gospel about Jesus Christ will never get souls born into the kingdom of God; it will only get names written down on the register of some man made organization. But the gospel OF Jesus Christ will accomplish the redeeming work for which the Father has ordained it. I hope this is clear to all of you, for you must see the Jesus of the Bible in order to reap the benefits that He purchased for you at Calvary. There is no flesh that you can lean on enough to get you into the kingdom of God; you must receive Jesus Christ into your heart through a spiritual revela-tion. Let me read a few verses from the 10th chapter of Romans, before we go on into the 16th chapter of John. To this Roman assembly Paul wrote, (10:8) “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe IN THINE HEART (Not in the head only) that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the HEART man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (and that will lead you to Acts 2:38 every time) For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him (Jesus the Christ) shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Notice) How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? (Only those who were foreknown of God.) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing the word of God, to every soul that has been drawn by the Spirit. This is where the Holy Ghost works. Jesus referred to the Holy Ghost as the Comforter, and also a guide, and a teacher. In John 16:7, He said to His disciples, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, (notice this now) I WILL SEND HIM UNTO YOU.” As long as Jesus was with His disciples in physical flesh, He could only be in one place at a time, and His disciples were leaning heavy upon His flesh. That is why He said, “It is expedient for you, that I go away.- Why? Because they needed the ever abiding presence of His Spirit, instead of His physical flesh. Now some will ask, Is the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus, or the Spirit of God, the Father? Since the day John baptized Jesus, and the Father incarnated Him, they are one Spirit. It is perfectly alright to say, The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of both the Father, and the Son, just as long as we realize that we are not speaking of two persons. For as we have pointed out many times, The Father is a Spirit, and not a person at all. Therefore the Holy Ghost is the same Spirit that was in Jesus when He walked on earth with His disciples. So this Comforter was to be a guide, to guide believers into the truth, and He can certainly do that; for He is also called, the Spirit of truth. In John 14:26, He is referred to as a teacher. Jesus said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Yes we are talking about that sovereign. omnipresent Spirit of Elohim, (Jehovah) that was also in Jesus, the Son. Out here in this world of religion, there is much conflict and confusion over this very thing. The denominational one-ness people say that Jesus was God, and they refuse to even speak of the Son of God. On the other hand, The trinity denomina-tions believe that God is three distinct persons, all equal in authority, but in perfect agree-ment. They are both wrong; therefore I want to make a statement at this point, that I hope will help someone. I know it has been said already, but this is for the ones that did not catch it before.

THREE OFFICE WORKS OF GOD

When we speak of God, we are speaking of the object of worship. That is what God means. Father is what he became, when He brought something into the world that could worship Him. Before the creation, He was neither GOD, nor FATHER, He was sovereign Spirit, but He was alone Therefore all things that exist, are a product of God’s creation. All life came from Him, so that makes Him Father of all, by creation, and He is God, because there is something in His creation, to worship Him, but He is still not a person. The only person in the Godhead, is the person of His only begotten Son, in whom He dwelled. So this one God fulfills three primary func-tions, God the Father in creation, God in His Son, redeeming, and reconciling, and God, the Holy Ghost, in His redeemed people, regenerating. You do not see three persons; you see one God, in three offices. The oneness people say, God the Son, and just leave it hang like that. But that is not correct terminology, for if He was literally God the Son, then that means that God, Jehovah became our elder brother, and it also means that God died on the cross. Is that what you want to believe? No. Of course not. It was God, in His Son, and His Son died on the cross. Jehovah never will be your elder brother. He did not have any brothers, and He has no grandchildren either. It is only the Son of God that has brothers, and God only has one begotten Son, and He dwelt in Him, in the fulness of all of His attributes. What is to be the end result of all of this? Let us read Romans 8:28 & 29, and we will see what God is after. “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. (Notice now) For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Jehovah could never become the firstborn; because He never was born; He always was. Am I making it clear enough? This will get the Godhead straightened out, for anyone who will pay attention. No, you will never get oneness Pentecost straightened out, because they are already set on the belief that Jesus was all there was to God, when He (Jesus) walked on earth. It is true, that He was totally God, as far as spiritual impact goes, but that vessel of clay was not God. That vessel of clay had a beginning, and God, (Elohim) had no beginning, nor will He have an ending of days; He is eternal. When you hear so many different ideas preached, you just have to realize the fact, someone is not being taught by the Holy Ghost, or they would all be teaching and preaching the same thing. It is just like I said earlier, They do not have the gospel of Jesus Christ; they only have a message about Him. We need to read a few more verses from John 16, and see just exactly what that Comforter was supposed to do, once He came back to indwell believers. Verse 8, “And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of the world is judged.” There is three primary things that the Holy Ghost was to do, and the first was to reprove the world of sin. That means, conviction of unbelief. People do not go to hell because they drink whiskey, smoke cigarettes, and use foul language. They go to hell because of unbelief toward God, and all of their bad habits are just attributes of their unbelief. Secondly the Holy Ghost was to reprove the world of righteousness That means, of manmade righteousness. This world of religion is full of manmade righteousness. They all have their little formalities; but there is not one ounce of salvation in the whole thing. The third thing that the Holy Ghost would reprove the world of, was judgment. It is the Holy Ghost that really tells a man what is right, and what is wrong. Years ago, even lost sinners had some moral standards that were important to them, but we are now living in an age when the convicting power of the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from Gentiles, and you can see them rapidly returning to the pagan practices of their ancient ances-tors. The Holy Ghost is no longer convicting the world of anything wrong. You never see them blush about anything anymore. They will talk about anything, anytime, and anywhere, and see nothing at all wrong about it.

JESUS — NAME OF BOTH FATHER AND SON

Alright let us read verses 12-15, now: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that – He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” So we can see that the Holy Ghost was to come in the name of Jesus, and take things of His, and show them unto those that believed. Jesus came in the Father’s name, and glorified the Father, and the Holy Ghost was to come in His name, and glorify Him, but have you noticed that it is the same name in both instances? That is because the name, JESUS, is a compound name, JESUS, is a compound I name. It was not just the given name of the man they saw; it was also the redemption name of Jehovah God. What did Jesus the Son do, that glorified God, the Father? It was His perfect obedience to the will of the Father. He did nothing at all, just because it seemed like a good idea to do it: He always waited for the Father to lead Him. His every deed magnified the Father. Likewise everything the Holy Ghost does, magnifies Jesus, the Son of God. Verse 15 says, “All things that the Father hath are mine: (and for 3 1/2 years, He displayed them) therefore said I, that He (the Holy Ghost) shall take of mine, and shall show it : unto you.” In this way, every believer that yields to that Spirit inside, will manifest the will of God, just like Jesus did. Now Brothers and Sisters: I sometimes find it hard to say exactly what is racing through my mind, but you bear with me. Many times people think that just because they have the Holy Ghost, everything they do has just got to be good. No! No! We can have the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost does not always have our thoughts. We live in a natural environment, that causes us to have to make decisions in our everyday functions, but we still need to leave room for the Spirit of God to have full possession of our minds; if there is something He desires to communicate to us. On the other hand, do not treat God like a vending machine, and expect Him to drop a revelation every time you push a button. No. We should just fulfill our daily functions, and I always leave room for the Spirit of God to deal with us as He sees fit to do so. Paul confessed that God had chosen him to manifest His Son in, or through, but what t Paul had to do was keep himself open to the leading of the Holy 3 Ghost. He could not just go around doing what seemed good in his own eyes. Therefore when he spoke, he spoke it in the person of Jesus, the Christ, knowing that everything he was saying was the perfect mind of God. That is why he could write to the Galatians, If any man, or even an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than what we have I preached, let him be accursed. He was absolutely sure he had preached to them, from the very mind of God, and that God would stand behind him, no matter what.

THE HOLY GHOST AT WORK

Brothers and Sisters: There is a reason why I am stressing this message in the way that I am. Through the years of Bro. Branham’s life and ministry, there were various times that he preached certain sermons, The Unveiling of God, God Veiled in Flesh, and such like, that really created an air of excitement and expectancy. Because of the unique ministry and life of Bro. Branham. and that particular gift that was manifested, and the way he would refer to Luke 17:30, at times, it gave some people sitting under his ministry the idea that he was God: simply because they themselves did not know the scriptures, nor how to deal with them. Some would say, Look, only Jesus did that; he is the Son of man. When you look at the whole scope of what God manifested through Bro. Branham, then you could say, Jesus was the only other man that ever did that. But do not forget that God has a purpose in everything He does manifest through His true servants. Furthermore just because Jesus was the only other man that ever demonstrated the power of God in the scope we saw it demonstrated in the ministry of Bro. Branham does not make Bro. Branham THE Son of man. He was A son of man, just like Peter, Paul and all of them. Remember, if the Holy Ghost was to take the things of Jesus, and show them unto believers, afterwards, we cannot close our minds to anything, for as the occasion calls for it, that certain demonstration will be there. As we said, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, to exemplify Christ to them, and there were times, such as in Asia, on his first missionary journey when a certain man withstood his ministry, he just looked at the man, and said, You will be blind for so many days, and not able to see. What was that? Do you think Paul was guessing? He was not guessing; he knew that man would go blind. But you do not read where Paul ever did much of that. He did not stand on a platform, and discern the hearts of the people as they passed before him. It was the same with Peter, in the 5th chapter of Acts. Peter was gathered with the saints, and Ananias walked in and laid down a certain amount of money, which, according to him, was the full amount received from the sale of ;some property, but the Holy Ghost let Peter know, that Ile and his wife had agreed to keep back part of what they received for that property, and just pretend that they were giving all. Peter looked at Ananias and said, “Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” He reminded him that they were not forced to give it into their hands for distribution among the needy saints, but that since they had chosen to do so, and were being deceitful about it, they must answer to God. He said, You have not lied unto men, but unto God, and when Ananias heard Peter’s words, he fell down dead, and they carried him out. Three hours later, the man’s wife came in, and she also lied about what they had done, so Peter said to her, “How l is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of them that buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.” Upon hearing those words, she also fell down dead. But how much of that kind of thing did Peter ever do? You find very little in the Bible, but it is all done by the power of the Spirit of God, wherever, and whenever it is manifested like that. I just have to say, Somehow or the other, God just saved back that demonstration of His Spirit, seen in the ministry of Bro. Branham, until the closing of this age of grace, when He is just about ready to withdraw His Spirit from the Gentiles. To some that witnessed that demonstration of the works that Jesus had done while here on earth, in the ministry of Bro. Branham, it was just a show, something to entertain them. They came to church just to be entertained, and when God called Bro. Branham home, after that terrible wreck on the highway, some of those people have not been back to church since. But there was another bunch, that, in their eyes, he was God. They knew they had witnessed the power of the Spirit of God at work, but they were too carnal to realize that the human flesh of Bro. Branham was just like everyone else. The only thing divine about him, was the Holy Ghost in him. God had a profound, unique ministry He wanted to manifest to this age, and He chose a little man that was without intellectual learning, and without the luxury of this world’s goods, but was strong in faith, to manifest it through. God wanted to show this religious world that was so full of theology, that He could take a little vessel that was looked upon by them as nothing, and confound the wise with it. That little vessel of clay would come on the platform, preach a simple little message, and then say, I now take control of every spirit in here, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God, and when the people would come before him, some old, some young, and some in between, you would hear him tell them who they were, where they were from, what was wrong with them, and whether God had just healed them, or not. Now Brothers and Sisters: Only God knows all of that. That was not William Branham doing that: it was the Holy Ghost in him. He would plainly tell you, it was not him, but God. Yet there are some who completely ignore the scriptures in every other way, but they will say, See there, that is exactly what Jesus would say. Well the difference is, Jesus was THE Son of man under the control of the Spirit of God, and Bro. Branham was A son of man, under the control of the Spirit of God. It was the same God doing the works in both Jesus and Bro. Branham, but there was a vast difference in the two human vessels. One was the sinless, only begotten Son of God, and the other was born in sin, and had to be redeemed by the sacrificial work of the one who truly was God in the flesh by an act of incarnation. As I have said before, The flesh of Jesus was not divine, nor was it to be looked upon as God, but God, the Father I was in that flesh in the fullness of all of His attributes. Do not forget that the Spirit of God can cause a mule to speak like a man; you can read that in the Old Testament, but does that make the mule God? No, it is still a mule; it will kick your teeth out, if it gets the chance. Remember, the Holy Ghost can use any vessel He chooses, to display the power of God through, but it will always glorify Jesus, the Christ.

THE WORKS OF BALAAM

Balaam’s motivation was to make money from his ministry

I have been in services, and seen preachers sitting with tears in their eyes, and saying, Oh, praise God, we have never seen it like this before, and that is right. I never had either. But what I saw, made the Jesus of the Bible so very real to me, because was seeing the same thing done here in this twentieth century, that I had read in the Bible, and I knew that Jesus had said the Holy Ghost, the Comforter that He would send, would take the things of His, and show them unto those whom the Father had given Him, in this world. Yes it is only those who were foreknown of the Father, that will ever see these things through a spiritual eye. Bro. Branham was the last messenger to this miserable Gentile age; therefore the Lord placed a gift in his life, that left no doubt whatsoever, that God was on the scene, when he ministered to the people. I will never forget when we first started going to some of his meetings, we were in the Church of the Open Door over in Louisville, and sitting about the third row back. one night. was an elderly couple, and Bro. Branham looked down at them, pointed right at them and said, I see blue waters. You are on a boat; you are coming to America. You are from Denmark. Then he said to one of them, you are suffering from such and such, and even though they could not speak English, they understood enough, that their hands went up, and they let out a scream. I said, That is none other than the Spirit of God, manifesting the same things that was in Jesus Christ. Now we have them today, who claim to have the same gift, but I am here to tell you, They do not glorify Jesus Christ at all. They take what they have, and sell it for money. They will say. There are three people in here, that are going to give me a thousand dollars tonight. You never heard Jesus talk like that, and you never heard William Branham talk like that either. When you see a person using a gift like that, for money, you can rest assured, you are looking at another Salaam. Sure they have a gift, and they will hit enough times to be convincing, and the poor people who sell their faith to something like that, will never see any more of God, than what that person sees, because Jesus Christ is not being manifested. Only certain things are being used, to mislead and deceive. Therefore I can say, by the authority of God’s word, When that first age of Christianity began to decline, the great manifestations of the Holy Ghost that came to take the things of Christ, and show them through the church, to a lost and dying world, began to cease. Without a true revelation, Christ could not be truly exemplified to others. It was only through sovereign acts of God, that certain sincere people were dealt with during the Dark Ages, strictly because of their love for Him, even though they did not know the truth. Even the Reformers could only manifest Christ in a limited way, for they did not have much truth either. You have to give them credit for boldness though, for they truly stood up for what they did see to be revealed truth. So you will have to admit that whatever any of us are allowed to see, it is by the grace of God, for we deserve nothing. In this day and hour, when modern man has been trained to look for intellectualism in those who would be the great spiritual leaders, why would God not bypass all of their education, and raise up a simple little vessel that He could use to restore back to the Church, what the devil had robbed her of?

AS THE DAYS OF LOT WERE —SO SHALL IT BE

Sodom was destroyed the same day Lot left.

Just as Paul said that God, who had separated him from his mother’s womb, and called him t. by His grace, to reveal His Son in II him, when it pleased Him, so could Bro. Branham have said that also. For when he was a very t young boy, God spoke to him and instructed him, and in due process of time, filled him with the Holy Ghost, and led him into a ministry that he could not possibly have planned himself, for Gentiles had no reason to even look for a manifestation of God in that scope. I will have to say this though, While I was still in that old, cold Methodist system, God caused me to see in the Bible, that before the coming of Jesus Christ, He would first send that spirit of Elijah again, so I do not need some educated critic, to tell me different; I know what I saw. Furthermore if just knowing Bro. Branham after the flesh, was of any spiritual benefit, I believe I could qualify there, but I am fully persuaded that God did not raise him up for the purpose of glorifying any flesh, not even the flesh of Jesus, the Christ, for it was not His flesh that God wanted men to see when He walked on earth. God raised up that little man, knowing that through his life and ministry, He (God) would be able to demonstrate to the church here at the end of the age, the very reality of what the church was founded upon almost two thousand years ago, and lead her back to those spiritual qualities, to be made ready to meet the Lord Jesus in the air, when He comes for His perfected bride. So let us read Luke 17:30, and see, after all that we have tried to point out to you, if you can see it in the light Jesus spake it in. Beginning with verse 28 now, let us read. “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. (These are the things that people’s minds are involved with, and the world in general, has little time for true spiritual fellowship. They are going their own way.) But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be (When?) in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Brothers and Sisters: I do not see why that one verse of scripture has to have such a mind boggling affect on Christian people. For we are going to read Matthew 24, in a few minutes, where Matthew writes of the same thing, just a little differently, “Thus shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man. We must realize today, that when we speak of Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven, wherein we will rise to meet Him in the air, we are speaking of an event that no man knows when it will take place. But when the event itself has arrived, those who are ready will see the object right there. But the word, reveal, has got to be understood in a different sense. In other words, If through almost two thousand years of grace, given to us Gentiles, all wrought through the working of the Holy Spirit, and all accomplished by the scriptures, as the gospel was preached under the anointing of that Spirit, then as this age closes out, and mankind has fallen into deep apostasy, God Himself took the initiative to raise up a vessel He could reveal Jesus Christ through, by that same Spirit. That gospel of Jesus Christ, is what has lifted lost sinners up out of their sinful state, and through an operation of faith, translated them into the kingdom of the Son of God, yet physically they remained right here on earth. It lifted the soul up into an heavenly environment, and put the repentant sinner in a relationship where he or she could have personal fellowship with God. You never saw Jesus in the person of His flesh at all; but you have seen something more than just a historical figure. You have seen something that is real. He lives in you, and you know that is the way God wanted it to be: Christ living in you, that is your hope of glory. You cannot get that living reality out of an old cold traditional religious system, no matter how faithful you are to it. Well even though we were redeemed, we still needed something more to get us ready for the coming of the Lord, so God wrought through one little vessel of clay that would submit to His leading, the very manifestations of the Spirit that manifested through His only begotten Son; When He walked on earth among men. We had read in the scriptures, the wonderful works done through Jesus, the Christ, but we had never seen it in any man, until it was manifested in the scope it was, through William Marrion Branham, God’s prophet messenger to this age. We have truly seen Jesus revealed in this twentieth century, but we have not yet seen Him in the person of His flesh. Because of the revelation that God has opened up to us, we no longer have to walk through life guessing about the reality of heaven and hell, the resurrection and the rapture, the return of Christ to earth with His bride and His earthly rule, for one thousand years. We no longer have to read the books of Revelation and Daniel with a film over our spiritual eyes, for we now have a revelation in our spirit of these great events portrayed in symbolic language, both past events and future events. Was it the flesh of Bro. Branham that gave us this wonderful revelation? No. But God did use the physical members of that little man to convey that revelation to us. He used him to cry out to predestined sons of God, Come out of her (spiritual Babylon) my people, and be not partaker of her sins! Well, you all know that, and you know that God could not rapture a church that was scattered around in so many different denomina-tional systems, all believing differently, and each one believing they had the right way. Well God is going to do with those systems, the same thing He did with perverted Judaism, when Jesus came preaching the truth, and they rejected it. He is going to reject them, because they are too blind to see. They saw Jesus in the flesh, and still could not see Him spiritually. On the other hand, we have not seen His flesh, but thank God, we have seen Him in His word, and we have seen Him demonstrated through the flesh of other men, in a measure. Are you following me? Therefore when He chose to, well this little man in an even fuller measure of His Spirit, sure it was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, sure it was the Holy Ghost, sure it was the Spirit of Elohim, Jehovah, the mighty God, for they are all titles that belong to one and the self-same Spirit. But whatever men saw, and whatever they heard, they are responsible to God for what they do with it. Some saw the Jesus of the Bible, and it put them back into the scriptures searching for an even greater spiritual vision of Him, and that is what God wanted them to see. But others were so attracted to the flesh of that little man, they could see nothing but him, and when he went away, they were just like some that followed Jesus, and saw nothing but His flesh, they had nothing to hold on to, so they are either just drifting, or else they are frantically searching the Spoken Word books, looking for some secret revelation. They will not find it though; for it is not in there: it is in the hearts of those who saw what God wanted them to see when the little man stood for hours, proving by the scriptures, that what he was preaching to them was the word of God, and that he was only a vessel to convey that word to them.

SOME HAVE ERRED

Most of these that have erred, claimed to have had the Holy Ghost, when they were sitting there, yet time has proved that they did not, or they could not believe some of the things they believe now. They baptize in the name of Jesus Christ, not because they have a revelation of the Godhead, but simply because the prophet said it was the right way. It was never a revelation to them. Then, here lately, I received a letter from Africa, saying that some of them over there, are now baptizing in the new name, William Marrion Branham, which they believe is the new name of Jesus. It just proves that they do not have a revelation at all. They have not seen what the Holy Spirit is accomplishing in the true church, in these last days, restoring her back to what the devil robbed her of centuries ago. Brother! The Bible remains forever the same. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away, saith the Lord. His word is established in heaven, and no man has any authority to change one little phrase of it. He sent that Spirit of Elijah, to restore us back to the faith of our apostolic fathers, not to make idolaters out of us. It was Jesus Christ, that was crucified for our sins, and that rose again from the dead, and has been interceding for lost sons and daughters of God, the Father, for over nineteen hundred years now, so why should this generation need another intercessor? Why should another have to take His place, when the Bible says He is alive for evermore? The first Adam lost his inheritance, but the second Adam kept His, and He wants to share it with us, but it has to be on the terms laid down in the gospels, and the epistles, and not according to every man’s opinion. So we will bring our message to a close now. But remember, Ephesians 4:11-15, says that God has set in the church, a five fold ministry, (These words are not in those verses, but we all know that this is dealing with the Church, and not the world at large, so we need dwell only on what that ministry is for.) “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (till what?) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the (who?) Son of God, (That is Jesus Christ; not William Branham) unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” You can read the rest of it yourselves, and may God help each of you to get a firm grip on the true revelation of Jesus Christ, so that you will no longer be tossed to and fro with all these various doctrines, as some of you have been in the past. Let the living reality of the living Christ dwell in you fully, and have control of your whole being, that you may be established in His word, and ready to meet Him when He comes. May God bless each of you. Amen