The Contender: Jude 3: Earnestly Contend For The Faith

Preached July 1-8, 2018

I have some additional scriptures I want to review in connection with this topic. I also want to go back over some of the things I have already looked at. I want to get everything right, I do not want to leave anything that is not tied down.

Modern America

I was thinking about the time we are living in, about what is going on in the country. You see all the marchers that were in seven hundred cities yesterday were marching, concerning the immigrants they say are mothers, fathers, and children being separated. These vulgar people are yelling, and hollering their obscenities on television, even people who have daily programs are yelling, telling it on television. It is mostly women on television, they just do not care. Hell has opened up, that is all you can make of it. I sure would hate to be here during the tribulation, because it will be even worse. At that time, you will see Jerusalem as Sodom, according to Revelation 11. Trump put in a judge that wants to uphold the constitution. Now, since another one is retiring, they want to scream and holler about the abortion rights. There they are, marching and everything, because mothers and fathers are separated from their children because the parents broke the law. They may not like it, but they should not have broken the law. If you commit a crime and go to jail, what right do you have to take your children to jail with you? They are talking about two thousand children separated from their parents. Yet I wonder how many children have been aborted since all this stuff started two or three weeks ago. It would be more than two thousand. They care nothing about those lives they snuffed out. There is a deed wickedness in people. You see their hypocrisy. My hope is that there will be something done about it with the next Supreme Court Justice, as he is put in there to replace Kennedy, who is leaving. We see all this marching, and all that is going on today in America. You can see George Washington’s vision on the horizon, the way they are pushing things and the way the nation is divided. It is close to fifty-fifty, let me put it that way. You have Hillary’s bunch out there, she can never keep her mouth shut, she never lost according to her, and Trump is in there, but she should have been in there. But that is not the way it worked out and there is a reason why it did not work out that way. The nation is having a change to change course from the path it was on. You can see that they want an election of somebody that is going to be more disruptive to the nation. It is hell let loose on America, all this marching, even people down here in Jeffersonville, a month of gay pride down there, right on the square in Jeffersonville, a whole month of it and the mayor is backing it. Whenever the mayor’s election is up, whoever runs, I will vote against that. Today we have all this stuff going on. The way the nation is headed today, you can see all these protests and everything, that it is going to get violent. That is what they are speaking, violence. Some of these elected officials are provoking violence in this nation. Violence against Trump, violence against the backers of Trump. Some cannot go to a restaurant without being heckled and run out. As you see these things, how long is it before it boils over into some kind of conflict? Today we are saints of God. That means sanctified ones. I am glad to be able to stand with the people that do not have all these ideas. If you do, you better ditch them because it is not in the plan of God. The religious world is wrong, they are wrong about the book of Revelation. They are wrong about other things in the scripture. Here these preachers, like John Hagee, are pushing for Israel to be saved, according to their dictates and according to the trinity doctrine. Then they say that will bring in the coming of the Lord. This is their big aim in that. They have said they are doing that in order to bring about the coming of the Lord. They will never know when the Lord comes for His Bride, they will never know it. If they should make it into foolish virgins, some of them, they will never catch the Bride message because it is something for Bride people. Not for the world or not for the church world, it will all just happen, and they will never know it. It will happen and be over, and they will be waiting, many of them, for the tribulation to be over. Then that is the coming of the Lord for them. They do not even believe in a rapture most of them. The believe they will pass through the tribulation, and so they will. If there was no rapture, how would one or two be working together, one be taken and the other left. How can that work at the end of the tribulation? How would that work out? One be taken and the other left? A rapture happens after the tribulation period? No. There is no rapture after the tribulation period, because the foolish virgins are dead. The great multitude is dead. It is already planned out according to the scripture that we are looking at.

Only Spirits Are In Hell Today

Before I go further, I want to go to Revelation 20, there is a question asked me concerning my last message. Someone understood me to say that people’s bodies are in Hell today. I want to be clear about that. There are no bodies in hell today. No bodies. Only spirits. You may question that, but I do not think you will whenever I get through. I am talking about flesh. That is what I mean by no bodies: flesh. I explained that a little quicker than what I meant to. Let us go to Revelation 19:17. “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God.” This supper is to consume all the dead bodies killed by Armageddon and the tribulation. Blood will be to the bridle of the horse. After that happens, then you see the rest of the world is judged and fire comes down from heaven upon all these that have missed it. Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God. “That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of men, both free and bond, both small and great.” There is no distinction between the people that will have to suffer. The poor as well as the rich will suffer. That is what it is explaining here. “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, (The beast, which would be that European system.) gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.” Now we see the tribulation has not killed everyone. The beast system survived enough to still have an army, and the antichrist is still alive too. This is that European system, which is the whole body, as explained in Revelation 13, and in Daniel 11. That antichrist is completely possessed by Satan, and he feels so brave that now he can fight against Christ and His Bride as they come back on white horses. He won Armageddon. He survived the tribulation. That is why he is still there. He has defeated the eastern countries, he feels he has the power now to fight against the army of God. “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet (See? They are all united at that time, the pope, which is the false prophet and the antichrist. The beast is not a man, the beast is the spirit behind that governmental system. The denominational world says the beast is a political man and the false prophet is someone in the religious field. This is not right. The false prophet will be the one that occupies the pope’s office at that time, and the beast is the European political system supporting him. And when Christ returns, they will think they can stop him with their weapons of war. The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet….) that wrought miracles (the miracles from Revelation 11, it would be war miracles. It will be bringing together of the great things he has used in order to defeat the nations that come against him. He has an army that is left and has all his weapons and everything left with him. The beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles….) before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” As Bro. Jackson went over that years ago, he said it was their spirits, not the bodies, the spirits. Their spirits were cast into the lake of fire. Because as I went over before, the beast does not even have a physical body. It is just a spirit.

I go from here to Revelation 17:8. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there were seven kings: five are fallen, (See? This is the beast. Here is the mind which hath wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. That is Rome. There were seven kings, five are fallen….) and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” Now this is another message, but I am just trying to show you the beast is not something with a physical body. “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” The beast which is that power. “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Here we are talking about the beast again, which is that spirit of that system there, as it is explained in the 13^th chapter. “These shall make war with the Lamb, (That takes you back to the 19^th chapter which I already read.) and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” This is Bride people. See? The scripture shifts back and forth, as you look at it, it keeps the church world all mixed up so they cannot understand it. “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, (See? It separates it there. The pope turns completely against the Catholic system at that time. The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore…) and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” When you go into the 18^th chapter, it explains that. “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, (The whole thing of the European system, plus it goes over into Iran and so on.) until the words of God shall be fulfilled. The woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” That great city, some are saying that is New York City on account of Wall Street. New York City did not exist at that time, there was not even a thought of it. I assure you it is a wicked place, but God will take care of that in His time.

Let me go back Revelation 19:20. “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, (See? The beast here is separate from the false prophet, which is the pope. The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him….) with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. (Which is from the 13^th chapter.) These both were cast alive (Their spirits, not bodies, only their spirits.) into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” This is where they will remain through the Millennium. “And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, (which goes back to the middle part of the 19^th chapter,) which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Which goes back to the 16^th chapter. Now I want to go into chapter 20 because I want to get this covered. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, (Bro. Kurt asked me, are you going to go on with this? I said, I do not know, because I felt kind of like I was closing it out last Sunday. I said I did not know, but then I began to study some things in this 20^th chapter, and wanted to make sure we understood there would be only spirits cast into the lake of fire here. There is no flesh there. We will see that. I saw an angel come down from heaven….) having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” See? This is where I was explaining that he was in limbo, not moving back or forth, anywhere, he is in a holding place. “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” A little season, that is after the thousand years. A little season is not going to last a week, it will be longer than that. Because he has to gather these people together to rebel against God. They will fix up a war machine, again, during that time of the Millennium. That is not the sheep people of Matthew 25 doing that. The sheep people are always sheep people, but they have children, offspring. You see that in the scriptures, some will die at a hundred years old and so on. You see death still taking place in the Millennium on account of disobedience. You even have prophets there that want to prophesy. What is required? They must be put to death. The Bride people are going to judge people. It is going to be a judgment that is based completely against feelings, because they are going to have to make sure that the word of God is fulfilled. You see that in the Old Testament, the children of Israel were to go in and get rid of everyone in certain places, not leave a one, not even a baby. I will read this again. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” He does not miss anything, the serpent, the devil, Satan. He wants you to know who he is. “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, (Thrones, who is on these thrones?) and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: (I saw thrones and judgment was given unto them, who is this? Bride people. How do we know? Let us go on in this verse. I will start at the beginning again. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. Judgment given unto them.) and I saw the souls (here is the tribulation martyrs) of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, (which includes Jews. They are not the ones sitting on the thrones) and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” You have three elements really. You have the Bride, you have the foolish virgins and Jews and other white robed saints, and then the natural people. The natural people will not receive any resurrection because they do not die. But the different white robed saints who have died are resurrected. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” The first resurrection happens before the Millennium starts, at the end of the tribulation, at the time the tribulation is ended, then they are removed from the earth and then God’s judgment falls upon the earth. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such (See? Another thing about the foolish virgins, what does it say? Let me go back to the 4^th verse again. I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls, the souls, of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. In other words, they are resurrected. This is still a part of the first resurrection. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first, finishing-up of the first resurrection. There will be nobody else resurrected. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. See? The first resurrection. Many saints will never see death. That is not a resurrection, that is a change. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such…) the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” They carry an office, but it is not a judgment office. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” In other words, he is going to come back to earth. Because the imprisonment will not be any longer. “And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, (That is that anti-God spirit. It comes from Russia today. As time goes on in the Millennium, people are going to get so bold, that have been born during the Millennium, that they think they are God, because of what they do. To them, there is no God. Gog and Magog…) to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” There are a lot of people, millions of people that are going to join this rebellion to overthrow Christ and His kingdom. That is their aim. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: (which is Jerusalem) and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” There is not one shot fired. “And the devil that deceived them (them that had lived in that time) was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (which is a period of time) And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, which is God) from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; (which would be at the end of the tribulation) and there was found no place for them.” For that former system. What has come about during the Millennium, those people that have went against God, that say there is no God, that is that Gog and Magog spirit, say there is no God, it is going to be done away with. That system, that is what it is talking about there, because you are already on a new heaven and new earth.

I will read that 11^th verse again. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead (I saw the dead) small and great, stand before God; (Now they are in body form. Their spirits have come back and their bodies have been raised up, you will see that.) and the books were opened: (the same thing as Daniel 7) and another book was opened, (another book is opened) which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” See? What he is mentioning is, according, not to their deeds, it is works now. It is what they have done. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; (What is it talking about, the sea gave up the dead? Gave up the bodies of the dead. That is exactly what he is talking about. The dead bodies that were in the sea. The life was already in hell, but their bodies are still in the sea. They died at sea. The sea gave up the dead which were in it….) and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: (Death, which is the grave. Hell is where the spirits are enclosed. This verse is why I said there are no bodies in Hell, and only spirits. Let it sink in a little bit. That is what he is talking about. When the wicked are resurrected, their spirit returns from Hell, but their body came from somewhere else. The sea, that has been the grave of some. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death, which is the grave, and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. Here he is including the whole thing, the sea, the grave, then also he is taking the spirits of those wicked people out of hell. He is taking their spirits and uniting them with their bodies. That is the way it is. If you need to, just wake up. The sea and death gave up the dead bodies which were in them. Hell gave up the spirits in it. Their spirit is being tormented now, but there is no body there. We know there are not bodies in Hell. If you go out to the cemetery and dig up a grave you will find the body there. Bodies are not in Hell. Death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…) and they were judged every man according to their works.” He has mentioned that twice. They were judged according their works. The life they lived was their works. “And death and hell (See? Death and hell, it does not talk any more about the sea, because all of them are gathered out of the sea, and all of them are gathered out of the ground. Now it is just death and hell. Because wherever they were, wherever they were planted, if it be in an urn someplace, where they have already burned their body, their spirit is there. Their body is still in that little vacated place. God knows where everybody is. He is not going to raise them with some kind of spiritual body, it is going to be the body that they lived in, they did these deeds in. This is where it is going to come from. It is going to be a resurrection, a resurrection of the wicked. I am not trying to confuse you, that is why I am going over it as I did, as I am. I have preached messages since Bro. Jackson passed away where I have gone into things too deep for me, just like this. But a revelation came. When a revelation comes, then that is above me. It is above any other preacher. It is only God’s revelation that brings about a change, or a change in thinking, that you can go back and look at it as it says here. Death and hell….) were cast into the lake of fire.” It does not say anything about the sea. Now it is all just death and hell. In other words, God is going to bring about those spirits that are in hell and He is going to unite them with the body. Then they are cast into the lake of fire, both body and spirit. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Body and Spirit Are Cast Into The Lake of Fire

Now I want to go to Matthew 18:6. The Bible says to study to make yourself approved before God, or to show yourself approved. “And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, (That should explain that the lake of fire is also in the heart of the earth. There are no bodies in hell today. But here. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into hell, or the lake of fire. Because as I said, there is no body in hell today. That will not happen until the great white throne judgement.) into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” The wicked people that have died are in a place where remorse never ends. “And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.” Are you getting anything out of this? The body will be destroyed in the lake of fire as we read in Revelation. But here Jesus did not call it the lake of fire, he said hell. So hell will be changed into the lake of fire, because there is no body there yet. It is the same place, but both body and soul is there then after the white throne judgment, both soul and body. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. There will always be a gnawing, a grinding there, where the worm. There is a place called Sheol outside Jerusalem, back in the times of Christ, they called it that. This is what Jesus comparing hell to. It was where they took garbage to be thrown out, at the Dung Gate. That is where it was burned. Then in that burning pit there was a worm that bred in that fire. It moved around in that after everything else has died. That worm could live in that fiery place. This is what Jesus is relating to, where the worm dieth not. He saw it many times when He went into Jerusalem. He is comparing hell to that. “And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Is He telling people to cut their arms off? He is speaking of things that offends you. There is something we must do ourselves. People used to think, if I receive the Holy Ghost, all my troubles are gone. Look out, it does not work that way! “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” What He is talking about is the spirit of God and the salt is the preserver. That is what it was used for. I remember when my dad used to kill hogs. He would take a ham, a shoulder, or side, whatever it was, and he had a little bin there. It was all covered over completely with salt. That was a preserver, it preserved it. Then they got the idea of smoking it with hickory wood. That is where you get the hickory smoked ham from. They had a shed where they would put a fire in, to get the wood where it was burning, but they would kind of keep it wetted down a little bit so that it would smoke. That is what kept the bugs away from it, the little worms. The bugs would still get in the ham if there was only salt, but if they put hickory wood in there and let it smoke, then that is what turned the meat brown looking, and then the bugs would not eat it. That is what they like for a taste today. It all come from that, out of a necessity. They called it a smoke house. “For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” In other words, it is a preserver. After the fire, then it preserves, the salt preserves. “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, (In other words, if it loses its affect.) wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, (In other words, the preserver.) and have peace one with another.” Because this is what shows that you have the salt, whenever you can have peace one with another. Be glad that God will speak to us in the manner He does, in order to show us the way. I hope you understand what I have gone over in this part of the message. Look at it, read that 20^th chapter, you will get it, you are supposed to.

Body and Soul Destroyed in Hell

Let us go to Matthew 10:28. There is just one verse I want to deal with. “And fear not them which kill the body, (Jesus is speaking of saints that give their lives when the persecutions come. Persecution is already in the world today in some elements of people. But we are fortunate here in America that God has been so merciful to us. And fear not them which kill the body….) but are not able to kill the soul: (See? The body goes to the grave, the soul goes to heaven. The soul does not go into the grave with the body. That shows you that somewhere our brothers and sisters are living, in God’s paradise. They are alive today and they were just transferred from this life to the life to come. I am sure they know what is going on. Not looking down here on us, but I am sure the spirit of God is letting them know many things.) but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” See? This is what I was talking about in chapter 20 of Revelation. Both body and soul in hell, that is what God will do at the great white throne judgement. At that time, both body and soul will go into hell. The spirits of the wicked are already there, but they will be raised from hell to be reunited with their bodies, then all this hell just turns into the lake of fire. As they are judged they are cast into the lake of fire, both body and soul. Right here, it explains it to me, because He said fear Him who is able to cast both soul and body into hell. That is something I have looked at, which has come to me in this time we are living in. I feel it is something that has helped me to understand what I am talking about. Sometimes God has a deeper understanding for us to get into, that we may know the truth, because the truth will set us free. I feel the 20th chapter of Revelation has been something that has been misunderstood. But whenever I began to look at it, not that I was studying it, but it came to me. I would rather have it that way than trying to get somebody’s opinion here, and somebody’s opinion over there. Because there is only one right answer. There are not two right answers. There is not ninety five percent right. If you get ninety five percent right, you probably are missing the great bulk of what God is doing in this hour, because you have limited yourself.

I hope you are not getting tired of this message. There are certain things I still want to bring out in it, and to include more scriptures so it is an even picture. I want to bring it all together from the very beginning then beyond the Millennium to the judgment. As I have said before, there will be no judgment for those that go through the Millennium that have proved themselves to be true to the witness of God and to the adherence of the different things that have got to happen during that Millennial time. Because there is going to be a great multitude, as the Bible says, that will never be a part of anything. Because they have squandered their opportunity during the Millennium. Some of them will be dead, some will have to go into the judgment as they are. As I have said, their bodies will be brought up from the grave, even from hell, their spirits. Their bodies from the grave, their spirits from hell. Because that is what it is speaking of in Revelation 20, whenever it says death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. That is putting the body back together with the spirit, with the consciousness and everything, that will put it back together. That is the reason it is mentioned in the way it is, as I went over it last Sunday to try get a picture in your mind of understanding. I know it said there that the sea gave up the dead which were in it, that was the bodies. There is no living person in the sea, only the bodies. There are no living persons in the grave, only the bodies. But the spirit is in hell today. Then that is why it said death and hell will deliver up the dead that were in them. Death of course is the body; hell is the spirit of those people that rejected the plan of God for their time. I hope as I have gone over this that this will be understandable to you. When it said the sea gave up the dead, which will be the same as the grave, only thing is some are planted in the sea, but that is death. That is death, the sea or whether it be the grave, it is all death. He does not have to repeat the thing again about the sea, because that is a part of the death. I hope you understand that. As I have looked at it and studied it, I feel the spirit of God showed me those things. I am not one to say things of that nature as just any time. It has to be something, just like Bro. Branham said, and I feel a lot of people have got in trouble over it, he said unless you are ordained to cast out devils, you better leave it alone. I see in people, people go back to the scripture, but it does not happen that often. Jesus did not do it that often. Neither did Paul, there were maybe two occasions in Paul’s ministry that he rebuked Satan. There was a reason for it. He did not go out looking for it. He did not go out looking for it, it came to him. Because of the woman that aggravated him for several days, then he cast the spirit out of her and got in trouble when he did, but it was not the trouble that was from God, it was the trouble from man because they were losing their way of deceiving the people for money. I can see what Jesus would say in the book of Matthew, as we look at the scriptures this morning. I am not saying there will never be a devil cast out of anybody, but it will be a challenge instead of something that we have done on our own. There is a lot of spirits in the world today, but there are only two spirits, as Bro. Kevin went over, the spirit of God and the spirit of the devil. But he has a lot of means in the spirit he promotes to the people, even if we are not careful, to the people of God. We have got to be watchers. We have to be somebody that watches our every move to make sure what we are doing is in the plan of God, because we can very easily get out of it by instances of things that are going on, by getting too involved in certain things, and everything that would come about to get our minds involved in different things, but we always have to be somebody that watches. The Bible said to watch and wait. This is what we are doing. We are watching and waiting for the coming of the Son of Man. We thank the Lord for that, that He has given us the opportunity to do so.

Ephesian Age

I want to go to the Revelation 2 and tie my topic into different times in history. We go from there to Matthew 13, and so on as we look at it, and in Revelation 6. We have these scriptures down here; I want to look at them. I have the whole chapter of Revelation 2 and 3, then Isaiah 66, 65, and Mark 9:42-50. I want to get through all these before I end this message. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” He is in the midst of the ages, from the very beginning, because he is watching out for those souls that belong to him. We look back at the time of Bro. Branham, he brought all he knew. So did Bro. Jackson, he brought all he knew for the time he lived in, even beyond their time, they brought all they knew. We see how God walked in the seven candlesticks, which is the seven church ages. Seven churches it says, but it is seven church ages. The ages go all the way from the very beginning of the church there in Ephesus, because this is where it starts out. The reason it starts in Ephesus, is because of the Gentiles. The Jewish believers are dwindling out. So, Paul said, “I turn to the Gentiles.” Paul who really took the gospel to the Gentiles. The twelve apostles were to the Jews. In Acts 15, James told Paul to go to the Gentiles, and they would go to the Jews. It come to the Jews first. But we find the Jews wanted to stay in Jerusalem. It took persecution, first Stephen, that made it spread out. Then we find that Phillip went down in Samaria. This was the pattern of what Jesus said. First to Israel, then unto Samaria, then the uttermost parts of the earth. We see that happened whenever Peter started out, and he was told to go among the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house. Then Peter still has his Jewish ideas. So God gives his a vision where a net is let down with all kinds of animals. The Lord tells him there, “Peter, rise, kill and eat”. He said, “Nothing unclean has ever been across my lips.” He is looking at Gentiles as something of a dirty nature, because of circumcision, because of the things they eat. That feeling lingered in Peter on through up until a certain point of time. We see that happening in Galatians 2, where he is eating with the Gentiles until some came from James. James was a staunch believer in the Jewish way. You may ask me why I say that. Well, look at the book of James, what does he say? To the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. That was his message. In that 2nd chapter he deals a whole lot in the Law. There is a lot that can be gleaned from what was said there by James, because of what he taught and what he had to say. But Jesus had sheep of another fold. There were Gentiles needed to make up a Bride. Peter and the Jews will be a part of the Bride, but where are they going to be? They are going to be in Israel. That is where they are going to be, that is their limits, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. The judgment will go out from that.

Let me go to Matthew 7:21-23. Listen to what Jesus said here. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” What is He talking about there? Doing the will of the Father, which is in heaven, He is talking about His word. We must go by the word, because that is the will of the Father. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? (Sure, they have. You have them on television all the time, prophesying. But their prophecy is so limited in scope, in size. They may hit a few things right. I am not saying they do not, but it is so limited because they do not know the scripture. They read the scripture, but they do not know the scripture. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name? Sure, they have.) And in thy name have cast out devils? (I do not know too much about that, because the devil still lingers after they say it is gone.) and in thy name done many wonderful works?” Works, see? They have done many wonderful works. They fed the hungry, they went into other countries, dug wells for people to have clean water. I am not saying anything against that, but this is not the work of God. What did Jesus say the work of God was in the book of John? To do the will of the Father in heaven, that is the work of God, to do His will. “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: (In other words, His word never entered into them. That is to know them, just as it said in Matthew 25. Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you….) depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” See? It is their own ideas, their own opinions. They have stood before people, they have cast out devils. But if they did, then why did not it change them? It had no effect upon them. Where is the fruit in their life? I remember a certain preacher, who is dead now, talking about casting out a devil from a woman, and he spent the whole night praying over her, until two o’clock in the morning. He probably wore her out. He said he sweated so bad that it was running out of his shoes. You do not see that in the Bible. It is just not there.

Revelation 2:1 “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” Of course, the stars are the seven messengers. “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: (See? It is all good to this point. He is recognizing the good that they have done. I know thy works, and labor, and thy patience, how thou canst not bear them which are evil….) and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, (they claimed to be apostles. That was a wonderful thing to claim, because that got the attention of people. That is a very strict thing to place yourself into a position like that, to tell everybody what you are.) and are not, and hast found them liars.” See? They were still keeping the word to some extent. “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.” Or has not fallen back whenever persecution come, because it was already there. Paul was a part of the persecution. This age starts with Paul, but he is persecuted and killed. It ends with other people. We find by the time this is over, then Paul is already gone. You see in 2^nd Timothy that Titus, and Demas and others have already gone back into the world he said. He has already had his problems with them whenever he was in prison, because of the persecution that had come. I am sure that persecution was something great. But it was never to mess up a person’s mind. Then he goes ahead to say after he has exalted them, to say, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” By the time this comes, he is not congratulating them anymore, but time is moving on. They have lost their first love, that love they had which would have been in the apostles time. They were willing to give their lives for it. All of them had been persecuted and killed, all except for John. He was boiled in oil, and still did not die. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; (What is that? Something with your hands? No. It is nothing with your hands, it is the word, which is the works here that he is talking about. Do the word, as Bro. Branham used to say, give it the word test. He is telling them to go back and check. You have left your first love, go back and check from where you have fallen. He is telling them that. Remember therefore from whence thou hast art fallen….) and repent, (See? He has something against them here by this time.) and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Remove thy candlestick, in other words, the candlestick is the church. That will happen because they are drifting. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Now you find in this church that they had the deeds of the Nicolaitans, because it was already creeping in by the time the century has ended. What are the deeds of the Nicolaitans? It is the ministry taking power over the church, that the church must adhere to what they want. I do not know how far back this goes; I do not know. But I remember Bro. Jackson, the last convention we had, talking to some of the ministers. He never did preach it, but he said something about it. Some believed that the celibacy teaching began during Timothy’s life. It could have started that far back. Because you know Paul was single after he began to preach. Timothy came on as a young man, unmarried, as well as some of the others. But this is just a thought that I am expressing. As I said, it was not something Bro. Jackson ever preached, but I know he said it. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” In other words, the ministry is taking over the thoughts of the people and as the Ephesian age progressed, they began to teach things that were not exactly in line with the word. He said, you have left your first love. But this had begun to happen before the year 100, because this was about as far as this ever goes. This first age ended at 100. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh (To him, he is speaking individually now. He is not speaking as a whole, but individually. To him that overcometh…) will I give to eat of the tree of life, (In other words, to him that overcometh will I give to him the Holy Ghost.) which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” The paradise of God is where God dwells.

Let us go now to Revelation 6. Because there is something happen in the spiritual realm during the Ephesian Age. A white horse rider is on the scene. “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, (I remember Bro. Jackson going over this, talking about whenever the seals were revealed. They cover a space of time. But this is the beginning. I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder….) one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.” You have got your four horse riders, but then you have the four beasts introducing them. “And I saw, and behold a white horse: (That is the deception that began to happen in the first church age. It goes from there all the way to around 325 under Constantine. It begins in the first church age. But you see that it could not prevail in the first age, time went on before it could prevail. I saw and behold a white horse…) and he that sat on him (which would be the devil in men. He that sat on him…) had a bow; (He just had a bow, that is the beginning of warfare. The bow is the beginning of something that is happening in the church at that time. But he has no arrows. He is just a bluff. I saw a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow….) and a crown was given unto him: (Why would a crown be given to him? Because they wanted that prestige. The ministry in that hour began to want the prestige of being recognized. They wanted to be on top. A crown was given unto him…) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” So even with the bow, he went forth conquering, and to conquer. This horse rider is going to ride on in to the next church age.

Smyrna Age

Let’s go back to chapter 2. “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.” Each age is being introduced. If you go back to chapter 1, you see His appearance and attributes described, and each church age points back to a different aspect of that. Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. It is introduced as the first and last in the first chapter. “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” See? You are going along in time. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: (This is the beginning of the red horse, which overlaps the white horse.) behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried: and ye shall have tribulation ten days: (That is just marking a certain period of time, it is going to last more than just ten days, but it is talking about a time period. As it gave the ten days, it did not give ten years, did not give a hundred years, but it is a period of time, all the way up to 316. 325 is when the church begins to mingle with the world, with Constantine. He introduces it to the world, and he accepts it as one of the religions of the world. Whenever it does, then the persecution that was going on under the red horse, stopped. It looked like a great thing, bust history said the seed of the church is the blood of saints, because the more they killed, the more that came, and more, and more into the arenas, right out of the stands they come into the arenas to be butchered like the ones they had come to see. Because they saw something wrong whenever it began to happen. They saw it was innocent people being killed. It touched their hearts. They clad the women in very sheer things to where it would be shameful for a Christian to look like that. But they would not recant. That would mean they would give up what they had received, which was the spirit of God that they had seen in that first church age, the tree of life.) be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” They are being rewarded for their death. I remember reading where this man and young sixteen-year-old girl. They put them on stretchers and stretched them until their joints came out of socket. Then kept pulling until they would either die or recant. This one man that was in front of this girl, he gave up right at the last minute, and he died a minute later. She looked at him and said, thou fool, if you could have lasted one more minute, you would have had life. I can see the torture. They burned them. They were wondering. This touches me, this one man was a saint of God. He had respect even of the sheriff that executed him. Because the sheriff wanted somebody to come and help him, where he would not have to walk through the mud. But they were wondering, if he could feel the fire, because they were going to burn him at the stake. They were wondering if he could feel the fire. They knew he was a righteous person. They asked him, if you do not feel the fire, would you raise your hand before you die. Some of the saints did. They lit the fire; his legs were on fire. His arms were burned off from the hand to the elbow, he had not made a move, just had his head down. The moment he died, he raised up that stub of an arm, showing that he felt no flame. He let them know this was not affecting him. I remember Bro. Jackson talking about it. He said some people would wonder why we get by so easy, whenever it was so hard on some of those people. He said, just remember, it is not easy to stand for the word of God, the real word. Some of us know that. Your spirit would maybe want you to kind of give in. But then the spirit of God pushes you to follow truth no matter what. This is the overcoming spirit that will overcome our own natural feelings. I know the Lord had to work on me in things of that nature. Words do not hurt you, they do not. But let us go on. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” It goes all the way to Revelation 20 there. He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death. The saints of God through the years have given their lives, but that is as far as it went. They gave up the body until the resurrection. The resurrection, it is not resurrecting another body. It is resurrecting a glorified body, which is the same body, only changed. The Bible says we will be changed. The ones that are living will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. This second church age, God had nothing to say against them. Even though things were being taught wrong and all, God saw their sacrifice. It was a little group of people in that hour, there have been times we think we are a small group, there have been times in other ages when there were no more than what we are. Martin Luther, in his time, very few people really knew the Lord, it was just a move to a lot of people that did not bring about a change. Because they still cursed, they still did everything else. The great mystery about Martin Luther is that he could stand up among a bunch of people like that and finally had to rebuke them and had to get rid of them. I am not talking about killing them. I am talking about, he had to shove them out, because they were so dogmatic in what they thought and the way they lived. They wanted a revolution. A lot of them were just wanting a revolution, just like it was when Jesus was crucified. A lot of those Jews just wanted a revolution, especially the religious group. They were not trying to be a part of what God was really trying to do. So, we will go on. The Smyrna period of great persecution, lasted through 316. Then in 316 you start on another age.

Pergamos Age

Satan’s Seat in the City of Pergamos. Today it is in Berlin, Germany after it was moved there by Adolph Hitler.

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; (It refers back to the 1st chapter again. All these things are marking in time what is going to be need. Here he stands with the sword, that is His word.) I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: (There was a place in Turkey where this place was located. It was Satan’s seat. It was a large pagan temple. Whenever Hitler came into power and began to persecute the Jews, he had it dismantled and brought to Germany. He reassembled it in Germany and modeled his great arena on it.[1] This is where he had a lot of his speeches. “To the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.” He is going to do something now. He is going to begin to work on something. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is…) and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan’s dwelleth.” Where Satan’s seat is. So, it would have been in Turkey. “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, (Remember Balaam from Numbers 22? He sold out. This age sold out to Constantine. Constantine of course had the vision where he saw the cross, with the words, by this you will conquer and overcome. So, this is what he saw, and this is what where he began to recognize the church. This was the downfall of the church, because he began to meddle in church affairs. He called the Nicaea council in 325, that is when they declared the trinity. The trinity was already being taught, but he put the emphasis on it because of the Nicaea Council. One lone man stood against six hundred priests at that time. That was Aruis, He stood against it all, because he refused to accept the trinity. The rest of them believed in the trinity. “I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam.” Balaam goes back to the Old Testament, he is even mentioned in the book of Jude. You see it was the doctrine, it became a doctrine. You see what that doctrine leads to. Whenever people begin to make their own doctrines, then it leads them away from the truth of God’s word. This is what happened in the Pergamos age. Then immoral things began to happen. But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam….) who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” See? This was the aim of Balaam to do that. Before it was all over, then we find that Balaam caused the children of Israel to commit fornication. Balaam was looking at the weakest part of Israel, he got them to sell out to this idea. It goes all the way back to the flood, that same idea that crept in then, came right on down through time until this time, and into our time. “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine (See? It was a deed before, in the first part of the 2nd chapter, but now it becomes a doctrine. In other words, the priesthood has successfully taken over. They take the word of the Lord from the congregation; they can no longer read it because it is all in Latin. Until the 1960s, if you went into the Catholic church, all you were going to hear is their dogmas, and all you are going to hear is Latin, no matter where you live, whether it be in South America or whether it would be here in the United States or Canada, all they had to say was Latin, when they went into the church service. Because they did not want anybody to understand scripture. They said it was dangerous. Sure, it was dangerous. To understand scripture was dangerous because it was going to pull them out of the things they were in, so they were afraid. They have a lot of guilt there. So, has thou also them that hold the doctrine….) of the Nicolaitans, (Not all of them. You have there “them” that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans…) which thing I hate.” Because God was aiming for everybody. They still have their benches they kneel on, a little thing to kneel on when they come in. Then they get up and hear a homily, as they call it, just a rigamarole or something spoken in Latin. Because the people do not understand the scripture. What did Martin Luther do when he left the Catholic Church? There he translated the Bible from Latin into German. This was the among the first things he did. Then you have Wycliffe and all those other men that did the same thing, to try to give people an understanding. If it were not for that, the only thing you would have heard when you go to church would have been just a bunch of words you were not supposed to understand. Because they did not want you to learn Latin. It would have put you back in the Bible. Nobody had the right to understand except for the priests. “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” With His word. He would fight with them, with the sword of his mouth. “He that hath an ear, let him hear with the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, (It is hid today. We have been given that privilege to be able to eat of the hidden manna.) and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, (A white stone, or a revelation. A stone is something that has been here an eternity.) which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” There was nobody that even needed to know when you were converted.

The Nicolaitans

I mentioned how Bro. Jackson privately told some that the start of celibacy may have begun with Timothy. But by the time you come to the age of Pergamos, it became a doctrine. What did Paul tell Timothy? Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, with doctrine. Let us read that in 2^nd Timothy 4. “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” He is going to judge the quick and the dead at His appearing, which will be at the end of the Millennium, when they shall be judged. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” He is warning of a certain category of preachers that will come. The time will come when they will do this and that. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” There are going to be preachers looking for a promotion and will compromise the gospel to satisfy people. Paul is at the end of his ministry when he says this. “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Make full proof of thy ministry. Do not let it go in some other direction. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” He is talking about the rapture. “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: (Now he is getting into what the first verses was in this chapter. He is encouraging Timothy to preach the word and to stick with what he was called to do. Be instant in season, doctrine, longsuffering and all that he is talking about He said, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me….) For Demas (See what he was talking about in the first part of this? He is talking about what is already going on in the church, for Demas…) hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, (That does not mean Demas went back into the sin of the world, but he is taking the easy road. As we look at history, we find they went back to different places that have already failed where they would be accepted, because they do not want persecution. Persecution has started at this time. He said, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world…) and is departed to Thessalonica; (He sure is not going to help the Thessalonians. He went there to run away.) Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” See? Mark has come back. He is now a steady person. He was a young man whenever he had his troubles. He sees the things that are happening in Paul’s ministry and all. Mark had abandoned Paul early on because of the persecution, but we see he has grown, and he has returned to do the first works. He goes ahead to say, “Only Luke is with me.” Luke is the one who wrote the third of the four gospels and the Book of Acts. “And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. (Which have scriptures in them.) Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.” We can see how things are going. Something was starting to brew in the ministry at the time Paul was going off the scene. We have seen the deeds of the Nicolaitans which started in age of Paul, but it has become a doctrine by the age of Pergamos. It is the overthrow of the people, and it is all going into what one day will be the papacy. What does the word “pope” mean? It means papa, or father. That is what he made himself to be, an overseer. Because the pope believes he can override the scripture. The Catholic Church says the pope can mistakes, but whenever he ministers, that is perfect.

Thyatira Age

Let us go back to Revelation 2. “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. (That goes back to the 1^st chapter again.) I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.” See? He is speaking of works twice, which in the beginning would be to do the will of God, or to preach the word of God. The second works is what is beginning to happen at that time. Time is entering the Dark Ages with this church age. This is around 500 to 1500. This is Satan’s millennium. I remember Bro. Jackson saying, they went into the Dark Ages riding horses and buggies, and they came out of it riding horses and buggies. Progress was not allowed. If they got progress, then the people would wise up to what the priests were doing. They kept it to where nobody could understand the scripture, so that they would not find out that they could better themselves, even in the world. They wanted that taken away. “I know thy works, charity, and service, faith and patience, and they work, and the last to be more than the first.” This is the Catholic age, when they began to build these big buildings. They used slave labor. Their great cathedrals, like the one we saw in Norway, was built by slaves. The church used slave labor to build these buildings for them because they were forced to do so by being captured, by being put under rigorous toil, and if they did not obey, they were killed. That is what the church hard turned into in this period of time. “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, (This thing is caught up from the third church age. This is the state of the Catholic Church. This happened, I have read the history on it. There was even a woman that appointed the popes, and her name was Jezebel. She had children by the popes and then her children became popes. This is all history when you look it up. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, which is the one that appoints popes, to teach and seduce my servants. They were his servants at the beginning. Otherwise, he would not have called them that. To commit fornication…) and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” This all happened around 700 to 800, in that area of time. “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.” This went on close to a hundred years, as she appointed who would be the pope. Most of it was her children that she had by these priests. “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery (See? It has gone from fornication to adultery. Fornication is an act. Adultery is violating marriage vows. Adultery is committed against a companion that they are married to. These men were supposed to be Bride people, which would have been a part of the fatherhood to the church. Paul calls himself a father, but he said there are not many. He said, Timothy, my son. He was brought up under his leadership, that is what he is talking about. He was not saying that he was his natural father. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery….) with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.” In other words, God is going to bring tribulation on them. He gave the ministry of that time an opportunity to get out from under this rule. But they did not want to. They were enjoyed the people giving them homage, which I will go back to Matthew in a minute and find out about that. “And I will kill her children with death; (which would not necessarily her church children. But I will kill her children with death….) and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” See? He mentions works again. In that age, works became the entire focus. They built hospitals and churches. It was all for a name, while they had their coffers filled in Rome. You remember the Pope Benedict. Do you remember him? He was put out of office because he had uncovered the financials in Rome, in the Vatican. He had found out about what they were doing with the money and how things were being used. This is what has been told, that he was taken out of office because he was not going along with them. There are not two popes that live at the same time, that has never been before. It is an unheard of thing for a pope to retire. But he is still living, and they talk like Pope Francis may retire now, because he is getting older. He may retire and there will be two ex-popes in Rome at the same time. We will wait and see. “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, (Now he is bringing this to a close about Thyatira.) as many as have not this doctrine, (It is a doctrine.) and which have not know the depths of Satan, (There are many people that did not know the depths of all this. In their hearts, they still loved the Lord, but they had little understanding because there was no teaching going on. They just lived on what they could understand in God’s dealings in their lives. But as far as revelation was concerned, they did not have a revelation as we do. The wickedness in the priesthood was hidden from them. Which have not known the depths of Satan….) as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.” He is not going to burden them with something they do not know about. They have not known the depths of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and of this woman Jezebel. They have not known that. “But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.” And some did. A young man, eighteen years old, became learned. As he became learned, then he began to read the Bible because he understood Latin. A priest came in one day and saw him reading and he asked him what he was doing. He found out he was reading from the Bible with understanding. He warned him, you give that up, do not do that anymore, that is dangerous. That is what they told people who tried to read the bible. It was a danger to them. Another time they found him doing the same thing. What did they do? They took him out of town, and he was never seen again. Of course, they murdered him. That is what God is saying this here, they suffered that woman Jezebel. The Catholic Church can never be forgiven. The denominational world can never be forgiven. I am not talking about individuals that have come out of that. People can be forgiven and saved. But those systems are guilty. You pay the Catholic priest money to burn a candle, but then when you leave they blow it out and resell the same candle to the next person. They just keep on burning them and keep getting money from them. The denominational preachers are even more sly than that, because they are spending big sums of millions of dollars on airplanes. It is all the same thing; it is all the same spirit. There is no difference. These preachers get in the pulpit and preach, and then they drive out of the parking lot in expensive cars that we would never be able to even think about owning. They drive out in that and claim that they are serving God and God is prospering them. No, it is the people prospering them, and they are taking advantage of those people. “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, (My works. See? It goes back to works again. My works, my word.) to him will I give power over the nations.” See? It goes into the Millennium. Even in this dark hour, He has people that will be Bride people. The Bride will be rulers. “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; (See the mercy of God? These knew little of scripture, but they had God in their hearts. What did we read earlier? I will give you hidden manna. Hidden manna. If it is hidden, then He is not going to let everybody know about it.) as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.” He is telling of the rulership, as broken pieces of pottery shall they rule the nations, to break down these laws and things that have entered into people’s minds, even into the Millennium. “And I will give him the morning star.” The morning star is Christ. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Let us go to Matthew 13:24. I want to look a little bit at the second parable which is the beginning, it is the beginning of the church. This is where the white horse rides in the beginning. 24^th verse. “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.” We know who that is, Christ. He sowed good seed in the field, into the hearts of the people. “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” This is speaking of the second age, Smyrna age. Men slept. The apostles passed off the scene, in their death. Then while they slept in death, other men began to let their guard down.. “But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.” This is showing you the progress of the church at that time. What happened under the apostles ministry? The blade comes up. But whenever they began to die off, began to sleep, then the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. As long as he can get a foothold into something, whether it be in this hour or whether it be in that hour, as long as he can get a foothold in there, then he can spread it, and spread it, and spread it. The tares keep going and going and going. This is what He is talking about. The tares had no jurisdiction at this time. The tares really are growing with the wheat, but the wheat is not allowed to do anything about it, because the understanding of the men after the apostles have gone, the understand of the men is beginning to leave. By the year 100, they were already corrupting the Godhead doctrine, and by 175, the first teaching of the trinity had begun. When the blade sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. They were not noticed. They did not understand until the harvest. It is in the last sixty years that the understanding of this has come about. It did not come about in the denominational world. The tares were just growing. They were not noticed until the day and hour in which we live. On back into Bro. Branham’s ministry, those tares were growing. They were casting out devils. They were speaking in tongues. They were doing all these things during that time. They did not know about the tares at the Azusa Street meetings. The revival broke out there on Azusa Street in a building that held cattle. It was cleaned up and made into a church. As they did, we find the spirit of God began to slay people. They began to speak with other tongues. Healing started to happen, but what happened then? Three years later, here come the revelation of baptism in Jesus name. Bartleman and some of those men began to preach Jesus name baptism. As they did, then one side goes into the Assemblies of God. They did not want the doctrine of baptism in Jesus Christ name. So they were holding on to what they had because it seemed right to them. But this is when they began to denominate. The tares were there all along. But they were unaware of what was really going on. They just thought that by healing, speaking in tongues, things of that nature, that took care of everything. But really there is a dark spirit that is influencing some of them. Water baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost never did die. Not even in this day has it ever died. But God is not fooling with it. Then what happened to those who went into Jesus name baptism? They denominated next into the United Pentecostal Church. Whenever God began to speak unto his messenger, especially in 1946 and 1947, along that time, when He began to speak unto Bro. Branham, the oneness people did not want him because they had done got their little clique together. Therefore Bro. Branham did not cater to them because they had done the same thing that the Assemblies of God had done, but God was working more in the Assemblies of God at this time than He was in the oneness move. Because they denominated. I know Bro. Branham said, talking of the Tabernacle, it will never denominate, but he said, woe unto it if it does. You can see after years of time, they do not even know the man. They just play a message, it does not mean anything to them. The spirit of God has completely left that move. They do no even have church services at the Branham Tabernacle anymore. It is an empty building for several years now. They claim three and a half million people are followers. That is what they claim. They are worth millions of dollars. Because why? They probably never would listen to me, but you have sold out, you sold the prophet out for a mess of pottage. For money. One day you will throw it in the streets, your silver and your gold. I will read on here. “So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? (Good seed, good word. You have those men like Iraneus (spelling?) and some of them that are fighting against this thing. But they do not like it. They are going to kill anybody that fights against them. Because it is already beginning to turn into that denominational spirit. Whenever they receive baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that started them on the downfall.) from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. (The devil.) The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?” See what God is doing here, He is letting this thing happen and the servants that are saying, let us go and do something about it, what do they do? They kill them. Because people love the praise of men more than the praise of God. “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.” It is because they were growing together. They could not see the difference. There is wheat that is scattered among them, but the tares are more prevalent. There are more tares than wheat. That is what it is talking about here. “Let both grow together until the harvest: (Let them grow until the harvest. We are in the harvest.) and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, (Who are the reapers? The ministry that God has raised up in this hour. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest, that means not the first age, but the time of the end. Harvest takes a while. It takes more than a day to reap a field. We are in that time of the harvest. I will say to the reapers, gather together first the tares. It happened. I am not laughing because of it. But it has happened. The tares were bundled. I did not call anybody a tare, not by name. But in the time of harvest, first gather the tares. You have to. The tares have no fruit on them. What did Bro. Jackson preach? That the church, the Bride of Jesus Christ is going to have to be fruitful. They are going to have to bear fruit. Gather first the tares….) and bind them in bundles to burn them: (It is a sad thing to burn them, a sad thing.) but gather the wheat into my barn.” The wheat is His Bride. Gather the wheat into my barn, they are going to have to come together. I do not mean that they all have to come to Faith Assembly or some other place. They all have to come together in thought, in desire, and in the word. Bro. Branham said concerning these spirits, give them the word test. I will go a little further here. You see how long this parable, the second parable, lasts. It lasts from the onset of the church, to where the good seed was sown, until the end of the age. These two parables here, the third and the fourth.

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field. Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, (We seen that in Israel. It becomes a small tree.) and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.” You see what happens here. The birds come, the vultures come in and lodge in it. This relates to the Pergamos age when the church got friendly with the Roman government. Bro Jackson said Constantine was the first bird to land in the tree. I want to go to the next one. “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, (The church is not supposed to be leavened. There is not supposed to be leaven in the word. Like unto leaven…) which a woman took, (See? It goes back to the church, the woman.) and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” Now this relates to the Thyatira Age, as the Catholic church began to add all kinds of false teachings into the church. Now remember that, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. That took time for the leaven to set up. The whole thing became leavened, which the word of God is not leavened.

Let us go to Revelation 6:3, “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.” All of them have the same message. Whenever these horses start to ride, they come on the scene, each one of them. Because it mentions them. He opened the second seal and I heard the second beast say, come and see. “And there went out another horse that was red: (This horse began to ride in the second age of time. It talked about Antipas being martyred at Satan’s seat. The horse was red, which means blood, martyrdom. That happened all the way up into 316. Then you have a period of time for another hundred and eighty-five years, that is kind of in limbo. The red horse is riding, which is death, which is the shedding of blood. I heard the second beast say come and see, and there went out another horse that was red…) and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, (To kill the saints. Constantine stopped that. He did a great thing in one sense of the word. Yes, the killing of the church stopped, but the church began to go into darkness that lasted a thousand years. Power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth…) and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” What is the great sword? It is the killing of the saints. Let me go into the next one, which I probably will not get finished. “And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, a lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.” What is balances? Scales. A pair of balances, you can measure everything out with this. You can weigh things with a balance. What is he going to do with these balances? “And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine,” This is the Dark Ages now. This is the age of Thyatira. It is the black horse. From 500 to 1500. As I just read in Matthew, you will find that the woman hid leaven in three measures of meal. What is it talking about there? The same thing that is here, with a pair of balances. A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny. What is it talking about there? He is talking about the measuring out of the gospel by the Catholic Church. By this age, they are charging people money for the gospel. Forgiveness cost money. Everything had a price tag attached to it. This is what this is talking about, they are measuring penance, they are measuring baptism. Everything has to be bought. Jim Baker says these verses are for the end time and bread will be sold for a day’s wages. Where do they come up with that stuff? This has already happened. People were forced to buy penance. They were forced to buy water baptism and they were forced to buy marriage. If you wanted to get married, you had to pay for it. If you wanted to get baptized, you had to pay for it. Somebody would sprinkle a little water on your head. But see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. The oil is the Holy Ghost. The oil and the wine is the stimulation of the Holy Ghost. It still has a stimulant affect. It stimulates you to believe the word. Go on, go on as far as it will take you. That is what we are going to do in this time. We are going to go as far as the word will take us. I will leave off there.

…continued in the next edition.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum