Preached on April 26, 2020 – am
I have had this message on my mind for quite a while, even when I was dealing with the subject somewhat before, this was on my mind. I want to go ahead and let you see the things that I see about this, to see how it all goes and turns out. I have titled the subject, From Here to Eternity. I will be dealing with different things that will lead up to it, but I will not get into it too much this morning. I want to look at some of the circumstances and things that are going on right now and look at it through the word of the Lord and see the time in which we are living. Bro. Kevin brought a message Thursday night, I do not want to intrude on that, but I want to deal with some of the same scriptures he used, especially in 1st Kings, 17th chapter. There are things there that he dealt with that I want to look at it in a different direction. As I deal with it, we will see what comes of it. I know that in 1st Kings there is a lot there that has to do with the children of Israel and their fall from the Law. They were not under Grace as yet, but Grace still worked whenever they applied themselves to the understanding of scripture. Because we read where Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But it had to be beyond the Law to find that grace. Because they tried to keep the Law as something that they should not do, most of it dealt with that in that way, because there had to be somewhere that they were doing these things for God to put out the Law. I know about the time of Abraham that there was a king in the middle east, his name was Hammurabi. He was put out of his kingship because he was too interested in serving God. He was not a Jew, because the Jewish people had not come along at that time. But it was about the time of Abraham, but he was put out of his kingship because he put down some laws much like the Law, the ten commandments. Therefore, the kingship was taken away from him. I remember that from the school days I had it in the Methodist Church. We find that the Jews, they could find favor, and I am sure that David, along with Abraham, found favor with God and found the grace of God in that way, because of their obedience unto God, not for keeping the Law letter by letter, but by living the life that God had given them to live. You do not find many people at that time living up to that. Whenever Jesus came along, there was hardly anybody that really was living by the standards which the Law gave out. There was a Law given, that if a person kept that Law, then it was Grace unto them. But if they did not, there was a curse unto them. So, there is a way to live in this hour, that we can live in the grace of God, that He gives us. Then there is a way that if we do not, then there is a curse that goes along with it too. I want to deal with some of the things in this. I was thinking of the 1st verse of the 17th chapter. “And Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” I can just imagine a man like Ahab going away, laughing about this. He really was not taking it to heart, because they probably had good rain up until that time. As time goes on, I am sure that he thinks there is probably just a drought, that had nothing to do with it. But of course, Elijah said there would not be rain, nor dew, for a certain number of years. He did not tell them how long it would be. But it would be, according to my word, according to what God showed him. There would nothing happen until that time came, when God would show him it is time to do something about it. We have had droughts; we had a drought last summer. We did not apply it to anything of God doing it, but especially the people did not do that. We had a dry spell, but we did not have anything like this because we still had dew upon the ground, and rain in different parts of the country. Here in southern Indiana and around this area, we had no rain for several weeks. I am not relating that to this, but time went on, probably months, and Ahab did not think much about it. Maybe there was nothing too unusual about it, because I know that Israel looked for the early rain and they looked for the latter rain. This was what gave them their sustenance, the early and latter rain, before their crops finished. Then whenever they sowed their crops, then there was always rain. But this did not happen. It did not happen for six months. I am sure Ahab is beginning to wonder a little bit now. We have had a long dry spell, hot days, humid nights, everything of that nature, but no rain. By the time a year is gone by, God has a plan here, He has a plan for Elijah as we go on here. “And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” See? He is not getting away too much, he is not leaving Israel at all. But God is going to preserve him there for a short time, that until the brook dries up. It could have been six months; it could have been a year. We do not know the time limit it happened. But he was told to get hence eastward and hide thyself by the brook at Jordan. “And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” God commanded the ravens. The ravens are listening to the voice of God because He has commanded them to. Some people might say, I would not want to eat the food those ravens brought. If you got hungry, you would. But Elijah has not seen too much hunger yet because things were drying up, but now God has placed him in a place where there is a spring, a brook. There is a spring that leads into Jordan there. God has sent him there for a spell. How many days, I do not know. But it was for a time until that dried up. “And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” See?
He was close to the Jordan River. Everything is going fairly good for him. He got two meals a day. I am sure he was not picky about the meals he was eating. He has bread and he has flesh. I am sure there was no McDonald’s back then. Maybe a McDavid. Anyway, I remember when McDonald’s was building up, then Israel opened up with a McDavid. Maybe it was that. But these old ravens, which we would crows around here, they were stealing somebody’s food. Somebody put some bread in the window to let it cool, here the ravens took half of it. They knew what they were doing because God had commanded them. That is the way the Lord is. He always has a way for His people in a time of need, whether it be drought, or whatever. Just like the disease that is going on right now, God has a way of escape for the saints of God. I was thinking about some of our sisters who are nurses in these situations. They do not even want to mingle with their families because they do not want to carry something there. But God is keeping them from this dangerous situation. It has to be the hand of God because there is too much of it going on. “So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.” He has a leisure life there, I am sure he took time to make him a little hut by the brook, probably out of limbs and such like that. Maybe some moss to lay upon. So he was having it fairly good. But it is going to dry up for him. This is what I want to get to. “And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.” By this time Ahab is getting worried. But God is not going to leave Elijah there. He is going to do something with him to preserve his life. “And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, (We have a map here for you to be able to see, if you have a Scofield Bible and you can look at the map in your Bible, you will find where he went. It would be all the way up here, past Tel Aviv, all the way up into Syria, here is where he is at, up here near Tyre. So God is getting him completely out of Israel. He knows he is going to be looked for. He is being blamed for the thing that is happening. It was only God that did that, but He gave his prophet the word, it will not rain until you call for it. So he goes here, arise, get thee to Zarephath…) which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” What he does, he gets away from Jordan, all the way up here, he gets away from the Jordan River and goes all the way up here to Tyre and Sidon. He is all the way up in Lebanon now, this is where he has gone to. This is altogether out of the jurisdiction of Israel because God has placed him in this place. I have a reason to say that this morning, because I want to look at something else. Because there is a scripture I wondered about, why it was the way it was. It had something to do with this. “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, (See? He had already been told there was going to be a widow woman that will sustain thee. Why? Because God had showed her something. It did not all just happen to Elijah. God had to show her something and I want to get into that a little more, to see just what we are looking at. He went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold…) the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” He is talking about something that she still has, but he sounds like a beggar. But he is working the will of the Lord, that is what he is doing. Because God had already showed him, and God had showed her also what was going to take place. “And as she was going to fetch it, (to get the water) he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” This woman is not going to do this just because a man said that, if there is not already something that has been shown unto her. Because she is down to her last straw, to her last handful of meal, and her last drops of olive oil, to be able to make a little cake for her and her son. This is her last meal. God always looks out for whenever there is no hope, then He brings hope. He did to this widow woman, but it is for two purposes, because she has to be a Godly woman. Another thing, it has to be to sustain Elijah, because this is his hope also. It is not just for her; it is for him. But he does something unusual as he asks her. As she went to fetch the water, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread. This seems like somebody that is going to take advantage of someone. That is the reason why I know that God had to show her something, because she recognizes the voice of God. Listen to this, “And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, (See? She has seen something before, as the Lord thy God liveth…) I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, (This got down to the very end of the barrel. I am not preaching a message of prosperity this morning. That has nothing to do with it. This has to do with the hand of God.) and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
She is not a beggar. She is not going someplace else. God does not have beggars. God has plenty this morning. The thing about it is this woman saw her last hope. Here is a man that is a stranger, a Jew, and this is in the land of the Greeks. I will show you that. “And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, (That might seem like he is going to take the last piece of bread. But the reason I can say this, she has seen something.) and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.” See? The provision is you have to do things according to the will of God. Because Elijah is saying this in faith. He said, make it for me first, then make for you and your son, which is extending the meal and the oil, whenever he says this. “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, (See? He is introducing who he is. I am a Jew, thus saith the Lord God of Israel.) The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.” Three years. This was something that the Lord was doing. Jesus brings this up, I want us to see that. Jesus brings this up. “And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.” Bro. Kevin mentioned about Bro. Branham and the boy that was healed. I remember the story, how Bro. Branham was in Memphis. He had ridden a train to Memphis and stayed overnight and got up the next morning to catch the train. The train was ready to go, but he began to feel the voice of God around him. The Lord told him to walk to the poor part of town. He got out and began to walk. He walked for several blocks. He was led into the black section of Memphis. There was a woman sitting out on her porch in the early morning. She was a black woman. Bro. Branham was walking by and she called out to him, Hi Parson. He said, how did you know who I was? Bro. Branham said this is the way she answered him, The Lord said Elisha was coming by and that my son would be healed. She said, I saw you, you had a brown suit on, and a brown bag, but you do not have the bag with you. He said, it is back at the train station. What he did, he went in and prayed for the boy. He does not know what the results will be, but he knows the Lord had told him to go there. He prayed for the boy and went back to the train, it was supposed to have left earlier, but the Lord held it up for an hour and forty-five minutes, and he was able to catch the train to come back to Louisville. Two years later, he went through Memphis. A young black man hollered out to him, hey Parson. He asked, how did you know me? The man was dressed in a fine suit of clothes. He replied, I am a Christian now. He had a communicable disease from wrong living. He said, I am a Christian now, I am the one you prayed for and the Lord healed me. I want to take this story here into Matthew, 15th chapter. As I said earlier, I wondered about this here in Matthew 15, verse 21. “Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.” It is the same place where Elijah was. This was a little bit of a puzzle to me, because He said to the woman He is talking about, but He told the disciples whenever He sent them out, do not go into the way of Samaria. We know He went to Samaria once. He said, do not go into the way of Samaria, only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That is what He told the disciples to do, only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But now He himself goes into Syria. Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. “And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out (She was a Phoenician woman.) of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” See? She has already recognized who He is, thou son of David. He went all the way up here to rescue a little girl. God works in wonders, for His wonders to be perfected. Jesus did not go to Tyre and Sidon to convert people. He went there because He was led there for one little girl. God is concerned for individuals, but really it was the mother. She knew He was a Jew. She recognized He was a Jew, but she also knew who she was. Jesus did not really talk good to her, because He is trying her. God tries all of us to see what our response is toward Him. Sometimes it can be through sickness, sometimes it can be through trials and tests, even calamities in our lives, for Him to see what we are made out of. Not for necessity, but that others may see. God tried Abraham, told him to sacrifice his only son. We know that Ishmael was his son, but this was not the promised son. Even he was willing to settle with that at one time. Sarah laughed whenever she heard about it. But God looks over our failures at times because He knows what is in our hearts. That is the reason He looked over David to see that he was a man after His own heart. David had many failures, but he made one drastic mistake that caused him and his family to suffer because of what he did with Bathsheba. So God can look at us, even though sometimes people make mistakes. If you are in that book of life, He is going to get you. It may not be easy on this flesh, but He is going to get you if your name is in that book of life. So we see this woman here, “And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” He pretends He does not even hear her. The disciples hear her. But she has to go to her limit. She is not going to give up on what she needs. When pressure comes, when it looks like the last straw is to be had, then somewhere God puts His foot into the spokes of what we are riding on, even if He has to wreck us. He is going to have His will to be done, somewhere He is going to get a testimony out of it. God does not just do things just to be doing it, He is going to get a testimony out of it. I am sure there are going to be testimonies come from all this. Some of these sisters that are nurses, you never hear a word out of them, but somewhere God is keeping them safe. Others that are having to work around situations of that nature, God has His hand on it all. “But he answered her not a word. (Would we keep on? Have all your prayers ever been answered instantly? He does answer them, but sometimes we almost have to be as beggars when it gets down to the end of the rope. I remember years ago I preached, when you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot, and hang on. I have heard that statement made since that time, I am sure I did not start it all. But anyway, we never run out of rope with God. He answered her not a word…) And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.” See? The thing about it is, she is not giving up. She keeps on. She crieth after us. The disciples do not know any better at this time, they are willing to send her away with the need. Here He is, all the way up here out of Jewish territory. He has gone up where Elijah was at. He thought a lot of Elijah, the word of God thought a lot of Elijah. I remember Bro. Branham saying that God thought so much of the man that He sent that spirit five different times. We have one yet to go, which would be the fifth one. “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He is telling her what He really is sent for. But here He has gone out of his way to go all the way up into Syria for one purpose, one purpose only. He goes up there to the place where Elijah was to rescue somebody else. But He is not going to be a fool, He is telling right there what He is sent for. But this is unusual. God will take unusual circumstances to bring us to His will and purpose. We do not always understand it. We do not always understand why certain things happen. But it all works out for good to them that love God, always. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She could have said, well I guess I better go home; He is not going to pay any attention to me. You could say, well I will sit down, I will not pray any more. I remember a man years ago; he and his wife came here. His wife started here, she went to the Tabernacle but then she started coming here, her husband came with her for a while. Then all at once he did not come back anymore. I asked her, what happened to your husband, why is he not coming? She said, well he is mad at God, he prayed to God for something and God did not hear him, so he is mad and is not going to come back. It was not particularly important to him, was it? What he prayed for was not especially important, but it was his defeat. “Then came she and worshipped him, (After He had said all He did to her, she came and worshipped Him.
She is not going to give up. She is not going to let Him go. If we have a need, we just do not pray for it and stop just because it does not happen then. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up. Think about it. Mount up like eagles, God is going to give them strength. They are going to mount up like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. This is not talking about the physical, it is talking about the spiritual. A lot of people are bedfast, they could not run at all. But in their mind, they are running. In their spirit they are moving. Then she worshipped him….) saying, Lord, help me.” Lord, help me! She has done everything she knows to do in order to get an answer. I am sure there were a lot of other words said there, but these are the important words. This is not all. It looked like this ought to be enough, or should, it looks like it should be enough to run her off. What does He say next? “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” To the Jewish race, that is what the Greeks were, dogs. He just about put her at her lowest, calling her a dog. In other words what He was saying was, it is not right to take the Jewish people’s bread and give it to Gentiles. “And she said, Truth, Lord: (You are not going to defeat her. Just like the woman with Elijah, she was going to cook him a meal no matter what. If this is my last bit, she got everything out of the barrel that she had and put it into a little cake for Elijah, and she put in all the oil that she had. This seems to be unfair, does it not? It seems to be unfair what this woman is having to suffer to get through. But this is a lesson to me, it is a lesson to anybody else that would be going through something, you do not just quit. It is not always the right answer in our mind, but it is an answer. The woman was begging to Him and He called her a dog. To the Jews, that was about the lowest thing you could be for somebody to call you something like that. He could have said better words than that, but He is trying her. He is showing us a lesson. He was showing those disciples a lesson. This is not who it is sent to as far as the ministry is concerned, He is not there to preach, He went up there where Elijah was. It does not say anything about Him preaching a sermon up there. Elijah did not preach a sermon up there; he went up there for one woman and her son. God sometimes moves us around to where it is for somebody else’s benefit. I know he moved me here from being a pastor in the Methodist Church. I had every opportunity to move up. I had two brothers that were Methodist preachers, one had gotten a high rank. But they did not call me, God called me. God called you. He called you, your family is out there. He is not trying to make you miserable, that is the devil. This thing has caused the church to almost be empty. It is somebody’s test and trial. But if we look at this the right way, we are going to come out better than what we were because we are going to appreciate it more. How would you like to pray to God and Him to say, you dog, you dirty dog? That is what He said, He did not say dirty, but it means the same thing. It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. Then here comes her confession. She said, Truth, Lord, truth. She is feeling pretty low at that time. But her faith is still strong. Here are twelve disciples with Him, they are all looking on the scene, wanting to run her away. Because they did not have any revelation at that time. Jesus knew what He was doing all the time. But He is showing a picture there, just like Elijah did with the woman. That is something for us to think about. This is something for us to think about when we get so low, we think are prayers are not being heard. Keep on! Pray for the right thing and do not give in to the devil. She said, Truth Lord…) yet the dogseat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Just give me the crumbs. That is a small amount. But she knows who she is talking to. She has already said, thou son of David. Here she was, a Canaan woman. The disciples looked at her, you have no right to this. Because they did not have any revelation at the time. You have no right to this. I can see them, turning their nose up at her. They were called men of God. She said, Truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” In an instant, that is quicker than a microwave. God is aware of what we have need of this morning. He is looking upon the scene. He knows everybody’s problem. He knows what you are going through. He knows why you are staying home. He knows why this problem has come. It is not going to last always. There should come a revival of our minds out of this when we come together again. When we are all together again, it should be a refreshing, a time of jubilation in the Lord. I am not saying for everybody to run and start shaking hands, but give you elbow to somebody. God has a purpose in this. Much of the United States, except for Georgia, the first thing they opened up was the tattoo parlors and people being able to go back to the beauty shop again. These were the first things to open up. Dumb! I guess they have good business now. They can get their massages now. Much of America would like to go back right now and be the way they were before this. There was one prophet that prophesied about this, from this there will be a billion souls saved. How would you like to sit under his ministry? We know that is not going to happen. But the ones that God has His hand on will be saved. I am sure that something will come out of this for the good of those that love God, and those that are seeking God, those that are looking for an answer to their needs.
There is something going to come out of this for them. God does not just have everybody sitting at home for no purpose, keeping you from your job for no purpose. Now there are cities wanting the government, do you know who the government is? It is us; they are wanting us to pay off their bills. Even the mayor Louisville, he did not do too good when everything was fine. As much as this country has taken in taxes, there should not anybody be wanting, especially in New York, they have taxed people to death and now they are broke. They were already broke. Now they are wanting us peons to bail them out. If this country does not wake up, you will see George Washington’s vision taking place. Earthquakes, tornadoes, there were tornadoes that hit this week. Every few days there was a tornado. You did not use to hear of any in the wintertime, but it is all the time now. Earthquakes by the thousands. We have got so used to it that you never hear about it anymore because it is all about the corona virus. I saw Jonathan Cahn this week, he was talking about this thing, how this was tied in the 19th year, the first invasion of Judah came from Babylon in 606 B.C. The next one was 586, I believe it was, 19 years apart. He was talking about that; it has been 19 years since 9/11. He was typing all that out. Here in the last few days, they have called it COVID-19 19. Last week was one hundred years since Israel was given the right to be a nation, 1920. All these things are happening for a purpose. We are living in the endtime. God is putting figures on the board. There is supposed to be something going on in Washington in September 18-28th. The 26th is the big day, and it will be forty days from the election. God is a God of numbers. He knows exactly how to count. The world can mark off time, but they cannot tell what the time is. Only the saints of God can tell. I do not care how many prophets will prophesy a billion will be saved, or whatever, God has His number, and it will not be some man telling what the number is, unless God really shows them. I do not think He is going to show anybody how many people are going to be saved out of this. I will leave it at that this morning, let us pray.
Preached on April 26, 2020 – pm
This will be somewhat of a continuation of what this morning was. What I went over this morning was some things that I got from the scripture that I pray was a blessing to you, and I pray this will be the same tonight. As we go along, I know I have mentioned Luke, which is a different setting than what was in Matthew 4, the second part of it, the first part is almost word for word, being the same thing. But the second part is different. I want to go to St. Luke 4, first of all, and get my reading from there. I remember the first message I ever preached. It was Luke 4. I went over where the devil tempted Jesus, I remember the setting of that. I had not been a Christian too long and I was going to an independent church in Cincinnati Ohio. We lived there. Things were a little different then. I called the pastor up and asked if I could preach. That was kind of strange for me. He said, well, I do not know, it should be at least six months before you do. I did not say a lot more, I just said, well, I have been given some scriptures here in St. Luke. He said, alright then if you have been given some scriptures, then you come ahead. So I did, I think I preached thirty minutes or so. I do not know what I said, but I knew the scripture was given to me. I was very timid and bashful. For me to do something like that was unusual, because I dreaded to get up before the class in school and say anything. I remember I had something to talk about in English class. I got through and did not know I was through, the teacher said, well you have finished it now. It was because I was so nervous to get up before the class. I stumbled and stuttered a whole lot. I know when I was young and growing up, I did, and I would just forget what I was going to say. I would just say uh, uh, uh. But the Lord healed me of that. It is still sometimes a little problem, but not like it was in my youth. My brother got notice of me going to preach, he lived here in Louisville. He said he thought about coming to the church there in Ohio to hear me preach, but he did not. He was a pastor at the time in Louisville. But I went ahead and preached, then got another invitation to preach in another independent church. Then my brother wanted me to meet with him, me, and another brother, he had started preaching after I did. He wanted to meet with us. He asked me about going into the Methodist Church, he thought I could find a place, he would help me find a place in there. It was a struggle for me because really the Methodist Church was not in my system. Like I said, I had already gone to an independent church. My brother thought I would be able to do good in the Methodist Church, so he arranged that I would meet with the board. They accepted me and gave me a place to preach in Albany Kentucky. I was there one year, but I did not do exactly what the district superintendent wanted me to. It was because I visited a lot of people. I had to go to school in order to have that position in the Methodist Church. I was a person that was not too much liked because I believed in visiting the people who were down and out. Whenever I did, people did not like it. I had a bigger church, but they did not like that. So different ones came against it. One man who went with me said he wanted a holiness preacher. I did not know what a holiness preacher was. I thought I was preaching holiness. But they got me moved after the first year. The district superintendent said, I do not know what I am going to do with you, after certain people came against me. So that is when he sent me to Burkesville. That was the best move I ever made, because that is where I did hear about Bro. Branham and the message. It was a year after that when I did. I went there in 1960, and in 1961 I heard the message of truth that was presented by Bro. Branham. I accepted it all. Serpent seed was something new to me. Hell not being eternal, that was another thing that was all new to me. But I accepted it right off. When I went to the conference in Louisville, I had received the seven church ages. That was in June of 1961. I was baptized while I was listening to those. It was just something I had been introduced to, but I was not baptized at that time. When I was introduced to it, then it was easy for me to accept. It was easy for me to accept that Bro. Branham was a prophet, the Elijah for the day. That began my ministry in the Methodist Church. It was not long before I began to have problems. Because I began to preach what I had heard. I saw people in the congregation shake their head, no, while I was preaching. You do not last long like that. I know I thought so much of the tapes of the church ages, I took them to one of the church prayer meetings and had to turn it off, because they did not want to hear it. Anyway, Sis. Bean did hear it and she came out of all of that. Her and a couple others were the ones that came out of that. They were the first ones that I knew of that accepted it. But then I began to get letters from the “Jesus only.”
They thought, whenever I started preaching the message, then thought I was preaching Jesus only. But that did not last very long after they found out what I really did preach and what I had learned. Now I want to go to this chapter, which is the first chapter I ever preached from. The next was on Lazarus, that I preached about. Anyway, I want to start with the 16th verse of this chapter. This is kind of the first of Jesus’ messages to His own people, and to the people there at Nazareth. Nazareth did not have a good name. It still does not today. A lot of Muslims live there. Ramadan is going on now and a bunch of them are meeting over in Louisville. The mayor said nothing about it. Some of the other churches are getting on the mayor for letting the Muslims meet, when he will not let the others meet. You can see how people work and how scared they are to oppose anything. They do not care to oppose Christ. It is kind of like it was whenever He came back to Nazareth for the first time after He had begun to preach and had begun to do miracles. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Now this was His custom. Whenever He was in Nazareth, it was His custom to get up and read. But this time it is going to be different because He has a message this time. I am sure that He did every other time, but He just read scriptures, no doubt, then sat down. Because of the anointing, this is the first time He has preached in this place with the anointing. Before, He was just a regular person, except for the life that He lived. Everybody knew the life He lived. He was not a renegade or anything like that. But people sometimes like renegades better than they do Christians. “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. (Isaiah) And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.” It just so happened that He looked into Isaiah, chapter 61, the first verse. As He has done this, it was the purpose of God for Him to do so. Because it said there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias, Isaiah. When He opened the book, He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, (He is speaking of himself now. Because this was Isaiah’s prophecy. He did not repeat everything that Isaiah said in this, but much of it He did. There was one part where it would be judgment that would be brought, which we know happened in 70 A.D. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me….) because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Everything was going alright then, but it is what He does later that is not satisfactory. “And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.” See? He read it different than He had ever read it before. It has been with authority that He read this.
He closed the book; he closed the scroll and gave it back to the minister. All eyes were upon Him. “And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Now then, there is something wrong about truth here. They do not want to hear anything about truth. He is still that boy that grew up there among the other boys. No doubt He was associated with others that grew up there, where He was around them quite a bit working in Joseph’s carpenter shop and so on. He began to say to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, (Now here is the problem. They are looking at Him and said…) Is not this Joseph’s son?” Right there is where their problem starts. Is not this Joseph’s son? They did not recognize Him as being the Son of God, this is just Joseph’s son. They were really putting a slant on Him there because Mary had a bad name, because she was expecting a child before she was married. They knew all about this. Here they are pointing this out, is not this Joseph’s son? What they are thinking here, is this not Joseph’s son, but they did not know the background of it all. They would not have accepted it anyway. “And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: (What He is saying there, heal yourself, your own background, where you were born, where you came from, your mother, and Joseph, and so on. He is giving them the thoughts of their mind right there. Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. They had heard of the miracles. They knew about all these things.) whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” See? He is reading their thoughts right then and they are not liking what they are hearing said. Because He is with people He grew up with. There are no disclaimers there in His message to what they were thinking. He was not going to go ahead and explain all this because they are not going to believe it anyway. They do not believe He is the Son of God; He is the son of Joseph. That was what they had already said. “And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” Now He is really getting to them. He has introduced himself as a prophet. They are not liking that. “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, (Elijah) when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” All of Israel was without water, without food. We do not know how many died. We do not know how many starved. We do not know how many died of thirst, but it was a bad time. Elijah was not sent to any of them. It is the voice of God, that God is working with in this hour. As we read on here, as I go into the 10th chapter later, then we will see. “And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”
He is going back into Syria again. See? There is something unusual about that part of the world, even though Jesus was not sent there by God, yet God led Him there. He talks about the days of Elijah. He talks about the days of Elisha, where he was sent into Syria, just the upper part of Lebanon. Really Lebanon is where Jesus went whenever He was led there. “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.” The whole, as they say, the whole kit and caboodle. All of them were filled with wrath because of what He just said, they could not take it. There were good people among them. All of them were not renegades, but there were many that were in Nazareth. Because it had a bad name. Whenever Jesus was brought back from Egypt as a baby, or a toddler, then He was taken to Nazareth to get out of the way of Herod. That was the reason for it. That is the reason they claim it was not a real good city. “And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” We have been there. I have been there at different times, every time I have been to Israel, I have been there. This is really overlooking part of Israel’s breadbasket. But it is a high cliff, hundreds of feet high, this was where they had taken Him to throw Him over that cliff. But God helped Him escape. I want to read on here through the 37th verse, because there is something here, I want you to catch. He passed through the midst of them and went on His way. “And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, (He was getting away from there, He is coming to the place where Peter and those had grown up. It was a fisher’s town.) and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.” It would be a Saturday morning to us, but it was the seventh day, the Sabbath day, when Jesus came there. They were astonished at his doctrine, for His word was with power. “And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, (The man was just ornery, it was not just a devil, it was an unclean devil, a bad one. Here He is facing this. There is a reason I am bringing this out the way it is because He is in Capernaum. There was a man with an unclean devil…) and cried out with a loud voice.” He was interrupting. Jesus was speaking as one having power, and here is a devil that is speaking against it. Many of the devils even called Him out by name. Here is the Son of the Most High God. But He did not like it. “Saying, Let us alone; (There was more than one there, let us alone.) what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.” The devil knew Him. That is why sometimes we have trouble; the devil knows us. He knows who we are. He knows the truth we stand for. He knows the message we have been taught. He knows all about it. The Bible says he even fears and trembles. He does not like truth because he is a liar, a liar from the beginning as the Bible says. He is the one that began the lie, he is the one that started the whole thing. Because he wanted to exalt himself above the stars of God, or above the angels, he wanted worship. The devil likes worship. All these people that says there is no God, he does not get any joy out of that, he has already got them. Why would he get joy out of that? But he likes to attack somebody that is acquainted with God, somebody that has the spirit of God. That is why Jesus Christ has such a bad name even now. Whenever they are speaking against Him, they are speaking against us. The same spirit that God was, was in Christ, and the same spirit that was in Christ is in us. We are acquainted with Him. He knows us. He knows us by name.
It was not Bro. Branham, when he picked out somebody and told them where they were from, told them their name, told them their street number, that was the spirit inside him, telling them those things. Because the Holy Spirit knows all about us. Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? That is all those devils inside him speaking out. I know who thou art, the Holy One of God. He is speaking truth, but it is not edifying. The devil wants to exalt himself, even in the plan of God, he wants to get somewhere, not in some corner some place, he wants to get out front. He likes to take over a service. He likes to take over lives. “And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, (In other words, He was saying Stop It! Do not say no more! I have heard enough! See? The spirit of God is just as real tonight as it was then. We are going to begin to look at it in that way, in a way that is going to be beneficial to us if we are ever going to have that revival that everybody has been looking for. Bro. Branham and Bro. Jackson both looked for a revival to come where everybody would have their oil, a little vial of oil, everyone. Jesus rebuked him, saying, hold thy peace…) and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.” What a change, a man standing there, a man of rebuke. But God saw that from the very foundation of the world. He knew what would happen. We do not catch God off guard. He knows when we pray. Remember the song, we may not feel Him, but we are not alone. We may not feel Him, you do not have to feel Him all the time, but you know He is there. Because He said, I will never leave you and never forsake you. When things get rough, when they get to where we do not know our way out, God is still there and there will be a way out. “And they were all amazed, (Now where is He at? He is in Capernaum. Do you think Capernaum has really caught on with a revival? We will have to see. They were all amazed…) and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority (They saw the authority there. He was taking charge of the situation. The same God then is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, as long as we are here, He is going to be present with us, a present help. They were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this. For with authority…) and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.” You would have thought this would have taken care of everything in Capernaum. Let us go to the 10th chapter. Time has gone on, close to two years later. Think about it. Bro. Jackson said a revival will not last over three years. So did Bro. Branham. That will be enough to get the church ready, whatever time is left there. Luke 10:1, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, (He had already appointed the twelve before that, but He gives them the same message, He gives them the same instructions.) and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” So He followed them. He sent them to every place where He would come. It did not mean the same day. “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” He is asking them to pray that the Lord would bring forth the harvest. Bring forth the harvest, that is what He is asking his disciples to do, because there is a harvest coming. Even to us, there is a harvest day coming. “Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” He realizes they are young in this, so He is telling them, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: (He said carry not these things, but I am sure they had shoes on.) and salute no man by the way.” In other words, what is He saying there? Do not stop and just gab and talk. Because He sent them on a mission. Do not get mixed up in your fish talk, Peter, James, and John, do not tell them how long was the biggest you caught. He does not want them to get distracted or pulled aside with foolish things. I am talking about the disciples because they are sent on a mission. It is not an everyday thing. This did not last always, but He meant for them to go on a mission and not get distracted. He is sending them out empty, they are not even supposed to take cash with them. Because He is going to teach them a lesson. When I was growing up, preachers got very little, and I had heard the statement made, well, we do not want to give them too much because then they would get greedy. They did not give them much.
I remember one preacher when I was growing up, he drove an old Model T. Everywhere you would see him, he was pushing that thing down the road. That was supposed to keep them humble, that is what they said, we want to keep them humble. Let me go over that again, carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, and salute no man by the way. “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” He is giving them instructions. “And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.” These prophecy preachers today, this would not do for them, they have to have the best of everything, sports cars, mansions, motorcycles. Everything that they feel they want. I remember when my mother-in-law was in the hospital, about 1997, this Church of God preacher, they were going to raise his salary from seventy thousand to seventy-two thousand. What did he do? He said, I am worth more than that, I want seventy-eight thousand. I do not know if he got it or not. The people who went to that church said that. That was not enough. That was twenty-three years ago. He said, I am worth more than that. I guess I would have told him, then go get a job if you feel that way about it. “And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.” He had a reason to tell them that. “And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick that are therein, (There is going to be payment from this. He is not just saying pray for the sick, He said heal the sick.) and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” This was His ministry; this was His word. “But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.” The message that He is sending them, He is telling them what to preach. It is not His words, but He is telling them what they must preach. There is a price with the gospel. Then He begins to say something here. These are the places that He has preached. “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, (Remember) which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” He is saying if the things that have been done in Bethsaida and Chorazin, if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. But somewhere they lost out from all the mighty works that had been done, they lost it all. That speaks to this generation in which we live. Because God sent a prophet to Laodicea. He preached his heart out unto a bunch of people. But whenever the seals came, that sealed them. 1963, God shut the lights off to the denominational world. Because He had sent a message of truth and they never got over it. He is saying to them, I would that you were either cold or hot, then I could speak to you, but because they had slumbered and sat down in their pews, the great healings do not mean anything anymore. The net that was cast out did not mean anything anymore. Because of truth, because God turned on them. Whenever God called Bro. Branham, He told him to preach, what to preach, He told him to do the work of an evangelist. That is what he was doing all the way from the 1940’s into the 1950’s. He was doing the work of an evangelist. They did not know what he believed. In Laodicea, the denominational world and the independent world become lethargic.
They like the loaves and the fishes. This is what went on here. Woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida, if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they would have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Just like Jonah when he went to Nineveh, he went to preach repentance to them. He could not believe it; he could not believe his message after he preached it. The book of Jonah is not the only place he is written about in the Old Testament, because he was represented as a prophet, but he was sitting there for forty days waiting for God to destroy his message. He preached repentance, but he did not believe what he had preached. Here is a city, with probably hundreds of thousands of people, because they said there was a hundred and twenty thousand that did not know their left hand from their right, that was children or somebody that was an invalid. I think the first gourd God had to grow, then the worm came and ate it up. That gourd was a good shade for one day. He woke up the next day and it was all withered because God created the worm. God is going to get out of us what He wants out of us before the end comes. He is going to see His word fulfilled to the very letter. “But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.” They are going to be better off at the judgment, they are not going to be punished as much. But they have seen all the miracles. They have been able to be there when the five thousand were fed. They feasted on the best. He goes on here, “And thou, Capernaum, (See? That is what I read in the 4th chapter. That is where they received Him, the mighty works He did there. Two years later, He is telling them their judgment. It is just like the great meetings that were done in California. Even the Salvation Army went in there and there were people that heard from the Salvation Army, because they were not like they are now. When it came to the 1960’s they went back and tried to have another meeting, but they made mockery of them. They got on the back of flatbed trucks going through the town, trying to get people to repent during the 1960’s. Do you know what they did? They told the women to pull their clothes off in San Francisco. Thou Capernaum…) which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.” The one that Jesus had spoken so well about, that they had the great meetings there in Capernaum, this is close to where Peter’s house was. He went from Capernaum to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house and healed her of a fever. Where is Capernaum now? An earthquake took it down. You are exalted to heaven; you will be thrust down to hell. Bro. Branham preached a message about Los Angeles. He said, oh thou, the city of the angels, Los Angeles, the city of the angels. You have been raised up to heaven. He said, you will be brought down to hell. Because Los Angeles is built on a ledge that comes out over the ocean. One of these days it will break off, just like the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands has such a split in it now. They claim that if it broke off, there would be waves a thousand feet high that would sweep all the way across the east coast. No doubt this will be whenever the tribulation is over because God said the islands will flee away and the cities of the nations will fall. They said it would reach the top of the Empire State Building in New York, the flood waters would reach there, going at the speed of a jet airplane. God is going to sweep this earth. I was reading in another place in Isaiah, where he tells us to get ready, for the church to get ready, because of the protection that will come to her. I am not sure, but it could be chapter 41. But the body of Christ is going to be protected.
Thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell. The gospel went west, it started on the east coast and went to the west, all the way to California. There the revival happened in California. Now what is it? What is Los Angeles? What is San Francisco? What is the state of Washington? Oregon? They are the places which have had their chance. What about New York? What did they do four years ago? They put up the gates of Baal. But God, right now, is taking people off the scene in New York, like nowhere else. Possibly one third of the deaths are in New York state. Many of them are in New York City. They built the new building to replace the Twin Towers. They could not even occupy it for months because it was rat infested. I remember them talking about it on the news. It was filled with rats that they had to get rid of. When they got rid of the rats the Chinese moved in. China has poisoned us. They have. This nation, this people, it is not only in our country, but also in our states, in our counties, in our cities. But here Jesus is saying something to us in this hour. “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.” It goes all the way back to God himself. Oh those Christians. But it is, we love the Muslims, but we cannot stand the Christians. The Muslims can meet over in Louisville. The mayor says nothing. But church buildings have been closed. It is a diabolical religion. Homosexuals and lesbians are having their day today. But these preachers got to scared, they took the crosses off their churches. They took the blood out of their song books. They are trying to make a new Bible where there is a female God. This is not mother earth. This is God’s created earth for mankind. We are living on God’s creation that He created for us. He gave the earth to man. “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils were subject unto us through thy name.” See? They were already preaching in His name because this is what their mission was. They were not to talk about themselves, they were to talk about the Lord Jesus. “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” He knew where He was sending them. He knew they would face opposition, but He is going to take care of some of that stuff before they ever get there. That is why they came back rejoicing as they did. I beheld Satan as lightning falling from his heavenly position. “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” He was talking to the seventy. Here we have the closest to John’s writing about Him in the 17th chapter, that we will find anywhere. “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: (That is talking about the church, for the body of Christ. All things are delivered to me of my Father…) and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” My! What a connection there that we have, to be able to know the Lord. “And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets (He is talking to us too. I tell you that many prophets…) and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” It makes you feel a little bit religious, does not it? Just to know the goodness of God to us, that He was not speaking to them only, He was speaking to us also. It was a spirit of unction to us. It is not a duty to serve God, it is a privilege. We are a privileged people. Prayer
Preached on May 3, 2020 – am
This is part 3 of this message today. I want to go into it with respect to the word of the Lord and to be able to see some of the things that was promised that would be, and that it is happening at this time. I look into the word of the Lord for that. The scripture in 2nd Chronicles, I want to look at that this morning, and we will go on from there. Chapter 7 of 2nd Chronicles, in this chapter Solomon has just had a great feast. At the end of it the Lord speaks to him. He had offered up thirty thousand, I believe it was, of bullocks and all in the offering, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. There was never anything like this that had been done in Israel before. Solomon has dedicated the temple, he has built his own house, and has finished this now. It was seven years in being built. It did not start right when he became king, but it started thereafter. He has done all this and now has prayed to God and asked God’s blessings on the work of his hands, that he has done to prepare things according to the will of God, of what He had told him to do. We find that Solomon, at this time, is very much a person that has offered himself unto the Lord. This was not long after David’s death. David had plans for a temple, so Solomon is really just going ahead with the plans of David. Much of the things that went into the ark of the covenant are things that David had provided while he was still alive. Whenever he took over the kingdom, then the plans were already there for him, what to do and everything, the offerings of things, everything of that nature that is used. Then Solomon begins to build the temple on the plans that David had made. David genuinely loved the Lord. There were mistakes in his life, things that should not have been, but he still loved the Lord and the Lord respected him for what he was willing to do, and to confess whenever things were wrong. I will start here with verse 12 of chapter 7. This is when God really does accept the things that he has offered unto the Lord. “And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.” A house of sacrifice, that is really what it is all about. It is the sacrificial place for the animals, for the people’s sins. I remember the first time we went to Israel. The guide that was with us was a Jew. He talked about some of the things in the scripture. I remember him talking about when you go into the temple area, you go in one way and come out another way. Because what you are really doing, you are leaving your guilt and sins there at the altar, as you worship. But you cannot go back out the same way. That is the same thing with salvation. We must leave the things we have done and go another direction from there. We leave them completely behind. This is what was represented here. I am sure that not many of the Jews really realized that. Because it did not affect them as it should have affected them. I remember the guide talking about that, and it is in the scripture in the book of Ezekiel. It tells about the same thing.
As it says here, the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, whether it was by dream or a vision, and said I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. So it was God’s choice, because He had chosen it for himself after all the instructions were given. No doubt when David made the instructions, it was on the premise of what God had shown him to do. Solomon just had to follow the word of David, just as we have to follow the word of God in order for our sacrifice of ourselves to be acceptable unto the Lord. “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, (Concerning the locusts, it seems God always starts out, as He did in Egypt, with the locusts. That is one of the things that happened in Egypt. There were the locusts. Now in Africa there are a lot of pictures of this that is going on. So it was by a curse that this happened to Israel. God is telling them the remedy for getting rid of the locusts and so on. We will see that here.) or if I send pestilence among my people.” We know what pestilence is, it is a contagious disease. He said, if I send them to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, then “If my people, which are called by my name, (He is talking about the Jews which were called by His name. Really the Jews are the wife of God. They are His wife, the Jews are, as it is explained in different scriptures. If my people which are called by my name…) shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” See? God knew this was going to happen, but He is giving them a stipulation. It is just like it was in Bro. Branham’s ministry, God gave people a stipulation what they must do in order for their healing to take place. A lot of them turned around. A remember a cousin of Bro. Branham. He said he did not believe in Bro. Branham because Bro. Branham promised to heal him, and it did not take place. But I come to find out he did not obey what Bro. Branham had told him. There is always obedience to what would be the purpose of something happening unto a person. He is telling Israel here the same thing that lasts right on through until they are carried away, even under Zedekiah. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied to him, if they would change their ways then God would keep Nebuchadnezzar’s army away from them, if they would humble themselves. But they did not, they laughed at Jeremiah and put him in the dungeon. They dropped him in a hole where there was nothing but mire because he was obeying the word of the Lord. He went through many things. He suffered many things because he loved the Lord. I have something here concerning that, which will be Jeremiah 39. Let us look at that and see what God has said here. There are a couple verses that have names that I cannot pronounce, I will skip those verses. “In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.” The Jews are thinking all along, because they have mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, well, we had plenty to eat when we served these false gods, and all, why should we change? We had plenty to drink, we had all these things, our crops, which God allowed to try them. God will allow things to try people, to see which way they are going to go. “And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.” One year and a half later, when Nebuchadnezzar came in, then the city was broken up. I will go to the 4th verse, “And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the King’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: (you might say in between the two walls) and he went out the way of the plain.” See? He is thinking that he is going to leave the city and escape. This is his plan of escape. He left the people there to be slaughtered or whatever. He left the city to be burned, but he wanted to save himself.
“But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.” See? He is all the way north in Assyria whenever they take him to meet Nebuchadnezzar. It is a long journey from where they caught him there in Jericho, all the way up to Hamath, which is the further part of Israel under David, which God had promised unto them. So he had taken them all the way up there to the king. “Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.” See what it cost them because they did not give into the word of the Lord. There is always an expense when we do not follow the Lord. It is always costly whenever we do not. “Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.” They let him see his sons and the nobles being killed, then they put out his eyes that he might not see any more. “And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.” This is going to last for seventy years as Jeremiah promised it would. “Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah (See? He is being rewarded now for listening to God, because some way, somehow, this all got back to the king. He is treating him very nicely. He gave charge concerning Jeremiah…) saying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.” He is giving a command unto his guard to do to him as he would say. Let us go to the 14th verse. “Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, (See? This Ethiopian has already done him good. When he was in the dungeon there, this Ethiopian got him out of the pit, took rags and things, threw them down there to put under Jeremiah’s arms, to draw him out of the pit.
Now he is going to be rewarded. Speak to the Ethiopian…) saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.” He is talking to this Ethiopian. “For I will surely deliver thee and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.” So he is being rewarded for what he had done for Jeremiah. God is aware of everything that a person does in His favor. He never forgets. I want to go to Revelation 6 now. This is confusing to the prophetic preachers today, because they do not believe, these older ones missed what God sent by the way of His prophet, through the seals. I remember the story told by Bro. Jackson, about one of the close friends and followers of Bro. Branham. He wanted to see what was said in the seals. He brought the seals back after a week of studying and said I do not want nothing to do with it. This is the attitude of people, whenever we know that it was a revelation of God. They got it all mixed up. They got all the horses riding here at the endtime. They have the temple being built beside the mosque. All these things, they believe, are being done. Some of the prophetic preachers think this is going to happen. They do not know the scripture. They read it but they do not know it. They feel like the league between Israel will be with the Palestinians. They are even saying now that what Trump is planning to do with the Palestinians, that he is going to be the one to cause them to sign a treaty. We know it is not. We know it is with Babylon. But many even think that Babylon is New York City. I am sure it is “a” Babylon, but it is not “the” Babylon. Because it has never escaped Rome, it has always been there. Let us look here in the fourth seal. Verse 7, “And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.”
I remember Bro. Jackson talking about that. He said this is the only one that has a voice to it. The voice of who? When he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. That voice would have been Bro. Branham, because he is the one that God used to open these seals unto. None of the rest of them said that they heard the voice of him that spoke. So this would be the fourth beast, that is what it would be. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast, say, come and see. So there is something to look at. There is something to view in that, that he is speaking, because even God showed it out in Arizona, the things that happened at that time whenever the seals were opened. Whenever God gave Bro. Branham the seals, then even the newspapers photographed what really happened out there in Arizona, concerning this. Because it said, come and see. So there is something to be seen as this happened. “And I looked, (He looked. This is still the fourth beast talking.) and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given (See? He is stipulating something here. Power was given…) unto them over the fourth part of the earth, (See? It is talking to a singular individual. Power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth. See? He first mentions he sees a horse, and his name that sat on him. One person, which would be the pope of Rome. Hell followed with him. Power was given unto “them”. Them would be his armies, as we look into the future. We know that part of this beast is already riding. We know that. But there is going to be a part that is going to happen later. Because it says that death and hell followed with him. Power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, which would be Europe and the Middle East, as far as that kingdom went.) to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death.” This is just a forerunner; this is not the real that is talking here. To kill with death. What they talk about in China, is that this came from a dead animal, from what they had going on in a laboratory. So this is what it is talking about, to kill with death. This is just a sample, a sample of the things that are happening now. There was something I heard this week by someone I know very well. They are talking of putting boats out in the ocean with these victims of the corona virus, put them out in the ocean. They are going to put a mark on their foreheads to tell all that is going on within their lives. What cruelty. They are putting them out there to die, that is what they are doing. This is their plan. This is their talk of doing something like this. I remember reading about the Exodus boat. Nobody would accept it. It went to Europe; they would not accept it. It went to the United States, Washington. President Roosevelt would not accept it and sent it back out to sea. When all this happened, a lot of those Jews died on the boat, because they ran out of food, out of everything.
Diseases took hold with them, so a lot of them died because of that. It looks like this disease that is going on right now is going to be a death toll to people that have a disease, if their plans work out. This is in their plans because they want to get rid of the older people anyway. They do not care. All these places in New York, a fourth of all the people that have died there have been in these older peoples nursing homes. A fourth of all of them, are in these places. Now Cuomo and those are getting in trouble because of this. They know they took people that had the disease and put them in these nursing homes. This is what happened. I am sure it happened in many places. I pretty much have proof of it, which I will not say. But anyway, this is what is going on now. It really started out with dead animals that they had let out of these laboratories, or one laboratory. The Chinese government knew it. This is the best time we have ever had to get rid of China, to get rid of their influence, because ninety percent of drugs are made in China. Now they are figuring out a way to make them here, that it will not be done in China. Brothers and sisters, there is a lot of crookedness going on. I remember Bro. Jackson saying that if we only knew what went on in Washington, it would frighten us. That was twenty years ago when he said that. Now we see what he was talking about. Bro. Branham said, before the end time that there would be people in Washington running the country who are insane. You see the insanity that is going on there. They do not know they are insane. They are doctors and lawyers, everything else, but they are insane because they are not trying to help people to get rid of this thing that has come. They just pile them in nursing homes in order to get rid of the older people. That is exactly what is going on. “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” This is what will be happening during the last half of the week. This all will be compiled in one thing in order to bring death to people that do not follow along with them. You read this in chapter 11 of Daniel, just how diabolical it is, and then in the 11th chapter of Revelation. Today we are looking at scripture that is telling us what is going on in the nation and around the world at this time. Matthew 24 let us go there. “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.” They were admiring this, they probably had not been there too many times, because they were fishermen and more or less stayed around Galilee. By this time, the people were beginning to not go to Jerusalem to worship, because the thing had become so crooked there.
“And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? (He is asking them a question.) Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” We have seen that. “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Or the end of the age. The world is not ending, but the age. The end of civilization as we know it now, whenever God pours out His judgment upon the earth. As I talked another time about all these different things, they claim now, as they talk about the San Andreas fault, as it takes in Los Angeles and those places, but now they claim there is a bigger fault that takes in all of California. Now they are thinking about that and worrying about it. He is telling them, do not look at this thing, this thing is going to go. But now He is going to tell them something that will help them. They had asked Him, what is the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world. He has already talked to them some about this. You read it in other books, such as Mark and Luke. But now He is concluding this as He is talking to them, because they had no idea about the end of the world, except they had heard of it. “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” To be continued next issue.