Preached on August 18 PM & August 21 AM, 2022
August 18th 2022 PM Service
Rev. James C. All
I have some scriptures I will use tonight because there have been questions asked and I want to deal with that tonight, then I will get back into my subject of the Millennium on Sunday, Lord willing. Although the answers to the questions could be tied into The Millennium. I always enjoy people having spiritual questions. I thank the Lord for helping me to answer each question by the Word. I do my best to answer each one that is put before me.
The Scripture Is Given to
Us to Understand
My scripture reading comes from the sixth chapter of John. A very familiar scripture that both I and Bro. Kevin have used of late. It never grows old because there is so much in there. Without the sixth chapter the rest of the Book of John would not be as important to us. This chapter tells you who Jesus was and who you are. It has the answers to many questions in life for which we desire and need answers to. I remember asking this question to Bro. Jackson sometime during the 1990’s. He did not give me an answer for it then because (I figured) he needed to think about it. That is the only question that I ever asked him that he did not give me an answer. But I never asked him very many questions. Not that I thought that he did not know the answers. There can always be things that will stump (Ed. perplex) everyone, but answers will come to them sooner or later. We thank the Lord for His grace to show us in His time. Because, as I said, this scripture here is very important. John is writing what Jesus said as a complete thought that the disciples did not know what He was talking about, and especially the Pharisees and Sadducees did not know. Because they were always asking him questions. There were many times Jesus did not give them an answer because He said it was not given to the Pharisees and Sadducees to know. But it was given to the believers to understand. That goes for days gone by as well as the days we are living in. We will never know all of it, but I feel like we are going to know enough to get us through and make it to the rapture. The rapture is being talked about much in this day. We know there are a few things that are still on God’s agenda that must happen before the rapture takes place, especially as we see in Isaiah 52:8. In Isaiah 52:8 it says the watchmen come together when the Lord brings Zion again. Zion is the ‘Jewish revelation’ (let me put it that way) of the Messiah which will come again. Also, we know the scripture talks about when Zion travails children would be born, a nation would be born, talking about the nation of Israel. There is much turmoil in Israel right now. The president has very little desire for Israel, but that does not matter. The Bible says, though all nations come against her, yet God will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. I remember Bro. Jackson talking about that, he said God would destroy their economies. We sure see the downfall of the economy of the United States happening in this time. You cannot go against Israel and expect to prosper. What would become the land of Israel was mapped out by Abraham. God took him up on the mountain and showed him the land that he would possess. It increased further when the children of Israel were getting ready to cross the Jordan River into their land, three of the tribes already had inheritance on the east side. Because they took over the land of some of the people that opposed them. Israel was not the one ‘picking a fight’ but the enemies came against them. Sometimes it might have looked different. Of course, the governmental leaders are now saying that the Bible is wrong because of what happened in the Old Testament. They think that it was wrong that Israel took land. But in God’s eyes it was right. He saw the outcome. God knew the attitudes of those nations. Some of them were already cursed by God because of the way they lived. Some of them were so evil that God did not allow their children or even their animals to live. Because God saw how vile their future would be if allowed to live. When the land is cursed, then the animals can be cursed also. We see in America today that they murder little babies before they are born, and even after they are born, they murder them. We must call it like it is, it is murder. But this is glorified by a nation that knows not God.
He Came To Die
I was asked a question about the sixth chapter of John, and I will go into that, starting in the 29th verse. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” This caused a great stir when He began to talk about His position. They did not understand because it was not given to them to understand. The disciples did not even understand what He was talking about here. It would have to be a revelation to them that would come later. This took place about 31 A.D., but Jesus is speaking of something in the future. He only had a couple more years to live and present the Word to the disciples. Those two years came and went very fast. I was reading in the Book of Luke the 9th chapter (near the same timeframe as here in John chapter 6) where His face was already set to go to Jerusalem. The disciples did not understand when Jesus told them His time was drawing nigh. When you get to the 11th chapter of John, He is already in Jerusalem. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell of many of the miracles of Jesus. There are miracles in the book of John, but John goes a little further and talks about the deity within Him. Without a revelation people could mistakenly picture Jesus as God, but it was God in Christ. Christ means ‘the anointing.’ When He was filled with the Holy Ghost, that made Him the Christ. Before that, He was Jesus, just like many other men named Jesus. Bro. Jackson said the word Jesus for Him is a compound name. For other people who were named Jesus, it was not a compound name. What do we mean by compound? It represents Him as being both the Anointed One, and as being a man. He was both man and God in Him. I am not going to say that He was man and God, because that would confuse people. It was God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Jesus fulfilled the scriptures in that He was to come and to die. To preach the gospel, the good news to let people know who He was and why He was here, and to give His life. The good news was that He came to die. This sixth chapter of John tells that. This whole chapter is the story of Jesus giving His life. Because without the death of Jesus and His resurrection there would be no salvation. People would still be under the Law. God had to blind the Jews to go to the Gentiles. He has never dealt with both Jew and Gentile at the same time. There are many different nationalities of people, but the Bible lists just two groups, Jews, and Gentiles. Everybody that is not a Jew is a Gentile. The children of Japheth were called Gentiles (Ed. heathen or foreigners). When it came time for the gospel, then we all became Gentiles except for the Jews. Because God was going to deal with the nations as He promised to Abraham, ‘In thy seed (Jesus Christ and His seed) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.’
His Life Came from God
I will read some more. Verse 30, “They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?” They are showing their ignorance here. They are showing their unbelief because they are looking for a sign. As Jesus says in Matthew, there will be no sign given to them, but the sign of Jonas as he was three days in the belly of the fish, so would the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (There are always representations in the scripture of future events.) Then they go ahead to show more ignorance here. “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Now He is going to speak some things that they will not understand, but the disciples and the believers will understand later. John is the only gospel that this is recorded in this way. Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not record it in this way. They each have their own words to record things, but they all paint a picture of who He was. Verse 32, “Then Jesus said unto them, (This was the question asked of me.) Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” He changed the subject altogether there. They are looking back at the Law. They are looking at the natural because just a short time before they had eaten the bread that He had given to them when they were hungry there by the Sea of Galilee. Now He is going to tell them something because they are looking to Him to be that Messiah that will free Israel from her bondage. They knew that scripture said, when the Messiah came, he would be the son of David. He is the son of David, but He would not be fulfilling the role of the son of David when He was here then. That will not be until the Millennium when He will fulfill that part of His calling. “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” (Speaking of himself.) “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” This was the question that I asked years ago. What does it mean, ‘for the bread of God is he which came down from heaven and giveth life unto the world?’ He came down from heaven in that His life came from God. He was not originally in heaven, but His life came from God in heaven. God, through His spirit, sent Gabriel to announce to Mary what she is to do and that she is to be a carrier of that seed. When Jesus was conceived, it was from above, the Holy Ghost. That life was conceived in her so, He could say, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ Nobody else could ever say that because He is the only begotten Son of God. Nobody else’s life ever came from God. There is no other one. We are sons and daughters of God by Jesus Christ. Our life comes from Jesus dying here on earth. Then the Holy Ghost comes unto us and comes inside us, which I will talk about later. Verse 34, “Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.” See how far off they were? He is not explaining it to them as He goes. He is not really going to answer all their questions because He was expecting spiritual people in the early church and in the day and time in which we live to follow up on what He was meaning. The early church experienced the same experience that you and I experienced. It has been said that the apostle Paul was wrong in certain places. If you are that smart, just tell me where he was wrong. The apostle Paul was living as though he was in this day that we are living in. “Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” He is telling about the new birth experience. They are looking at something else, they are looking at what Moses did. People then, and as they are now, were free loaders. They were looking to Jesus to keep on giving like He had when He provided for them the fish and loaves. But this was just one instance to show them His deity, who He really was. ‘I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.’ He is putting this out way over their heads. Verse 36, “But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.” They were not looking at the Son of God, they were looking at a man. There was a time when even His mom, and His brothers and sisters, were outside the camp calling for Him to come out so they could speak to Him. They thought that He had gone off course. That is when He looked around at those people who had come to hear Him and said, ‘Who is my mother, who is my brother, but they that do the will of my Father which is in heaven.’ Verse 37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” That statement is true for every age, from the very beginning of the church ages until now. God is only responsible for His word. Somebody in the US government was heard saying this week, that they want everybody to be dumb. They say that if you are not following them, then you are a misfit. That if you believe in morality, then you are in trouble. They are trying to dumb down everybody in this nation to the point that they can rule over them and teach them there is no God. It is later than we think. Whenever they begin to push these things, how can it last very much longer? Like it was said, the government is planning to add eighty- seven thousand armed IRS agents to collect taxes that they feel like they have not been collecting. They are going to go after everyone, especially people with morals. We as Christian people are less liked right now than we ever were in this nation. But God will make a way. He said, ‘I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.’ He will make a way. Verse 37 again, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, (He repeats that again.) not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” This confuses the trinity people because they think there are three Gods. There is only one God, and one Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is God working through Christ to us. Verse 38, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” This is the last day. We are living in the day that Jesus was talking about. We are a small group of people compared to what the world sees the church to be. These big churches have police escorts to get them out of their parking lots. One Saturday night I saw the church down the street letting out. The people came out in their shorts and everything else of that nature. Because it is convenient for them to sleep in on Sunday morning. They would just as well sleep in on Saturday night too, for what good it is doing them. “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, (He is saying that everyone that seeth the Son AND believeth on Him…) may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” There were many people that saw Him, but there were few people that believed on Him. It was much like it is in this day with the religious crowd. They were looking for someone who was going to relieve them from the rule of Rome. Jesus never came for that purpose; He came to live in a people. Verse 41, “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.” He just goes ahead and confuses them completely. “And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, (They are reasoning it out. They do not want to believe what He is saying because it goes against their theology. Against what Dr. So-and-So had said, what Rabbi So-and-So had said, and what the Herodians and others had said. You see they had many ‘denominations’ even then. The Herodians were the followers of Herod, a religious group that made themselves religious. It was like saying today, ‘I am a Methodist,’ or ‘a Catholic,’ or ‘a Baptist.’ Bro. Branham called them all lodges.) “…Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?” God could have put Him on display for the world to see, but God did not want it that way. Neither does He want it that way in this hour because it is a revelation. I watched a film of Bro. Branham the other day, “Faith Is The Sixth Sense.” He said the sixth sense is something that the five senses can never touch. Because the sixth sense is something that can grab a hold of God, which the five senses cannot do. We are not following cunningly devised fables. We have a truth that has been set before us and it has stood through the ages and is standing today. And it will take some people out of here one of these days, because we believe that God did send a prophet. Our faith is not in the prophet, but our faith is in the message of the prophet. Because it grew and came right down through time. It did not stop with Bro. Branham, but I do not make him to be smaller than what he is to the message. Verse 43, “Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.” They were talking among themselves, but He knew what they were saying. God always knows what our thoughts are. He always has an answer for us if we are looking for it. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: (When someone is drawn it is due to a need. Just like you are drawn to water because you are thirsty; you are drawn to food because you are hungry. It is the same with the Spirit of God, He will draw us unto Him because we hunger for something that we do not have, and we know we cannot get it except we go to the Father.) “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” They are taught of God because the Spirit within Him was God. God was in Christ; the Spirit in Him was God. But He was a man. He was a holy man, a righteous man. But the spirit of God dwelt in Him. For example, by the time he was through talking to and reasoning with the woman at the well she said, ‘I perceive that thou art a prophet.’ Then she said, ‘…when [Messiah] is come, he will tell us all things.’ He introduced himself to her as the Messiah. But He did not tell the ones here in Chapter 6 that He was the Messiah, because they are going to have to get that themselves. Verse 46, “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.” What was He meaning when He was saying that? He meant that the works that He did were from the Father. If you have seen Him, you have seen the Father, because the Father was living in Him doing the works. People have just muddied the water. They did not get in, but they dabbled their feet in there and just stirred up the dregs. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” He that believes in Him within their heart, has everlasting life. It is already there. We will go into that shortly to show what He really is talking about. Verse 48, “I am that bread of life.” We know that because it is His life that came down from heaven, dwelt in a virgin womb, and was born. Man had nothing to do with it. The only thing that Mary had to do was give herself to be that incubator. The life was placed in there without human intervention. Now He goes into this, “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.” That did not give them life. They are looking for something that is temporary. He is giving them something that is eternal. There is a great difference between a temporary life and an eternal life. Verse 50, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.” He is talking about himself. The woman at the well has a different attitude but she does not quite get it at first. She said, give me that water that I do not have to come again and never have a thirst. But when He began to contact her spirit and talk to her about her life and the way she was living. That she had had five husbands and was living with another man. That did more for her than anything that could have ever been done. The lesson of God in this hour will do more for us than what the world could ever do. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: (This is puzzling to some people. That is why they say that God became a little baby, and He died and rose again. Then Jesus is God. That is the oneness belief.) if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” This just upsets their apple cart. (Ed. Spoils their plans.) Verse 52, “The Jews therefore strove among themselves, (They are angry, they strove. Maybe even some fought or wrestled. Some believed and some did not believe, so there was a time when there was trouble.) saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They understand nothing of what He is talking about. He is talking about when He dies on the cross, then that is the bread of life, and His blood that is spilled, is the water of life. The bread and the wine represent Him.
The Bread of Life
Now He goes even deeper and confuses them more. “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” He said this without explaining it. There are some things you must receive without it being explained to you. On the day of Pentecost, they received it. What He is talking about now will come to the true believers later. It cannot come now, but He must give them an ordinance to go by. Verse 55, “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” No explanation. There are times when the Word of God just has to be accepted. You cannot explain everything to everybody, but in due time there will be enough to come forth that you can understand. He says, ‘He that eateth my flesh…’ in other words, he that spiritually partakes of His death, burial, and resurrection, that is what He is talking about. Verse 57, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (He has changed the whole thing, they were looking for another Moses, another person that would come, because they had just finished eating the fish and loaves. I would say that was good hot fish and good hot bread that was not cooked on a grill. It was caught from heaven and cooked from heaven.) “This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” Where His life was before. But He is not going to ascend until His resurrection. What happened then? Many of them walked with Him no more because they did not like that saying.
The Unbreakable Seal
Now I want to go to Ephesians Chapter 4, Verse 29. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Now we are going to get a little lesson here. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” What is he talking about? Is there something that I can do to grieve the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. I can do things that are contrary to the Spirit of God, and I can grieve the Holy Spirit. You know what a person does when they grieve. It is really hard, like mourning a death. This is what he is talking about here. When our lives are not matching up to what He is expecting out of us, then we begin to grieve Him. But there is something else in this verse. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” That seal cannot be broken. I know my wife and I used to can beans. When we did, we either put them in a cold pack or in a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker was a whole lot quicker. Some of the older people know about both. After you remove the jars from the cooker, you listen for that click of the lid sealing. Most of the time you could hear all of them click within a couple of minutes. But if one of them did not click, you would have to eat them that night because you could not put them in long term storage without sealing. This seal that God gives you when He fills you with His Spirit is sealed until the day of redemption and it cannot be broken. You do not have to worry about it; you do not have to think about somebody tinkering with it, or toying with it, or messing with it. Back to the canning example. If you have a jar that has a sealed flat lid and a top ring on it, you can take that top ring off (the one that you screw around the flat lid), but those beans are still good ten years from then. That is just like our life, it is sealed until the time that we are taken out of here. There is no way the devil can break that seal. We need to understand the revelation of God, that He takes care of us. The jar may get dirty, it may get dusty, it may be thrown around some. But if that seal is on there, what is inside of it is good. It is the same way with us, sickness, sorrow, pain, death, whatever, cannot break that seal. It is there until the day of redemption. As I went through the book of John, Jesus was talking there of the bread of life, He was talking about His blood. Here in Ephesians is the windup of it all. The thing about it is, he said grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed until the day of redemption. Until you are taken out of this life or until you are raptured, whatever the case would be, once you get that seal, it is still there. You cannot take it away. The devil may come around, he may try to make you doubt, he may put things in your mind, but somehow that seal just will not let him in. Then it goes ahead to say, Verse 31, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, (these are things that will come) be put away from you, with all malice.” He is saying, to keep that seal, these things must be shoved away from us. The seal cannot be broken. We may get weak, we may have problems (which we will, because we are still in this life), but it cannot break the seal. Nothing can break that seal because it is sealed until you are redeemed or taken out of here. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” He is telling you how to keep that seal intact and clean, because the seal is good until the day of redemption. Chapter 5, Verse 1, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” I wanted to cover that tonight. I love you all and appreciate you. May God bless you. Pray for one another, pray for me, we will all pray for one another. Let us pray.
August 21, 2022
AM Service
I had scriptures last Sunday that I never did get to, and I did not get to them Thursday night because I had read in John Chapter 6, and in Ephesians 4 and 5. I want to get back to the scriptures I had before on my subject. I thank the Lord for His wonderful grace and for the people who have been able to catch and hold on to truth in the trying hour we are living in. We are living in a trying hour of time.
His Spoken Word
I will be going to the book of Luke first, Chapter 12, starting with Verse 35. This is a parable that Jesus was going over with the disciples, and with the people that had given Him problems. He is going to say something that will straighten out things. God is always gracious and wonderful to us; we thank Him for that. I know the prophecy this morning mentioned “work the work,” so I pray that I can fulfill some of that this morning in what I want to bring to you, because it is my aim and purpose in this subject, The Millennium Reign. It will last for a while because I keep running upon scriptures that I want to deal with in this. I want to say that I thank the Lord for every one of you. You have been kind; you have been generous in your appreciation. Different ones have expressed this to me, and I thank you for that. But it is not me. It is not me in that, the Word is God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In what form was it? It was His spoken word that brought forth Jesus Christ. His spoken word will bring forth a Bride to Jesus Christ. As it says in Chapter 5 of Ephesians, we are washed by the water of the word. In believing that and accepting that as we go along, there is a lot that comes by revelation to answer what is written. I have gone over Proverbs Chapter 29, Verse 18 where it says, without revelation the people go wild. We see that in the hour we are living. People are not willing to face up to the truth and to the message that God has brought us to in this hour. If you are willing to face up to the truth, it will cost you something. It may cost you friendship, even among your own families. Sometimes the truth will disturb the unity of a family, not always, but sometimes. You are responsible to your family to a point, but you are not responsible for them as far as their salvation. That is an individual thing. We must individually accept God, that there may be a new birth in us. Just like a little baby that is born, there is a birth that takes place, then life comes into that baby. You say, ‘Was he not alive’? Yes, they were alive, but the breath of life was not in them. We realize when Adam was created, and Eve was created from his rib, that God breathed life into them. God is where your breath comes from. ‘God… breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul’ (Genesis 2:7). What does it mean by that? He began to be a person that could reason. The animal kingdom does not reason. It does not matter what you think of that little pet animal, it cannot reason. It just does what it is taught. The world is living on what they have heard today and there are many things that have no reason at all to them. I saw something on the news this morning. They are pushing this Green New Deal so much now. They are presenting all kinds of far-out (Ed. extreme) things trying to convince people that we need climate change. Kamala Harris has made the statement, if this Green New Deal is not passed and implemented in the next three to four years that people will become cannibals. What a disgrace! They are trying to push this down the throats of people to try to get their agenda going. The things they are trying to say in this hour to get people to believe them are not even feasible. Though I am sure some people will go along with them. There must be somebody that thinks that if they do not get the new deal, people will be eating one another in three to four years. I can see that in a certain group of people that have gone too far in their imagination. One thing the Bible speaks about in this hour is vain imaginations. The imaginations of people do not bring about the will of God. It takes a revelation of the Word of God to bring about the will of God in a person’s life. I thank God for that.
I want to say one more thing before I read the scripture. A couple of weeks ago I said something about there will be kings and priests, which will be men. That does not mean every man is going to be a king or priest. That is talking about people that have learned leadership in this life. It can be a person that has not been given an office in the Church. We realize when the early church started out, they did not have anybody to take care of the widows, so they appointed deacons. Two of them, Stephen, and Philip, are especially mentioned. Stephen was full of faith and power, and Philip was called an evangelist. There are different positions that will be in rulership, not just preachers, but there will be others that have been able to take hold of truth with the right attitude and motive and guide people in the right direction. That is what God is looking for. The things that we do now are determining what we are going to be later. The Bible speaks about different categories of rulership and leadership that God is going to use.
Spiritually Alert
Let us read. Luke Chapter 12 and Verse 35, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning.” In other words, He is saying, let us stand up straight. That light that is within us, let it keep burning, do not let it go out. Remember the song that Bro. Jason and his family sing, that Bro. Bud and Sis. Thompson used to sing, “The flame has not flickered, and the fire has never gone out.” That is the truth. “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; (When he will return from the wedding.) that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: (He is talking about the end time. There are servants that will be watching. Not everybody is going to be watching. I am talking about Bride people. We will be watching, because there is an understanding of what is going on in the world. All the foolishness and unintelligence that is going on today is just the way the end time is supposed to be. We read about how Sodom and Gomorrah were then. Bro. Jackson preached about it. Bro. Branham preached about the Sodomite condition in his time, but really it was just beginning then. It was not prevalent; now we are living in it. It has gone so much farther than when they were here. This gay movement was just beginning. I can remember in the 1950’s the word gay meant happy. They have changed the word to where there is no happiness in what they call gay. It is a sad situation, not even worthy to be talked about. Yet today they are teaching little children these things. Forcing them into taking hormones and such things to change their lifestyle, from what they were born to be. This is happening even in the kindergarten age children. It is a shame and a disgrace to the nation. There is no nation that has gone higher than the United States except Israel. But now the United States is becoming the lowest nation on earth as far as man’s attitude and the leadership which we have now. It is worse than any other nation as far as morals are concerned because they do not care. They want to teach it to everybody else. They do not care much about the older people, but they are looking to a young generation that they can control their minds and make them like robots. To not know right from wrong. They have already said they want to get rid of morals in this country. I can remember back when things were different.) Verse 37, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” He is talking about the marriage supper. In reading this, I believe there is going to be food there. God is going to have a perfect meal. Maybe not the meal that we would think where He would kill a bunch of animals. But God can substitute anything, and it will be real. “And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.” He is not talking about people staying awake all the time. He is talking about us being alert all the time. Spiritually alert so that we know what is happening in the time we are living in. To know how to discern between what is right and what is wrong. To be able to take this Truth as far as God wants it to go. I remember the horse that Bro. Jackson was riding in that dream (Ed. December 1964). He mounted the horse, and it leapt into the sky. The thought came to him, if I do not stop him, there is no telling where he will lead me. He returned to where he started the ride. When he got back in his car and shut the door he awoke from the dream. The message has gone on and is still going on now. We are living in it. I am not making myself anything, but God has a ministry. I am talking about a five-fold ministry that is going to take this message right to the end. We are going to know things when they need to be known. This is the food that we are now looking for. The food of the Word of God. Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Come and dine’ when He was by the Sea of Galilee. He had not been out there catching fish, but they ate broiled fish that He had created for them to eat through the finger of God. Then Jesus told them to bring of their own. So, it was a mixture of what He was serving to the disciples and what He was eating that they caught. Remember, He had told Peter when they first met, you shall catch men. This was the net that was let out for that purpose. Verse 38 again, “And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.” There will be somebody in the second or third watch (in the evening time) that He is going to find them doing what His will is and not what their will is. No matter how precious they think their will is, the will of God is far greater. “And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.” He is using a natural setting to tell us something concerning the spiritual. He is talking about the ministry taking watch. By using the different watches, He has come down through time. If he shall come in the second watch, or in the third watch, that is talking about different times of the evening and night. To find the ministry so doing, blessed are those servants. Verse 40, “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour ye think not.” When Bro. Jackson was going over this, he said you will not know the day nor the hour, but it does not mean that you will not know the month or the year. Right now, we do not know the month or the year, but when we are getting close to the end, we are going to see things so develop in these scriptures, that we are going to know, not the day or the hour, but within a few days. When the seven thunders sound, then we will know that we are in the final days before the coming of the Lord. He is talking to the disciples here, “Be ye ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour ye think not.” In other words, somebody is not going to be prepared for that time. He is giving a warning, an hour that you think not. The Word of God is not a “think” so; the Word of God is a “know” so.
That Faithful and
Wise Steward
Verse 41, “Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward…” A steward is somebody that takes care of the finances, or in this case, the riches that are in the mind of God. Our riches are not in our bank account, our riches are not in gold, silver, or anything of that nature, but our riches are in the Word of God. The Word of God tells us Truth, keeps us, gives us health, and gives us answers. As Bro. David testified this morning, sometimes you must be, as the old saying of the world goes, more stubborn than the devil. Because he will try to pull everything over on you if he can. I do not mean that as a curse word, but you have to look these situations in the face and not give in just because you think that it might be hard. We know the Word of God is sometimes hard. He must chasten us, but we take that patiently, believing that there is an outcome that is going to be better than the whipping. When I was young, there was an old movie back in the 1950’s, where this man had to correct his child, a little boy about six years old. After so long a time of warning the little boy, he had to give him a spanking. The little boy started crying. His dad looked at him and said, ‘Son, this hurts me more than it does you.’ The little boy said, ‘Then why am I doing the crying’? Sometimes we get up against trouble, and it comes right to our doorstep. But there is an answer if we keep waiting. Verse 43, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.” That is something else! Rulership is going to be a blessed thing. Let me say this, sisters do not get discouraged, you are going to have rulership too, but it will be less than that of kings and priests. But you are still going to be rulers. I do not want you to think that you will have nothing to do. You are not going to be feeding the group or baking cakes and things like that. You are going to be enjoying the Kingdom of God just like the brothers will. But the leadership will be a little different. Even every man will not be in leadership, it is according to how he has handled things here on this earth. Everyone is going to be in rulership, but not everyone is going to be in leadership. Verse 45, “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; (This is a familiar thing now.) and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, (People wonder about the callings. I believe that we have had many ministers that have had callings. This scripture explains that. But there is a trial to a calling. It says, ‘the lord of that servant.’ To be a servant, he had to be called to that position of service.) and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” It is going to be rough. “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes…” This is telling me judgment is going to be different for different categories of people, just as the blessings will be different for different ones. The Jews are not going to receive the same thing as the Bride. I have gone over that in that city, New Jerusalem. When we look at it, the city is the Bride of Christ. But there are gates, walls, and so on. Those different things that have been a protection to the Bride. When you look at the twelve gates and twelve foundations of the wall, the gates are the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and the foundations are the twelve apostles of the Lamb. These make up the twenty-four elders. Then there are the four beasts, which represent each age of believers. The last beast, being the flying eagle, represents this last age of believers. They all represent people of each hour who stand to combat the fallacies of the evil ones that come under each of the four horse riders. For example, the third beast which had the face as a man. That represents the men of that hour, Luther, Wesley, and others that stood up for the truth that they knew and stood against the black horse coming out of the Dark Ages. Even in the Dark Ages, God commemorates some believers because the Catholic Church was busy killing everybody that opposed them. The Catholic Church was not a religious organization as far as having the gospel. It was a man-made, religious, evil, devilish system. So, it takes each beast to oppose each horse. People have wondered, ‘Why was there not another horse?’ Because there is not another beast to oppose another horse after the pale horse. That horse goes right into the end where the sixth seal along with the seventh trumpet and the seventh vial finishes it all up. Verse 48 again, “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: (That is a strong statement. There have been plenty of people that ‘rode along’ with truth for all these years. Then they begin to divert from truth. It is going to be bad for them, really bad.) and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” When people divert from truth, they have to add on, and add on, and keep adding on, because it is something committed of men, not of God.
Jerusalem Above
Now I am going to go to Galatians Chapter 4, starting in Verse 19. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Paul is looking at a situation among the Galatians. At some earlier time, they had heard the message of Paul. He says, ‘again’, so he had to have preached to them the first time. These are Gentile people, but I am sure there were many Jews among them. They had begun in Christ under Paul’s message. It says, ‘I travail in birth again’ that means that they had accepted the gospel, but they did not get it inside them as they should have. When you get the message inside you, it will put something within you that will not listen to all the other garbage that is presented. He wants them to know that he is concerned about them. Then he goes on to tell them what their error will lead to. (This is still a part of my message). He said, “I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.” You can read what he is talking about when you go back into Chapter 2. About what he had seen and heard while ministering to the Galatians when certain Jews came from James and even Peter got a little out of line. Paul had to rebuke him before them all. A rebuke is sometimes hard, but a person can appreciate a rebuke that brings forth fruit. But a rebuke just because someone wants to rebuke someone does not bring forth fruit. But a correction that changes the course of a person is well worth it. Paul is giving them a rebuke in this fourth chapter, but it also contains a hint of the Millennium. That is what Paul, Peter, and all of them were working for and looking for. That is what we are working for and looking for. When you are looking for something that you cannot see, that is what keeps you straight. I am sure the Millennium will be much more than we could ever think about. As Paul said, now we look through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. All the curtains will be removed. All the darkness will go away. Verse 21, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” He is trying to make them think. He is trying to tell them, ‘Do you not you know what the law is talking about’? No doubt he is telling them that the law never brought salvation. The law was a deterrent to try to keep them from doing wrong. When Moses was there, it was a deterrent to try to get people away from what was troubling them. “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.” He is dealing with Agar (Hagar) and Sarah. The children of Agar were not promised children. The children of promise were through Sarah. Her children were a promise because she was who God originally appointed to be the mother of the Jewish nation. Not only of the Jews but of the Gentiles also. In Abraham’s seed shall ALL the nations be blessed. But the seed must come through the woman. It cannot be just any woman. The Church cannot be just any church. If it is, then anything and everything can enter in. That is what they teach in these places to keep people. They can do anything they want, then go listen to a little sermonette, and everything is all right. They do not even put in their tithes, just a little change in the offering plate. What should you tithe to? You tithe to something that is real. Verse 23, “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” He talks about the allegory between them. “Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, (He is not talking about Moses, he is talking about Agar and her son. He is comparing Agar and her son to the world). which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, (Paul tells us where mount Sinai was right there. We showed a video of that; that is exactly where it was. But the modern people still think it was in Egypt, which is not right. The children of Israel had to cross the Red Sea.) and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” Paul is talking about the natural city of Jerusalem at that time because the only thing the Jewish people believed in was the law. They did whatever was easy and convenient for them. Not looking unto God but looking unto some priestly order that was going to give them the ‘okay’ to do whatever they wanted. He is saying Agar represents Jerusalem then, in his day. Verse 26, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, (That is during the Millennial reign. Throughout the writings of Paul, he speaks in various places about Jerusalem which is above. I could take you to a couple of places in Hebrews and show you. The Jerusalem above is you, the saints of God. You have believed and accepted the Word of God; therefore, you are a part of that new Jerusalem. ‘But Jerusalem which is above is free,’ you cannot be any plainer than that! We are free, free from the world, free from bondage, free from the law. The law is now inside of us as the Holy Ghost. We know because He tells us what is right and what is wrong, what to accept and what not to accept.) which is the mother of us all.” He is speaking about motherhood here because God brought us forth in a new birth. For there to be a new birth, there had to have been something of a mother-like nature to give us that birth, because this is in God’s desire. A natural woman has nothing to do with our new birth as far as that is concerned, but the mother of us all is from heaven. We are born again by the Spirit of God, which gives life. I am sure that is what Paul is talking about here. “For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.” He is quoting from Isaiah 54 there. Going on to Verse 28 in Galatians 4, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Isaac was born to be a type of the Bride of Jesus Christ. Isaac only had one wife. Abraham, of course, married again. Jacob had four wives. But Isaac was a type of the Bride because he came forth as a child of promise. We are children of promise by a new birth experience. “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: (That is an obligation that we must do. We must get rid of the world, that which brought us into bondage. We must get rid of that thing. Dismiss it, whatever it is, it is not worth it.) for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” We are of the freewoman. I hope this is making sense to you. Verse 31, “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” God has made us free. Children of the bondwoman, which was under the law; which to us, was when we were in the world. God has freed us from the bondage of the world.
Whose Builder and
Maker Is God
Let us go to Hebrews Chapter 11, Verse 8. I have been over this before, but I want to go over it again. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Brothers and sisters, when I came to this truth, I did not know where it would take me. We knew it was truth, but we did not know how far it would take us. We have been taken on a long journey, but we are enjoying the journey. We know that if we keep on the course, that it will lead us not only into a time of when the rapture will take place, but it makes us happy now! For a person to have peace of mind, is better than having a piece of real estate. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, (It was a promised land.) as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (or tents) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:” The children were already in the mind of God even before they were born. When God spoke to Abraham, ‘In thy seed,’ He was speaking right on down the line of Isaac and Jacob, right on down the line to David, right on down to Christ. Verse 10, “For he looked for a city (What was that city he was looking for? It was not a city on earth. Somewhere he had a vision. It seemed like every move that God made with His children, He gave them that vision of what is to come. Abraham was looking beyond even our time, to the future when the rapture would take place. When the rapture takes place, then Abraham, Enoch and all the Old Testament saints will already be there. But they will not have the capacity of rulership that we will have. Because God has saved the best for last. I am talking about the Bride throughout the church ages down to us). which hath foundations, (You know what our foundations are. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.) whose builder and maker is God.” It is already there, it is already furnished, it is ready to move into. Just a little more time, then it will be occupied! They used to say, ‘That would make a Methodist shout.’ But not anymore, they do not believe it. Verse 11, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, (which was Isaac) and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. (This is talking about the Israeli nation.) Verse 13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, (Because there was something better for us. I may be bragging a little bit, but I am quoting the Word (see verse 40). God has something unexpected prepared for us. Unexpected, but it is there. You can almost reach out and feel it, but it is beyond feeling. It is that hope that Paul talked about. That hope which is not ‘I hope so,’ or ‘maybe so.’ No, not that, it is a hope that is real. These all died in faith, not having received the promises…) but having seen them afar off, (He is talking about the Millennium.) and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, (This was so real to Abraham that one day when he was seventy-five years old, he met Him. He just kept living that promise. Then after twenty-five years, he saw the promise that he had been given. He just kept on, kept on, and kept on walking in the land of promise, in a strange land. Not building houses and things of that nature but living in tents. Because he was looking for something. And were persuaded of them, and embraced them…) and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, (He is talking about a heavenly country.) that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” I hope what I have said will make sense to you. It is a blessing to me to be able to see the Word of God and to be able to say something that will help someone. Prayer
To be continued in next issue…