Preached on August 30, 2020 – am

    

I have different scriptures here, which I won’t get to them all today, but there are some things I want to bring out today in this message, especially as it talks about Abraham. This was a journey that Abraham was to take. God had never called a man before to take such a journey. When He spoke to Noah, it was something for the saving of life. Noah was a type of the foolish virgin because he had to go through the tribulation time. Since he did have to go through that, then God brought him out on the other side by a mighty and strong hand. For it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. As he did find grace in the eyes of the Lord to survive the flood, the older generations all passed off the scene by death (except for Enoch) before the flood. Of course, God took Enoch about 1000 years from the creation of Adam. I feel like maybe a few years before that the sons of God began to take wives (polygamy) of the daughters of men and Enoch saw these things going on in his hour and it was a test to him. Then the flood came about 1600 years from Adam. It says that Enoch pleased the Lord and walked with the Lord. That is very important in this hour. I can see a change in people since this COVID situation has happened, not everyone has the interest as before, there are some that have lost something.  We are going to find out about a journey that a man took here in this lesson that we are looking at this morning. He was altogether dependent upon the Lord to be able to make that journey. It was not something that he thought up himself, but it was something that God had called him for. First, in the 11^th chapter of Genesis, we find the birth of Abraham, who was called Abram at the time. His dad was around seventy-five years of age when Abram was born. The Bible, up until a certain time, gave the ages of those that were the progenitors of the next generation. For example, Genesis 5:32 says: ‘Noah was five hundred years old, and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.’ It doesn’t really give the ages of all of them, but it was around a hundred years before the flood when the three were born. They were not triplets, but they were born close together, within a year or two apart. Because God was going to use them for a purpose when the time came for the ark to be finished. I am sure when they were small children Noah talked to his sons about what was coming, what God had spoken to him, to get ready for the next step, which was going to be the flood.

Look Up

God always prepares His children for the time that is to come. That is what this message is about today. The Bible does talk about the falling away, and then it talks about the falling away from the truth. This is something we must be careful about; we must watch with interest. Like a new car, when they have it in the show room, they have all the lights on it. It makes it look so shiny and bright. Then you take it out, you are so proud of it, you wipe it down. You hate to see the rain because it is going to leave spots on it. You hate to see the dust because it will dull the shine. You are always concerned about it when it is new. It gets a little older, then a little bit older, the shine is still there but it is not showing up because we have failed it. If it gets the same care that was given to it when it was new, then you see that shine coming back. I liken that to our Christian life. It happens with many people. Even Jesus talked about it in the 13^th chapter of Matthew. He was not talking about cars, but He was talking about the crop that came up. You find many stages in that, and each stage represents lives. As time goes on, we find if we don’t keep up with our spiritual walk, it can be like the car I was talking about, we find there is something that can creep into a life that we have made more important than what the gospel is to us. The plan of God in our life becomes lax if we don’t watch it. But I am here this morning to say, as the Bible says, as you see that hour coming, look up and watch. You are not walking around with your head in the air. If you do, then the rain will come, and you will drown. But you keep your thoughts up, that is what it is talking about. You think about the things that are important in life and in the time to come because we realize we are living in the last days. I remember a sermon that was preached many years ago, The Last of the Last Days, but time has come and gone since that was preached, even the one that preached that message is no longer in fellowship with us. The thing about it is, God has a right to try all of us, to see the direction we are going to take and what our interest is, what is our motivation. I see in Abraham a man that has been called of God for something and he has never wavered in that calling. He keeps going in life and keeps that thought in mind, because God reminds him. God will remind us daily, if we look unto Him. I was thinking the other day as Bro. Phil James called me, he said something about praying for my wife, what a beautiful prayer he had. You knew that he knew what he was talking about as he was praying. He prayed for all of you here too. I know it gets hard for Bro. Phil James down there because there are not many others that really believe as he does. But he has held onto a truth in this hour when many have walked away, and many have failed. It has shown up in the lives of those that have failed. But God keeps those that are His in perfect unity with Him, in perfect unity with the Word and with the saints of God. There is a unity between us this morning, that God has put there for a purpose to help us stay in the right attitude and the right mind.

Promises of God to Abraham

In Abraham’s life, it tells us here in the 11^th chapter, 26^th verse, “And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” These are not triplets. But he was seventy years old, and Abram was the first one mentioned. Therefore, Abram would be the head of the family as far as inheritance is concerned. If we look at that time, there were certain people that gained very much by inheritance, and Abram was in line to inherit whatever his father would have gathered in his lifetime. We see by the life of Abraham that there would have been very much gained by the time he was ready to turn it over to Isaac. He was a very rich man because God kept his promise and blessed him with riches. That is the reason the Jewish nation is so prosperous today, because God promised that to them. He promised them much if they would follow Him and would obey Him. Today the Jewish nation stands out in the world as far as science is concerned. They were not to be farmers when they lived in other countries. But they did have riches in other places. I remember a man when I worked at Ford that told me that his mother had said that a certain Jewish man came to the town of Lebanon, Kentucky. She told her son, watch, he will be running the city before long. He began to get richer and richer, and soon became the mayor of Lebanon, Kentucky. But they didn’t know enough about farming until they got back to their own land and God began to bless them in that. I remember when Prime Minister Sharon turned over the part of the country for agricultural industry, we find that Jews were growing lettuce and all the fruits they had without needing herbicides or anything like that. Their goods were being sold around the world, because they were so much better than what was being provided by other countries. When we were in Israel, we ate bananas, but they were not Jewish bananas. They were bananas from other places because the Jewish bananas were shipped out to other countries because of their quality. God has blessed the Jewish nation because God told Abraham that He would bless him. Let us read on down here, “Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah began Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.” It is not telling about the children of the other two yet, but it did say Haran begat Lot. Because there is something wrong in Haran’s life so, God is putting a difference between him and the others and he is going to die in Ur of the Chaldees, his land of birth. “And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur or the Chaldees.” He died right there in the place that God called Abram, or Abraham, to get out of. “And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai: and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” At this time Abraham was seventy-five years old. Sarah was sixty-five and she had no children. But all the promises lay in Abraham and Sarah. The promises were not in any other woman, it was in Sarah. As you read on over, Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister. We know by that, that Abraham had taken of his kinfolk to be his wife. This was allowed at that time because the population was not very large. This was shortly after the scattering of the people when God confounded their language. He sent them out of the land to regenerate the places they would go. Here is where God is calling Abraham. (It says here Abram, but I will just keep calling him Abraham because his name is changed in a later place.) Who is He talking to? Abraham. He is not talking to Terah, He is not talking to one of his brothers, He is talking to Abraham. God is looking down at one person in that family. He is not looking at dad, or grandpa. He is not looking at anyone else. He is looking at Abraham because this is the one that He has called, that is going to administer the plan of God throughout time. We are living in the time that God promised to Abraham:  In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. It was in his seed, which was Christ, which was born in the Jewish nation. Some have said, well, Jesus was not a Jew, He was not a Gentile. Whenever I heard that, I differed with it because it said that He came to His own and His own received Him not. We know that He came from the Jewish nation. The one that God implanted the seed in was a Jewish woman. God made the contact there with the Jewish people because of the obedience of Abraham to the plan of God. I want to go into something as I look at Luke in different places, and in Malachi also, we will find where this message came from and where it went to in order to get to our hour of time. “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, (He had already spoken to him when he left Ur of the Chaldees, because that was his country. …Get thee out of thy country) and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, (See? And from thy father’s house…) unto a land that I will show thee.” Now He has called him to this land, but he doesn’t know where this land is. It is a land of promise. God is just going to point him in the direction. We have devices in our cars now that tell us where we are going. They talk to you and tell you where to turn, and everything. Abraham had something better than that because he had the leadership of God. He was not going to miss any new roads in his walk with God, because God had already planned it. He has planned our life also, if we follow Him in the direction He would have us to go. He has called us in a direction that is so plain we should never miss it. It is said, even wayfaring men, though fools, shall not error in it. But we find we have a lot of people that don’t even match up to the fool part. He said go from thy kindred and from the house of thy father unto a land that I will show thee. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: (The promise goes on.) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee (this is speaking of Christ) shall all families of the earth be blessed.” As I look at that, there are things I have been thinking about lately.

‘Sin’ and ‘Sins’

     First, I will go to the book of John for a little bit here, the 16^th chapter. There is something here in the book of John that the world church is missing. They think they know what they should do, but they leave out the main part. I will go to the 7^th verse. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” These are the words that Jesus is speaking here, that the world is missing. He said the Comforter, which I will send unto you. People are trying to make the Comforter a third person of the trinity, which there is no such thing as a trinity in the Bible. There never was and there never will be. We find it is through Jesus Christ that we receive that Comforter. Because of His death, burial, and resurrection. When we are directed into a watery grave in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins (plural), the remission of what we have done in this mortal body. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sin (singular) that we were born with, from Adam. But then the watery grave takes away the sins that we have committed in the flesh. Because of that, we find through the watery grave, then we become Christians because we are buried with Him in baptism. He doesn’t come back to be baptized again, but the Spirit of God comes into us through Jesus Christ. This is the way God works His plan. “And when he is come, (It mentions Him, which is the Spirit of God, God is a Him.) he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more: Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” These verses are concerning the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now the next verses from 12 through 15 are what I want to get to because this world church is completely missing something here. “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” When is He going to say them? He is going to say them through the apostles. Here He is getting ready to go away. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; (The Spirit of God is not going to speak of Himself. All these religious groups today don’t even mention the name of Jesus Christ. It is ‘Holy Spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’, which was never meant to be because there is not a trinity, there is only one God and one Jesus Christ. But the Spirit of God comes through Christ. I remember Bro. Branham speaking of when the father-in-law of Moses told him to appoint other men to do the work that he was doing because he was taking too much upon himself. All the people were coming to Moses with their petty grievances, and other things that wore him out. So, Moses appointed seventy men. But Brother Branham said that did not take one thing away from the spirit of Moses. It was all still there even though he appointed other men. We have the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us, which came from God. But that does not take one thing away from The Spirit of God. The Bible teaches that we have the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit is not a person. Whenever He says, He will guide you into all truth, it comes from the Father, through the Son, to us. Jesus received the Spirit in fulness, we find that we receive it in part. We are that body of Christ throughout this world, and we are to express Christ. The world churches, organizations, and anyone that mentions it (especially Pentecost), speak only of the ‘Holy Spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’. Jesus is not even mentioned in their speech. They hardly know that He exists. It is just ‘Holy Spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself. See? He is denouncing their speech right there. He shall not speak of himself.) …but whatsoever he shall hear, (It must be the Spirit of Christ speaking in you of what He has heard through Spirit of The Father. That is where I say they have made a big mistake. Whatsoever he shall hear) …that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” Sure. Whenever somebody speaks in tongues, or when somebody interprets the tongues, it is the Holy Spirit. But it all comes through Jesus Christ, because God made Him to be sin for us. We were sinners, so Jesus Christ had to be our sacrifice, He had to take our curse.  The Bible says they smote Him with the palms of their hands. In every sacrifice, the ones doing the sacrifice had to put their hands upon the head of the sacrificial lamb.  They put their hands upon His head as they smacked Him. This was for the purpose of laying our sins upon Him.  God placed Him upon a tree that He might take our curse. Every sin we ever committed was laid upon Jesus Christ, as being the One that was to die for our sins. God could not die, He had to have a substitute. The substitute couldn’t be anything but His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the only substitute that He could use, something that was created by Him in a virgin womb. She was a virgin all the way to the birth of Jesus Christ. She never had known a man. That was what God planned. “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: (He is not talking about the universe. He is talking about the Spirit that would be in Him for The Church. Because He is the first begotten from the dead. Nobody else could raise from the dead to live eternally, but Jesus Christ. He had to be the first. All things that the Father hath are mine) …therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” We are living in the time that the Holy Ghost is speaking to us. I refer to the Holy Ghost because the Bible is full of references to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God that come through Jesus Christ, because He is the one that died for us. I wanted to go into that, to let you know, if you are disturbed when you hear people only talk about, ‘Holy Spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’. They have made a big mistake because Jesus Christ has taken second form to them, or no form at all.

People of Promise

Now I want to go back to Genesis again, chapter 12. I will start with the 4^th verse. “So Abram departed, (His father, Terah, stayed in Haran and died there sixty years after Abraham had departed. The city of Haran is a part of northern Israel, but this was not where God had called Abraham to go. We must follow the specific leading of the Lord in the hour we are living in, because without that, we don’t know where we are going. Abraham had to leave the house of his father. This has happened to different ones of us, especially the ones who have been in the denominational world. We had to leave our people. My Mom, for the first few years after I left, she thought I would come back to the Methodist Church. She believed it very strong. A preacher that I knew in Burkesville, said Bro. Allen quit the ministry and is selling little donuts. Well, I was following The Lord. Sometimes He will lead you through a donut factory. It is not always easy because God has to try us.  Will we stick with our old ways? Will we stay where we always were?

Abraham had to make a move. The revelation was not to his father. The revelation was not even to Lot. If the revelation had been to Lot, he never would have gone to Sodom. Abraham is typed here like the Bride of Christ. Lot is like a foolish virgin. He goes to the denominational world of Sodom and Gomorrah, places of ill repute. There are certain things that are left to our choosing. The decision we make is the decision that is going to determine whether the revelation is really in us or not. We are making decisions weekly. What or who is the most important thing in our life? Haran is not where Abraham was called to.) So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him: and Lot went with him: (Remember this is the son of his brother who had died, Haran.) and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot is brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan: and into the land of Canaan they came.” God is calling Abram to a place which will later be cursed. Sometimes God takes us through alley ways in life to prove us. He has been told to leave his kinfolk, his father’s house. I would say that Abraham was probably the favorite person of Lot on earth. But there must be a choice, even in Lot and in Abraham. I will not go into that, but you know what it is. “And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. (This is where Abraham will later return to offer up his son that he does not even have yet. God is taking him on a course, that someday he will come back to.) And the Canaanite was there in the land.” An evil people. This was even promised through the curse of Ham. Before his son, Canaan, was ever born, God put a curse upon him. Here are his descendants in the land that Abraham and his seed are going to possess. Now when he gets to the place that he is supposed to go. “And the Lord appeared unto Abram, (That is the main thing about the message. If you follow God, then somewhere along the line, as you go, you are going to be in contact with God. Because God is faithful. Sometimes He lets you take the steps that He has called you to make, the path that He has called you to walk in, He will let you walk in that path to a certain place, because He is trying you. The Bible says every son that comes to God, he must be tried. Everyone. Every one of us has trials. God is not just testing us to see if we will take it or not, but sometimes He tests us for other people to look upon that test, because you are not always going to be in that test. The Bible tells you when you are in these tests to lift up your heads and your feeble knees. Because He tells what kind of people we are if we don’t go through these things. Today we see a nation where everything that could go wrong is going wrong. But I am looking at a people of promise this morning, that God has called in this country, and even in other nations around the world. We have brothers and sisters in Minnesota, Arkansas, Florida, and in Canada, and wherever they are at today. God is looking upon the needs of His people. You are not alone. We sing a song titled I Am Not Alone. It is a very beautiful song. We are not alone this morning because God has called us into a purpose in life, where we will not fail Him. Because we are the seed of Abraham by promise. The s-e-e-d of Abraham which was promised was Jesus Christ, where it says, ‘in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’. It says: “And the Lord appeared unto Abram,…”. (There is going to be different intervals in his life that he is going to see the presence of God because God is faithful. And the Lord appeared unto Abram) …and said, Unto thy seed (At this point He is talking about the descendants of Abraham, his own people. Unto thy seed) …will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.” This was the means in the Old Testament that they had to worship God, when God appeared to them, they built to Him an altar. But, as Paul said in Hebrews, ‘We have an altar’, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Not as the Catholics have, ‘Hail Mary full of grace’ and all this other stuff. “And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, (Bethel is another place, B-e-t-h-e-l means house of God.) and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.”

The Elijah Spirit

I remember Bro. Jackson saying, before he was ever in a service of Bro. Branham’s, he had read Malachi 4:5-6, and he believed that there would be a prophet. How do we know that? It is just something that comes to you by the Spirit of God. Bro. Jackson believed that if we are living in that day, that there must be an Elijah to appear. That is a part of our foundation today, where we come from. It has been by revelation, an inspiration of God, that we are a church here today. When Bro. Jackson was plowing in the field, he was inspired, ‘It is time to build the church’, ‘It is time to start the church’. Then he began to look for a place and found a building in New Albany, not many blocks from the hospital on State Street. It was a garage building. When it rained, they had to lift their feet up because the rain ran over the floor. You see, we came from a small birth. This move that God has placed us in came from a small element of people. Bro. Jackson himself said that there were times he would think, ‘Well this is the last service, I cannot keep going on with so few in number’. But then a new family would come in. Now this move is around the world. People are responding from around the world, because there is something that is being taught here that has drawn people unto a realization that there is no other place like it, because God raised it up. We have a ministry of Truth here that God has raised up as a light in this time we are living in. It is not me, it is not my Brothers, but it is the ministry that God has given us. You might say, ‘Well God could have used anybody’. But He did not. Today they talk about people being so poor that they must steal, rob and kill, in order to exist. They did not live when I was young. I was born during The Depression. For about five or six months of the year, only on Sunday did I ever wear shoes. Children went to school barefooted with dirty feet in a one room school. I am proud of every bit of it. I am proud that I had parents that cared for me and a mom that cooked, most of it was from the garden except for the flour. How much allowance did I get? What was an allowance? You were allowed what you could eat, that was my allowance. But we didn’t steal, and we didn’t kill. That is just an excuse.

Let us turn to Malachi 4, verse 5. Bro. Jackson said the first time he heard Bro. Branham, he took me from Genesis to Revelation and I knew right then that this was that Elijah spirit. It doesn’t take long to catch on, not if you are in tune and your heart is right with God. God is so good to us, so rich in mercy. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” There are two things there, ‘the great’, and ‘the dreadful’. This next verse explains that. “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, (the great day) and the heart of the children to their fathers, (the dreadful day) lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” I remember Bro. Jackson telling this from the book of Luke, 1^st chapter, 17^th verse. “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, (talking of John the Baptist, this is a prophecy given to Zacharias, who was the father of John. When the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and quoted from Malachi. He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias) …to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, (remember that, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just: to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” He didn’t quote it all, did he? Go back to Malachi 4, “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,” that is as far as the angel went in Luke concerning John the Baptist. “And the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” This was what the Lord showed Bro. Jackson that morning when he couldn’t go out and farm because it was raining. This was before he ever met Brother Branham. He was reading in Luke, and it came to him, he didn’t quote all the prophecy in Malachi. “The heart of the fathers to the children”, was all that was quoted by the angel Gabriel to John’s dad. But Bro. Jackson had read in Malachi 4, where it said, “he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers”.  The first part, “heart of the fathers to the children”, represents the heart of the Old Testament believers (fathers) to the apostles of Jesus (children).  The second part, “the heart of the children to their fathers”, represents the heart of us, the end time saints (children), to the apostles of Jesus (fathers).  Thus the “children” of the first phrase are the “fathers” of the second phrase. Bro. Jackson got the revelation that there must be another prophet. That the Elijah spirit must come back again. One time was that great day, when John the Baptist ushered in the ministry of Jesus. And the next time was that dreadful day of the Lord when God brought forth Bro. Branham to be a prophet to this last age before the coming of Jesus Christ for His Bride.

We are built upon a truth. This is not haphazard; it is not something that just came about. Brothers and Sisters, we are living in truth. We are living in a day, even though the world is the way it is, God has provided His sacrifice for this day. Bro. Kevin quoted from the 3^rd chapter of Revelation, Jesus said, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock’. What is He saying? I am standing outside the church door. They would not let Him in. I am standing at the door and knocking. But if any man (each individually) hears my voice and will open the door…. Individually, this is the way it has come about, individually. He that opens the door, I will come in and sup with him (or her), and they with me. That is what we are doing today because the message we have is not acceptable in the church world. We are all alone, as far as that is concerned, but as far as God is concerned, we are not alone. Remember the song again, I Am Not Alone.

I didn’t get to all the scriptures I had in mind, but I did get to the ones I wanted to for sure. John 16, Malachi 4:5-6, Luke 1:17 and Genesis 12:1-9. The call was to Abraham, get out of thy country, go to a place I will show you. He didn’t say, go to Canaan. He said, go to a place I will show you. But as Abraham walked, it led him to Canaan. Brothers and Sisters, I love you and I care for you very much. Praise the Lord for the ministry He has raised up in this hour, and for the saints of God that He has brought together in a Truth. Let us pray.

September 6, 2020
AM Service

Early on when I became pastor, I wanted to keep things as they were when Bro. Jackson was here, as far as the song service was concerned and all. I never did want to get out of that style of singing that was then, because this was what I believed to be beneficial and to bless the people of the Lord. I know the church world has gone to modern day singing, just like they did to modern day preaching. It is something that starts out in the world and ends up in the church. But by the grace of God, we have determined here at Faith Assembly that we will keep things as we feel is scriptural. From that time on, no one has really tried to go against what we have believed in the singing and music part, from what it was years ago. I appreciate that everyone has been cooperative in that way of thinking. God is so good when we are earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, as it says in Jude verse three, from which The Contender is named. We are earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered.

One Heart

Whenever I was talking last week about the Elijah spirit, there was one thing that I did leave out of that, when I went to the fourth chapter of Malachi. I will go ahead and read that so you will know what I am talking about here. The fifth verse, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The great day is talking about whenever John the Baptist presented Jesus to the world. The dreadful day is the day we are living in. You can see it all around us. “And he shall turn the heart (not the hearts, the heart, which is an element of people that believe the same thing. There is only one heartbeat in the church of the living God, because we are members one of another. The Church does not have individual hearts. We do in the natural, but we only have one heart in giving praise and thanks unto God the Father for leading us in the right direction. He shall turn the heart…) of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” This is the next thing that will happen in our day, He will come and smite the earth with a curse. As it is talking in the first part, turning the heart of the fathers to the children. John the Baptist will declare to the repentant ‘children’ that the One that is to come after him (Jesus Christ) is the fulfillment at the heart of the teaching of the Old Testament prophets. (It is not necessarily so much as going back into the part of the Old Testament that the Jews hold to today. We know there are lessons to be learned from that, which I love to study in it.) But the heart of the fathers would be given to the children of that day. That would be the heart of the fathers to the children. But the second part of that, He will turn the heart of the children back to what would be the Pentecostal fathers. Now the children of the first part became our fathers, which would be the apostles, because we are built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, with Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone. Our faith and our belief go right back to the prophets themselves, as it is speaking of the heart of the fathers to the children, and children to their fathers, which would be the Pentecostal men of that hour, the ones that receive the Holy Ghost at the time of Pentecost, and some after, such as Paul. Paul was not in the upper room. We find that the prophecy of Malachi is showing us that we will be turned back to that time. That is the reason we hold on to what we do. It is because we are following the message that was presented to us, that came down through time, through Paul, through Irenaeus and all those. We are products of the apostles. We know even in the times of Irenaeus, Martin, and Columba, that the church was beginning to break down, until the time that God began to bring it back through Luther and Wesley. Then on through William Branham, then through Raymond Jackson, the apostle of our hour, and now through the ministry of the hour in which we are living. God has brought us from one stage to another, because it was all lost under the Catholic system. We find Luther and Wesley, and those, began to turn the page on what had been done, as we come into the fifth, sixth, and seventh church ages. The seventh church age, you see the end of it when you are looking at Revelation 3, because it did not start out that way at Azusa Street, but before long they began to organize. From out of that came the oneness and other denominations. The oneness believe that Jesus is God. We find many people that we have known have gone back to that belief now. That is not turning back to the fathers. We have had fathers in this hour also, Bro. Branham and Bro. Jackson. Paul said ‘ye have not many fathers.’ He was not talking about fathers that men hold up as priests or something like that. But he is talking about the fathers that have taught us truth, to bring us back into a union with those that have preached truth in the hour in which we live.

Living Water

The denominations had Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and all those, but Bro. Branham likened them to the two angels that went to Sodom. He said they blinded the eyes of the people, just as those angels blinded the eyes of the people in Sodom. We know that they did, because people get hung up on certain things and cannot move from that. They just hold to what those men taught them and do not move on with God. As I said one time about a denominational man I heard get up and testify. He said, ‘I am saved and sanctified and satisfied.’ Then he sat down. To me, that sounded good at that time. But it does not sound too good anymore. Because we should never become satisfied here, we have something inside us that keeps us going on. As the psalmist said, as the hart thirsts after the water brook, my soul thirsts after the Lord. We know that a deer needs water. Bro. Branham was a great hunter. He said, if you shoot and wound a deer, if it can get water, it can live a long time. We are those, not that have been shot, but that need water. Just as in John chapter four, when Jesus met the woman at the well and began to talk to her about another water that she was not even looking for. He said the water that He would give would be a well of water springing up into eternal life. Whenever He spoke of that to the woman, He said, I will give you living water. She still mistook it because she said, give me that water that I do not have to come back and draw it again. He was not talking about that at all. He was talking about life. It is said that you can do without food for many days, but you cannot do without water for more than three days. Because it really is life.

His Two Comings

 Now I want to go into the rest of the scriptures I have for tonight. I will go to Isaiah chapter 26, which has been a great inspiration to me concerning the end-time. In chapter 26 you see something that is going to be for the Bride of Jesus Christ here in the last day that we are living in. Of course, the denominational prophetic preachers do not know that the Bride is going to be raptured before the tribulation time comes. Because they have lost their understanding. When they try to explain the last part of Matthew 24 where it is talks about after the tribulation of those days (verses 29 through 31), they think that is the time the Bride is going to be taken away. But that is not the time for the rapture. The rapture is a secret (to the world) catching away, not a visible return as in these verses. The Bible says in Matthew and Luke, there is a catching away, one will be taken and another one left. We find this is the way the rapture happens. Let us look at Matthew 24. I want to show you the difference here in these few verses because we are at the time of the end. Verse 27 tells you about the rapture. Verses 29 through 31 is talking about the coming of the Lord in wrath. When you look at verse 27, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Then the next verse. “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” That is where the body of believers get their food. We are the eagles of this hour. God sent an eagle messenger unto this hour, which is the fourth beast. We find the four beasts were full of eyes before and behind, and within, as it speaks in Revelation chapter four. But then you go to verse 29, it says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,” (this is altogether different than verses 27 and 28. Let me go over those again.) “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” That is the food supply. Whenever He comes back, they are going to be eating on the carcase. Revelation never stops until the Bride leaves. The last revelation of the Bride will be when chapter ten of Revelation comes about, where Jesus stands one foot upon the land, and one upon the sea. That is speaking of where the Bride will be worldwide. At that time, the book (or scroll) will be open. The scroll will be open then. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear (He has already appeared once in verse 27. Then shall appear…) the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” That is when the Bride of Revelation 19 is with Him on the white horses. This will be the time when He makes His visible return. I am going to go into that in this message tonight, the Lord willing. Remember that. “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, (That is talking about foolish virgins and Jews.) from one end of heaven to the other.”  This is coming after those foolish virgins and then also the great multitude, as mentioned in Revelation chapter seven. You see here His two comings. The first coming is to catch away His Bride for the wedding supper. The second coming His Bride returns with Him and He resurrects those that will live and reign with Him. Not like the Bride that will RULE and reign with Him for one thousand years.

The Bride Hidden Away

I go back to the 26^th chapter of Isaiah now. Verse 20 is something that I have always liked. These preachers never do talk about that verse (or the scripture in Zephaniah chapter two where it talks about keeping His people hid) when they talk about the coming of the Lord. Starting with verse 19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” In the phases of the first resurrection, the dead that will live again eternally; then in the second resurrection at the end of the Millennium, when the earth casts out the rest of the dead to suffer the second death. Now in verse 20 He is talking to the Bride of Jesus Christ, “Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, (the seven-year period) until the indignation (until the tribulation passes. That 70^th week is God’s indignation. When that time comes, He hides His Bride away from that awful thing. You can also find that in 1^st Thessalonians the fifth chapter where the Bride is not appointed to wrath. Until the indignation…) be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: (He is hiding His Bride away during the time that He has come to punish the world for their iniquity.) the earth also shall disclose her blood, (the blood that has been spilled shamelessly upon this earth. It is coming, the day of the wicked is at hand. We see the signs of it right now as we look around the world, and at our nation, especially. We see the similitude of what is revealing the evidence of God’s last days that we are living in. I remember Bro. Branham talking about the 30^th verse of the 17^th chapter of Luke, where it says, ‘when the Son of man is revealed.’ That was happening in his day, the Son of man, who is Jesus Christ, being revealed. Because nobody really knew yet. Billy Graham said, “I believe in the trinity, but I can’t explain it.” He was not given the revelation of the Godhead. It has come back in these later days while men slept. It said they would sleep in Matthew 25. While the foolish virgins went to buy oil, then the Bride was taken away.) and shall no more cover her slain.” That is wrapping up something there.

Israel’s Revival

We go from there to chapter 27. There is much in this chapter to go over, and there is much left about the Millennium to take place, in the Book of Isaiah. He speaks of the Millennium more than any other book in the Old Testament. Because God had dealt with him. He dealt with him in the sixth chapter when the Spirit of God touches his lips with that coal of fire. Then God asked, ‘Who will go for me?’ Isaiah said, ‘Here am I; send me.’ Chapter 27, the 12^th verse, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.” Telling them how they will be gathered one by one, not necessarily in groups. I know there are many Jews and many so-called Jews, who are making their Aliyah, which is their trip back to Israel. They are going to Israel because there is something pulling them. Because God must get 144,000 out of that group before He smites the earth with a curse. As in Revelation 14, that 144,000 will preach a gospel unto the whole earth, a gospel not of salvation, but a gospel of deliverance. Telling them to stay away from the mark of the beast. We do know what the beast is. The beast is Europe, but the false prophet is the pope. Whenever all this comes about, we find the false prophet will head up the beast. People have gone to Revelation chapter 13 thinking that the beast was a man, which was injured in the head. One of the heads of the beast was the pope that lost its power during the Reformation. The Catholic Church did not have any influence from then until 1945 after World War 2 was over, then it came back. Later, under President Reagan, the relationship with the Vatican was restored by him sending an ambassador there, a man that did not know what he was doing.

It shall come to pass in that day. Whenever it says, ‘in that day,’ that is not talking about a particular day. It does not say one day of the month, one day of the week, one day of the year, but it is a time period, which is the last days. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” This is when Israel has her revival, just before the coming of the Lord for the Bride. I know Bro. Jackson believed that the Bride would have something to do with the introduction of Jesus Christ to those two prophets. We feel tonight that we do know who the two prophets are, because of the things that have come about, which God has shown us. They do not know yet that they are the two prophets. But we see the influence they are having here and in Israel. The Return is supposed to happen on the 26^th of this month (September 26, 2020). Jonathan Cahn has planned a gathering at the National Mall near the Washington monument. They are expecting thousands of people to be there. It is going to be live broadcast during that day. If you can get that broadcast, then you will be able to see much of what is going on. I know Jonathan Cahn has said he is expecting problems there. Each time one of his books comes out, he has had problems, even threats to his life. Remember Jonathan Cahn during this time. Now we will go to Isaiah chapter 30, verse 17. “One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: (This goes even beyond the Millennium into the Eternal Age.) he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” This goes all the way into the Millennium. It says in chapter 65, ‘before they call, I will answer’. “And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, (He is saying you are going to defile them; you are going to get rid of the graven images.) and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth: thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.” He is talking about the things that the Jewish people have worshipped. “Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.” That is talking about the Millennium. “The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, (grass) which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, (this is where the Jews failed God. They took their images they had made and went into the mountains to worship because they thought they were going to get closer to God.) and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, (It is going to be a bright moon.) and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and health the stroke of their wound.” This is talking of Jews here, because they were recognized as His people.

Ezekiel 38 and 39

 I want to go from there to Ezekiel 38. We will look at a few verses there and then go into the 39^th chapter for a couple verses. This relates to what I was talking about this morning in Isaiah 4:1. I said that seven women would take hold of one man. I want to build on this over and over until I get it done. Ezekiel 38, verses 10-23, “Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: (That is not evil thoughts as man would believe it is to be, but it is an evil thought against Israel. Because these nations are getting together and planning how to wipe out Israel and the other nations that will be aligned with Israel at that time. Saudi Arabia, and the UAE and different ones that are aligning with them now. We will find this is what they are coming after, they are coming after the spoil, or moreover, the oil. Take the s and p off, and then you have oil, which is what they want.) And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” They will be without bars and without gates. Israel put up their wall in one year; they can take it down in less than that time. They did not make an over four-hundred-mile wall, and they did not have the opposition that President Trump did. They say the US wall will not work, but the Israel wall works. It would work here if they would give credit to it. Dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates. “To take a spoil, (s-p-oil) and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, (they are now inhabited by the Jews) and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, (talking of Jews) which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. (This is where they will be dwelling, in the midst of the land.) Sheba, and Dedan, (These are the nations that will be aligned with Israel at that time, as will Egypt. Sheba and Dedan…) and the merchants of Tarshish, (merchants, which means shipmasters, of Tarshish go all the way back into Europe, where Tarshish was located.) with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? Hast that gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? Therefore, son of man, (He is speaking to Ezekiel. This was about twenty-six hundred years ago when this was spoken, but it is facing us right now, right at this time. Therefore, son of man…) prophesy and say unto Gog, (That is the leader of Russia, just as plain as the nose on your face. Putin is over there making his threats, flying his planes close to our places, thinking that he is going to rule the world. Putin is probably the richest man in the world. He has taken the money that belonged to the Russian people and put it in his coffers, in places throughout the world. I do not know whether it will do him any good. Therefore, son of man, prophesy unto Gog…) Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?” That is after they get their land back. That is why we preach, and it has been preached, there is going to be a war in Israel. We look every morning to see if it is happening. Bro. Jackson said it will not take forty years; it will not take forty days for them to accomplish that. Getting back Egypt and all these Arab lands that are around about them. Remember, ‘all the people round about’ them, are the ones that are going to suffer, because they are going to align with the other nations. We find God is going to do something about it. There are threats now, all the time, threats coming from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and threats within the country. Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shall ye not know it? “And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, (That is Russia, the north parts.) thou, and many people with thee, (It tells you earlier in the chapter who they will be. It will be Iran, Turkey, and other countries that are close by.) all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army.” Back in the 1980’s they were talking about Russia getting a great army of horses. How long would they last, to come against Israel? No, it is horsepower, planes, and things of that nature. Because it tells them they will come in as a cloud. A cloud is not a horseback rider. They will have their parachutes which will look like clouds, to cover the land of Israel. Thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great and mighty army. Ezekiel was looking at an army in terms of his day. God would not have shown him jet planes because nothing like that existed. He had to show him something to which he could relate. “And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, (See? That is who he is talking about.) as a cloud to cover the land; (as a cloud, which is what I mentioned, a cloud to cover the land.) it shall be in the latter days, (That is not the end. Latter days, it will be somewhere in the time whenever Revelation 10 comes about, somewhere in that period.) and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.” Putin is going to look mighty small then. “Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?” Go on down further, verse 19, “…Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.” God is the Creator. He can create a bunch of hornets in a plane, and, no doubt, that crew will not be concerned about their mission any longer. He has used hornets in the past. “So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence (pestilence is usually something that flies) and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, (that is all of them) and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” Brimstones usually come from the core of the earth in volcanic eruptions. They are going to be in the mountains of Israel, which will be some of the mountains that we were able to see from a distance when we were there in Israel. Mount Hermon and that area, which is not heavily inhabited. God is going to lead them there for their downfall. “Thus will I magnify myself, (God is magnifying Himself.) and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, (How is He going to be known? By television, or that little thing you carry in your pocket. You can take your phone and keep up with everything. I will be known in the eyes of many nations. I wonder what CNN will broadcast at that time. They have been so against Israel. CNN started in the 1970’s with one little radio station. That is all they had. Then they began to grow and got into television, very little at first. But by the time of the Gulf War of the United States in Iraq they became well known. I remember Wolf Blitzer, who is still with CNN, and a certain reporter at that time. He was broadcasting from Israel during the SCUD missile attacks launched into Israel. The United States was holding Israel back so they would not get into the war. I know Bro. Mark Cox was in that war in 1991. I will be known in the eyes of many nations…) and they shall know that I am the Lord.” I read that for you to know what is coming next. I want to read the first two verses in chapter 39 that will help explain why there are only a few men left. “Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Meshech is Moscow. “And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, (Do you see what I was talking about, seven women taking hold of one man? God, by war, is thinning out the population. Young sisters, you do not have to worry about that. You are going to meet your Husband, as the Bride of Jesus Christ. I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee…) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.” From the north parts, he said, “I will cause you to come up” upon the mountains of Israel. Read the rest of that and you will find what it is talking about.

The Sixth Vial

Now I want to go to Revelation 16. You read in chapter 7 how there are four angels that hold back the wind so that it would not blow upon anything at that time. In the 16^th chapter you will find that the winds are all let loose. You see how God is working under the sixth vial in verse 12, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; (In that time as you would look at it, you would expect the river Euphrates would be completely dried up. But this is not necessarily what happens here. In modern militaries they have amphibious boats and things that they can put tanks on and take them across rivers as if it is dry ground. Here is where war comes from the east to the west. I remember Bro. Jackson going over that. He said the Chinese people are a little people and they all wanted to become great and to defeat the larger people. The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates…) and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” This is something God is saying as a representation that they will be able to come. Why are they coming? They are coming to meet the western armies, which will be Europe at that time. Europe with all her little fingers reaching into these other countries, which make up the body of the beast. But the ten horns of Europe will lead the beast. That eleventh horn, which will be the pope, will stand out. He wants to be in rulership, as in Daniel 11 and Revelation 13.

The First Beast of Revelation 13

Let us see what it says in Revelation chapter 13. Verse 1, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, (That is Europe.) having seven heads and ten horns, (What he sees there in the beginning is what they call the good kings. They were not good kings. They brought the beast system back into its former image. Having seven heads and ten horns. The ten horns are the ten nations, which are the original nations of Europe that will be aligned. Of course, the body of the beast reaches all the way into other countries. But many of those will be defeated when God defeats Russia and her armies as they come against Israel. Having seven heads and ten horns…) and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Why is it called the name of blasphemy? Because he claims to be a sovereign universal leader, that is the blasphemy of it. Many of these things you know, but I am going over them again. “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, (He is going back into Daniel, into parts of the world where Nebuchadnezzar saw the four beasts. But here you have the land and a small part of each of the spirits of the beasts. The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,) and his feet were as the feet of a bear, (Some say this is Russia, but this is not Russia. This would be the second beast system, which was the Medo-Persian. The third one would be Greece under Alexander the Great.) and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: (which would be the first one, Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar.) and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” They say there are twenty-seven nations now in that system. It does not matter how many are in the system, it will still be the ten original nations of Europe that will be in charge. Somewhere in time our troops must come home from overseas. President Trump is bringing them home from various parts of the world. He is bringing them home from Afghanistan, eventually he is only going to leave five thousand troops there. He is telling Europe and the world countries it is time for them to take care of themselves and have their own armies. The United States has protected and aided them through all these years, while they have done nothing for us in return, not even paid their share to the United States for taking care of them. Our troops have to be brought home. There is a purpose for them being back here because they will be needed eventually. If this be the place where Israel will flee to, which we believe that it is, then there must be somebody here to protect her from all these other evils out there. The beast will try to get Israel, as you see in the 12^th chapter, but she will flee unto her place in the wilderness. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; (This brings it to the endtime, one of his heads as it were wounded to death, which is when the pope lost his seat. Napoleon had him put in jail and he died there, in 1799, from an awful disease. That head did not come back until 1945, when it began to be recognized again after WW2. This is when the deadly wound began its healing process. You see it healed today; it is recognized around the world. The pope spoke against President Trump in 2017 and said that Trump was not a Christian. You have not seen the pope here during the President’s term. Because he has not had an invitation, and that is good. Keep him where he belongs. I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death…) and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” What the television prophecy preachers say at this time, they say there will be a man of sin, and then there will be the beast, which they make him a man, and said he will be shot in the head and will recover. That would make him as a god. If he is dead and can recover, then that would make him somebody that could heal himself. That is not it at all. It is the head of that beast system that is already healed and will come into focus after the beast gets its way. Which will happen when Israel thinks it is dwelling safely, then Russia and the others surprise her. Israel will be afraid and make a covenant with the head of the beast to her own demise. “And they worshipped the dragon (that is the devil. We have them in America today. They do not believe there is any God. They lift their heads in the air, saying, ‘where is God?’ They are going to find out. They worshipped the dragon…) which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” That is the last part of the week. He is not given that power in the first part of the week, only Israel has signed a league with him. Somebody may say, I do not like what you are saying. Why don’t you read the Bible? “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, (which would be in Jerusalem) and them that dwell in heaven.” What an awful person. As you look at it in Daniel 11, he claims that he is God. He sits in the temple of God, saying he is God. He takes away the daily sacrifice. At that time there will be a daily sacrifice, otherwise it would not say, ‘he takes it away.’ The Jews are sacrificing in the temple, as it is recorded in the Revelation the 11^th chapter. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, (with the foolish virgins, and the Jews) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” That would not necessarily be this nation. It would not be China, but it would be all those nations that are under the European system. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, (You do not see the Chinese worshipping him, not at all.) whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” But God wrote our names there when the world was created. We are eternal beings. “If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Which will be foolish virgins.

Armageddon

Let us go back to the 16^th chapter. Verse 12, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” Prepared for what? Not to worship the beast, but to fight against the beast. “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, (which is the devil) and out of the mouth of the beast, (which would be Rome and those European nations) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Which will be the pope. You might say, you are getting hard on that ‘old boy.’ I was not the one that originally spoke it, but I am repeating it. “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, (working miracles to get them to that battle. It is not righteous miracles; it is the unrighteous working of man. God is giving them the knowledge to come together with these great armies, but they are using it wrong.) which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” At the end of that battle Jesus Christ and the Bride will come back. Verse 16, “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” This is where the blood comes up to the bridle of the horse for a hundred and sixty miles. “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.” Why am I reading this in this message? This is going to kill most of the men of China and Japan, North and South Korea, and all those nations that are in the east. At some time prior to Armageddon these nations will agree one with another, to come against the European nations. They are going to engage in battle right there in Armageddon. That valley is where the blood flows to the horse’s bridle. That does not mean that in every place it will be that deep, but in the lower places it will be. That will get rid of the men.

Isaiah 4:1

Therefore, seven women will take hold of one man. I have done my best to try to explain how this will come about. I am not promoting polygamy, not in any way. But it will take that for the repopulation of the sheep people in the Millennium. When it is all over, this is going to be the repopulating policy that God will have. That is throughout the world, where there are few men left.

In the Millennium there must be teachers to straighten them out and begin the healing process. The leaves of the Tree of Life will be for the healing of the nations; to bring peace to them. The people that make up the Bride of Jesus Christ will be the teachers. That is why we are learning now, so that we will know some things when we get to the wedding supper. God will not just throw everything at us all at once. God is not sending His Son back to get a spiritually ignorant people. I am not talking about higher education. Paul counted all those things but loss to win Christ. Of course, God used him, and others with an education, like Luther and Wesley, for His Glory. He used the face of a man as the third beast in Revelation chapter four. But the Bride of Jesus Christ is not going to leave this world as ignorant people. God is showing us the way right now. God is true to His word. He is going to have everything fixed exactly right. The thing that we are to do is to live for Him, live for His Word, and believe in His Word. Do not let some arrogant upstart out there try to teach you these things different than I have talked about. For example, that cannot be the rapture in verses 29 through 31 in the 24^th chapter of Matthew. That is judgment upon this earth. That is the final part of the first resurrection of the ones that have died in the 70^th week, including the tribulation. The rapture takes place in verse 27. Then when Jesus and His Bride return seven years later, the righteous dead will be raised. That is the only dead people that He will raise then. There will be no rapture. But according to the word of God, we are looking for a rapture, because it is promised to us. We have that promise just the same as the Bride saints that have died have the promise of a resurrection and a rapture with the living Bride. We have the promise that there will be a rapture. I do not know if I will be here or not at that time. I would like to be here but there is no guarantee of that. If you must go by way of the grave, there is not going to be anybody hindering you. You are going to rise first. God has given each one since Pentecost until this time the revelation necessary to be Bride. You might say, well we had brothers and sisters that were not given this opportunity to know what we know now. But they knew their part at that time. Just like Luther and Wesley, they did not know what you know, but they were still Bride people. As I read this morning in Malachi, you date our time all the way back to John the Baptist, whenever he introduced Jesus Christ. We are enjoying the things the apostles wrote unto us. People wanted to cut it off, wanted to say, ‘this’ did not mean ‘this;’ we do not believe revelation. Go ahead and do not believe it. If you are out there and do not believe it, I am not going to convince you it is right. If the Holy Ghost cannot, then nobody can. I thank the Lord for His Spirit. Let us pray.

To be continued in next issue…

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY – Part 26, 8/16/2020 pm

Bro. Allen’s Testimony:

It will be five years in November since I had the heart attack (November 2015).  The doctor asked me then if I wanted to do a treadmill test or have him check through blood work? I told him I do not want to do a treadmill test, so he did the other. After only one minute he stopped the test. Then they did an echocardiogram and the technician looked very concerned at what she was seeing. When the doctor came in after reviewing the results, he said: “You have had a massive heart attack”. That surprised me. He wanted to put me in the hospital that day, which was a Friday. I said: “No. I cannot until Monday”. When I went that Monday, they put in two stents.

I have had several electro-cardiogram (EKG) tests since then. Last month, in July, I had another one. He said your heart is getting stronger. He did another type of test and said he would let me know if anything is wrong. I never heard from him. Then I went to my family doctor. He checked my heart and had a smile on his face. He said: “Your heart checks out at 60”. I did not know what that meant. He told me that is the highest it can go, even football players’ hearts are no stronger than that.  He was happy and he told me; “You are batting one thousand percent; you have NO blockage”. I praise The Lord for that. He has been so good to me!

Ready for a Wedding

I am going back to the scripture I was on this morning. Where it said, hinder me not seeing that the Lord has prospered our journey, in the 56^th verse. The man was on a mission. He was representing Abraham. Abraham was representing God. As you go over into Romans and into Hebrews, you will find what God did in their lives at that time. We are in Genesis 24:56. This is one of the longer chapters. I went over much of it this morning. But there are other things in this that will relate to the same thing, concerning Rebekah. The woman was a very wise woman because she listened to God, and she believed the servant that God had sent unto her. Because of this, God honored her life and blessed her very much. “And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master.” The servant was talking about Abraham when he said, “Let me go to my master.” But Abraham is not the first one he is going to meet. We will see what he did. “And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.” There was no hesitation in what she was saying. The family has listened to what the servant had said to them, and they are wanting to put it off for a little while. But the decision we have to make is a decision that cannot be delayed. We must decide the way that we are going to go now. I am not talking about tonight, but many have already made that decision that they are going to go wherever the Lord leads them.

I want to deal with other things in this, just to show the hand of God at work. People sometimes get discouraged. Things happen in the lives of people that discourage them. Sometimes it is our fault, sometimes it is just something the devil placed upon us. But God uses these things to work in our lives. I would have to look it up, but it is translated somewhere that Abraham was tempted of God. God does not tempt. As James said, God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. God tests, but God does not tempt people. To tempt somebody would be like if you had a child that you offered a firecracker to, a little two-year-old boy, then you are tempting that boy. Because he does not know what to do with it. God would never do that to us. But if you offer something to someone and you tell them the outcome of it, then that is not a temptation, it is a test. If it is your child or whoever it is, it is a test to see what they will do with it. My oldest grandson was told by his dad and his mom that the stove was hot. Finally, he touched it and burnt a place on his arm. The words did not help, but whenever the test came, then it did. He was checking to see if it really was what they were telling him, then he learned to stay away from that fire after he was burned. He had a scar on his arm for a while after that.

They called to Rebekah; will you go with this man. She said, “I will go”. No hesitation, no thought about anything else except that she had heard the message. The message came from the servant, it did not come from Isaac, the message did not come from Abraham, but it came from Abraham through a servant. God uses His ministry like that. Or He may use somebody else to speak to your heart. They have a message that should be heeded.  If I or someone else saw somebody that was about to be in trouble, then it is up to me or that other person that is looking on the scene, to try to stop what is going on, that they are not harmed. “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, (We know that is the truth, be thou the mother of thousands of millions…) and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” That was something being spoken by her family here, but this was also spoken by God to Abraham just two chapters before: that his seed would possess the gate of his enemies (those that hate them). We see that in the life of Abraham. They are saying something here that they probably do not know what they are saying. “And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: (See? That was not all of it. They followed the man because the man is the one that had the message from Abraham. They had believed thus far, and they are going to go with the message they have heard. We have believed thus far; we are not stopping for something else or anyone else. Sometimes we get ourselves in trouble by listening to too many voices. There are voices out there, of which Paul gave warning, Peter gave a very strong warning concerning the things that would try to trip us up in our life. They were asking us to just follow the Lord because they had the word of the Lord. I believe that to be the case in this hour. I believe that sons and daughters of God are carrying a word in their heart that has been planted there by the Spirit of the Lord through the ministry that God has raised up throughout the years. I know it was told to the Philadelphian age that there was a door that was opened. We know Wesley opened that door and others walked into it with a message. We find different ones that lived out that message until it all came to the Laodicean age. I remember Bro. Jackson talking about one man that had prayed as people came across a certain bridge that whoever came across that bridge would fall under conviction. Everyone that came across the bridge that day fell under conviction of the Lord. We find the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It is not something to be snubbed at, but it is something to be reverent to. Someone who really knows the Lord and has the voice of God in their hearts and in their minds, God may use through a prophecy or through tongues and interpretation. But whatever way it comes, it is a message from the Lord to tell someone something. We know there is a ministry that God has called. But God has also called children to follow up on that. When you look at it in 1^st Corinthians chapter 12, you see nine spiritual gifts. This is not nine different preachers. Some of it happens in the lives of other people. We know the gifts of the spirit are brought about differently in our lives. It may not even show up in someone as speaking in tongues or prophecy, but they have a call of God in their lives to be able to see something done. There are people that are called to pray for the sick and there are people that are called to do different things other than to minister. But they have a calling in their life, and it has worked through the years. We want to be sure that we pray about and respect that.

Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode on the camels, and followed the man…) and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.” It is not long after this until she is going to find something that has been talked about. It is not going to be long now until we find the one that has called us. He is preparing us now for that wedding supper that is to come. Verse 63: “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: (At the evening time, which we are living in today.) and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.” Her excitement is coming here at last, after a long ride. This was probably five or six hundred miles that they rode on camels to get there. You can see why the servant wanted to hurry back, because his journey would probably have been a month or longer if he had waited. But this way he is going to get back ten days earlier. Because there is excitement. There is coming a day whenever Israel gets her land back, that there is going to be excitement in the camp. We know our redemption is drawing nigh. As we look around us at things that are happening, we know redemption is drawing nigh. But we know when Israel gets her land back and begins to build the temple, that it will not be long then. “For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? (Who is this? She had never seen this man; she had just heard about him. We have never seen Him, we have just heard about Him, heard the truth about Him. Some may have seen different shapes or forms, but when we really see Him, it is going to be different than any shape or form that has been seen. What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us…) And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself.” She took her veil and covered herself, she was getting ready for a wedding. No doubt she had her wedding dress ready. She got off the camel, ready to meet her bridegroom.

We can just ride this thing so long, one of these days it is coming to a climax. Then we are going to see the One we have been serving, that we have been worshiping, that we have been singing to, that we have been happy about. Why? Because He forgave us of our sins. Some feel that they have failed God and that maybe they have gone too far, but that is not the truth. That is not the truth, because Jesus went all the way to hell to preach to the imprisoned spirits, and also to bring with Him those that were in the paradise part of hell. The devil wants you to think you have gone too far. Why do I say these things tonight? Because I feel there is somebody that needs help. This could be the night that you receive that touch from the Lord that looses the binding that binds you, loosens that yoke that is upon you. It is not too late, but one day it will be too late. God is a God of mercy, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I feel somebody is walking very close to the edge. Things of the world have come in. You may have had a hard time. You may have had disappointments, but that is no reason to walk away from what is real and what is truth. Our life is more than what we can buy with money. Our life is more than our houses, our homes, our cars, our boats or anything in this life that we are trusting in. It may be that you thought it was too hard. What is the outcome of the other way? If this is too hard, then what is the ultimatum of a life without God? I do not usually preach this way; you know I do not. But when I read the story here, which is a reality, this happened almost four thousand years ago. The Word of God is always real. It was written for our learning, for our education in His curriculum, not in man. Colleges today are teaching all different ideas and opinions, Marxism and all such things to try to ruin the minds of young people. It is hatching out the different things you see in the streets today because of some professor who thinks like Lenin or Marx. They have stood up before young people and persuaded them that they were being misused and mistreated. I am not talking about young college people who have a purpose in life. I am talking about what the devil is doing to these young minds that think they know more than their dad and mom did. Because of that, they hate their parents. But here is Rebekah, a young woman, possibly in her early twenties that made a decision that she was going to follow God because she had heard about Him. The message was not just because of Abraham sending the message, it was because of God appointing a bride for a son that was going to be inheriting everything. It was not through Abraham because Abraham had children with different wives. It was through Isaac. “But, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” The whole Jewish element of people rests upon this story that is happening here as we read it. (I call it a story, but it is reality.) If this decision had not been made, there never would have been a Jewish nation. You cannot just go and get anybody to try to fulfill the will of God. Esau did that. Esau was not someone that could be trusted.

Rebekah had said to the servant, what man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? The servant said, “It is my master.” Therefore, she took a veil and covered herself… “And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.” We do not read it here, but he tells him the story, because we already know the story. He spent quite a bit of time telling him just what had happened.

I want to be able to tell after all this is over, that I have presented somebody to Jesus Christ, not to myself. It is He that we are elevating. The religious ministry of today has elevated themselves. The preachers who were in the pulpits this morning, are not there tonight. If there was a football game going on tonight, they would be there. But we have an interest in something else. The days and the times have been long. I never thought when I heard Bro. Branham that it would have lasted through 1977, because he had looked at things and said, the way things are happening, it looks as though it will be over by 1977. But then Bro. Jackson came along, and he did not think that his children would ever get through high school. But they went through high school and their children have gone through high school, and some of the next generation have finished high school. Time has moved slowly, but we feel the urgency now. Time is slipping away, but time does not matter to the saints of God because time will go into eternity. The children of God have eternal life already. I know Bro. Branham was looking for rapturing faith. It will take no more faith for a rapture than it will for our brothers and sisters that went in the grave for them to come forth. If you are a child of God and you are following the word of God, you will have rapturing faith. There is no mistake about it, we are on a journey that has been going on for two thousand years. It dates to the time of Abraham. Abraham was the father of the faithful. That is why God called him to be what he was. In Abraham shall all the families of the earth be blessed. But it came through Isaac. Isaac was the type of Jesus Christ. He only had one wife. He was the only one at that time that did. Look at the kings, look at David, look at Solomon, and Saul, and all the others that were kings after them. They had many wives. Sisters, how would you like to live with that? The thing about it is, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. It went on through Jacob, through Judah, and from Judah right on down to Christ. Jesus was born in the house of Judah.

I watched Jonathan Cahn the other night, there was something he said that I liked. He was talking about Jesus when He was baptized. I had never thought of this before. He said when Jesus was baptized, He was baptized by a Levite. That is the truth, but I had never thought about it that way. He said the mother of John the Baptist was a Levite, his father was a Levite, because Jesus had to be baptized by a Levite. This was the ministry of the Levites. I like that statement. It did not just happen haphazardly that Jesus was baptized. Bro. Branham said this, every offering before it is ever offered, had to be washed. Jesus, before His ministry ever started, He had to go to the river to be baptized by a Levite, John the Baptist. John had a different name than the Levites did. He presented Him, he stood there and said, Behold the Lamb of God, offering the sacrifice of God. That is what he was saying. This is God’s Lamb, this is God’s offering, prophesying before it ever came about that this was God’s offering. Jesus heard him. He knew it, especially from that time on. Whenever He was baptized, the Holy Ghost came upon Him, into Him. It did not just happen like a dove and fly and light on Him, it went into Him. He was injected with God. That is where the trinitarians have it all wrong. They think that Jesus was God. No, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. That is why we have forgiveness. To the Christian it says, confess your sins. He is willing and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The Bible says to come boldly unto the throne of grace that you may receive help in the time of need. Verse 66 again, “And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, (Sarah had died three years earlier. Isaac had become a lonely man. He knew his mother had believed that she would have a son, she had to. God named him Isaac. Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent…) and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” For three years he had no comfort. But now he is comforted.

The Birthright

    

We will read more here in the 25^th chapter, starting with the 19^th verse. “And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac: And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.” He gets her from kinfolk. He does not just randomly choose a wife. She is his kin. Brothers and sisters, we are kinfolks by the blood of Jesus Christ. I am not your uncle, I am not your cousin, I am your brother. By the blood of Jesus Christ, we are brothers and sisters. This is not by what we have done. This is what He has done within us to make us become what we are. When Isaac took Rebekah, she did not become his property, she became his helpmate. It said he loved her. She has no children yet. “And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; (They did not have the testing like we do today to tell whether you have twins, but these children struggled within her. She realized there was something wrong. She did not know there were twins there, but God showed her something. The children struggled together within her…) and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord.” This is the one that said, “I will go”. She went to inquire of the Lord, what is going on? God is going to talk to her. “And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, (He did not tell Isaac, He told Rebekah, two nations are in thy womb…) and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” She has an answer now from the Lord about what is going on within her. Two nations have already begun their struggle. Even in the womb they are struggling. They are looking for a position. “And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; (The struggle was not over. He had grabbed the heel while he was being born.) and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.” He had waited twenty years, from the age of forty to the age of sixty, before he had a child. Rebekah is probably around forty years old.

Then, they lived a lot longer than they do now. I saw where the oldest woman in America turned 116 years old. They asked her how she lived that long, and she said: I tried to live a good life and do the right things and I served The Lord.

I will read on; “And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, (That is sometimes a problem. I tried never to show respect to one of my children more than another. But sometimes people do. And many times, the other children feel that while they are growing up. I saw this happen in my own life. I saw it happen in the lives of other children, but it should not be. Because that leaves a feeling inside a person that is not good. And Isaac loved Esau…) because he did eat of his venison: (When Esau saw this happening, he kept pouring it on. He is wanting the birthright.) but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: (He thought he was going to die. I heard somebody preaching about this one time, he said he lacked something in his body. Yes, he lacked something, the spirit of Jacob, that is what he lacked. Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die…) and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; (He was not just satisfied with the words, he is wanting him to put some effort into it.) and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” In Hebrews Chapter 12 we find that he wept for his birthright, but there was no repentance because he had sold himself out.

Let us go to chapter 27. In this chapter you see something goes on that is very sad. This is a division that works out to God’s perfection. Sometimes family members are pitted one against another in order to fulfill God’s will. “And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.” Isaac has no revelation at this time. He is just going by feeling and going by sight. We are talking about the man now; we are not talking about the representation of Christ. “Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.” He is overlooking the will of God in order to satisfy someone that has already sold his birthright. “And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.” What is she going by? She is going by revelation. Isaac here is going by sight; by what he feels in the good meals that he has eaten from his son Esau. But God has taken his sight away. Otherwise, he never would have done this. My son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee…. “Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth.” There is some deceit that goes on here. This is a sad picture in a way. In order to fulfill the will of God, it is a sad picture. “And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.” Now this is the sad part of the story. “And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: (Does it happen? She takes the curse upon herself instead of Jacob.) only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.”

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are all buried in the same tomb. They carried Joseph’s bones back from Egypt. This was one of the prophecies he gave when he was still in the land of Egypt. The burying place is over there now. We were there. Jacob goes back to his cousin Laban. He spends twenty years there, two seven-year periods for two women and another six years he stays for Laban’s cattle. The death of every other woman is mentioned. Sarah is mentioned, Rachel is mentioned, Leah is mentioned. But Rebekah’s death is never mentioned. The curse falls upon her because this is a prophet, Isaac is a prophet. The curse falls upon her because she has taken the curse that belonged to Jacob unto herself, because she listened to the voice of God. It costs a lot to some people, but whenever you go into other scriptures, you will find that she was buried with Abraham, Isaac, and them, you will find that in another scripture. But it does not tell of her death, because Jacob is away when she dies. Because Isaac is the servant of God, the curse comes upon her, and she dies without recognition. But she is in the will of God, because God had told her in the vision what really was going on, and she was willing to sacrifice her life that the will of God might be fulfilled. That is dedication. That is somebody that loved God more than they loved their own life. She took this upon herself. His mother said unto him, upon me be thy curse my son, only obey my voice and go fetch me them. “And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son.” See? This is all done in deceit, but it is all in the will of God. One reason why is when Esau was forty years old, that would have made Isaac a hundred years old, he married two Canaanite women. This showed he was not a child of God. It said he sold his birthright. Then when he saw that it did not please Rebekah and Isaac he went and married one of Ishmael’s daughters. He gets in the fire and does not know how to get out. He is much like Cain was, because he just buries himself deeper and deeper. Of course, he is blessed, but it is not the blessing of Jacob. It cannot be. It cannot happen twice. God does not have two Brides. I can prove this to you. He has people that will have to give their life, foolish virgins, and he has the great multitude, but they will never reign in the category of the Bride, because it calls them servants. They will have a duty to fulfill in the Millennium, but it will not be the same as the Bride of Jesus Christ. This is the highest calling there is. “And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck.” All this must be done in order to get to the right place, but it is costing her her life, because she desired it to be that way. “And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?” He could hear him, but he could not see him. “And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” See? He could not go by sight; he was going by feeling. That was all he had left to be able to discern between one and the other. God is not showing him, because God has a purpose in it. Esau would never be the person that Jacob would be. “And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.” This is all deceit, but it is still working in the plan of God. It is working that way because God has blinded Isaac to the fact. Otherwise, he would have blessed the one that was not to be blessed. “And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of the raiment, (his brother’s raiment) and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” That is the story, I hope it has meant something to you. It did when I read it. Praise the Lord for His wonderful grace and being able to be acquainted with you as my brothers and sisters. We know that God is always near and a very present help. May The Lord bless you. Let us pray.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

(I Will Go)

Part 27, 8-23-20 AM

Protest The Devil

There is a lot of trouble going on in the streets today, as people are trying to shut down highways here in Louisville. People want something done according to their own choosing. Our protests today are inside of us, we protest the devil and what he is doing on this earth. It is not only what is happening right now but what has been happening in the past that has brought the earth to the present evil that is here today. The ways of man, the evil of man, brings him to no good end. We find the grace of God brings us to something that is worth living for and worth giving our lives for. May God be praised in it all.

I want to testify about a little trip we were able to take back to North Carolina where my grandparents lived.  I was able to contact some of my kinfolks I haven’t seen in 67 years and to go to the cemetery where my mother’s parents and other relatives are buried. We saw beautiful mountainous places where my mother grew up. We had a very close fellowship with some of my cousins. As a teenager I lived there for just a few weeks before moving back to Kentucky. Which was God’s plan. God will do whatever it takes to have His will fulfilled. We had a wonderful time with some wonderful kinfolks. It is good to know that you come from a family who loved God. And to see the untouched beauty that God created.

Aliyah

We will go into Zechariah 4 now. As we look at the book of Zechariah, one of the minor prophets, as they are called. Their revelation was not minor, they have a major message. There are some, like Haggai and others, that pertain to one vision or event that are just one or two chapters. But others, like Micah and those, tell you that Israel is going to get her land back. There is a sequence of events that is going to happen before the Lord comes back, but then whenever it all starts, it will be like a snowball. It will just keep building and building until the final event. When Israel gets her land back, then you can start counting time. We do not know when Israel is going to get her land back. I know Bro. Jackson said it will not be a forty-year war, or even forty days. In 1967 the war lasted six days. But whenever Israel gets her land back, then they are going to begin to build, and to tear down walls. The walls and the fences that surround it will be torn down because they are going to own the land that God gave to Abraham. Many Jews from the United States and Canada are going back home now. The word they use is “Aliyah” which means to ascend or rise. They are going ‘up’ to their home. They are landing there from other countries. We find there are more Jews in Israel now than there are in the rest of the world all put together. A few years back, there were more in the United States than there was in Israel. But they have gained momentum. They have moved from the United States and Canada, Russia, and other parts of the world where they can escape. God said that He would scatter them throughout this earth. You find them in China, in Iran, Iraq, you find them in Pakistan and India. Jews are scattered to the ends of the earth. Because God said He would do that to them. But the majority will go back home because they will come to realize the land is too small for them and they will push into Lebanon. You see Hezbollah now and some of those people that are trying to make tunnels into Israel, to be able to stock up for war. Hamas is building up. Israel has made peace with the United Arab Emirates, and that has agitated the Arabs round about them. They do not like it because Israel signed a peace treaty with the United Arab Emirates. But these are Abraham’s seeds. The name of the treaty is the Abraham Accords. Then we find that Israel is looking for peace now with Saudi Arabia. They have a peace treaty with Egypt, and they have a peace treaty with Jordan. But the peace treaty with Jordan or Egypt is not going to settle things. We find in the 63^rd chapter of Isaiah, which Bro. Jackson dealt with many years ago in the message titled “Showdown at Sundown,” as he talked about them coming from Iraq and that part of the world, across Jordan. You see these that are described as ‘round about’ in Zechariah 12 are going to come against Israel and Israel is going to have to take the land that belongs to them. People there have caused Israel so much trouble all along, which were the seed of Esau and Ammon (which today Amman, Jordan is named after). Also, the other descendants of Moab. You find these tribes here are closest to Israel. They are a part of Abraham’s family, but they have agitated the Jews all through the years so God is going to take care of that situation to bring about a change that will develop into a solution for Israel to get her land back. The Bible even talks about them “parting my land” in Joel Chapter 3. You see that in the things that are going on now. They have parted it. This part belongs to the Arabs and this part belongs to the Jews. The Arabs even want Jerusalem as their capital. Of course, they want the whole of Israel to be called Palestine. But I thank God for President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as their capital. You find Hamas and those groups will never make peace with Israel until it is forced upon them. Whenever peace is forced on them, all those that oppose peace will be shoved out. We find God has everything in His hand and knows exactly what He is doing.

The Two Olive Trees

I want to read here from the fourth chapter of Zechariah and see what happens here. I heard a man on television talking about the coming of the Lord. He was referencing Luke 21 and said that Israel was not represented by the fig tree, they were represented by the olive tree. He takes you to a place that speaks of that, but I knew right then and there that the man was wrong. You see that in the first chapter of Joel, and you see it in other places, where they “barked my fig tree” and all. Let us look at the scripture here. Zechariah Chapter 4, Verse 1: “And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? (He is asking Zechariah, what do you see? What are you looking at? So there had to be a vision there of something as that angel speaks to him.) And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof.” You all know what a candelabra is as we call it. This is what he saw. Israel already has the real thing enclosed in glass. Those that have went there have seen it, the candlestick that will be used in the time of Israel recapturing their land. I do not remember how tall it is, but it is a beautiful thing. But what you looked at, that is what is going to be there during the Millennium. They have made it of material that will last. “And two olive trees by it, (We will find out what the two olive trees are.) one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” He changes the subject here but he is going to bring it back up later. “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” The scene looks ahead to the coming of Christ (the Headstone) to rule and reign because it brings it from the headstone of the second temple they are getting ready to build, to the third temple in the Millennium. “Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.” The foundation of the second temple was laid and the temple was finished in one generation of time back there in the fourth century B.C. Verse 10: “For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” When you take ‘the eyes of the Lord’ into Revelation, you will see the seven spirits of God there. Now he goes back to the subject. “Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Go from there into the book of Revelation, Chapter 11, and see those two olive trees and their meaning. But first I want to go into part of chapter 10, starting with verse 5. “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven.” One hand. You see in the book of Daniel chapter 12, both hands. There it is speaking of Israel, which will go into the climax of the last three and one-half years. This one hand is a representation of the Bride of Jesus Christ and of the Jews. I have said this before and I say it again, whenever this seventh seal is opened in the first verse of the eighth chapter the scroll remains open, and it goes over to the message of the two prophets as they come on the scene. “And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.” Or no longer delayed. When you see time will no longer be delayed, this is the time when the Bride of Jesus Christ is going to exit this earth. The seventh verse is an interruption in order to speak of the prophet of our day, William Branham. “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, (Which would be Revelation 3, with the Laodicean church age. William Branham was the messenger that was to climax that seventh church age, which came about in 1963 and 1964. That is when the age was closed out, as far as denominationalism. Then go down to verses 20 through 22 of chapter 3, and you will find: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”. That is why the Bride is here today, because Jesus Christ was put out of the denominational church. You see that in Revelation 17 where the great whore is judged at that time. Because she and denomi-nationalism have divorced themselves from The Word of the Lord and came up with their own version.

You see denominationalism in the end time in Revelation chapter 13. The United States as a lamb beast with two horns (the Democratic and Republican parties) causes those that dwell on the earth to make an image to the first beast of chapter 13 (the beast out of the sea). Because most missionaries came from the United States and went around the world after WW2. Some of the generals such as General MacArthur as he was in the Philippines fighting the Japanese and all, he asked that the United States would send missionaries to those countries after they had been defeated. So, it went on from there and now we find that we are in that time. …But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel) when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” The mystery of God should be finished. What is that mystery of God? It is the Jews and Gentiles recognized here in these last days as being the ones that have been influential. The Jewish religion relates unto the Gentiles because that is where Paul’s message came from, from the Jewish prophets and going back in the Law to explain the Law as it was written. So right here you see the same book that is in the angel’s hand never closes. But it has a different unction because it is going back unto the Jews from here on. Because in this eighth verse it says, “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, (One more time he speaks to him.) and said, Go and take the little book which is open (See? It is open.) in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.” He is commanded to go and take the little book. The little book is taken out of the hand of Him that holds it and put into the hand of an angel. Because Jesus Christ is through with it, because the wedding supper is getting ready to start. When the wedding supper starts, then Jesus will be dealing with the Bride of Jesus Christ for her uniting with Him. “And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” I would like to say somewhere in this period of time as this little book is taken out of his hand, the Bride of Jesus Christ is going to introduce the Lord unto these two prophets. Because the Bride is going to bring forth the message of who Jesus is unto those two Jews. We feel very strongly that we do know who the two are. We do not know who the man of sin is yet, whether it be this pope or another one. But when that time comes for the Bride to leave here, we will already know who that man of sin is. As Paul said in 2^nd Thessalonians, he will be revealed. When Israel gets her land back, do not think that the coming of the Lord will be stretched out for many years. If you do that, then you are going to be a part of those that 2^nd Peter talks about: “…since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were…”. We know who the fathers of the faith that fell asleep were. They were Bro. Branham and Bro. Jackson. Since the fathers fell asleep, some will begin to say, ‘well He has delayed His coming’ and they will begin to plan for the future. It is especially important that our plans today are plans to serve God and let the future take care of itself. That is the only way it can be. “And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Their prophecy will be seen by many because when the two prophets stand in Israel, and all the miracles take place when they are opposed, the television cameras will be on them. They will prophesy to many people, but many more people will hear the message of the 144,000 that are ignited by these two prophets.

Now, in chapter 11, “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: (This is a measuring stick given unto him to measure what is going to happen here in the last days with Israel. Because it changes here from the time that he takes the little book, or the scroll, and here is the message of the scroll that he is looking at. From the time of the rapture of the Bride of Jesus until the two prophets come on the scene, you see no interval of time elapsing. Because the Jewish revival must be happening in the first three and one-half years. As soon as they get their land back, they are going to begin to build the temple, but the revival starts under those two prophets. What happens? They are going to see the hands and feet of Jesus. They will ask Him, ‘Where did you get those scars in your hands?’ Then they will realize that this is their Messiah that they had missed. There was given me a reed like unto a rod…) and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, (The temple is already there whenever the time comes that the Bride is ready to leave here. As you look at Isaiah 52:8, you will see that when Zion comes forth, then we shall all see eye to eye. We will be able to sing the same song together without hesitation. Measure the temple of God…) and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” This is after the treaty of Daniel 9:27, the treaty they will make for one week (seven years). They have not made it for one week, but God makes it last for one week. They think they are making a treaty that will always be. Look at Germany, they thought that when they started the war, that they would whip everybody. Hitler and the leadership there said that we will set forth a kingdom that will last a thousand years. It did not last that long, it only lasted about seven years. Then it was defeated after they began to persecute the Jews. In 1948, when Israel became a recognized nation, that was a time that was marked. As it says in Luke 21:32: “This generation” (of 1948) “shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.” We may go there later. “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” That is the first part of the seven-year period. The reason I read from Zechariah 4 is right here. “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” It mentions two candlesticks. Two olive trees and two candlesticks represent both Jew and Gentile. Here are the two prophets as they are in their sackcloth, blowing their trumpets because it is time for the trumpets to be blown.

God has everything under control for that three- and one-half year period. He is not going to be defeated by any means of some deal that Israel has made with the beast. Israel makes a deal with the beast and then the false prophet is on the scene. You cannot have that deal with the beast, which is Europe, the ten horns. Europe must build themselves an army. The United States has to fade into the background. We will no longer be the police force of the world. You can see things happening right now that will bring an end to the United States being the police force of the world. Countries are now realizing they must have their own armies; they have to do all of this for themselves. Here are the two olive trees and two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth… “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” We see that time is going on now and we are living in a generation in which seventy-two years (seventy-five at the time of this printing) have passed already since 1948. If you add another seven years, that will give you seventy-nine (eighty-two) years, which is still in that generation. Whenever Israel gets her land back, you can begin to look for things to be happening quickly in the Middle East. Scriptures being fulfilled will be like dominoes falling, one in succession after another. I do not know when the coming of the Lord is, but I know it cannot be too long from that time. I do not know when the time will be that Israel will get her land back, but I know when that time comes, it is not going to last another generation. This generation must be people old enough in 1948 to remember what was happening. They may have been eight or ten years old. The youngest person in Israel that was spying for Israel was a ten-year-old boy. They would not suspect a small boy being the one that was spying for Israel. They finally killed him when he was ten years old. They have his grave among the Jewish troops and leaders because of his courage and what he did for Israel.

The Fig Tree

Now I want to go to Luke 21, verses 29-36. “And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; (See? This is bringing in not only the fig tree but all the trees. In Matthew it talks about the fig tree. Here it talks about all the trees, not just the fig tree. Because there must be a recognition of what is going on among all nations, not just Israel.) When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. (Now this is where we get it from.) Verily I say unto you, This generation (the one we are living in now, from the time that Israel became a nation. Bro. Branham referred to 1947, but that was when they were given that opportunity to become a nation. But they were afraid, so they waited until May 14th of 1948, as Isaiah said: ‘a nation shall be born in one day.’ This generation…) shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.” Now Jesus goes ahead to emphasize what He is saying here. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: (Peter talked about that, that it would pass away with a great heat.) but my words (the words which He has spoken) shall not pass away.” They are etched in The Word and The Word is what we must stand on today, The Word of the living God. Now we will finish out in the first chapter of Joel and see if that man was right that said Israel was represented by an olive tree not a fig tree. Verse 1, “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation.” What he is saying is from generation to generation to another generation, let this be known. “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, (That is talking of Nebuchadnezzar, he was the head of the lion. I remember Bro. Jackson going over all these bugs. He said that was exactly the same thing as the four beasts that Daniel saw. Only here they are mentioned in a smaller manner, but it is the same thing. Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion…) and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: and made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.” Israel is represented here by a fig tree and by a vine, which the tendrils go throughout the whole earth. “The meat-offering and the drink- offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” It all withered away in 70 A.D. “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God.” That is talking about God’s presence no longer being there. “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.” Now let us move on to the second chapter. Verse 23, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” This is talking about the revival that will happen. “And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats (vats) shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” It is talking about the four beasts there from Daniel. “And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.” That will be when He restores what the cankerworm and all these other insects have eaten. That will be Israel’s revival whenever that time comes. Let us pray.

To be continued in next issue…