The Masterpiece 89

The Original Life Expressed

October 11th, 2006

 

 

Let us read for our text from Brother Branham’s sermon on The  Masterpiece 64-0705 tonight and pick up at paragraph 164 where we left off on Sunday. 164  Stand alone, like the Bridegroom, rejected of men, despised and rejected of the churches. The Bride stands that way. What is it? It's His Masterpiece. See? It's the Word that He can work through, make manifest, rejected.

   165 So the stalk, the tassel, and husk never become Seed (No.), but are all the time becoming more like the Seed. Now, at the harvest time the Seed is back to its original Life, back to the Bible. Malachi 4 said it would be brought that way. Oh, oh, my. Must have all... To be this way it must have all of the Word. Is that right?

  167    Now, what did He say in Revelations 10, that would take place? Why was the trip to Tucson? To open to the Church... In the days of the messenger of the seventh angel (the seventh angel Message) the whole Word of God would be made manifest. The seal that what all the stalk has left off, and why, and all about it, would be made manifest in this time. Is that what the Word said? Then we see it. Then where are we at? See? Where are we at? There's only one thing. The harvest is here. She's dead ripe. She's ready now for the coming.

  168    Notice. No, it'll never be it. The... At the harvest time the Seed is back to its original condition, and must have all of the Word in order to be the Seed. Now, you can't have a half of seed; it won't grow. See? It's got to be the whole Seed. It's got to not manifest, say, "I believe in baptism of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. I believe speaking in tongues." That's just part of the Seed. Uh-huh. But now, there's added to that (Hallelujah. See?) the Life, not the gifts, the Life of the gifts. See? See what I mean? We're at the end time, brethren. Stalk, tassel, husk is dead and dried now. There's only one thing that has to happen to that, it's to be gathered in the World Council of Churches for its burning.

 

Now, I would like to take these thoughts of brother Branham’s here and tie them back to the scriptures as best as we can see it.

 

Now, first of all he said, Stand alone, like the Bridegroom, rejected of men, despised and rejected of the churches. The Bride stands that way. What is it? It's His Masterpiece. See? It's the Word that He can work through, make manifest, rejected.

 

So don’t tell me that you are even Bride material if you’re not able to stand alone Like Jesus did. If you got to have numbers around you to make you feel good about yourself numbers then you are following the wrong Message.

Jesus had to stand alone, and it wasn’t standing based on his own intellect or his own doctrine, but on the doctrine that God gave Him. Let’s look at a few statements that Jesus made concerning his stand that he took with God’s word and why he took that stand.

 

John 7:16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

 

Now, doctrine is teaching and therefore he is sating those things which he taught were God’s doctrine, God’s teaching and not his own. That’s why when you see a man that won’t surrender his own mind and thoughts to God, it shows that the Life that was in Christ is not in Him. The man can not be born again and hold to his own thinking like they do everywhere.

 

John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

 

Notice here Jesus is telling us that what he did was a result of what God taught him to do.  If we could just do the same. That is why you can’t even get to first base until you repent because repent means to change your mind willingly. God should not have to use a club to get you to change your thinking. He said in Isaiah 55:6 “ Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

 

So we see even when those that have been living wickedly are willing to repent and change their thoughts and receive god’s thoughts, God is more than willing to accommodate them.

 

John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

 

Now, what we see here is that it is not just a matter of being taught but actually learning what you are being taught. Because he said you not only must hear but you must learn.

Too many people don’t believe you are accountable to God for your learning, but this is Proof text that you must learn if you are to come to God.  Because if you don’t learn, you will not come to Him.

 

And the reason for that is because God’s commandments are life to us. He said all things would work together for our Good, so what are we afraid of?

 

John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

 

Notice, His commandments are Life everlasting. That means possess Eternal Life. And why Not? He is the Word, and so the Word we receive is His Seed, His Life.

 

John 12: 49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

 

Now, notice that Jesus is letting us know the proper attitude to take towards the commandments of God. He is not saying God shoves you into it, but He gives you a choice. O right and Live, Live wickedly and suffer the consequences. That is why the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

 

The NIV says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

 

In other words, Let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

 

Then Paul let’s us know that if our minds stray from god’s Word, He will most certainly let u know it, and will bring to our remembrance those things which he has said.

 

Philippians 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, (that means mature and finished off) be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

 

John 10: 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

 

Now, notice that Jesus was commanded by His father in several places and in other places He tells us he was taught by the Father. But notice that He tells us that He willingly laid down his life for us in obedience to what God asked Him to do.

 

Now, God did not threaten him with eternal separation if he didn’t do what God asked Him to do, but to show that the Life of God was in this man, he willingly did what the father so desired for him to do.

 

So we are looking at the next thought that brother Branham is talking about tonight and that is the Life returning back into the church again.

 

In Paragraph 165 he said, Now, at the harvest time the Seed is back to its original Life, back to the Bible. And what is the original Life? It’s got to be the Life that was ion Christ Jesus.

 

Look at the attitude that Jesus had. In  John 14 :31 he said,  But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

 

He didn’t say that the world may know that I am a great person. He didn’t say that the world may look to me in a very special way. But that the world may know that I love My father… That is what he said.

 

So we do things, and obey the commandments of God because we love Him, not because we fear that if we don’t we shall be cast out.

 

That is why the apostle John said, 1 John 2: 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

John 15: 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

 

Notice that our keeping His commandments shows our Love for Him, and in return His love for us. Now, you might say then, “if I do not do His commandments and do not love Him, then He will not love me?” No, that is not what it says at all, because this same apostle who wrote this Gospel also said,  1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

So it is not your loving Him that makes him respond by loving you. No, that is actually what carnal people and shallow people do. What John is saying here is that before we even Loved Him, or were capable of loving Him, He already loved us, and to show us this He not only gave of Himself for our benefit but he also gave us the ability to respond to His Love with our own love for Him.

 

In Malachi 1: 2 we read, I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

 

Romans 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

 

So then our loving God by doing what he asks of us to do is our way of showing Him that Love. John 14: 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

 

That is How God showed us His Love to us. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

In closing let me read a few more scriptures to you concerning our Love to God and how we can express it to Him.

 

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: It inhibits our actions, it confines our actions, it controls our actions.

 

1 John5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

 

1 John 4: 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

 

1 John 3: 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

1 John 2: 5 But whoso keepeth his Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.