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
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.