Fellowship
March 25, 2001
Brian Kocourek
WHO IS THIS
MELCHISEDEC 65-0221E 44 God came down and become flesh and
died the death in Christ so that He could clean the church in order to get into
it for fellowship. God loves fellowship. That's what He made the man
at the first time for, was for fellowship.
This morning I would like to
take our thoughts from this short statement that Brother Branham makes here,
when he says, "He could clean the church in order to get into it for
fellowship. God loves fellowship. That's what He made the man at the
first time for, was for fellowship."
First of all, brother Branham said God
cleansed the Church for the purpose of having fellowship. Now, that is a good
statement, a clean church is in needed for fellowship. When we are going to
have company we clean our houses, and when we are going to have fellowship at
church we clean the church. Good thought. But, I think what he is saying here
is not referring to the house or building we live in. Rather, he is referring
that a Holy and Righteous God could never inhabit an unclean thing. And He is
not speaking of the building, because God gave birth to Himself a Son in a
stinking cow stall. But He is talking about cleansing the people that He might
inhabit their presence. To think of God's Presence coming into the presence of
His people. That is a beautiful thought.
Secondly, He says, God loves
fellowship.
Thirdly, he says, "that's why He made man, was for fellowship."
So we see that God love
fellowship so much that He made man and cleansed him in order for fellowship to
exist between God and man.
Now, let's go to the Word of
God this morning and look at the importance of fellowship to the believer.
ACTS 2:42 ¶ And they continued stedfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the
apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things
common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all
[men], as every man had need. 46 And they continued daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their
meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and
having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such
as should be saved.
Now, Let's look closer at these
verses of Scripture that speaks of the early church, because after all, we know
that Alpha must repeat in Omega.
Verse 42 tells us
there were 4 important elements in the early church. ACTS 2:42 ¶ And they continued stedfastly in the
apostles' #1) doctrine and #2) fellowship, and in #3) breaking
of bread, and #4) in prayers.
Now, notice that together
these 4 elements were of such importance that by doing them and being faithful
to them, it created an atmosphere among the people of expectation.
ACTS 2:42 ¶ And they continued stedfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done
by the apostles.
Notice how the scripture
lays out the order for building faith among the people. Doctrine is listed here
as number one, but not only. Secondly there must be fellowship, then there must
be a breaking of bread together, and finally prayer.
Let's look at this order
again,
#1) They continued stedfastly in the Apostle Doctrine. This is listed here as the
first or principle thing. Notice the words used to describe the condition of
the people. They continued steadfastly in the Doctrine of the Apostles. Now we
know the doctrine is the teaching, that is what the word doctrine means, the
teaching. But I want you to notice the intensity of their devotion to the
teaching. They continued stedfastly, the Greek word is Proskartereo and
it means to adhere to and be stedfastly attentive, and to persevere and
not faint. These people were in a condition of constant readiness to
hear and study. There was an earnest expectation and anticipation for the word
of God to be taught to them.
Contrast that with the
church today. You are fortunate if people will show up on Sunday, much less
midweek services. And why is that?
Because the people just do not expect the Word to Produce anything for them.
They say they do, but your actions are heard louder in heaven than your words.
Now, what was the Apostles
Doctrine that they so eagerly yearned for the Apostles to teach them?
First of all let me say
this. These men were not teaching for doctrine something that they made up.
What they taught the people is what Jesus taught them. And Jesus said, in JOHN 7:16 "My
doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17 If any man will do his will, he
shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or [whether] I speak of
myself. 18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that
seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
him".
Therefore we can reasonably
see that what these men were teaching the people was what they had been taught
by Jesus and Jesus had been taught by God first..
JOHN 8:40 But now ye seek
to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God (Notice, Jesus says What I
say to you I heard of God. We know the word of means out from, therefore Jesus
is saying, the words I speak, they came out from God Himself.) Then He goes on
to say, you say Abraham was your father but He never turned away from hearing
God's Word. "this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the
deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication;
(we are not serpent seed) we have one Father, [even] God. 42 Jesus
said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded
forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43
Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my
word. 44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell [you] the
truth, ye believe me not.
46 ¶ Which of you convinceth me of sin?(and sin is
unbelief) And if I say the truth, why
do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye
therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
Now, this is the tell all.
The sign that you are God seed is that you will hear which means to understand
the word. Jesus tells them the reason they don't understand and therefore they
will not listen is because they are not of God, they are not God seed.
Therefore the Apostle John,
who was there with Jesus Christ when he told off those religious hypocrites, tells
us what this Doctrine of Christ is.
II JOHN 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not
those things which we have wrought,(those things which you have worked so hard to
obtain) but that we receive a
full reward. 9 Whosoever transgresseth,(this means to go beyond the
limits) and abideth not (or is not at rest) in the doctrine of
Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in, (he that remains in, and does not vacillate in) the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10 ¶ If there
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into [your]
house, neither bid him God speed: 11 For he that biddeth him God speed is
partaker of his evil deeds.
Now that is quite an
admonition. He says, stay away from them. That is how important the
doctrine of Christ is. And that was the number one thing, but then right after
mentioning the doctrine, Luke mentions fellowship as being that all together
important ingredient in developing the faith and expectant atmosphere among the
people.
ACTS 2:42 ¶ And they continued stedfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done
by the apostles.
Notice the doctrine is first
and that makes a way into fellowship for us. In fact when we come to the light
it brings us together for the purpose of fellowship.
I JOHN 1:1 ¶ That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear
witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is]
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things write we
unto you, that your joy may be full. 5 ¶
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto
you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we
have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now, let's examine this
fellowship.
#2) We are Looking at
Fellowship. And what is this word fellowship? Brother Branham said, fellowship
is two fellows in one ship. In other words, the people were together. You can
not have fellowship staying away from the people.
Now, remember, brother
Branham taught us that the Pillar of Fire appeared three times for 3 exoduses.
With Moses, Paul and William Branham.
Therefore what we are talking about, if it took place in the first
exodus, it must repeat in the other 2.
From the message EVER PRESENT WATER
61-0723M 87, Brother
Branham said, Now, we find out
that, along this road, after they got like this, they come to a place of Horeb.
And H-o-r-e-b, Horeb, then we find out... Let's break that name down. That's
where the--the name "Horeb" means, a "dry place" or a
"desert." And when we get out of fellowship with one another in
the church, and out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, it brings us to a dry
place, a desert, nothing alive, everything got stickers on it. See, a--a
desert, a little piece of cactus with that sticker on it. Did you know what
that is? That's a precious little tender leaf that hasn't had no water; it's
just wound itself up so tight till it's a sticker. And when you see somebody
like that, maybe it's a precious soul that could been watered right, would've
been a tender little leaf or something. But instead of that, it's wound itself
up till it's a sticker, just punching at everything, you know, finding fault.
Only thing it needs is just water. That's all. It just--it just needs
a--a revival, or a breaking up, a refreshing from the Lord.
It'll--it'll unfold its little self, if you'll just put it to the water.
89 But that's where them
who live in that place has to suffer with the conditions of that place. And
those who desire to live in that kind of an atmosphere of where everything's
just punching and fussing, and quarreling and stewing like that, well, you'll
just live under that atmosphere; that's all. But we don't have to live there;
it's not necessary for us to stay there.
And I say this morning, you
don't have to be that way, and you don't have to live under them conditions. There
is something you can do about it. You know the people who feel the sorriest for
themselves are the people who are the most self centered. Brother Branham
taught us the way up is down and the way down is up. He said if you have a
selfish heart them give everything away. If you are feeling low, then find some
one to help.
II CORINTHIANS 8:1
¶ Moreover, brethren, I want
you to understand the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; 2 How
that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep
poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 3 For to [their] power, I
bear record, yea, and beyond [their] power [they were] willing of themselves; 4
Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and [take upon
us] the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. 5 And [this they did], not
as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the
will of God.
These people gave beyond
their ability to give, but they had to plead with Paul to take their offering
of support for the people of Jerusalem. They were not thinking of themselves,
they were thinking of those who were worse off.
I heard a top executive of a
very large corporation one time say, when I am feeling depressed, I get up from
my desk and go try to help someone. I go out onto the street and find someone
to help. Then when I can see there are people in a worse condition than I am,
and I can help them, it takes my mind off of my own troubles and I see how
insignificant my own problems are. Try it sometime, I know it works. What you
all need to cure your blues is a good tour of Poland, or Peru or Africa or the
Philippines.
Or just go down to East
Walnut street or Gilbert if you dare, and see how those people live. Just
hanging around the streets, nothing to do but watch cars go by. Such a sad
condition, and yet they don't have to live that way, but to them there is no
way out. You can't go down there and tell those people they don't have to live
that way, that's all they know how to do.
But Christians don’t live like that. No matter how poor, yet we have
hope. No matter how rejected, yet we have hope. And hope maketh not ashamed.
Now the word for fellowship
in the Greek is the Word [koinonia
{koy-nohn-ee'-ah}] and it means 1) fellowship, association, community,
communion, joint participation, sharing what one has in anything,
participation, intimacy:
Without it you will dry up
in your Christian experience. Without fellowship, you will begin to find fault,
you will begin to pick at and make fun of. I knew a person once who said, he
liked to rent videos just to sit around and make fun of the people in them.
What a wonderful thing to do.
Now, you don't have to live
in an atmosphere like that, you can change it. You can't have fellowship
without first having love. If you don’t
believe me try it some time. Go to some church where they despise what you
stand for. Go to a Pentecostal church and tell them you believe God sent a
prophet William Branham and tell them what you believe, and see what happens.
Then try to fellowship with them? You can't.
How can two walk together lest they be agreed. Try it in this message. Go somewhere that doesn't believe like we
do and tell them you believe Brother Vayle is a man of God. You can feel the
hatred. Try it on the internet. Go to one of the chat rooms and tell them what
you believe and one by one they leave until you are left there alone. I know,
I've experienced it first hand.
So you must have love before
you can fellowship. In fact brother Branham said in His Message called FELLOWSHIP 60-0611B
E-18 Now, fellowship
comes by love. And love requires fellowship. If you love your wife,
you've just got to get with her and talk with her. If you love your friend,
you've got to get with him and talk to him. And if you love God, there's
got to be a basis for fellowship. You cannot have complete fellowship and
livelihood without these agreements. You cannot be married without an
agreement. You cannot have a wife without some kind of an agreement. And that
agreement is based upon your vow. You cannot have fellowship with God without
coming to God's agreement. And there's a basic thing for fellowship, and that's
the Blood, the Blood only. It's been God's way from the beginning, and it will
be till the end. The only place of fellowship is through the Blood.
And if you can not love your
brother, then you do not get together with him, it's just that simple. No love,
no fellowship.
And that's the problem with
so many people today. They don't take the blood of Jesus into their fellowship.
And then they hear something they don't like and they get all puffed up and
hurt feelings. And pretty soon the devil has you out of fellowship and then
watch your family go down hill right then. Brother Branham said you need to
carry the blood into your fellowshipping. Instead of getting hurt, you cover it
with the blood. When someone says something personal, cover it with the blood.
When someone gets a bit nozy, or pries into something you might consider
personal? Cover it with the blood. Don’t get angry, don't get uppity, but cover
it with the blood. And you can't cover it with the blood if your own motives
are wrong. Because Love covers a multitude of sin.
Now, Solomon was not the
wisest man for nothing. And He said in
PROVERBS 10:11 ¶ The mouth of a righteous [man is] a well of
life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. 12 ¶ Hatred stirreth up
strifes: but love covereth all sins. 13 ¶
In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod
[is] for the back of him that is void of understanding. 14 ¶
Wise [men] lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish [is] near
destruction.
PHILIPPIANS 2:1 ¶ If [there be] therefore any consolation in
Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having
the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind. 3 [Let] nothing [be
done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves. 4 Look
not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5
Let this mind (attitude) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Jesus gave us a commandment
when he said, JOHN 13:34 A new commandment
I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also
love one another.
JOHN 15:12 This is my
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends.
JOHN 15:17 These things I
command you, that ye love one another.
Paul taught this same
principle when he said,
ROMANS 13:8 Owe no man any thing,
but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if [there
be] any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling
of the law.
I THESSALONIANS
4:9 ¶ But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you:
for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
Peter taught it, I PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:
And John the Apostle of Love
brings this to our attention when he said, I JOHN 3:11 ¶ For this is the message that ye heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, [who] was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.
And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous. Now, notice, the slaying was not the evil thing, his
wrong doctrine was and because of wrong doctrine he slew his brother. That's
why John continues by saying, 13 Marvel not, my
brethren, if the world hate you. 14 ¶
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not [his] brother abideth in death.
From the message THE TOKEN 63-1128E
100
brother Branham said, "As we see the great end-time signs in the earth,
warning us the time is at hand, we should love one another more than we ever
did in all of our lives. There should be such a hunger to get to church. There
should be such a hunger for us to get to one another. It should be a love
affair. I can't hardly wait to get to Tucson. Oh, God healed my little
wife. She's part of me. I can't hardly wait to get there. The hours, I'm
counting the days and the hours, when I can get there to be with her.
That's the way
the Church ought to be. Just seeing that the power of God, what It's done for
us, we should be counting the moments, getting together in love, that we can
fly away someday to meet Jesus.
103 Somebody said, not long ago, said,
"Brother Branham, you scare the people, saying that the coming of the Lord
is so near." I said, "They shouldn't be worried about that. That
should be the most happy thing we know of." Uh-huh, yeah. "And He
will appear the second time to all those that love His appearing," who
love and longing for it. It's a love affair. And how we ought to love one
another, because we're fellow citizens in the same Body. We should have love
one for another.
106 Warning us, the time is at hand...
Believers should be separating themselves from the things of the world, the
cares of the world. That's the reason I hammer at women and so forth the way I
have. And then separate yourself from these TV programs. Separate yourself from
this Hollywood evangelism. Come back to deepness of sincerity.
And he said if you love one
anther, love requires fellowship. It's a
part of love. How can we say we love the brethren and won’t fellowship with
them. I've had brethren who have left this church come to me and apologize for
the way they left and tell me they love me. I just said, if you really love me,
why don’t you come back. Will they do it? They will if they really mean what
they say. And they won't if they don't.
How can people say to one another, I love you brother and then won't
visit with you. That's not love. Love demands fellowship. That's thus saith
God's Prophet. He said, Now, fellowship comes by love. And love requires
fellowship.
If you love your
wife, you've just got to get with her and talk with her. If you love your
friend, you've got to get with him and talk to him.
None of us are perfect, but
that is what the blood is for. If you walk in the light as He is in the light,
it brings you into fellowship and then the blood takes over.
EPHESIANS 1:5 In love He has predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
His love not only
predestinates us, and covers us by His blood.
I CORINTHIANS 1:8 Who shall also
establish you unto the end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 9 God [is] faithful,
by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 ¶
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but
[that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment.
PHILIPPIANS 1:3 ¶ I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
5 For your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day until now; 6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:
Now, the opposite of
fellowship is being cut off from fellowship., and we showed you without any
doubts a few years ago the scriptural principles that brother Branham laid out
for us when he spoke of the world becoming neurotics. And I continue to be
amazed to see that Word come forth from this pulpit and then it happens in the
congregation. It just shows that it is a living Word we preach.
Remember how we showed you
the first attribute of neurosis is anxiety, worrying about what might happen.
Then that leads to compulsion, trying to fix the problem, and then that leads
to obsession which takes place when you get so focused on fixing that problem
that it possesses you, and that leads to phobia, and fear has a penalty, it
causes you to stop doing what you used to do and that lead's to depression and
your depression and dissatisfaction leads to disassociation, which is cutting
yourself off from fellowship. Then what happens, step 7 you become a total
neurotic. And you are converted, you are changed, and you are gone. And we've
seen that Word come to pass exactly like I've preached it right here in this
congregation.
EPHESIANS 4:17 ¶ This I say therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of
their mind, 18 Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated (that means cut off from fellowship) from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
88-2 EPHESIAN
CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.3 The fervent desire to please God, the
passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to
fade and instead of that church being on fire with the fire of God it has
cooled off and become a bit formal. That is what was happening back there to
the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying
out and the people weren't too careful about what God thought of them as they
began to be careful about what the world thought of them. That second
generation coming on was just like Israel. They demanded a king to be like the
other nations. When they did that, they rejected God. But they did it anyway.
That is the history of the church. When it thinks more of conforming to the
world instead of conforming to God, it isn't long until you see them stop doing
things they used to do, and start doing things they wouldn't do initially. They
change their manner of dress, their attitudes and their behaviour. They get
lax. That is what "Ephesus" means: relaxed--drifting.
89-1 That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have
to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed
like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and
weren't ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit. They left their old dead
churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality. But
it wasn't too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine
new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves.
They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man. They soon
began to read books that weren't fit to read. They let down the bars and goats
came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit was
gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the
blackness of ashes is about all that is left.
89-2 A few moments ago I mentioned that John understood what it was
to love God. That great apostle of love would certainly see it when the church
began to lose that first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, "For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word)." One little
deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ. People say they love God,
they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and sing and have a great
emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and see if they are in that
WORD, walking in it, living in it. If they go through all the other and then
don't walk in that Word, they can say they love God but their lives tell
another story. I wonder if John didn't see a lot of that before he died; people
saying they loved God but not obeying His Word. Oh, Ephesian Church, something
is happening to you. Someone is trying to either add to that Word or take from
it. But they are doing it so subtly that you can't see it. They haven't made a
move so big you can see it out there in the open. It is under cover, and they
are bringing it by way of reason and human understanding and it will take over
unless you refuse it. Go back to Pentecost before it is too late!
89-3 But as usual people don't heed God's warning. That revival
fire built upon the sacred Word is so wonderful, and the manifestation of the
Spirit so blessed, that a little fear creeps in and a whisper in the heart
says, "How can we protect this truth we have? What can we do to see this
revival goes on?" That is when the "antichrist spirit" comes in
and whispers, "Look, you have the truth now, see that it doesn't get lost.
Organize and set up your creed of what you believe. Put it all in a church
manual." And they do it. They organize. They add to the Word. And they die
just like Eve did for taking One wrong word. It's God's Word that brings life.
And it's not what we say about the Word that counts, but it's what God said.
INVASION OF THE
USA 54-0509 213
You take a little bitty girl, little bitty boy, put them out here, let
them live with somebody... You take a man... I can take my boy, let him be out
for a day with somebody; let me come in, I can almost tell you who he's been
with. Certainly. Watch, that environment, that spirit catches him. You go into
a church, where the people all... You go into Holy Ghost churches, or--or
Pentecostal churches, they call it. Look everybody be... Oh, they run and jerk
their head back and forth, the pastor does; watch the whole church begin to do
the same thing. Let the men, the people, get up and--and just carry on
terrible, or something another; watch the whole thing do that. Get into a place
where the pastor's real starchy and cold; watch the whole group do it. You come
into that environment. You take a man that's a good moral man, and let him
marry a little old woman that ain't worth a dime; it isn't long till he ain't
worth a dime either. That's what happened to Ahab. Take the same, vice versa,
let a nice little woman marry an old man that ain't worth a dime; the first
thing you know, she's doing the same thing he is. How could I go, this morning,
and point my hands on little broken up homes and things like that, where lovely
little mothers come into a drinking dad, and things like that, and thought they
could do something with them, and now the whole mother and all of them is a
drinking and going on. It's environment.
217 What is it? It's the Devil. It's the
Devil, the invasion. He swept into this nation like a roaring lion. He set
hisself down here in the best place they had, in Hollywood. He said, "I
can get the movies here until the television comes on, then I'll get
them." And he set down there. And the church people, instead of shutting
down the shows and not letting their children go, they give them ten cents on a
Sunday afternoon and send them down there, so they could have a little social
card party, be out to theirself and ride around. Oh, what a disgrace. Now they
just turn the television on and watch all the dirty, rotten tommyrot there is
in the world on it. That's right. I ain't got nothing against the movie. I
ain't got nothing against television. It's the rotten stuff that's on it.
That's what it is. If you'd have kept it moral, it'd a-had to stay moral.
220 You couldn't sell old fashion button shoes
here in town today, at all. Women don't want them. They want the toes out of
them. The rest of the women's a doing it. That's right. When you go to church,
you can't sell them old-time religion, 'cause the other woman, she don't want
nothing to do with that. No, sir. "And no need me going down there. I just
believe; that's all there is to it." Oh, brother, the Devil believes too.
That's right. You'll repent or perish.
RECONCILIATION
THROUGH FELLOWSHIP 56-0120 E-21
So we find out that man must come back to his Maker. Then when Adam
realized that sin had separated him, he became an alien, a wanderer away from
God, without hope, wandering around in the--the garden, knowing that he was
separated from God, knew that he didn't have fellowship no more; it made him a
wanderer. And man to this day, when the sin problem, he still becomes a
wanderer. He will go to one church awhile; he longs to have fellowship. He will
join the Methodists, or the Baptists, or the Pentecostal, or some church. He
will--he will go in there, and he will find imperfection in the church among
the people; he will leave this church and take his letter and go to another
church. He will go from church to church; he's a wanderer yet, away from God.