Who Is This Melchisedec? #
14
Bro. Lee Vayle
September 28, 1988
Let us
pray. Heavenly Father, again we want to
express our appreciation and love for You tonight, having called us out of this
world of darkness Lord and made Light to shine into our hearts, especially this
last day, Lord, when the final Light coming out of the east to the west, comes
to us and then goes back to Palestine.
Lord, we thank You that we are aware of it and it’s only because of
grace, it’s only because, Lord, we’ve known You from the beginning and we pray
Father that You’ll teach us tonight that the things concerning Yourself that
You’ll help us in the Word that will build us up in the most holy faith, get us
ready for the Resurrection and the Rapture.
In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You
may be seated.
Now, I
think we’re about number fourteen on “Who Is This Melchisedec?” And in the study of this particular subject,
that Bro. Branham brings to our attention, we find that it deals with much of
the same insightful material as did “The Future Home” for in both of these
messages we find God’s ultimate plan revealed and which plan is soon to be
manifested in its finality. Now, that
plan, of course, we’ve discussed it sort of, and epitomized it, and we find it
in Ephesians the 1st chapter, and we won’t read all of it, we’ll just read
7-12.
(7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Now those
are the ones that were in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
(8) Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
(9) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
(10) That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
(11) In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
(12) That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted (or hoped) in Christ.
Now, these
gathered ones are called a family in Eph 3:14-15.
(14) For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(15) Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Now, an
actual vision of this family and its entirety is described by a Heavenly vision
in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21 and we look at verses, perhaps 1-12.
(1) And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
(2) And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
(3) And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
(4) And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
(5) And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
That’s the
one in Revelation chapter 4 and chapter 5, seated upon the throne looking like
an emerald stone, and so on.
(6) And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
(7) He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
(8) But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
(9) And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
(10) And he carried me away in the spirit to a
great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
(11) Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
(12) And had a wall great and high, (and so on.)
And with
that we take verses 22-27, then read into 20, chapter 22.
(22) And I saw no temple (in that wonderful city) therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And you’ll
notice at that particular time it’s different from the Millennium.
(23) And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
(24) The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. (Now notice particularly what he’s saying there, “The people on the outside coming in.”)
(25) And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. (So they’re open continuously.)
(26) And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
(27) And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Now the
inhabitants are the Bride, the others bring their glory into it. Then of course the Bride brings her glory
into it also.
(1) And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
(2) In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
(3) And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
(4) And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
(5) And there should be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Now, here
what we see here is this pyramidal structure, this city, fifteen hundred miles
at the base wide, square, the base of course being a pyramid, and it’s fifteen
hundred miles high and that is what you call the Bride’s city, and the Lamb of
God is on the throne, and the Pillar of Fire is above the throne, and all the
other sons and daughters, all the rest of the family of God, surround this
great city in their proper order. Whatever that order is is not told us, we’ll
have to find out when we get there.
Now, this
ultimate fulfilment, what we’re talking about is this city that’s...maybe we
just kind of start drawing on it to get moving what we have in mind here. We’re getting up here where we have this
great city and looks like this is not a very good pen. We’ll try for red and that’s better
there. It’s a city fifteen hundred miles
high, wide, and of course there’s a fence around it like the wall of the city
goes around there, and outside of this wall here is all these people around
here. So we’ve got Bride here and we’ve
got the rest here, and they’re called nations, and kings, and what have
you. Okay? And up here of course there is the throne
of--the Lamb is on it, and above the throne is that Pillar of Fire up there.
Now, what
I’m saying here is that this ultimate fulfilment, and that’s it, has been building
for several thousand years, I suppose six thousand years at least, and in this
hour was launched to its imminent conclusion by the Presence of Christ
appearing. Now let’s go to that in 1
Corinthians 15 because if you don’t see this you don’t see White Throne, you
just see the hour in which we’re living, which you must recognize that
twenty-four hours from now, in a matter of seconds, you will be there if you
were in the beginning. Now if you
weren’t there in the beginning, you’re not going to be there. But there’s twenty-four hours to go. That’s exactly why Peter said, “What manner
of people we ought to be knowing this.”
Now there’s something here that we must know, we must heed, is going to
do something for us, or we’re going to do something with it. It’s very, very, important to know this hour
that we are living in. All right, the
hour that we’re living in is 1 Cor 15: 20-28.
(20) But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Now this
is the only begotten Son in this particular way as a first-fruit. Now we’ll talk about that more.
(21) For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (Well it simply tells you the first man died and this One here died also but He rose again where the others just had to stay in the grave and wait.)
(22) For as in Adam all die, even so (in like manner, identical manner) in Christ shall all be made alive.
(23) But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his presence.
Now we’re
talking about Christ and when you talk about Christ remember, God was in Christ
and the scenario never changes. Never
changing God, never changing way of doing things. We have to reorient our thinking entirely to
Bro. Branham’s message because we are not Oneness, we are not Three-ness, we
are not Trinitarian but we are not Oneness in the sense of Jesus Only. We are Oneness in our understanding of
Godhead. Now it says,
(23) ...they that are Christ’s at His
Presence( The Lord descend with a
Shout.)
(24) Then cometh the end, (Now it tells you, literally skipping with one breath over one thousand years. Then cometh the end,) when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
(25) For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
(26) The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
(27) For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is (left out, or) excepted, which did put all things under him.
(28) And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Now what
he’s telling you here, that there’s got to come a time, starting with the
actual Descent, with the Shout, 1 Thessalonians
4:16, it has to do with the Resurrection, that’s the start of when God
begins to wrap everything in subjection to Christ who is now seated on the
throne and God Himself here. The One on
the throne’s the One that came down. And
He’s putting everything under subjection so that Jesus can literally come and
rule.
Then after
that period, now God Himself is never subject, it’s always the Son that’s
subject but God is doing this for the Son and let’s understand that. Now, when this is culminated you will find
the Pillar of Fire is at the top, the Lamb is on the throne, and the Bride is
below. Now of course this is a great big
wonderful panoramic view that’s there and it’s really real, it’s not just a
little silly drawing on the wall, on the board that you see there. Now, that’s when God becomes all and in
all. Now you keep that phraseology in
mind because that’s very, very, important.
He becomes all and in all. See?
Now, so
what we see in this great plan of God, the Father, and His only begotten Son,
and all of His children. So that’s what
you see here now. You see when God
becomes all and in all, that’s right up here, God. All right, now here’s the Lamb and He’s the
only begotten Son, and you’re going to find that, that only begotten has
actually several meanings--only begotten Son.
Okay, now in here are the Bride children--the Lamb’s Book of Life, is
the LBL, the Lamb’s Book of Life and down in through here outside the walls but
there’s gates, there’s gates to go in through here, and this wall. All down in through here are all the
rest. Now that’s exactly what you’re
looking at whether you knew that what you’re looking at or not, whether you
knew that that was the plan of God for you, that’s the plan of God and that’s
what it is. Now that’s the ultimate and
what anybody else tells you otherwise is a lot of hogwash because that’s
nothing but the Word of God.
All right,
now, here in is also fulfilled Rom 11:33-36, so let’s read it.
(33) O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Now that’s a special thing that’s in this hour according to Ephesians. The wisdom and the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Him.) how unsearchable are his judgments, (Now there’s the judge.) and his ways past finding out!
Bro.
Branham says, “We don’t know how He’ll do
it but He’ll do it.” Keep just these
things in mind.
(34) For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?
(35) Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? (In other words, who started the ball rolling so that now God’s got to listen to him.)
(36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.
Now that’s
a direct statement concerning God. Every
single thing, what we see there, was of Him, and to Him, and for Him, for His
honour and His great glory. Especially
verse 36.
(36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things:
Now just
remember what he says. Now, this which
we see is the plan fulfilled. We see the
Father, we see the Lamb, we see the Bride, we see those outside. And here it is that we see the Kingdom is
handed back to the Father, that the Father is all in all, and therefore all
things now are in that perfect harmony with Him. Thus we are now back to the original one
God.
Do you
follow what I’m saying? Well tell me,
how many gods are up there? How many do
you see? Is there a Father, Son and Holy
Ghost up there? You’re sure seeing
something the Bible doesn’t teach. Now
keep it in mind. There’s your picture. God.
Thus we are taken back to the original, where all things that were of
Him, and by Him, and for Him, and to Him have been consummated and God is all
alone again but this time He is not alone with His plans, and His ability to
implement them. He is there with the
plans implemented. His foreknowledge
personalized and glorified.
Now here’s
what we’re driving at. Alpha is Omega,
and Omega is Alpha. There is only one
God, has always been and always will be inspite of the mystery. Now the Trinitarians would like to try to
mess that around, but you know it isn’t going to work. They say there’s a great mystery of the
Trinity. You bet there is, there is a
great mystery in the fact there’s one God.
And to see God play Himself back and forth and how He does it is the
greatest mystery of all. I don’t pretend
I have all the answers.
And the
true theology of the Word of Life is exactly what Paul said in Heb 1:1-5. Okay, there’s always one God, always will be,
there’ll never be another One, there’s just the One. And here is the true theology that we need to
know.
(1) God, who at sundry times, (or God in many parts, in many ways) spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Now the
word ‘speaking’ is absolutely tremendous in its impact because God is
personalized in His Word and the Word is personalized in God so that all the
Old Testament equates God and His Word to be one as we will see in the book of
Proverbs, without going to the Psalms, and without going to the Book of wisdom
and other books which are not in the Bible but are inspired at least to the
degree where the understanding of Godhead is brought out. What I’m talking about--will talk some more
later on--is this is called the Memra.
M-e-m-r-a (or) r-h-a, in contrast to the Logos. What Hebrews is Memra, Logos is in the
Greek--it’s one in the same and you’ll find it isn’t something that’s in the
Bible per se. It’s an understanding,
it’s like Shekinah, It is not in the Bible but it is a good word, it’s
understandable. So anyway, we look at
this and we’re looking here now.
(1) In many parts( in many ways,) God spake in times past unto the fathers in the prophets,
Now notice,
God was in the prophets and the speaking is where Bro. Branham equates Word;
Rhema, and Logos to be one, and where this fellow that says he’s some kind of a
big teacher and knows all the answers he’s trying to make Rhema work out
contrary to what is in all theology, all text books, and the Bible. Stick with the prophet. They’re interchangeable to a degree. All right, they’re equated.
(2) Hath in these last days spoken unto us
in Son, (Not by Son but in Son.)
He spoke
in the prophets, now he speaks in Son.
In other words, He has changed the place of His habitation whereby He is
uttering and giving knowledge concerning Himself: but it is the same God. Not more, not less. The only reason people think it is more--and
Bro. Branham did explain the truth of that, that they spoke in part--but many
people think it is more, actually the reason is, that Jesus Himself played a
great part in salvation and redemption which the prophets couldn’t do, they
were merely harbingers, or heralds of Who was to come and this is He Who was to
come. So He has a greater by far place
than anybody. That’s why Paul goes in
and describes Him in comparison to other people and to angels, and other powers
and all. There is no comparison.
Anyway;
(2) Hath spoken to us in Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the (ages or) worlds;
(3) Who being the brightness, (Or the out-raying, the effulgence) of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
All right,
that’s fine. The same One that spoke in
the prophets spoke in the Son, S-o-n.
Now what if He should come along and decide to speak in a whirlwind? What if He should come along and speak in a
Pillar of Fire like He did to Paul? Now
I want to ask you a question, who’s doing the speaking? Now I want to ask you, who’s the channel? So just think it over. Son-ship’s not such a terrible thing to
understand, we’ve just got to let our thinking go and try to absorb what the
Scripture says here. Now,
(4) Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
(5) For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son?
Now you’re
talking right there about a relationship and you know that father supersedes
sons, and sons come out of fathers, not vice a versa. You can’t have it, you’ve got to have it just
the way it says. Now, let us stop here
and carefully consider verse six.
(6) And again, when he bringeth back (You look in your margins, He doesn’t “bring,” but He “bringeth back.”) the first-begotten into the world, (That’s inhabited world.) he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
So I
submit to you that verse three is pre-incarnation. That God spoke in a pre-incarnate form of
flesh and blood. And He could actually
be in the world, Heavens, or any place else.
And it says, He brings him back.
So could this be literally Melchisedec?
The answer is certainly. That’s
what Bro. Branham said, “It could give
way to Jesus, it would give way.”
Now, it says, “And He bringeth back.”
(6) He bringeth back, (So He must have been away.) the first begotten into the world, and said, Let all the angels of God worship him.
(7) And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
(8) But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
(9) Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
(10) And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
(11) They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
(12) And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Now what’s
he doing? He’s telling you right down
here, the full course of history that’s going to be run because of God in the
role of Son. Everything that you see
here, in present manifestation is going to be changed. We’re all going to be changed and there’s
nothing here that’s not going to be changed.
It’s all going to be perished, it’s going to be, it’s perishable,
nothing is going to remain, but God Himself with all His ability to do what He
has always done, and He will do what He always had done in the way that He’s
done it. We’ve got to learn about these
things.
(13) But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, (And so on.)
You can’t
do it. Now, let me read again because I
read awfully fast last Sunday from Bro. Branham, Questions and Answers, in
Genesis.
[21] Now,
if God created man in His own image and in His own likeness, what kind of a man
did He create? A spirit man. Now, if you’ll notice, after He made all the
creation...He created a spirit man, in close reading of this now, you will
find, that God gave dominion of the cattle and
fish and everything to the man.
But, in His making up there, He made man in His own image to lead the
cattle, lead the beasts of the field, just like the Holy Spirit leads the
believer today.
[22] He
was, in other words, Adam, the first man in the lower creations of God. The first creation was God Himself; then out of God came the Logos which was the
Son of God; then out of the Logos, which
was the Word, came forth the man.
[23] Oh,
I’ve got a beautiful picture in my mind now, if you can take a little trip with
me. I believe I’ve talked on it before,
but to get to this place, get this to the place where you’ll be able to see
it. Now, let’s take a little trip and go
back for a little while. Now, don’t
think how hot it is, get your minds right on, what we’re going to talk about.
[24] Let’s
go back a hundred millions before there ever was a star, moon or anything else
in the world. Now, there was a time when
there wasn’t anything there, it was just all forever and Eternity. And all of ever and forever Eternity was God,
and He was there in the beginning.
Okay,
right down here, never mind...well put up here, we’re going to put, “There was
God and that’s all there was.” Now it’s
hard to fathom, you can’t do it but that’s what we’re going to look at. Nothing there but God. Okay?
[25] Now,
let’s go out on the edge of this banister and look over and see things happen.
[26] Now,
“No man has seen the Father at anytime.”
No man can see God in a bodily form, because God is not in body
form, God is a Spirit. See?
“No man has seen the Father but the only begotten of the Father has
declared Him.” Now remember that; the only begotten has declared Him. That’s
in John 1:18. Led Him forth by
Words, showing exactly Who He is.
And
remember, “No man can know the Father but the Son unto whom He’ll reveal
Him. But the Bible also says, “That no
man can know anything about anybody outside the Holy Ghost which is God.” Now you don’t have just a play upon words
here, you have the very fact that when you use these very words, you are
referring to Godhead itself and one God, not to three persons. You’re talking about one and He is in the
roles, and the offices.
[27] But
notice now, there’s nothing, there’s just space. There’s no light, there’s no darkness,
there’s nothing, it just seems nothing.
But in there is a great supernatural Being, Jehovah God, Who covered all
space, and all places at all times. He was from everlasting from everlasting,
He is the beginning of the creation.
That is God. And that’s
right, He is the beginning of the whole thing. Can’t see anything, can’t hear
anything, not a move of an atom in the air, nothing, no where nothing, but yet God was there. That
was God. (Now let’s watch a few
minutes...) No man has seen that, now,
That’s the Father. That’s God, the
Father.
[28] Now
notice. Then after awhile I begin to see
a little sacred Light begin to form, like a little halo or something ,you could
see only by spiritual eyes.
And my
question is; if there’s nothing there to make it out of, what is that? It’s made out of God. I don’t care what happens to it, because
that’s all that’s there and there’s nothing been created. So whatever was there, whatever could be seen
with spiritual eyes--it has to be God.
“In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” Pure and simple. See?
And when you form an image of something, my brother/my sister, all you
do, if you cannot see the real thing and you have an image, then you know as
well as you’re ever going to know concerning that thing as per appearance, when
it begins to talk and act. Then you know
more about it as to nature and character, and those other things. So we’re looking at something very peculiar
here.
[28] ...See
a little sacred halo begin to form, like a little halo or something, you could
only see it by spiritual eyes.
Because you see, you can’t see spirit.
But if you had understanding, it was told you, you could then say,
“That’s what I’m looking at.” It’s
looking by understanding: not looking by
senses, but looking by understanding.
[29] But
look now, while were looking, the whole church now. We’re standing on a great big banister,
watching what God’s doing. Watching
what God’s doing. And we’ll get right down to this question here, you’ll see how He
brings it in.
[30] Now,
no one has seen God. Now the next thing
we begin to see, by eyes of supernatural looking, little white Light forming
out there. What’s it called Bible
readers? “Logos,” or “the anointed,” or
“the anointing.”...As I was going to say, the part of God began to develop into
something so human beings could have some type of an idea what it was.
Now that’s
exactly like the thought, before there was a fish to swim in the water...had a
fin to swim, there had to be water to swim in.
And so therefore we’re looking at, that God putting Himself available so
that when His creation comes forth they’ll be able to recognize and have
communion, and communication. It’s all
getting lined up.
[28] ...The
part of God begin to develop into something so human beings could have some
type of idea of what it was. Little
low...Light moving. That was the Word of
God.
[31] Now,
God gave Himself birth to this Son which was before there was even an atom.
In other
words, I came out of God. I read in
Hebrews here, “Who being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the Word of his power,” that’s what He was. And it says, “Then He became flesh.” That same One literally transformed Himself,
or transfigured Himself into flesh and purged our sins. So what you’re seeing here, the same thing as
your looking at John. “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us.”
[31] Now,
God gave Himself birth to this Son which was before there was even an atom...So
Jesus said, “Glorify Me, Father, with the glory that We had before the
foundation of the world.”
In fact
Jesus said, “Glorify Me, with thine Ownself.”
So you can say what you want, you can be a Trinitarian say, “Out of the
great fountain there came forth the Son,” that’s not Scripture, there’s one
God. And see what the end is? Now the
end tells the beginning and the beginning tells the end, they both have got to
line right up. Now there’s your picture
exactly what Bro. Branham said, There’s
the Lamb. There’s the One that came
out. All the rest came in their
order. We came in our own particular
order and we all end up at the same place, in the same way. See?
This time God is all and in all, and all the full manifestation of what
was in God and of what God required of Himself, and for us, is all in the
glorified state right there. That leaves
God right back at the beginning.
See? With the picture completely
done.
[32] Now
John 1 said, “In the beginning was the Word.” And first...”The Word was
God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.” God unfolding Himself,
down to a human being.
God
unfolding Himself. Now how does God
unfold Himself? He makes a veil or a
mask and He hides in it, which in turn reveals Him for there is nothing hidden but
for the express result of being revealed.
So therefore when the Seals have been hidden they must be revealed. If the Thunders are hidden, they must be
revealed. There is no other choice.
[33] Now,
back there, then, when this little halo comes.
Now, we can’t see anything yet, but just by eyes of spiritual, we see a
halo standing there. Now, that’s the Son
of God, the Logos. Now, I can see Him
playing around like a little child, before the Father’s door, with all
Eternity. See? And, now, then in His imaginary makeup He
begin to think of what things would be, and I can hear Him say, “Let there be
light.”
Then he
describes how He’s writing the Bible in the Heavens, in the stars and so
on. Now, he talks about the earth being
cooled off and the land being drained and vegetation and things coming. Then he said, on page eighteen, paragraph 43.
[43] He
got all these together made...Made all the other things, all the animal life,
the birds, the bees, monkeys, whatever it was, put it all in the earth. Then He asked the question. Father and Son, “Let us make man in our
image.” It wasn’t a question, it was
an assertion. “Let us make man in our
own image.”
[44] Now,
if man was made something like that little sacred Light yonder, or something
like that, It could not be seen (which was a spiritual Being.) Now
letting you know what’s there--spiritual being. He manifested or unfolded
Himself a little more, to make a trinity of Himself by Father, Son and Holy
Ghost.
Now that’s
not a very good word there, it should be a tri-unity because you’re getting
into the thought of a trinity. Bro.
Branham was not a Trinitarian. It was a
trinity of offices and God being a tri-unity expressing Himself in those three
ways. Those three major ways, within
those three major ways. There are many
other attributes of expression subdominant to the dominant. Like for instance, the dominant application
of the role as Son has the subdominant of Judge but at this hour you can’t find
a more dominant role being manifested to us than the role of Judge, which comes
under Son. All right.
[44] ...And
here was God, unfolding Himself now, down into, “let us make man,” which was
His son, an offspring (?-offering--Ed) from
Him, “man in our own image,” and he was a supernatural being. “And let him have
dominion over the cattle in the field,” and so forth.
So what
you’ve got now, you’ve got man, you’ve got coming from the Logos, you got
coming on down.
[45] Now,
the man led the cattle just like the Holy Spirit leads the true believer,
and so on.
Now, let’s
go over here and read in Rev 1:5.
(5) And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten (The first born among the dead. The first born,) among the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Okay, now
you’ll notice in there...just hold that little page right there and go back to
Heb 1:3 again.
(3) Who being the effulgence, (or the out-raying of his glory. That’s a full attestation, all the attributes.) and the express image of his person,
Like you
could take a sharp die, like you’re going to stamp something and just stamp it
down like an etching tool and whatever comes out is that perfect replica. See?
Now an image is not the real thing.
So what you’re looking at, you’re not looking at Jesus, as though He is
God, or the Logos, the Son of God in the sense that He is God as Son. So that we got God the Father, now we’ve got
God the Son, and now we’ve got the Holy Ghost--it doesn’t say that. He is the Son of God. God beginning to materialize Himself, not by
sex but by expressing Himself.
And it says;
(3) ...Upholding all things by the word of his power, (Then it says;) when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Now watch
this here.
(5) And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, (That’s the martyr.) and the first begotten, (That’s the first born.) from among the dead, (That’s the first fruit. See? Because that is the first One that actually came back from the dead having died. Now you want to make sure you’re getting the right person.)
(5) ...the prince of the kings of the earth.
That’s
what He is, the Prince, there He is up here on the throne. And what is a prince? He’s a son of a king. He’s not the king. He’s the King when the King is in Him at the
incarnation, Jesus, when that Spirit that’s in the midst of us becomes
incarnate to us, we’ll crown Him King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. But you notice you’ve got another title
here. He’s the Prince of the kings of
the earth. So now this is all down here,
is earth. Then what’s above? God.
You’re showing your form of strata, your cast, your social cast in that
area.
(5) Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
So you’re
seeing there that this One is another type of God begetting, of an actual
process. So what I’m trying to get your
minds used to, and my mind used to is this; that God has many ways of using His
various roles of many forms. He can live
in a prophet, He could raise up a man, He could be in a cloud, He could be in a
wind, He could be in many things, God could be.
And He’s manifesting Himself as the Father, the great begetter. And notice, in the beginning the begetting
was begetting Himself, as it were, because the Logos came out of Him. This is the Son of God. Then you notice down the road that He’s born
of a virgin and He’s begotten by God in the realm of the physical, the sperm
and the egg. Then you notice He’s
begotten again from out of the dead.
Now, let’s
look at this particular picture that we might have in mind, and we go back to
Ephesians, that 1st chapter that we’re reading about, and it says here in the
19th verse.
(19) What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
(20) Which God wrought in Christ, when he raised Christ from the dead, and set Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
(21) Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
(22) And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Now with
that I think I want to get over to Colossians and you’ll see here now, in verse
15 of Colossians 1.
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, (That’s Heb 1:3) the firstborn of every creature:
That’s
right. He’s the beginning of all
creation, especially in the realm of the true sensate and the true Zoe, which
even includes all life but by a [?]BIOS is separated from it. Of course it has more plant and so on.
(16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
(17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
(18) And he is the head of the church, (and so on.)
So what
we’re looking at here is the fact that because of his particular journeying in
the world, this one who began from God, and is literally the Son of God, and
God bringing his journeying’s down to the place of obedience through the Word
of the Lord, and he becoming a first-fruit, he now becomes exalted to the place
of where the Scripture says, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that he is Christ to the glory of God the Father.” And everything that has the power to cause
ever knee to bend, and every tongue to confess, is an object of worship and so
therefore he is called God--but he’s not God per se, because there’s one
God. He’s not per se because, “Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.” And
remember, every single thing that God does to bring it to the headship of worship,
God does it because of the price that was paid through Jesus. Now we look at the man, the body, we look at
the God in him at the same time.
Now, then
we see that the Son who became a son, that is a Son way back there in the
beginning, who became a son in human form was pre-existent to Jesus, the Jesus
of AD one to thirty-four. Just like He
said in Jn 17: 5. Now let’s take a look
at it and believe what He said.
(5) And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Glorify me
with Your own-self. Now as I’ve
mentioned before, when you were looking at what came out, there was nothing
there before. There was nothing created. So therefore what manifested was a part of
God, or God coming into manifestation as God desired to so be, which He
did. Now then, what would that actually
mean? That would mean a theophany which
in itself would be eternal because it’s truly God in a form as God so desires
because God can do anything He wants with Himself, to Himself, and for Himself
because all things are by Him, and of Him, and for Him, and to Him, and He does
it all the time.
So, what
we’re looking at then is this theophonic form that Bro. Branham talks about,
that you and I bypassed, is literally the glory that Bro. Branham saw when he
went to the curtain on the other side of the curtain and he said, “I will
never be the same again.” And it
wasn’t the miracles that changed William Branham. It wasn’t the raising of the dead. It wasn’t the vision, the other visions--it
was that vision there that changed him because he saw what Christ talked about
and he said, “Oh, don’t miss it.” Because he saw and understood what Jesus
said, and Paul saw, and John saw and understood, that this glory, this theophonic
form which they go to, and that which picks us up is of such a dimension that
there is no way that a person can express it.
Showing once more the irrevocable link that we have to God as sons of
God. There is something here that’s far
beyond the mind that Bro. Branham couldn’t get to us.
All right,
now, with that notice it says, “That God created all things,” in the book of
Isaiah chapter 40. Now there’s many
other places he said it but we’re going to go to 40 because that’s a real easy
one, and you know, in there he tells us, we go to 25 to 28.
(25) To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
(26) Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
(27) Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
(28) Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
So it
tells you, God created Heaven and earth just like Genesis. And what is the
answer then because it says over here in Col 1:15-17 that God created all
things by Christ Jesus, and
Ephesians 3:9 it makes Jesus
creator? And the answer of course is the
answer we gave you because He’s the same yesterday, today and forever, and any
time you find one way that you can put your finger on that God did anything,
you know that God always does it that way, there is no changing and the Bible
distinctly tells us, “That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself.” So therefore everything that God has ever done, and will do, will be
in Christ.
Now you
can say what you want about it, and yet we may destroy your theology, I could
even be wrong in what I’m saying, but there’s no way I can be wrong--otherwise
somebody lied. God did change doing things. See, God hasn’t changed. God always uses something or somebody,
because why? Because it’s in reference
to somebody or something He’s working.
God doesn’t have to worry about Himself.
[End of
side one]
So
therefore God was in Christ. Now notice,
(1) In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And that’s
absolutely true--that’s what it was.
That’s where you get the understanding, God equating to the Word and
Bro. Branham always saying, “And God is
the Word.” There’s an actual
equating to it and we must let our minds be saturated with that understanding
because that is the truth. Now, notice
now today, look it, verse 18.
(18) No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him.
What if he
should come out of the bosom? Jesus
isn’t in the bosom, per se, the one that walked the road to Galilee, went down
to
Now then,
where’s the Father? Where is God? He’s down here in the Pillar of Fire. Now it says something about the only
begotten. Now the Only-Begotten is the
Only-Begotten according to Hebrews, which we saw was the Logos coming out. The same that became flesh, took on a body of
flesh. As Bro. Branham said, “That Jesus is turned back to a Pillar of
Fire.” And Jesus were talking now in
terms of Jehovah--is turned back to a Pillar of Fire.
All
right. Now notice, Son, Only-Begotten of
John 1. Now He’s the Only-Begotten in
Jn 1:14. See? He’s the Only-Begotten in Rev 1:5. Every time we’re using the word begetting
because God is making a movement which is different from the other movements. See?
But it’s the same person in the role and what’s required.
Now, what
happened at Pentecost? Jesus came back
as the Son of God in the form of the Holy Ghost, which He was, because that is
the Son of God. You’re not dealing with
human materiality, my brother/my sister,
you’re dealing with an actual spiritual insight here; and that which was
a halo, according to Bro. Branham, now became a Pillar of Fire and begin to
divide Himself at the day of Pentecost and that was the Son of God. And He came back as a Pillar of Fire and
blinded Paul and that was the Son of God.
And He came back here and the Pillar of Fire, though not--He’s not the
Son of man, is the Son of God, the Pillar of Fire is--He came back here as the
Son of God anointing Bro. Branham to be the one bringing forth the ministry of
the Son of man. As Bro. Branham said, “Just think, God has given us again the gift
of His Son in the form of the Holy Ghost.” And He can give Him again, and again, and
again, and again, and as many times as He wants to. And there isn’t a Father, and a Son, and a
Holy Ghost as though there’s three gods and a big fountain coming out. You’ve got to understand exactly what your
picture shows up there because that’s
the Omega. Alpha’s got to be the Omega.
So what
about today? We see today, see? Now let’s take a look and talk about the
Logos because that’s what we’re looking at.
Now, in the Greek the Logos comes from a word, root word, which has four
separate meanings to it which actually come out when we use the word Logos.
To lay, l-a-y, that
means to like, lay out in front of you, spread it out. So we spread everything out.
“In the
beginning was the Word, the Logos.” In
the beginning we know that something had to be in a particular position, with
particular understanding, and particular ability and then there’d be a
move. So everything is laid out. There’s a laying out. Then there’s a picking
out--categorization. Then there’s a
gathering; then there’s a picking up.
Well that’s what God did. He laid
Himself all out, looked Himself all over, in everyone of His thoughts, all of
His great thoughts, then He picked them all out and categorized them, then He
gathered all those that He wanted, then He picked them up and started
working. Well there’s a perfect
picture. See? So therefore, we have something going on by
the Something, by the Individual.
So hence,
to gather, or to put words together is what Logos means. And I say this, or to meditate, plan, and
accomplish, all starting with God Himself and so ending with God Himself. There it is; that’s what you’re looking at.
It is the same Hebrew word ‘Memra’ where the Jews spoke of God manifesting
Himself and equating God to His Word as in Prov 8:1-36.
(1) Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
(2) She stands in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
(3) She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
(4) Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
(5) O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
(6) Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
(7) For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
(8) All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing forward or perverse in them.
Now this
is wisdom, praise of wisdom. And
remember that Jesus was the wise One.
(9) They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
(10) Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
(11) For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
(12) I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
(13) The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth,do I hate.
(14) Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
(15) By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
(16) By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
(17) I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
(18) Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
(19) My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
(20) I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
(21) That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
(22) The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
(23) I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
There you
are, same Logos, Memra, same thing.
(24) When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
(25) Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;
(26) While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
(27) When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
(28) When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
(29) When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
(30) Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
(31) Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
See? You’ve got the absolute picture again of Bro.
Branham and Logos there. See?
(32) Now therefore hearken unto me, O children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
(33) Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
(34) Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
(35) For who so findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
(36) But he that sinneth against me wrongeth
his own soul: all they that hate me love
death. (And so on.)
(1) Wisdom hath builded here house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
(2) She hath killed her beasts;
And goes
right on down the line. That’s why the
Israelites themselves equated in their theology, God and the Word. And Bro. Branham, a prophet of this hour, I
suppose like unto Moses, like unto Paul, a great prophet, literally equated God
and the Word. He said, “Who is the judge?” He said,
“Christ is the Judge.” What is
He? “He
is the Word.” You cannot get by what
we’re looking at. See?
Now, Logos
is when God, Who will now...Logos, we’re talking about it. When God Who will now begin to manifest what
He Himself and all His inherent attributes, and abilities, and wisdom within
Himself, can mean, and He’s got it all together--that becomes Logos. Let me read it again. What is Logos? It’s when God who will now begin to manifest
what He Himself and all His inherent attributes, and abilities, and wisdom
within Himself, can mean, and He gets it all together--that becomes Logos.
God putting
it all together. God coming into
manifestation. God moving in anyway He
wants to move is what you’re looking at and it’s God; it’s not a second god, or
a third god. That becomes Logos, that is
the Word and the Word is equated to God.
Bro. Branham did. And the Word
expresses God and God expresses the Word.
As Bro. Branham said, The part of
God begin to develop and it developed into flesh eventually. See, God had to do that because in His who
entire plan of redemption, which He was the great redeemer, He had to...man had
to fall and nature and all things fall, then God work it all back and God being
the great One in it. The maker and
developer of the plan, He then would have to be the One who would do it.
Before
there was a speck of stardust God begin to form Himself to that end. And what came forth was that anointing Christ
and God was in Christ giving expression to Himself and eventually all that He
would be to His own. That’s right, it
has to be because that’s the way it was.
Now as I
see this according to my understanding chronology, at this point God brings
Himself birth. That’s what Bro. Branham
said, God brings Himself birth. We have established the Fatherhood of
God. At that time when God, he said, God brings Himself birth--when God begins
bringing things into evidence and moving.
In other words, getting the sea ready for the fish with the fin. Getting everything ready so that man,
stepping into that cradle on earth, in the Garden of Eden, that man would then
be...have everything available as God wanted.
There was nothing that wasn’t in line.
And God begin, God began moving at that time and when God began moving
at that time, that evidently established Fatherhood because the Son was
produced. Before it was potential, this
becomes literal. And notice in the
beginning, He establishes His Fatherhood in many respects, and it’s the same
with you and me that He’s done it.
Look,
bringing Christ into birth helps us to come into birth by the Blood, the Holy
Spirit. Bringing Him from the dead,
brings us into birth from the ground.
Coming back as the Holy Ghost begetting again, absolutely guarantees
that we’ll changed for the Resurrection, or if we don’t die we’ll be changed. See?
The Fatherhood of God is established.
We have established the Fatherhood of God and now what follows must be
the role of God in the Son. God was in
Christ, He’s got to be there, reconciling the world. He’s the same yesterday, today, and
forever. So no matter what form, it is
still always God in Christ. It has got
to be that way. It may be beyond our
understanding but that’s the way the Bible teaches.
So here we
see God in His Word in creation, spoken, written, obeyed, performed,
manifested--that is Son-ship. That’s
what it is. See? Where ever you see it, you see Son-ship. That’s my understanding. You say, “Well just a minute.” I say, “No, you just a minute you. The Bible says God created all things by
Christ Jesus.” There it is right there,
and I went through Scripture and showed you that every time the Word was
brought into manifestation, to obedience, correction, or whatever it was, it
was always in the form of somebody carrying out that Word. Then if God gave the Word, who is going to
carry out the Word? The Son will. But how will it be carried out? God in the Son. God in Christ every single time. So it shows you that Son-hip is the greatest
factor in the Godhead, in the roles, because you see God all the way
through. Many sons, many sons unto glory
and it couldn’t come any other way than through the Son. So we see God in Son-ship, in my
understanding, is the greatest thing in the whole Bible. I could be wrong but I sort of doubt it. See?
Now,
finally He comes down to flesh in the manifestation. Then redemption comes by Blood. Then the Spirit comes back, as Son of God, to
anoint His sons. He moves all through
Son-ship, by the Spirit, to build His church, which is the Bride. It’s all through Son-ship--no other way. Then comes again in the Appearing to take
head-ship and prove it by bringing the same ministry again to the
Gentiles. God giving us the gift of His
Son in the form of the Holy Ghost, there in a Pillar of Fire. It’s the Holy Ghost. Son of God according to the Spirit of the
Resurrection. What’s the Spirit of the
Resurrection? Holy Ghost, Son-ship. What’s He doing? Bringing the Son of man. William Branham is not the Son of man. Pillar of Fire’s not the Son of man. What’s it?
It’s in the form of the Holy Ghost.
And what’s He doing? Working
through a man.
So Bro.
Branham said, “God with a skin on it.” So now we’ve got Son-ship in William Branham
when the Pillar of Fire is in him. Who’s
to say it isn’t true? Because it is
true. Well you say, “I’ve got three
gods.” You’ve got one God. It’s still a mystery. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve got this much
of an answer--it sure ain’t three gods, there ain’t two of them either. There’s One, and they’re roles and we can see
more and more how this thing is literally, God, all the way through.
The next
step is raising the dead and the Resurrection.
That’s what Jesus is going to do.
It has to be God all along because God alone raises the dead. Now Bro. Branham brought us some Scripture on
here, he brought it in here in the book of Philippians. Now let’s just take a look at the very thing
that a prophet of God vindicated by God, and if he wasn’t vindicated I don’t
believe anybody else was either. In fact
I’ve read about, I’ve read quite a bit about Paul and I don’t see that Paul had
anywhere near the vindication that Bro. Branham had. No siree.
If Paul had the ministry that he had, and the people wrote in those
days, don’t you think for one minute there wouldn’t be a whole lot of
records. Now, he says here beginning in
verse 5, Philippians 2.
(5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ:
(6) Who being in the form of God, thought it not a prize to be grasped and retained, be equal with God:
(7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
(8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
(9) Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
(10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, (See that puts Him in the God bracket.) of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
(11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, (“The Lord descended from Heaven, the Lord said to my Lord.”) to the glory of God the Father.
Okay, Bro.
Branham said, “That in here God was
changing His mask.” All right, “God was in Christ and then change His
mask.” Everybody’s going to say,
“He’s talking about Jesus Christ the second person.” That is not true because if God was in Christ
reconciling the world, then my brother, my sister, that is the key and it
cannot change. God must be in
Christ. God must be in the
anointing. God must be in what came
forth from God and that alone would satisfy God.
That’s
exactly why He would take His own creations and indwell them, step into a man
that He made called Melchisedec, absolutely be certain that He created the egg
and the sperm, put His own life in there to bring it forth in Mary’s womb, that
God was in that anointing which ever way it went. And remember, God pictured by Ezekiel, there
were the four cheribims, and wheels within wheels, they went this way and that
way, always moving, always moving, always moving, face...it was the face, there
was the lion, and there was the calf, and there was the eagle, and there was
the man.
Same thing
right today. God moving by His
Spirit. One God moving by one
Spirit. God manifesting how He wants to
manifest. And God would not have one
thing to do with you and me as His children except we have the seed which comes
from Spirit, because God is Spirit, down in our souls, making sons. So we’re just looking at our picture here. Now he said, “It is God.” Which It
certainly is God.
Now look
it. God changing His mask. Now, the essentiality of God never changes in
no way. And here’s what Bro. Branham
looked at when he looked at the word ‘morphe,’ and he called En morphe. Now he got that from the same Bible I’m
reading from. Now let’s look at the
actual Greek and know more about it.
Morphe; denotes the special or characteristic form, or feature, of a
person or thing. It is used with
particular significance in the New Testament, only of Christ, in Phil 2:
6-7. Three places only. One in Mark, but these two here concerning
Jesus. And he said, “Jesus appeared in another form.”
And He appeared in another form which was right--it was the glorified
form. Now He appears in a form--and God
was in Christ. What life was in that egg? If you think it’s any other life than the
life of God you’ve got some crazy thoughts in your head.
All right,
in the phrases, “Being in the form of God and taking the form of a
servant.” Now taking the form of God,
gave it away, took the form of a servant.
An excellent definition of the word is that of giver. Morphe, is therefore properly the nature, or
essence, not in the abstract but as actually subsisting in the individual and
retained as long as the individual itself exists. How long does Christ exist? Thus in the passage before us, ‘morphe theo’,
is the divine nature, actually and inseparably subsisting in the person of
Christ. For the interpretation of the
form of God is sufficient to say that, one; it includes the whole nature and
essence of Deity, and is inseparable from them since they could have no actual
existence without it, and that it does not include in itself anything
accidental, or separable such as a particular mode of manifestation, or
conditions of glory and majesty and so on.
The true meaning of morphe is the expression “Form of God” is confirmed
by its recurrence and the corresponding phrase, “Form of a servant.” It is universally admitted that the two
phrases are directly antithetical and that the form must therefore have the
same sense in both. The definition above
applies to its use in Mk 16:12, where the Lord appeared in another form.
So what
he’s saying here is this, that; if you could gaze upon what Bro. Branham was
telling us about, you would know that is God, you’d realize. Just like the Pillar of Fire, Paul said,
“Lord,” he recognized. You like Moses,
there would be a recognition. You
couldn’t help but know. Now then, He had
a form of a man, you couldn’t help but know that, that was a man. But the form of the man betrayed what was in
Him because they didn’t know God was in Him.
And they wouldn’t give credit to William Branham. They’ll talk all they want to about God in
Moses, and God here, and God there, that’s fine; but when a vindicated prophet
comes on the scene, what did they do?
They turned their backs and thumbed their noses--they blasphemed.
You
see? Intrinsically there was a form of a
man, there was the form of God. Bro.
Branham explains, “Spiritual eyes you
could see it, that’s what you could see, if you could see.” And He was there in that beginning, that
outraying, that effulgence, and he put that right to one side. And the same God came down through sperm and
egg and indwelt a body at the River Jordan and never left it until the Garden
of Gethsemane. But remember the life was
still of God. See? You cannot separate it. And then notice what it says here, “He
humbled Himself. He poured Himself
out.” Well He poured Himself out, He
emptied Himself, the kenosis. Remember
Jesus said, “I could call twelve legions of angels if I wanted right now.” But He said, “I’m not going to do it.” He emptied Himself. All through Scripture He emptied
Himself.
Let’s just
take some in John, the emptying out, 5:31.
(31) If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
7:17, Some of these might not make too much sense
to you.
(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.
See, He
just steered right away from being God and acting the part of God. In other words, God within Him did not move
as God except at certain specific times then Christ would have to get out of
the way. The 28th verse of the same chapter
of John, chapter 7. Is it chapter
seven? I think it is.
(28) Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.
In other
words, He emptied Himself to the place where He would just be a man in their
sight. He laid it all down so that God
would work in Him or there would not be any work done whatsoever. He laid it all aside.
Now, it
says here, “That God took upon Himself the form of a man.” We looked at that, and it said, “He was made
in the fashion of a man.” Now what the
word fashion is ‘schema,’ a figure of fashion is translated fashion in 1 Cor
7:31 or the world signifying that which comprises the manner of life, actions,
etc. In Phil 2:8 is used of the Lord in
His being found in fashion as a man, and signifies what He was in the eyes of
men, the entire outwardly perceptible mode and shape of His existence, just as
the proceeding word ‘morphe.’ In other
words, absolutely everything conspired so that this person was actually a man
to men.
Then He was
made in likeness. The word is ‘made,’
there’s a word also made and that word is ‘become.’ Made in the likeness of man, become in the
likeness of man. Notice, not made as
though it was a new product, but coming as in the form of metamorphosis. Stepping down and stepping up. There’s a metamorphosis. Likeness, that comes from the Greek word
‘h-o-m-o-i-o-m-a,’ that’s like, homoioma, denotes likeness in appearance but
distinction in essence. Now, in the
likeness of a man, but He wasn’t. He was
more than a man. See? So what you’re seeing here as Bro. Branham
said, “God changing His mask.” And God doing it the only way that God can and
ever will do it; it is a constant progression of coming down. Now he said, “Jesus took His theophany, we bypassed ours. We’re going to get it though.”
And this
sermon that Bro. Branham is teaching here, to me is a major message with the
others, but especially this, on the doctrine of Godhead and the plan--of
implementation of plan that God had proving entirely the one God understanding
because Alpha is Omega. And all the
various progressions that we see coming from God, into humanity especially, is
always in role of Son because it’s the identification of God in that realm. And so we talk about the Son. You talk about it, creation, maintaining,
giving life, all these various elements and you can understand why because
look, it says, “He is bringing many sons into glory by making the captain of
their salvation,” the sanctifier, Jesus Christ, the elder brother, who is God
manifest in flesh, the Only- begotten Son of God, where you and I did not come
in that sphere, but we came in our own sphere down here, which is just those
little sons, the little begotten ones.
We weren’t
only begottens. He was the Only-Begotten
in every single phase that God employed Himself in through the role of
Son. In other words, it was absolutely
unique and one of a kind, in order that from It, being a first-fruit, many
should come. Then if Jesus rose from the
dead, in a glorified body, meeting His own theophonic form, how much more do
you and I know that we are going to be there identical as He is. And that’s what we are looking at to
understand what is going on at this minute.
What has been going on, and it’s God doing it all.
I know there’s still some thoughts here that
may be a little bit vague. If I can come
up with answers that are clearer than ever, I’ll try to do that, but, just be
honest with you, I’m satisfied with the answers I’ve got. God was in Christ. No problem.
The Son. Not God the Son, God the
Father, God the Holy Ghost--there’s one God who is Spirit and positively going
through those roles as broad as this point.
Now there it is, you can see the answer--Alpha is Omega. How many gods are up there? Is there a Father, a Son, and a Holy
Ghost? Be my guest. You can have a dozen if you want, might as
well have fifty if you’ve got three of them.
One God.
Lord bless
You. Let’s rise at this time and be
dismissed. Gracious eternal Father,
again we thank You for Your kindness, letting us come together to study what we
can find, Lord, about the great mysteries that we have under the Seven Seals,
the Seven Thunders, Lord, that the prophet gave us. And we know Lord, as long as we stay with the
major understanding; there is one God--and we know positively the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we understand positively that You were in
Christ. We can see more and more on
understanding Lord, developing. And we
pray Father that we shall have it to the extent that it will give us a real
peace, and a joy, and a strong solid foundation, away from all of the
eccentricities of heathenism, and the down pulling of all those things, my God,
which have happened because Your Word was inundated by lies of the enemy
bringing us into heathenism.
Father,
deliver us we pray, from any heathen concept whatsoever. Deliver us, O God, into the purity of the
Light of the revelation of You, that You give at this end time, Lord. Then shall we rejoice more and more Father,
but we’ll see ourselves more and more one with You, and we’re seeing more and
more one with You because You said, “That day would approach.” And as we see this brought before us through
the prophet, Lord, I believe this is that day, “That I and my Father are
one.” We can say that and understand as
we have not understood before and rejoice in it, Lord, and in the whole thing
Father, according to understand what Your Word said, “That Spirit in our midst
would bring us this, and then that in turn would bring about the Resurrection,
and the finalization of glory.”
We can see
with Paul, with Peter and with Bro. Branham especially, who became so strong in
his understanding in faith. Looking down
that road like Peter said, “Yes, the day after tomorrow, it’ll be what it is,
New Jerusalem,” walking those streets and everything turned back as it was
except the fullness has been completed.
Father,
what a marvellous thing to know we’re in that hour. Father, we just pray that as the prophet was
worried, help us to come to that place, Father, where he wouldn’t have to worry
if he was here because we’re putting our whole time and energies upon the truth
and wonderment of Your Word, Lord, and letting the life in the Word loose
Itself and loose us to the greater glories of God.
Bless each
one in divine Presence tonight, Lord.
Your own prophet told us that we could have healing out of this message,
we’ve got it, Lord. There’s more, and
more, healing in the soul and mind, and we know that’s the great thing that
brings about healing of the body. So
Father, touch bodies tonight we pray. We
may not lay hands on the sick tonight but Lord Your here to do that for us by
the power of the Holy Ghost. Raise up
Your people, Lord, give them the health and strength they need, Father, and those
of us that are going off the scene, which indeed we have to because age comes
on, may we go off with the joy of the Lord, and a measure of strength that You
can give, Father. These mercies we ask
in Jesus’ Name for Your glory. Amen and
amen.
‘Take the
Name of Jesus with you.’