Questions and Answeres #3

And not only that, you encourage us to come here, but you've given us of your spirit, Lord, to give us the truth, Lord, the desire born of thee, Lord, to be here, to hear your word, Lord. May our fellowship be sweet, not only with each other here, but with thee, O God, so that we are one with you, Lord, you one with us. We are one in this word, Lord. For truly, Father, that is what the hour demands, and we know whatever that hour demands, Lord, you have already brought it forth. not only available, but it absolutely shall be brought into reality to an elect bride. Father, we consider ourselves a part of that, having heard your call, the gospel call, on this last day. And having answered it, Lord, we believe that positivity, that's the sealing away, the harm and danger cannot encompass us, the Antichrist cannot overcome us, Lord. But no matter what happens, we're going to get out of here, Lord, with you. You're going to take us out of here. Father, we know that we don't have any hope in ourselves. We don't have any evidence in ourselves. We don't have vindication. None of these things do we require because we have seen your word vindicated already. And that's all we rely upon. We rely upon that, Lord. May we just stay in that form of mind, Father, day by day, ripening in the presence of the Son. Help us tonight in our meditation, whatsoever it might be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I don't know how many of you got further questions tonight. Might be there for quite a short service, just taking what we have before us here. But I won't.

I don't think necessarily recap any of the questions that were asked the other day, although much time could be spent upon those that were asked. More time, of course, than you did spend, but there was something brought out. Of course, I know that my preaching all the time causes a little bit of anxiety the way certain things are said, and although this wouldn't cost too much because I think it's fairly well explained, someone simply may not understand. And it has to do with the unveiling of God number 12. And there I was bringing up the fact that, as Brother Branham did, that the church of the bride fell on the ground and died. And it has to come up, of course, through the processes that God has laid out through the measure of the Word and the measure of the Holy Spirit being one to bring them to the place where they are to be now. And he said that under Luther came up Reformation and it was in the form of justification. And that's right, because the Spirit and the Word is one, the same measure. Identically, there's no difference. The Word is simply the conduit. And the Spirit is the life that brings that Word into evidence. And when that Word is brought into manifestation or evidence, then, of course, you have the true interpretation of that Word, because God has interpreted it, He being His own interpreter. So, under the thought that He brought His justification, We went to the fact that it's not simply a process, that Christ is actually the justifier. It's not something somebody said, well, this has been handed to me, and so I have something that I've derived from Christ. That is really ignorance. If you have Christ, you will have, or rather you have justification, you will have the measure of Christ for that hour. Now, I know Brother Brown said justification, sanctification, baptism. So the people think, well, now, all right, that's great. I got a little experience here. It's called justification. I'm saved now. I go over here now and I'm sanctified. And I come to the place where I'm full of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now I'm truly born again. Now that sounds very good. But you can be very, very wrong because you're not understanding that justification stood by itself under Luther. They didn't have sanctification. Now, you're going to turn around and say, well, Lutherans had justification, no sanctification, so they're no part of the bride. That's ridiculous. See, it isn't true. Now, that literally fell into the ground also to die in the sense that the doctrine of justification under Luther became marred. And the minute the marring and, as Brother Branham called, dead manna, wiggle tails in it, then no longer can you place what was... typically known as justification in that hour and called it the baptism with the Holy Ghost because the Holy Spirit was in that measure of that word. That's what they had for that day. Now, God then brought on Wesley because the justification had gone to a very terrible form of eternal security called antinomianism where you didn't have to have a means of grace or salvation. If your name was on the book, you'd get saved in spite of everything. Which is true. But it's not the truth. So they went to seed on that. Now, you'll notice the measure of the Word and the Holy Spirit now is on the scene. And it brings forth sanctification. And whether you want to recognize or not, that's definitely the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Because you can't be bride under Luther or Wesley or anybody without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And you can't be bride without the baptism of the Holy Ghost now. You can't do it. Now then, the third thing, of course. Comes along with the baptism with the Holy Ghost. And then when that went off the scene, of course, we have the word of the prophet. We have the great baptizer himself. Now, what we're looking at is this. That Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's back in the form of the Holy Spirit. And this hour, veiled in a pillar of fire here. Now, it wasn't that in Luther's day because Luther was looking for it. It wasn't that in Wesley's day because Wesley looked for it. Now, whether they knew they were literally looking for it or not isn't that, you know, some great criterion. Fact is that they had to be looking for the appearing, bringing on the coming. And this is the appearing. Brother Branstad, you can see on the picture there and over here on the other picture. Now then, what we want to see is this, that Christ himself is the justifier and truly receiving him, true justification in that day, was exactly right. All right. The next stage was sanctification. That was exactly right. Under Pentecost, That was exactly right, the baptism. And now under this age, it is exactly right for you and me. Now, trying to get this out so you can see it. He said, for in the form of justification, that let you see the word of the Holy Spirit is one and the same. And the measure of the word is the measure of the Holy Spirit. See, bringing forth the person because he is our justification. He is our justifier. Now, Chuck, what I want you to get here, we're not looking at experiences, we're looking at a person. Because if you're looking at a person, I mean at an experience, That won't do. It's the person Christ. You must be born again. No matter what age, no matter what measure it was. Now, number two was sanctification. He is our sanctification. He is. That was great for that age. He was known as that. Now, at this age, he's known as the baptized, the Holy Ghost. He is our baptism. It's the personal relationship I'm looking at. Now, he is our sanctification. Yes, sir. That's the scripture. The compound titles of Jehovah. Okay? Now, we're looking at the compound title under the very fact of the Word of God that brings out that He is our great sanctifier, the Lord our sanctifier. Now, you notice He's our justifier, He's our sanctifier, He's all of these various terms. Now, it's very strange that everybody makes a mistake on seven. I don't mean that as though that's a pitiful thing. It isn't. It isn't that at all. It's not something that's bad. It's just that... The mistake was made on seven. They left out sanctifier. I was just bringing that point to you on the compound titles of Jehovah, one of which is the Lord our sanctifier, and that would make number eight. Now, the reason that almost everybody uses the seven instead of the eight is because a lot of people were brought up on the Schofield Bible under great students. Let's see who all helped Schofield on this anyway. There's a whole bunch of them. There was Weston, there was Dr. Gray, there was Erdman and Pearson, Moorhead, Harris, Gableine, and Pettengill. I don't know some of them, but names like Weston and Gray and Erdman and Pearson and Gableine, those are tremendously famous names in the world of theology. Now, back here in the book of Genesis, it's the second chapter, Dr. Schofield makes some comments. And he starts here reading some of his notes. He's using the thought on the Lord Jehovah. Read his Yahweh. The primary meaning of the name Lord is Jehovah Yahweh is a self -existent one. That's right. Literally, as in Exodus 3 .14, he that is who is. That's what he said, I am that I am to Moses. Therefore, the eternal I am. But Havah, H -A -V -H, from which Jehovah or Yahweh is formed. signifies also to become. That is to become known. And that's what Brother Brandon said. Three things. Revelation, preeminence, and back to the garden. All right? Thus pointing to a continuous and increasing self -revelation. Combining these meanings of Havah, we arrive at the meaning of the name Jehovah. He is a self -existent one who reveals himself. The name is in itself an advance upon the name, is an advance upon the name of God. In other words, it goes beyond just God, which is... In three terms, El, Elah, and Elohim, which suggests certain attributes of deity as strength. Sure, that's a strong one bound by an oath is really what it is. Rather than his essential being, which is true. It is significant that the first appearance of the name Jehovah in Scripture follows the creation of man. It was God, Elohim, who said, let us make man in our image. But when man, as in the second chapter of Genesis, is to fill the scene, and become dominant over creation, it is the Lord God or Jehovah Elohim who acts. Now watch, Scopius' thoughts are very good here. This clearly indicates a special relation of deity in his Jehovah character to man. Why? Because the whole program of redemption comes out in the Jehovah complex. And all scripture emphasizes this. Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of deity. when sin entered and redemption became necessary. It was Jehovah Elohim who sought the sinning ones. Now, you can bring that right down to the fact of Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jehovah, the Old Testament, is Jesus of the New. Now, how could He possibly be the true Redeemer if He delegated it to somebody else? Do you hear what I said? He has to follow out here that He is... The Redeemer of mankind, God Himself, He's not delegating to a third person or a second person. He formed a body for Himself. And the thing is, that's an intelligent body, a man. But He never came from the human race. Came from the attributes. Man produced a chemical medium. But the person was a God -man. God coming down in the form of a man. The beginning of the creation of God in the third chapter of Revelation. beginning at verse 14 for the seventh church age, is the language used wherein God was beginning to form himself in human flesh. So, you see, this man here is very good. He didn't understand what Brother Branham understood. Of course not. See? Now, but when man, the second chapter of Genesis, is to fill the seeming condom of creation, it is the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, who acts. This clearly indicates the special relationship of deity in the Jehovah character to man and all Scripture emphasizes. Jehovah, just think of the name of deity. Redemption, name of deity. When sin entered and redemption became necessary, it was Jehovah Elohim who sought the sinning ones, Genesis 3, 19, 13, and clothed them with coats of skins. A beautiful type of righteousness provided by the Lord through sacrifice. Now, how is a person going to have the righteousness of God be the righteousness of God except through union with Him, which is the baptism with the Holy Ghost? So, you see, you talk about the first church, the first age, what was it? God, Elohim revealing himself, Jehovah revealing himself as the great justifier. And that was the message of the hour. The just shall live by faith. And it was a new message. It wasn't some old message, old ride over thing. It wasn't a new patch that's put on old garments. It was the truth. The first distinct revelation of himself, that's God, by his name Jehovah, was in connection with the redemption of the covenant people out of Egypt. That's in Exodus 3, 13 to 17. That's right. As Redeemer, emphasis is laid upon these attributes of Jehovah, which the sin and salvation of man brings into exercise, and so on. And then he goes over here, another page, in the fourth point. His redemptive relation to man. In his redemptive relation to man, Jehovah has seven compound names, which reveal him as meeting every need of man from his lost state to the end. And he names those. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide a sacrifice. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord gives healing. Jehovah Nissi. The Lord our banner, that would be our victory, the one who keeps us. And Jehovah Shalom, we want to call it that. It's not quite the right pronunciation. The Lord our peace. Then Jehovah Reha, the Lord our shepherd. That's not the right pronunciation either. Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. And Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is present. But now all of those are found in various scriptures, such as Jehovah Jireh, we pronounce it Jehovah Yireh, what it really is pronounced. The Lord our provider is over there in Genesis 22, 14 where the ram was provided. And then you get Jehovah Rophe.

That's the Lord our healer where they cut down the tree and healed the waters that were terribly bitter and all. Then we find over here in Jehovah Nissi. That's one maybe we're not so familiar with some of these as we get down the road. That's over here in Exodus, the 17th chapter.

And you'll find here where they held the hands of Moses up in order that they would prevail in battle. And we see that as Moses' hands were held up, Aaron and Hur were holding up the hands of Moses. The battle went well. And so they built an altar in verse 15. And it's Jehovah Nissi, which means the Lord our victory. And then over in... In Leviticus chapter 20, we

find it's Jehovah Mekadesh, which is the one we're looking at that seemingly so many people miss out.

And here it says, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying in verse 1, Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be the children of Israel, or of the children of Israel, or rather the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any beseed unto Moloch, He shall surely be put to death, the people of the land shall stone him a stone. And I will set my face against that man, will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given a beseed unto Moloch, to defile my sanctuary, to profane my holy name. Of course, that's an idol. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth a beseed unto Moloch, and kill him not, then I will set my face against that man, against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go hurrying after him, to commit a hurt him with Moloch from among the people. And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, And after it was to go hurrying after him, I would even set my face against that soul and would cut him off among the people. Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord which sanctified you. That's Jehovah sanctify right there. Now, that's a very important title of Jehovah complex. Then in Jehovah Shalom, which is the Lord our peace, that's over in Judges. The sixth chapter.

And I'll bring this all together for you. That is the best I can.

You'll notice down here in verse 22 when Gibeon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord that appeared before Gideon. Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. The Lord said unto thee, Peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not die. And Gideon built an altar unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom. Unto this day it's an opera of the Abba Ezrites. Now, you notice in there, the Lord our peace. God granting him peace. And then another one over here is the 23rd Psalm, which you don't have to go to. That's Jehovah -Rohi, which is the Lord our shepherd. Then we go to Jeremiah chapter 23. And I think that's the chapter on the shepherds. I don't know if it's the false shepherds or the good shepherds. I'm hoping it's the false ones. It's a pastor. One of the pastors is destroying and scattering the sheep. of my pastor, saith the Lord. Therefore, saith the Lord God of Israel, against the pastors that feed my people. Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evils that ye are doing, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whither I have driven them, and bring them again to their foes, and they shall be fruitful and increased. And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them. They shall fear no more, neither be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, I will raise up unto David a righteous branch. and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice on earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. All right? Then we go to number 8, which is Ezekiel 48 and 35. That's your last chapter, I guess, but the last verse. And we could read as, well, the city and the gates. And you can compare this as Scofield Wells says in Revelation 21, 10 -27. And talking about those dates. And verse 35, it says, It was round about 18 ,000 measures, and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there. That's Jehovah ever -present. So that word Jehovah is the Jehovah ever -present. Now, actually, there could well be literally dozens of beautiful designations or appellations concerning the Jehovah complex. because the Scripture says that Jesus said in John, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And he categorically knew that he was Jehovah and let them know that he was Jehovah. All right? There should then be a Jehovah compound name for concerning Jehovah the truth, Jehovah the way, Jehovah the life. Now, he said, I am the resurrection and the life. So, therefore, there should be a Jehovah compound concerning the word. Now, a resurrection. What do we have in mind in saying this? Simply this, that there could be under seven major designations, eight major designations, five major designations, although God is in sevens, completing the sevens. You could take the seven. And under there could be many of the combinations of Jehovah that are not literally spelled out. Now, let's just take an example by going back to Genesis, the 22nd chapter. And I'll show you exactly what I'm driving at. Now, in verse 12. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the land, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham took the ram and offered him up for burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah -Jireh. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. All right, let's go back to the book of Hebrews. Because that's where we'll go. And you'll see in the 11th chapter, we'll start reading. All

right, we read concerning Abraham. And let's take verse 17. We don't have to read too much of it. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received in the figure. So, therefore, the resurrection is included in this illustration. The boy didn't die, but Abraham knew that the boy could be killed, and God then would raise him up in order to fulfill the promise. So, under the thought of the Lord, the great provider, you have resurrection. Now, you could take every single one of the Jehovah complexes, which would literally, to us, in the promise of Abraham, start with Genesis 22. And every one of those complexes would be exactly what the Lord provides. So, you could have the great provider under Jehovah -era, or Jireh, whichever you want to put it. And Brother Branham, you'll notice, preached... Several sermons. Might have been three to five sermons. Long sermons on that. I guess there are three is the minimum. I can't remember. But he preached a great number of times on it, at least to a great length. He preached, I think, at his own home church. He preached in Louisville, Missouri. He preached in Grass Valley, the same thing, in California, to my knowledge. How many times? I really don't recall. But that was the great theme of the Jehovah complex to him. And you can see why, because every single thing that God provides for us is provided under that original. That's why Brother Branham could say, in Him is the resurrection. In Him is the millennium. And so you say, in Him is justification. In Him is sanctification. In Him is healing. In Him is resurrection. In Him is life. In Him is provision. You name it. In Him is everything. So, that's not so terribly important for Brother Branham. to say there are seven major titles, he could say there's one great title holding him off. He could say anything. It's the students that have brought this down to the complex of saying there are seven, when, my goodness, I think the Bible is not to be taken, and you say, all right, we're going to put God in seven here, and that takes care of it, so you can rattle those off, and what good does it do you? You know, you've got to go deeper than just rattling off. And that's the main reason I brought this out here, was the fact that... Brother Branham didn't have to take every single thing anybody said or any single thing, make one point, unless it was definitely something that God had showed him in order to correct something or to bring out something that was tremendously valuable. So there could be seven major thoughts. There could be one that encompasses all. Like sanctification could be a subtitle under one of them. I don't know. But you notice in here, as far as I do know, in the entire Scripture, there are those eight different combinations. Of which, of course, there's many, many more as you look at them. So that's the thought I wanted to bring out there. So if you're a little bit in doubt of some of the things that are said, I just wanted to clear that up for you. Okay, there's some questions up here. And if there's any more questions, you better get them ready because we don't have too many right here. There's a question asked, please go into detail about what is meant by roll with the punches. Well, that's a saying right there, rolling with the punches. I think it kind of comes from an attitude that you can take as a boxer or some kind of a fighter. You could be arrested. You could be almost anybody engaged in some kind of a, well, you know, some kind of a fight, some kind of a battle. That's the word used, some kind of a battle. And the thought is there that there's many ways a person can receive a blow. You can stand up and just see how hard the fella can hit you as if he knocked you out of the ring. And that's not very nice because he could, you know, kind of do you a lot of damage. And there's a way to parry a blow, but that's not necessarily what we're talking about. To roll with the punches and... The way I use the description is what I was taught perhaps years ago, and it's in my mind today, that there's a way a person can receive a blow. Instead of standing your head on to get it, you kind of go back. And by the time the punch gets you, it's lost its force, and you're well away. Now, nobody stands with these heels to get these feet flat upon the floor. It can't be done. Because the minute that you do that, all the fellow's got to do is just take these two fingers, and you push, and you'll fall over. So the idea here is to put yourself in a position, and always maintain a position. Where you cannot be hurt by anybody and by anything. Now, it's not that you're not going to be hurt. You're not inhuman. You're not a rock. You will be hurt. But you don't need to be hurt. And I don't need to be. You don't need to. As badly as we've all been hurt. And the reason is we have not fortified ourselves with the word of the Lord in order to keep that before us even though it isn't going to stop problems. Now, you can see I'm going to take the shield of faith and... Hallelujah. It's going to be wonderful. Well, I just say you're a pretty simple kid and you're in for an awful rude awakening. I didn't want to use a tougher word, but I could. But, you know, you're naive and it's foolish because you're going to get hit. I don't care who you are. Brother Brown said the devil's got a whack to take at. You've got a punch coming. He's going to hit one on you. And he said, now, would you sooner have nerves or be arthritic or be blind? That's one of the three things he said. Another time he said, would you be, I think, arthritic or have a cancer? I think there are different types of... thoughts he went into. So the major thing is always to be fortified to the extent with the Word of God, with your attitudes, that when pressure comes, and that pressure will have to be unjustly. Now, Peter tells us if you suffer for what you deserve to suffer for, well, you've got to come into it. Now, he said, if you suffer unjustly, you don't have it coming, then, he said, that's the grace, the spirit of grace and glory rests upon you. and you glorify the God in heaven, and you get a reward. Now, Paul tells us, let treasure in heaven. Jesus said, turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. All of those things are in the Bible, and those are the things that a good pastor should constantly bring before the people, young and old, and demand that that is followed through. Now, the last message Brother Branham left us was, he said, now look, he said, you won't always be this way. He said, you're walking in love, he said, and he mentioned why, because he was the tie post. And everybody loved Brother Branham, so therefore they loved each other. At least they had some type of veneer love, some type of varnish love, you know, maybe it's, well, you know, as well as I do, it just wasn't the real thing. But he said, you watch, he said, how that'll dissipate down the road. And it did go down the road in a form of dissipation. And of course, after he's gone, there's different things came up and always the thought, well, you got to believe what I believe or you're not part of it. Well, you got to believe what the prophet believed to be a part of it. And to believe what the prophet believed. You'll see what he says all the way through his messages. There's a continuity. He doesn't say one statement here that's strong and then walk over here and say another statement that's not in balance with the original strong statement. He makes many strong statements, but they're always, always in balance with what he was teaching. And remember, he was the forerunner and the introducer of the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit. And he said the bride had to know her words and it was his job to introduce her. He always, he related the fact of the Presence of God in this hour. And the appearing, which is a great thing. All right. So many people then, before he died, I think he said they had, what did he say, 50 -some varieties of interpretation of what he believed out there in Tucson already? What, have you had 50 -some or 30 -some, whatever it is? I don't know, but it's a goodly amount anyway, a goodly number. You can understand by now what they have out there. Almost one in every street corner. Every believer almost would have his own private interpretation, I suppose. That's maybe not quite that bad, but I'm putting it out that way that there would be a lot of problems out there. All right. So you can see that there's bound to be many problems in our lives even though we believe an end time message and we're supposed to be lying in the presence of the sun and ripening and all of these things. Well, the thought is you've still got to have a lot of give and take. There's got to be a lot of bearing and forbearing. There's got to be a lot of walking away from issues. There's much more facilitating to your Christian life. To walk away than to have head -on confrontations. Now, certain confrontations are necessary. But then they must not continue to be confrontations. That's what's wrong with just about every church under high heaven. People aren't satisfied with the confrontation. They want to keep the confrontation living. And I suppose if there was such a thing in every church, I suppose there is in every church, where in every church has problems, that there's always somebody or somebodies are going to want that continuous confrontation, the constant digging up instead of rolling with the punches. In other words, just giving way. You know that you were hit. You know that there are problems. But you're not going to get anywhere by the constant confrontation. Now you're in the ring fighting. So that fellow might have to roll with the punches through those 10 rounds 50 to 150 to 500 times roll with the punch. To keep his head from getting knocked off.

See? Now, you remember that Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile. If a man wanted a little coat like this thing, you're ready to give him your top coat. In other words, you're ready to do anything the Lord says. Well, that to me is what I was thinking of and I would be thinking of in terms of rolling with the punches. Because you're going to get punched. Just watch you don't get punched out. Now, We might get a little scripture on that here so you might understand too. Okay. Here's over in Hebrews the 12th chapter. My Bible just opened up there because I was in the 11th chapter. So it's very good. In verse 11. Now no chasing for the present seems be joyous. Now you're in the ring. But grievous. Now you're going to roll with the punches or not. Nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Exercised by what? Being in the ring. And getting punched out. Now, you don't want to get punched out or knocked out, but you're going to get punched anyway because you've got punches coming at you. Now, you will get peace in your heart when you're exercised by getting in the boxing ring and learning how to fight right because the guy that can protect himself is the fellow that's got the peace. The guy that can't protect himself is the fellow that hasn't got the peace. Okay. Now, it says, watch this. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Now, there's two things mentioned. Hands and knees. Now, it tells the people that you're to help those people that are having problems in the ring. They can't adjust. They're not real Christian scrappers. They're worldly scrappers. They're self -appointed scrappers, maybe. But they're not with it. Then it says, make straight paths for your feet. Now, that's rolling with the punches right there. In other words, always make sure you've got a way of escape. Don't get yourself boxed in a ring that's ten feet high and made out of boards. You can't get over it. You better have something made out of ropes. You can crawl through the ropes in case the fella gets too big for you. See what I'm talking about? In other words, don't get into things that are too deep for you. Always get the thing lined up as quick as you can. Make the path straight, not devious. Don't get concerned with a lot of ramification. But it says, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, let it be rather here. Now, that's for the person. that's engaged in the problem, and that's for the people in the church to help in all these things. Then it says, Follow peace with all men and wholeness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Now there, you're rolling with the punches right there. Here comes a time, and every time you should always seek to be peaceful and have people at peace with you. Then it says, Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any rudiment spring up and trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. It tells you right there, your person has got to learn the Christian way. of conduct and engaging in problems and engaging himself or God engaging him in his daily training and all. And he's got to be temperate, a milder person. He can't set himself a place where he's going to say, well, I'll go through this if I just tear the place down. You can't do that. Now, you can stand for God if the place gets torn down.

You can stand if you've got the right spirit and the right attitude. But you can't stand there to say, well, all right, I'll bring the house tumbling down with me. I've had a lot of that attitude in my life. See, you push me too far. Well, you see, the house will come down with it. But the thing to do is just walk off.

Or find some way of reconciliation. To find some way of mediation. To find some way of bargaining. And getting the thing settled. You see, you'll find people don't want to get things settled. Well, they're wrong. I don't care who they are. See, because you cannot possibly have him as Jehovah, your peace. And not want things settled. Because settled things is a way to have peace. Now, sometimes the peace is a little bit shaky. And they call that detente. Because, well, the Russians are making bombs. We're making bombs. Well, that's not the church. See, Brother Brown has said, if you bring that person's... I think there's a quote on that. If you bring that person's sin out from under the blood, then it'll be on you. So, you've got to watch these things. So, rolling with the punches, there's a lot of things I might say about it. But as I've said already, it's so that you yourself do not get really blistered. That you yourself get punched to the place where you simply won't survive under those conditions. And when people let those conditions come in because there's warfare in your own heart, warfare with maybe different ones in the church, and warfare with where you work and those things, the Bible distinctly says, all right, now look, if you let that thing get to you, you're going to cause a root of bitterness. And it's going to cause a lot of problems. And you'll find that people then will fail the grace of God. You leave them to the place where many get defiled. I've seen that. It's a bad situation. Now, remember the Bible distinctly says, agree with thine adversary whilst you're on the way with him. That's the adversary. Give it to the judge and the judge to the jailer. And the jailer puts you in there and you pay the uttermost pardoning. Now, it tells you right there that a man comes along and pokes you in the nose. You've got a bloody nose. And the Bible says, you make up with that man or that man will take you to the judge and the judge will take you to the jailer and the jailer will throw you in the prison. And you say, now hold it. That's the dirty bird that poked me in the nose. I want him in the prison. God says, no, you go in the prison because you didn't make up. Now, that's tough preaching, but that's just the way it is. That's rolling with the punches. That's the bad one. Now, you don't believe what I'm saying. You read the start of your scripture and you'll find I'm telling you the truth. You know what happens? Because you get bitter inside.

You can't afford it. Nobody can afford it. So roll with the punches because you're going to get punched. I don't care who you are. There's no two ways about it. You're going to be as healthy as a coot today. You say, well, Bless God, I think maybe when I die, I'll just be like old Jacob and Abraham. I'll just lie down and close my eyes and fold my hands and die. Yeah? And a truck comes along and hits you. And your legs are all mangled. You're all caved in. You're paralyzed from the throat down. And you stayed that way 20 years. Oh, you sure made a... Oh, you're in great shape. Old David said, there's a step that puts me in debt. See? Always make sure there's a way of escape. Always make sure you can back away.

You watch. You think I'm kidding. You think this church is safer than that? Ha! I can tell you right now, you're just smoking your little old opium pipe. You're not smoking the religion of God. You're smoking an opium pipe. In other words, the smoke from the fires of God aren't there. That's a delusion. You'll find where it's just too easy for a person to get something and he's stuck in his craw. You watch where to take him. You've got to learn to roll with those punches to back away. You say, all right, now that's a pretty good delineation on that. It will be here all night. All right, the second one was, does the mystery in 1 Corinthians 15, 51. That's we'll not all see. And in 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, we are alive and remain. That's the ones together. And in John 11, 26, those who live and believe shall never die. That's right, we've got them all together. Tied with Hebrews 9, 27, it's appointed one man once to die and after that the judgment. Since we are in the judgment time, where we are in this judgment time, not the white throne. And the judgment time of that judge coming down to take vengeance. And that's to avenge, to declare righteous. and to declare unrighteous. That's pronounced judgment. That appointed season to live and not die. That's right. This is that hour. That first part of Hebrews 9, 27, appointed to die, is over for the bride. It's over for part of the bride. That's right. Because we are, after that season, past it, because we're in the judgment season, son of man judged. Well, that's right, because he's already said, you're the righteous bride of Christ. And that opens the door for the people to reach to the tree of life and eat and live forever in mortality. So that's true. Then they wouldn't possibly hold that's appointed to die. Because the sentence has been passed for this bride, some of this bride, see? And that's really the ones that are going to be standing here. Immortal. That appointment is gone. The death sentence is gone. Like Paul said, who dares condemn me to death? It is God who declared me righteous. It is Christ that justified me. See? Now remember, it's not just a phrase or a sentence. See? Brother Branham said God doesn't see you. He just hears your voice through the blood and he sees your representative. All right. Now, he's a son of man. I had looked at the word judgment, there being only at the white throne, but does this not have account for me? Well, it's very simple because Brother Branham, in preaching the Patmos vision, he ran the judge of Revelation, I think it's 1 and 12, plumb over to Daniel at the white throne. That used to confuse me. I say, my, what in the world is going on here? That's a thousand years apart. And I wasn't realizing that Brother Branham was telling us that this had started here. That's the one. The judge. And it exonerated the bride entirely. Then the next appearing is at the white throne and the bride is in the throne with him judging. But it's the same one. But here he's exonerating. See? Avenging.

declaring, like the widow said, avenge me of mine adversaries. She wasn't just saying throw. She didn't say throw the guy in the clink. Judge, you put that guy in and lock him up. She said, give me back my land.

Now, if we're going around here trying to judge the world and just hoping to high heaven that they'll fall in the lake of fire in a hurry, that's not avenging. Avenging has taken place when Brother Branham, when the voice of God was the prophet that said, little bride, You didn't do it at all. You're the righteous, holy, sinless, perfect bride of Christ. And won't come into judgment. See? Then the same one reappears a thousand years down the road. It's the white throne. So that is, in my understanding, Hebrews 9 and 27 certainly deals with the white throne judgment of every person that dies truly outside of Christ is going to end there. Because... That is a warning. Hebrews 9 .27 comes as a warning. And notice Hebrews 10 goes on. Trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant where he's sanctified. Sanctified, calling the holy thing. There's no repentance. There's no nothing there. And Hebrews 6, the same thing. See, all the way down the line. So, there is a compound meaning. But basically, I think it went to the white throne. But in this hour, when the bride doesn't die, then it's not a point of her to die. It's a point of her to reach and take the hand and get it because God said concerning Adam, He said, lest he reach and take that immortality, I'm going to cut it off here. See, it's appointed to have it. Well, Adam went through the process of death. They all go through. But there's a bride in this hour. The appointment is not to her. All right, there's another question. As you showed us the example Jesus Christ began to do and to teach, the manifestation of ministry came forth and then he spoke on it. Now, that's what I was saying there for many, many years. In the book of Acts, I used to go along with everybody who said, that Jesus began to do and to teach. And even Brother Branham said, don't preach a sermon, live it. But he didn't use this scripture in Acts. But you see, it would go together. All right, preach your sermons by living them. And if you don't live them, what good is your preaching? See, that's what it amounts to. But that's not really what it's all about. It's vindication, in my understanding. Jesus was vindicated. As Brother Branham said, Which of the scriptures have I failed to fulfill showing you that I am Messiah? He's paraphrasing from what Jesus said. Which of you convinces me of sin? That's the one he used. All right. So when we look at this one here, to me, basically, when Jesus began to do, he had to do or he couldn't teach because he was in the form of Moses. That is the form of the prophet. God said, go down there with two signs. Moses said, how am I going to tell those people I talked to you in a burning bush? You think they're going to believe me and say, hey, you folk, I was talking to Jehovah, the Jehovah Jireh of Abraham. You're just going to believe me if I go down there. God said, I'm going to give you some signs. They won't believe you. See? And it was after those great signs that he showed down there to Pharaoh that Pharaoh had to let him go. See? Notice, God was building up the vindication of Moses to be the spokesman of God. And what Moses said was God's word. Even the Bible says Moses' law. And that was no more Moses' law than I'm a hedgehog. It was God's word that came by Moses. But notice how he put it in there, categorized it. So therefore, Jesus began to do exactly what he should do in order to let the people know, hey, is this that one? Is it the great prophet? Is it the great Messiah? What is this anyway? Then after having done what no man could do, see, he began preaching. He already said, you don't want to believe what I'm saying. He said, then believe the works. Now he said, look, I've got your Ribeiro. You've got to believe the works because nobody but God can do those works. You can't do them. I can't do them. Nobody can do them. It's got to be God.

See, so he said, look, you've got to know there's a source that I don't operate on my own. My father worked at hitherto. Everything has been God doing it. It proves something about me. Why don't you listen? So this is my understanding of what that really is. All right. Does this not hold? In other words, as you showed in the example that Jesus Christ began to do and to teach, the manifestation ministry came forth and then he spoke on it. He gave the words that should have been believed based on the fact of an indication. All right. Does this not hold true then for every gift and ministry that will be manifested for what it is? That is, God's gifts make room for themselves rather than one trying to... Satan advances or has a certain ministry or whatever, and that's why you should make room for them, or is it just on their say -so? Though lacking the doing or manifestation part, they want to go to the teaching part. Would this not stand out as an earmark of a true and perfect gift from God every time then Jesus began to do and teach? Well, I think that would be carrying it too far. For now you've got to the place where you've got a lot of gifts and manifestation and boy they are tremendous because you see the gift is genuine and the anointing is genuine and the person is a phony. Now when little old Judas went out with the other eleven, it's my understanding he cast out devils the same as the rest did and raised the dead and everything else. Now it wasn't that Judas wasn't fully anointed and it wasn't that he didn't have genuine gifts. It wasn't that at all. It was that he himself was a phony. So, therefore, you can hardly begin to look for some manifestation for various ministries because it's not necessary. Really, because when the point has been proven, like in Brother Branagh's ministry, all anybody's got to do is to take that same word out as an evangelist, as an apostle, no matter what. You take that same word that was vindicated. You don't need a vindication anymore. See, that's what we got wrong today. I might be a little misunderstanding this in a way, but I might then again in my lobby. See, what you got today, you've got a lot of people who came right behind Brother Branham. Like I tell you, this great man of God, and I've got nothing against him. I believe he's a fine man of God in what you'd look for in a person. And he said when Brother Branham made that, or at least that man drop at his feet in Portland, Oregon, and Brother Branham took the meeting over entirely, Whereas this man tried to do it under the power of the devil, Brother Branham did it under the power of God. And the man said, now he said, when he said a voice said to him, that's the Bible, you can do that too. Well, I say that's very good. But when I saw Brother Branham, that's not what the voice said to me. What it said to me was, if you listen to any man, that's the man you listen to. So you see, it wasn't a matter then of people. Then going out with great gifts and saying, hallelujah, Bible days are here again. This man being a Baptist, he came to prove to us we were getting pretty slack in our sloppy Pentecostal souls and we better get on fire and go out there and turn the world upside down and just miracles, miracles, miracles, miracles, miracles. That's not what it was all about. It was to restore the faith and faith is a revelation. It's to get the people turned back to God. Now, I'm going to say, well, just a minute, I was turned to God. No, they weren't. They were turned to organization, creeds and dogmas. And they were bound therein, see? What you see now are a bunch of people anointed. Now, they've come on the scene and said, Hey, just me. You think that Branham was great? You ought to see this guy down here.

And you know what they do? Everything they have, they take it for some sign of vindication. We don't need any vindication in our midst. We need to stay with this word. That's the vindication. Now, Brother Branham said the devil can impersonate and just take over anything, but he can't stay with this word by word. Now, you notice the biggest... amount of commotion we get from anybody that believes this message is always this drive to be something big and to have some big thing going. And that's the exact thing the prophet went against in my books. Now, it doesn't mean people don't get healed. Let's understand this. Brother Brandon categorically said that one person in the congregation could keep faith from rising or the Word of God could powerfully heal all the people. He said there's got to be total separation of belief. See, so I'm not saying perhaps a lot of things that... I would be accused of saying by those that want to whomp things up. Well, we don't whomp anything up. I want to whomp things down. See? I'm not interested in bringing things in. I'm interested in kicking things out. We've already got what should be brought in. And what's brought in should automatically just kick out those things that shouldn't be with us. See? So, we've got to be kind of careful here how we reason this thing out. You know? Like if I'm going to be teaching. All I have to know is I'm teaching what Brother Brown has said. I don't need one speck of vindication because the word has been vindicated. Now then, the only vindication I can have, if I have any whatsoever, would be am I going word by word with what the prophet said right through this scripture here. See, that would be all I could say on that. All right. I think that covered that there. Let me get this one here. All right. Do only sons of God have souls? Animals don't have souls. Well, now, that's not really right. It isn't just sons of God that have souls. Because Brother Branham said the serpent had a place for a soul but didn't have a soul. Now, if you go to the book of Proverbs, you will find that animals do have souls. But here's the thing. They don't have souls like we have souls. They don't have souls like men. That's the point in theology Brother Branham used. He said animals don't have souls. Now, if you take all of his words, you'll find he said inner soul.

And he said animals aren't moral. There's nothing immoral about them. But because we have a soul, there's ethics and morals. And understanding what is right and wrong with us. That's true. Animals simply don't have that. They've got instinct. Man has a soul. As Brother Brand said, there's a place in the heart the scientists say it is vacant. That's where the soul is. It's in there. And in the soul is a germ. See? Now, animals don't have that. God didn't breed any animals with a breath of life. No, they're no way of shaping form. They're entirely different. So, if you want to break down the words when it comes to... biology, you could say, well, an animal's got a soul. Animals got flesh. Now, our flesh is animal flesh, but it's not true animal flesh. See? There's lots of things we have that were mammals, like Brother Brandon said. We're not animals in the sense of a real animal. There's been a perversion. There's been a bad thing there. So you could say what Brother Brandon said and mean it the way he said it. Animals certainly don't have souls. Not when you look at man, he doesn't have a soul. But if you want to look at that word in the Bible, it's right in the book of Proverbs. I forget what chapter it's in. I don't make anything of it because Brother Bannon did say inner soul. And he told the term from God. He laid it on the line. Well, if animals do have a soul, they don't have that kind of soul. If birds have a soul, they don't have that kind of soul. If angels have a soul, they don't have that kind of soul. We've got a very special soul that nobody else has. No animal, no nothing on creation, even though what they have would categorize for the same thing in their position. But no way have they got like man's got a soul. So he could say and say with the old timers, which is very true. Animals don't have souls.