FAITH OF ABRAHAM

PART  1

Bro. Lee Vayle 

Macon, Georgia

July 5, 1977

	Let us just bow our heads in prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You
again for the solemn hour in which we are here at this time, in this
little place dedicated to worship Thee. We thank You, Lord, that it is
also a solemn hour for the world. We know we’re in the hour of the
judgment; it will not be long until this world shall dissolve—at least
part of it, the area upon which people trod—because we know there is
going to be a day when the Righteous shall walk upon the ashes of the
wicked. We know it’s very solemn, Lord, and we pray that we might be
worthy to be counted as free from the condemnation of this age. We plead
every ounce of grace that might be extended toward us—every ounce,
Lord, of privilege that might be ours, and the power and authority,
whatever it might mean, that we might be worthy to escape, O God,
through Thee and Thee alone.

	Now, Lord, we pray that Your people shall be so greatly blessed. We
thank You, Lord, and thank them for the offering which they gave, Lord.
We know that Your people have been so overly generous that it staggers
the mind wondering why they should be so good to us, and so good to Your
servants. And we do thank You for them—that their heart is full of
liberality and their lives, Lord, just show the benefits of God given to
them.

	We thank You, Lord, for the hospitality of this place. We praise You
for Your pastor You’ve set here, though he has striven through
difficulties to be careful to serve You, and he is overcoming almost
insurmountable problems in trying to be faithful, and remaining
faithful, and being absolutely faithful to the Word, and being kind,
considerate and loving to the people, Lord, may he be blessed, and may
all those that come under his influence be blessed, that he might have a
real yield, O Lord, in this place. And may that be the same with every
pastor. So many of them come out, Lord, not neglecting their own post of
duty, but anxious to have fellowship, and to come here and listen to the
Word.

	We feel unworthy, Lord, to be chosen to deliver that Word, but we’re
counting on You that You will give the revelation, that You will give
the understanding, and therefore it will not be of man…even as Paul
said (1 Cor 3:6-8), “One man sows, one man waters, but God gives the
increase. So, therefore, all things are of God.” And, Lord, may the
people benefit, we pray, that thereby all together we may rejoice in
Thee and grow up into Jesus Christ.

	So now, Lord, we commend ourselves unto You, the Word of Your Grace,
the Revealed Word which You have given to us, and may It be spoken true
to the revelation, and may It be spoken in the true Spirit of Jesus
Christ. This is what we so want, more than anything else, and we’ll
give You the praise and glory in Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

1.	You may be seated. So happy to be here again with you, and to study
the Word of the Lord. I’ve brought a couple of messages and, of
course, we had the first one on “The Union of Christ and the Bride,”
based upon Bro. Branham’s message, “Invisible Union of the Bride,”
and then last night on the message, “The Anointed Ones of the End
Time.”

	And I trust it was a blessing to you, because when Bro. Branham taught
“The Anointed Ones of the End Time” he showed that Matthew 7:15-18
dealt with the evidence of the Word being in the lives of both the true
prophet and the true believer. Then he showed that the ‘wolf in
sheep’s clothing, and that ‘corrupt tree’ was the one who had the
corrupted Word and was giving it to the people. They were, thereby,
discipling people away from God and unto themselves.

2.	And I felt that in going into the subject as fully as I could, that
it was beneficial to understand how it was that even though Bro. Branham
had spoken on difference occasions that Matthew 7 related to fruit, he
changed it under Divine inspiration, just before he passed on, showing
that it was not fruitage or character, but it was identifying with faith
in the Word. And, of course, this is commensurate and certainly proper
according to his teaching.

	He said, “Analyze it as much as you want, there could not possibly be
salvation apart from faith.” And faith is a revelation. It’s not
what we think God said in His word, it’s not what we believe God said
in His Word, but it is a revelation of what He did say in His Word—not
a Scripture that you and I and different ones attempt our best to
interpret, and fifty people with fifty interpretations, but what did God
really mean? Isaiah (35:8) said, “Wayfaring men, though fools, need
not err therein.” And this is simply understood, if you will take the
authority of the man that God vindicated, you could be seven-kinds of a
fool yourself, but you would not make one error, because you’re not
depending on yourself, but you’re depending on the vindicated Word.
Amen.

3.	So we thank God the whole Word is just one beautiful Book. And as
Bro. Branham told us, “If you ever get this Message, all you’ll ever
see in the Bible is this Message.” And, you know, that’s fine. And
that’s the way it ought to be if we are married to the Word. It’s
like marriage in the natural. If you are married to a wonderful wife,
that’s all you will ever see.

	Maybe some of you need the experience. I had. I was telling my son the
other night—and I’ve told this, I guess, to different ones—but you
know, sometimes when you’re newly married, you’re kind of shaky
about it, just really wondering if this is the way it ought to be. And,
you know, I was—I’ve got to be frank—and my wife knows that. I
loved her and I wanted to marry her, and we married…and I was sure
hoping that this was exactly right…I’d done the right thing, and she
had done the right thing. And although I felt that I really had, I was
kind of worried about it, you know, and wondering.

	And one night I had a dream, and in the dream I was married to somebody
else; and she was married to someone else. I want to tell you, I was
sick. If you ever felt like a guy who had gone through a nightmare, I
did. Well, I suddenly woke up and I knew it was a dream, and you talk
about a happy guy! I never did doubt from that time on.

4.	And, you know, that’s the way it is: if you love this Message, and
you see this Message for what It really is. You are married to It.
That’s all you’re going to see. Bro. Branham said, “You might be
drawn off to look at somebody when you’re young, and you make a
mistake by marrying what you think is some sweet little queen, and
she’s nothing more nor less than…well, she’s fine in the realm
that you married her—which wasn’t the Perfect Will of God—and that
is all you’ve got.” And that’s just too bad. But we’re married
to Christ the Word, and we’re not about to be philandering with the
creeds and the dogmas of this world that are based upon some carnal
interpretation.

	You can’t find the spiritual by attempting to interpret through the
carnal. It’s got to come by the spiritual. And there’s got to be
some kind of proof that it is the Spirit that is interpreting, and we
had that by a vindicated prophet. I know that many people think we harp
about it, but you tell me something better to harp about. When our lives
are depending on faith in this revealed Word of God—and we’re going
to get there—what greater assurance than to know that God has sent us
vindication to prove we’re on the right trail?

	You know, that’s worth talking about! I know they say, “You are
following a man.” Well, that’s all right, so I am following a
man—the Man Christ Jesus! Absolutely! And I know I’m following Him
because I’m going the way that He told us to go in order to be sure
that we follow Him. Certainly they’re all going to bring up all their
little clichés, but you show me a man who had THUS SAITH THE LORD and
It came to pass. I’m glad we have That, I’m not about to stir from
It. I just simply have no other thoughts but that one blessed thought,
that I’ve lived to see what God has vindicated. What people guess at,
what people hope for, we have seen with our eyes, we have handled with
our hands—we know It. My, you just can’t go beyond that! I tell you,
if that doesn’t inspire your faith, I just don’t know what will!

5.	Now we’re going to bring a little message, and it has to do with
the ‘faith’ of Abraham. I have preached on the faith of Abraham
different times, and brought out many facets, but this time I want to
bring out a different facet again, and this time we’re going to relate
it to the Message.  I’m hoping this message will give you an insight
into the faith wherein you stand in this hour, so we want to stick with
the Word the way It was brought to us in a vindicated manner.

	Romans: 4:13-22:

(13)	For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not
to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the
righteousness of faith. 

(14)	For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and
the promise made of none effect: 

(15)	Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no
transgression. 

(16)	Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the
promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the
law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the
father of us all, 

(17)	(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,)
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and
calleth those things which be not as though they were. 

(18)	Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed
be. 

(19)	And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now
dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sara's womb: 

(20)	He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was
strong in faith, giving glory to God; 

(21)	And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able
also to perform. 

(22)	And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

6.	The Apostle Paul records two narratives wherein he describes the
outworking of the faith of Abraham. And he gives those accounts in
Romans 4, which I have read, and also in the 11th chapter of Hebrews.
Now as you read them you’ll find that both these accounts vastly
differ, because one deals in receiving a specific promise (as outlined
in Romans 4), while the other account, in Hebrews 11, deals with his
life of faith while he is a stranger on earth and is journeying toward
the Kingdom of God of which he is actually a citizen, though delayed for
a time in taking over his true citizenship.

	Now, at this time we will deal with Abraham receiving a specific
promise from God. We notice, first of all, that a specific promise was
made to Abraham in verse 13: “For the promise, that he should be the
heir of the world…” Abraham has been promised that he will be heir
of the world, or actually he will be the inheritor of the earth. He will
be the inheritor…he will inherit the earth.

	Verse 17 describes how Abraham will inherit the earth. It says, “As
it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations…” God
promises here that he will inherit the earth by multiplying Abraham’s
own self, or his generations of progeny. They will inherit the earth.
And He even tells you how it will be done; it will be done through the
resurrection. Abraham will inherit the earth, and the inheritance will
come by multiplied conception brought back in a resurrection. Now
that’s what the Bible says.

7.	Now,  the original heir to the earth was Adam. That is correct. Over
here in Genesis 1:26, 28:

(26)	And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Heir to all of what God
made. Now notice in verse 28:)

(28)    	And God blessed them, and God said, Be fruitful, and multiply,
(Notice, the heirship was through the multiplied seed of Adam.) and
replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing …
(And so on.)

	This was the original promise of God, and it was given to Adam. Now, of
course, we know he forfeited it. And Adam lost his inheritance in
Genesis 3:17-19.

	Now notice, before we read that, however: Genesis 1:27. In there we see
the qualification of heirship, or inheritance. Notice what God said in
verse 26: “Let us make man in our image.” And when he was to be made
in the image he would be made heir over it all. Now, notice, to fulfill
verse 28, it says in verse 27: “So God created man in His Own image,
in the image of God created He him.”

	So there cannot possibly be anybody who inherits the earth outside of
those in the image of God! He must be in the image of God.

8.	But Adam lost that image, he lost the inheritance, as is found in
Genesis 3:17-19:

(17)	And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

(18)	Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field;

(19)	In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return.

	Note: The earth was going to take over Adam instead of Adam taking over
the earth. He lost his heirship to it.

9.	Now, in Genesis 12:1-3, we have the promise of heirship restored:

(1)	Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will
shew thee:

(2)	And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

(3)	And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.

	What was the original blessing? In the image of God inheriting the
earth! Now He said, “I’m going to do this for you as I did it to
Adam, who forfeited it.” Notice, as I said, the last part of verse 3:
“…In you shall all families of the earth be blessed.” You show me
that today. You cannot do it! That’s yet to come, when we are made
inheritors of the earth. See? And the inheritance is the multiplied
seed…many men in the earth..

10.	Now, notice in Genesis17:1-7 we find the promise repeated and
explained:

(1)	And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to
Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be
thou perfect.

(2)	And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply
thee exceedingly.

(3)	And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

(4)	As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a
father of many nations.

	Notice, the covenant was with Adam! See? But God had to put Adam under
another covenant. See? Now the covenant to Abraham:

(5)	Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall
be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

(6)	And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of
thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

(7)	And I will establish my covenant between me and you…

	It was not established with Adam. No, sir. It was circumstantial as
long as he abode in it; but this is a guaranteed covenant! Yes, sir!
Don’t make any mistake here, there’s a big difference.

	Now, 

(7)	…I will establish it between me and you.” God says, “I’m
going to do it between Me and you… (See?)

	Now: 

(7)	…And your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting
covenant…

	Notice: “An everlasting.” With Adam it wasn’t everlasting. He
said, “You eat of that tree and you die.” But where do you find that
here? See? You don’t find it.

(7)	…To be God unto you, and to your seed after you.

11.	Now notice in Genesis 17:15-19, the implementation of the promise is
described:

(15)	And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, you shall not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

(16)	And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yes, I will
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall
be of her.

	Notice: Eve is the mother of all living, but this one is the mother of
all the resurrected. Eve was the mother of the living that died; this is
the mother of all that cannot die. New Jerusalem’s our
mother—here’s your Sarah type. Old Hagar over here is a different
thing.

(17)	Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his
heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and
shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

(18)	And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before you!

(19)	And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; (Don’t
make any mistake about it. You see? “I’m backing My covenant up..”
See?) and thou shalt call his name Isaac (Which means ‘laughter’.)

12.	You know, it’s going to be nice to have laughter. Down here in
American, we’re the laughing, hew-haw nation. Brother Branham said,
“We ‘ha-ha’ and laugh about everything because we know there’s
an atomic bomb with our name on it, and we are whistling in the
graveyard in the dark.” Everybody’s laughing.

	Now you look at my life. If you want o know all about me, the truth is
this: I’m always kidding people, and I knife you, and I gig you for
one reason—I will not let you get next to me, won’t do it. My joking
is entirely superficial. So is America.

	But there’s a real laughter coming. Yes, sir. When you can sit down
and there’ll be no burdens to bear, there’ll be no sorrows to share,
there’ll be no more problems, there’ll be no more curse—we’ll be
down here in the Millennium inheriting the earth, according to God’s
established promise, which He established Himself. There’ll be
laughter, yes, sir. He was the Man of sorrows, acquainted with
grief…but not anymore in that day that is coming.

	Now, He said, “His name shall be called Isaac.”

(19)	…And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant, and with his seed after him.

13.	Now, in Galatians 3:16 we find this is all a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I could type Abraham here and all, but I don’t want to do
it.

(16)	Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not,
And to seeds, as of many; but as to one, And to your seed, which is
Christ.

	See? The multiplied seed must be the One Seed, which is the membership
of the Body of Christ, see? the identification being One.

	Now, it’s a type of Christ, because no man born of Adam could ever
restore the Kingdom to man. No man born in the image of man could ever
bring about that Kingdom. It would take One born in the image of God.
Remember: Adam was in the image of God, and lost it. So it will take
another one, to be born in the image of God, and the Bible (Heb1:3) said
he was the ‘express image’ of God, and if he was the ‘express
image’ of God, he was God born in human flesh! See? And He is the one
who will bring it to us. And this, of course, is Genesis 3:15, the Seed
of the woman, because the woman doesn’t have a seed, she is given a
Seed by Divine creation of Almighty God.

14.	This preface that I’ve brought to you up to this point is just
simply an explanation of the specific promise. See? Now we must find out
how it is to be fulfilled. It is a spiritual thing, really, and yet
there is a distinct physical side—or a human requirement side—in
order to receive the promise. That is right. It is a promise of God; it
is spiritual. It’s wonderful what God has shown us. But there’s a
physical side to it that we look at when we see how Abraham did come
into the promise, which was centered in Isaac, the son, who types the
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we, being identified (the many members),
shall inherit the Kingdom.

	Now I want to tell you something right here—and I hope it doesn’t
stumble you. I understand, by studying the Hebrew and the Chaldea, that
the Seed of the woman, though Paul says It is singular, is not singular
in the Hebrew—It is plural!—thus showing you that Christ is many
members and not just one. Because one day the Seed, plural, which all
had to be in the Seed singular, Who is the One Who restores the whole
Kingdom…we, together, shall trample on Satan in the White Throne
Judgment (Hallelujah!)…and shall rule and reign on this earth!

	Oh, I love the Bible! If people would only study it they would see the
multi-facets of the glory of Almighty God in His perfect Word. And they
would not be seeing three Gods, they’d see one God! Who is not a
Father, and a Son, and a Holy Ghost—but He is One Spirit God with
three manifestations. They just don’t get into the fruit of it—but
they can if they want to.

15.	Now this physical side, brought into manifestation, is what we’re
going to deal with. God has actually promised Abraham a son by Sarah.
Abraham wants the son, but it is physically impossible to beget him.
Only God, therefore, can do it. And God does it…yet God does it on
condition.

	Now that sounds strange, from what I said awhile ago, but it is still
true—still runs in the Scripture. No matter how sovereign God is,
there is always the part that man has in it. God’s sovereignty opens
(not shuts) a way for man to participate in the plan. (We are not in the
grips of anti-nominalism as though God did something, and yet nobody
knows if he can be truly born-again but he’s got to wait to find out.)
There is a means that God has laid down: and the proof that we are Seed
is that we’ll go by the means!

	It’s just like some years ago I was in Bro. Don Van Hoosier’s
church, and Don was telling me of a girl who was going to a Bible school
where he was. And they laughed at her because she believed in election
and predestination.

	And they said, “Well, what’s the use, then, of going to the mission
field, like you say?”

	She said, “Because there are Sheep. Then why go looking where they
aren’t?” 

	See? God predestinating. Many people don’t understand it, but it’s
true.

16.	Now watch this condition: in Romans 4:16 we read:

(16)	Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; (Remember:
grace nd election always go together. See? Never fails. No, it just
can’t fail; that’s the way it is.) to the end the promise might be
sure to all the (What?) seed; (Not to anybody else. But there is still a
means, as I said awhile ago. Now:) not to that only which is of the law,
but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of
us all.

	You see now, we are caught right up into this faith according to what
was said here. Now if we can see how Abraham received into physical
manifestation this tremendous promise of God, we can apply what we learn
to ourselves; because this has to do with inheriting the Kingdom of God.
Now that’s it.

17.	To begin with, I want us to read a very simple Scripture that I feel
is terribly misunderstood—or, I might say, under-revealed. They just
haven’t taken time to get the revelation of Romans 4:3. Let’s look
at it:

(3)	For what saith the scripture? (Now that is what counts: What does
the Bible say? What did God say?) Abraham believed God, and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. (The actual translation is
“Abraham believed Jehovah, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness.”)

	It is this verse that the unobserving unknowingly use to annul the
meaning of Romans 4:17, but they don’t know they’re doing it! Now
I’ll try to get you to understand what I’m talking about. They
appear to be the same, they sound like they’re saying the same thing,
and in connotation they are the same—yet, because people memorize
verse 3, instead of going into verse 17, they obscure to themselves the
truth that lies in verse 17 that seems to say, and really does, the same
things in verse 3.

18.	Now let’s examine verse 3: “Abraham believed Jehovah…” He
did not believe God…he did not believe Elohim. Elohim is ‘the Strong
One Bound by an Oath’.

	You say, “They’re the same Person!”

	Yes, They are, but here’s the difference: there’s a revelation in
here. Jehovah has at least eight compound titles that identify God with
man. He’s the Lord our Sanctifier, Provider, Shepherd, Peace,
Redeemer, and so on. So it is not just believing in a Sovereign God, a
Sovereign Being; it’s also believing in a God about Whom we have a
revelation. Now that’s the point. This verse is dealing not just with
God, ‘the Strong One Bound by an Oath’. What does that mean? Bound
by what oath? What’s He going to do?

	The Word ‘Jehovah’ reveals God’s relationship to man. See? Now,
we not only know there is a God, and not only do we ourselves know God,
but also we know Him in a certain way. See? Jehovah is His Name, and it
is a revelation of Him in a certain way. Do you follow me? Not just God
now, but Jehovah-Healer (See?), Redeemer, our Peace, our Shepherd
(See?), our Righteousness—there’s something there that the other
does not bring you…because the other is not the personal revelation;
it stands back and says, “See My Majesty! Don’t you dare
approach!” But the other says, “Come here.”

	But You said, “Don’t come here!”

	He said, “You don’t understand. I’ve got a ‘don’t come
here’, and I have a ‘do come here’; now I’m going to show you My
‘do come here’.” (See? That’s necessary. You follow the
picture?)

19.	Now, with this in mind, let’s go to verse 17 and you will see why
I say that people miss this because they don’t really see the
Scriptures to put them together. Now watch: [Ro 4]

(17)	As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,
(Abraham believed God. See?) before him whom he believed, even God, (Now
watch:) who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as
though they were. 

	Now, over here where it says, “Jehovah,” it tells you something
about God. And in here it does the same thing. It’s not just believing
God. That’s not it. It’s believing God in a certain way, because
something about Him has been revealed so you have got to approach Him in
that manner.

	They tell me that Mr. Johnson [President Lyndon?] went to see the pope,
and he committed seven major blunders in his presence. So the pope said,
“Forget it. You’re not going to get the Catholic vote.”

	Now this is the same thing we’re talking about here…the people
approaching God. But if you want to come the way of an ‘inheritor’,
there’s a certain way you’ve got to approach Him or you won’t make
it!

	Now King Ahasuerus had to hold the scepter to Esther (Esther 4:11). In
other words, he signified, “It’s all right, come this way.” See?
Now it was a revelation, the pointing of the scepter. She said, “I can
go and see him, it’s all right.” (Es 5:2)

20.	Now that’s what this verse tells us. See? It says, “Inheritor,
understand this about Me, and come through this door of revelation…”
And the door of revelation is: that it’s not Elohim, ‘The Strong One
Bound by an Oath’; neither is it Jehovah-jireh, with the eight
compound titles, although it’s all involved; it is (Romans 4:17):

(17)	…God…who raises the dead, and calls those things which be not
as though they were.

	Do you follow me? I hope you’re getting it. If you’re not getting
it, you’re not reading your Bible. All I am doing is just reading the
Scripture the same as you..

	So notice, this time it is not simply Jehovah, but there is a
revelation about God that is being missed, because people don’t even
notice it because of Romans 4:3. All they do is say, “Abraham believed
God, and it was counted to him for righteousness—Hallelujah!”

	That’s not so! And yet it IS so! Now how are we going to get it?
It’s by understanding what we’re talking about here. See?

	Now, notice, here it is: “God Who raises the dead.” See? That’s
something about God…telling you something here. “Raises the dead,
and calls things which be not as though they were.” And if we don’t
understand that, we cannot walk in Abraham’s faith, because that’s
where Abraham walked—in the understanding of the revelation! Do you
see it?

21.	Now, in Jehovah-jirah, He provides, and in the Good Shepherd, He
takes care of us, as Shalom, He is our Peace; but now notice here in
verse 17, the very special designation when it comes to the faith of
Abraham, and it says to those who walk in the steps of faithful Abraham,
“He raises the dead; He calls those things which are not as though
they were…” And they are the Seed Who will inherit the Kingdom—and
nobody else. Oh, all men will have faith, a certain kind, but the Elect
have this certain kind. See?

	Now, it is very evident that Abraham had to know that kind of a God in
order to exercise his faith to the end that the promise would be—what?
“Be sure!” Then there cannot be a ‘sure’ faith outside of this
faith! Now that is right.

	Too many times people come up…like the other day in a restaurant a
man came by and he said, “We heard you talking about the Lord.” And
it’s wonderful in a place where they are not smoking and drinking and
carrying on to talk about the Lord. Found out that he’s a certain kind
of Christian. Now I am not judging anybody, but my Bible does the
judging, and It says there is a certain kind of faith, and that only,
that’s going to inherit. You’ve got to talk in it.

22.	Now the question arises: What kind of a God is It Who “raises the
dead”? What is It? What does it mean? Where is the Scripture that
explains it? The Scripture that tells you about it is 2 Corinthians
1:8-11. Now watch:

(8)	For we would not, brethren, have you ignornant of our trouble which
came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that we despaired even of life:

(9)	But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead: (See?)

(10)	Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom
we trust that he will yet deliver…

	It tells you right here the kind of faith Abraham had was the identical
faith that Paul had. See? He describes it perfectly. What is it? It is
“God Who raises the dead.” In other words, this great faith of
Abraham is that which believes God to the very, very, limit. We see a
God acting on the faith of a man who is positively dead, as far as human
ability to get the promise is concerned.

	Now, you see, here was Paul in his condition, Abraham in his condition.
Now Paul had been, evidently, tortured. He was facing absolute death.
There was no recourse but death. And, in fact, they left him for dead!
But he said that’s the kind of faith that inheritors had. There’s no
limit. God puts us right to the very wall, just like Abraham, see? where
there was nothing but death. Now Abraham was dead, seminally speaking,
his body absolutely could not function.

23.	Let’s prove it. Romans 4:18-20, and I’m going to read it the
literal way:

(18)	Who, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith…

	Now the word ‘hope’ in the Greek is rendered ‘earnest
expectation’. In other words, when there was no use expecting any
more. He was dead, seminally speaking; she was also dead, she couldn’t
ovulate. They couldn’t even go into the sex act of procreation. It as
impossible, absolutely impossible to have a child. It couldn’t be
done. There was no use expecting any longer. There was nothing to
expect, but it says that “by faith he kept on expecting.” See?

(18)	Who, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, that he might become
the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall
thy seed be.

(19)	And being not weak in faith, (Listen:) he considered not his own
body now dead when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sara's womb: (She was about ten years younger.)

(20)	 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief… (Which
means he did not stagger at the conditions, he did not think them to be
unusual.) 

	Now if you look at the Bible here carefully it says, “He considered
not his own body now dead.” That word means ‘to thoroughly perceive,
look into it, check it all out, think about it’. He never took that
step. He simply stayed with the Word of God; and in staying with that
Word, no matter how dead he was, and no matter how dead she was, he
expected God to do what God had said.

24.	And this is what man does not like. He does not like nor want to be
pressed out of measure. He always wants a few resources in his hand to
work on. And even Abraham at times made a mistake or two. Now don’t
get fussed up because you don’t use your faith perfectly all the time.

	For example, look at Abraham’s (Gen 17:18): “Oh, that Ishmael might
live!” What a terrible thing. Ishmael should have been dead. Look at
the trouble he’s still causing. Never should have been born. See? But
people always want to have a few resources left. They don’t like to be
pressed out of measure. See? They don’t want to have a God Who’ll
back them against the wall. See? They don’t want to be left, as it
were, with nothing but the promise of God. Man does not want a complete
abandonment of all the principles that could bring such a promise to
pass, and be left all alone with just the promise. Did you get it? He
doesn’t want to have all the principles, that could bring it to pass,
abandon him. See? No, he didn’t.

	Abraham, as long as he was principally alive, took another young woman,
who was also alive, but he brought forth a terrible creature. See? He
didn’t want to, although the Record gives him a beautiful
picture—which God will never hold a thing against us—See?—but even
Abraham didn’t want to lay down, for awhile, every single principle.

25.	Did you hear what I said? Just hold that in mind, because something
struck me…(Hebrews 6:1): “Therefore leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ.” How the churches hate to do that for this end
time Message! How the people hate to abandon principles which would
bring into execution something in God’s Word! I hope you’re getting
it! No wonder the children of the desolate are a thousand million times
more than the children of Her which has a Husband! (Is 54:1, Gal 4:27)

	Now, they don’t want to abandon every principle that could bring this
promise in, and stand on the promise alone. They don’t want it.
Natural man doesn’t want it. Even a spiritual man has a battle.

26.	Now listen and watch carefully. This promised son could not come
except by Sarah. Right? But don’t stop there. Everybody else but us
stops there. That’s right, I’m not lying—nobody but us. And we’d
stop there too, except for William Branham. The promised son could not
come except by Sarah, and could not come until after the season of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and God was revealed in human flesh, through a messenger.
That is right. Am I right? That’s absolutely correct. People forget
the history of the Bible. Paul said to watch it. And the prophet came on
the scene and told us how it was done.

	But listen: all hope has to be gone! The promise, or the third pull,
cannot come without the squeeze! That’s right. The Church will never
produce that Son—She will never manifest that Son—until the squeeze
comes on down. Oh, how people fight the believing of this truth. See?
But hold on and just relax.

	You talk about a squeeze and troubles, you know, but nobody wants to
relax. Everybody wants to get scared. Scaring won’t help you one
little bit! You might as well face the music, like when somebody calls
your hand. Don’t try to bluff. Do not try to sing and dance out. Just
stand up and be counted. If you did it, you’re going to get it. See?
That’s what the Bible says (1 Cor 16:13): “Quit like men.”

27.	Abraham had a promise. It was a promise that God gave and Abraham
did not ask for it. Now listen! It was a self-fulfilling promise. Right!
You’ve got your part in there, you are getting it now. You’re
getting the teaching—what’s behind it. It was a self-fulfilling
promise. He, Abraham, just had to wait until no one but God could do the
miracle of bringing that Word of promise to life and manifestation. That
was his whole battle right there. He didn’t have to go and fight
devils, and kings and everything else. He just had to fight himself and
his personal condition, bringing every thought into captivity (2 Cor
1:5) to the Divine revelation of Almighty God that “you, by Sarah,
shall have that son.”

	There was nothing Abraham could do to implement that, except to get rid
of everything that could have naturally implemented it…and stand fast
on the self-fulfilling promise of the Word of Almighty God. See? At the
right time, when the right conditions came, then the promise of its own
accord would come in the vessel. For God said, “It’s not the right
time. At this season shall she have a son—not the present season, not
the old season—but a certain season.” See?

28.	Now, it came of its own accord in vessels that were old and dry, and
completely unable to manifest anything but defeat.

	“Well, Abraham, let’s just see if we couldn’t produce the son.”

	“It’s not even possible, I can’t even do the act. No use.”

	“What have you got, Abraham?”

	“Got a promise.”

	They lacked every ability—yes, they lacked every ability—and they
lacked all proof of being those to whom the promised Word was given!

	“You old fool you, you think you can have a son?” They laughed.
“Stupid old woman.”

	But the Word, in season (not out of season), had every potential in It
to bring forth the harvest. (Just go back and read Psalm 1:3: “Fruit
in due season.”) The Word, the former rain, has been sown. Malachi
4:5-6 will plant the seed of the entire Bible, from the serpent’s seed
to the prophet in the former rain, and thereby fulfill Revelation
10:1-7. The Spirit of God is already upon that Word!

	Now some folks say the Token isn’t given; the Holy Ghost hasn’t
come. I’ve got news for you: the prophet said otherwise, so I don’t
listen to you. Put that on a tape and send it out—I’ve heard their
tapes.

29.	Listen carefully. We wait only for the drying season. And Bro.
Branham called Abraham ‘a dry stick’.

	“Abraham, are you fully dried out yet? Forget about having children,
just start playing checkers.”

	I’m not teasing now. That’s what those are doing, who do not
believe this Message, or who think they believe it and want to bring in
some false doctrine. Yet, because of some personality, some
charisma…that charisma nonsense! When Judas can heal the sick, I’m
not interested.

	Not being sarcastic. I preach this way on purpose, as you well know,
but it gets the point across. I’ve taught school too long not to know
that unless you make them laugh, or you hit them with a club and make
them scared, that they will not get the point. I’m just teaching,
don’t worry. Get me out of your mind. Just listen to what is being
said. See?

	We wait only for the drying season. As the prophet said, “Lie in the
Son and dry out.” Get shook down real good, to see if you are
Abraham’s Seed! to see if you can lay aside every principle, of your
Sunday school, and your gifts, and this and that and the other thing,
and stand there with the Word of God while the squeeze comes down. Or do
you want a hundred other things to fall back on, outside the Word of
God? See? This means death, brother/sister. There’s death in the pot
(2 Kg 4:40) if you’ve got your creeds and dogmas. But there’s still
Life in you if you’ve got the Word. It was the ‘Life of the
promise’ that brought that child! And if you’ve got the ‘Life of
the promise’, you don’t need to worry about yourself! See? We wait
only for the drying season and the squeeze to knock off all the chaff.
And then the Son…S-O-N…will be manifested to show those folk out
there that “You’re the One I love,” because they still don’t
believe it. Sure! He said, “And I call You Bride.”

30.	Have we risen to the occasion? Have we put our faith in the
vindicated prophet? Are we Bride, Abraham’s Sarah? You are the
progenitors of the inheritors. You don’t look like it! Certainly not.
You look pretty messy, but you have got that promise from the Word.

	“Oh,” say some people, “show me the Bride. What about it, George,
if some of you fell for it?”

	“Show me that Bride,” they say, “Show me where She is.”

	When you see Her you won’t believe it. Sure it’s true! The Bible
said they didn’t recognize Him, and He was God! They won’t recognize
You, either.

	Are you anti-Christ today? Are you anti-God today? Or do you believe
the Bible? Can you believe what Christ said, or some mealy-mouthed
preacher? Don’t listen to me, listen to this Word here! Hear what the
prophet… I’m not here to preach myself, or to vindicate myself. I
don’t have any vindication, and neither do you.

	They say, “Show me the Bride.”

	You can’t do it. No, sir. Not according to God’s Own revelation
here in verse 17, because He “calls those things which are not as
though they were!” You show me your Bride. You can’t do it. You
prove you’re Bride! You cannot do it! There’s no Marriage Supper
going on. There is no Millennium here. Certainly not. No, sir.

31.	Go look at Abraham, go look at Sarah. Is he Abraham? He is not
Abraham! He’s only called Abraham. Certainly. What about Sarah? Is she
“Princess”? Ha! When “God manifest in the flesh” came that day
(Gen 18:1-8), she and Abraham ran and killed a calf and dressed it and
fed Him. Ha! Sure. They were acting and looking like servants—not like
land owners. They didn’t look like anything!

	Can you see something that would make you believe that this is Abraham
and this is Sarah? No, sir, you cannot see it!—except in the
spiritual. But there they are, the vessels that received the promised
Message. So God called them what they were not, as yet—but they would
be.

32.	Just look at Abraham sitting at that gate. A man comes on through
the gate. Now then, usually it’s at the gate, the great man sits
there. And he was a great man; he was the lord and master. And a
stranger comes by, but he can speak the Hebrew language.

	And he said, “Oh, kind sir, could I talk with you? because I believe
you’re the mayor.”

	“I am the patriarch.”

	He said, “I want to be your friend. What is your name, sir?”

	“My name is Abraham.”

	The man’s face lit up. He said, “Abraham—what a beautiful name.
(Father of nations, father of multitudes.) Oh, what great seed you must
have. Where are your lovely children?”

	“I don’t have any.”

	He said, “Sir, it’s not uncommon to change a man’s name. Why
don’t you change it?”

	“I did change it.”

	“Well…well, what was it before you changed it?”

	“Well, I’ll tell you a secret. I didn’t change it—God did.”

	The man said, “Oh, God did! Ahhh…such wisdom, such beauty…”
Said, “God did…well, what was your name before He changed it?”

	“My name was Abram.”

	And his face fell. He said, “He changed your name from ‘high
father’ to ‘a father of nations’, and you’re not a father of
anything?” Then he said, “It was nice to meet you—but I don’t
think I’ll stay here and visit with you any longer.”

	But that’s God! When He changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and called
him what he was not, he had to be that because God said It and Abraham
believed It! And that’s all that he did—and everything else he did
failed! Everything he tried, every manifestation he tried to prove, did
not work.

33.	Now let’s go to Romans 4:20 and look at these verses:

(20)	He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was
strong in faith, giving glory to God..

	He staggered not, first of all, at himself. He said, “If God says
I’m Abraham, then I’m Abraham; and if I die I am still Abraham.
He’ll have to raise me up and start me all over again and we’ll have
that son anyway.” And he didn’t stagger at Sarah. He said, “Well,
it looked like it always was too late for her, because she couldn’t
bear anyway—but it’s all right.” He said, “God can kill her.
She’ll die and He’ll raise her up too—and we’ll start all over
again.”

	And he didn’t stagger at God. He didn’t say, “Oh, it’s not
being done, so therefore He lied. If it’s going to be done, it should
have been done by now; what’s the matter with Him?” Instead he said,
“Okay, Lord, if You say that’s the way it is, that’s the way it
is—I’ll just wait, because that’s the way it is going to be.”
See?

34.	Now listen! He waited through all the stress and squeeze (Up to this
date we’ve just got stress, no squeeze—1972), as he held on to the
promise in verse 21:

(21)	And being fully persuaded…

	Oh, people don’t like that, do they? Listen, brother/sister, don’t
you know up there in verse 13 he believed God? That’s all he did was
believe God. But in verse 21, a twenty year period later, he was
“fully persuaded.” And when was that full persuasion? When God came
down in human flesh—veiled, as a human being.

	Now our full persuasion comes in this day, also after 2000 years—not
20 years, but 20 centuries! A prophet of God stands on the scene—and
in full persuasion by vindication we know that we know that we know that
here is where our faith lies, in what was said by vindication in THUS
SAITH THE LORD!

	Watch in Romans 4:2-3:

(2)	For if Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory; but
not before God.

(3)	For what says the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it (believing
the promise) was counted unto him for righteousness.

	What was it that was given him for his righteousness? It was not the
Blood, or the Spirit—only; it was the Word of promise that he
believed!

35.	There’s your Token, brother/sister; there’s your faith;
there’s your Spirit. It’s all right there. There’s your Token, and
Bro. Branham said, “It could not be applied until the evening time.”
And neither could ours, because, bless God, you could not have this
faith, this full assurance…wherein your mind would no longer stagger
in unbelief. That is it. How can your mind stagger in unbelief when you
have a vindicated Message? How can you not have full persuasion?

	You say, “Brother, have you got it?”

	To the best of my knowledge I have.

	You say, “How do you know it?”

	Because one day the disciples went to Jesus when the squeeze was on,
and all others had left (Jn 6:63-69). And He said, “Will you leave Me
also?”

	And they said, “No, no, we have no place else to go.”

	“Well, you could go back.”

	They said, “No, we’re not going back.”

	“Well, you could look for somebody else.”

	“No, we’re not going to do that either. No, we are fully persuaded
that You have the Words of Eternal Life. We’re not moving.”

	Could I have said that a few years ago? No! Could you have said it a
few years ago? Well, you could as a creed and as a dogma—go right
ahead and be my guest—I won’t join you.

36.	No, stay with the vindicated Word—“fully persuaded.” After
twenty centuries (one year typing a hundred), we have now reached the
place of full persuasion. Why? Because Revelation 10:7 is the full
revelation of the Gospel as declared by the prophets, the servants of
Almighty God. There you are, ready for the Word to be manifested, ready
for the Rapture—“Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

	It’s time for us to inherit the earth, because that’s what this
promise is all about. The Book of Redemption has been opened, because
(Lk 21:28) “Your redemption draws near.” And redemption means
inheritance; for that which was forfeited in inheritance by Adam, has
now been completely redeemed. And the Book of Redemption…

	What was that? Where did Adam get unredeemed? He got unredeemed through
hybridized, perverted Word—the same place where the ‘Eve-church’
fell.

37.	The open Book from the hand of Him that sat upon the throne now
comes down to earth. The Messenger raises His hand toward heaven and
swears by Himself (And only God can swear by Himself) that election has
run out, because God swore by Himself to Abraham when He started it. And
now He swears by Himself again that He has ended it. And He said in
Ezekiel (12:25; 24:14), “What I said shall come to pass.” And the
Book of Inheritance, Redemption is now in His hand. And the full
revelation has come. And God’s Word has to come to pass—all of It.

	Now who’s to stagger, you who look for somebody else? You may look if
you choose to, that’s your privilege—I can’t stop you. But I’m
not looking for anything other than what our Bro. Branham said: “The
Bride has all She needs to put Her in the Rapture.” We are here to
inherit the earth. See?

38.	Now see this, beloved ones, in Romans 4:12:

(12)	And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the
circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our
father Abraham.

	Now, Abraham must be our father if we’re going to inherit. And if
we’re going to inherit, we must walk in his steps of faith. And
you’ve got to see this about God at the closing days of the hours,
that He is a God Who raises the dead..

	You show me a man, outside of William Branham, who said, “Bring me
twenty-four of your worst cases. I guarantee healing.” They never took
him up on it; but in Texas they did! He said, “Bring me your worst
case in the world, I guarantee it!” They brought a little girl, they
tell me, a little Mexican girl, looked like a dish of cold, cooked
spaghetti. They put her on his knees. He said, “Start singing
‘Glory!’” In a couple of hours she ran down that floor perfectly
whole. Show me a man who had THUS SAITH THE LORD! Show me a man who
raised so many dead.

39.	Oh, some men, sort of accident-wise, have raised the dead. Oh, yes,
it’s been done. But show me a man who had a vision years before, like
the boy in Finland, and It said, “Write it on your Bible, and if it
doesn’t come to pass, then I’m a false prophet.” He challenged
them—Deuteronomy 18—and he showed them that he was Deuteronomy 18
fulfilling Deuteronomy 4, and Acts 3:19-22, bringing Matthew 17:11 and
Malachi 4:5-6. See? Raising the dead.

	“Show me the circumstance,” he said, “I challenge you, bring your
Bibles and stand beside me, or get off of my back.” Show me a man that
had the authority. See? God raising the dead. Show me a man that could
stand up to anything.

	A demoniac, coming up to him to destroy him, said, “You snake in the
grass, I’ll pulverize you.”

	And he stood back with the Love of Christ and said, “Satan, because
you’ve challenged a servant of the most High God, you will fall across
my feet.” And like a weaving serpent he fell across his feet until
they dragged him off.

	“God who raises the dead.” Proved that Jesus was the Jehovah of the
Old Testament. Brought back the full revelation of the Word of God—not
another gospel, the same Gospel with the same Eternal Life. See?

40.	Do we follow in his steps? To follow in his steps is to believe what
he preached. Those who follow his steps are found in Romans 4:11:

(11)	And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith.

	There can be no righteousness of any faith (cannot possibly be), unless
there is a true revelation of the Word; because “faith is dependent,
exclusively, upon the word of a man apart from any substantiating
evidence”! Read Webster’s Dictionary.

	And there was Abraham, and God said, “You’re going to have a son by
Sarah”; and there was no evidence—there was only a Word. But the
Word of promise was fulfilled in that ‘dry stick’.

41.	Listen now: the seal of circumcision—the Sealer, Who is the Holy
Spirit, will answer back to the faith you have in those taped messages.
You don’t need evidence—just faith.

	You look around, say, “Brother, I’m looking for a sign and a wonder
out of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah!”

	You don’t even know your Bible. Why do you preach It? Go ahead and
send my tape out. I’ll challenge any man living to prove me
wrong—not that I’m Bro. Branham; but I feel good enough to do it
right now, because when I know something, I know it. “The seal of
righteousness of faith,” my brother/sister, was that he believed the
Word of God—proving he had the Holy Ghost! Not signs and wonders;
that’s not the evidence. “Those two spirits are so close,” Bro.
Branham said, “Jannes and Jambres would outdistance Moses at the end
time.” They duplicate everything.

	But I challenge you: stay with the Word. “The seal of righteousness
of faith”—circumcision, the Holy Ghost. There cannot be any evidence
of any Holy Ghost outside of faith in the revealed Word of the hour,
because that’s what the Bible says!

42.	A man came by and said to a friend of mine, “Well, Bro. Branham
never did change the evidence from ‘love’ to the ‘revealed
Word’. He said, “What it was, the people just won’t take It, so he
gave them something they wanted.”

	Wake up around here! Wake up! I know you people. Don’t kid me. I’ve
lived here…I’ve been around Georgia, I’ve been around the country;
I travel to Louisiana, the rest of the states. You’re not talking to
some little kid out in the street. I know what’s going on, Barney,
Gary, Jack—I know what goes on.

	There’s the Word. I’m not challenging anybody for any fun. I’ve
no axe to grind. I’m not trying to get a crowd or anything else. I
don’t want it. I told you today, I’ll tell you again, as I’ve told
you two times: don’t try to come near me or I’ll hit you with a
club. See? I don’t mean it like it sounds…I mean that with
compassion in my heart. I wouldn’t betray you for all the gold in the
world. Come to the Word. Come to the Word!

	What did the prophet say? “When I look at Abraham and Sarah, I see a
couple of dry, old sticks tottering down there on a cane.” He,
Abraham, didn’t have anything to rely upon. There wasn’t anything
that he could have by way of ability, or she… Just like that Bride,
and She may look like She’s beautifully endowed—but God has got to
choose Her. See? He doesn’t choose by looks.

43.	Samuel, one day, tried the same thing. Here’s the prophet of God,
dear, sweet, wonderful man of God (1 Samuel 16).

	God said, “Go down and anoint Jesse’s son.”

	He said, “I’ll do that. Hallelujah! Just glad to get someone in
Saul’s place.” Goes running down there, merry as all get out. He
sees big ol’ Eliab, great big, fine boy—just another Saul kind of
guy. He said, “Oh, my, what a handsome, what a great man.”

	God said, “Hold it, hold it, hold it!” God shook His Head, “Tsk,
tsk, tsk, tsk. Samuel, how could you be so deceived? I’ve been
training you since a baby. I don’t look on the outside. You know that.
Shame on you, Samuel.” (Oh, God treats His Children like that. You
don’t have to slug them every time.) He just went, “Now, you know
better than that.”

	“Well,” he said, “this one…”

	“Hold it. Haven’t you learned yet? Just walk quietly, and I’ll
let you know—keep quiet.”

	Down the line, down the line, down the line—nothing. (He’s learning
now, learning fast.) He said, “Jesse, is there another one?” See,
God spoke. He’s working very carefully now.

	And Jesse said, “Well, we got a little runt down there. Oh, he’s a
nice little kid, but he ain’t (Finger snap!) worth for nothing, you
know. You know, he might be all right to walk the dogs, you know, if he
sort of grows up, but…well, he’s my son, and I love him, but…I
don’t think you want to see him.”

	He said, “That’s the last one?”

	He said, “Yes.”

	“Bring him here.” God said, “That’s the one.” He pours the
oil on him…

	That’s the Bride, brother/sister!

44.	Yes, listen: beloved we are longing to receive the promise of
inheriting the earth. We want to be in Romans 8:18-23:

(18)	For I reckon that the sufferings (Of the stress and the
squeeze—being Abraham and Sarah) are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us. 

(19)	For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
(unveiling) of the sons of God. 

(20)	For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 

(21)	Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

(22)	For we know that the whole creation…

	“Well, I’m a Christian. I’m not going to groan. The squeeze is
over and everything is just nice. I’m going to have great ministries.
See?”

“Whole”? Listen, brother/sister: “…the whole creation
groans…”

	The veiled new creation, and the unveiled old creation, is all
creation—and it’s all groaning. Abraham, groaning, and Sarah
groaning. And Sarah and Abraham, having brought in a wrong child, are
groaning a little louder than they would have needed to groan if
they’d have just stayed with their promise from God.

45.	And so is this Bride. How many of you have wandered a little here,
and a little wander there—and had to come back a little red in the
face? Huh? You got to looking at people. Some of you ladies like that?
Oh, I could name names, but I wouldn’t be rude. I just want to prick
your conscience a bit. I’m trying to help you. Get out of that
nonsense! What’s that got to do with you?

	“Oh, this church over here…brother, they’ve got…they are
bringing them in by the score and there’s great things going on down
there.”

	Go ahead, just go right back to denominations. You weren’t Abraham in
the first place. You never did love Sarah; you got hooked up to Hagar
and thought that was great. You’ve got men right now in this movement
that claim they’ve got Hagar, proving what they are.

	Spiritual thing? No, everything types out. Didn’t Bro. Branham say
everything types out? Didn’t he say there’s not a thing on earth
here but a shadow of something real? Well, come on! Why is all this
nonsense going around about it? It has got to! You don’t find Abraham
there in some little set-down place of an oasis, having lovely servant
girls with palm fronds fanning him. He’s out there fighting
battles—getting victories, keeping that promise—going down slowly to
the grave, if God doesn’t do something. But he keeps the promise.

46.:

(22)	…The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until
now.

(23)	And not only they (Notice now, as I tried to show it to you.) but
we ourselves…which have even the actual firstfruits… (Experience,
which is the baptism with the Holy Ghost, that is guaranteed to take us
out of that ground.)

	And the seal of our circumcision is what? Identifying our faith with
the revealed Word of Almighty God vindicated so! Where is the Bride?
Show me the people that stay with the word—I’ll show you Bride.

	Oh, She won’t look too good—She’ll look about as good as Sarah.
Old tottery grandma! But I’ve got news for you. They believed that
Word until one day…they woke up next morning (And I can just
visualize, and I don’t want to seem like I’ve got a corrupt mind)
and Abraham looked over—and he kind of forgot what she looked like
when she was a young girl—and he jumped out of bed in sheer terror,
because he remembered Hagar. It suddenly dawned and he said,
“Ohhhhhhh! Why, that was my original bride!” He said, “Could it
be?” He pulled on his beard—it was black. Oh, he knew that was not
any dye job, brother/sister.

	I’m looking for the day when my hair turns back. I joke with people,
I say, “When I get a haircut, I put a little shoe polish on it.” (I
don’t need any shoe polish—I got some people thinking I did. I
don’t need it; just joking.) There’s coming a day when that hair is
going to go back to dark brown where it was, and it’s all going to
come back, too. When I was just a kid and I was a low brow, my hair was
down to here. It got way back to there, and some of that went off, too.
But you know something? There’s nothing in this world that’s
lost—it’s only misplaced. It’s not in its right place, just
misplaced.

	So Abraham looked in, maybe, a polished glass of some kind—he was
young again! Sure. Staying with that Word of promise, brother/sister, is
going to bring forth the Bride in Her glory.

47.	Now, let’s stand in the lesson we’ve learned. If we are in the
faith of Abraham, if we’re part of that blessed Bride, we are going to
have to stand with the revelation of God that is given in this “Word
Who raises the dead.” That means that there’s got to be somebody die
to get raised. You have got to die to your own thinking, you’ve got to
die to your own ideas and understanding of what you think God ought to
do.

	And you dare not, even from what the prophet said, try to figure out
what the Third Pull in the Bride will actually be—thought you even
know it. Don’t you dare try it! Don’t you dare even think about it.
You just know that the prophet said, “When that squeeze came down and
the Third Pull went into manifestation, the Bride, having the Word, and
knowing what to do with it, would have THUS SAITH THE LORD.” And what
that is you don’t know, and I don’t know, and nobody knows, so leave
it be until God brings the interpretation by manifestation. See? He
said, “You try to figure it out, it’ll destroy you. But you just
believe it!”

	And that’s what Abraham did. He never worked on it. He simply kept
his faith on that Word. And he said, “I don’t care what anybody
says, because God told me otherwise.”

48.	Bro. Branham said, “When that Book came down,” and we’ve
listened to him and believed him, he said, “we saw our names in the
Book of Life.” That as the Book of Redemption. Now who are you going
to believe: the vindicated prophet, or yourself which can’t vindicate
nothing?

	Abraham believed the Messenger prior to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Brother/sister, the world’s in a Sodom condition.

	And the Bride might not look like a Bride. And a lot of folk might be
looking for a new name here, and a new name there, and this over here
and that over there, trying to plug in here, and trying to pray in
there. Until Almighty God comes and brings forth His Word!—you better
steer clear of what you just think might be His Word! Don’t you go
fooling with Hagar—trying to use some principle that you and I might
be slightly endowed with to bring forth something. Huh? Let’s let the
Word have Its way.

	Follow in the steps of faithful Abraham, “Who considered not his own
body now dead…neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb;” nothing
left, pressure on, squeeze come down. What are you going to do? When
hope is all gone, no use looking… Do you realize that can take place
in this age here? Not only can take place, I believe it will take place.
There’ll be nothing left but that Word. Will you still be able to
stand?

49.	Years ago, when I used to be wrong in using discernment—Bro.
Branham said I was, and I was—when I believed that I had to pray for
the sick and be an all-around, hundred percent, whirling-dervish type of
a preacher, to get the crowd to do this and do that…and then keep it
up, and have nothing unless I did... Do you know I cried pitiful tears,
and prayed and fasted until that thing began to go from me? And I find
out if you try to have His discernment you’re nothing but a false
prophet. And I thank God it left me.

	And people now say, “Brother, do you mean to tell me you are better
off and happier just with what you’ve got now?

	I say, “I never had it so good in my life.”

	You say, “Brother, what’ll happen when the squeeze comes down?”

	I hope—I don’t know because I can’t boast and neither can you—I
hope I’ll be in the steps of Abraham…who staggers not at the promise
of  God through unbelief, but is giving glory to God and doesn’t
consider his own life, and doesn’t consider the next fellow’s life,
but considers only one thing: the promise of God! And when every
indication and vindication and everything else is down the drain,
there’s a Word of God that he stands on—and that’s all he stands
on and that’s his ‘feel’ that he’s got the Holy Ghost. Now one
day he’ll come forth in that resurrection, and if he doesn’t die
he’ll beat it…if he has the faith of Abraham.

	There it is. God bless you. Let us rise:

	Gracious Eternal Father, we love You this day because we believe You
have inspired our hearts in such a way, Lord, by the Word of Almighty
God based upon what the prophet said infallibly, to give us that
understanding of our faith this afternoon. And now, Lord, I know that
the enemy can come in, as he will come in; and this is the age of the
greatest deception, and that we know the original deception was
seduction, and he will do his dead level best, because he knows that he
is dead and in a short while he’s going to be bound. So he will do
everything he can to seduce us and bring us off of this Word.

	But, Lord, we have seen what the inheritors of the land are going to
have to be like—because Abraham, I believe in my heart, pictures the
resurrection, as it were, of the living who are standing here but are
dead unless You do something for them! Now, Lord, I believe that rings
absolutely true—because I asked You before I preached that I would not
say anything contrary to the vindicated Word. And I believe that’s the
way the prophet said it: “There’s got to be the restoration and the
change.”

	Now, Lord God, don’t let the devil, I pray—because Your Spirit was
sent to us for this very purpose—that he, the devil, cannot take one
good Word of God from us by snatching It, or perverting It, or covering
It.

	Merciful God, I don’t ask that one of us be manifested as though we
were somebody or something; I don’t ask that one of us have any sign,
ministry, gift or anything else. But, Lord, the one thing I do ask that
we do have the sign, have the Seal of the Circumcision—the
righteousness of God by faith in the vindicated Word today—and then
stand here and let a life become commensurate by its faith to walk in
the rest of that Word. And then, Lord, to have such love for the Word
that we’ll love the brethren, even unto death itself.

	Help, O Lord! I don’t stand here, Lord, and say I’ve got the kind
of love I want. But, Lord, when I did ask for another kind of love, You
gave the prophet a vision and showed me that that evidence and that love
was to shun every error and stick with that Word, not having anything to
do with anything else, no matter how good it looked. But, Lord, I’m
still longing and hungering for a heart that’s tender and sweet, and a
life, Lord, that can stand up with vigor and dignity against any
circumstance, and to turn the other cheek or anything else that’s
desired of You, Lord, in this life, as I stand as a noble citizen of the
Kingdom of Almighty God, steadfast in the world until I inherit. This,
Lord, I pray for everyone in this building—a noble Son of God, a Child
of Abraham, a Servant of the revealed One of the end of the age.

	Oh, God, we’ve had a blessed time together. The new year is about to
dawn upon us. We know we may never come together again, but, Lord, I
pray that somehow these meetings can have set the tenure of the days
ahead, of spiritual fellowship, deeper and deeper in the Word, higher
and higher in faith, and absolutely more of an indomitable excitement by
the wine of the revelation of the revealed Word of Almighty God, until,
as Pentecost, we stagger under the mighty influence of the Word of the
Living God.

	Oh, Christ, we want reality. And we want that which has been proven by
the Word of God. Though we love visions and all those things, like
Peter, above every vision (2 Pt 1:16-21)—no matter how true, no matter
how great—we stand in awe and esteem of a more sure Word of prophecy
that came “as holy men were moved by the Holy Ghost” and wrote these
things, Lord, which are now surely coming to pass upon the earth. Lord,
we want to identify all the way.

	O God, put upon us the full measure of Your Spirit, we do pray, so that
every facet of every ministry is available to every individual
Christian; may He minister to us until this Word can come through us. O
God, help, we pray, that Thy Word, even Thy Holy Word here that we seem
to have cannonized in these sixty-six Books, Lord Jesus, I pray that
You’ll write It in our hearts and our minds until we are, indeed, the
“living epistles, read and known of all men.” (2 Cor 3:2)

	Help us, Lord. Bless each one. Don’t let there be one weak one among
us: one, Lord, that’s paralyzed with fear, one that is overcautious,
one that’s under-cautious. Lord God, we just hunger and thirst
that…what we’ve always looked for was to somehow have it where we
could sort of just step out and You step in. Lord, I know there’s
something here because there’s a deep calling to a Deep.

	So forgive us every iniquity, forgive us every sin, cleanse our mind of
every double-dealing, our heart of all perversity, O God, rebuke every
‘enticing spirit’ and bind them, Jesus, please, lest our ears be
open to a wrong voice, our eyes see things which are blasphemous, and
our feet go in a wrong path, or our hands perform a wrong duty, for we
want to be holy, consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

	Father, we’re a needy people. Lord, I hope I didn’t tell a lie (And
I know I did not of myself) if I’m Bride here, because I’d look,
Lord, I believe, about the worst mess of anybody that would attempt to
qualify. And I’m not attempting to qualify, I’m just hoping I am.
Just having faith, Lord, that this little group here, I don’t believe,
could pass any kind of test for anything, if it came to a showdown; but
like that Bride, Lord, that heard the Word and stood up for It, but came
to a place that She looked, by the end of the trail, worse than nothing
at all; but She was the Bride, all glorious within and without. Lord, I
want that and so do the people here.

	Father God, this is the time, I believe, when all that Word comes into
manifestation, the perfection of justification, absolutely separated
through sanctification, a complete Word-Life coming forth—if It’s
going to come forth at all—because we do not know what You want done,
but You do.

	And then, Lord, here we stand—as Bride. O God, we submit ourselves to
You, we commit ourselves to You. And to the King Eternal, Immortal,
Invisible, the Only Wise God, be all power and honor and glory, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. God bless you.

	

	

	

 

	

	

	 

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