Godhead

Father and Son

A Wonderfully Fitted Body

April 9, 2004

	Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness and mercy to us, which
endures forever. And we endure also forever because of that same
goodness and mercy. But primarily we know we are a part of Your very
life, and, therefore, we are children, and we are a species of a God
race. And we thank You, Lord, that we know these deep secret things
which were not known from before the foundation of the world, starting
in the Garden with the beast and ending with the prophet in the former
rain.

	And, Lord, knowing also the Seals have been opened, though we don’t
know all the mysteries therein, and the Thunders also, though there
again we could not name them, but we know that all the Seven Messages
have been completed, and now we know we have the full Bible, actually.
And also, we have that instruction which is necessary to put us in the
Rapture; as Bro. Branham said, “We have it all.” Yet, we do not know
what the future holds, nor do we inquire, because we will not know how
to inquire. We have no prophet in this hour. But we do have his word,
and we do have the Bible to direct us.

	So, we pray, Father, concerning what is lacking and what is yet to
come, if You’d be so kind to reveal It to us, we know that it will be
by Your grace and Your mercy. Our hearts are open to receive any light
whatsoever You might present to us that we might be further endued with
the power of God from on High, that Your Name might be glorified.

	Help us all, Lord, to be members indeed, individual members, that we
have individual lives, individual ministries, from the smallest to the
largest, and the youngest to the oldest. It doesn’t matter about the
color or the sex or the race; we realize that a son of God is a son of
God and placed in the body of Christ by Jesus Christ as a member in
particular, a very particular member, unto You and unto himself, Lord.
So, we pray that there might not be confusion in Your body; that all
would advance forward as a mighty army of the Lord Jesus Christ.

	Now, Father, help us in a little study tonight. How scattered it might
be, I do not know, but You do know, Lord, and You can help us put all
things together. May our hearts be blessed. In Jesus Christ’s Name we
pray. Amen. 

	You may be seated.

1.  	There’s no possible way I can say I’m glad to see you, because
I can’t see you. But I can say, “Well, I’m glad you’re all here,
whoever you are, but I can’t see past the first seat, if I can
actually see the first seat. So, I’ll have to try to read tonight with
a little difficulty and with my magnifying glasses until I find
mechanical ability, or I am enabled by the Lord to have my sight. With
enough light, I can actually take Bro. Branham’s books, and my eyes
don’t tire for about fifteen or twenty minutes. So, about three times
a day I can read fifteen or twenty minutes.

	But I’m looking forward to a little help from the Lord and whatever
He has given us to enable us to have good eyesight. I guess now, for the
first time in my life, I’m really appreciating my eyes. You know, the
dentist’s office says: “Be true to your teeth, or they’ll be false
to you.” Again another dentist’s sign says: “You don’t have to
floss your teeth, only the ones you don’t want.” And you don’t
have to have your eyes, you know. Ruin them, if you want; it’s your
privilege.

	Now for years the doctors have examined my eyes, and by the grace of
God I’ve had good sight. 

	They’ve all said, “Reverend Vayle, I can’t understand how you can
see so well. Your eyes are so bad.” 

	Well, I said, “I pray and God’s good.” 

2. 	Now I may not be advantaged again to bring another message here.
It’s impossible for me to know. So, I’m going to clear up a couple
little mistakes, in the sense of the word, that I either read it wrong
or I drew a conclusion. I didn’t want to draw a conclusion, if I did,
but wanted to say that these things are a mystery to me. I may not have
explained it right or didn’t explain it all; it’s just a mystery.

	Now one time my mind just went blank on me, but I had preached it
exactly one hundred percent correct. The question came up: Did Jesus
bring his spirit or Word-body with him? And I said, “Well, I can’t
remember what Bro. Branham said, but according to Philippians he really
didn’t.” Then, I found where Bro. Branham had said he didn’t bring
his Word-body with him; he went to it, of course, when he died. And I
had preached that before; so, it was okay.

3.	Next Bro. Branham said in Rev 10:1, “The mighty angel came down,”
and he said that was Jesus and swearing by the Father; and, when he does
that, there are no more souls saved. Well, that would have to be, then,
definitely, after all the Jews are in. Placing this ‘swearing by the
Father’ is a mystery to me. I made the statement that “God doesn’t
swear by Himself”, and said “can anyone swear by Himself?” or
“He can’t swear by himself.” Bro. Branham actually calls that the
Lord Jesus coming down. Personally, I can’t place it; but it’s end
time, and it will be followed by fire.

	To my way of thinking, the Throne of Mercy is already to the Bride. The
Throne of Judgment is coming, as in 2 Th 1:8: “In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul runs these parts together: those in Christ
and those not in Christ. However, it could be quite a distance apart
before that fire falls. And there’s no place in the Scripture that
fire falls except at the end time, because that’s final judgment.
Hebrews 6 is end time, and that’s fire. To me, fire is final judgment.

4.	Now, another one: I really don’t know from some of the preaching
that Bro. Branham made, where he is going in respect to chronology, when
he talks about Joseph [Branham]. So, we looked up the quote the other
day, and he talks about Joseph taking his Bible and preaching. But, of
course, by that time the Millennium will be on. That’s a quote,
isn’t it Bro. John [McRae]? I gave it to Bro. John, and he looked it
up, and I recorded it at home.

	Now you may do with that what you want to do with it. The logical
explanation would be that, as Joe [Branham] is working with the books
and not working in the ministry, it’s quite possible that he may never
be in the ministry. Bro. Branham also said, “In the Millennium, when
he preached the Gospel to the heathen…” I haven’t got a clue. 

	Bro. Branham also said, “When that little cubicle comes,” (You
know, the tent vision.) “that vision slides right into the Bible.”
And he said that he knew the people that were in the tent. He knew the
woman who was taking the names down and talking. The woman is deceased
at this time, but that makes no difference.

	He also said in a sermon that, when you went through that little
cube… Remember, you were on a cot, and you pushed your cot out, and
the person said, “Well, what happened?” I don’t know. Well, he
said, “In that little cubicle is where you get rapturing faith.”

5.	Bro. Branham said many things that are not necessarily logical or
illogical. They are statements. We leave those statements as they are.
We do with what we have. Now I stand with Bro. Branham that everything I
have taught, I have never taught maliciously, though I’ve whacked
pretty hard. And I guess at times, when I maybe thought a certain
preacher was around or somebody that was an adherent, I might have been
a little malicious. I grant you that I can be sarcastic.

	So, I can be a little malicious at times. I realize that, but I’ve
never preached anything dishonestly. If I’ve made a mistake, it’s
been in ignorance. And there is a sacrifice for ignorance. I believe
with Bro. Branham; he said, “I’ve never preached anything wrong
deliberately.” And, if I have preached, I know the error was a sincere
one I didn’t mean to make, and God will forgive me.

6.	So, I’m cleaning up everything, and those are the only points I
know that I can clear up, together with additional information I have
given you. But he said, “Every vision was fulfilled but that one
vision, and it slides into the Bible.” Is it possible that Bro.
Branham could come back and minister? Well, if you study your Bible, and
you don’t go off into space by reading Matthew 17, when Jesus took
Peter, James, and John apart into a high mountain, (He became
transfigured before him.) and Elijah and Moses appeared; well, that
blazing glory was not resurrection glory.

	The resurrection glory was Jesus like a common ordinary street man with
common ordinary clothes by the Sea of Galilee, I suppose it was; and he
was frying some fish and cooking some bread. And they saw him from the
boat, and they didn’t recognize him. And he was just a common man.
They only recognized him by what he did.

	Now the Book of Luke tells you that Jesus’ form was changed, but that
could’ve just meant that was a glorified body instead of an ordinary
human body. I don’t know. I’m not a prophet, so I can’t tell you.

7.	But the possibility—not just the possibility, but the
practicability of Bro. Branham returning as an ordinary man or looking
like an ordinary man even, is found in the Bible. That’s where Jesus
was. And he was seen of about five hundred people at one time. He was on
the earth for roughly forty days or better.

	Bro. Branham speaks of that period of time. He couldn’t tell us much
about it. Now I’m not telling you that you’ve got to believe the
tent vision. But, remember, Sister Meda told me, and I told you, that
roughly a week before Bro. Branham died, he said, “Now, remember;
don’t forget Meda. I will have that tent, if I have it only for one
meeting.” And she said, “Bro. Vayle, I don’t know if it meant one
meeting is a series or just one night.”

	Now I’m told by a good friend of mine that he talked to a certain
preacher the other day; and in August of the year that Bro. Branham died
he informed him he was going to die. I also told you I had a dream of
him, that he was dying. I didn’t understand it. Another friend of mine
had a dream of him dying; he didn’t understand it. Bro. Branham had a
vision of himself dying with a hole in his throat. He thought he was
going to be killed. Instead, that was the tracheotomy. God didn’t say,
“Now, you’re going to be wrecked in a car,” at that time.

8.	Remember, I told you the last time I saw Bro. Branham was the Sunday
before that he was injured the next Friday. And I saw the look on his
face, and he knew I realized that he had changed—physically changed
and visibly changed. “Yes, Lee, I’ve been to the mountain,” he
said, “I have no fear.” Perfect love casts out fear.

	I told you what is not on any tape. Perhaps I’m the only man that
knows it. In the American Hotel in New York, when I walked in, I saw a
change in his face. We began to talk, and he said—after He stilled the
storm, the storm disappeared and he walked with God--God said, “Take a
walk with me.” 

	He said, “I’d be glad to do that.” He said, “Lee, I don’t
have any feelings of guilt.”

	A person once quoted me as saying that I said, “Bro. Branham had no
guilt complexes.” I never said that. He never had guilt complexes, but
he was guilty. He felt guilty about certain things. There’s no man
living that doesn’t feel guilty about certain things. I feel guilty
about things I shouldn’t feel guilty about, and often times I don’t
feel guilty about things I should feel guilty about. And that’s
perfectly scriptural. I’m not saying it’s right to be that way.
I’m saying it’s perfectly scriptural, because Paul said, “The
things that I would do, I don’t; and the things I wouldn’t do, I
do.” [Rom 7:15] He said, “Oh man, I am caught.” But you see, that
was before the Nazarenes called it entire sanctification; but we call it
the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

9.	Now tonight I don’t even have a title, but this is the last in the
series on the Godhead. And I’m going to talk about the Godhead, the
Father and the Son, and Good Friday.

	Matthew 1:18.

	(18) 	Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his
mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was
found with child of the Holy Ghost.

	She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. (19) “Then Joseph, her
husband, being a just man, and not…” I memorized this one time when
I was about twenty years of age; I kind of got it in my mind even today.
So, it helps me to know a few words in what I’m going to read. So, if
I make a mistake in reading due to poor eyesight, well, I don’t
suppose it would be too bad a mistake.

(19) 	Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make
her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. (Just do it on
the quiet.)

(20) 	But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
(Notice what he called him now, ‘thou, son of David’. So, he must
have been of the tribe of Judah.) fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife: for that which is conceived in her is by the Holy Ghost.

(21) 	And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
JESUS.

10.	Now you notice there, they’re giving him a name at this particular
point. And, of course, Jesus is his Father’s Name, and it’s the same
as Joshua. That’s why, in the Book of Hebrews, the place that Jesus
could not give a rest, the word should have been Joshua could not give
them the rest, because Jesus wasn’t in the genealogy at that Old
Testament time of writing. He didn’t come into the genealogy. And,
then, when he came in the genealogy, you’ll notice all genealogies
actually ceased, because he stopped dealing with a nation, as a people.
He began dealing with individuals. Not just one race and one nation, but
individuals of all races and all nations.

(21) 	…And you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people
from their sins.

	Now the word ‘Joshua’ is ‘Jehovah-Savior’. Jesus is
Jehovah-Savior. So, the name was given to him by the angel positively at
the request of God. And this name indicated what he would do, because it
tells you that. He’s been given a name, a special name, and it’s not
that there weren’t other Joshuas. Joshua that was with Moses was a
great leader. He was a younger man. He went into the promised land,
fought great battles, did great exploits for God. That is, God worked
through him. So, his name is called Jesus for a purpose. So, this young
baby already has a destiny.

11.	Now it’s not difficult for people to understand that sometimes
fathers or mothers have intuitively, or by the Spirit of God, some way
they have known what their children would do. I know a man who had
several children. He was one of the most profligate men I ever heard in
my life. I mean he was just profligate. And he had a bunch of boys, and
he taught every one how to booze and to womanize and to be a discredit
to God. But to one boy, he said, “You’re not doing it, because
you’re going to be a preacher.” Now, how did that fellow know that
boy was going to be a preacher? How did he know that that boy was going
to follow Bro. Branham? You see, it’s difficult, but in this case with
Jesus it’s not difficult. So, he was given an appropriate name. And
his name was his calling. He was born a savior.

	Remember when Bro. Branham stood with that great multitude beyond the
curtain of time, and the Voice said you were born a leader? “You were
born to lead these people.” And Bro. Branham in his life did it, but
he never said much about it. The most he would say was about
predestination. He said, “Before the foundation of the world, God knew
I’d be in this pulpit, and you people would be sitting in those
seats.” And I believe that is true.

	I believe that, when Bro. Branham saw me coming for my visit with him
the first time back in 1953 in the month of August, that was
known—foreknown—from before the foundation of the world. Now my
mother was certainly not a woman that you would call born-again by any
stretch of the imagination. How did she know that I was going to be a
preacher?

12.	So, you see, you read your Bible carefully, and you see that his
name was given to him by God. You’re going to find a time in your
life, after the New Jerusalem’s on earth, and the son gives the
kingdom back to the Father, and the Father becomes All in all, you’ll
find that God is All in all. You’ll find predestination is of God.

	I’m sorry that Bro. Branham was so gentle with the Pentecostals to
the extent that he said, “I know you people don’t like this word
‘predestination’; so, I’ll call it ‘foreknowledge’.” Well,
that’s all right too, but I’ve seen a lot of people foreknow a lot
of things that weren’t actually foreknown. If you really foreknow a
thing, it has to be predestinated; because, if you foreknow it, and it
hasn’t happened, and then it happens, and you knew it was going to
happen, what made it happen? How do you get in on the secret?
[Predestination is the outworking of foreknowledge.] Okay.

13.	(22) 	Now this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

(23) 	Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and she shall bring forth a
son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

	Now he’s got a second name: ‘Emmanuel’; that’s ‘God with
us’. Now this is going now to specie and to character. This is now
going to the fulfilling of an event. And, if the people could have
grasped it, they would’ve known that here was a momentous event where
God was going to actually, somehow, be related to this young child
conceived by the Holy Ghost that you could say, “I’m looking at God.
God’s walking on this earth.”

	You know, there’s a saying going around right now that Jesus is
walking on this earth somewhere, and nobody knows where he is. And I
think that’s the truth: Nobody knows where he is! They better go to
the Bible. He’s on that throne of mercy and judgment. I believe that,
because Bro. Branham said so. He’s there, because the Father’s down
here taking over, putting the Kingdom under the Son’s feet.

14.	(23) 	Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a
son, (See, notice; it’s absolutely a son.) and they shall call his
name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted is, God with us.

	Now, if you go back to Isaiah 9… And I didn’t bring my Old
Testament with me, but you know pretty well what it is. You know, it
said a virgin shall bear a child [Isa 7:14], and he shall be called the
Prince of Peace, various words, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace; the government shall be upon his shoulders, and
there will be no end of his government. And It says for unto us a child
is born, and unto us a son is given [Isa 9:6-7].

	Now It says right there a child is born, and a son is given. So,
evidently, whoever was the father… And the father took precedence,
always, over the mother, because the first boy was the strength of his
life. The first boy actually owned everything his father had. That’s
how the Jews got it. In the Bible I had it figured at fifty percent. So,
if the son was named “God with us,” then his Father had to be God.

	But, anyway, there would be a great association between the Father and
the Son, because “unto us a child is born.” The reason that child is
born is not through the lust of the flesh; it’s not through any great
ability to impact that child with certain genes. You’re looking at a
very strange and, what you might call, an awkward situation. It says,
“Unto us a child is born.”

15.	Now, therefore, there’s got to be a father and a mother somewhere
who are in on some kind of a secret. They’re able to, by virtue of
their ability to foreknow and to predestinate, because the child is not
one that is born unto the person or persons as though they had an
ownership, although they do; it would appear that this child is given to
the public, to the people, so that they receive whatever benefits that
this child is endowed with, and that would be whoever their parents
were, whatever they had to offer. And It said that “His name shall be
called wonderful, the prince of peace, the everlasting father.”

	Now you’re getting into real hot water here, because this child
that’s born and given is now wrapped up into a multiple case, being
called both son and father, so that you’d almost say it looks like
they’re going to be Siamese twins. You know, one half of the Siamese
twin is going to be father and the other half son. Well, how can he be?
Because the other half can’t be as a brother, because he’s the
father!

	Now you see, do you understand what we’re driving at? Back here in
Isaiah, it was already told that this one, who was born of a virgin,
would be called both Son and God and Father. So, that it is very easy,
if you want to believe the Bible, and the Bible has never been proven
wrong. It is very, very correct. If there is a child born to a virgin
who is going to grow up to be a savior, and also, that same child, that
same body, that same born one, is going to have an age about him that
the other named one is not of the same age. One will be the Ancient of
Days, and one will be a son. One is eternal; the other has a beginning;
because the very word ‘son’ implies a beginning in relation to the
father.

	And so, I guess modern psychologists would say you’re looking at a
dual personality. No, what you’re looking at is actually two lives
bound up in one body to do a work that the infinite mind of God, the
infinite capacity of God, and the infinite love of God would bring to
pass.

16.	We’re looking at Mt 1:23: “Which, being interpreted is God with
us.” So, all right. Here’s a young boy, young son, that’s given by
the Father, but the Father does not leave him. And strange to say, He
will inhabit the same body. And, of course, Joseph married her, and
that’s one of the stories of the birth of Jesus Christ.

17.	We’ll go to Mark next. We’ll go to chapter 1 where John is
baptizing. [Mk 1:10]

(10)	And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens
opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

(11)	And there came a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased.

	Now we haven’t identified the father from this, but we’ve
identified his source. So, this is strictly not an earth creature as
earth’s creatures are known, but he’s part of the human race by
virtue of the fact that he’s born into it. He’s part of the world.

(11) 	And the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son in whom
I’m well-pleased. (Now Bro. Branham, as a prophet, had every right to
say what he said, even though you can’t find that exact wording in
Scripture: “in whom I’m pleased to dwell in.” So, you just take
what Bro. Branham said (adding the clarification with the word ‘dwell
in’—which for that matter could also be interpreted ‘indwell’),
because Paul in Col 1:19 says, “For it pleased the father that in him
should all fulness dwell.” And Col 2:9 says “For in him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”)

(12)	And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. (And so
on.)

	Now, that’s Mark’s account.

18.	Now we go to Luke over here. Luke is a long one, but we want to read
what Luke says over here in Luke 1. And I think we’ll start at Lk
1:26, because I don’t want to start too soon.

(26)	And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God (Now
we’ve got identifying this one that speaks from heaven and has a
relationship to the people on earth and, particularly, a relationship to
do with this child.) was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, unto a
city named Nazareth,

(27)	To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house
of David; (There again that’s the tribe of Judah.) and the virgin’s
name was Mary (That’s why they call her ‘Saint Mary’.)

(28)	And the angel came in unto her, and said Hail, thou that art highly
favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

	The Protestants point out the Catholics say, “Blessed art thou above
women.” That’s not what the Bible says. She’s just one among them.

(29)	And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in
her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

(30)	And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found
favor with God.

	Now here’s a messenger from God, and God is saying, “Mary, you have
found favor with me.” Now here’s what he also said, the angel
repeating God’s Word.

(31)	And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a
son, and shalt call his name JESUS. (Of course, we said that’s the
name of ‘savior’.)

18.	Now at this point here in reading Mark, ‘You’re going to call
his name JESUS’, and that is his identification as a person. Who is
that person? That person is Jesus. Where does he come from? He comes
from Nazareth: Jesus of Nazareth. He’s being identified.

(32)	He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and
the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

	So, all right, “And he shall be called the son of the highest.”

	Now you say, “What do you call that thing there?”

	“Well, I call that thing there a rabbit.”

	“What do you call that thing there?”

	“I call that a horse.”

	“What do you call that thing over there?”

	“Well, that is a fox.”

	Well, he’s declaring lineage or species. The lineage of Jesus Christ
is God Himself. And therefore, he’s a species. You’ll find him
called the Only-begotten Son, which means ‘uniquely brought forth’,
‘uniquely born’. And you’ll find in Hebrews he’s one out of many
[Heb 2:10-11]. The others are also uniquely born but not uniquely born
as he was born. The others are born-again. Jesus did not need to be
born-again. If he had needed to be born-again, he could not have been
our sacrifice. So, he’s uniquely born, and his lineage is of God. His
cognomen is Jesus; his personal appellation is Jesus.

19.	So, here we have it now. We have a young child born to a virgin, and
his name is Jesus; especially called that because he’s going to save
the people from their sin. And his lineage and his species is of God.
Now you’ve got, then, this majestic and wonderful child coming through
a woman, and this is the Son of God. This is very puzzling.

	Now you’ll notice that in all the mythology that comes from the
Scandinavians, they have the gods coming down and consorting with women
and bringing forth children. This is one reason why the Jews cannot
stand to believe for one minute that the virgin Mary produced a child of
God. To them, that is absolute blasphemy, denigrating the Almighty, Who
would be certainly unsullied. And we know that even the right act…
David named it correctly, conceived in sin, shaped in iniquity.

	So, you get his lineage here, or you can call it his species, his
lineage.

20.	(33)	And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his
kingdom there shall be no end.

(34)	Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this thing be, seeing I
know not a man?

	Now she hit the nail right on the head, because she didn’t grasp the
impact. So, the fact is, if she’s going to be the mother of this very
strange personage, she should know something. It’s only right that she
should be told a few things.

	[Verse 35] “And the angel answered her and said,” (This comes from
God.) “The Holy Ghost” (Now Holy Ghost is an office. Bro. Branham
said that. My own understanding and teaching on it is that it shows
God’s relationship to mankind. It shows that God is doing something.
The Holy Ghost usually pertains to an activity if not always. So, Bro.
Branham’s very correct when he said this is simply an office of God,
because God is Holy Spirit. It’s a title God takes pertaining to a
particular activity. So, God in His office.) “shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest” (Well, that’s God Himself.) “shall
overshadow thee:” (So, God and the Holy Ghost is one person.)

	See, if anybody believes in a trinity, there’s a tremendous question
for them to answer. I have to ask my doctor; he sings a song about
‘the trinity’s so great’. He’s a saved brethren of some sort.
I’m not saying what brethren, because I don’t know. But he’s sings
about the trinity. Someday I’m going to say, “Doc, you amaze me for
an educated man with… You know chemistry, biology, everything else.
How come you believe that a child can have two fathers?” 

	They can’t answer that any more than the Oneness can answer how Jesus
can be his own father. Well, they say, well he’s not; he is the
father. But he’s not! He’s the Son of the Father.

	I don’t think they even believe in the pre-existence or the
pre-ministry of Jesus Christ, as some people in this message don’t
understand the pre-incarnation. Bro. Branham taught it, and Jesus prayed
about it, and God said you can have that glory back, and then some.
Well, why are these people unbelievers? What message are they believing?
The message we believe comes out of the Bible. See, that’s why I’m
taking my time teaching tonight out of the Bible.

21.	(36)	And, behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, hath also conceived a son in
her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called
barren. (They described her condition.)

(37)	For with God nothing shall be impossible. (You just go back and
think of Abraham and Sarah.)

(38)	And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the lord; be it unto me
according to thy word.

	Now, if she wasn’t predestinated, do you think for one minute she
would’ve said that? God knew she was going to say it, because she was
the vessel He raised up to bring forth that child.

(38b)	And the angel departed from her. (Once she acquiesced.)

(39)	And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with
haste, unto a city of Juda;

(40)	And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

(41)	And it came to pass, that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of
Mary, the baby leaped in her womb; (Bro. Branham said it came to life at
that time.) and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. (Now this is a
woman who’s speaking in the Holy Ghost. This is what you call anointed
speaking.)

(42)	And she spoke out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

(43)	And whence is this to me, that the mother of my lord should come to
me?

	Now all the way through this chapter in Luke you’re going to find the
word ‘lord’ is ‘kurios’, which signifies leadership and one of
great importance, but it is not ‘theos’. It’s not God. The Holy
Ghost could not have said any other word. It could not say this is God
born. He would have to use ‘theos’ to mean that.

	How can an unborn person have a mother? That’s a good question,
isn’t it? See, well you could say, “Which came first, the chicken or
the egg?” How you going to get eggs without a chicken? See, people
aren’t very smart, are they? But our wisdom is not from below; our
wisdom is from above.

	And Elisabeth said, “The mother of my lord should come to me.”

22.	Now, let’s see. I think we’ve gone far enough. We go to John,
and the first chapter of John, of course, is very amazing.

(1)	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.

(2)	The same was in the beginning with God.

	So, you have here the statement: “In the beginning was the Word,”
and in the same breath he said, “And the Word was God.” So, in the
beginning was God in a special form, in a special manifestation. It
doesn’t tell you what that manifestation was, but the word ‘logos’
has to contain… It’s not just a word. A word expresses an idea;
that’s true. But, what if you said ‘cow’, and there was no such
thing as a cow? The Logos acts; doesn’t only just express a thought,
but it must contain the expresser. There could be no word ‘cow’,
unless there is a ‘cow’; and there would be no word ‘logos’,
unless there is God, because “The Logos was God.” 

	So, God was expressing Himself at this particular time. Then, It said
that expression was God, because it came forth from God. It doesn’t
talk a thing about creation at all; ‘with God’ had to come forth out
of God. So therefore, God was in that Pillar of Fire, that whirlwind,
whatever. Whatever He chose, He was in there. “In the beginning”
means “was in existence”; so, at the time of the beginning, the
eternal God was expressed as Logos.” God began to manifest Himself in
order to fulfill His plan to give Himself reason and purpose of
being—as I’ve said many times.

	Then, you’ll notice it goes down to verse 14, and It says:

(14)	And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth.

23.	Now I’m going to read you a very literalized translation of that
fourteenth verse, because there are too many people read it, and they
mistranslate it. I’ve never mistranslated it when I taught it, but I
want to read you a very involved, literalized expression.

(9)	The aforementioned word was the Light; He was the genuine Light,
which lightens spiritually every man as he comes into the universe.

(10)	In the universe he was, and the universe through him, his
intermediate agency came into existence. And the word of sinners did not
approve of him.

(11)	In the midst of his own possessions… (Well, that tells you then
they also did not receive him. And then It says:)

(14)	And the Word entering a new mode of existence… (There’s your
Logos.) And the Word entering a new mode of existence became flesh and
lived in a tent (physical body) amongst us (and we gazed with attentive
and careful regard and spiritual perception at his glory, (Now, listen.)
a glory such as that of a uniquely begotten son of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.

	So, when they saw this one who was virgin born, who was called savior,
(because that’s what he was going to do) they saw the mighty miracles
that he did. He fulfilled every aspect of the prophet that Moses
declared would come. And they looked at him, and they said, “Isn’t
that wonderful?”

	“Do you notice what he’s doing?”

	“Did you see how he changed that water into wine?”

	“Did you see…”? “I felt so sorry for that widow, and he raised
her son.”

	“Yeah, do you remember the time he turned those loaves
into—literally hundreds of loaves—to feed five thousand?”

	“Another time, he had great compassion on them, and he broke those
loaves of bread, they multiplied right in front of our eyes, and broke
those fishes and fed seven thousand.”

	“Yeah and I heard that they had a terrible storm in Galilee, and he
just put his foot on the edge of the boat and said, ‘Quiet down,’
and the thing just quieted right down.”

	What am I trying to tell you? I’m trying to tell you they gave the
Son all the glory for the works that God was doing.

24.	Now you can find that over here in John 14. He said:

(7)	If you had know me, you would have known my Father also: and from
henceforth you know him, and have seen him.

(8)	And Philip said unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and that will
satisfy us, that’ll be enough (‘Sufficing’ means ‘That’s
enough’.)

(9)	And Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father.

	Well, that’s true. There’s nothing to that, if you read the
Scripture. It says, “In the beginning, God had a certain form. And
then, He changed that form into flesh.” After Jesus got baptized, of
course, He entered into him, and he changed His form. He was in the
process of changing His form into flesh.

25.	So, this is the child that was born and the Son that was given to
the people of God. At the River Jordan, God came into him. Now the Bible
tells you distinctly that God owns that form. That form became flesh.
That was the flesh of God. And God had every right to take possession of
it. And so, that’s what you see happening.

26.	Now this is the reason I’m interweaving Godhead here, because
there’s only one gospel that actually compresses the truth into a few
words, whereby hearing them and knowing them and believing what you
read, instead of what somebody told you, you will find that there’s
only one God. And you will find that the other three gospels, which I
read to you, detail the account of Jesus, and the gospels detail the
accounts of the man, as I narrated some of them to you. And so,
therefore, it is easy for the Trinitarians to believe that the Word was
Jesus and became flesh. And it is very true that that Word, which he
was, did become flesh; he was a logos. This is where people get mixed
up. But, if you read John, and read it right… But they will not read
John right.

	I’ve had… Listen to me. I’ve had people, one in writing, another
in quoting, go right from it. Why? Because Bro. Branham, many, many
times used an absolute truth that Jesus was a logos. He had to be. You
and I are logi [plural of logos]. You were in the thoughts of God, and
the thought becomes expressed, and it must contain a reality of what is
to be expressed—absolutely. As Bro. Branham said, “Mrs. Jesus—
Messiahettes.”

	He talked about, not only Bro. Branham but the prophets, going to
lineage as far back as Adam, son of God. They talk about Jesus: Son of
God. They talk about us: born ones of God. That word ‘sons’ is
misinterpreted. It’s ‘born ones’—issuing forth from God. You
were a part of God; you are a species of God; you are in the lineage of
God.

27.	But, do you see the Trinitarians take it, and some of the people
that say they believe this message twist it too, because Bro. Branham
would call, “Jesus the Word.” Well, if he’s not the Word, what is
he? Well, what word? Oh yes, what word? All that was spoken concerning
him was fulfilled one hundred percent; like in each prophet was part of
the Word, but Jesus was all of it. It’s something like the fullness of
the Godhead.

	They tell somebody had three tumblers. (I can’t really believe this,
because this is too awful to believe.) They said, “This is God, this
is the son, and this is the church. And these two empty tumblers, and
this is a full tumbler. And God poured into Christ everything there was.
Throw the tumbler away. Christ poured it into the church, everything he
was. Throw that one away.” 

	Well, isn’t that marvelous?

28.	Did you ever stop to think that Bro. Branham talked about God making
Himself as small as a sperm? So then, God’s sperm? Where is their
thinking? Where is their reasoning? Where is the Holy Ghost? The
fullness of the Godhead bodily is simply a statement of God indwelling
Jesus Christ and using His powers and what He wanted to do in that
particular person. He did it in the fullness. But He maintained His own
sovereignty. The son could not say anything he wanted to say; he could
not do anything he wanted to do. He had to say and do what the Father
said.

	And so, he said here, “Can’t you understand,” he said,
“you’re looking at the Father?”

	And they said to Bro. Branham, “What is that anyway when Jesus said,
‘He that seeth me seeth the father?’”

	He said, “You’re looking at me aren’t you? Same thing.” 

	He said, “It’s not William Branham that tells these things that
come to pass so perfectly; it’s not William Branham that raises the
dead; it’s not William Branham that heals the sick.” It’s God in a
prophet.

	“Oh, that’s too much.” Is it now?

	Then, how come you say you’ve got the Holy Ghost? Well, that’s fine
for you, because you’re wonderful. Oh, say, I don’t want to be
sarcastic, but you understand I can’t get anything across, until I hit
a punch line. And I’m not mean in doing it; it’s just the truth.

29.	What right have you got to talk, if you… As I say, many times, I
made a challenge everywhere in the world, put it out wherever I go, many
times. I say, look, “I got a hangnail here, come up and say,
‘Hangnail be better. Thus saith the Lord, the hangnail’s gone’.”
Little hangnail. I saw Bro. Branham raise the dead, two in a row. No,
no, no. Don’t give me your talk.

	You see; it’s so strange for people to believe God. It is so strange
for people. They’re strange people. God’s people are peculiar
people. That doesn’t mean they’re nutty. The word ‘peculiar’ in
the Greek is ‘a circle with a little dot in it’. But that’s right.
I got that right from the Greek studies.

	Peculiar: you’re surrounded by God. You see, they’re not afraid to
say God’s in the prophet. They’re not afraid to quote the prophet.
They’re not afraid to quote God. They’re believers. Believers in
God. Why? Through the Word. That’s why He is the Word. But you see, if
God didn’t bring to pass His Own Word, He couldn’t be the Word,
because, when you talk about word there’s not expressing a word
‘cow’, ‘horse’, ‘pig’, ‘dog’; it is reality, not just a
unit of language.

30.	Now, listen. Let me tell you something. You read in the Scripture…
What is it, Jn 14:6, somewhere in there, ‘I am the way, the truth, the
light’. It’s not that at all: “I am the way, the reality, and the
life.” Yeah, the reality; I’m real. That’s what reality is, and
that’s what It tells you.

	And Paul got the same vision. He said, “Now you look at the things
around you.” He said, “Let them grow dim; get your eyes on the inner
man.” And he said, “That’s where the power is.” And Paul could
just isolate himself, like Bro. Branham: world go away, and the world
went away and God just take over. He said, “While we look at the
things that are eternal, don’t look at the things that are
perishing.” 

	God’s people can do that. They’re a peculiar people. They’re not
nutty. They’re called crazy, and they do kind of crazy things.

	I told you about a friend of mine. She’s dead now, a little old lady
in Calgary. Her name was Mrs.… Oh, I forget anyway, a little English
lady. And one day she heard a voice; the voice kept saying “Macleod,
Macleod, Macleod, Macleod.” That’s a little town about ninety miles
south of Calgary.

	And so, she said, “Well, I better go to Macleod.”

	So, she got off the train, and the voice in her head said, “Bread,
bread, bread.”

	Well, she said, “My goodness me, I better go and buy some bread.”

	So, she bought some bread, and she went out of the store, and she kept
walking and walking and walking. And God said, “Stop here, go
upstairs, open the door.”

	And there was a woman; she was starving. She could hardly hold her head
up.

	Now you find me somebody that does that. That’s an unusual person.
That person can walk herself or himself away. How did I sit there with
thirty-five hundred people and, indelibly in my mind, saw the ministry
of William Branham: “If you ever listen to any man, that’s the man
you listen to.” It said, “If you ever listen to any man.” In other
words I had a choice.

	See, God gives you a choice. But the choice is His choice. “Come now,
let us reason together.” He said, “We’ve got something to reason
on. I’ll tell you my reasons.” “There’s one mediator between God
and men,” and yet God is one.

	He comes down, and He says, “Hey, I’ll mediate you.”

	You say, “Just a minute now. A mediator, that’s between two people.
He sits here, and he gets the two people together.”

	“Well, that’s what I do!” …?… convict you of your sins. 

	He’s lovable isn’t he? A very lovable person.

31.	Now, let’s just go over here to 1 John. Yeah, we’ve got to talk
about John over here. You know, he’s the one that really brings this
thing together. The others eulogize Jesus, and so they should eulogize
him. But, when they eulogize him, they make the people that read the
Bible make him a second person of the Godhead, and he’s not a second
person of the Godhead. He’s the Only-begotten, the First-begotten, of
Almighty God. And there was nothing to form him from. There was no other
person there. There was nothing there when that light formed, which was
that Logos, which was the son. And the only difference between Jesus and
his father is: sons have beginnings. You know, God never did have a
birthday, but Jesus did; that is, the human part of him did. We’ve got
a part of us that never had a birthday either, but it had a birth as a
son. It was a part of God. It just came from God. See, Jesus bypassed
his body. We came direct from God. A little difference. It’s okay.
Anyway, let’s get to John.

	[Verse 1] “That which was from the beginning…” (Now that’s the
same beginning as John 1:1) “That which was from the beginning…”
(What was from the beginning? God! In the beginning—God! Now he said,)
“That which was from the beginning, which was God, we have
heard”—God, which (God) we have seen with our eyes, which (God) we
have handled with our hands (Is that what It says?) we have looked upon
with our eyes, and this God we have handled with our hands, and this is
that word of life. This is that Logos. This is God Himself that I’m
talking about. And at the same time, they handled the Son.

	Bro. Branham said they (the apostles) could say, “We ate with him, we
slept with him, fished with him, shook hands, hugged each other,
wept.” After the resurrection, same thing. But he wasn’t God after
the Resurrection. God gave him his own position now.

	[Verse 2] “For he was manifested”—ah! That’s what Logos comes
from. For the life was manifested. God was manifested, and we have seen
him manifested; and we bear witness that he was manifested, and we show
unto you the manifestation that brings eternal life, which is with the
Father and was manifested to us.

	Now John brings him down to humanity. John brings him right down to
humanity. And that’s what we like.

32.	Now I don’t want to have to read Luke again, but the question is:
how, then, did God become flesh? He became flesh, and Bro. Branham
described it, by the creation of a sperm and an egg, which was implanted
in the womb of Mary, which God Himself, as Bro. Branham said, “wrapped
Himself in.” And he also used another term, which I forget at this
point, showing that he was saying that God literally blueprinted that
physical substance which he created, endowing it with His Own life,
thereby that creature would have His Blood. Is that right? Well, the
blood comes from the father. That’s where the blood all starts. So,
there it would be.

33.	Now this is what we’re looking at—Rev 3:14. “And unto the
messenger of the church of the Laodiceans,” or which is in Laodicea,
“these things saith he, saith the Amen,” (That comes from Isaiah.)
“the faithful and true witness…”

	I told you how it was when Daddy Bosworth was about 87 years old I
think, and I went to visit him on his birthday, the last birthday he
had. I wanted to give him a little present of money and made him a
birthday cake; and I had the baker put on ‘faithful and true
witness’. And the baker surprised me by writing ‘a faithful and true
witness.’ See, the spirit of God got a hold of that man, whether he
was saved or not, and made him write ‘a faithful and true witness’,
because Jesus is the only faithful and true witness. So, I made a
mistake. But you see how God corrects mistakes? Oh, that was… I
thought that was beautiful. I was so grateful for that, for God to do
that for me.

	And I know Daddy Bosworth, if he’d have known, he would’ve been
happy. And he was happy to find ‘a faithful and true witness’;
because, if it had been ‘faithful and true witness’, he might have
said to me, “Well, Bro. Vayle, I can’t take that cake, until you
scrape that off there.” See, Daddy Bosworth was that kind of a man.

	By the way, Bro. Branham was with a few of his friends, and he asked
them, he said, “Who would you say had a successful life?”

	And they said… “Well, we would say, you had one.”

	And he’d say, “No,” he said, “Daddy Bosworth.” If you knew
Daddy, you’d know why Bro. Branham said that.

34.	When he was with his brother evangelizing, they called them
Joybringers Bosworth, the Joy bringers. Daddy was always telling some
little joke that was cute, innocuous, nothing worldly, nothing smutty,
nothing that was… Well, he’d ask a question like: “What city is
the fastest growing city in the world?”

	“New York”

	“No, no, no; it’s Dublin, because it’s always doublin!’”
[Congregation laughs.] 

	That was Daddy Bosworth. Then, he’d tell the punch line twice.
That’s how Bro. Branham got to telling the punch line twice. Oh, they
were just great people, children of God.

	You know, it’s going to be a great time when all the children of God
get together, because there’s nothing but great times, you know. You
don’t have these shackles on. You don’t have these birdbrain
thoughts running through your birdbrain. You won’t need your brain
baptized with the Holy Ghost, because it’s all Holy Ghost, you see.

35.	Now he said, [Verse 14b] “the beginning of the creation of God.”

	Now that’s the time when God began to create Himself in human flesh,
though it all started way back there. It started in the beginning,
because that was His plan. His plan was to go from the original Logos to
the flesh Logos, because ‘logos’ is simply a term for multitudes of
things. I had a case here we deal with the Word. Okay.

36.	So, that’s when God started, and it started through Mary—through
the virgin womb. It started by God creating and starting a process
whereby His Own Blood would be there, and no doubt He blueprinted His
genes.

	Now, just stop and think a minute. If you go to the Bible, (which I
know you have; and you’ve looked at the Word of God many, many times.)
in there you’ve found that God speaks of His eyes, He speaks of His
ears, He speaks of His soul, He speaks of His feet, He speaks of His
hands, He speaks of His finger, and Moses saw His back, and it was the
back of a man. Bro. Branham said a bleeding back. Now Bro. Branham being
a prophet could tell how these things happened.

	Now, look. Let’s understand this flat: Moses was a historian, and
Moses told things that he had no way of knowing, except God told him,
and God gave it in an abbreviated form. And, when God gave Bro. Branham
the opportunity or chose him to be one like Moses and Paul with the
Pillar of Fire, and He spoke to him face-to-face, and He told him things
which were not known from before the foundation of the world... He gave
him all this information. And during those forty days on earth, I look
for more information, trusting that’s a true statement, if it’s
following the pattern of Jesus Christ. See, I don’t know these things.
I’m not privy to them. I only know a little bit about the vision and
how it slides into the Bible.

37.	We want to go to Philippians 2 (They make these books so poor. They
got words hidden down the middle. I can’t see through the middle.)
Just a couple verses here, chapter 2, starting at verse 5. [Phil 2:5]

(5)	Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

(6)	Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a prize to be grasped
and retained (It doesn’t say ‘robbery’ in the original.) a prize
to be grasped and retained.

(7)	But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and made in the likeness of men: (It said, ‘made in likeness
of men,’ see?)

(8)	And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

	Now Bro. Branham explained that very thoroughly, that this was one of
the masks that God used in His great drama. And It tells you that Jesus,
who had a pre-incarnate existence, and, evidently, led in the worship of
God, or had something—some great part in the worship of God, because
Bro. Branham said he took the form of Michael, he was Michael, and he
led in the worship of God—that God gave him a rank of very great
importance. So, he did not keep that rank of importance. He became
flesh, the flesh of God; he became what God wanted him to be. He wanted
to have him as that flesh person.

38.	Now, over here in Hebrews 2… Now you notice I used the words that
were used, ‘made in fashion as a man’. What he’s giving you here
is the best language he can use to let you know that, though Jesus was a
man, he was not a man as we are. He just isn’t. He wasn’t and he
isn’t. But he had that form.

	As I said, God had eyes, He had ears, He had a nose, and so on. And He
said, “Let us make man in our image.” [Gen 1:26] And, why did He
say, “Thou shall have no image, or make any image…”? [Ex 20:4]
Because God had His Own image. The image of God is Christ. So, “Let us
make man in our image.” Jesus was the image of God. And it turned out
to be Adam, a man with eyes, ears, nose and feet, just like you and me,
but perfect and, evidently, the organs and maybe our genes and some of
those things have been twisted and made rank through the intrusion of
serpent seed, because the last perfect man on this earth, at least
genetically perfect, was Noah. There wasn’t anybody else. Okay.

39.	Over here in Heb 2:14:

(14a)	Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
(that’s Jesus) he also himself likewise took a part of the same…

	Now It doesn’t say he took part in it. The actual rendition is, ‘He
took a part of it.’ There was a part he could take, and there was a
part he couldn’t take. So, he wasn’t just like you and me. And I
don’t know that I could say he was just like Adam or those early sons
of God. I can’t say that, because I don’t believe that that is true.
I don’t know that Bro. Branham made a comment. If he were here, we
could ask him; but we have no way of knowing.

(14b)	…that through death he might destroy him (or bring his power to
nothing) that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

	So therefore, bringing Satan down had something to do with the body
that Jesus had. Now, that body absolutely was human, as far as people
could see. But there was a part of that body that was not like every
other person’s body. But this was indeed; and watch it now, the
Only-begotten son, which is uniquely born. So, with the unique birth
there are changes.

40.	But, thank God, one day we’ll have a body like his. They’ll be
changed. There’ll be no serpent seed. Bro. Branham said that “God
would create again, not by sex, but by creation.” He’ll bring forth
out of the dust, out of the gases, (And he said what they were.) and
will bring us here on earth.

	And I want you to know that I just read the other day a statement of
Bro. Branham’s that I’ve been pondering on in my own mind without
ever knowing that he’d made the statement. But the fact is, you know,
that you’re only mortal for this period of time. But my thoughts were:
we’ve got only a few years for whatever God wants for us, or what we
will take from God, or how we will be children of God, how you will
treat your wife, how you will treat your husband, how you treat your
children, how they will treat you. Careful analysis of sowing: sow in
order to reap and water what you sow.

41.	I’m eighty years old; I’m ninety almost. Just give me about six
months, and I’m ninety. Twenty years passed. As I look back, I would
to God someone had said to me, even when I was thirty, although I knew
that Solomon had said, “Remember now thy creator in the days of thy
youth while the evil days draw not nigh, and thou shall say I had no
pleasure in them.”… In other words I didn’t make it worth my
while.

	I look back, and I say… Solomon looked back; he said, “Where have
the days gone? What happened? Why didn’t I make use of my time?”
Look how Jesus made use of his time. Look how Daddy Bosworth made use of
his time. Look how Paul made use of his time. Look how Moses did. All of
those people were followers of God; they were sowers of the Word of God.
Nothing meant anything to them but the Word of God; everything else was
void. They just said, “Well, whatever happens, it doesn’t matter.
I’m looking to Almighty God.” All right.

42.	So, here we are with this very unique person. Now this unique person
is perfect, because you had to have a perfect lamb, and he was the Lamb
of God. So, he was perfect in every detail. There was nowhere that he
ever missed the Word of God—that he ever misbehaved. At no time did he
fail to fulfill the Word of God. He is our Good Friday tonight. He is
the one that was crucified.

43.	Now, let’s just go to Acts 20:28.

(28)	Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and unto the flock, over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God,
which God hath purchased with his own blood.

	There you are. Jesus was the blood of God. He had to be. This is how
Bro. Branham could receive from God the revelation of how God took that
sperm and egg, created it, and could bring forth perfection. And yet, at
the same time, Jesus was given a choice. The devil came to him and said,
“Why not do this? Why not do that? Why not do the other thing?” And
God was with him.

	So, God felt in flesh, because he had feelings. He, together with the
Son, was tempted in all things. That’s exactly why God can bear with
our feelings. That’s exactly why God can love us. That’s exactly why
God can say, “I know your frame is dust. Though a righteous man fall
seven times, I will raise him up.” [Prov 24:16] That’s why God could
say David was a man after his own heart. There was just one thing
against him: the crime of Uriah—thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s
wife, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not murder; yet, he’s
still a man after God’s own heart.

	What do you think God felt like (when all power and judgment…because
he was God) when they ripped into him? Why could Jesus, when God left
him, say…? Because he had that body. That’s how God could die! He
died in the flesh, because there’s no way… God’s eternal. God’s
not born. No way. But he left the Son in the Garden of Gethsemane. But
God could turn the other cheek. God could forgive. He could put all
those words through the mouth of Jesus exactly. And then, on the cross
he said, “Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do.”
[Lk 23:34]

44.	There you have the picture of what I wanted to draw tonight, because
I wanted to simply combine two thoughts: there is only one God. And the
main reason that people think we believe there are two gods is because
of the gospels. The three gospels rightly eulogize Jesus. And the four
gospels rightly tell all the miracles and the things which were done.
They tell the good things; they tell the bad things. But it was John
that made it very, very precise.

	And it is very precise: “There is one God.” Now, “‘Lo, a
body,’ Jesus said, ‘thou hast prepared for me.’” Of course, you
can’t find that in the Bible. Bro. Branham, I think, said it came from
Isaiah. The writers say it came from many places, and they named several
books, especially from the law, where they described the lamb and things
like that.

	But you take the word ‘prepared’, it actually means ‘fitted’.
Fitted. You made a body that’s fitted. And that’s exactly right.
You’ve made one; it was fit for God, it was fit for man, it was fit
for propitiation, for death upon the cross. It was very fit. It was so
fit, the Bible said concerning it, centuries before, “Thou will not
leave my soul in hell; neither shall thou suffer thy holy one to see
corruption.” [Ps 16:10; Acts 2:27]

	And he said, “Destroy this temple, and I’ll raise it again within
three days.” [Jn 2:19] And he did it exactly. And, when he appeared,
even then they did not believe. But he didn’t appear to many.

	And, when Lazarus was raised from the dead, it was told, I think by
Josephus, that the people tried to kill him to get rid of his testimony.

45.	But Jesus did not die in vain. God did not just come down here in
human flesh—not exactly human flesh, but in the image, in the form of,
and take upon himself as it were of the seed of Abraham, the lineage of
David, and to give us a savior. That savior now is our mediator, because
he hasn’t changed. If he forgave the woman taken in adultery two
thousand years ago, he does the same thing today. If he forgives a thief
upon the cross, (Who, no doubt, was a murderer, something like that.) he
forgives a murderer today. If he multiplies loaves and fishes, under the
right conditions, he would do the same thing again.

	As I said, I saw the dead raised on two occasions. I saw numerous other
miracles that were so fantastic to see: people that were bent over and
so crippled, suddenly just straight. To see a cancer case, with the
stomach just flattened down, and the person get up and walk. To see the
blind see. To see the deaf hear, the dumb speak. Just case after case
after case. Just thousands of actual miracles by the power of God.

46.	And he’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He hasn’t
changed. But, what he did back there two thousand years ago is for our
redemption and to make it possible that we could be redeemed back to
him. Because ‘redeem’ means ‘to buy back’. It means you have
been taken from the original place or the original owner, and now
you’ve gone back to him. And the original owner now has the right to
do what he wanted to do for you and with you. And that’s the
Millennium coming up.

	Now in the Millennium, in my understanding, you’re not going to go
around looking like angels with haloes and white garments that shine
like Mount Transfiguration, because Jesus never did that in the
Resurrection. And I think it might be kind of difficult to plant fig
trees and vines and build buildings with that kind of… Well, that
might not be, but I think it might be. And, remember; Philip wasn’t
even transfigured when he was caught up and quickened by the quickening
power of God and lifted 150 miles away.

47.	So, this Good Friday, we have much to be thankful for: that it
actually is a redemption that you can rely upon. We have been redeemed,
not with silver and gold, (which we’re going to walk upon the streets
of gold) but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And ‘precious’
means ‘something that is very, very dear’. You know, if something is
really precious, it also means that its very scarce, because you know It
says the Word of God was precious in those days. It was scarce. It was a
scarcity.

	And I want to tell you the Word of God today is very precious. It is
precious in two ways: It is scarce, and It’s very rare. And there are
very few people that have it. They don’t want it. I don’t understand
why, as a human being. As a child of God, I do understand, because It
wasn’t meant for them. It was meant for you and me. And that’s why
the blood of Jesus Christ was shed. It was for the sheep that went
astray.

48.	Jesus gave a parable. He said there was a man that had a hundred
sheep. He said one went astray. And he went out, and he finally caught
it, and he put it on his shoulders and brought it home. And he told all
his friends, he said, “Come on, rejoice; I’ve found the lost
sheep.” And he said he was rejoicing over one lost sheep that he found
more than over ninety and nine just people that needed no repentance.
Just one out of one hundred. How many were in Israel when the seven
thousand hadn’t bowed the knee? How many people that left Egypt? Only
two over twenty; a couple million left. All the rest died. See?

49.	But we have a Savior tonight that’s more than… As you look at
the truth, it’s more than just reciting that God gave His
Only-begotten Son to the world, to His own people, His own possession,
because He created them, He made them, and they didn’t want it. But,
as many as received him, to them he gave eternal life. But, why
wouldn’t they come? They wouldn’t come, because they couldn’t
receive the light.

50.	Everybody talks about Jesus tonight, on Good Friday, having died.
But, how many can receive what I’ve just told you: what kind of a
savior he was? How he got conceived? How he came into this world? What
was he really? Who was he? What was his genealogy? What’s his name? He
said [Jn 5:43], “I came in my Father’s Name, and you don’t receive
me. A man going to come in his own name, and you’ll receive
him”—antichrist. He’s coming pretty soon. He could be alive on
this earth right now. I don’t know. I’m not sure about that. I
couldn’t say.

	But I can say this: this is one Friday that we know that Jesus died.
How do we know he died on Friday? Because he rose at the first of the
week. And Bro. Branham, they asked him, if It says Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of the whale and the son of man would be
three days in the heart of the earth…? And Bro. Branham said,
“Within…” And that is absolutely correct, because in genealogy a
part of a day is counted as a whole day, a part of a week is called a
whole week, and a part of a year is called a whole year. How come people
don’t understand the seventieth week, Jesus, messiah, was cut off?
That only leaves three and a half years. Well, they said, because, in
the middle of the week… Now the covenant’s broken. That three and a
half stands for one whole week. They don’t get it. But, you see, Bro.
Branham explained it easier, he said ‘within.’

	So, we have our message tonight. I’m finished.

[Bro. Vayle continues with the Communion and Foot-washing service.]

1	As we partake of the Lord’s Supper tonight, just remember that
you’re taking emblems of something that’s a million times more
sacred than anyone could imagine. The value of a redeemed soul, the fact
that that Blood made the only way that God could seal you into His
kingdom; because, if a man is truly covered by the Blood, (It scatters
sin until there be no evidence.) how can they be a sinner? Now he
becomes a righteous man. And God can give him the Holy Ghost. Think how
it was that God was in Christ reconciling the world. It doesn’t say
that Christ reconciled the world; it said that God reconciled the world.

	The Bible says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have
peace with God.” [Rom 5:1] That doesn’t say that I’m at peace with
God. It says that God’s at peace with me. I can’t ruffle His
feathers. I can’t make Him do things in spite or anger against me. He
sees me through the Blood; He only hears my voice. And Bro. Branham
said, “When you pray in the name of Jesus, then Jesus takes your
prayer, and then, he gives it to the Father.” Now we have the three of
us holding hands.

2.	This is what the death, the Good Friday, the crucifixion means,
because we’re looking at somebody far beyond, then, what we’ve ever
envisioned, learning more than we’ve ever learned, appreciating more
than we’ve ever appreciated, understanding more than we’ve ever
understood, and thereby, growing as we’ve never grown before and,
thereby, being fitted for the kingdom of God. How are you fitted by the
kingdom of God? Only God can fit you. He said, “Lo a body hast thou
prepared for me:” one that’s fitting, one that I can be united with,
one that’s going to be satisfactory.

	How much more, then, is God, through Jesus Christ, indwelling him, and
thereby tasting for us all those elements of life that we have been put
through, able to help us? And He does, and He understands us, and He
forgives us. And that’s why It says, “Examine yourself.” [1 Cor
11:28] 

	I think examining ourselves is more than just looking at ourselves and
saying, “Well, I did this, and I’ve got to make this right, and I
have made this, and I’ve done that right and not the other thing.” I
think it’s more than that. I think it’s looking up and knowing more
about God, more about your relationship, more about the steadfastness
that you have in Him, more of that reality, because He said, “I am the
way, the reality and the light.” Who do you think spoke that? I
believe God spoke that through the Son.

3.	So, as you take communion tonight, and I take communion, let us
understand that that Blood, represented by the wine, could only come
through a broken body. And think of that body, so wonderfully fitted,
that it housed the two glories of heaven, and yet that body was broken,
and he was made sin for us that we might know the righteousness of God.
He said, “For we have become the righteousness of God through Jesus
Christ.” [2 Cor 5:21] The broken body gave us that shed Blood; the
shed Blood gave us the Holy Ghost; and that is what God has done for us.

	And now the only thing left is what Bro. Branham said and what Paul
said in Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: the life that I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.” 

	And Paul said, “I’ve learned to get out of the way. I’ve learned
to let God take over. I’ve learned to let him have his way in my
life.” And he did.

	And we, in a measure, have it. But, brother/sister, I think every
communion service should give us a deeper understanding and a deeper
desire to go on with the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that with my sight
not as good as it should be, and I know with the problems that I have at
my age, which came about three years ago… This is the first time in
about three years I’ve been here. I know that the greatest comfort I
have is reading Bro. Branham’s sermons. At that time the world is a
different world; it’s a different place; it’s a different life.
Everything is different. And that’s what the Word of God does.
That’s what God does through His Word, because He never fails. 

	Let’s rise at this time.

	Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your being with us tonight. We praise
You, Lord, that You give us strength and You give us the ability to be
able to confer a few thoughts that we wanted to share with the people.

	And we pray, Lord, as communion is taken tonight, that it will be more
real than ever to realize that this unique one, this one who really was
more than the image of God in the sense that God, You, Yourself, Lord,
indwelt that body, You blueprinted it, and Jesus, therefore, became the
blood of God. As Paul said that You gave Your Blood for the church, and
it seems, Lord, that as we human beings realize it’s Your spirit,
simply do not realize to sufficient depths what Bro. Branham taught us
and what Your Word here says by Paul.

	We pray that You’ll help us tonight to realize that this is more than
a symbol. This is looking at reality, and that reality is ours, that we
have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord, by God, that we have been
cleansed, and not only that, but filled with the spirit that was
motivating that body. And that spirit, Lord, we know, has not lost
it’s motivation, has not lost it’s power, and that You, Lord, are
dealing with us daily. Help us to believe as never before, to get out of
the way, Lord, and let You have Your right of way.

	Forgive us now, Father, for any of our sins where we have been rude or
where we have been contemptuous or any way we have not submitted
ourselves as we should have submitted ourselves, where we have not
praised when we could have praised, Lord.

	We just ask You, Father, to cleanse us of all those things and restore
any joy we’ve lost of Your salvation, that our hearts might be glad
and rejoice in You and we might serve You by serving others and love You
by loving others and fulfill Your Will, because this is the only time we
have to do it; and these days are short. We consecrate ourselves now to
You, Father, as we gather at Your table. In the name of Jesus Christ,
our savior, we pray. Amen

[Communion service follows.]