The Projecting of Love #9

God Is Love

Real, Genuine, Unfeigned Love

September 1, 1984

	Shall we pray. Heavenly Father, we’re privileged people to be here
tonight, You in our midst, Lord, blessing us and we, also, loving and
blessing each other. We’re grateful for that privilege to know that
love can abound, grace can abound, where so much is in the world in
animosity. We know what the Scripture says that the world hates us,
therefore, there’s a tremendous amount of hate out there, but we know
there’s a great love that’s greater than all hate, and we know
there’s a very bad spirit out there, but the Spirit in us is greater
than he that’s in the world.

	We thank You, Lord, tonight that we have this assurance. We pray now
that You’ll teach us in Your Word, guard our thoughts, our minds,
Lord, that we might know what Your Word says, that we might be able to
stand with It, to believe that that Word is still the same, living Word
of the living God that a sower went forth to sow, and, if You were that
One, the Son of man is the sower, then absolutely, It has to bring forth
the seed that was sown, or it wasn’t right in the first place. So,
Father, we believe Your Word. There’s got to be a life. There’s got
to be these things come forth in the seed sown. So, help us to get to be
one with that Seed Word, Lord, and It might be our life. In Jesus’
Name, we pray. Amen.

	You may be seated.

1.	Now, I want to continue on “The Projecting of Love”, (I suppose
this could be number 8 or 9; I don’t know.) and try to bring it into a
simple form tonight to be able to teach periodically on some of the
points that are lined up here in Scripture for us. So now, over a period
of time we have been studying the subject of love in order to establish,
if possible, an understanding. Now you’ll notice I use the
terminology, ‘an understanding’.

2.	A lot of people, you know, kind of rush into building things. They
don’t have the first idea of how it’s to be built, and, if they had
an understanding, the building would be according to specifications and,
then, acceptable by the inspector of the building. And the Scripture
says that there’s only one foundation which has been laid, Jesus
Christ the Righteous, and we’re to be careful how we build thereon.
You notice, It doesn’t say ‘what’ you build, It says ‘how’ you
build. And this is something that most people don’t want to accept
from the prophet’s message. That’s why Pentecost turned him down,
and he could get nowhere with them. They didn’t like the blueprint
idea. Well…

3.	So, that’s what we’re trying to do is establish a blueprint to
find, if possible, an understanding of spiritual or Bible love. And this
is desperately needed to be known and fully identified because for
everything that is true, there is a false. Now you know that’s true
that there were two trees in the Garden, and one was a perversion of the
other. Now there’s twins, like Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau.
There’s false vines, for it is (The Bible says so.) there’s a true
vine and a false vine; there’s a wild vine. And there are true
promises, and there are false promises, and it’s up to us to know the
truth because only the truth can set us free. And since all things must
come to the light, then there must be a light to come to when we’re
talking about love.

4.	Thus, we know without a doubt there is a genuine or real, genuine
love, and there is a false love. Now the Scripture asserts that in Rom
12:9, where It says, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” Now in the
Bible you’ve got, It says, “Be without dissimulation.” Well, you
don’t even know two bits what dissimilation means. Now, let’s face
it. ‘Unfeigned’. Well, anybody knows what a hypocrite is. If you
don’t know what a hypocrite is, well, you know what I mean; you’re
sure in bad shape because that’s a very strong word. But that’s what
It says here, “Let love be without hypocrisy. In your loving, don’t
be a hypocrite.”

5.	Now, someone will try to say, “Well, you’ve got the real thing,
but be careful.”

	Now, look; don’t give me that stuff. I left Pentecost and that stuff
years ago. I want to know, even if I go to hell for it, “What is the
truth?” See? See, you got to come to the place the definitive.

	Bro. Branham said, “You go to Bro. Neville, go to somebody, and if
he’s not an absolute, then you come to me;” said, “There’s got
to be an absolute.” Now I don’t say we claim to have an absolute
here. I’m looking for an absolute because I’m convinced that every
single thing we have been taught has gone to seed in the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. And to get back to the Tree of Life, we’re
going to have to get back to the original where everything was good,
where there’s nothing that’s gaummed up, as Bro. Branham would say.

6.	Now, let love be without hypocrisy. There’s also a further warning
of this monstrous possibility of a hypocritical love in 1 Pet 1:22. Now,
let’s just take a look at that one.

(22)	Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one
another with a pure heart fervently:

(22)	Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto (unhypocritical) love. 

	The word ‘feigned’ is the same as ‘dissimilation’. It comes
from the same root word. It’s the same word meaning hypocritical.

(22)	…See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. 

	Now It tells you there’s a seed there that can bring forth what
we’re after. We might go back to that later.

7.	Now, the quote in Rom 12:9 was in the context of ministries. We’ll
go back and look at It.

(9)	Let love be without dissimulation. (Let’s, first of all…)

(6)	Having then gifts differing according to the grace…whether
prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

(7)	Or ministry, …wait on our ministering: or…(teaching), on
teaching;

(8)	…he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives…with simplicity;
he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

(9)	Let love be without dissimulation.

	Now It tells you right there that you can have ministries and be just
as big a hypocrite under God’s high heaven with that ministry as
‘all get out’. So, It’s talking about ministries. Over in Peter
It’s talking about association. So, you can go to a church that’s
full of gifts of the Spirit, manifestations, the Holy Ghost, everything
going and people think it’s in divine order and the people kissy,
kissy, lovey, lovey, and they’re all going to hell, period. I don’t
care what anybody says. Don’t talk to me because I’ve got beyond
talking to you. My mind’s been made up. I may go to hell, too. So,
I’ll go to hell. Not that I want, not that you want, but I’m going
to tell you one thing: the Word of God’s true, and every man’s word
is a lie.

8.	Now It tells you right here, these gifts and ministries can be in a
hypocritical spirit and by a hypocrite, and the associations amongst
each other can be the same rotten thing. And the worst thing about it
all is they are deceived and deceiving. They think they got the real
McCoy. You talk to the false anointed, and you tell him he’s off the
Word; he’ll tell you where you’re off.

9.	Now, there’s some more counterfeits in the Bible, just want to
bring them to your attention to this so that you may know what we’re
talking about. Why I am stirred up and interested in at least getting a
blueprint, if I don’t get any further, and I don’t think that’s
going to be our problem. I believe God will help us. 1 Timothy 1:5:

(5)	Now the end of the commandment is (love) out of a pure heart, and of
a good conscience, (with unhypocritical faith).

	Now you can have a hypocritical faith, a put-on faith, a sect faith, a
church faith, a denominational faith. Notice, pure love out of a pure
heart. There’s only one kind of a pure heart, and that’s one been
washed by the Blood and full of the Holy Ghost. All right.

10.	Let’s go to 2 Timothy 1:5

(5)	When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee…

	Now, this man had a real faith, a real revelation. In other words, a
lot of folk around there didn’t, but he had the real one. Now, if this
were not so, a true and a false, there would be no way that Bro. Branham
could have preached “The Anointed Ones at the End Time”. And
remember under what conditions he called those prophets to be false.

11.	So, let’s go back to Matthew 7, where Matthew 24 comes from.

(15)	Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

	Now It tells you right there they got every manifestation of a sheep,
but inside they’re a bunch of heathens. Now I know that people say,
“Well, now, Bro. Vayle.” 

	Don’t Bro. Vayle me. The Bible said they are deceived and deceiving,
and a deceived man knows he’s right. Now you can cut his tongue out,
and he’s still right because he’s got a spirit on him. What do you
think deception is all about? “Oh, some little kid, you know, playing
cops and robbers with a…”

	Well, you better wake up because this is for eternity.

12.	(16)	You’ll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of
thorns, figs of thistles?

(17)	Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; …corrupt tree
brings forth evil fruit. (They’ve got a wrong seed somewhere and a
wrong tree somewhere.)

(18)	A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither…a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit. 

	Now that’s encouraging. That’s encouraging because it happens that
love is one of the fruits of the spirit, although I go far beyond that.

(19)	Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down, and
cast into the fire.

(20)	Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.

	Why say, “Wherefore by your fruits?” That’s where you’re
drawing your conclusion. It tells you right there, if you’re putting
on an act, you’ll end up in the lake of fire.

13.	Now, notice:

(21)	Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which 	is in
heaven.

(22)	(And) many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name…cast out devils? and in thy
name done many wonderful works?

	Now Pentecostal folk will tell you, “A lot of people got the guts to
stand up before God on that great judgment day and say, ‘Well,
Lord…’” You know, tell a lie.

	Do you think they’re going to tell lies and say, “Well, Lord, I
cast out devils in Your name,” and they didn’t do it? Or they’ll
say, “Well, these were backslid.”

	I got news for you they never had anything in the first place. They
were wrong seed, wrong trees. 

(23)	And…I’ll (say) to them, depart from me, I never knew you. 

14.	All right, now. We cannot cut off at verse 23 because verse 24
starts with the word ‘therefore’, and therefore means that something
has been said to set the stage for a further something which is very,
very necessary.

(24)	Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

(25)	And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell not: (because) it was founded upon
a rock.

(26)	And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, be likened unto a foolish man, (who) built his house upon the sand.

	And of course, the rains came and the winds came, the floods descended,
and so on, and the house broke down. Now, we must be careful, in verse
26. [Matthew 7]

(26)	And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand.

	Now, don’t forget that that verse belongs to verse 15, and the people
of that character. 

(15)	Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

	They are professing, manifesting Christians without the seed. And
you’ll notice what It says here. They have heard, but they can’t do
them, and they’ve got a house built upon sand. All right.

15.	Now, listen! The other man had a house built upon a rock. Now, what
did Bro. Branham say a rock was? He said, “It was revelation.” Now,
what is sand? It is pulverized rock. What is this Bible, as It stands
here tonight? Pulverized rock. Let the Holy Spirit come and give a
revelation; you’ve got a rock.

	And these people here can take the Scripture, weave the Scripture, but
they place It out of context and have no spiritual understanding, and
they act with presumption, the same as Cain did. He said, “Well, I got
the same Bible,” he said, “I can tell you that, sure, there’s a
blood sacrifice, but I want to tell you there’s this offering here,
too, and I’m going this way.”

	Like Pentecost always said, “Yes, bless God, you’ve got to speak in
tongues to have the Holy Ghost.” But you don’t. They have to end up
in the ditch. It’s not that some will not have the Holy Ghost that
speak in tongues, but you don’t have to, to do so. See?

16.	Now, that’s why Bro. Branham had to come at the end time to put us
back upon the rock because that’s where it started. It was not a
fragmented Word. It was a whole Word. Take one Word and you die. Add one
word, and you die. If an angel of God comes down, an angel straight from
God comes down, changes one word, [Bro. Vayle makes sound, ‘kkkk’.]
finish him off. Curse him in the name of the Lord God.

	Now we have to come back under the Seals to get back to the rock. See?
And remember; the rock of offense is always the Word. So, these people
don’t have any foundation because they haven’t a revelation, and
they cannot accept the revelation because they want that which they make
their foundation. That’s why Bro. Branham said, “I’ll make you a
pillar in the temple of my God; make you a part of the foundation.”
Now, that’s why Bro. Branham also said in “The Masterpiece”, which
we recently studied, “He is the doctrine; He is the whole Word; He is
that reality.” Now you keep that in mind as we go a little further.

17.	Now, since we see this, that there is the false love, a wrong kind
of love, a deceiving love, I, therefore, want to make a point as to
these messages being what they are, because they go a lot of places. And
what they are is to appear negative to those who can’t understand, and
so, there are those who say I do not believe in love or have any use for
love as to its practice. Now, that’s not true. I have been driven to
attempt to find out about love and know if I am a true lover or if I am
a hypocrite, because John, the Beloved, said in 1 Jn 4:8, and also verse
16, he says, “God is love,” Now, that places some kind of love as to
be the very nature of Almighty God. The two are in a union, or one
expressing the other.

	So John said, “God is love.” Now, that’s a categorical statement,
and since It is said about God Himself, we had better receive It exactly
as It is said (It is a categorical expression.) and try to understand
it, because whatever love we have is based on His love, because It says,
“We love Him because He first loved us.” And also, we can only do
certain things because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. 

18.	Now, one can be an absolute phony, the other absolute true. And they
can stand there and look exactly alike, but they’re not, because they
got two different sources. And so, we accept it as fact; that is, that
God is love, even apart from a revelation. We don’t even need a
revelation at this point. We categorically accept the fact that God is
love because God Himself says He is through a prophet, and we believe in
prophets. It is the truth that God is love.

	But we do not accept that statement that “God is love” as an
exclusive, definite, epitomizing of God for God not only said, “I am
love,” but He said, “I am Light… I am the light. I am the Word. I
am Truth. I am the Way. I am a Spirit.” He is also Creator. He’s
Maintainer. He’s Savior. He’s Judge. He’s King. He’s all of it.

19.	And the reason I say “He’s all of it” is because there’s
nothing out here now or with us that shall be but what already was in
Him in the order of His understanding. So, God is everything. So
therefore, we simply cannot take one statement and run to the extent of
refusing to accept equally, or even more importantly, if some of the
things are said about God are more important, than that one definition.
So, we cannot accept one thought only.

20.	So, here’s what I’m looking at. There are three things that we
find mostly in John’s gospels and the epistles that are said about God
Himself. And, if we understand those three things that are said, I
believe we will be on track in the Kingdom of God, and we will not be
derailed.

	Number one: God is a Spirit. Number two: God is the Word. Number three:
God is love. That really covers it all. All right. 

21.	Keep this in mind, we are talking about a person, and that Person is
God. And when we now talk about His personal deity we are actually
saying, “In the beginning God.” The reason I say that because
you’re going right back to the beginning. You’re going right back to
where there’s nothing but God. You’re going back to pure essence.
You’re going back to Him, and you’re just watching Him, so to speak.

	We are saying, “In the beginning God.” So, we start with God the
Person and we must now stop and ask ourselves. What is God? What is He
like? Where is He? What is He doing? What does He expect of me? What can
I expect of Him? And so on and on and on you can go.

22.	We first ask, “What is God?” And the answer is: God is a Spirit.
Now, let’s look at the fact of God being Spirit. So, we go to Jn 4:24.

(24)	God is a Spirit… (That’s exactly what It says.)

	Now, that’s the same thing It says in Genesis, “In the beginning
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the earth, even though darkness
was there.” Now, let’s begin to turn to some Scriptures that are not
exclusively in that realm, but they’re enough in that realm that they
serve our purpose. So, we go to… It would be 1 Tim 6:15-16.

(15)	(Who) in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

(16)	Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and
power everlasting. Amen.

23.	Now he’s dealing in the realm of the spirit because you simply
cannot see a spirit. Now, people think they can, and the closest you
come to seeing a spirit is where you take the word ‘naphash’ where
you, on a cold day…and you got a hot breath in your lungs, you blow
that breath out into the air, and you will see that form in the air.
That’s spirit. That’s pretty well what they call it, and that’s
about the best you can do as to say, “Well, there can be a
manifestation, but you can’t pin it down. You don’t know the
score.”

	It’s like Jesus said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, the
spirit breathed…the spirit moves where he wills. You can’t tell
where he’s coming, where he’s going; you don’t understand those
things.” There’s a great mystery. So, when you talk of spirit,
you’re bound up here in a mystery. And It says here that he dwells in
a light that no man can approach unto, no man has ever seen, no man can
see, and I guess no man ever will see under the condition of pure
spirit. I don’t have any Word that we’ll ever see Him as Spirit; the
Pillar of Fire, this, that and the other thing, sure. Okay.

24.	In 1 Cor 2:11:

(11)	For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man
(that) is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the
Spirit of God.

	Now God is, therefore, confined all revelation of Himself to Himself:
He said, “Nobody knows a thing about me. You haven’t seen me. You
can’t touch me. You can’t do this or that. I’m here all by
myself.”

	Also in Jn 1:18 It said here that:

(18)	No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is
in the bosom of the Father, he hath (drawn) him (forth or thoroughly led
him forth and presented him by way of Word).

25.	So, all right. We understand here, then, we’re looking at the
thought that this is Spirit, and we have noticed that when we speak of
God being Spirit, there is no way we can let that stand by Itself and
our understanding be fruitful. You can never simply say, “Well, all
right, that God is Spirit.” We read in Scripture where that leaves
you. It leaves you high and dry; it leaves you cold. You’re out there
in the never, never land of mystery. You’ve got to have something get
to you, or something from you get to It, or there is no hope.

	Now our understanding, then, is unfruitful by ourselves. We could get,
and that would be a wild guess, but that would be all, because who can
define spirit. There’s nobody can define spirit. You can’t see it
under a microscope. They never will see life. There’s no way that
science will ever see it. It’s in a seed that lies there dead. Throw
the water on it, throw the light on it, watch something begin to happen
through a chemistry. People can’t understand.

26.	So, instantly we go to point number two, which is already a part of
point number one, and that is, that God is the Word. And you can
understand, if we go to the Bible to get definition, we would have to
find, if God is Word, there’d be an interconnection between everything
else He is. Okay, [John 1]

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

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

	Now we understand what the Word is: It’s an expression of a thought,
and the expression contains the thought, which means that God put
Himself into manifestation, and that manifestation was not only on the
grounds of something which could be apprehended some way through the
senses but also defined by reason of verbal intercourse—exposition.
All right.

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

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

(3)	All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made. (And then It says:) 

(18)	No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath (led) him (forth, or he is telling
exactly who he is).

	So therefore, now God has a way of conveying to the people something
about Himself even though He is Spirit, and though man cannot work in
the realms of the spirit, (because man himself is not pure spirit;
he’s physical as well as spirit,) he would not be able, then, to
launch into a realm of himself which is purely spiritual, purely
neglecting everything in the physical. So, God has a way of dealing with
him which, of course, is by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

28.	Now, we go to Mt 16:13-17, and we can see some of the same thing
we’re talking about here.

(13)	When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, …Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

(14)	And they said, Some say…you are John the Baptist: some Elijah;
(some) Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

(15)	He (said)… But (who do) you say I am?

(16)	And…Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

(17)	And Jesus answered…, Blessed art thou, Bar-jona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

(18)	…and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell
will not prevail against it.

	So, you can see right here, we are talking now in terms of the fact
that God is the Word. In other words, whatever essentially God is He has
a way of projecting Himself as to His essentiality and our relationship
to It. So, a meaningful relationship develops, which, of course, will be
a Father and Son in the great family of Almighty God.

29.	Now, there’s no need to belabor the point I am making. It is this:
the true knowledge of God, whether He be invisible or visible, cannot be
had unless God Himself reveals it to us about Himself. Well, that’s
what we got to understand. God has got to be in the business of the
definitive revelation of Himself, and whatever He wants us to know we
ought to know, have a right to know or anything else, He’s going to be
the Author of It.

30.	So we go to 2 Tim 3:1-9.

(1)	Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

(2)	For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

(3)	Without natural affection, (sounds like the dregs of the human race)
trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good,

(4)	Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; (Now, notice in there: see the word ‘love’ coming up.)

(5)	Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such
turn away.

(6)	For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

(7)	Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

(8)	Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist
the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

	Now It tells you right there, here are people at the end time in the
perilous times that Peter talks of, in the perilous time that Jesus
talks of, and you cannot separate them. You cannot say, “Well, this is
just a bunch of bums in the gutters out there, and they don’t have any
church, and they don’t have religion. They’re just a bunch of scum
bums; that’s all. And over here, oh, these are the Pentecostals, bless
God; they got a little bit more, hallelujah.”

31.	This ‘hallelujah’… Let’s get this thing straight. This is
one picture about the whole shebang. As far as I’m concerned it is. I
don’t see any way it should be otherwise. Otherwise I got Jesus
telling one picture, Paul telling a picture, Peter telling a picture,
and I don’t see anything. I just see one thing that John said, “The
whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.” I see Bro. Branham
saying, “One word off is the kingdom of Satan.” I see John the
revelator seeing Jesus Christ outside the church. And, if He’s outside
the church, then what’s in the church? Whatever is inside, I don’t
want to be next to.

32.	Now It says here they’re reprobate.

(9)	But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be (made)
manifest unto all men, as their’s also was.

	Now I’m going to tell you something: when you want to look at that
verse, “proceed no further, their folly shall be made manifest,” you
go to people that are interested in church and the thing, the community
spirit and the praise of God are anything, then most of them are not in
the church as the house of prostitution, they’re not in there
fomenting for drugs and liquor, although some just might do it, not
many… The most say it’s a good place to be in. They’re talking
about some form of salvation or something.

	But It says here, “That their folly will be made manifest.” This is
the same category as the false anointed ones of Matthew 24, the ones in
sheep clothing. It’s a very same category. It can’t be anything
else, but they are false.

33.	Now we do not stop at verse 9. We read verse 10. “Their folly
made…” but now we go to verse 10.   [2 Timothy 3]

(10)	But thou hast fully known my doctrine, (my) manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, (love), (and) patience, (You notice; he
said, “You have known my doctrine, and Christ is the doctrine. The
Only-begotten has thoroughly declared Him.)

(11)	Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them…the
Lord delivered me. (Now, up here they are not having the persecutions.
It’s down below they’re having it.) 

(12)	Yea, and all that…live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.

(13)	But evil men and seducers (Now, notice.) …evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (They’re
deceived. You can’t tell them they’re wrong. There’s no way. They
can’t bring their understanding to the light. They can’t do it. Now,
listen!)

(14)	But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast
been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.

	These people up here don’t have vindication. They’re a Jannes and
Jambres bunch, which shows a spirit of hell and antichrist, idolatry.
Down here was a prophet, a vindicated prophet who taught the boy right.

34.	(15)	And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. (Now these men have left the Word above. These men
haven’t. Now, watch…)

(16)	All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

(17)	That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works.

	Now It puts the premium, therefore, upon the Word. What you have been
taught is the criterion. See? Now, if you’re wrong seed, it won’t do
you any good, but you got to have a criterion there. All right. 

35.	To further, and hopefully clarify, my point, there’s absolutely
nothing that is the truth about God about Himself personally and His
ways unless He Himself somehow can give, or has given us, His Own truth
about it all. And I said to that…my notes says, “Amen and Amen.”
That’s exactly where I put it. The definitive revelation about God has
to come from God, and you don’t get it by putting two and two
together. It becomes a revelation. Now, for this proof we go to Mt
11:25-27.

(25)	At that time Jesus answered…, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and revealed…unto babes.

(26)	Even so, Father: for it seemed good in thy sight.

(27)	All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the
Son, and he to (whom) the Son will reveal him.

	Now, that’s a closed revelation. It’s a closed circuit. If you
can’t get into the circuit of the Father and the Son, you haven’t
got a revelation, period. You can join the Methodist church, the Baptist
church, you can speak in tongues, you can do every good deed under high
heaven, you can promote yourself as a great Christian, but unless
you’re in that closed circuit, you’re wrong. It takes that
revelation.

36.	Now, let’s go to Romans 1. We read this many times. Romans
1:16-22:

(16)	For I am not ashamed of the gospel of (Jesus) Christ: for it is the
	power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew
first, …also to the Greek.

(17)	For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith: as (it’s) written, The just shall live by faith. (Eternal life
only comes through revelation. See? That’s where, brother, it’s been
revealed to you. See?)

(18)	For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (down) the truth in
unrighteousness. 

	Notice what they’re doing. They’re holding down the truth. See? You
get Amos try to go and preach the truth in Israel. Kick him out. You get
Micaiah. Put him in jail. You get Jeremiah. Throw him in jail. You get
Isaiah. Saw him up with saws. They hold It down.

(19)	Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God
hath (thoroughly) shewed it (to) them.

(20)	For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so…they are without excuse:

(21)	Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. 

	Now It tells you right here that at one time they had a true,
definitive revelation. Now, that’s exactly what Paul said. He said,
“I espoused you to Christ as a virgin, but,” he said, “I believe
that Satan has crept in.” And he said, “He seduced you by way of the
mind.” So, when you finally end up at the end of the ages, you’ll
have a wrong Jesus, a wrong spirit, and a wrong word. And when you’ve
got that much, everything else is wrong because all you got left is a
destitute spirit of man controlled by a powerful spirit of hell that’s
one hundred percent antichrist.

37.	(21)	(Now they knew him as God, …they) weren’t thankful. (They)
became vain in their (reasonings) and their foolish (hearts were)
darkened.

(22)	Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

	What he’s telling you right there is that they turned aside the
revealed Word of Almighty God, which God said concerning Himself, and
whatsoever pertained to the relationships between the two. Now you know
that’s exactly true. Israel got to the place where the Talmud or the
crazy books they had, they worried about how much work you could do on a
Sabbath. Why they said, “If you’ve got too many nails in your shoes,
or too many things hanging on you, you’re working.”

	Well, some people would call that working if they didn’t have
anything hanging on them. But that’s man; he messes everything up.

38.	Now it is very important today to make note, it is not God, it is
not the people making God a creature or a beast, but men are lovers of
themselves. They have become their own god by way of a perverted
revelation and have put Christ out. They have made the church the door
to salvation and, thereby, become antichrist. See?

	Now, this church is so perverted and things so perverted at the end
time that they will not have a revelation or a knowledge of God and the
things of God. Now, that perversion of which we speak of ends up in a
Sodom condition physically and an antichrist condition spiritually, as
It says in 2 Th 2:8-12. 

39.	Now we’ve read that many times, also, but we’ll go into It.

(8)	…then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
his (Presence):

(9)	Even him, whose (Presence) is after the working of Satan with all
power…signs and lying wonders, (Now, that’s a physical showdown at
that time. Not a spiritual; spiritual is going on now.)

(10)	And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. 

	Now It doesn’t say one thing that God isn’t Savior anymore. It
doesn’t say one thing there isn’t a propitiation. It doesn’t say
there’s not an atonement. It doesn’t say there’s not a Mediator,
an Intercessor. It doesn’t say any of those things. What It does, It
tells you flat that they would not receive the love of the truth. Now,
if they didn’t have a love of the truth, how could they have a proper
love in their lives? because it’s not that we love God; but that He
loved us. And the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost. So, we have an unfeigned love of the brethren. See? All right. 

40.	Let’s read further. 

(11)	And for this cause God will send them strong delusion, …they
should believe (the) lie:

(12)	That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.

	Now, notice where the pleasure is supposed to be. The pleasure is
supposed to be in the revelation—a true revelation of the true God in
a true Bride. And they can’t stand it. They don’t want a thing to do
with it. What the best they can possibly do with it is try to make a new
patch on an old garment.

41.	Now, let’s go back again to 2 Tim 3:7-8.

(7)	Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

(8)	Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses…

	Now they had some kind of a power and authority in their midst. They
were the ones that said, “Well, all right, here’s blood in the
water; we’ll put blood in the water. Here’s this thing, and here’s
that thing, and that’s exactly how it works.” They were Matthew 24.
But what are they? They’re the false anointed coming against the
truth. They resist the truth. They are men of corrupt minds. They
can’t repent in the last hour when the Word of Truth comes and the
Seals were open. There’s no way. They are reprobate concerning faith. 

	That doesn’t say they don’t have faith. They’re reprobate! A
reprobate is a person who can’t get saved. He’s lost. He’s a
serpent seed, or he’s had his name taken out of the Book of Life. I
can’t reconcile those two, but I’m not smart enough, and I’m not
Christian enough or spiritual enough, to reconcile anything.

	So, don’t worry about the heat, Bill. I’m up here sweating, and
I’ll be sweating until I’m finished preaching, and, then, I’m
going home.

(8)	Now…men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. (You see
they turned It down. All right.)

42.	Now, let’s go to 2 Tim 4:1-5 in this hour.

(1)	I charge thee…before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, (All right.
For this hour we’re reading these verses that God gave Bro. Branham.)
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

(2)	Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

(3)	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts (pleasures) shall…heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears;

(4)	And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables.

(5)	But watch thou in all things, (and) endure afflictions, do the work
of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

	All right. Bro. Branham had this for this hour, and now hear me
carefully because of 2 Tim 4:1-5, and that is a prophet of the end time
right here: God lining him up with his position. Bro. Branham was called
a woman hater and without love and a condemner of people. Well?

	“Well,” they said, “Bro. Branham, why do you always bawl those
women out? Why are you always after them? Why don’t you teach them how
to have gifts?” In other words, “Bro. Branham, you do what we
consider to be love. You act love like we want it acted.”

	And he couldn’t do it because love is so foreign—that is, the love
of God in human concept—that it simply cannot gel. Yet William Branham
manifested God in flesh because he was a prophet. He revealed the Son of
man. He proved the Presence and the identity of the true God. And when
he did it, what happened? A message came forth. He didn’t correct a
situation the people wanted to see him correct. He didn’t do it if he
wanted to see it done. He didn’t do what anybody wanted done. He had
to do what God wanted done.

43.	A message came forth. That message, of course, is a Seven Church Age
message, over here in Revelation 3.

(14)	And unto the (messenger) of the church (which is in Laodicea)
write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
beginning of the creation of God.

	God Himself beginning to form Himself into a human being, that One down
here now, speaking. The revelation is of Elohim, the unveiling of the
Mighty God, the changing of the mask. You say, “How does that line
up?”

	They don’t like that.

	They say, “Well, who needs that? Get the people saved.”

	They can’t be saved any other way. They’ve so thoroughly divorced
the Word from the Holy Spirit, divorced the Word from Almighty God,
divorced love from the Word and all, until there’s nothing but a
mishmash. It’s pulverized rock. That’s all they’ve got. It will
never stand. This Bible is nothing but pulverized rock. So is religion
and so-called Christianity; it doesn’t have a foundation. There’s no
continuity to it, congruent or anything else.

44.	(15)	I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would
you were cold or hot.

(16)	So then because (you) are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will
spue (you) out of my mouth.

(17)	Because (you say, I am rich, increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and know not (you’re) wretched, …miserable, …poor,
…blind, …naked:

(18)	I counsel (you) to buy of me gold tried in the fire, (They don’t
have any.) that (you) may be rich; white raiment, (They don’t have
any; they’re naked.) the shame of (their) nakedness (appears); (They
are caught into the adulteries of creeds and denominations and sex;
that’s why they’re called the daughters of the prostitute. The old
harlot had prostitute daughters.) …anoint (your) eyes with eye-salve,
(Come and get the eyesalve; you haven’t got it.) that (you) may see
(because you can’t see).

	Back in the days of Jesus, they said, “Are we blind?”

	And he said, “Because you say you see, he said, ‘Your sins
remain.’ If you’d have said we can’t see...” 

	It’s like the Bible said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness.” But he said, “Blessed are they that are empty;
they shall be full. But,” he said, “they that are full shall be
turned away empty.” 

	He said, “He that hath shall be given that he may have more than them
that hath.” They don’t… From them should be taken even what they
do have, because they don’t have the right thing. 

45.	Now he said, “Listen,” [Revelation 3]

(19)	As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and
repent.

	Now, if William Branham was the one that stood instead for this age,
don’t even have to call him a prophet, just say if he was. Maybe he
wasn’t. But if he was, you show me where he could be outside of this
Word in the kind of the love that people want to tell you and me to
have. See, it won’t work.

(20)	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me.

(21)	To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and…set down with my Father in his throne.

(22)	He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said (to) the
churches.

	All right. A message came forth. That’s exactly what came forth. It
was not a message of condemnation. It was a message of correction. See,
all Scripture is for doctrine, for correction, instruction. But, if you
got the wrong revelation, where’s it going to leave you? And his
constant theme, William Branham’s constant theme, was love, but yet it
was Spirit and Word, and he dealt only in the realms of love through the
processes of the Word.

46.	So, I want to leave this understanding with you tonight concerning
love. God is love. There’s no two ways about it. “He that loveth is
of God.” That’s exactly right. But that depends on one thing. You
have to be born again, and the revealed Word in your life, and then your
actions, will take you on from there. And you will know whether you are
in love or not by how you line up with that Word. That’s right. You
can’t say, “Well, I’ll go by feeling of the spirit.” That can
leave you plumb overboard.

	The Spirit of God is given to teach us all things. Now, by God’s
help, since I’ve wanted just…make this sermon just as clear as I
could, as simple as I could, to set the premise, as clear as possibly
could be set, that God is love, God is Spirit, God is the Word. And you
haven’t got a clue about God outside the Word. And you haven’t got a
clue about love outside the Word. So, the main force and factor of
knowing God and a relationship with God and a relationship within the
church so that there are ministries and associations, there would have
to be a knowledge from the Word concerning all of It.

47.	Just look at the fact of gifts. It tells you everybody’s got a
gift. Romans 12 is the same as 1 Corinthians 12, only more elaborate,
opens up far more vistas and fields. And Bro. Branham came and put the
church in order. The church was out of order. See? Understand. Why did
they say, “How did that look like love?” Everybody wants to talk on
the floor. Everybody wants his own thing, his own idea.

	And Bro. Branham had to come and put the gifts in order. He had to come
and put lives in order. So therefore, what I’m trying to get across
tonight, and all I’m trying to get across these messages, is that we
have an absolute for everything, and that’s the revealed Word.

48.	And because people talk so glibly about love, (And there is a false
love as well as a true love.) we’ve got to know one from the other.
The Bible says, “Try the spirits.” How do you try any spirit? You
try it by the Word.

	Now, people come along, and they come to service, like many times
we’ve had, they say, “Oh well, it doesn’t feel like church.”

	No, because that woman or man wanted something light and fluffy. What
were they trying to do? They were trying to judge the Word by the
spirit. You can’t do that. You judge the spirit by the Word. Neither
do you judge anything else, even in love, by a so-called spirit of it:
find out if it’s right.

49.	Look at the way the church was in the beginning back there. Let’s
take a little look at that church. And I’m closing out now because
I’m all but finished. In Ephesians, here’s that great church that
had the revelation from Paul. He went down there, and he was the founder
of Ephesus himself. He took them on from old Apollos because he had
pastored down there for some time. He let them know the secret things of
God, and then he said: [Ephesians 1]

(13)	In whom you also (hoped), after…you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, you were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

(14)	Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Then he said,)

(15)	Wherefore also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and 
love unto all the saints,

(16)	Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers.

	Now, that was on the fresh revelation. That was in the original. They
had love, unfeigned love. There was no hypocrite down there. He didn’t
have to put the church in order. As Bro. Branham said, “They had the
gifts in the church but they were in order.” That church was under the
Word of Almighty God. Sure it was. And the love they had was because
they were full of the Holy Ghost and faith, which faith depends upon a
revelation.

50.	And Paul said, “You add one word or take one Word, you’re
finished. An angel of God come down and change my message, he’s
finished. I come back and change one word, I’m finished.” That’s
the sincerity of the Word of Almighty God. So therefore, you identify
God and everything in realms of God, in Christianity, through the Word.

51.	Now, let’s go back to Revelation 2, Paul having spoken and said in
2 Corinthians about the fall of the church. He said:

(2)	I know (your) works, …(your) labour, and…patience, and (you)
can’t bear them which are evil: …tried them which say they are
apostles, …, and found them liars:

(3)	And hast borne, and hast patience, for my name’s sake laboured,
and not fainted.

(4)	(But) I have somewhat against (you), (that) thou hast left thy first
love.

	Now, how did he know? What’s the criterion? You’d go into a church,
as dead as doornails according to Pentecostal people, and be one hundred
percent in divine order with the blessing of God richly bestowed, and
the Spirit of God moving in a sovereign manner amongst the people, and
they’d say, “Ain’t nothing to it.”

	See? What’s your criterion? What’s the criterion? I want to know.
If I know one thing, the prophet brought us to the Word. So therefore,
if there is something wrong with this first Church Age, it had to be
where Paul placed it. Now he said, “You be careful. You’ll get your
candlestick removed; you’ll get that taken away.” What started the
taking away? The barrel of the church got off the Word.

52.	So, I maintain tonight, that in this Gospel, there is the
definitive, solid, sovereign principle of love from God Himself, and
demanded of us. But, what is that love? That’s what I want to know.
It’s been amply proven the prophet was here; they didn’t know the
meaning of it. Back to Scriptures, “They loved not their lives unto
death.”

	These people are so scared of their churches—what their churches say,
all they can do is have their little black book and their creed, their
dogmas. Now the reason I’m preaching this way is because of what they
teach and they… Now, listen! Get my understanding what I’m bringing
you: God is Spirit, God is Word, God is love, and they make hay on the
one fact ‘God is love’. Now, that’s what I’m against. You cannot
make hay on that. No siree.

	You can’t go around mouthing about God, either, because you’ve
never seen Him, and you may never see Him. If He doesn’t identify
Himself, you have never any way of knowing, ever getting an
identification. He can do what He wants to you and me tonight—do what
He wants; nobody can stop that.

53.	The big thing is this: they have failed to realize, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and all things were made by Him.” And the same Scripture tells us over
in Colossians, “All things made by him, and all things are maintained
by him, and by faith we believe the worlds which we see and same things
are made of the unseen, which is the Word of Almighty God.”

	So, you reduce the whole thing back. We have a criterion to go by, and
I refuse to accept the criterion of this world that says, “Let us love
each other,” and in loving we are forced to deny, or at least
suppress, what we believe as the true revelation. The minute you do that
you have got no more love than a skunk, and a skunk’s got more love
than that. You fall right in the trap of the devil. You’ve taken the
path of Eve’s seduction.

	I ask a further question. What fellowship hath light with darkness or
righteous with unrighteousness when they both depend upon a revelation?
Now I’m not here to fight with anybody. I’m not interested in a
fight. But I’m interested in truth and standing up for truth.

54.	I’m interested in knowing more about love. But I’m going to tell
you this; unless I am solid with that Word to begin with, my love is
coming out of a wrong source. Human heart was made in the image of God
in many ways, and man has gracious and wonderful characteristics because
his spirit is the lamp of the Lord, and God can speak to him, and God
can move.

	But would you be sooner truly anointed or false anointed? Are you going
to settle for love just because it’s love, or do you want unfeigned
love? Are you going to settle for faith because it’s faith, or is it
unfeigned faith? We’re talking now of that which is the hypocrite.
We’re talking now of the counterfeit. So, that’s the point of the
message. Like Bro. Branham said, “There’s a Bride out there
somewhere. If we’re not Bride, she’s out there somewhere, and by the
grace of God I’ll not stand in her way.”

55.	And I’m going to say this tonight: I’m not satisfied with the
love I see. I’m not at all happy with the so-called love that I find
in this world. I’m not at all happy with it. I don’t say I’ve got
the real thing, but I’m going to tell you something: there’s a Bride
with the real revelation from a real God that’s either got, or going
to have, a manifestation of real love, because that’s the Bible.
That’s why I preach the way I preach. If we’re off the Word, your
love is going to be off the Word. It’s that simple.

	If we’re off the Word, your marriages go off the Word. Well, come on.
Who can live with a brawling woman? What woman can live with a
philandering man? “Well,” he says, “the brawling woman caused me
to philander.” I don’t know if that’s really the truth.

	Somebody said I was a Christian, but wasn’t, evidently…or going to
pay a big price. Say, what’s wrong. They went off the Word. Don’t
you understand where Eve went off? She got seduced. And that act of
seduction was the imitation of love.

56.	“Now you got the old world,” like young Jim Mayfield said up
here on a Wednesday night, I think it was. It might have been Sunday
morning. He said, “Ever since John XIII,” he said, “the whole
world has gone after love. Let’s get together.”

	Now I’ve got nothing against getting together with people. Get
together. But I want to ask you a question. Is it wrong for us to stand
for what we believe? Evidently in some people’s minds, it is because
we’re supposed to say, “Well, you’re right.” Why don’t they
say, “We’re right?” So, you see love doesn’t have a got to do a
thing with either one of it. Na, ah. My loving you does not ask you to
come my way because I believe a thing or demand you. No way. But there
is a real love, brother/sister. It’s a genuine love.

57.	Now I’m saying this closing up; I always bring you straight back
to the Word. If we’re off of that Word, we don’t have salvation. If
we’re off of that Word, how much love we profess here and how we try
to do, it isn’t going to work. The main thing is to know we are solid
with that Word through the rebirth, the revelation the prophet gave, and
then, search the Scripture in the light of the Word that the prophet
gave us to see where love really is.

	And one of the first things Bro. Branham said, “Love is corrective.
We don’t come to church,” he said, just to have fellowship; we come
to church to be corrected.” He said, “What is compassion?” He
said, “That’s doing the Will of Almighty God.”

58.	We want to look into some of the things that the Word says, to
realize that, if God was love, we had an embodiment right here on earth,
a perfect love. And I’m going to tell you something: people hated that
love so desperately, they killed it. Now, what is the antichrist going
to do at the end time? They’re going to love the lie so much;
they’ve already turned the truth down, and anyone left here with a
modicum will die for it.

59.	So, I just can’t buy the love the world’s trying to tell us all
about. Sure, there’s a lot of things we’ll talk about love before
we’re finished and get back to the very things they talk about, but
put it by the grace of God into the light of the Scripture. I don’t
know that I can do it; of myself I have no way of doing it. Through God
something can develop because we had a prophet tell us things. But
it’s very strange, when the prophet went to love, they went to seed on
what he said about love. It won’t work. It won’t work. It’s got to
be one with the Word.

	The Lord bless you. Shall we rise?

	Heavenly Father, we thank You again for the opportunity we had of being
together here, worshipping Your great and holy Name, oh God. We thank
You for light, life, and liberty in Christ Jesus our Lord, for health
and strength and those things, Lord, that sometimes seem a little
elusive, but they are there within your Word, Lord, and somewhere they
are there for us, and we thank You for it all.

	Now Father, I pray that there won’t be any misunderstanding here in
the church or anyplace that hears the tape to think we got our own brand
of love here or to think we’re superior or anything else. It’s not
that at all. But we’re searching and wanting to come to the place
knowing that there’s got to have a seed, there’s got to be something
there that produces it, there’s got to be something there that’s
right in the first place, or it’s wrong in the second place. And
Father, we’re only here tonight looking to You to get the help in the
first place, the definitive, true revelation, Lord, of Yourself and Your
Word, and our actions and reactions, and our way of life, our natures,
all those things, oh God, so that they can be put to death where it is
necessary, but brought to life where it is necessary.

	So, they becomes a matter whether we sleep or don’t sleep, or awake,
eat or do not, no matter what this life, it is the life that is one with
You, Who is the Word. And that’s what we want, Lord. We want to come
to this place now speedily, oh God, because time is running out. Time is
running out, oh Lord, and we are so anxious to have that genuine love,
that genuine sweet flow of the Spirit of God, flow in our lives, Lord,
from the Word and according to the Word that we’ll walk in this
serenity of the Spirit that the prophet walked in.

	Humbly we ask it tonight, Lord, looking to You, oh God, for grace
because You’re the gracious One. We need Your help as never before,
for here we are; we’ve made a stand. It can’t be true love unless
it’s something that comes by the Holy Spirit identified in that Word.
It’s got to come by a seed. And Lord, I don’t believe that we can be
far off on that. I don’t believe that. I believe we’re right on
that.

	Now, Lord, if we’re lacking a true seed anywhere, we’re coming to
the light to receive to get help, oh God. We’re anxious. We’re
anxious, Lord, to have it all line up—in our lives line up, because we
know time is running out. The day is far spent, the night is at hand.
Time and eternity have run together, and it’s almost too late. But we
don’t believe it is too late that You’re here to help us. So, grant
Your blessing upon us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

	The Lord bless you. 

	[Communion service begins.]