(Brother Dauch, He does for you too, Brother!)
Don't you love Him? Let us bow our heads now. Dear gracious God, with this little note here of a few things to say to the people and back again to refer back to this morning, for that's what the people come to hear. I pray, God, that You'll let the people see that God loves and cares. And it was not me that give that, Lord, it was vindicated that it was the Truth. So I pray, dear God, that Your love will always remain among the people. Tonight to have to separate after this meeting and go to our different homes, it—it kinda pulls us, some, deep, Lord. I pray that You'll bless these people.
Now as we approach the Word in prayer, and approach the written Word, we ask that You will take this written Word and make It alive to us tonight. And when we leave this building tonight to separate to go to our different homes, may we say like those who came from Emmaus, that had walked with Him all day and still didn't know Him... But when He got them inside the room that night, the doors all shut, He did something just like He did before His crucifixion. By that they knowed He had risen again. Do it again tonight, Lord. Grant it, while the doors are shut and Your little group here is setting, waiting. And Father when we go to our homes we'll say like they did, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us along the way!" We commit ourselves and all in Your hands, Lord, do with us as You see fit. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Now, let's get right into the service now quickly, turning now with me if you will to the Book of Hebrews. And another revelation on the Message, we'll speak for just a few moments tonight, the Lord willing. And then while reading the first three verses of Hebrews 7:1-3, and then commenting on this... And we don't know what the Lord will do. We do not know; the only thing we do is just believe, watch, pray (is that right?), and believe that He will make everything work together for good to them that loves Him, because He promised to.
" For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; (Let's read a little farther). Without father, without mother, without descent,... neither beginning of days, or end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
Think of this great Person, of how great this Man must be. And now, the question is: "Who is this Man?" Theologians has had different ideas, but since the opening of the Seven Seals, the mysterious Book that's been mysterious to us... According to Revelation 10:1-7, all the mysteries that's wrote in this Book that's been hid down through the age of the reformers is supposed to be brought out into view by the angel of the last church age. How many knows that's right? That's right! Supposed to be brought. All the mysteries of the mysterious Book is to be revealed to the Laodicea Messenger of that age.
Seeing there is much dispute about this Person, and this subject, I think it behooves us to break into it to find out Who this is. Now, there's several schools of thought on Him. One of the schools are—claims He's just a myth; He wasn't actually a person. And the others says that it was a priesthood, that was the Melchisedec priesthood. That's the most likely one that hold better to that side than they do to the other, is because they say it was a priesthood. It can't be that, for in the 4th verse it says He was a Person, a Man. So in order to be a person He has to be a personality, a Man. Not a order, but a Person.
So He was not just a priesthood order, neither was He a myth; He was a person. And the person is eternal. If you notice, He had no father, He had no mother, He had no time He ever began, and He had no time He ever ended. And ever Who it was is still alive tonight, because the Bible said here that He had neither father, nor mother, beginning of days or ending of life. So it would have to be an eternal Person. Is that right? An eternal Person. So it could only be one Person; that's God, 'cause He's the only One that's eternal—God.
Now, in I Timothy 6:15 and 16, if you'd like to read that sometime, I'd like for you to read it. Now, the thing that I contend is, that He was God, because He's the only Person that can be immortal. And now, God changing Himself into person; that's what He was. No father, no mother, no beginning of life, no ending of days.
Now, we find in the Scripture that many people teaches that three personalities in the Godhead. So you cannot have a personality without being a person. It takes a person to make a personality.
A baptist minister a few weeks ago come up and—to my house—and said, "I'd like to straighten you out on the Godhead sometime when you got time!"—called me up rather.
I said, "I got time right now, 'cause I want to be straight, and we lay aside everything else to do it." And he come up; he said, "Brother Branham, you teach that there is just one God."
I said, "Yes, sir!"
He said, "Well," he said, "I believe there's one God, but one God in three persons."
I said, "Sir, repeat that again."
He said, "One God in three persons."
I said, "Where did you go to school at?" See? And he told me a—a Bible college. I said, "I could believe that. You cannot be a person without being a personality, and if you're a personality, you are one personality to yourself. You're separate individual being."
And he said, "Well, the theologians can't even explain that."
I said, "It's by revelation."
And he said, "I can't accept revelation."
I said, "Then there's no way for God to ever get to you, because it's hid from the eyes of the wise and prudent and revealed to babes—revealed, revelation—revealed to babes such as will accept it—learn." And I said, "There'd be no way for God to get to you; you close yourself off from Him. The whole Bible is the revelation of God. The whole church is built upon the revelation of God. There's no other way to know God only by revelation: 'To whom the Son will reveal Him'—revelation. Everything is revelation. So to—not to accept the revelation, then you're just a cold theologian, and there's no hope for you."
Now, now, we find out that this Person had no father, no mother, no beginning of days or ending of life. It was God En morphe. Now, the world—the word comes—the Greek word means "change," was used, changing Himself, En morphe, from one person to... One person... The Greek word there, En morphe, means—it was taken from the stage act—"that one person is changing his mask to make him some other character."
Like in—in school just recently—I believe, Rebekah, just before she graduated—they had one of Shakespeare's plays. And one young man had to change his clothes several times, because he played two or three different parts—but the same person. He come out; one time he was the villain. And when he come out next time, he was another character.
And now the Greek word En morphe mean that he changed His mask. And that's what God did. It's the same God all the time. God in the form of the Father, the—the Spirit, the Pillar of Fire, the same God was made flesh and dwelt among us—En morphe, brought out so He could be seen. And now, that same God is the Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy—not three Gods, three offices, three acts of the one God.
The Bible said there's one God, not three. But that's how that they couldn't... You can't get this straightened out and have three gods. You'd never sell a Jew that; I tell you that—one who knows better—he knows there's only one God.
Notice, like the sculptor, he hides with a—a mask over it. That's what God's done to this age. It's been hid. All these things has been hid, and is supposed to be revealed in this age. Now, the Bible says they would be revealed in the latter times. It's like a sculptor keeping his—his piece of work all covered over until the time he takes the mask off of it and there it is. And that's what the Bible has been. It has been a work of God that's been covered up. And it's been hid since the foundation of the world, and it's sevenfold mystery, and God promised in this day, at the age of this Laodicea church, He would take the mask off the whole thing and we could see it.
What a glorious thing! God, En morphe, masked in a Pillar of Fire, God, En morphe in a Man called Jesus, God, En morphe in His Church—God above us, God with us, God in us, the condescending of God. Up there holy, no one could touch Him; He settled upon the mountain. And even if a animal touched the mountain, had to die. And then God come down and changed His tent, and come down and lived with us, become one of us, and we held Him. The Bible said, I Timothy 3:16, "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, for God was manifested in the flesh"—handled with hands! God eat meat. God drank water. God slept. God cried. He was one of us! Beautiful, typed in the Bible. That was God above us, God with us, now it's God in us, the Holy Spirit, not the third person, the same Person!
God came down and become flesh and died the death in Christ so that He could clean the Church in order to get into it for fellowship. God loves fellowship. That's what He made the man at the first time for, was for fellowship. God dwells alone with Cherubims.
And notice now, He made man, and man fell. So He came down and redeemed man, because God loves to be worshipped! The very word god means "object of worship." And this that comes among us as a Pillar of Fire, as something that changes our hearts, that is the same God that said, "Let there be light," and there was light! He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Now, in the beginning God dwelled alone with His attributes as I spoke of this morning. That's His thoughts. There was nothing, just God alone. But He had thoughts. Just like a great architect can set down, in his mind, and draw out what he thinks it's—he's going to—to build, create. Now, he cannot create; he can take something that's been created and make it in a different form, 'cause God's the only way—only One can create. But he gets in his mind what he's going to do, and that's his thoughts, that's his desires.
Now, it's a thought, and then he speaks it, and it's a word then. And a—a word is... A thought when it's expressed, it's a word. A thought expressed is a word. But it has to be a thought first. So it's God's attributes; then it becomes a thought, then a word.
Notice, those who have tonight Eternal Life, was with Him and in Him, in His thinking, before there ever was an Angel, star, Cherubim, or anything else. That's eternal. And if you have Eternal Life, you always was. Not your being here, but the shape and form that the infinite God... And if He isn't infinite, He isn't God.
God has to be infinite. We're finite; He's infinite. And He was omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. If He isn't then He can't be God. Knows all things, all places because of His omnipresence. Omniscient makes Him omnipresent. He is a being; He's not like the wind. He is a being; He dwells in a house, but being omniscient, knowing all things, makes Him omnipresent, because He knows everything that's going on. There can't be a flea bat its eyes but what He knowed it. And He knowed it before there was a world, how many times it'd bat it's eyes and how much tallow it had in it, before there ever was a world. That is infinite. We can't comprehend it in our minds, but that's God—God, infinite.
And remember, you, your eyes, your statue, whatever you was, you were in His thinking at the beginning. And the only thing that you are is the expression word. After He thought it, He spoke it, and here you are. If it isn't, if you wasn't in His thinking, there's no way at all for you ever to be there, for He's the One that gives Eternal Life.
You remember how we read the Scriptures, "Not him that willeth, or him that runneth, but God..."And that His predestination might stand true, He could choose before anytime who... God's sovereign in His choosing, did you know that? God's sovereign. Who was back yonder to tell Him a better way to make the world? Who would dare to tell Him He was running His business wrong? Even the very—the very Word Itself, very sovereign... Even the revelation is sovereign. He reveals to whom He will reveal. The very revelation itself is sovereign in God. That's how people pound at things, and jump at things, and hit at things, and not knowing what they're doing. God is sovereign in His works.
Now, we find Him at the beginning, His attributes. And now, you were with Him then. Then is when the Book of Life comes into view. Now, we read over here in Revelations the 13th chapter, the 8th verse, that the beast that comes upon the earth in these last days will deceive all those people on the earth whose names were not written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
Think of it! Before Jesus was ever born, four thousand years before He came on earth, and several thousand years before you come on earth, Jesus in God's mind died for the sins of the world, and the Book of Life was made; and your name was put on that Book of Life before the foundation of the world! That's the Bible Truth. See? Your name was ordained of God and placed on the Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
You were there in His attributes. You don't remember it, no, because you're just a part of His life. You are a part of God when you become a son or a daughter of God, just as you are a part of your earthly father. That's right! You are... The male carries the hemoglobin, the blood. And when that has gone in—in the egg, then you become a part of your father, and your mother is a part of your father also. So you're all a part of your father. Glory! That lets the denomination out altogether. Certainly does! God in all, the only place.
Notice now His attribute. Then the attribute was first God, the thought, the attribute itself all in one, without being expressed. Then when He expressed, secondarily, He became then the Word. And then the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us, St. John the 1st chapter and the 1st verse.
Notice, this is in the beginning, but before the eternal. Notice, in the beginning was the Word. When the time begin it was Word, but before it was Word, it was attribute, a thought. Then it was expressed. In the beginning was the expression, the Word. Now, we're getting where Melchisedec is. That's this mysterious Person. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,... Hold that there now.
Notice. His—His first being was Spirit, God, supernatural (all right?), the great Eternal. Second, He begin to form Himself towards flesh in a theophany, it's called, "the word, a body." This then is the state He was in when He met Abraham, was called Melchisedec. He was in the form of theophany. Now, we'll get to that and prove it in a few minutes, the Lord willing.
He was the Word. A theophany is something that you could not see. It could be right here now, yet you cannot see it. It's just like, well like television, that's in another dimension. Television... People are moving right through this room now singing; there's colors also, but the eye is only subject to the five senses. Your whole being is only subject to five senses, rather. And you are only subject to what the sight has been limited to see. But there is another dimension that can be seen by a transformation by television.
Now, television does not manufacture a picture. A television only channels it into a circuit, and then the television screen picks it up. But the picture's there to begin with. Television was here when Adam was here. Television was here when Elijah set on Mount Carmel. Television was here when Jesus of Nazareth walked the shores of Galilee. But you're just now discovering it. They wouldn't have believed it back there. You'd have been crazy to have said something like it. But now it's become a reality! And so is it that Christ is here! The Angels of God are here! And someday in the great Millennium to come it'll be just more real than television or anything else, because they are here!
He reveals Himself in His great form of what He claim as He En morphe's Himself into His servants and proves Himself.
Now, here He is in the form of Spirit. And then He comes in the form of a—of—En morphe. Now, He appeared to Abraham En morphe. When Abraham was returning from the slaughter of the king, here come Melchisedec, talked to Him.
The other day in the Tucson paper I was reading an article that where there was a—a woman driving down the road, at I believe about forty, fifty miles an hour, and she hit an old man with an overcoat on. She screamed and stopped her car. It threw him up in the air. Right out of the plain desert! And she run back to find him, and he wasn't there. So what did she do? Some people behind her saw it happen, saw the old man fly up in the air, his overcoat turning. So they run back to find out. They couldn't find the man anywhere. They called the police force. The police come out to examine the place; there was nobody there.
Well, each one of them testified the car chugged, hit the man. He went up in the air, and everybody saw it. Witnesses and two or three carloads of them, they seen it happen. Come to find out, five years ago there was an old man with an overcoat on hit and killed on the same spot. When you leave here, you're not dead. You've got to come back even if you're a sinner and be judged according to the deeds done in the body. "If this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have one waiting." En morphe, that's the word.
Now God in this stage of—this stage of His creation later formed into flesh Jesus. From what? From the great beginning Spirit, then came down to be the Word, bringing Itself out. The Word doesn't yet make Itself, it's just spoke out, En morphe, later He becomes flesh, Jesus, mortal to taste death for all of us sinners.
When Abraham met Him, He was Melchisedec. He unfolds here what all the attributes will do in the final end, every son of Abraham. Every son of the faith will absolutely do the same thing. But I want to watch how we have to come.
Also we see Him revealed here in Ruth and—and Boaz as a Kinsman Redeemer, how He had to come to be flesh.
Now, we see the attribute, sons of His Spirit have not yet entered into the Word form body, but—a theophany. This body is subject to the Word and earnest—waiting for the earnest change of the body.
Now, the different between Him and you as a son... See, He was at the beginning the Word, an En morphe body. He came in and lived in that in the Person of Melchisedec. Then later... We never heard no more of Melchisedec, because He became Jesus Christ. Melchisedec was the Priest, but He became Jesus Christ. Now, you bypassed that, because in that form He knowed all things. And you have never been able to know that yet. You come like Adam, like me. You became from the attribute to the flesh to be tempted. But when this life is finished here... "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting." That's where we go; that is the Word. Then we can look back and see what we done. Now we don't understand it. We have never become the Word; we've just become the flesh-man, not the Word. But...
And look clearly, makes it clear you will never be the Word unless you was a thought at the beginning. That proves the predestination of God. See? You can't be the Word 'less you're a thought. You had to be in the thinking first. But you see, in order to stand temptation you had to bypass the theophany; you had to come down here in flesh to be tempted by sin. And then if you sin... "All the Father hath given Me will come to Me, and I'll raise him up at the last days." See, you had to be first. And then you see, He come right down the regular line, from attribute to...
Before the foundation of the world his Name's put on the Lamb's Book of Life. Then from that He become the Word, the theophany, that could appear, disappear; and then He become flesh and returned back again, resurrected that same body in a glorified condition. But you bypassed the theophany and become flesh-man to be tempted by sin. And then "if this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have one already waiting." We have not yet the bodies. But look, when this body receives the Spirit of God, the Immortal Life inside of you, it throws this body in subjection to God. Hallelujah!
"He that's born of God doth not commit sin; he cannot sin." Romans 8:1. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There you are! See, that throws your body subject. You don't have to say, "Oh, if I could just quit drinking, if I could just..." Just get in Christ; it's all gone! See, see? Because your body is subject to the Spirit, it's no more subject to the things of the world; they're dead. They are dead; your sins are buried in baptism; and you are a new creation in Christ. And your body becoming subject to the Spirit, try to live a right kind of life...
Like you women claiming you got Holy Ghost and going out here and wearing shorts and things, how could you do it? How could the Spirit of God in you ever let you do such a thing as that? It just can't be so. Certainly it can't be! He's not a filthy spirit; He's a holy Spirit.
And then when you become subject to that Spirit, it throws your whole being subject to that Spirit. And that Spirit is nothing in the world but this Seed Word made manifest, or quickened (Hallelujah!), made alive. And when the Bible said, "Don't do this," that body quickly turns to it; there's no question. And what is it? It's the earnest of the resurrection. This body will be raised up again, because it's already started. It was once subject to sin, and mire, and corruption, but now it's got the earnest; it's turned heavenly. Now, that's the earnest that you're going in the rapture. It's the earnest.
A sick person laying dying, nothing left but death, that's all can happen. I've seen the shadows of people done eat up with cancer and tuberculous, and see them persons a little while after that perfectly normal and strong. If there is no Divine healing then there's no resurrection, 'cause Divine healing is the earnest of the resurrection. Amen!
You know what the earnest money is don't you? It's the down payment! "He was wounded for our transgressions; with His stripes we're healed."
Notice, how wonderful, we love Him. Now, this body is subject to the Spirit. Have not yet entered into the Word form, but we are still in the flesh form, but subject to the Word. Death in the flesh will take us there.
Just the same thing. Think of a little baby. You can take a woman, no matter how evil she is, when she is pregnant and fixing to be mother, watch before that baby's born, I don't care how cruel the woman is, she gets real kind. There's something about her...?... seems godly, to see a little mother fixing to become mother by the baby. Why is it? That little body... Now, it's not alive yet. See the only thing it is, is just flesh and muscles. That little jumping, that's just muscles jerking. But when it comes forth from the womb, God breathes the breath of life into it. And then he screams out. See, just as—as sure as there is a natural body being formed, there is a spiritual body to receive it as soon as it gets here.
Then when a man is borned again from Heaven, he becomes a spirit babe in Christ. And then when this robe of flesh is dropped, there is a natural body, theophany—a body not made with hands, neither born of a woman—that we go to. Then that body returns back and picks up the glorified body. That's the reason Jesus went to hell when he died and preached to the souls that were in prison. Turned back into that theophany. Oh, marvelous! Thank God!
II Corinthians 5:1 "If this earthly body be dis—dissolved (this earthly tabernacle), we have another one." See, we have bypassed that to come straight from God, the attribute, to be flesh to be tempted and tested by sin like Adam did. But when testing of His Word is over, then we are taken up to this body that was prepared for us before the foundation of the world. It is the Word there that we skipped to come right around down here to be tempted and tested. If we'd have come through that, there'd have been no temptation; we'd knowed all things. That's the reason Jesus knowed all things, 'cause He was Word before He was flesh.
Then we become the Word. Here we are formed to the Word image to be a partaker of the Word, feed on the Word, by being predestinated since the beginning. You see, that little spark of life that you had in you from the beginning when you started your journey... Many of you can remember it. You joined this church and joined that church, and try this and that; nothing satisfied. That's right! But one day you just recognized it. Right!
The other night I was teaching somewhere—I believe it was out in California, or Arizona—about... I believe I've told the little story here about the man setting a hen and had a eagle egg under it. And when that eagle hatched out, he was the funniest looking bird that them chickens ever seen. But he walked around; he was the—he was the ugly one among them, because he just couldn't understand how that hen will cluck and scratch on that manure pile and eat. He couldn't get the idea. She'd say, "Come on over and feast, Honey!" Well, he—he was a eagle; he just didn't eat like that. It wasn't his food.
So she'd catch grasshoppers and whatmore, you know, and call the little chickens. And all them little chickens would go along, cluck along, and eat. But the little eagle just couldn't do it. It didn't—didn't look right to him.
So one day his mammy come hunting him. And he'd hear that hen cluck. He'd tried his best to cluck, but he couldn't do it. He tried to cheep like a chicken, but he couldn't do it. See, he was a eagle. He's, to start with he was a eagle. He was just hatched under a hen. That's like some church members. Every... That's about the way it is; about one out of a setting is right.
But one day his mammy flew over and she screamed. He recognized it. "That sounded right!" Why? He was a eagle to begin with. That's the way it is with the Gospel, or the Word, or the power of Jesus Christ; when a man has been predestinated to Eternal Life, he hears that true ring, scream of God, nothing can keep him from it. The church might say, "Days of miracles is past, cluck, cluck, cluck! Stand here and eat this, and stand here and eat that."
That barnyard stuff won't do for him any more! He's gone! "All things are possible!" He gets off the ground. That's what's the matter with so many Christians today; they can't get their feet off the ground. The old mammy said, "Son, jump; you're an eagle. Come up here where I am." He said, "Mom, I never jumped in my life."
She said, "Well, you jump; you're eagle to begin with, your not a chicken." So he made his first jump and flopped his wings; didn't do too good, but he got off the ground. That's the way we do; we accept God by faith by the written Word. There's something in there. See, that Eternal Life, you were predestinated to it.
His grandpa and grandma were eagles; he was a eagle all the way back. Eagle don't mix with other things. He's not a hybrid at all; he's a eagle.
Then after you recognize the very Word of God was Eagle Food, then you left the other thing. You've then been formed into the living image of the Living God. You heard from your theophany. "If this earthly body be dissolved, we have one waiting."
You say, "Is that right, Brother Branham?" All right, let's take a couple of eagles and look at them for a few minutes.
There was a name—man named Moses. Everyone knows that a prophet's called the eagle in the Bible. There was a prophet named Moses. And one day God called Him—and wouldn't let him go over the land—and he—he died on a rock. The Angels took him away and buried him. There was another man, a eagle, didn't even have to die. He just walked across Jordan, and God sent a chariot down and: "This robe of flesh he dropped and rise and caught the everlasting prize." Eight hundred years later—eight hundred years later on Mount Transfiguration here stood those two man. Moses' body had been rotten for hundreds of years, but here he was in such a form till even Peter, James, and John recognized him. Amen! "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved..." If you're an attribute of God expressed here on earth, you've got a body waiting after you leave this world. There they was standing on Mount Transfiguration in their theophany, for they were prophets to whom the Word came to.
Also let us notice another prophet one time by the name of Samuel. He was a great man. He'd taught Israel; told them they shouldn't have a king. He said, "Have I ever said one thing to you in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass?"
They said, "No, everything you've always said in the Name of the Lord come to pass."
He was a prophet. And he died. About three or four years later, the king got in trouble; that was before the Blood of Jesus Christ was ever shed. He was in paradise. And a witch of Endor called for somebody to come, console Saul. And when the witch saw him standing up, she said, "I see God raising up out of the earth." And after the man had been dead, buried, and rotted in the grave, here he was standing there in that cave with his prophet's robes on, and was still a prophet. Amen!
For he said, "Why did you call me out of my rest, seeing you become a enemy to God?" Watch him prophesy. "Tomorrow night by this time you'll be with me." He was still a prophet, though he was gone from this body. See, he become here and was part of that Word, and he entered from the flesh life back into the body that had been prepared for him before the foundation of the world. He entered into the theophany which was the Word. You get it? That's where all believers go when we turn from here.
Then in that form the veil then is lifted. You see you are the Word also when you enter into there. As a little baby as I said a while ago...
Now notice. Praise God for these opening Seals is my prayer, to know these things.
Now, the true revelation of Melchisedec comes into view was—that He was God, the Word, before He became flesh, God the Word. Cause He had to be; no one else could be immortal like Him. See, I had father and mother; you did too. Jesus had father and mother. But this Man had no father or had no mother. Jesus had a time He started; this Man didn't. Jesus gave His life; this Man couldn't, because He was Life. And it's the self same Man all the time. I hope God reveals it to you. The self same Person all the time.
Notice His title, King of righteousness. Now, Hebrews 7:2: King of righteousness and King of peace. He's two Kings. Now watch! Hebrews 7:2, King of righteousness, also the King of peace. He's two Kings there. Now, since He has come in the flesh and received His body up, in Revelation 21:16 He's called the King of Kings. He's all three of them together. See? King God, King Theophany, King Jesus; He's the King of Kings. It's all met, just like soul, body, and spirit. All comes to make one.
Also He is the Father, which was the first, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Spirit. King of righteousness, the Spirit attribute; theophany, King of—of peace, theophany; and in flesh He was King of Kings—same Person.
When the theophany... Moses seen Him, Exodus 33:2, He was a theophany. Moses wanted to see God. He'd heard His voice, heard Him talk to him, seen Him in a bush there with a big Pillar of Fire. And he said, "Who are You, I want to know Who You are?" Moses said, "I'll put—if You'll let me see You... I'd like to see Your face."
He said, "No man can't—see My face." He said, "I'll put My hand over your eyes, and I'll pass by. And you can see My back, but not My face." See? And when He did, it was the back of a Man; it was theophany. Then the Word that come to Moses, I AM; that was the Word. The Word came to Moses in the form of a-a Pillar of Fire in a burning bush, the I AM.
As the Word from the theology—from the theophany, rather, excuse me, He came to Abraham as a Man under the oak tree. Now, look at there.
There came a Man to Abraham—three of them—and set down under an oak tree, three of them. And notice, after He talked to Abraham... Why did He come? Abraham, being the one with the promise and the message of the coming son, and also He was God's Word prophet that was trusting God's Word, calling anything contrary as though it wasn't... See how perfect the Word is? The Word came to the prophet. See, there was God in a theophany, and the Bible said the Word comes to the prophet. And here was the—the Word in the theophany...
Now, you say, "Was that God?" Abraham said it was. He said His name was... He called Him Elohim. Now, in Genesis 1 you find out, "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth." In Genesis 18 we find out that—that Abraham called this Person that set there and talked to him, and could tell him the secrets of his heart, tell him what Sarah was thinking behind Him, Abraham said, "It is Elohim." He was in a theophany form. You get it?
Notice after... Now, we find out that He was then in the theophany form. He called Him, "Lord God, Elohim." Now, in Genesis 18 we find that that is true.
Now notice, Abraham... There was three of them together, but when Abraham met the three, he said, "My Lord!" But when Lot was down in Sodom, two of them went down there; and Lot saw two of them coming, and he said, "My Lords!" See, what was the matter? The first place Lot was not a prophet (that's right!), or neither was he the messenger of the hour. So he didn't have any revelation of Him. It's exactly right! Lot could call them "Lords," a dozen of them, he could still said, "Lords," but no matter how many Abraham saw, it was still one Lord. There is God; this is the Melchisedec.
Notice, after the battle was over Melchisedec served His victorious child Communion (think of that!), part of Himself. Now, we want to see here, in type here is in view the Communion. After the battle He gave of Himself, because the Communion is part of Christ. And after the struggle is over, after you've done got yourself whipped out, then's when you partake of Christ, become part of this Being. You get it?
Jacob wrestled all night and wouldn't turn Him loose until He blessed him. That's right! Battle for life. And after the battle is over, then God gives you of Himself. That is His true Communion. The little bread and wafer just represents it. You shouldn't take it 'less you've wrestled it out and become part of God.
Remember, at this time the Communion had never been instituted, not until before—the death of Jesus Christ, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later.
But Melchisedec after His child Abraham had won the victory, Melchisedec met him and gave him wine and bread, showing that after this earthly battle is over, we will meet Him in the heavens and take the Communion again; it'll be the Wedding Supper. "I will not drink no more of the vine or eat the fruit, until I eat it and drink it with you anew in My Father's Kingdom." That right?
Notice again, Melchisedec went to meet Abraham before He got back home. What a beautiful type here we have: Melchisedec meeting Abraham before he got back home after the battle. We meet Jesus in the air before we get home! That's right! II Thessalonians tells us that, for we meet Him in the air. A beautiful type of Rebecca meeting Isaac in the field in the cool of the day. We meet Him in the air; II Thessalonians tells us so: "For we which are alive and remain shall not prevent, or hinder, those which are asleep; for the trumpet of God shall sound; the dead in Christ shall rise first; we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air." Perfect! All these types.
Therefore the theophany, if you have died and entered into that theophany, what happens? The theophany comes to the earth to pick up the redeemed body. And if you're here in the air, you take the body to meet the theophany (there you are), and caught up and go to meet the Lord in the air.
Who is this Melchisedec but God?
Now, we see here plainly the complete secret of our lives in journey, and death, and where we go after we die. Also predestination is in plain view here. Now, listen as we teach this, closely.
The stages of—of the eternal purpose He had in His secret has now been revealed. Notice, there is still three stages to perfection. Just like He redeems the world; same way He redeems His Church. He redeems the people in three stages. Now look, first is Justification like Luther preached; second, Sanctification like Wesley preached; third, Baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's right! Then comes the rapture.
Now, the world, how did He redeem the world? The first what He did, when it sinned, He washed it off in water baptism. That's right. Then He dropped His blood upon it from the cross and sanctified it and called it His own. And then what does He do? As He tore all the world out of you and renovated the whole thing by the fiery baptism of the Holy Ghost, He also will renovate the world. And it'll be burnt over with fire and cleanse every germ for millions of miles high, and every thing will be cleaned off. And then there is a New Heaven and a new earth, just like you are a new creature in Christ Jesus when the Holy Spirit takes ahold of you. See, there you are. The whole thing's just as plain as it can be.
Everything's in three. The natural birth's in three. What's the first thing happens to the woman having a baby? What breaks first? Water. What breaks next? Blood. What's the next process? Life. Water, blood, spirit. What happens to the plant? Rots. What's the first thing? Stalk. What's the next? Tassel. What's the next? Shuck. Then the grain comes out of that. Just the three stages of it till it gets to the grain. That's exactly.
God vindicates that. That's always been right; God vindicates it to be true. Show plainly the predestinated is the only one that's considered in redemption. Did you get it? Let me say that again. The predestinated is the only one that's considered in redemption. People might be making like, think they are, but the real redemption is those that are predestinated. Because the very word redeem means "to bring back!" Is that right? To redeem is something... To redeem anything is bring it back to its original place. Hallelujah! So it's only the predestinated will be brought back, because the others didn't come from there. See? Bring back.
Being eternal with Him at the beginning... The Eternal Life that you had, His thought of what you was, only He wanted you to... He wanted me to stand in the pulpit, say. He wanted you to set in the seat tonight. Then we are serving His eternal purpose. And the one that left home, only come to the earth to serve His purpose. Is that right? All right. Then after it's finished, it's brought back in a glorified state. It's matured and brought back again.
No wonder Paul could say when they was building a block to chop his head off. He said, "Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory!" He said, "Death, tell me where you can make me holler. Grave, tell me, how you going to hold me, for I am a possessor of Eternal Life." Amen! He recognized it. Death, hell, grave, nothing could hold him. And nothing can hurt us, got Eternal Life. He realized he was blessed with Eternal Life.
Just like a little dew drop. If I understand, it's... I don't know too much about chemistry, but it must be that it's a-the congealing of humidity or atmosphere... And when the night gets cold and dark, it falls from the heavens and drops upon the ground. It's fell from somewhere. But the next morning before the sun comes up, it's laying there, the little fellow, shivering, but just let the sun come up, watch it go to shining. It's happy. Why? The sun is going to call it right back to where it come from. And that's the way with a Christian. Hallelujah! We know when we walk into the presence of God, something in us tells us that we come from somewhere and we're going back again by that power that's a-pulling us.
The little dew drop he glistens and shines and shouts, because he knows he come from up there and that sun's going to draw him right back up again. And a man that's a attribute of God, borned of God knows (Hallelujah!), when he come in contact with the Son of God, he's going to be drawed up from here someday! "For if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me." Amen!
Now notice! Now we see Melchisedec and why that Mary wasn't his mother. That's the reason He called her woman, not mother. He had no father, for He was the Father, the Everlasting Father, the three in the One. He had no mother. Certainly not. He had no father, for He was the Father. As the poet said one time speaking a great compliment unto Jesus. He said,
I AM that spoke to Moses In a burning bush of fire.
I AM the God of Abraham, The bright and morning Star.
I'm Alpha, Omega, the beginning from the end.
I am the whole creation, And Jesus is the Name. (That's right!)
Oh, Who do you say that I am? And whence do they say that I came?
Do you know My Father, Or can you tell His Name? (Hallelujah!) |
That's the Father's Name! "Yeah, I come in My Father's Name and you received Me not." See? Sure, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And this Melchisedec became flesh. He revealed Himself as Son of man when He come as a Prophet. He come in three names of a Son: the Son of man, the Son of God, the Son of David.
When He was here on earth He was a Man to fulfill the Scripture. Moses said, "The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet liken unto me." So He had to come as a Prophet. He didn't never say, "I am the Son of God." He said, "I am the Son of man. Do you believe the Son of man?" Cause that's what He had to testify of, because that's what He was. Now He's come in another son's Name, Son of God, the unseen, the Spirit. And when He comes again, He's Son of David to set upon His throne.
Now, when He was here and was made flesh, He was called the Son of man. Now, how did He make Himself known to the world as Son of man, the Prophet?
One day I was telling a story of Peter and Andrew his brother. They were fishermen, and their father Jonas was a great old believer. One day they said he set down on the side of the boat. He said, "Sons, you know how we prayed when we needed fish." (They was commercial fishermen.) He said, "We've trusted God, Jehovah, for our living. And I'm getting old now; I can't stay with you boys much longer. And I've always—with all the true believers—have looked for the time when that Messiah will come. We've had all kinds of false ones, but there's coming a real One someday." And he said, "When this Messiah comes, I don't want you boys to be deceived. This Messiah will not be just a theologian; He will be a Prophet. For our prophet Moses, of who we follow, he said... "Now, any Jew will believe his prophet. He's taught to know that. And if—if the prophet says anything that's so, then that's truth. But God said, "If there be one among you spiritual or a prophet, I the Lord will make Myself known to him. And what he says comes to pass then hear him and fear him. But if it don't, then don't hear him at all." See? So that was a—the vindication of the prophet.
"So Moses was truly a vindicated prophet, and he said, 'The Lord your God shall raise up among you, out of your brethren a Prophet like unto me. And all that won't hear him will be cut off from the people.'" He said, "Now, children, remember, that as Hebrews we believe God's vindicated prophets." Now, listen close, don't miss it. And he said, "When the Messiah comes, you'll know Him, for He will be a Prophet Messiah. Now, I said, it's been four hundred years; we haven't had a prophet since Malachi. But He will be!"
And one day after his death, few years, his son Andrew was strolling along down the bank, and he heard a wild man out of the wilderness saying, "That Messiah is standing among you now!" That big eagle that raised up over the wilderness and flew over there, said, "The Messiah's among you right now. We don't know Him yet, but He's standing among you. I'll know Him, because I'll see a sign coming from Heaven." One day He said, "There, behold, is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."
Away he went—went, this man, to find his brother; he said, "Simon, I want you come over here; we've done found the Messiah."
"Oh, go on, Andrew, you know better than that!"
"Oh I know, but that—this Man is different."
"Where is he? Where'd he come from?"
"Jesus of Nazareth."
"That little wicked city? Why he couldn't come from a wicked, dirty place like that."
"You just come and see."
Finally he persuaded him to come down one day. So when he come in the front of this Messiah, Jesus, standing there speaking to the people. When he walked up in front of Him, He said, "Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas." That did it! He got the keys to the Kingdom! Why? He knowed that that Man did not know him. And how did He know him and that godly old father who'd taught him how to believe the Messiah?
There was a man standing there by the name of Philip. Oh, he got real excited! He knowed another man he'd been studying the Bible with. Away he went around the hill, and he found him out there in his olive grove. He was kneeling down, praying. They'd had lots of Bible lessons together. So he come out there, and he said, after he'd got through praying, he said, "Come, see Who we found, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. He's the Messiah we're looking for."
Now, I can hear Nathanael say, "Now, Philip, you ain't went off on the deep end are you?"
"Oh, no! Nope. Now, let me tell you. You know, we been studying the Bible together, and what did the prophet say the Messiah would be?"
"He'd be a Prophet."
"You remember that old fisherman you bought the fish from, that didn't have enough education to sign his name, called Simon?"
"Yep, uh huh!"
"He come up, and you know what? This Jesus of Nazareth told him that his name was Simon, changed his name to Peter, which is 'little stone,' and told him who his daddy was."
Well, he said—he said, "I don't know, could anything good come out of Nazareth?"
He said, "Let's not talk about it; just come on and see." That's a good idea. Come and see. So here come Philip bringing up Nathanael. And when he got walking up—Jesus probably standing speaking, probably praying for the sick in the prayer line—and when He come up to where Jesus was, Jesus looked around at him and said, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile."
Now, you say, "Well, it was the way he's dressed." Oh, no! All easterners dress the same. He could've been a Syrian or been anything else, beard, garment.
He said, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no guile." In otherwise, an honest sincere man.
Well, that kinda deflated Nathanael. And he said, "Rabbi (which means 'teacher'), Rabbi, when did you ever know me? How did you know I was a Jew? How did you know I was honest, no guile?"
He said, "Before Philip called you; when you were under the tree, I saw you." Fifteen miles away, the other side of the country the day before. What did he say? "Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel!"
But there stood those priests there, self-styled, self-starched, said, "This man is Beelzebub, a fortune-teller."
Jesus said, "I'll forgive you for that..." Now remember, they never said it out loud, but they said it in their hearts. And He perceived their thoughts. That's right! That's what the Bible said. Call it telepathy if you want to, but He—He perceived their thoughts.
And He said, "I forgive you for that, but someday the Holy Ghost is going to come and do this same thing (after His going); speak a word against It, will never be forgiven in this world or the world to come." Is that right? Now, that was Jews.
Then one day He had need to go to Samaria. But just before we do that, we found the woman, or the—the man as he went through the gate called "Beautiful," that he was healed, and Jesus knowed his condition, and told him, "Take up your bed and go on home." And he did it and got well. Then we find out the Jews, some of them received Him; some believed it; some didn't. Why didn't they believe it? They was not ordained to Life. They wasn't part of that attribute.
Now remember, them were priests and great man. And Jesus... Think of those theologians and priests, man that you couldn't find a flaw in their life. Jesus said, "You are of your father the devil, and his works you do." Said, "If you'd be of God you'd believe Me. If you can't believe Me, believe—believe the works that I do; they testify Who I am."
Now, the Bible said that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus said, "The works that I do shall he that believeth on Me do also." That right? Notice that was the real Melchisedec now.
Now notice again. There was only three races of people. You've heard me say, I was a segregationalist. I am. All Christians are segregationists, not segregation of color, but segregation of spirit. A man's color of his skin has nothing to do with him. He's a child of God by birth. But a Christian, God said, "Separate Me, come out from among them, and so forth." He is a segregationist of filth, between right and wrong.
But notice, they had a segregation then, a racial segregation, which was the Samaritans. And there's only three races of people on the earth; if we believe the Bible; that is Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. That's the three sons of Noah. We all sprung from there. That's right. That makes us all back from Adam, which makes us all brothers. The Bible said, "Of one blood God created all nations." We're all brothers through the blood stream. A colored man can give a white man a blood transfusion or vise versa. The white man can give the—the Japanese, yellow man, or the Indian, the red man, or whatmore, or...?... or whatever. He could give him a blood transfusion, 'cause we're all the same blood. The color of our skin, where we lived, had nothing to do with it. But when we're segregated is when we come out of the world, like He brought Israel up out of Egypt. That's when we're segregated from the things of the world.
Now, there was Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people. And if we had time to run the genealogies back, we could see the Anglo-Saxon, where he come from. Now, that was the Jew, the Samaritan, which was half Jew and Gentile, that married in with the Gentiles at Balaam's doings, and Moab. They were Samaritans, and there was Jews and Gentiles. Now, we Anglo-Saxons had nothing to do with any of it; we didn't believe any Messiah, nor nothing else. We wasn't looking for one. We were brought in afterwards. Jesus came to His own, and His own received Him not. And He said to His disciples, "Don't go in the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." And He went only to the lost sheep of Israel. And watch, He manifested Hisself as Son of man before the Jews. They turned it down. Now, the Samaritan being half Jew and Gentile, they believed also and was looking for a Messiah. We wasn't; we were heathens with clubs on our back, worshipping idols, the Gentile.
But now one day (St. John 4) He had need to go by Samaria on His road down to Jericho. But was—went up around Samaria. And while He was going up there, He set down on the well outside of the city called Sychar. And the well, if you've ever been there, it's a little panoramic 'bout like this here. And there's a public spring there, a water where they all come. And the women come of a morning, get their pots of water, and put it on their head, and one on each hip, and walk with it just as straight as can be, never spill a drop, talk to one another. So they—the people come out there.
So this was about 11:00 o'clock in the day. So He sent His disciples into the city to buy some vittles, food. And while they were gone, there was a woman which was ill famed; we'd call her today a "red light woman" or prostitute; she had too many husbands.
So while Jesus was setting there, this woman come out about 11:00. See, she couldn't come with the virgins when they come in the morning to get their wash water; she had to wait till they all... They didn't mix like they do now. She was marked. So then, she come out to get some water. So she just took the old windle, and put the hooks over the jar, and started to let it down; she heard Somebody say, "Woman, bring me a drink." Now remember, this is Melchisedec; this is Jesus yesterday, the Son of man.
And she looked around, and she saw a Jew. So she said, "Sir, it's not proper for a Jew to ask a Samaritan for anything. I'm a woman of Samaria, so you have spoken out of your place. You shouldn't have ask me such a thing as that; we have no dealings with one another."
He said, "But if you knew Who was talking to you, you'd ask Me for a drink."
She said, "How you going to draw it? The well's deep, and you have nothing to draw with."
He said, "The water that I give is water of Life springing up into Eternal Life." He talked to her till He found what her condition was. And then told—watch what He said to her now. "Go get your husband and come here."
And she said, "I have no husband."
He said, "You've said the truth, for you've had five, and the one you now are living with is not yours; so in this you've said the truth." Watch the difference between that woman and that bunch of priest. She knowed more about God than that whole bunch of priest did put together.
She said, "Sir, I perceive that You are a Prophet!" She said, "We haven't had one for four hundred years. Now, we know that the Messiah's coming, and when the Messiah comes, that's what He's going to do." That was the sign of the Messiah, for He was the Son of man. Said, "That's what He's going to do when He comes; You must be His Prophet."
He said, "I am He." Nobody else could say that!
She dropped that water pot, and run into the city, and said, "Come, see a Man Who told me what I done. Isn't this the very Messiah?" Now remember, He promised to do that same thing at the end of the Gentile race. The Jews had had four thousand years to look for that Messiah, four thousand years of teaching He was coming, and what He would do when He got there; and they failed to see Him, failed to recognize it. And when He made Hisself known in the very Bible terms that He said He would, when He'd been a theophany and then become flesh and dwelled among them, they failed to see it, and called His works the works of the devil.
Now, we've had two thousand years of teaching, coming down through the Roman Catholic Church, after the apostles. Then we come down through the Roman Catholic, the Greek, and so forth, on down to Luther's age, and Wesley, whatmore, nine hundred different organizations. Coming down, they had all these ages teaching. Now, He promised just before the end time would come that the picture of Sodom and Gomorrah would again... "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the end time, the Son of man will reveal Himself again."
"Yet a little while and the world won't see Me no more, yet ye shall see Me, for I (a personal pronoun)—I will be with you, even in you to the consummation, the end of the world. I'll be with you." He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
You see—you see the Samaritan was actually—from my last night's sermon—was Hagar (see?) a perverted type. The Jew was Sarah—or was Sarah-ite; but the Gentile is of Mary the Royal Seed, Abraham's Royal Seed.
Now, it's promised that in these last days that this same God, this same Christ, would come back here and reveal Hisself as Son of man. Why? He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if He let those Jews go by with—and give them that Messianic sign, and then come to the end of the Gentile's teachings and let them just go in on theology, He would be unjust. He's got to do the same thing, because the Bible said in 13—Hebrews 13:8, He is the same. And He's promised in Malachi 4 and all the different Scriptures that the last days the church would be setting just exactly like it is today and the world would be.
Look at the world today. Look at the Sodom condition. Look at the earthquakes in divers places and the things that's taking place. Look at the church in the mess it's in, of Babylon. Look at the messenger to it, an Oral Roberts and a Billy Graham—G-r-a-h-a-m. First time we ever had a messenger to all the churches that his name ever end in h-a-m like Abraham. A-b-r-a-h-a-m is seven letters; G-r-a-h-a-m is six letters. Where's he at? To the world. Six is man's number. Man was created on the sixth day. But seven's God's number.
Now, look at them down there in Sodom. And there is their messengers down there speaking to them. But then where's that Royal Seed of Abraham? Where is their sign, that He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom," that God came down and was manifested in human flesh, and told what Sarah was thinking back in her heart in the tent behind Him, the last sign before the Gentile world was destroyed by fire? And the church has got it's last sign before the whole world's going to be destroyed, this Gentile kingdom be destroyed by the fire and wrath of God. You believe that?
That Melchisedec was flesh, represented Himself in a human body; and then later He was made flesh. And now tonight, He's the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Do you believe it?
Who is this Melchisedec then, that's the same yesterday... Never had no father, never had no mother; He never had no beginning of days; He never had any end to life. And He met Abraham, and what kind of a sign did He perform? Then when He was made flesh, He said it would repeat again just before the end time. You believe that? I believe it! Let's pray.
Dear God, I believe the Scriptures, that You have said You was the same yesterday, today, and forever. And as sincerely in my heart, Lord, I know that something's fixing to take place. I cannot strictly identify it; I'm afraid to say anything, Lord. Thou knowest the heart of Your servants.
And how many times down through the age when You sent things, people failed to get it. Man is constantly praising God for what He did, and saying what great things He's going to do, but ignoring what's He's doing. So has it been through the age. Why did the Roman church fail to see Saint Patrick as God's prophet? Why did they kill Joan of Ark when she was a—a prophetess, burnt her as a witch? Father, it's always past. You hide it from the eyes of the wise and prudent. No wonder You said to them priest, "You garnish the tombs of the prophets, and you're the one that put them in there." After they're gone they see their mistake. They always persecute You, Lord, in whatever form You come in.
I pray tonight, God, just one more time. Tomorrow we're scheduled to be—to go to Tucson. Other parts of the world, other cities we must preach in. But dear God, there might be strangers here tonight that never has—they've heard words preached, but never seen it made manifest. As I asked You at the beginning... When those disciples, Cleopas and his friend coming from Emmaus, was walking along the road and You stepped out of the bush and begin to talk to them after the resurrection, preached to them... Why, He said, "Fools, slow of heart, don't you know that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory." But still they never recognized it. All day long they walked with You and still didn't know You. But one night... Night come; they constrained You to come in. When they went into the little inn and closed the doors, then You did something just the way You did it before Your crucifixion; and they recognized it was the risen Christ. In a few moments You was behind the curtains and gone. Quickly they run and told the disciples, "The Lord is risen indeed!"
Father God, I believe that You're still alive. I know You are. And You've proved it to us so many times. Could You just do it once more for us, Lord? If we found grace in Your sight, let it happen once more. I am Your servant, these are Your servants in here. Lord, all that I've said wouldn't mount to... Just one word from You would be more than I've said in these five nights—or five messages. It would be more, just one word from You. Won't You speak, Lord, that the people might know that I've told them the Truth? Grant it, God. I ask it in Jesus' Name this once more. Amen.
Now, I don't know you; I know some people. I know this boy setting here. I know Bill Dauch setting right there. I want to... Here's Brother Blair, Rodney Cox. It's hard to see out there. On this side right at the present time I can't see nobody actually that I know.
Now, how many in here that knows that I am a stranger to you, raise up your hands, knows that I know nothing about you, raise up your hands on both sides. How many in here that has something wrong or something that—that you know that I know nothing about, would you raise up your hands. Now, it would be totally, absolutely, totally impossible for me to know anything about you. Otherwise, then it'd have to come from some revelation of Spirit. And being that I've told you all these nights, and tonight that He is not dead; He's here and promised to do the same thing, and promised that there would come a time in the last days according to Malachi 4 and according to St. Luke, that He would appear again in human form among His people, and do the same things, and reveal the same things, the same Messianic sign... How many knows that, you Bible readers—knows that's the Truth say, "Amen!" [Congregation replies, "Amen!"—Ed.] Must all be Bible readers.
Now, I know it's foreign to the people today, but still it's the Truth. That's the reason they didn't know Jesus of Nazareth. They knowed their church creeds, but they didn't know Him. But He come just the way the Bible said, not a theologian, not a priest; He come as a Prophet; and His own received Him not.
Now, if God will keep His Word, and if I happen to—it happens to fall on someone that I know, then I'll—I'll get someone else. See, I want somebody that I don't know. And I want you to pray.
Now look, there was a little woman one time had an infirmity. She had spent her money for the doctors; they could do her no good. And she said within her heart, "If I can touch that Man's garments, I'll be made well." You remember the story? And so all of them tried to get her to stay back, but she pressed through until she touched His garment, went back and set down.
Now, listen close. And then when He did that—when she did that, Jesus turned around and said, "Who touched Me?"
Why, Peter the apostle rebuked Him. He might have said something like, "Lord, don't say a thing like that. The people will believe there's something wrong with You, because when You ask them to eat Your flesh and drink Your blood. They already think there's something wrong. And You say, 'Who touched Me,' why, the whole crowd's a-touching You."
He said, "Yes, but I perceive that virtue went out of Me." That was a different kind of touch. Now, anybody knows that virtue is strength. "I got weak; virtue left Me." And He looked around on the audience until He found the little woman and told her about her blood issue. And she felt in her body that that blood issue had stopped. Is that right? And He said, "Thy faith has saved thee." Now, the Greek word there is Sozo, which absolutely means "saved physically or spiritual." Just the same, just saved. He is—He's your Saviour.
Now, if that was Him yesterday, and the way He acted to prove that He was among the people, the Messiah promised, and that's the way He identified Himself in promise by the Bible, He'd do the same thing now. Wouldn't He—wouldn't He have to do the same thing?
You say, "Did He say it's about healing the sick?" Yeah! The Hebrews, the Bible that I just read from said that Jesus Christ now is our High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. How many knows that true? The Bible said that. He's a High Priest now that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Then if He's the same High Priest that He was then, how would He act now? He'd have to act the same way He did then, if He's the same High Priest. Now, you might... I'm not your high priest. You might touch me, and it'd just be like touching your husband, or your brother, or whatmore, a man. But you let your faith touch Him and watch what happens.
Now, if I be God's servant and have told you the Truth, God will vindicate that to be the Truth. And that would prove that Jesus Christ is a-living tonight, standing here. Is that right? Now, you have faith, just one side at the time, one side. You have faith out there. (I better stay at the microphone here, because they can't hear me.)
Somebody just look up to God, and say, "God, that man don't know me. He knows nothing about me. I'm a perfect stranger to him. But let my faith touch You, Lord. And You know what's the matter with me, Lord. You know all about me; You know who I am, the same as You knowed who Peter was, same as You knowed Nathanael, as You knowed what was wrong with the woman with the blood issue. And this man tells me that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then, Lord, let my faith touch You." And if He will do that and infallibly prove Himself here, how many of you will believe Him with all your heart, if He will do it at least one, or two, or three people for—for a witness. God bless you!
Now, Father God, this is totally out of the hands of any man; it'd have to be supernatural phenomena. So I pray that You'll help me now, Lord; I'm in Your hands. Do with me as You see fit. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Now, don't be nervous, just humbly, reverently say, "Lord, I'll serve You. And that'll be a Truth that... If I could touch Your garment, then You speak back through that man. That will prove to me that what he said's the Truth." That right?
How many ever seen the picture of that Light? It's all over the country, everywhere. Science has took it and examined it and everywhere. Now, He's right here now, same One that said about Marriage and Divorce, same One was on the mountain and shook the hills back there, same One that's down here at the river in '33, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the same.
Now, there's a woman; and she recognizes now that something's happened. That Light's hanging right over her. She's setting right here, she's... Green sweater on or something. I don't know the woman. I suppose we are strangers to one another. That is right. Do you believe that God... You're—you're in need of something, and you believe that God can reveal to me what your trouble is? And if He does, then you know it'll have to be a supernatural power, because I don't know you. And it'll have to come through supernatural. Depends upon what you think it is. You can take your side with the priest, call it the devil, or you can take the side of the believer and call it God. Ever which you believe, that's where your reward will come from.
If God will reveal to me your trouble, will you accept Him as your—your atonement for that trouble? I don't know what the trouble is, but I know and you know that something's going on.
Now, just let me tell you how you're feeling, then you'll know, a real warm, sweet, comfortable feeling. I'm looking right straight at It. It's that Light, Amber Light hanging from the woman. And the lady is suffering with a trouble in her stomach. It's a kinda of a growth like in her stomach. She's not from here, no; you're from away from here aren't you? That's right! You're from Wisconsin. Is that right? Sure. Now, you are healed. Your faith has made you whole.
Now, tell me who the woman touched? I'm twenty-five yards from her. She touched Jesus Christ, the High Priest. You believe that?
I'm looking at a woman that I talked to. This woman, I'm looking right at her, 'cause she's praying so hard for a man. She told me she had a man... She never told me nothing about it, but her name is Mrs. Waldrop. She comes from Phoenix. She was raised from the dead. And her doctor come with the x-rays and showed cancer in the heart. She died in the prayer line. How long ago has that been, Mrs. Waldrop? Eighteen years ago, and there she sets tonight, a living testimony.
Her doctors come to the meeting, brought the... Said, "How can the woman live?" But there she is, and no sign of it. She's brought someone, and she's praying for him. Now, he's dying with diabetes. Now, that I knew. But being that you're praying... You know I don't know who he is, Mrs. Waldrop.
He's from Missouri, and his name is Mr. Cooper. That is right. Now, you believe? You can go back home and be well, Sir. It's up to you if you'll believe it.
Here's a woman, and she's suffering with a asthmatic condition, complications. She's not from here. She's setting out there in the crowd, right out there. I hope she gets... She's not from here; she's from Georgia. Miss McKenny, you believe with all your heart and believe that God will make you well? Stand up on your feet if you're a stranger to me and that is true. Jesus Christ heals you. You believe?
To my back, there's a man setting behind me. He's contacting God. And what he's wanting, he's got a baby that's got heart trouble. And that baby has got a murmur in his heart, so the doctor said. And that man's name is Mr. Cox. Stand up, Mr. Cox. And He told Sarah what she was thinking behind Him.
Right across the aisle from him, back a little farther, is a man who comes not from here, but from New Mexico. I never seen him in my life. I'm looking right at him now; he's behind me. He's from New Mexico, and the man has a girl that he's interested in. And the girl has got something wrong with her mouth. It's a... The palate in her mouth is what's wrong. And the man's name is Mr. West. Would you stand up, Sir. I'm a total stranger to him, but the Lord God will heal his child. Do you believe now with all your heart?
How many of you believe now with all your heart? Now, isn't Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever? Do you accept Him now as your Saviour, raise your hands. Do you believe in Him as your Healer?
Here, here's a person setting here crippled or something, laying on a cot. (Can you hear me through this mike?) I don't know you; you're just a woman laying there. If I could heal you, I would do it. I can't heal you. It's just a man who's... regarding his child here. I don't know you. You're a woman; I'm a man. This is the first time that we met in life, I suppose...?... that brought you. Frankly, this is your first time here, just brought you in. You come from a long way. You're shadowed to death. You have cancer, not crippled, but cancer. The doctors can do no more for you. It's true. And you're sure to die. Those doctors can do no more for you.
One time there was three lepers set at the gate of Samaria. And them lepers said, "Why do we set here till we die, because all kids are starving to death and eating one another's children." They said, "If we go down to the enemy's camp, the Syrians... If they kill us, we're going to die anyhow. And if they save us, we'll live." And they took that chance. And by that faith, they not only saved theirself but the whole group.
Now, you're going to die; you can't live. But you're not asked to go to the camp of Gideon, but you're invited to the house of the Father...?...
You're dying with cancer; you can't live outside of God. You're not from this city; you're not from around here; you're from a long way. You're from Milwaukee. It's true!...?... From the city, I know. Right. Do you believe? Will you accept God now as your Healer? If you will, no matter how weak you are, how bedfast you are, I believe in your case I would rise up in the Name of Jesus Christ and take that cot and go home and live to the glory of God. You believe me to be God's prophet, then rise up and go home, be well. Don't be scared; get up off the cot. God will make you well. See?
Somebody hold her so she can get up and get strength. Do you believe God? Just let her get a little strength; she'll be all right. That's it, Sister. There she is in the Name of the Lord Jesus.
Let us stand and give praise to God. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever...?... the Lord Jesus Christ bless you. bb650221e.htm