"If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" Israel's journey to the Promised Land was ordered by the sound of a trumpet. One certain sound to advance, a certain sound to pitch camp, and another certain sound to battle.
Israel's pilgrimage types our journey to the eternal Land of the Millennium. We're following the certain sound of the Gospel Trumpet. But how many are marching in the wrong direction, totally unaware that the Gospel Trumpet has sounded a different Message in each of seven Church Ages, and is blasting another tune today?
Unless we follow the score of God's Bible, we'll be listening for the uncertain sound of a day gone by. Jesus promised to send us a prophet in our day, who'd restore the apostolic faith, finish the mystery of god, and call the wise and foolish virgin, out from all man-made religious systems into the unity of the faith, or mind of God, for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation.
There can be no doubt about the sound of that trumpet. But unless we search the Scripture to discover what God promised He'd do now, we'll be following some denominational trumpet, impersonating what God's already done—hundreds of years in the past.
When God says something, It can't fail. It must come to pass. We must search God's music score, to recognize the Gospel trumpet for our day so we can follow its certain sound. We must have no doubt, because we're at the end of time, when God's Word Bride is going to change in the atoms, to receive a glorified body like His Own, and meet Him in the Sky, for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
I know a Sister who's suffered crippling arthritis for many years. She needs a new body. She's almost immobilized. Yet her testimony has always been that certain sound: "by His stripes I was healed, and I patiently await the manifestation of His promise. He didn't say when, but He did say, 'It is finished'." Hallelujah!
In Genesis 12:1-4, God called righteous Abraham to separate from all unbelief, and to follow His leading to an unknown land. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old. His barren wife, who was also his half-sister, was sixty five. God promised Abraham, Sarah would conceive: from her womb would come a great nation and in Abraham's offspring ALL nations would be blessed.
Twenty-five years later when Abraham was a hundred, Isaac was born (Genesis 20:21). Fifteen years later, God told him to sacrifice the promised son. A type of Christ.
How He'd fulfill His promise to make of Isaac a great nation if he were killed in his youth was God's problem! God made the promise, and He was bound to honor His Word. "How" was not for Abraham to work out.
Abraham took Isaac, his servants and a donkey laden with firewood, and set off for the same mountain where Jesus would be crucified 2,000 years in the future. Finding the place, Isaac carried the wood, as Abraham's real Son of Promise, Jesus Christ would one day carry His own cross. Abraham built an altar, bound his Son and lay him upon the wood.
There was no speculation how God would fulfill His promise. No questions. Just obedience. Abraham is our example. Christ's end-time Bride must come under pre-eminence to the whole Word of God, knowing without one doubt It is His Word. Eve left off one Word. The Ephesian Church Age fell by turning slightly from It. Laodicea rejected It.
God delivered Isaac by a miracle. A ram caught in bushes at the top of that barren hill, where there was no water, and no pasture to attract him. He is still Jehovah Jireh today, "the Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice".
Let's pick up where we left off last week in Revelation 4:3. "He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and a rainbow, glowing like an emerald, encircled the throne".
The Book of Revelation employs Old Testament symbols. Each of the Twelve Tribes had a birth stone engraved with its name, affixed to the breastplate of the High Priest. Jasper was the birth stone of Benjamin, Jacob's last son. Sardine was the birth stone of Reuben, the first of his strength.
The order of the stones in Aaron's breastplate do not follow each other in the same order as those in the Book of Revelation. Because of idolatry, Ephraim's name was removed from under heaven (Deuteronomy 29:16-20; I Kings 12:25-30). Daniel 12:1 refers to the sealing of "everyone found written in the Book": the 144,000 Israelites, who'll be born-again during the Tribulation. This is recorded in Revelation 7:4-8. Ephraim and Dan are missing. And Benjamin has taken Ephraim's place in the genealogy.
During the millennium, they'll be back in Tribal order, as we find in Ezekiel 48 (1-8; 22-29).
Jasper and sardine, show that all are gathered into Christ. As we read in Ephesians 1:10, "After all seven Church Ages, He'll gather together in one all things in Christ—the sleeping saints already in heaven, and the living bride on earth". The first and the last. (I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4:16 tell the same story).
In the vision of Matthew 17, Peter, James and John saw the return of Jesus glorified, preceded by Moses and Elijah to Israel. Moses represented the saints who fell asleep. Elijah, the end-time Bride who'll be changed in the atoms. The first and the last.
In their birth pains, the mothers of the Patriarchs uttered words which named their son, and prophetically placed him in his portion of the Promised Land. Likewise, the names of the seven Church Ages position the Bride of each Age in her place in the Body of Christ. (See the first eight verses of II Peter, chapter one).
And John saw "a rainbow like an emerald encircling the throne". A rainbow is made up of seven colors—seven Church Ages, but in the dispensation of the fullness of the seven times, that's our present dispensation, they'll be gathered together into one Light, Christ, the Shekinah, made manifest in the Church. In appearance, like an emerald.
Revelation 21:10-11, "And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem (that's the Bride), descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: (Jesus Christ is the glory of God, and the Church is the glory of Christ): and her Light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone (i.e. a diamond), clear as crystal". The Lamb is that Light, the first born in the new creation, the beginning of the creation of God.
Yes, that City is built of stones most precious. Peter called us: lively stones, and Jesus Christ, the Chief Corner Stone—rejected of men but chosen by God (I Peter 2). When these living stones are assembled, their Light harmonizes in the fullness of the Shekinah, and we're no longer conscious of the individual rainbow colors.
When Israel had a question, and there was no prophet or dreamer of dreams, the High Priest would consult God before the urim thummim, or breastplate, that hung from a pillar in the temple. God's will was signified, when the birthstones blended together in an emerald or amber yellowish-green fire.
By the throne were four living creatures, the cherubim of Ezekiel 1. Each represented three Tribes and guarded the way to God's Presence. In the New Testament they guard the first four Seals of the Bride's redemption. Representing the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they guard the way to the Acts of the Holy Spirit. He'll act in you the same as He acted in the Apostles. But the only way to the Baptism of the Spirit is through the Gospels.
The term "Living Creatures" is better understood as "lively" or "life-ly" creatures, because they exhibit the fourfold nature of "zoe", God's own life, He's imparting to His Family.
The Cherubim are in their nature and design, artificial and temporary forms of being, uniting in their composite structure the distinctive features of the highest kinds of creaturely existence on earth. They were set up for signs to men of faith. Right from Eden, where God set them to prevent man's approach to Christ, the Tree of Life, they gave promise of restoration. Were this not so, the Presence of God would've been removed from Adam's race.
One had the appearance of a lion, one of an ox, one of a man, and one looked like an eagle. The lion is renowned for his majesty and strength, the ox for patient and productive labor, the man for his rational and moral nature, and the eagle for far sight and speed.
Note there were four Living Creatures, four Gospels, and God is redeeming His Church under the first four Seals. Four is the number of earth, and also the number of deliverance.
John saw these creatures around the Throne and under the rainbow. The rainbow is the token of a covenant between God and the earth. A token of deliverance (Genesis 9:13). The covenant resulted from God's acceptance of Noah's sacrifice, or faith (Genesis 8:20-21).
The vision of Revelation 4:3 signifies He's the same yesterday and today, and forever. And He remembers His covenant. By seven colors or Church Ages He will deliver the earth.
You'll remember we taught that John represents the end-time Bride, who will not see death. The man who revealed these things to John in the visions had to be the prophet-messenger to the Laodicean or seventh Church Age. His name was William Branham. Jesus revealed It only to that man. That was in 1963. Until his ministry the Book was sealed with Seven Seals.
When John saw the Throne vision, redemption was over, because the day of Christ's mediation was over. Now listen carefully. Christ couldn't fully redeem the Church at Calvary because those baptized into the Body from Pentecost were predestinated to part-Word. In other words, they were born-again whilst the Bible was sealed, and Christ had to intercede for their ignorance of His Word.
The end-time Bride and the 144,000 elect Israelites, however, were redeemed in Christ on Calvary because we were predestinated to be baptized into the fullness of the Word, after the revelation of the Seven Seals has finished the mystery of God.
Therefore, when John, typing the end-time Bride, sees the Throne, there is no more blood. Christ's intercession is over, and it's a judgment seat.
In Genesis 22(:16-18), God swore an oath by Himself. We'll read about this in Hebrews 6:13-20, "When God promised Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself, 'I will bless and multiply you into a great nation'. After Abraham had patiently endured, Isaac was born as promised. Men swear by someone greater, who'll punish them if they fail to honor their word. God, willing to establish confidence in the heirs of His promise, confirmed it by an oath: That by two unchangeable things, His Word and His oath, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who've fled to Him for salvation might take new courage in His Word. This certain hope of salvation is a strong and trustworthy anchor of the soul, fastened upon God Himself within the veil; Where Christ, Abraham's Spiritual Seed, has gone ahead to plead for us as High Priest in the order of Melchisedec".
This is our assurance. He swore by Himself that He'd preserve the seed of Abraham. To natural Israel, that was Isaac. To the Church, its the baptism with the Holy Ghost, or new birth. We have the assurance of deliverance, redemption and resurrection. And in this day, we'll change in the atoms without physical death. The world will go into tribulation. He's sworn by Himself He won't destroy it, for it too will be restored.
After Moses had delivered Israel out of Egypt in the first exodus, God kept His Word and met him again on top of Mount Sinai where He vindicated his ministry and delivered the Law. Israel came from grace to the Law under the Ten judgments.
When the Church was delivered from Israel in the second exodus, it consisted of mostly Jewish converts until after the Thyatira Age. God met Brother Branham on top of a mountain, symbolized by the Great Pyramid. There He vindicated the Commission given in 1933 on the Ohio River. While baptizing 500, following a revival meeting, the Pillar of Fire descended above William Branham. NOT as a dove, but in the form of a star. A Voice from heaven said, "As John the Baptist foreran My first Coming, your Message will forerun My second Coming".
God showed Moses the Ten Commandments, ordinances, and pattern for the earthly tabernacle which was a shadow and type of the true. In a similar way God revealed the Seven Seals to Brother Branham which perfect His true tabernacle in man, Christ's Church. Seven is the number of Spiritual perfection, rest, and completion.
When the Holy Fire descended upon Mount Sinai, attended by thunder and lightning the people were instructed not to approach lest they die (Exodus 19). The Israelites were afraid and said, "Don't let God speak with us nor let us see the Shekinah, lest we die". So God speaks only through a prophet. One man could mediate between God and Israel—that was Moses.
When the last saint predestinated to the Laodicean Church Age was redeemed, the Holy Ghost and Fire sealed the part-Word divisions of Christ's Body. There was a breach or gap between these finished Church Age saints, and the rejected Caagsone of the fullness of the Word, which was Christ, coming to incarnate His end-time Bride for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation.
From Revelation 4:5 we find the seven portions of His Spirit have completed their Work and are back before the Throne in heaven. Its a judgment seat. And without a mediator there's no way to approach the Caagsone or fullness of the Word, which crowns and finishes the Building. That Caagsone is the Christ Laodicea rejected and put outside their door.
The only way we could come to the Fullness of the Word was for God to send us a prophet. For the Word of God comes only to a prophet. One man could stand in the breach between God and man—the breach between "that which was in part, and that which is perfect": the prophet William Branham. The Pillar of Fire has appeared visibly among us just as It did at Mount Sinai, identifying his Message is THUS SAITH THE LORD.
The same Pillar of Fire that met and spoke with Moses and Paul who wrote the Old and New Testaments, has returned in our day, to meet Brother Branham whose ministry "restored all things spoken by the mouth of all God's holy prophets since the world began", according to Peter's prophecy (Acts 3:21; Malachi 4:5-6; Revelation 10:7).
Moses fashioned the Tabernacle in the Wilderness after a vision he saw of the heavenly tabernacle. In actual fact, this was a schematic diagram or series of symbols which showed man the way to approach unto God. Christianity is the antitype of the Old Testament. Paul followed the same pattern in building the Body of Christ or true Temple of the Spirit. Once enthroned, God is judge, because there's no more blood, and the mercy seat became judgment seat.
Israel's high priest entered the veil, upon which was embroidered four cherubim, once a year on the Day of Atonement. He was dressed in garments sewn by holy hands, a bell and pomegranate on its hem. Anointed with oil and Rose of Sharon, he carried the shed blood of an innocent one. And there in the Holy of Holies, he saw the Shekinah.
When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple rent; now anyone can come behind it robed in the righteousness of the new birth, and with a holy walk, enter the Presence of God by the blood of Jesus Christ through the veil of His flesh.
The Shekinah raised from the mercy seat in the Temple and settled on another Temple. John 5:22, "The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son." Jesus is God's Judgment Seat. Matthew 12:32, "Whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall NOT be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come".
The first judgment seat was in heaven. The second throne was in Christ. The third throne is in man.
Satan chose a man's head for his control tower. He makes him see things through his eyes, and reason with his mind. Natural, carnal perception by his ten senses.
God chose the heart of man in which to establish His Throne. How does He take His place? First He gains pre-eminence over the outer courts of the senses of our body. Sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Justification by grace through faith, and scriptural water baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Next He gains the pre-eminence of the inner court of the senses of our mortal spirit: reasoning, memory, imagination, conscience and affection. We become sanctified and start a holy walk.
Finally, He passes through the veil of our self-will to enthrone Himself in the Holy of Holies of our heart.
Very quickly now, let's finish with Revelation 4:4 and 10 where John sees the twenty-four elders enthroned beside God. In Daniel 7:9-10, Daniel saw the same vision as John: the end-time Bride. He saw it 500 years before Christ while John saw it 2,000 years after Christ, when he was in the Spirit in the Lord's Day. There was no Jesus when Daniel saw his vision, just "the ancient of Days," and the twenty-four thrones were empty, because the elders had not all been chosen. In Revelation 4, however, they were occupied.
The twenty-four elders are the twelve Old Testament Patriarchs, and the twelve apostles. Study this in Matthew 19:28; Revelation 3:21, 20:4 and 21. radio073.htm
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