4/15/90 PM

We are working toward the completion of this message. As you see here on the chart, we have four different pictures in an effort to give you visual understanding of what we are dealing with. This of course, takes us back to Genesis, where Adam and Eve are being driven from the beautiful paradise of God, out into the earthly realm away from the spirit world presence they have been accustomed to, to start their journey through time. For six thousand years man has struggled in his earthly journey, endeavoring to find the way back to that most sacred place where man once lived, a place which was called the paradise of Eden. Keep in mind, the average church goer today thinks man was driven out of a certain geographical spot on earth. If that is your view, then please tell me where you think that place is. If he was driven out of a geographical area somewhere, then that area still has to be forbidden territory for unregenerate mankind. I personally, do not know of any such place on the face of this earth. How many understand that? When he was driven out, there were angels with flaming swords placed at the east of Eden to guard the way of the tree of life, (Gen. 3:24), So He (God) drove out the man; and He (God) placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way (not guard a gate) of the tree of life," so that man could never enter back into that beautiful paradise as he had been able to do before. In other words, God just simply removed that heavenly setting from their midst and left them with those things that pertain only to earthly activity. As far as the geographical spot of earth, all of that was still right there in the middle east. That is the place called Eden. That is the geographical area where all of the history of mankind originated. There, is where the Bible was written. There, is where your and my progenitors all sprang from. Secular history refers to it as the Fertile Crescent, or the cradle of civilization. We can trace our origin back to the Middle East, but certainly not back to the monkeys swinging in the trees, like some want to believe. Neither do we trace our beginning back to the Neanderthal man, or any of the rest of those ideas that this modern generation of mankind has tried to shove down our throats. That is all a lot of nonsense concocted by scientists and archaeologists that have nothing better to do. We have a complete record of our beginning, so why beat the bushes looking for something that is not there? We trace our beginning all the way back to the Adam and Eve we read about right here in the word of God, and this city we are reading about is a spiritual city. John is allowed to see a heavenly setting coming down to earth and what we are reading is his description of it.

THE NEW JERUSALEM

JOHN SAW COMING DOWN

This is picturing the city as John saw it coming down, in Revelation 21. (Speaking of the chart used, which we do not have available.) Then in the 22^nd chapter, he describes the inside of what he is seeing, and we must notice that it is no longer the description of a city, but it is more like the description of a beautiful park, one like you would enter into through a great entrance and then see it as a massive park. In there, you are walking down a huge avenue, or broad way. This street is split. One side approaches the throne of God. The other side is the return from it. In the middle of that, flows the river of life. On each side of the river of life there stood the tree of life spoken of in plural terminology. It is spoken of in the feminine gender. What a beautiful place it must be! Let us see if time would add up to anything. Man was driven from a beautiful garden, and the next thing man begins to do is seek to build a city. Why build a city? Because sin began to make man his own enemy. He needed protection. He found out he could not live alone and feel safe, so they began to group together in small cities, but in time they grew, and eventually they had to build walls around their cities. You can see then, that as man in his earthly journey, after he is driven from the beautiful garden of paradise, which was a place where he needed no house, needed no roof for shelter, nor stove, nor any of those things we depend upon today, something in him made him start seeking all those things. In the beginning, God was his habitation. As far as the natural earth and natural vegetation, that was the thing he was placed here to dress and care for, in order to beautify the earth, all with God's supervision, but using man and his hands to refill the earth with life and beautify it all over. Sin kept him from doing that according to God's plan, so for six thousand years now, man has corrupted the earth, defiled it with his own ways and made it an unsafe place to dwell. Well man today, builds his large cities for whatever reason, but looking at this scripture, if man is eventually going back to the original state of relationship with his Creator, then it has got to be understood that this is why John saw all of this that looks like a city, looking at it from the exterior view. However when you get inside of it you do not see a city of massive, high rise buildings, where you need elevators to go to the top. It is a beautiful garden. Why is it so huge? Because it is how God relates His divine presence back to earth. It is God bringing paradise, the spirit world, back where the earth and it become as one. Man, in his redeemed state, will live for eternity in the presence and shelter of that divine manifestation of God's own being overshadowing him. It portrays also the anointing of God, how God will relate Himself to His entire creation that has now been purified and made clean through redemption. As we read these scriptures about all the material that this city is described as being made up of, please keep in mind that all of this is spiritual, not literal. Its walls are of jasper, pure, and the city appears in sight as pure gold. The city is of pure gold, like unto transparent glass. The street is of pure gold, like unto transparent glass. That tells me that none of this entire habitation has any earthly minerals in its makeup, no earthly substance, nothing tangible about it whatsoever. It is all spiritual, because that gold is not what you see on a wristwatch or wedding ring. It is not an earthly mineral. It is a heavenly substance speaking of the very nature of God Himself. If you wonder what it is, the Bible tells us. In the book of Revelation, the 3^rd chapter, Jesus is speaking to the age that you and I live in, the Age of Laodicea and saying, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." Was Jesus selling Natural gold? Of course not: He was speaking of the very nature of God that we are to take on as we crucify this old flesh and become like Jesus, but we take on that nature only as we overcome the fires of trials, tests and persecution. What does the street signify? It actually speaks of the fact that one only gains entrance to this place by traveling through this present life exercising the measure of faith that God has invested in each and every one of us. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We take a certain street to make our way to a certain place. This street is of pure gold, thereby signifying that we arrive at this beautiful setting by faith, according to God's foreordained plan.

ABOUT THE CHURCH AGES

Let me take a moment to clarify what we mean when we speak of the Church Ages. We are living in the seventh Church Age, which is the Age of Laodicea. What do you mean by the seventh Church Age, Bro. Jackson? I thought we were living in the age of Grace. That is true, but what is the age of Grace? It is a dispensation of time. It started with the advent of Christ almost two thousand years ago, in His first appearance on earth, to bring about the fulfillment of the Law, and to give Himself as the sacrifice, God's only means of atonement for the sins of man. From the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Ghost, the Grace Age was set in motion. For almost two thousand years now, we have been living in the age of Grace. However within that period of time, which is a dispensation, God has represented it to mankind in the characteristics and spiritual likenesses of the seven churches of Asia. Since God mentioned them all in the order that He wanted to use to type those periods that this age of Grace would be represented in, we are now living in the last one, the Church Age called Laodicea. What is it about Laodicea that is different than the others? Laodicea, in the natural, was a city of great commerce and trade. It lay on the ancient trade routes. That would make it a city wherein the standard of living would be a little better than some of the other cities which lay off the trade routes and may not have as much opportunity to gain economic prosperity within them. That made quite a difference in the standard of living and in the attitude of the people. Abundance of riches can lead to a haughty attitude, greed, self sufficiency and carelessness and thereby affect us in our daily walk with our Creator. When that happens, He has to take us aside and rebuke us. He does not cast us away, He just admonishes us to shake ourselves and examine our priorities, and to learn to walk with Him by faith, instead of our earthly security we become so proud of. We find here in the book of Revelation, in the 3^rd chapter, that in 96 A.D., after this church has been in existence about forty years, it had gone further into a spiritual decline, into apostasy, than any of the others. We can see this very thing exemplified in America today. This is the day of TV evangelism. They come on with all kinds of materialistic programs, every kind of manipulation under the sun. Laodicea speaks of a type of people who measure religion in terms of materialism, dollars and cents. Drive up and down the city, look on the bulletin boards in the church yards, and what do you see? Attendance today was such and such. Go inside and you see on the bulletin board, Our offering today was so much. Do you think God is interested in any of that? You do not find one bulletin board mentioned in the book of Acts, which is the history of the early Church. That is what God means for His Church on earth to function like. Some ask though, Why are you approaching this message in this manner? Because we are the age where our lives are affected by that kind of materialistic spirit. That is why He speaks to us in this age, in Revelation 3, and says this, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire." What kind of gold is that? It is faith. True faith in God, because, when God saves you by His grace, He imparts the measure of faith that is necessary to turn you and me around and get us started living for Him and believing in Him, after we have lived so long with our life taken up with the things in the world. It has to come from God. He imparts it. Once He imparts that faith, God intends for you and me, as we walk with Him, to gain an increase of that faith by investing it properly in the things that lift us up and make us more and more into the image of what Jesus, His only begotten Son, was. He intends for you and me, as we walk with Him, to increase that faith more and more by properly using it. If that gold is going to increase, what must come first? Jesus covered it in the parable of the talents. Proper stewardship of this valuable gift is what is going to bring an increase that will glorify God. It is going to be like this, Out of the depths of His word, He is going to open up the storehouse of His valuables, His treasures, the things that God puts value on, and we will understand spiritual things, things the world of denominational religion cannot see. You see it because you have eyes to see and it is right there in His word. What He imparts to us makes the picture crystal clear. It helps you understand His word in such a simple way, you just cannot hardly help but laugh about what a mystery it used to be, as you would try to understand it. When you begin to realize you do not have to go to Bible School to learn what the scriptures mean, and that it is a gift from God that costs you nothing but faithfulness to Him, you almost get beside yourself. You do not have to go to school and take instructions in order to get saved; so Who in the world ever told you, you had to go to school to learn to be a preacher? Only a spirit from the devil would tell you that. Schools, seminaries, Bible schools, have had their place in days gone by, especially in the Reformation period, but God has never, at any time, ever laid down any such requirements. We are living just before the coming of Christ for the bride Church. Therefore God is dealing with the end time people the same way He started out dealing with individuals in the beginning of Christianity. What we are talking about, is how God relates Himself by His Spirit to every man, or person that is in His plan of redemption. That is why I say, When you see church-going people today, that fuss and argue about how the building ought to be built, what color everything should be painted, what kind of roof and all like that, That is not the Church Jesus is coming for in the first place. You who have found the true meaning of the word of God and hold it precious, you are the Church. You are the lively stones. The natural world of religion does not see these scriptures the way they are revealed to us. They argue and fuss, therefore the only thing they can do is build a larger building, have more programs, open the doors wide and proclaim, We want to win the world for Jesus. I am sorry to tell you, but you will never win the world for Jesus. Well I believe we could. You can believe whatever you choose to believe, but that is one thing you are not going to do. Regardless of how many may say, Well I believe we can win the world for Jesus, it is just not scriptural. God saves all those who are foreordained for salvation from before the foundation of the world, according to His foreknowledge. You may say, Well I certainly do not believe in that, but I will say to you, The apostle Peter believed it. God knew who would and who would not receive His provision for salvation, even before He ever set any of His creation into motion. Therefore He can run his business to suit His foreordained plan, and does not have to get permission from anyone. I have no way of knowing who will accept this great plan of salvation and who will not; therefore I have no business trying to predict who is a predestined seed of God. Only God Himself knows that, and because He does, everything else He does can be associated with the foreknowledge He exercised before the foundation of the world.

GOLD, TRIED IN THE FIRE

We are going to examine some of these things we see here in the book of Revelation, especially in chapter 22, but let us keep in mind what Jesus said to the Church at Laodicea which represented the Church Age we are living in. He said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire." As we go through this chapter we are going to find out what that cube signifies in the overall scriptural analysis, because we know that when you see something that the length, the breadth and the height are all equal, you are looking at a cube. That has significance. Let me say also, that the faith we are talking about is that measure of faith He has imparted to every one of us. He has given us something that is very valuable. It is an understanding of how you, or me, or whoever, as the worst sinner that ever walked, can again have fellowship with the eternal, sovereign God that created all things, and how we can begin to walk with Him in sweet fellowship. That faith can increase. That gold He gives you can increase. As it is to be increased, He is going to try it in various ways. That is why in 1^st Peter, chapter 1, it says, (6) "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (or tests) (7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The apostle Peter was using a natural illustration. How do you make gold pure after it is taken out of the earth? It is an element, a mineral of the earth, but many times you find it has absorbed other minerals, so to make it shine, to make it pure, they put it in the fire. That is exactly what God does with you and me, so to speak. As we live down here on earth, this mortal flesh that is so susceptible to sin and temptation has to be subjected to various pressures from time to time. The faith God puts inside you and me to turn us around, to start us walking with Him, every once in awhile has to be put to a test, so God will bring you through a trial and test. It is not because God is disgusted with you. It is not because He does not like you anymore: It is because He wants to refine that faith which is likened unto gold. As you prove yourself loyal to that, and you show yourself faithful to God in the test, that is what causes God to reach down and hand you a little more of that valuable substance, more faith. He does not give us more faith just because we ask Him to: We get more faith as a result of using the faith we already have. One thing sure, when He brings you through a certain kind of trial, though you did not understand all about it when it started, once you reach the other side and get the victory, you can look back and say, Praise God! He has been with me all along! Nine times out of ten your next trial will not be like that one, because you are fully aware of it. As you live in this mortal flesh, He is going to try you, in order to make that faith, that gold, shine that much more. Therefore when we see the city of pure gold, clear as glass, transparent as glass, that lets us know the dwellers in that city have to be the Bride of Jesus Christ, made up of the redeemed of the ages. That is the anointing of God settling on her to begin that eternal age, world without end. We enter into an endless span of time. Man, finally back in the very presence of God, and God dwelling with man. Man living in God's delight, living in the spirit world, yet living on a natural planet, which is what all of this points to. We will be able to see angels going about their business, and enjoy watching and really observing the whole, beautiful, panoramic view of how God has related Himself to the spirit world, as well as to the natural world He has redeemed and cleansed, and also be able to see everything on the planet earth as it moves about in its proper function the way the Creator ordained it to be. The Millennium, which is a little in front of us, is just a little foretaste of what eternity will be like. Remember, the Millennium is not the final picture. The Millennium is the seventh day, the seventh dispensational day that fulfills the whole week of time allotted to total redemption, because it covers seven dispensational days. Then we must remember that eternity is the first day all over again, which will never end. That is going to be wonderful, living in the eighth day. When the Lord looked upon this age of Laodicea and observed its people, He saw that the people of this Laodicean hour were people that were lukewarm, increased with worldly things, and feeling that they had need of nothing. As you drive from coast to coast, or from border to border, you see new church buildings everywhere, cathedrals that cost millions of dollars, but you do not find any real dedication on the part of the people, to search for the truth of God's word. The National Cathedral in Washington D.C., which they just showed in the News this week, was eighty some years in the making, and I do not even remember what they said it cost, but it was some huge church building that finally got finished after eighty some years. It is finished just in time for God to tear it all to pieces pretty soon. Can you tell the world at large anything like that? Don't talk like that, Bro. Jackson, especially around politicians, or you will be breaking the law. Nevertheless, Jesus is not coming for a church that looks like that thing: He is coming for a Church that is built with lively stones. He said to the Laodiceans, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire." Because the Laodicean church people have said, We are rich, we are increased with goods. We have need of nothing. You everyone know that is the Christian people of Laodicea, which basically, are those that live in America and the areas of the world we call industrialized nations. Look at western Europe, and look at America today, and you will see that very picture. It is not so much in places like Africa, India, the Philippines and those like that, but you can sure discern that spirit where it does apply. Those poor people in many areas of the world today can hardly find a bamboo curtain big enough to give them shelter. That is like religion in America today. They do not have enough of anything to cover their spiritual nakedness. That is why I said, Denominational churches are always in a rat race, trying to compete with their neighbors, building a larger church house, putting in stained glass windows, plush seats, sports programs and all of that, but they have no revelation or understanding of what it is all about. They can quote the scriptures right and left, but are totally ignorant of what the Creator is really after. The faith His Church will possess is that imparted faith He has given her to start her earthly journey, but it has increased as it was used in life. Then, when she is there in that chapter 22 setting, she is enjoying God's final gift to her which is He Himself dwelling with her in immortality. Everything inside that city is not only immortal, but God is dwelling there also. Too long now people have said, The Bible says we are going to go to heaven and live there forever with Jesus. That is not the way the Bible presents this picture and you everyone know it. I have never seen anything like that in the Bible. Well Bro. Jackson, that is the way they have always read the Bible in the Methodists church, also the Nazarene, the Church of God and most all the rest. It is true, the Bride Church is going to heaven for a little while when the rapture takes place, but that will only be for a little while, for the marriage supper, but the Bible does not tell you that you will spend three million years at the marriage supper. We are coming back with Jesus, according to the picture you see in Revelation 19, and what is going to happen then? Jesus and His Bride Saints will carry on a warfare for a short period of time, and of course there will always be some that will say, Well I don't want to do that. Then you do not want to be in His true Church, because that is what is up ahead. He is coming back to execute wrath and judgment upon the wicked of this earth, because God is not going to allow any of this wicked, worldly element of mankind to pass into the Millennium. When Jesus finishes separating the sheep-like people from the goat-like people, that gets the rest of those who will not be allowed to pass on into the Millennium.

GOD'S CHOSEN PLACE

TO PLACE HIS NAME

I want to go to the Old Testament at this time and deal with something I started on earlier. We covered how David took the Jebusite city, which was called Salem at the time he took it. Later on, it was called Jerusalem. Circumstances came about that caused King David to purchase Ornan's threshing floor, for a place to offer up sacrifice to the Lord. When it was all over, King David realized, Right here is the place God will meet with the children of Israel, and right here, is where God will place His name, (the place Deuteronomy 12:11 speaks of). Now having said that, let me get quickly to the point. We dealt with this a little, just to give a background for the approach to it. The time is 480 years after the children of Israel have come into the land and possessed it. Each tribe is now in its position, in its allotted territory. King David has brought the ark to Jerusalem. He made a tent for it, but he knew that tent could not be a permanent dwelling place for that ark. The ark is signified as this little box sitting on a little altar, and 480 years brings us approximately to the time 1000 B.C. If you notice, as we read from 1^st Kings 6, it does not tell you anything about God telling Solomon how big to build the building, but when you go to 2^nd Chronicles, which relates the same thing, it tells you there, that God told Solomon how big the building was to be, its complete dimensions, and everything. The reason I use this description here, it deals more with how the building was finished, and the decorated inside. This temple, as we read the description here, was sixty cubits long. That is the equivalent of ninety feet in length. The building was twenty cubits wide. That is equivalent to thirty feet in breadth. Its height was thirty cubits, equivalent to forty-five feet. That is half of its total length, and the breadth of the building, is one third of its total length. If you think God is not concerned about mathematics, do not kid yourself: He is, He has a reason for things being like this. All of this carries certain types. As we read here, I am going to read all the verses related to the building. We are starting in the 15^th verse of the 6^th chapter of 1^st Kings. "And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, (I thought the house was made of stone? It was, but this is telling us he finished inside the walls with cedar plank.) both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place." In other words, from the backside forward there were twenty cubits, and the breadth was twenty cubits, and the height was twenty cubits. That is an entire cube. You cannot take away from it and you cannot add to it. We know this, that since twenty cubits would be approximately thirty feet, then that means it is taking up one third of the total length, but since it is forty-five feet in height, that lets us know there would have to be an attic above that ceiling. Maybe they used it for storage; I do not know, but God is keeping this room a precise size. It has got to type something. When we read all of this, we find that this entire room is sealed with cedar plank. We will continue to read. "And the house, that is, the temple before it, was forty cubits long. (That is what is left, that is sixty feet.) And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. (So it lets us know the actual wall of the building that made it such a strong piece of work, was the stone walls. But within, the walls were covered with cedar plank.) And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. (That is what we see right here. This is an open end view looking into that room.) And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold." There was a huge curtain hung up there on golden chains, but as it dropped down before this, then that is what separated this measurement from this other. That was called a veil. When you read in the New Testament, that when Jesus died on the cross and there was a great earthquake, what did it say? The veil in the temple was rent in twain. When the apostle Paul, with his understanding of what all that room signified, explains it in the Hebrew letter, he said that the renting of the veil signified that the way into the holy of holies has been made, as Jesus fulfilled all requirements. God's sacrifice on earth has now been fulfilled through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which signifies that He is bringing an end to the old covenant, as far as its spiritual application goes. Jesus then rose from the dead and ascended right into heaven, and was seated on the right hand of God the Father, the Majesty, entering into His eternal glory, which no other priest could ever do. When you read that in the epistle to Timothy, it tells us how he has ascended on high, and he dwells in that light whom no man could approach, nor could see, nor can see. It means this, God the Eternal Spirit, does not live in a fixed form. That is not His habitation. He has manifested through the ages, in various similarities, taking on different forms, sometimes in an angelic way, and other times in theophany form appearing as a man. None of those forms were ever represented as His eternal abode, simply because He is a Spirit, which is invisible. He cannot be seen. He never has been seen by any natural eye, and never will be. Well I thought the Bible said Moses saw Him? That goes to show how much people really know about the Bible. They will just read one verse of scripture and will lock that up in their minds as the final say, and will go the rest of their life thinking, now I understand it all. Well I just have to say, One day, they will be going down the road of life, and will trip over a rock, so to speak, and say, now I don't know what I believe. How can people ignore what the Bible says? They will say, Moses saw God; the Bible says so. Then you come to 1^st John 4:12, which was written by another Jew, what did he say? He said, "No man hath seen God at any time." Are we reading riddles? No. We have to know what the writers, the patriarchs and the prophets were talking about when they were speaking of these various similarities or figures back in time, those that God manifested Himself in. You will notice, He never repeated His manifestations at any other time. John, 1:18 says also, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Do not expect to ever see God walking around as a person: His only begotten Son is the only person in the Godhead, and the only one that has ever been seen with the natural eye. It is the same with this city we are reading about: It is symbolic of something, and not something that can be seen with the natural eye. We read all about it, we read of its size and so forth, but you have to keep these things in proper prospective. However, when it comes to the temple Solomon built, and also the temple that will be built a little later on, you are talking about something that can be seen with the natural eye. Therefore as we were talking about that temple Solomon built, and that one room, you see it looking as you would walk in right here, looking there, to see this. That is the ark of the covenant, which used to dwell in that tent of badger skins and goat skins. There it is in there. When we read here, all of these cedar planks the walls were lined with, in those cedar planks, think of it, it says professional craftsmen carved flowers, angelic beings, winged creatures, palm trees and so on. After they got all those carvings into the planks of cedarwood, then all those planks were overlaid with fine gold. Then the planks were used to line the wall, the ceiling, everything, so that as you walk in you would see nothing but all the walls about you, with all those flowers, those impression of whatever had been cut into the wood, reflecting through all that shining gold. As you imagine how that room would look, remember, it was perfectly square. We have to understand that the dimension of it, all those figures, are setting a type for us, that once God's plan of salvation for man has run its full time factor, God will have redeemed everything He had purposed to redeem. When the plan of salvation, and total redemption is completed you cannot add one thing to it, nor take one thing away from it. Brothers and Sisters: I believe you will have to say, God has been good to us, to give to us a written word describing what He is doing. In that written word He has given you and me equal opportunity to get the picture of what He wants us to become. He gives us an opportunity to understand how He wants man to approach Him. He gives us an opportunity to know exactly how He wants man to serve Him. In the New Testament, He has given us every doctrine that our faith is to be supported by. God forbid that man should change anything about it, but man has had his day of changing the word of God to suit his own purpose. His true bride people do not do that.

THE MANY SYSTEMS

OF MAN'S RELIGION

When we look at the religious world about us, we can hear every kind of belief that man can imagine, being called the Christian belief, and it is more confusion than it is anything that can ever help anyone take on the mind of Christ. Ninety percent of present day Christendom does not even realize why there is a Lutheran system of religion, or why there is an Episcopalian system, or a Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of God, or Pilgrim Holiness. Why is there an Assemblies of God, or a Oneness? Ask them, Why do we have all these denominations? and see what you hear. The majority of all those people who go to those places every week do not realize that for almost five hundred years, the Spirit of God was slowly beginning to shine light back upon His word that the Catholic Church, through that long period of time from about 500 A.D. to 1500, had cast into darkness. The old world, Europe, went through the darkest hour of secular history spiritually and materially. From the advent of Christ and on for a number of years, God shined light upon His word, and even on over to around 500 A.D. the Church still had some light, but by the time 500 A.D. had rolled around that light was very dim. Then for the next 1000 years, everything was almost total darkness. The Catholic Church had changed every doctrine and ordinance into some kind of money-making gimmick. When you study history from then on, the system had become just a mass of people with creeds, dogmas, rituals and faith in the system of man, rather than faith in a living God. What do we mean? Just this, Man had taken away from the word of God the true meaning, and added his own interpretation. He had done exactly what the serpent did in the garden of Eden when talking to Eve, No God did not mean that; He meant this; and he added what he thought was supposed to be said. God allowed that condition to go on for a thousand years; and then He began to reveal a certain truth to certain chosen men, and for almost 500 years now, God has been giving man an opportunity to come back out from that dark period, back into the light. That is why today, the church world will never walk where you and I walk. They just take a certain truth God revealed to their founder and major on that, not even caring that God has continued to reveal more truth right on through the years, truth that the first century Church walked by. Therefore because they do not see what you see, they just look upon us as a bunch of fanatical people, claiming to be Christians. They say we are uncooperative, disagreeable and that we think we are the only ones God cares about. They think we have no love; simply because we do not come and sit with them as they go through their weekly rituals. The apostle Paul said, How can light dwell with darkness? How can truth and error be in agreement? How can Christianity and Baal worship be in agreement? How can true Christianity take the faith that was once given to the first Church, and try to be in agreement with those who are bound and determined to carry on in their old traditions, not having any thoughts about ever changing? True saints of God are always subject to change, as the Lord sheds more light upon His word. We do not change into the very image of Christ the moment we receive the Holy Ghost: He changes us day by day as we are given more light to walk in. That is how our former traditions are purged out of us. All of those men of the Reformation had some truth revealed to them, but none of them ever endeavored to put all of the truth that had been revealed to the various ones, all into one package and present it to the Church. God had to send a prophet to this very age, in order to accomplish that. That is what Bro. Branham did, take all of the truth that had been restored little by little as various men would be moved upon by the Spirit of God to take a stand for some particular revelation, and present it all together as the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

WHAT IS

PREDESTINATION?

There are a lot of people that cannot understand predestination, but those who do, consider it to be a beautiful doctrine of the scriptures. The minute you mention predestination, those who do not understand it will say, I don't believe that: It is a doctrine right out of the pit of hell. It is very strange though, that it is in the Bible and they still feel that way about it. How can it be out of the pit of hell if it is in the teachings of the Bible? Some people just close their mind to reality, simply because their Grandpa and Grandma did not know anything about it. Keep in mind, the apostle Paul, in Ephesians 1, wrote that we were predestined according to the foreknowledge of God. What does foreknowledge mean? God knew before there was ever a star, moon, or anything else, who the heirs of salvation would be. He knew how many would be born on this planet, once this planet itself was in existence. Well I just simply cannot see that, some will say. Then stop calling God omnipotent or omniscient. Why use such terms if you do not believe He knew everything about everything He would create. Why tell the world He is a God that can do anything, then turn right around and limit His ability? Let me illustrate predestination. The apostle Paul says this, He would that men might pray for everybody, for kings and magistrates, governors and so forth. Why? Because God is not willing, or did not will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God sends out a universal call, Come, whosoever will. That is His universal invitation. When Jesus died on the cross, every lost sinner was represented. Every sinner is invited to take a look at the goodness of God and His willingness to save all that will believe. Behind the whole plan is a master mind that knew exactly how to look at it. Let me use an earthly illustration. Let us just say a man and his wife have a daughter that has reached the age of marriage. They live in a community that is closely knit in the social structure. They are planning a beautiful church wedding. Let us just say for the sake of illustration, that the father and mother of this daughter, if they have the mind of God, would know exactly how many people are going to come to the wedding, and also to the reception, and they would know exactly how much of everything to prepare. Therefore in order that nobody be left without an invitation, they have a great number of invitation cards printed and distributed. You are cordially invited to attend the wedding of our daughter on such and such a date, at such and such a place, and to the reception which will follow the wedding ceremony. That invitation reads the same to each person it goes to. Just imagine though, as those invitations are received by the public, conversations strike up. Some say, We are planning to go to that wedding. On and on it goes all over the community for weeks, Yes we are planning on going, but the father and mother having the mind of God, as time goes on they are impressed that out of three hundred invitations they sent out, only two hundred and twenty six people will actually attend, so that is how many they prepare for. Bro. Jackson, you are making me uneasy. Well I just say this, Don't forget that verse in Romans 8, which plainly tells you this, (28) "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. (29) For whom He did foreknow, (What did He do?) He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." He justified us. If He justified us, what else did He do? He glorified us. It does not matter how wicked you have been, He sees you, once you have reached that point, how you are cleaned up. That lets you see how the mind of God works, so getting back to the natural wedding, when that day comes that the wedding is fulfilled, there will be two hundred and twenty six people come to the door. They made provision for two hundred and twenty six guests. That little example lets you know, that when the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself ready according to Revelation 19, the rapture takes place and the dead in Christ are raised first, then we which remain alive at that time, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There is not going to be any fussing when we get to the marriage supper. There is not going to be any vacant place where so and so did not make it. God does not set a table, then have someone fail to show up. Was the dimensions of the ark out of line? How many know what I am talking about now? It was God Himself that told Noah how big to build the ark. God knew there would only be eight human beings that would go aboard to escape what was coming, and that the rest would be animals. All the animals in there had sense enough to know, We better get in that boat if we want to escape what is coming. They did. There was no rodeo. God kept that door open until all that would go in were in. Then as the last creature walked up that gangplank and into the ark, the wind started blowing, and after a while a gust of wind caught that door, Bang! It was shut. Noah knew he was shut in with God. Genesis 7:16, tells us the Lord shut him (Noah) in. The old boat sat there. The critics mocked, but when the rain started falling they did not mock any more. I can see them crying. I can hear them screaming, trying to hold on to the side of that ark. They all had their chance to go in, but now that judgment is falling, it is too late. There were no ropes hanging down for anyone to grab on to. Why do you talk like that Bro. Jackson? God has a sense of humor, but the sad part is people do not know it. We are looking at things in the type structure. When that priestly office work of Christ is fulfilled, as we read in the 5^th and 6^th chapters of Revelation, Jesus does then reach the point in time that He leaves that place where He has sat ever since He ascended into heaven, and this high priest function here in the holy of holies was the type of that. He sits in heaven on that throne interceding for all of us, but once He leaves that throne position, He will never return to that position again. He is then crowned as King of all kings. His wife (the bride Church) is now with Him. She has been married to Him according to the hope the true Church has had all these past centuries of time since the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, when the Church was born. The scene portrayed in Revelation 19, is Christ Jesus and the bride saints of all ages, coming from heaven with power to speak judgment on all wicked mankind. You can turn to Revelation 19, and read the last verses, and here comes Jesus with His Church, back to earth, to rule and reign. Then when the battle of Armageddon is concluded and His judgment is poured out, and He sets about to bring all the national subjects before Him, to judge their worthiness to enter into the next era, which is the Millennium, then is when Jesus will take the ancient throne of David and will sit in Jerusalem Himself, while His bride looks to the other nations. By the time all of that has come about, there will again have been built on the old temple grounds in Jerusalem, a temple for Him to rule from. If that temple is going to be built again in Jerusalem, getting it ready for the second coming of the Jewish Messiah, which is our Bridegroom, the King of kings and Lord of lords, that temple will again have a room like the one we have been describing to you. The difference between this one and the other ones, will be that this temple will no longer have a veil like the others had. That room will no longer have that ark in it, but it will have a throne where King Jesus will rule from. It tells us in the prophet Jeremiah, that in that day, pointing to the time when the Jews will again be regathered in Jerusalem, and in the land of Israel, to get ready to bind the ten tribes and two tribes back together, to sit them up under the Messianic kingdom, it will no longer be said concerning the ark of the covenant, but it will be said something concerning the glory of the Lord and His presence with us. In other words King Jesus will be sitting in that oracle place. That is what this typed. The ark here, was pointing to the person of Jesus Christ in all of His saving work. We realize that the dimensions of that room in its second fold meaning, as God would only dwell in such a cube, the total cubicle of it in its measurements was pointing to this, because this will not come about until this which types Jesus the man has been fulfilled and He has reigned in the Millennium. Then redemption has been completed in the earth and everything has been renewed, the resurrection of the dead is over, the wicked spirits out of hell are cast into the lake of fire, all demons and devils are in the lake of fire, there is no more graveyards, there is no more hell in the heart of the earth, so everything is pure and clean. There is no more trace of sin anywhere. There is no more dead bodies around to remind God that sin is still present. Hallelujah! All that is left is pure and clean. Then the last and foremost type of this whole picture is fulfilled; because God then places Himself back in and among His creation in the fullness of His manifested glory, to take up His eternal abode with man. That is why it says in Revelation 21, as John saw that city, He heard that angel proclaiming, Behold the tabernacle of God is with man to dwell with man and man with God. Now where will that beautiful place sit, since it has a certain dimension to it? Do not forget; there will be no more oceans, or large bodies of water in that day. How many realize that? There will be no Pacific Ocean. There will be no more Atlantic Ocean. Will there not still be lakes and rivers? There sure will, but there will no longer be two thirds of this planet covered with water. Where will this glorious place settle at? It will settle right back down on this earth, right where He started it. God Himself then becomes the temple. When you read in Revelation 21, it talks about how the glory and honor of the nations will be brought; let me just read a few verses, starting in verse 21. "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (The city) And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." That great anointing presence of God, this manifestation of God's divine presence, becomes the abode of the Bride and the redeemed of the Lord. Keep in mind though, that through the Millennium there will be people born on the face of this earth. At the end of the Millennium, because there will be millions of people born to natural parents on this planet, Satan will be turned loose again for a little while, that they also may be tested and tried like we have been. They are going to be tested as to their allegiance to God . That is why Satan must be loosed for a little season. Keep in mind though, those that take sides with Satan will never again be allowed to bring about the manifestation of sin, the works of it, as you see it in the earth today. When those that are deceived by Satan reach a certain point, they are going to encamp around Jerusalem for an evil purpose, around the place which is actually the beloved city, the camp of the saints. That is when divine fire out of heaven destroys the entire mass of them. Yes saints, when there is no more presence of evil on earth, God will absolutely come and settle right back down in the same place where His presence was before Adam and Eve sinned, right back in Eden, which is where it all started. What about those people, Bro. Jackson, will they be immortal? They will be people that you can say are in an immortal state, because they will never die, but they will not be in the same relationship with the Creator as the people that are represented in the bride. How many understand that now? When you talk like that, the first thing people begin to say, Well, now you are telling me God is a respecter of persons. No. You just have to keep in mind, God created angels and He created them in three orders. What do you mean by that? We read of winged creatures. Then we read of angels like Gabriel and Michael. They are not spoken of as winged creatures. Then there are lesser angels whose names are not even mentioned in the Bible. They are the ministering spirits sent forth to watch over the people of God. Keep in mind, if you study the whole universe, you will study the whole category of things the God of creation has manifested Himself in, and there are three areas. Let us look at it this way, what is creation made up of? Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Will you agree with that? Then there has been three offices among man that He worked through, first to the Jewish people. First a prophet, when Jesus was here on earth, was He not a prophet for 3 and ½ years? He does not live and exist in two offices at the same time. He was first a prophet, then He laid that robe aside and He died for the sins of lost mankind, as a sacrifice. When He arose, He ascended into glory; and all power and authority was invested in Him by God, and He has been a Priest through all these centuries and He is to be King. He has been Priest for almost two thousand years. He will soon finish that work of intercession; and when He leaves that office He will come to earth with His Bride. His Bride is robed in fine linen, clean and white. That means that is the highest calling that a human being can attain unto, being called into God's plan of salvation. You read about all these other saints in the 7^th chapter of Revelation. They are given white robes. It does not say they are of fine linen. They are just white robes. It means they are saved and they are going to be glorified. It also tells us in Revelation 20, as we read the first four verses, blessed and holy is he who hath part of the first resurrection, for over such the second death hath no power. They are going to be given white robes. All of that signifies that they too will be resurrected in a glorified state. They too will have a white robe, in the sense of salvation. Keep in mind though, that the fine linen is the one that is called the highest. Now those national people here in the Millennium, which we just spoke of, they are actually a servant people, but not in the sense that they will be mistreated. That is another three. How many understand my point of illustration? We have got to realize, that when redemption is over, God will have those three types of people. I will say this, As we get into the Millennium, there will be a lot of things that will come to light that we will see and understand then, better then we do now. As far as this city, when you read about it, and the throne we read about in Revelation 4, when God comes down, in that city, and in that likeness, again, there is that throne setting. Who is sitting on it? Nobody but your elder brother, which is Jesus the Christ. As we just read in Revelation 21, There is no need for the light of the sun nor the moon, for the Lord God and the Lamb thereof are the light of that city. Does that mean there is going to be no sun nor moon anymore? No. When you go to Isaiah 30:26, it tells us that in that day, what day? When God has made everything new; like He said in Revelation 21, Behold I make all things new. Therefore when He makes all things new, it says the sun shall shine seven times brighter than it had before, and the moon will be as bright as the noonday sun. Just imagine, if that sun actually shined that bright in the day time, then the moon that shines at night was as bright as the noonday sun, there would be no night. Why is there still a sun? Because it takes that for the natural earth planet you live on. It is from that, that all the plant life has to survive. How many realize that? It means that the light that your inner being must have, the Lord God Himself is the light. It says this, In that city there is no temple. No temple, which means there is no natural building, because the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple thereof. What does that tell you? If the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of it, that lets me know you are not living inside the immortal body of Jesus. You are living in the presence of the eternal glory of the Creator of all things, the same one that saved you. He did it through His begotten Son Jesus, who is the Christ, the anointed one. Jesus, as the head of the family, is your elder brother. He is the first of the new family. He is the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the beginning of redemption and the end of redemption. That is the city Abraham was looking for, a city whose founder and builder is God, because God designed it in the heavens. We have a lot to look forward to, so let us be faithful. Amen