Revelation 10, Part 11: The Millennium and Beyond – 2019, February
Preached January 29, 2017
In the last edition Bro. Allen began to leave his topic of Revelation 10. In this edition he closes out the topic by looking at events that began to transpire in the United States following the election of Donald Trump.
Society in Rebellion
Listening to the news this morning, you know, it is hard for some people to believe a president is going to do what he said. They just do not understand that. He has done started vetting these people from foreign countries and they are up in the air. We have never had such a divided nation. It is not Trump’s fault, it was divided before Trump become president. But they are going to blame it all on him and he is going to have a hard time, however long he is in there, unless something drastic should happen to him. I appreciate Mike Pence, a man from Indiana who is vice president, that has morals about him, that will stand for something of what the nation should be. Now next Thursday there is to be a submission of a man to be supreme court justice, the one most talked about, he said I am an originalist, that means going back to the Constitution the way it was written. Instead of reinterpreting it with a modern twist as Ginsberg has done and reading it according to the way society is now, that is the way she believes it. Of course, you could expect that from some of the appointments that Clinton put in there, because he wanted somebody to think more like him. I praise the Lord this morning for His wonderful grace, I thought about changing my title, but I am not going to yet.
I was thinking about something of the four gospels, Mark is the least I have ever studied, but I thought this past week that I would read through the book of Mark, which I did, I finished that up in my last message, the last chapter. You have sixteen chapters, but they are either condensed or the chapters are longer. He does not speak of the birth of Christ. He does not speak a whole lot of the resurrection, but whenever you look at it all, as I said he has condensed it in places, which was Mark, Matthew, or Peter, they say that Peter was more or less behind his writing of the book of Mark, but you see the similarities of all the four gospels. Of course, John did not deal with the birth of Christ, but he dealt with the beginning. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Then he goes ahead in the 14th verse of the 1st chapter, the word became flesh, which the word there is memory, God’s memory. His word, because in that, His word, it does not change. Jesus was in the foreknowledge of God, but He was not with God, just in thought. God thought of this out through time, which we have put it into decades and centuries and so on, and then in thousands of years. But God did not count it that way, He counted it as an eternity, from eternity to eternity He is God. God has no beginning, because beginning is not eternity. So somewhere in the span which we would call time, God was always there, and He always will be there. Because we are getting more understanding as we go along. He was there, whenever He thought, God thought, and whenever He thought, He thought of mankind. He saw your life and my life and took a little interjection of His own life, which He put there in predestination to bring it out here at the endtime, and through time, that we are a part of His eternity. So, in God there is no beginning and you, there is no beginning because you come, your creation come from God. Jesus of course said, I am from above. That was the life that was interjected into the womb of Mary. He did not pre-exist as a being, only in eternal thought of God. Whenever God thought, He saw us as somebody to worship Him. But in order to worship Him in the right way, we had to have a time of acceptance. A time of acceptance was the time that we began our new life, which we accepted in Jesus Christ, then went into a watery grave to be identified. That was our identification. So, it is what we do from there on. If we enter into this right, we are going to be more accessible people to the spirit of God and to each other. What was the greatest commandment that Jesus is asked by the scribe, what is the greatest commandment? He said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. Then He said, and love thy neighbor as thyself. He said, on this hangs all the Law and prophets. So, as we look at that, then whenever we begin to look at it, that makes us treat our neighbor, which may be father, mother, sister or brother, in the aspect that we respect each other. No matter how old you are, you are to respect that if we are going to walk in the presence of God, we have to respect one another as Christian beings because that is part of the Law that Jesus talked about, to love thy neighbor as thyself. We have always thought of neighbors as those that lived next to us, which is not neighbors at all. They may be scoundrels. But that means you are living beside somebody, but you are not living beside your neighbor. A lot of times it is right in our own house, who are our neighbors. To think the way, we want to be treated is the way we treat others. I just wanted to say that because we are talking about, in this message, we are talking about eternity.
These Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe
I am going to say something else at this time, let me read to you from Mark 16. This was not a part of my message, but it was a part of my thinking. Starting with verse 15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Every creature has had their opportunity. You read that from the first chapter of Romans, that God has not withheld people from knowing. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” That is simple, it is as simple as you can make it, believers and unbelievers. Bro. Branham put them in three categories, believers, unbelievers, and make believers, that is the way he put it. “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name (Jesus is putting something forth there that is to be reckoned with and remembered. In my name…) shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.” You can only do this in His name. It has to come from a watery grave, otherwise you cannot do it in His name. What does it say in Romans 8? It talks about the Lord and without that, we are not His. He makes it simple, we are His or we are not His. “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Last Sunday night at the beginning of the prayer service, our sister came up and wanted prayer for her son. I went back with my brothers and prayed for the little one. As far as I am concerned, I believed, I believed. But whenever sickness came Jesus’ way, or the apostle’s way, then usually something happened. I have great expectancy from here on out. I was really a little bit down for a day or two because I did not see the little one healed. Because I believed, but maybe there is a little unbelief there in my part. I am not blaming anybody else, but somewhere these things have got to work. They have got to. I believe that my brothers believed with me. I believe that my sister and her husband, and grandmother believed. But one of these days it is going to be different. It is, and I believe it is getting very close. Because that little fellow has had this trouble for too long. There is a time for everything. The Bible gives a time for everything. Whatever dedication there is on my part, I want to do it. Whatever is right I want to do it. But I have seen too many brothers and sisters that have had no improvement. I have to partly blame myself, that these things are not being done, because He is putting a pattern here. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Sister, there is hope, there is hope in the little one. This is just not God, because Jesus Christ wants us to be healed.
Every part of this assembly, when it was dedicated, was dedicated for the service of God. That was in 1955 I believe. So, from that time on there has been truth preached here, whenever it was not, it was taken out. I do not apologize for it. I do not apologize for the things that I have had to correct since Bro. Jackson passed away. But somewhere our belief system has got to increase. We have got to dedicate ourselves a little more. Every day when we get up is a day the Lord has given us. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it. Do you every just meditate while you are still in bed and just raise your hands. I thought I would tease Bro. Kevin a little bit about something he said the week before last. He said this is not a holiness message, I thought I would tease him a little bit and I said, Bro. Kevin, every message is holiness. I know what he was talking about, he was talking about just dwelling on dress and such like that. But what I said then, I am not accusing Bro. Kevin. I said, I thought I would joke with him a little about this, because it is, every message is holiness. The Bible says without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. So, we are not preaching on dress all the time, we should not have to. I know when I had the deacons to talk three or four months ago, Bro. David Jackson talked about people wearing blue jeans in here. This stopped, and I am glad it stopped. I can see different things that have been preached and I can see improvement. But what I am preaching, we need to improve our dedication to the grace of God. Because we talk about the message we have, which is the greatest message in this earth today, because it is truth. There may be preachers that are preaching holiness, in one sense of the word. There may be preachers that are preaching healing, which is a part of the scripture, but it just does not get it. It has got to be a complete being just as the apostle Paul talked about it. He talked about it in the 12th chapter, Bro. Kevin has gone over it, that he uses the whole body, then he knits them all together. They are more or less seared together, or some of you people who are welders, they are welded together, some of you carpenters who put things together and dovetail it, see? This is all things that have come to people’s minds that God has given them. Paul used it in the gospel to try to tell us, this is what works. We want something that works. If healing is for the Bride, we want it to work. If holiness is for the Bride, we have got to make it work. We cannot make God heal, but we can bring our self under subjection. That is another thing that we can do. It said submit yourselves unto God. Submit yourself one to another. I believe we are doing that, but I believe we can do more. I believe I can do more, let me put it that way. I believe I can do more to better the church, to better my own self, my own life. I put myself in that category, you can think whatever you want to about me by doing that, but I believe today that our dedication is above anything else that we can do. It is above our family life, I will put it that way. In dedicating ourselves to God, it is going to bring our family life into subjection to one another, to the home.
Are We Living Dedicated Lives?
How is the home life? That is a question this morning. I am not questioning anyone, any particular person, but how is our home life? We can be so pious coming in here, fellowshipping, smiling and all, but how is it when we get out and head home, get into our home? Are we different? I know I talk a lot up here, but whenever I get out, I do not talk a whole lot. I guess I am just not gifted that way. But if I get into scripture I can talk. What it is, it is what our likelihood is in a Christian way. I could say, how are you brother, how are you sister today, but what are we are shaping ourselves to be? I do not know why I am saying this stuff. Is our face showing forth what our life is? Is there bitterness? Is there jealousy? Are we people that cannot control ourselves? We cannot be that way. We have got to be just exactly what you look at us to be. Is this right? Do you agree, or do you disagree? These signs shall follow them that believe. How many believe today? Are we willing to go the extra mile in our belief system to be able to see the word of God’s effect? It has got to affect us. I believe the word. I am not trying to put force on God, I am just saying this scripture is right and somewhere in time it has got to work. People came to Bro. Branham’s services, expecting. A lot of them did not live right, I knew some of them. But they went expecting, and what they expected they got. Because their faith was built to that plateau. There were ten lepers that came to Jesus. Of course, they could not come into the congregation, they had to wait without. He told ten lepers to go show themselves to the priests. They obeyed. This was a trial. They obeyed, but one of them, as they traveled, they find their leprosy is gone and one of them came back. Why did he come back? He came back to glorify the Lord for his healing. The others went on, you never hear of them anymore, even though to some extent they obeyed Him, but they did not recognize Him. They were still healed. I doubt if you ever see any of them in heaven except the one. Because why? When he found out he was healed, he did like Bro. Dwayne Loggins did this morning. He came back praising God for his healing. It meant something to him.
I looked at my email Thursday and saw my name on there. Bro. Turner was advertising my birthday. I think everybody that had ever contacted here was on the list. It is our care for one another. We are not just numbers. With God, everybody has a name. Everybody has a house number, not just because Bro. Branham mentioned some. Everybody has a house number, God knows where you live. Maybe I have lived longer than I ever expected to, but I really was not thinking about it. To me, 80 is just another number. 79 is just one behind it, 81 is just one after it. But I have much to be thankful about. I may not even make it to my eightieth birthday, that will be midnight tonight. The thing about it is, I am just a piece of driftwood that came in the 1937 flood, I happened to land on the shore here. That is a long time. When I was a little boy, that was ancient times. But when I look back and the way I feel this morning, it does not feel like very long. The body gets older, the mind does not. I have seen a lot of people with old minds. I remember being with my dad at the cemetery one time on the 30th of May. I looked across the cemetery, there was a man sitting there in a lawn chair, just sitting there. He was the only one in the cemetery besides us. I asked my dad who is was, because I had not seen him in a long time. He said, that is Homer Sanders. He was probably ten years older than me at the time. I came back with my dad a year later and what was it, he was in the grave at 69 years of age. Some people are just waiting on dying instead of waiting on living. Living for Christ is living. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Then He goes ahead to say, in my name. That is not boasting Him up. He is not boasting himself up. He is just saying what works. I am saying this morning, what works is getting myself to that place, to that plateau where it does work, where I can see it instead of looking at it.
There is a difference in seeing the scripture and living the scripture. I can see the scripture and I can read the scripture, I can believe the scripture, but until I apply it, it is words that I believe but I have not accepted it, in one sense of the word. To accept it is to go all the way. Have we gone all the way this morning? I am talking to myself as much as to you. Have we gone all the way? I remember in 2008 when the meetings were closed, a certain couple took another couple to the airport, a preacher and his wife. Whenever they did, they felt this was the last time they would ever see them. The sister believed it and my brother believed it too. What did my sister do after she got home? All the things they had collected through the years from that certain individual, she began to take them off the wall. That is putting action to what you believe. I really felt bad myself, but the man told me, I would like to talk to you Monday morning, or Tuesday morning, I do not remember which. I said O.K. I will be here at ten o’clock. I told Bro. Bud, he was wanting to meet with me, and I want you with me. When I got to the fellowship hall, he said, oh my wife is going to be with me. I said, well Bro. Bud is going to be with me. So, we came into the church, sat down and began to talk. I asked a few questions, the man lied to me. He was a preacher, he lied to me. I did not say anything to his wife, but Bro. Bud did. He asked her a certain thing and she lied to him. He knew it, we already knew what we were talking about before. To think this morning, I do not regret that, I do not regret 2008 because I see results from people that believe. You have got to get rid of unbelief before you can get belief. You have to get rid of unrighteousness before you can get righteousness. We have to deal with these things in our lives.
What did Isaiah say? He confessed his sin, he said I am a man of unclean lips, I dwell among people with unclean lips, and God turned around and said, who will I send? He said, here am I, send me, because the coals of fire were put to his lips. He was sanctified. I do not want you to pour out things to me this morning, I do not want to hear it all. But I see people suffering, whenever I see children suffering, whenever I see grown people suffering, then I begin to look at myself, why is this? I guess I am allowed to say these things because I will be 80 tomorrow. I’m not too smart, but I have a lot of experience. Jesus trusted twelve disciples, but he knew one of them had a devil in him. He sent them all out, two by two. They all came back with good report, because this is what He sent them out for. It has always been that way. One of them betrayed the whole bunch. He did not just betray Jesus, he betrayed the whole fellowship. Then Judas was reckoned with. We are being reckoned with this morning. God is checking our pulse, our temperament, our being. I have not preached against people’s style of dress, maybe I said a little something about it. But I believe this is holiness. I believe every message that my brothers preach is holiness, because it is getting us closer and closer to that time.
Me Too Movement
Whenever I see today the way America is, it makes me think George Washington’s vision could happen any time. You have that vulgar actress from Kentucky, Ashley Judd. She said, I am a nasty woman. I said Amen. She is dirty, she is nasty, and she is nothing. God, one of these days, is just going to scoop them up and throw them in the air. Women marching with signs, with their little girls with signs, with vulgar writings all over them. You dirty bunch of hypocrites. Every breath you breathe, whatever spills out of your mouth, every breath you breathe is coming from God. Whenever judgment comes, it will probably hit Hollywood first. If somebody tries to express themselves as somebody decent, then they are taken off the air, or taken off the screen. This is not right. It is getting more filthy, and more filthy, and more filthy. It is like it was in the Old Testament, people are doing what seemed good in their own eyes. The Supreme Court justice that Trump is going to put in there, Harry Reid did not know what he was doing. The big dummy did not know what he was doing, he put this nuclear option in, because the Democrats had more in the Senate than the Republicans, so he put a nuclear option in that if they had fifty-one votes, they could pass anything, now it is working the other way. He was supposed to do that. Whenever they said this was going to be an originalist, they are talking about abortion. They cry, oh they are going to do away with Roe vs Wade. Good! Hear me, Washington, Good! Sixty million babies have been aborted. Why? They wanted to live their lifestyle and a little baby was going to hinder them. Dirt just pushes up dirt. Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It has been preached. They just cannot get over it, that a president is doing what he said he was going to do. They cannot understand it. He said there was going to be extreme vetting and now this morning on the news, they were talking against it, because some of them were hung up at the airport on the side. Let them stay there. They do not need to be here. Oh, they are some of them that are so important, they are scientists, they are this and that and the other. Who cares? Maybe it will help some of these American young people that are going to college get off their behind and do something. They are going to college, just like Bloomington up here, the nation’s most drunken society, Bloomington. They are binge drinkers. They go to beaches and put a funnel in their mouth until they pass out. You are fools. It is time all this vulgar mess to go their way and it is time that the church of the living God has a little shine before she leaves here. That is what it is all about this morning. That is what Bro. Kevin is all about, that is what Bro. Charles is all about, and that is what our brothers in other countries is all about. And down in Kentucky, I dare you to go down there and see if that man will compromise. He may not say all his words exactly like the professors would like, but why do they understand? They do understand. What you hate, we love. We love truth.
They Shall Take Up Serpents
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; (The word of God this morning will cast him out.) they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” I went to a place down near London Kentucky one time. The person came to church here from time to time. He had a neighbor, there were some boxes sitting out there that had rattlesnakes in them. I did not go over there and look. I have seen them on television and that is close enough for me. They cannot bite there. He said, every time I get around close to those things, they start rattling, because they did not like him. Because he was a believer he thought he should pick up a rattlesnake and hold it. That is not what it is talking about, they tested one time what these people were drinking down in Georgia. It was strictly arsenic. God was merciful to them. Then a snake bit one of them and he died. They said that was because he did not have faith. I do not either. Not for that kind of foolishness. They take them in their hands and stick them up close to their nose and preach to them. God was merciful to them. But the door of His mercy is beginning to close. The door of the coming of the Lord is beginning to close. Opportunities are beginning to close. The Bible said in the book of James, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and ungodly, Christ will accept you. I have to look at this in this way, that there is an acceptance in the Lord. Whenever I have a problem, whether it be flesh as I am talking this morning, if you have a flesh problem, if you are looking at something you should not look at, there is cleansing this morning, but do not go too far with it. They all want to talk about, everything is a disease. Being a dope addict is a disease. They give you up to a hundred and twenty needles a week. They are starting this stuff in Jeffersonville now. If you want a high this morning, climb higher. A needle cannot give it to you. A spoon cannot give it to you. A weed cannot give it to you. Jesus Christ can lift you up from something and you will not come down. You might begin to fade a little bit because the spirit is not going to stay there like that all the time. It would be easy to live if it was. Those ten lepers I was talking about, all of them had their chance, all of them had their healing. I knew people under Bro. Branham’s ministry, I knew individuals that were healed. I was sitting right there one morning, Bro. Branham called out a preacher that I knew really well. He said he was bleeding inside. Bro. Branham called him out and said, so and so, your bleeding is stopped. It did stop.
Bro. Branham preached on marriage and divorce and this preacher got the idea while Bro. Branham was preaching, that a man could have more than one wife. He started practicing it, he even had children. Whenever he got through preaching about marriage and divorce, this man got the idea a man could have more than one wife, but a woman could not have more than one husband. He came to our house and began to talk about that stuff, Mary Lou stopped him. She said, I do not care who said that, it is not right. He was saying Bro. Branham said it, but he did not. He got the idea. I do not care who said it, it is not right. He did not care for Mary Lou saying that because he did not want any woman to correct him. There are godly women in here today that can correct a situation of some ungodly person. When Simeon, when he came into that temple, the Lord had done showed him, you will not die until you see the glory of God. I do not know how often he came, but the day Jesus was to be circumcised, Mary came in with that little baby in her arms, not a halo around his head. There could have been, but there was not. Something inspired that old man. He came and began to prophesy over him, and when he prophesied over him, he said, now I can depart in peace because I have seen the glory of God. But he was not the only one. There was a woman named Anna. She came right after him. See? God is dealing with both man and woman in this, we are individuals. We do not come in pairs. We come in pairs as far as husband and wife, but we do not come in pairs in belief. What did it say on the day of Pentecost? I wonder why it was pointed out that Mary was there? You Catholics, how come it would say that Mary was there? Mary was a believer and she had to receive the Holy Ghost. We are all one, but we are individuals coming to God. We must come to Him individually. I cannot make up your mind. You cannot make up my mind. God does not have any grandchildren, God has children. “Now” you are the sons of God, “Now,” today. We are not just dragging a bunch along with us. No, we are walking together, we do not have to drag people. The blood of Jesus Christ is as much for each individual as it is for anybody else. It was as much for Bro. Branham. I remember him talking about his experience when he was telling his life’s story. He got under conviction and prayed. He did not know how to find God. Eighteen years of age, he goes out to the old woodshed and said, Heavenly Father, I do not know how to pray. The only thing I know to do is just talk to you. How many times did I hear that statement, let us talk to Him while we pray. There are people in here that were living during the time of Bro. Branham’s ministry that were there. Whenever he did, then the presence of God came upon him. He received the Lord, he goes into the house and tells his mom and dad, his dad said, “you cannot live like that in this house.” He said he took his stuff and put it in a brown paper bag and left and went to New Albany. That is where his vision was when he was a little three-year-old boy, “some day you will live in a place near New Albany,” I believe it was. “You cannot live like that while you are here” his dad had told him. His dad went ahead, and he drinks, and drinks and drinks. At fifty-three years of age he was sitting on a bar stool like he always did. He got up from that bar stool and said to the people there, I have a son that is preaching the gospel, here I am here. He accepted the Lord there, three days later he was dead. There is more to a Christian life than just saying we are.
This was not in my plan at all in this message. There is more to it than just what we say we are, because there is a life to live, there is another life living in us that is taking place of the old life that we were, that old man which came from Adam. Because we were born with that nature. We were not trying to find another way. No, He found us. All that the Father hath, what is He saying there? When did that happen? All that the Father hath given me, all the way back before there was ever a world, in God’s thinking, He saw this service this morning. He saw every heart, every mind. He saw how we would react. There is an action, and there is a reaction. He saw our reaction to the gospel message. This morning, I have as much made the thing to be on my part as I have to you, whenever I began talking about the little boy back in the nursery last Sunday night. Sister, I have thought about that all week. I wanted to see the little boy walk out of there healed. That was my desire and I know it was my brothers’ desire. I know it was my sister’s desire, her husband and her mom, that was their desire. God is the same God He was in Bro. Branham’s time. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, when He was here, today, right now, the same as He was then, right now. He has not changed. I am not blaming anybody. I am not. I am not blaming anybody, I am just saying let our faith rise up and walk. There used to be a song, Rise Up and Be Healed in the Name of Jesus. It so happened that in one Bro. Branham’s meetings, a sister was playing the piano. She got happy and walked away, the piano kept playing that song. It just kept going, so there was another hand on it. Rise Up and Be Healed, in the Name of Jesus. Bro. Branham was not a great singer, he did not carry a tune always, but when he sang it was anointed. Only believe, all things are possible to them that believe. Let me ask you something this. Do not forget what I have said. Do not forget what these brothers are saying. We are talking in unison. The thing about it is, we are a part of you, and you are a part of us. It is just that we have a different calling.
God is good all the time and He watches over us and watches over me. Jesus told His disciples, I will not be here with you always, but to His brothers, to those of His family members, He said your time is always ready. But He knew when His time was coming. When He was in Jerusalem at the feast in the fall of the year, that is when He said those words. Then whenever He had another six months to live, because He said, I know when my time comes. He knew when it would be, at Passover time. Because whenever He was in Jericho, I was thinking about it this week, the scriptures talk about two men, maybe Matthew and Luke both talk about two men being there at the edge when Jesus went through the city of Jericho at that time, this would be His last trip there. As He goes through, He tells, there is a man on the outside of Jericho, two men out there, both of them are crying out for healing. It expresses, it does not give any name of anyone, but it expresses that they were healed. He asked them what they wanted. He could see they were blind, but He asked them what they wanted, and they said, that we may receive our sight. He healed them both there, but then in Mark, there was one man, I remember Bro. Jackson going over that years ago, there is one man that stands out among the two. His name is Bartimaeus. That blind man, as Jesus goes through there, this is His last trip. He has been to Jericho before, but this is the last time He will ever go there. He said, blind Bartimaeus, it does not mention the other one this time, but it is the same story, same instance, but there is one that stands out. Whenever Jesus heals him, what does he do? He follows Him in the way, not in Jesus’ way, but as they travel. I do not know how far he goes, if he goes to Jerusalem all the way, but anyway when Jesus tells His disciples, after two days then the Son of Man, they will kill Him in Jerusalem. He will be killed. Of course, this was very disturbing to them. But two of them, James and John’s mother, they said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, grant that my two sons would sit, one on one side of you and one on the other side, in your kingdom. He said, that is not mine to give, but it will be given to those who have been appointed of the Father to give. Each one of us has an appointment, an appointment we must keep. It is either an appointment for life or for death. I was thinking about a certain sister this morning that come up for prayer, she is having double knee replacement this week. I hope she does not care if I mention her, Sis. Katie North, she is having double knee replacement this week. Do not forget to remember her in prayer, we need to remember our brothers and sisters who stand in need, who desire help from the Lord. You may have to go through some things. You may not have the same feeling that Sis. Michelle had, but if you do, then that is some kind of sign to you that God wants to do something for you. Do not ever let a nurse or doctor tell you that God cannot take care of gallstones. He can dissolve them like He can anything else. Is anything too hard for God? That is what the Bible says, there is nothing too hard for Him. I do not believe in going strictly by feelings, but there is something inside sometimes that gives us a feeling, this is what needs to be done. If we go with that, we will be following the Lord. If we go by our spiritual instinct, we may be able to find grace in the time of need, as the Bible says. To find grace in the time of need is not always the same thing. It can be different things in our life that we need grace for, to be able to go through something or to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Many times, in our life things happen to us for trials, because it says the trial of your faith is more precious than that of gold. Sometimes a trial is going to bring results. If it is a trial that is put on us by the devil and the Lord wants to intervene, then He will do it. Remember Job, God gave him permission, but God did not put what he had on him. He opened it up to the devil to do what he would, because God knew from way back before Job, when it says the sons of God were before the Lord, which would have been the angels, part of God’s first creation, but they were created beings, the angels were. One of these days the Bible tells us, we will be as the angels. So that was Jesus talking to the Sadducees. So tonight, it is very important that we express our desires, our feelings to Him, to let Him know what we should do in times of need. Every one of us is going to have a time of need in our life, that we are going to need divine intervention. The Bible says no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Just as Job went through his trial, he was tested down to the very skin of his body. Nothing was easy. It is spoken by James there, the trial of Job. We have trials, but God is looking for perfection now. He is not looking for feelings in that, that we feel this, or we feel that, to the extent that we are going on feelings. But there will be instances in our lives that we need to, it will put something in our mind, in our body, that we need to do something. That is the spirit of the Lord. But if we just go on feelings, we feel sorry for this, feel sorry for that. I was talking to someone the other day about this thing at Christmas time, they were showing these poor little dogs and cats. I feel sorry for them, but they were playing the song, Away in a Manger. That does not belong with that. They try to give you a pitiful circumstance to get feelings involved. The only one in that manger that did any good was Jesus Christ. No doubt there were a lot of little babies that were born and put in a manger, but He is the only one who was born and put in a manger that was going to be for our salvation, for our deliverance, the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows the feelings of our infirmities, of what we are being agonized, or tested by. Because there are times people go through tests. Abraham went through tests to where he even began to doubt. It says Abraham believed God, but then when he gets to be eighty-five years of age, after God has promised him at seventy-five, he would have a son, then by the time he is eighty-five, Sarah begins to try to fix something up for him. He thought this was the right thing. Look what is causing the trouble over there now. Ishmael’s children. Ishmael was Abraham’s son, but Ishmael was not the promised son. To the church of the living God, Isaac was the promised son, but whenever God spoke to Abraham, he was looking down into the future when the son that Abraham was looking for would be Jesus Christ. Paul expresses it in this way, seeds, nor many, one seed, which is Christ. Not many seeds, but one, He is our hope and claim on life.
Saints in the Philippines
I am going back to my message. I just thought I would say that. I believe the ministry that God has raised up. I believe the ones God has raised up for the endtime, I believe we know, I would not say we know every one of them, but we do know a portion of the ministry that God has raised up. I know in the Philippines there are different ministers. Bro. Jimmy is one we recognize and know, but whenever we were there that first time, especially the first time we were there, there were several ministers. Two or three of them could not even speak English. They were very small, probably five feet would have been tall for them. Here they had walked eight hours to catch a ride to be there in the meeting. They could not even speak English and they could not understand it. I did not know that while I was preaching. But here they sat as though they did understand. Whenever I found out that they did not understand, that made me feel smaller than what they were. But they sat there because it was a service they felt was ordained of God. A little ten-year-old boy, there is no ten-year-old boy here that small, this little boy had walked that distance with them to catch a ride, which was another seven hours or so. To be able to see that, what they were there for was to be able to carry something back even though they did not understand, there is a spirit that goes along with the truth that will help someone that does not know, if someone speaks in tongues, you do not understand it until it is interpreted. There were three tongues this morning, but the last one was interpreted. I would not have known one thing about any of it unless there had been an interpretation. But when the interpretation came, that brought understanding. But they had no interpreter, they were just there because they wanted to be in the presence of somebody that knew God.
Whenever you think about it, the American people, if you come from America and you go to a place like that and try to help them, you do not deceive them. They are going to make you feel small. Those women were not very big, but they came and would bow down to you as they came through and shake your hand. They were not bowing down to worship you, but they were bowing in reverence to what God was doing. It was difficult for me, it was really difficult for me because people there, and then to find out at the end of the day, service would start at nine o’clock and would last until eight o’clock that night. Start at nine o’clock in the morning and lasted all that time. Of course, we would break for a meal, but then we come to find out there was some people from an island, maybe fifteen or twenty people from an island that had stood outside. They could not get in. They stood outside the building and asked, I wonder if they would let us come in and shake their hand. I tell you, that makes you feel really small. It does. And I know it would either one of these brothers. You would cry if you went to a place like that and see what they have, and what they do not have. Some of them came from Manilla to Baggio City. A week’s wages was thirty-six dollars. They spent most of that just to come to be in the meeting there with us. You could see what Jesus was talking about when the widow came up with those little mites she had, but it was all she had. After it was over with, then we find how He talks to His disciples and said, see the poor widow? There were a lot of people who threw in a lot of money, but she threw in, I believe it was two mites. But He said, she threw in all her living. She gave more than everybody else. That is what I am trying to say tonight, I am not asking for anything. God has more than supplied our needs here at Faith Assembly. Why? Because people love God. Because of that, I am not asking for anything, I am just asking that we together, as families, as individuals, that we press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I do not want any of you to be left out. I do not want any to be left out on the blessings of God that He is going to give in this endtime.
The Bride Of Christ
As I have said about Bro. Kevin, the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians, it is putting a body together, that is what He is doing. He is putting a body together with the spirit of God. Whenever it says the spirit, the spirit, the spirit, every gift is given by the spirit, every one of them are given by the spirit. He wants you to recognize where they come from. It is not something that you can claim on your own, it is something God gives you. Every one of us has something that God can recognize if we put it in His hands. He is not leaving any of us out in this hour. I said I would get to my subject, I will Lord willing. Here I have a picture of a Bride here. That is what we are going for, the Bride of Jesus Christ. That is what we are building this up for, because one of these days it is going to be completed. Every joint as it is supplied, is going to be there. We are in need of it. Our hand it not just hanging there on a loop. Whatever little muscle there is left, it is there to help us to be able to raise that and there are kinds of little things in there. I have seen an x-ray, I did not know it looked like that until I saw the x-rays. It is a good thing God put skin on that because it would have looked away otherwise. A skull does not look too good, but God put skin on it. As the old saying is, beauty is only skin deep. God has made us that way. He has made us to be a part of something. That is the scripture I read this morning about what He was talking about when the lawyer asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? As I said this morning, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and all thy being, and thy neighbor as thyself. God put it to where we could not just love Him. We have got to love His family. This is as much of it, showing the grace of God to love one another, as it is to say that we love God. This is a picture but this is what Jesus Christ is coming after. Do you see the beauty in this setting? This is you. Can you put yourself in that picture? That is what we are expected to be, that is our expectation. One day it is going to happen, not too far off, whenever I see the world, whenever I see the nation and these people out here marching. They have to march for everything, but usually when an army marches, they have a headship. These have no headship, they are just out there marching. Whatever comes their way, they are going to march for it. But we are marching too because we are in an army, according to the 4th chapter of Ephesians, we have that armament on, or we are getting it on.
I hope that we are not leaving something off. What does it start with, it goes from the head down, that is where it all has to start from, the head, the thinking? You are converted, you are born again from the inside because there has to be a change of the heart. I have told you before, whenever I got under conviction, even at ten and twelve years old, my heart would just jump. I could hear it in my ears. But the only thing that will stop that, the only satisfaction you will get from that is to surrender. We are in an army that has surrendered. Then when Jesus talks about it, He said, take up your cross and follow me. So, we become followers of His great army. Whenever the Bride of Jesus Christ leaves this earth, this earth can look for seven years of tests, of trials. Three and a half years of great tribulation. Paul said we are troubled on every side, but we are not despondent. Nobody wants to go through what Paul went through. He would not get far with a church board today, because he had been in jail too many times. He had too many troubles, he had been beat up, bruised up, beat up, left for dead. This is not our portion tonight. But as Paul said, everybody that listened to Paul did not go through with what he did, many people could not take it. What does the scripture say? He would not let us be tempted above what we are able to bear. Everybody cannot bear the same thing. There are brothers that cannot bear what some sisters go through. There are some sisters that cannot go through with what some brothers have to go through. What does the scripture say? That man looks on the outward, but God looks on the heart.
Judgement Given to the Bride
I want to go to Revelation 20, 4th verse. “And I saw thrones, (He did not say he saw one throne, I saw thrones.) and they sat upon them, (Who are they? Who is it talking about? These are not mystery people. This is talking about people that God has appointed. The “they” is including Faith Assembly. That is why we are learning. Jesus said, come and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.) and judgment was given unto them: (There is the Supreme Court. They are already appointed. They have their appointment. They had their appointment when they were born, they just had to work their way, not work in the sense of work, they had to be diverted into that, or converted into it. That is why some would not like it, that is why we have been thinned out as we have. Because God knew who He could trust. He knew who was going to go with Him. I do not say this to condemn anybody, because whenever I preached the third day, everybody did not understand it. Everybody here did not understand it. But what happened? Bro. Jackson used to say, stick around, we will see who is right. You stuck around, because there had to be another shoe to drop. I know what I am talking about, I am not guessing. Whenever He is talking about thrones here, He is talking about judgments. Judgment was given unto them…) and I saw the souls of them that were (See? He is talking about two different people here. These people are not sitting on the thrones like the first group. He has already talked about judgment was given to them on the throngs, then what does he see after that? Them that were…) beheaded for the witness of Jesus, (See? This is the people killed by the beats system during the tribulation. They were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Things like this are going on today. There are little children and people today over in the Middle East that ISIS is killing and carrying little children’s heads around, putting them on fence posts. I do not know what their reward is, but God sees it. God knows if they were Christians and had given their life to him. They do not have what we have. They have the witness of Jesus, but they do not have what we have because it is not given to them. You cannot help it, if it is not given to you. But this is not even the tribulation yet, but it is for some people. Whenever they are led down to the Mediterranean, men, grown men go down there and have to get down on their knees and their heads are chopped off and the blood goes into the water. Why did they murder them? Because they would not deny Christ. A lot of it is young people. Remember Columbine? Two young boys just last week in a certain state, they were planning on a Columbine killing, one like that, one of them was thirteen and one was fourteen. They told some of their friends to stay home and told the others to wear white shirts so that we can identify you, not to be killed. But really why they were wanting them to wear white shirts is so that the blood would show up. This is an evil generation, in leadership in Washington and these states, that have caused it. It is your fault, because you are just a bunch of reprobates. You do not care. They say “No, we are not going to let you investigate the people trying to come into the country.” Why not? You just have a bunch of people up there in Washington wanting everybody to come in, just for the votes. They will take any devil hell if they will vote for them. You are evil, you are ungodly.) and for the word of God, (which would be Jews. This is talking about tribulation people, the three and one half years of the 70th Week of Daniel. Plus, as Bro. Jackson said, those that you can go back through the Holocaust and all through there, those that are underneath the altar or out in front of the altar today, that have been given white robes, they are not resurrected yet, but they are given white robes. They got there because of the word of God, but they did not have enough in order for them to be pure and white, but God gave them that in Revelation 6 under the fifth seal. Their lives were taken from them, but they cried, “how long, O Lord, Holy and true, doest thou judge those that have done this?” For the word of God…) and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” (This is after the rapture takes place. These are not enthroned people, they are not sitting upon thrones, but they have life, a different level of reward other than what you have.) “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” I am talking to Faith Assembly tonight, as though you are Bride, as though this is what you are working up to be or living up to be. This is what we want to be. It takes dedication for us to do so. That is why Bro. Jackson would say what he did about our lives, about getting ready. The Bride will sit on throne, and will reign with Christ. These ones where were not on thrones also reigned with Christ a thousand years, but in a lower capacity. You can see that, they are not on thrones. They are not going to be angry because they have a different position than the ones on the thrones. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” The first resurrection began at Christ, whenever He was raised, and them that were raised right afterward. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” See? They have their portion, but it is not the same. Now I want to go to the 21st chapter. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” This takes a thousand years for the oceans to go back up into the heavens as a vapor, because this is what he is seeing. He is seeing after the thousand years is over, a new heaven and a new earth, and no more sea. I am so glad for what I have heard. I feel that by the Lord’s help, we are filling in the gap. Bro. Charles, we are filling in the gap. It has taken a fivefold ministry to finish this out, it is not a one-man job.
Now John goes into the holy city. I want to read one verse of that. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” He sees that holy city. It goes from this to a city, but it is the same one. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God (This is after the Millennium is over. Behold the tabernacle of God…) is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” That is after what John has said there in the 8th chapter of Romans, when Jesus is our elder brother, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. I hope to go into this that maybe some of you younger Christians, I am not talking about children, but younger Christians, will get a chance to understand. Let me read that verse again. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; (That is not talking about Bride people. That is talking about those that have gone through the Millennium and have seen an army come up against them there in Jerusalem. Many of it was their own loved ones.) and there shall be no more death, (See? This is after the second death. He says it later on.) neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” The new Jerusalem and what it is all about, and what it is for, will then be in the past. Because we go from being Bride to being kin. Our kin then is Jesus Christ. He is our big brother, our elder brother. “And he that sat upon the throne (which is God) said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” It is going to happen friends. The Millennium will be over, there will be another age. To the saints of God, there will be no more night because it will all be day.
I remember a few years ago, someone disagreed with us and said after we have lived here so long and we got used to everything, and more or less got tired of what was going on here, God will let us go from planet to planet, to planet, to see all the different animal life and everything like that. Who can get tired of being under the presence of God? He has got to change us, we have to change in order to be able to stand it. What you felt today will be an all-day feeling, there is no night so you will feel it all the time. “And he said unto me, It is done.” In God’s mind. I preached a message one time, when Jesus said it is finished, then your mansion was completed. They have had Jesus up there for two thousand years, laying out streets of pure gold, which it says are clear as glass. Pure gold, pure as glass, no, that is your life. Because what it is, as we become more and more and more like Jesus, we become less and less and less of what we are. That is why Paul could say, I die daily, nevertheless I live, but not I, but Christ lives in me. Is this what you want? Is this your desire tonight? It is in our hands, it is in our grasp. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” That is talking of now. It is no wonder, from the dream of Bro. David North, the water, that is water of life. To our sister’s dream, as it come rushing in. We close the door to the world, but God opens it for His presence. We must let the doors open for His presence to come in. Our lives, as it said there, as John said, come now Lord Jesus. He had seen so much, he had experienced so much here in the book of Revelation, that he is ready. Even come now, Lord Jesus. That is what we will be when that time has come, we will be crying with joy. With tears of joy, we will be crying, come Lord Jesus! Bro. Kevin can smile and cry at the same time, that is a happy smile, a happy time. We sing the song, Won’t it be Wonderful There having no burdens to bear. No more hip replacements, no more knee replacements, no more disease. I believe we are going to get a little bit of it before we leave here. “He that overcometh (This is us, he that overcometh. It did not just stop there. God does not leave you hanging out on a limb somewhere. We are overcomers tonight, we are. Are you glad? Sure, we are going through things, most every one of us are. We are going through some kind of trial. It may be a family member, it may be a loved one, it may be our self, going through some kind of trial. But we are not left out, God knows it.
I went over to Bro. Jerry’s shop; his hands looked the color of this piano on the bottom. We would get to talking, he would say ohhh, and pull up his sleeves, there would be goose bumps all over. God can take dirty hands and make them clean. He does not wash our hands for us, but He can make them clean, even when we are in the worst of situations, or worse of jobs. There is nothing too hard for God. He that overcometh..) shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” That goes for daughters too. God does not use the masculine gender just to point out that there will be no sisters there. That is why I brought out like I did this morning about Simeon and Anna. Both of them were looking for something. They knew it had to be close. The Bible says you will not know the day or the hour. But then it gives you reference, whenever you see that time coming, it turns back around and says, whenever you see that time coming, lift up your head, lift up your eyes for your redemption is drawing nigh. We do not have to know the day nor the hour, to know it is getting close. But we look around, the news is telling the picture and they do not know it. Wickedness, how men would get wiser and wickeder, He spoke that. There is no distance in time with God, just like it was with Abraham, there is no distance in time with God because whenever He said that, man would get wiser, scientifically wiser, wiser, but they would be wickeder. Everybody has to march. They are just opening themselves up to the devil. But there is a move, the move is on, as the song goes, the move is on, my Lord, the move is on. Move on brother, move on sister, this is the moving day. Amen! “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, (That is not you, that is not us. You may be afraid of the dark, it is not talking about that. You may be afraid of a snake, I am. I remember going to Canada. Several of the young people from Canada were coming down here. I was going to take them to the zoo, then to McDonald’s to get something to eat afterward. We went to the zoo, and here were these snakes. I said, if you all touch those snakes, I am not taking you to McDonald’s. They are a part of God’s creation, but they are the part that I could do without.) and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” That second death happens immediately after the thousand years is over. The fearful, the unbelieving, those that have died that are in the ground, every one of them is dead in the ground at that time. Whenever the second death comes, then you have hell that gives up the dead, the grave, the sea, everything gives up the dead in it, because they are judged out of the books. The reason it mentions books is because every one of them is not going to be judged the same. Each one of them has their own book, but there is only one book of life. One book of life. At the end of the tribulation, there is only one book of life. But we are in the Lamb’s book of life. Do you get it tonight, do you understand what we are looking for, what we have to look ahead for? We are just about over the mountain, whenever we get to the top of that, then we are going to look over into the promised land.
This concludes this series.
