Stay Away From Those Walls
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And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.
In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.
Introduction.
Introduction.
Timothy both services Sunday.
Kids Christmas play around 6:00 pm (after church)
(Recap Sunday)
In the early church there was a great controversy over the Gentiles, and did they need to follow the law to be right with God.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
The principal is: What God has destroyed was destroyed for a reason. Change is hard, but it is absolutely necessary to survival.
Bro. Branham read a story in the newspaper about animals and birds getting away from their pasture walls before an earthquake.
Now let me say something, brother. There is something fixing to happen. And all these big, old ecclesiastical walls are going to collapse, and go right back over yonder, and agree. Cause, they’re going to do it, as certain as I’m standing here.
There is “an image to that beast,” just as certain as I am standing here; and this nation took it, according to the Word of the Lord. Listen, when you feel that little, funny feeling, you get away from them walls.
Get away! You’ll die in there. Don’t do it! Come out of it! Get away from all this stuff! Flee to safety, as quick as you can. Ask God for mercy.
Don’t just take, some, “Well, my mother was Methodist, so I suppose I’ll be. My papa was Baptist; I’ll be.” Don’t you do that. Don’t you take any chance.
I don’t care how simple and humble It seems; It’s the Word of the Lord. You flee to Jesus Christ just as quick as you can, and stay there until God fills you with His Holy Spirit. For the hour is going to come when you’re going to hunt for It, and It won’t be there. So, be sure to do it. 63-0319 - The Second Seal
Why would we go back to a dead system? It is only attractive to those who were not enslaved by it.
Paul tells us that we have not come to the law.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
We don’t want to go back to that old mountain.
Now, have you noticed, every three years after a great meeting, what takes place? A denomination. This is twenty years and no denomination. Dear dying Lamb, may it never do that. If I go in this generation, may the people who believe this Message never stand still for a denomination!
You’ll die right in your track! Remember that! The very hour that you mention denomination among you, I don’t care how sincere you are, take man for your leader instead of the Holy Spirit to confirm this Word, that’s the hour you die!
The genuine Seed cannot, because there’s nothing left after the seed, it’s the same thing was back at the beginning. It’s the Bride that fell into the ground to bring forth the corn of wheat again. 65-1128M - God's Only Provided Place Of Worship
How do we maintain our freedom from these walls?
1. Resist the Temptation to Protect What we Have by Human Effort.
1. Resist the Temptation to Protect What we Have by Human Effort.
Hiel probably thought he was doing a great thing protecting the citizens of Jericho from foreign invaders.
Bro. Branham speaking to the FGBMI tells them it’s time to turn Northward.
Just divine healing and speaking in tongues, well, that’s, that’s just a few grapes that was brought back from across the land. The land is ours! It all belongs to us.
Don’t be afraid that the other fellow’s going to beat you over there. Just join up with him and go on over. That’s the way to do it. And we’ve been on this mountain for forty years. Let’s get off of it, and go towards the promised land. 61-0129 - Turning Northward
This is a great temptation to Pastors later in life. We built it with our blood sweat and tears, and we don’t want anyone to tear it down. We are not the ultimate builders, God is. We plant seed. Let God protect it. God gave you your family, let Him protect it.
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
Don’t waste your time trying to protect your legacy, your ministry.
I said, “Any ministry that the Word of God will ruin, ought to be ruined.” 65-1207 - Leadership
For promotion cometh neither from the east, Nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
2. Say No to Leaders who Place Themselves Above the Word.
2. Say No to Leaders who Place Themselves Above the Word.
This doesn’t mean we should be troublemakers. make sure its the Word we are standing for.
Hiel was following the great King Ahab ‘s instructions. He should have said no.
Paul withstood Peter to the face.
John wrote to the Ephesian Church and said:
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
He found them to be liars. How’d they know that? They wasn’t quoting with the Word.
Now, if a man says that “This Bible says in Hebrews 13:8, ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,’” the man said, “Ah, the days of miracles is past,” then that man’s a liar.
If the Bible said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins,” and every place in the Bible says the same thing, and everybody that was ever baptized in the Bible time was baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and he commissions them to be baptized, sprinkled, or something else like that, that man is a liar, found out a false prophet. 60-1205 - The Ephesian Church Age
(What about those who deny Eph 4:11?)
This passage from the CAB helped me so much when I had to stand for the Word against my own earthly father as a teenager.
“Thou hast tried them that say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” My, that is a blunt statement. “Thou hast tried them who call themselves apostles.” Isn’t that presumptuous? What right has a people to try those who call themselves apostles? And how do they try them?
Oh, I love this. Here it is in Galatians 1:8, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have (already) preached unto you, let him be accursed.” It was the apostles who brought the original Word to the people. That original Word could not change, not even a dot or dash of it.
Paul knew it was God Who had spoken to him, so he said, “Even if I come and try to give a second revelation, try to make one little change in what I gave originally, let me be accursed.” You see, Paul knew that first revelation was correct. God can’t give a first revelation, then a second revelation. If He did, He would be changing His mind.
He can give a revelation and then add to it, as He did in the Garden of Eden when He promised the Seed to the woman, and then later designated that Seed had to come through Abraham, and then later said it would come by the same blood lines in David.
But it was the same revelation. It only gave the people more information to help them receive and understand it. But God’s Word can’t change. The Seed came exactly as revealed. Hallelujah.
And see what those false apostles were doing. They came with their own word. Those Ephesians knew that Word as Paul had taught it. They were full of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of Paul’s hands. They looked those false apostles in the eye and said, “You are not saying what Paul said. You are, therefore, false.”
Oh, that sets my heart on fire. Get back to the Word! It is not you that really tries the apostle, and prophet and teacher, IT IS THE WORD THAT TRIES THEM. One of these days there is going to come a prophet to the Laodicean Church Age and you will know if he is the real one sent from God or not. Yes you will, for if he is of God HE WILL BE IN THAT WORD EXACTLY AS GOD GAVE IT TO PAUL. HE WON’T DEVIATE FROM THAT WORD FOR A MOMENT, NOT BY ONE IOTA.
In that last age, when there will be many false prophets appearing, watch and see how they keep telling you that if you don’t believe them and what they say, you will be lost; but when that LAST DAY PROPHET comes on the scene, if he is truly that prophet, he will be crying out, “Get back to the Word or you are lost.” He won’t build on a private revelation or interpretation, but on the Word. Amen, and Amen! CAB 03 - Ephesian
4. Stay in Revival.
4. Stay in Revival.
Ahab was backslid. Hiel was backslid.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
They lost their love for the Holy Ghost meetings.
The fervent desire to please God, the passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to fade and instead of that church being on fire with the fire of God it has cooled off and become a bit formal.
That is what was happening back there to the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying out and the people weren’t too careful about what God thought of them as they began to be careful about what the world thought of them.
(The 2nd Generation was drifting) (Hiel’s two sons)
That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and weren’t ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit.
They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality. But it wasn’t too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves. They put gowns on the choir.
(Don’t let someone do your worship for you)
They organized a movement and ran it by man. They soon began to read books that weren’t fit to read. They let down the bars and goats came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the blackness of ashes is about all that is left.
A few moments ago I mentioned that John understood what it was to love God. That great apostle of love would certainly see it when the church began to lose that first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word).”
One little deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ. People say they love God, they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and sing and have a great emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and see if they are in that WORD, walking in it, living in it.
If they go through all the other and then don’t walk in that Word, they can say they love God but their lives tell another story. I wonder if John didn’t see a lot of that before he died; people saying they loved God but not obeying His Word. Oh, Ephesian Church, something is happening to you.
Someone is trying to either add to that Word or take from it. But they are doing it so subtly that you can’t see it. They haven’t made a move so big you can see it out there in the open. It is under cover, and they are bringing it by way of reason and human understanding and it will take over unless you refuse it. Go back to Pentecost before it is too late!
But as usual people don’t heed God’s warning. That revival fire built upon the sacred Word is so wonderful, and the manifestation of the Spirit so blessed, that a little fear creeps in and a whisper in the heart says, “How can we protect this truth we have? What can we do to see this revival goes on?”
That is when the “antichrist spirit” comes in and whispers, “Look, you have the truth now, see that it doesn’t get lost. Organize and set up your creed of what you believe. Put it all in a church manual.” And they do it.
They organize. They add to the Word. And they die just like Eve did for taking One wrong word. It’s God’s Word that brings life. And it’s not what we say about the Word that counts, but it’s what God said. CAB 03 - Ephesian
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
How many can say, I want that revival to burn within my heart? Lord help me not to build the walls I came from, but to go on into the land. I want my children to be saved.