Why the Message Matters
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He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Introduction
Introduction
Memorial Day. Vacation
Colby Martin
Tuesday night Bro. Andrew Glover
Danny Stemen
John Gbadoku Sunday morning
Communion Sunday night
The story is told of a judge who had been frequently ridiculed by a conceited lawyer. When asked by a friend why he didn't rebuke his assailant, he replied, "In our town lives a widow who has a dog. And whenever the moon shines, it goes outside and barks all night." Having said that, the magistrate shifted the conversation to another subject. Finally someone asked, "But Judge, what about the dog and the moon?" "Oh," he replied, "the moon went on shining--that's all."
This Message has many critics, who work hard to get in the minds of the people, but the moon is still shining.
(Believe the Sign)
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Does the Message of William Branham still matter? Is it outdated? Why did we need it in the first place? These are questions that we will be asked.
The Message Matters Because the Message is Christ.
We’re not to come together to talk about the Message. We are come together to get in the Message. And the Message is Christ, He is the Word. 63-1128E - "The Token"
Look what we’ve seen in this day. The quickening Power has come to us, to open the Seven Seals. What was that, the intelligence of a man? No, the quickening Power of God.
See, the quickening Power of God foretold this would take place. See, the quickening Power of God made the world testify to It, it’s the Truth. The Angel of the Lord, I told you, was around, in a Pillar of Fire; quickening Power let the world testify that It’s the Truth. And, in that, they didn’t know what It was; and we knew, just look this a way, and It’s our Lord up there, you see.
He is the One Who opened those Seals. He is those Seals, for the whole Word of God is Christ, and Christ is the Seals that was opened. What is the opening of Seals then? Revealing Christ.
And the very seven Angels, which represented the Seven Churches all completed, and we couldn’t even see It. They did, they took the picture, not us. And there He is, standing there, Supreme Judge; showing that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 65-0418M - "It Is The Rising Of The Sun"
I wasn’t the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when He appeared. I’m not the One that performs these things and foretells these things that happens as perfect they are; I’m only one that’s near when He does it.
I was only a voice that He used, to say It. It wasn’t what I knew; it’s what I just surrendered myself to, that He spoke through. It isn’t me, it wasn’t the seventh angel, oh, no; it was the manifestation of the Son of man.
It wasn’t the angel, his message; it was the mystery that God unfolded. It’s not a man; it’s God. The angel was not the Son of man; he was the messenger from the Son of man.
The Son of man is Christ; He is the One that you’re feeding on. You’re not feeding on a man; a man, his words will fail. But you’re feeding on the unfailing Body-Word of the Son of man. 65-0725M - "The Anointed Ones At The End Time"
He is is the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Notice how John was identified with the coming of the Word in flesh.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John’s message was Christ
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Why did John‘s Message matter? Because without a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah, the people would never recognize the promised Word of the Hour.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
We all live in these three realms.
If He is the Message, Then:
1. The Message Matters for Yesterday
1. The Message Matters for Yesterday
Perspective
We cannot get a proper perspective of yesterday without the Message of the Hour.
Most denominations have no answer for what has happened over the last 2000 years of church history.
(Methodist Grandmother)
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
No matter how good you are, what you quit doing, what you start doing, you’ve got to accept the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when you do that, He is the Word, and then your life fits right in the Word and It manifests Itself to this age that you’re living in.
Noah had to do that for the Word to be manifested in his age. Now, what if Moses come along, said, “We know what Noah done, we’ll take Noah’s word. We’ll do it just the way Noah did it. We’ll build a ark and float down the Nile River, and go out of Egypt”? Why, it wouldn’t worked. See, that was another age.
Jesus couldn’t have come with Moses’ message; Luther couldn’t come with the Catholic message; Wesley couldn’t come with the Luther’s message; the Pentecost couldn’t come with the Wesley age message.
And the Bride can’t be formed in the Pentecostal denomination, it just can’t do it. And that’s exactly right. She’s done organized and went out here, and there she sets, just like the rest of them. It’s a shuck.
That writer, as I spoke the other night, that writer that wrote this book…And not ’cause he criticized me so bad, said I was “a devil, if there was such a thing.” So he said he didn’t believe in God.
He said, “A God that could fold His arms and set up and watch them martyrs, through the early ages, and claim to have power to open the Red Sea, and let them women and children be tore to pieces by lions and so forth, and then said He was a loving God.” Said, “There’s no such a creature.” See, the fellow, without inspiration of the Word, fails to see It.
The first corn of wheat, the Bridegroom, had to fall into the earth in order to rise again. So did the first Bride that was born at Pentecost had to go through that Dark Ages like any other seed, be buried. They had to die. They must do it.
But it started sprouting again in Luther, in the first reformation. It didn’t look like the seed that went in, but it was the Light of that day. The stalk then went on into the tassel, Wesley. And from the tassel it went into Pentecost, the shuck. 65-1207 - "Leadership"
The Message, Christ, washes away our yesterdays by the water of the Word.
And notice, not only is the Bride washed, forgiven, but She is justified. Did you ever try the word justified, to see what it means?
Now, for instance, if Brother Green heard that I had been drinking, I been doing bad things, then he found out that I didn’t do it, then he come, say, “I forgive you, Brother Branham.”
“You forgive me? I never done it. What you forgiving me about?” See? But if I’m guilty, then I can be forgiven; but I’m still not just, because I did it.
But the word justified is “though you never done it, at all.” Justified! And then the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us so from sin, till it’s put in the Book of God’s forgetfulness. He’s the only One can do it.
We can’t. We can forgive but not forget. I could forgive you, but I always remember you done these evil things. Then, you’re not just; you’re forgiven.
But, in the sight of God, the Bride is justified. She never done it, in the first place. Amen. Standing there, married to the virtuous Son of God; never sinned, in the first place.
Why? She was foreordained. She was trapped into this. And now when She heard the Truth and come forth, the Blood cleansed Her. And She stands there, virtuous. See? She, no sin on Her, at all. 65-1204 - "The Rapture"
2. The Message Matters Today
2. The Message Matters Today
The Message Places us in Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
No Wesleyan or Pentecostal church teaches our position and election in Christ. This was only restored by the Message.
“Predestinated!” There’s the mystery. He, before Christ or anything else was ever on earth, you see His great mystery, that He chose the Bride. Knowing Eve would fall, from disbelieving the Word, knowing that she would fall; but He would choose a Bride that would not fall, that would hold to that Word regardless of what all the rest of the world had to say about It.
They would hold to that Word! They are predestinated to stand there, “the adoption of children by Jesus Christ,” predestinated the Church to that great, glorious stand! 63-0728 - "Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed"
Conduct
How does God want us to act in our generation? In this world that is so messed up, where no one knows who they are, who are we? We will be either deformed or transformed.
example
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
The church decided this doesn’t matter. It was for another age.
A church that rejects 1 Corinth 11 will eventually reject Romans 1. How can it not? By rejecting the Word they reject Christ. They are deformed by Satan’s Eden.
“When you once see the Message of the hour, there’s nothing else you can see but That. That’s all. Everything else is gone, the rest of it’s just a filler, see, see, when you once see the Message!
When Noah and his group…When they saw the Message, nothing else mattered. When Moses’ group saw It, nothing else mattered. When John’s group saw It, nothing else mattered. When Jesus’ group saw It, nothing else mattered.
When the apostles’ group saw It, nothing else mattered. When Luther’s group saw It, Wesley’s group saw It, Pentecostal group saw It, nothing else mattered, they pulled away from everything. Why? By His foreknowledge He predestinated these things to happen.
He knows what’s in man, He knowed it from the beginning what it was, therefore He can make everything work just exactly on clock time. We get all nervous and flusterated; you never seen Him flusterated. Everything’s working all right, just exactly, the clock’s ticking.
These things that’s supposed to happen, all these women with short hair, and these men wearing their…like they got hair like their wives. I see them, absolutely, have these roller-curlers in their hair, curl it up here in front. What a perversion!
That’s the results of Satan’s Eden. And do like her: she is trying to cut her hair like her husband; her husband’s letting his hair grow like his wife. And she is wearing his clothes, and he’s wearing her underneath clothes.
She’s getting masculine, and he’s getting feminish. See, it’s Satan’s Eden, contrary to what God made it at the beginning. That’s the Truth. 65-1127B - "Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being God's Will"
Boys so confused they take a rifle and shoot children. You want to stand against a cult? The cult of video games produces that. The cult of pornography produces that. The cult of Hollywood produces filth. The Message, Christ, produces godly men, woman and families.
3. The Message Matters Tomorrow
3. The Message Matters Tomorrow
Rapture Readiness
The Message prepares us, without it there is no rapture.
The bride makes herself ready, with what?
And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
He is the Message.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Hope for the future is in this Message. Heavens and earth will pass, but the Word, Christ, was in the beginning, with God, and He is God. He will never pass away.