Death and Life Chapter 3

Father we know that You are God. We know Lord that You control Your subjects, and not only that, but Satan can only go as far as You allow him to go Lord. We know that You have a standard set, and I realize that everything has to be legal in Your grounds And the laws that You set, Lord, we know that You have to abide by them and You do. And I pray Lord that You’d help us to understand that we as free moral agents, Lord we have the right to choose the right way, or the wrong. But You knew in Your heart and Your mind before there was a world, which way we would go. And we know that You made provisions for those Lord that would make that move toward You, and that’s why it took Calvary. We know Lord that there’s never been another way that anybody could ever come to You except through the blood of Jesus Christ. I pray Lord that You’d be merciful to us tonight. You heard the requests Lord. You know all that we need tonight, with so many. We know Lord, that we’re a needy people. We’re human beings Lord. We’re not infinite, we’re finite beings Lord, and we, in our physical flesh we have many needs, and we face them every day, problems Lord, of life. We know that You’re the only one that can come and soothe our hearts and our spirits Lord, and give us that sweetness of fellowship with the Word of God. And let us gather close up to You Lord in the spirit realm and drink from the fountain Lord that You’ve opened up for us, and it’ll never run dry. Let come forth out of our innermost being, the rivers Lord of living water like You said to the woman at the well, Lord. I pray that You’d help us to be humble and submissive to the will of God. Forgive us of our sins, our mistakes Lord, and shortcomings, and help us to overcome every little thing in the flesh and move on into the change where we can have that long eternity Father with no interruptions. We’re looking forward to that. We ask these favors humbly in Jesus Name, the Son of Man. Amen.

So good to be here this evening. I’ll tell you what, we’re having a winter time, that’s all it is to it. We’re having winter. It was about 14 degrees out there this morning at the house. I heard over the news it was 17 in Charlotte, and I’ll tell you, we usually get about four or five degrees cooler up in this area, you know, than they do in Charlotte. And so they’re calling for more of the same tonight. And so we know that what we’re up against now, and if you don’t have your water pipes really secure, they’ll freeze up, won’t they brother? Brother Richard had some problems with that last night. His froze, and I got through it, but I think that... well when I got up about ten minutes ‘til five this morning, my water was fine. I went in, I took my bath and all, and got ready, and got in my study and made my coffee and water was running alright. So then about 7 o’clock, maybe a little after 7, I went in there... I come out of my study and went back in the kitchen and I turned the water on and there wasn’t no water. It had froze. So, in that little, couple hours time there, see, it had froze and that little line there. Brother Tiny, he knows what I’m talking about. You all know. It goes over to that relay, I guess it is. (Someone in audience tells what it is.) Yeah that little thing. It’s the place that usually gives you trouble. It’ll freeze up, see? And so, when that little thing freezes, you won’t have no call for water. It’s not going to call for the pump to come on, see? But it wasn’t but a little while it come on, I guess a couple of hours, maybe an hour and a half, something like that, and the water come back on.

So the Lord’s been good to us. And I know that the kind of weather that we’re having, you know, when we get down in the teens and we stay down there for three or four days, or two or three days, you know, we’re not fixed for that, Now up in North Dakota and places like that, they get maybe 10 below, you know, something like that, but not here. But anyway we’re having a rough winter, and it looks like all through this week, now that it’s going to be down in the teens again tonight. Then tomorrow in the 20’s. Every night, I believe this week, down in the 20’s. And I was just telling Brother Don that it’s suppose to warm up Sunday and get up to about 49 degrees. That’s going to really be good for us to have the dinner, and everything. So I really appreciate, you know, if Satan don’t get in the arrangements, see, and mess things up.

But we’re believing ain’t we? And we love you, and we’re so glad to see you tonight, and see just about everybody. I believe, Brother Glenn’s out of town. They always pick him on Wednesday, and they’ll get him buddy. Satan likes to do that. If we changed our service to Thursday night, it’d be Thursday night, because Satan knows how to do these things. They don’t plan that, but it just comes up that way. And so,I’ll tell you he’s had a hard time trying to get to the services on Wednesday night, because they always want to send him out on a job somewhere, and it’s not his desire to be away tonight. So remember him in prayer.

And we’re really praying that the Lord will settle things down in India.I was just telling Sister Rhonda the other night when I brought some mail over to Brother Don from Brother P.L. Benjamin. He sent me a letter on the E-mail, so I brought it on over for Brother Don to look at, and I was just telling her that I had went and spent $50 for stamps, It cost me $50 this month to send them because I sent two sheets of paper. If you send one sheet of paper, it’s sixty cents. If you put another sheet of paper in there it’s a dollar. And so I bought $50 worth of stamps and sent them to India, and so, they sent them back. Now that fifty dollars is gone. No way to get it back. I mean it’s gone, you know, you can’t send them back again. They’re already stamped. And so there’s no way, in other words that’s just lost, that’s all. And that’s what I hated so much about that, you know, to lose that. You know that fifty dollars would put a man on the field full time for a month in India. That’s right. And when we look at things like that, you know, and know that Satan is in the arrangements, and of course he always tries to get his strike if he can. But then we want to be praying for Brother Don that everything will go good for him, and that they’ll get these things settled by the time he gets there.

Also we want to continue to pray for those that are sick and suffering, and that the Lord will help us to reach out by faith, and grasp that, and understand that by His stripes we were healed already. And so it’s just... Our bodies, we know, is subject to sickness, our bodies are subject to these things, and well there’s nothing we can do about that, but we know that there is healing in the atonement. We know that and Jesus paid for that. Stripes that was placed. His wounds were for our healing. And so I know that we have so much to be thankful for. The little assembly here, we’re very blessed, and you know that. We don’t have very much sickness, I mean real bad sickness here. It’s just been so good. He’s been so good to us.

So now, tonight... I ask Brother Don, you know, Sunday, and then I talked to him again yesterday, and he said, “Well,” he said, “I believe I’ll just take next Wednesday night”. And so, I said, “You can have both of them, brother.” And he said, “Well he’d just take next Wednesday night.” So next Wednesday night Brother Don will be ministering. That will be the last service that he will be in until he gets back from India because he’ll be leaving on Saturday. Is that right? So we’re trusting that he’ll have a good flight.

I’ll tell you, the thing is growing so much over there, and now when... The first time we went over there we had about 20 workers, and then we got up to about 35 or 40. And then we got up to 70-something, and then the last time, I don’t know what Brother Don had the last time. But now this time, Brother P.L. Benjamin says there’s suppose to be about 220. And so that means... You know what that means. The more workers we have the more money it takes because we have to pay. Now you say, “Well I don’t see why they can’t pay their own fare. They can’t do it. They cannot. They cannot pay their way to Hyderabad and back. They don’t have the money. If we don’t pay their fare. See, when we go over there we pay everything. And that’s the only way that they can come. They can’t come no other... They can’t get out there and hitch-hike. There’s not enough of traffic out there on the road. They’d be out there for eternity trying to get from Warangel down to Hyderabad. It’s not that much traffic, you see. The main roads over there has got ditches in them. I’m telling you the truth. And so, you know, they don’t have much traffic. They don’t have much moving. You see scooters and motorcycles, you know. Some of them’s able to buy a motorcycle maybe, but you don’t see many motorcycles. You see a scooter here and there, and see these rickshaws and things like that, but not very many automobiles. Very few automobiles. But anyway, it looks like it’s going to cost more than we expected it to cost. I’m just taking this little bit of time to tell you that with that - having to go into Hyderabad probably to get a place, you know, to have the workers meeting, and having probably, maybe a 175 or 200 people. May not be that many, but even at a 125 and and you pay all of them’s way there and back, and then feed them while they’re there, and bed them down, you know. You’ve got to have a place to bed them down. We’re looking at at least another $1,000 more than what we expected. And so, I just want you to think about that.

I told Brother Don that we’d be able to take a little more out of the India mission, and give him some, maybe $500 more. We may have to come up with $500 more from the church here, because I feel like it will take about a $1,000 more with the circumstances like they are, above what we’ve already, you know, appropriated for him. So you be praying about that. We’re not begging money, we’re just putting the problem out before you, and that’s all I have to do. I’ve never had to do nothing else but just put the problem out there. I’ve never had to come back the second time. So I know that God knows what He’s doing. He knows what we need, and so when we let our needs be known, He always comes on the scene.

Now tonight we’re going to get right back in that little big subject that we’ve been on. And I’ve got a quote here that I want to read to start the little message off. And this is the only quote that I’ll be reading tonight. But then Sunday morning I will be reading from the Church Ages Book. So all of you bring your Church Ages Book and you can read with me Sunday morning. Every bit of my quotes Sunday morning, the Message will be backing up what I’m saying tonight, will come from the Church Ages Book. And so I want you to bring that, and just read along with us Sunday morning, for our Christmas message. And then, see what I feel like that the Lord has done for us in this day, and the greatness of the revelation through His Word that He has brought to us through the prophet

(Brother Don says, “Remind them of the dinner.”) The dinner. Remember after the service Sunday morning we’re having dinner out here, and so we usually do that, you know, when we’re going to India. We always like to have a dinner where we can come together and fellowship with Brother Don and whoever is going. And then just enjoy the fellowship together. We’ll be doing that now after the service Sunday morning.

Brother Branham preached a message in 1960 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. And he titled this message, “That Day On Calvary”. Amen. So I want to... I took a quote from that I believe. The last time that I read quotes here I believe I took a quote from that where he’d talk about the dark shadow coming down over the world, after the fall, and what a terrible time it was, and what a price had to be paid to get us back to Him.

Now this is on Page 7 and Page 8. I’ve got two quotes that I want to read, and then we’re going for some comments. I’m going to read some from the Bible, and we’re going to refer... If you’ll notice now, in these studies we are really giving you a lot of Scripture. You notice that. So we’re not taking time to read all of these Scriptures, but these Scriptures tie in with what we’re trying to get over. And we want to be very emphatic about it, because we feel like that this is what had to be done. The only way that we can get to Him, back across that chasm is through this plan that He’s made for us. Alright.

Now that, of course we know this. Our subject title is, “Death or Life.” You know that. “Death Or Life Is Set Before Us”. Good or evil. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of Life. Some amazing things that I’m finding in this study And like I said, I’ve been studying this for a long time, and been pulling Scripture and pulling quotes, and it’s been a long study. And I found something that stood out to me. I’m always finding things that stands out to me a little bit more as I go along in studying. You know every time you read you’ll see something that stands out to you a little more. How many of you know, actually... Now we said, you know, we made the statement that Adam was condemned and carried the world into this awful thing of... across the chasm, no way back. He did that by listening to his wife. Right? But what was the actual thing that caused this thing to be put upon Adam? Do you remember? Can anybody just pinpoint it, what Brother Branham said it was? Well, I’m going to tell you. He said that when a woman is married to a man, and she runs off with another man, that he absolutely cannot take her back. He said that that was the sin that Adam did right there that throwed the whole world into this condition. When he took Eve back after she had left him for another lover. That’s right. That’s strong, isn’t it? But that’s exactly what Brother Branham said it was, and I’m going to read it to you Sunday morning. Amen. Alright.

Now listen. I was talking to Brother Billy about this a little bit here the other day, and he said, “Well, you know, Satan must have had the nature of God to start with.” I don’t believe God would have made them with anything else other than His nature, do you? But He made the angels. Lucifer was one of them. And He made them, I’m sure, on the same basis He made Adam. Now you listen close. And He set them with that same privelege of a free moral agent. Did you know that? Well listen. On “That Day At Calvary”.

Now I want to go over to Galatians tonight, and read a Scripture from the written Word. I want to go to Chapter 4. We’re looking for a way back. Man needs eternal Life after the fall. Now how’s he going to get it? See? And that’s what we’re dealing with. How is he going to get it? Is he going to take death? Well he’s already in death. Is he going to remain in that, or is he going to go and take Life? He’s had both of them set before him. Life or death is set before him. Amen. You can find out a lot of things by studying. You can find out that there was no way that Adam could have partaken of the tree of Life, in the garden of Eden. Under no circumstances, because it wasn’t time. See? It wasn’t time, for he couldn’t do it. Amen. So I’ll bring all of that out Sunday. I’ll read it to you. You can look at it. You’ll see it. Alright.

Now I want you to really look at that. God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts. See? What for? Crying Abba Father. The same spirit that was in Jesus Christ is the same spirit that’s in you when you’re borned again. And the same way that He cried Father, is the same way that you cry Father. See? The same way that He walked with the Father, and fellowshipped with Him, and had the ability to please Him, over Satan, is the same ability that He gives you with the new birth. It’s the same ability. Alright. Watch now.

When you knew not God, you did service to them which were by nature, you know, other gods. See? And the most pathetic thing today, I think, in our country, is that deceitfulness of idol worship. So many people worship idols. That’s right. We know that if a person believes in a trinity of gods, of course he’s an idol worshipper. We know that. But on the same hand, anything that pulls you out from the will of God is your god. And that’s where we have to be so particular and so careful especially in these services that we are in now, in these series that we’re in now, “Life or Death.” It simply means one word. That’s all. One word. One word off will plunge you into hell. Just one word. It don’t take a paragraph. It don’t take a sentence. One word.

So now we have a force. Man on the other side of the chasm, but he needs a way back. He needs eternal Life, and that’s what we’ve been talking about. But how is he going to get eternal Life? Now we find in the scriptures, and like I said, I will paraphrase these Scriptures because I’ve got them written down here. I’ve got all of them down here, but I’m not going to be able to go and read all of them. You know, I couldn’t do that because I’ve got bunches of them.

But in Ephesians 4: 17 and 18, we find a picture there of humanity after the fall. See? And so that’s what Paul was trying to get them after the spiritual death had entered into the life of Adam Paul was reminding them of some things. And then, we find in Romans 5:12, We’ve read that a a couple of times already, and we keep referring back to that because we want that to make a deep impression upon your mind, upon your heart. That particular Scripture, Romans 5:12. We find that man is actually alienated, alienated from the commonwealth of God. See? He’s alienated from the Life of God. Theres’s no way that he can have the Spirit of God to come in and live in him while the nature of the world is in there. There’s no way that God is going to come in and live in that person with the nature of the world, with the soul of Satan in there. He’s not going to do it. So we know that something is got to take place. Alright. So he’s alienated from the life of God and he’s walking in the vanity of his own mind. It’s exactly. He’s walking in the vanity, vanity. All things are vain that you, you know, reason in your own mind. See? Je... You know, when Brother Branham took the message and titled it “Lean Not To Your Own Understanding”; that’s what I would say 98% or 99% of this worlds population lean to their own understanding. They don’t wait upon God. They are not willing to be led by God, to do the will of God. See? And so we have to do His will. See?

But why does these things happen? Because they are blinded. They are actually blinded according to II Corinthians 4:4. The god of this world has blinded their mind. Blinded their mind. In one place it said, “caused darkness of their hearts to be darkened.” And so this, it’s just, there’s no way back. Man could not help himself after this fall. He could not help himself. There was no redemption that could ever come through any humanity. It couldn’t happen. And no efforts that he could ever put forth would bring him back to God. He could not get back, because Adam had sold out the race. He’d absolutely sold it out to the devil. And so the devil had took over all conditions, political powers and all, everything. He took over the whole kingdoms and all. He took over the rulership of man. And so then, it sealed the fate of man, actually what it done. And his fate then was absolutely destruction. There’s no other way that you can look at it. It was absolutely destruction.

“As in Adam all die...” So there’s no way back. No man could redeem himself. No way for redemption to come. So, you know, if you want to really see redemption you’ve got to see the “Breach Between”. You’ve got to see what happened. You’ve got to see that. Alright. No man could redeem himself. Alright. So God Himself would have to make provisions. That’s exactly what Brother Branham said. He said, ‘I believe that God planned it that way so that He would be the one that would make these provisions and He would be the Redeemer.’ Nobody else can do it. Alright? He must redeem the human race. Now this redemption, actually, it...

Well you say, “Well, thank God that the Scripture says that we are forgiven.” Well, is that enough? No it isn’t. No. That is not redemption. Being forgiven just simply means that I forgive you for it, but you done it. See? You are guilty of it. See? Just like if you go out here and go down the road speeding 60 miles an hour in a 35 mile speed zone, and you get a speed ticket, you’re guilty. You might get a lawyer and pay him so much and, you know, and then the judge might forgive you of that. But you done it. You’re guilty. See? But what we have got to do is to find out how to get rid of that guilt. See? We’ve got to find out how to get rid of that fear. See? Fear has got to be moved. That’s why Paul was speaking in Romans 8, when he said, “There is therefore now no condemnation.” If you don’t have condemnation you don’t have no fear. See? But if you have condemnation, you are afraid. Amen. You’ve got fear if you have condemnation. Alright.

So this redemption, actually had to come then, not for forgiveness. No sir. It’s got to be deeper than that. See? God could forgive Adam, and He did, and He could forgive all of us, and He will. He forgive us. But the thing that made you do that, is still in there. And you’re going to go do it again. Then He’d have to keep on forgiving you for the same thing. See? But that ain’t going to work. That is not redemption. That is not restoration. That’s reformation. See? To be reformed, or to reform yourself is one thing, but to be restored back like Paul was talking about in the 4th Chapter of Galatians here, you are no longer a servant, but a son. And the Spirit of Jesus Christ comes into your heart, and causes you to cry, Papa God. Abba Father. Closeness, fellowship, harmony, oneness, unity with God. Amen. Alright.

But, you see, the power and authority of sin over the life of man is still in there. Even though he’s been forgiven it’s still there. See? It still remains. So, that’s exactly what happened, you know, in the days of Israel. You know, in the days under the law and so forth. See? Of course in Hebrews 10:11, every high priest stood offering the same sacrifrices. Right? The same sacrifices yearly, for the same people. For the same sins. See? Because there was nothing to erradicate that sin. There was nothing to... in other words, they still had the conscience of sin. They were not delivered from it. Alright.

And in Verse 3 of that same chapter, it tells us that there was a continual remembrance in the mind of God that they were sinners. They were sinners. He would forgive them on those basis that they would offer that sacrifice, but they walked out of there still sinners. There was no change. No change at all in them. So, the forgiveness of sins alone won’t break that union between Satan and the human race. It won’t do it. They are still married to him. Yes sir. They are still married to him even though they might be forgiven of their sins. They’re still married, that nature is still there. That desire is still there. See? It won’t grant that fellowship between God and man. It will not let them come back together. No sir. It will not do it. And so, redemption is calling for more than forgiveness. Is that right? Redemption is calling, according to what Brother Branham said, redemption is got to bring you back to where you were. It’s got to put the human race back to where it was before the fall. To redeem means to buy back. To restore. To translate. See? Adam was translated from the kingdom of God into the kingdom of Satan. Amen. Look at it any way you want to. That’s exactly what happened. So then, when you are borned again, you are translated from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. That’s what takes place right there. There’s something that happens. Amen. Redemption actually means a new creation. A new creation. A new race of people. Amen. Oh my! And I just love that. See? See? It’s something that happens in the spirit of man. Something takes place. Amen.

In Colossians 3, Verse 3, Paul said, “But you are dead and your life is hid in God through Christ.” Alright. And then Brother Branham picked that up on “Souls That Are In Prison Now”, I believe it was, on page 9, somewhere in there. He said, “But it wasn’t your body that died. It wasn’t your spirit that died, but is was the nature of your spirit, which is the soul.” Amen. It was the soul of the man that actually died when he’s converted. Amen. That spiritual death must be absolutely destroyed. That nature of Satan must be absolutely destroyed. Not divorced; not put away. It’s got to be destroyed. Amen. If it isn’t, it’ll give you trouble the longest day you live. You are not borned again outside of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And the Holy Ghost does not come into a human being with that nature of Satan in there. No sir. He’s not going to do it. That’s right. So, if you study the “Future Home” you’ll find out that He will not come in there until that person is purged. Amen.

And you heard me talk about how they used to purge those old pipes down there, you know, these stainless steel pipes, and you know what I’m talking about. I worked down there in the reactor down there at the nuclear plant, you know. And so, before they could make a weld, they had to purge that pipe. They had to purge that thing ‘‘til it was as clear, there was nothing there, nothing in it at all. It was purged absolutely clean. Absolutely. And then they would seal it, see, with the weld. And that’s what takes place with the human being. He’s got to be purged first. He’s got to be purged, and then he can be sealed with the seal of God, which is the Holy Ghost. Amen. But not until. Alright.

The nature of Satan must be completely annihilated from man’s spirit. It’s got to be annihilated from man’s spirit. How does it get done? The fire of God. The fire of God burns it out. You say, “Well I don’t see no fire. I don’t feel no fire.” Well you’ll feel something then He comes, I’ll guarantee you that. Alright. So then, and only then you can stand free from the authority and power and the dominion of Satan, once that nature of Satan is annihilated and done away with. You can stand then free from him. You are absolutely set free. That’s what Paul was talking about, right there that we read. You are set free from his domain. You are taken out of his kingdom and translated into the kingdom of God. Now the natural man is still walking along here. He’s still having his problems and all, but something happened. See? Something happened. Alright. So now we have no more desire to sin. God does not sin, and the nature of God has no desire to sin. See? And so we know that. Alright.

In Colossians 1:13, we find out that man has got to be delivered from this authority, this dominion of Satan. See? We are translated into God’s kingdom. In Hebrews 2:14, Satan, who reigns in this death, this spiritual death, he’s got to be taken off of that throne. See? He’s got to be taken off, out of that authority So the only way that he can be removed from that authority is what? Put to death. He’s got to be put to death. That’s the only way he’ll get out of there. He’s not going to be cast out, see. Look. Now, you say, “Well, casting out devils.” Casting out devils. Listen. How many of you ever read “Demonology”? Have you ever really studied that “Demonology”? Have you ever studied it? Did you know that he said the Christians can have demons? Huh? Upon their physical bodies. See? Tormenting them. That’s right. Christians. True, borned again saints of God. That’s what sickness is. It’s demons. Cancer is demons. Heart condition is demons. Amen. And He died to set us free from that. He did! And He’s settting us free from it. Believe me children. He’s setting us free from it. Amen. We’re right on the road going right that way. Alright.

Now. So we know that we’ve got to be set free. We have got to take him off the throne. We have got to put him away. Not put him away, but annihilate him. He’s got to be put to death. See? Man must be delivered from all fear of this domain that he was in of Satan. He’s got to be delivered from every bit. See? Perfect love does what? Casts out fear. Is that right? Perfect love casts out fear. So if you’ve got perfect love toward God, toward His Word, then you have no fear. You have no fear. See? Alright.

So in Genesis 3:24, we find out that man was driven from the garden. Alright. He was driven from the garden so that he could not be around the tree of Life. Is that right? Alright. He was driven out from the garden of Eden. And there he could not have access to the tree of Life, while he was in the spiritual death condition. He could not eat and partake of that tree of Life. No sir. There’s got to be something that’s going to bring him back. There’s got to be a price paid like Brother Branham said, “That Day At Calvary”, there’s got to be something paid. Man’s need is life. So that life is what? That life, that capital L-I-F-E is nothing less than the nature of God. It’s exactly what it is. The nature of God coming into you gives you eternal Life, and you can no more die. You see, you have passed from death unto Life. He gives you His own nature, and then, of course, when He does that, He brings you back on legal basis with Him, where you have the same ability that Christ had. You say, “no.” Yes. Christ was born without sin. He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Every spiritual borned again child of God is born without sin. He’s got the same ability, the same walk. Read the 17th Chapter of St. John. Read it close. Study it and see if that wasn’t what Jesus was telling and praying the Father, “Make them one, as You and I are one.” Is that right? He said, “I sanctify Myself that they might also be sanctified. I pray, Father, that You will bring them where I am.” Huh? So if we’re going to get where He is, Brother T.B., we’re going to be right there in the same category, in the same category with Christ now. See? In the same category.What is the annoint... What is Christ? The annointed Word. Is that right? The annointed Word. What is the Bride? The annointed Word. You see? It all comes right into place when you get to looking at it with a serious look. With a serious look, you can see what’s happening. Alright.

So now. And Adam, when he had taken this nature of Satan; I won’t say when he was borned again, but I’m saying when he had taken this nature of Satan, he sinned. See? Brother Branham told us what caused it. And man, then by nature, by nature man become the child of wrath. Is that right? Is that what the Scripture said? Absolutely. He become the child of wrath. Then he’s got to be borned again. See? Because he come into this world speaking lies. He’s born wrong. See? And now he’s got to be born of the life of God. See? If he’s born of the life of God, then he’s born the same way that Jesus was born. See? Jesus was born by spoken Word. Is that right? Then every child of God is born by spoken Word. Every child of God is born the same way. You heard the truth and the truth set you free. The spoken Word you heard. Alright. In John 3:7. See?

Now, of course, this is going to make us then a son of God. And I tried to read all of these Scriptures and I said, “I’d love to get them all.” I started to just go through there and just pull them out, you know, and print them out. I said I’d never get through if I do that, so, I’d better just speak about them, and give it to you and you can look at it. Alright. So now I remember when Brother Don preached the “Serpent Seed” over there. He had a fist-full of Scriptures and went all the way through the Bible. See? And I don’t know, but it must have took him, probably over two hours, I guess, to preach that message, see, because he was convincing those people that had an ear to hear out of the Bible, of “Serpent Seed”. It’s in there. It’s in the Word. Amen. Alright. So now, the same thing right here, what we’re talking about. See? We’re talking about these two trees that’s set before you, Life or death. Amen. You’re going to take one of them. You’re going one of those routes. See?

See? So He gave all of them power to become the sons of God, that believed on Him. And this life of God, it comes into the spirit of man. See? It comes into the spirit of man, and it marries. That’s the husband of the spirit. You see, the Spirit is the Bride. See? Is that right? See? I mean that spirit that motivates your body is got to be married to a nature. It’s married to one nature. It’s got a husband. It’s got a husband. Alright. So now, in order to take another husband, that husband’s got to die. See? So, you see, when that husband dies, then another one comes in. See? That’s the nature of God. And then when you are married to that, then you become one. See? Your spirit and the nature of God becomes one, husband and wife. Becomes one. Then whatever that nature tells your spirit to do, you’re going to tell the body. The house. See?

So then, when they were cast out of the garden, then there was no way back, and of course, then we had to find some way to get back. And this is the whole thing that we’re talking about now. So, we notice now that forgiveness will not pay the price. It will not put man back where he was at one time. He won’t do it. It won’t do it. And so, it’s got to be something greater than that to put him back where he’s supposed to be. Alright.

So, in Romans 8:2, Paul tells us that the law of the Spirit of Life has made me free from the law of sin and death. Alright Now. Well what does the nature of God do for a man? I mean, does the nature of God let him go right on and lust and, you know, and do all the things of the world. Is that what...? That’s what you done when you had the nature of Satan, isn’t it? Huh? When you had the nature of Satan, that’s what you did, isn’t that right? Well, then if you get the nature of God, what kind of nature does God have? Huh? See, sometimes, like I said, people mistake sanctification for the new birth so many times.

But, in listening to that message Brother Branham preached on “What The Holy Ghost Was Given For”. He said, “Now after this message tonight, we’re going to let you come up here. Tomorrow night...” He was going to preach another message in the next night, and he said, “Now I’m going to tell you how you’ll know that you’ve got the Holy Ghost.” See? And he said, “Now we’re going to lay hands on you.” But he didn’t say that would give them the Holy Ghost. But what he said was this. He said, “And then you have to die. And then you have to die.” He said, “You be willing. Don’t you come down this isle unless you are willing to stay here until you die.” That’s what he said. He said, “You stay here. If you have to go home you stay right there. You pray. You stay right there, if it takes you 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, until you die! And then the Holy Ghost will come in!” People don’t die! That’s what’s wrong with them! They don’t die today. They just get stirred up. And the first thing you know they’re right back out there fooling around with the world again. See? Amen. But death takes you away from that! Amen. We are made free from the law of sin and death, by the nature of God! Oh my! Yes sir! And I believe it. I believe it with all my heart! Amen. I know what It’ll do. The nature of God will put back in the fellowship with God. You can walk with Him. You can walk a spiritual walk with God. Amen.

Alright. When Jesus was tempted. When He was tempted, and He was tempted for 40 days. Is that right? Not after 40 days, but He was tempted for 40 days. That’s what the Bible said. He was tempted for 40 days. Alright. But notice, this temptation never throwed Him. Is that right? Well why didn’t it? I believe it’s in Luke 4, maybe Verse 4. Turn there Brother Don, right quick, and see if that’s not where the Holy Ghost come in upon Him. It’s there. And it was spoke to Him, or the voice of God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” Is that right Brother Don? Is that it? Luke 4:4 (Brother Don reads the Scripture.)

Ok. “...By bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Alright. Now I missed that. I had that one down too. I had that Scripture down here somewhere. Luke 4:4, but that was the last part. I wanted to tell you that you’ve got to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. But where was it where He was down on the river, Brother it’s in John. In John 5. In John 5, I believe it is. Isn’t that right? Is it John the 5th Chapter, maybe. I can’t remember, but anyway, when He was down there being baptized on the river, what happened? The Holy Ghost come down upon Him. Right? And come down in the form of a dove. And when the Holy Ghost lit upon Him, Brother Branham said, “The Holy Ghost entered into Him.” Right? And when the Holy Ghost entered into Him, the ability to do the perfect will of God was there. And God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” Brother Branham said, “in whom I am pleased to dwell in.” Amen. Amen!

So, you see, we’ve got to have more than just a stir. We’ve got to have more than, you know, than just a head knowledge! We’ve got to have a heart knowledge! We’ve got to know! Amen. We’ve passed from death unto Life. We’ve got to know that. We’ve got to know that God has done something in our life. Amen. And it don’t make any difference what people says about you then, you know. I mean, you go right on. You’ll say, “Well, I know in whom I have put my trust.” Alright.

So now, watch now. When we possess this life of God this eternal Life. When It comes into our spirit, and becomes one with our spirit, then we immediately become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Is that right? Is that what the Scripture says? “We become heirs and joint heirs with Christ.” Joint heirs. You want to look up and see what heir means. See? Whatever Christ was to God, that’s what you are. See? That’s exactly. Joint heirs. Now that’s what He said. Alright. Romans 8:17. Alright.

So now, the man whose been borned again, he stands before the Father... Are you listening? In the same way that Christ does. Oh. I didn’t hear an amen. But listen. Somebody said, “Brother Branham could you be Jesus Christ?” He said, “Jesus. No.” He said, “For me to be Jesus would be anti. I could not do that.” But he said, “Christ, now, see, that’s something different.” See? Amen. That’s something different. See? Amen.

We that are borned of the Spirit of God, of the Word of God, that’s exactly the way Jesus was born. Exactly the way He was born. Amen. He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. And He could do the perfect will of God. He could walk the perfect walk with God. Right? He could walk the perfect walk with God, in the flesh, because He was born of the Word in the flesh. See? You see that? We are not born of the Word in the flesh. So we have got to have something inside of us to take charge of the claypot. To keep it under subjection. See? Amen.

And we still wrestle. We wrestle. We wrestle. We wrestle, because we have that Adam nature. You say, “Oh, no, no, no.” Oh, yes, yes, yes. You’ve got the Adam nature, and that is a weakness. I’m not talkng about Satan’s nature, I’m talking about the human race nature of weakness. And I’m going to tell you something. I don’t care how far you go. I don’t care how much you pray. I don’t care how much you fast. I don’t care how much of God you say you’ve got, you’ll never convince me that Satan doesn’t jump on your shoulder and try to make you doubt at times. I don’t care who you are, and where you come from, and how much you’re borned again. He’ll get right on your shoulders at times, and he’ll try to make you doubt. He’ll try to make you doubt somebody else’s salvation. He’ll try to make you doubt your own. He’ll try to make you doubt. That’s his job. Amen. And, you know...

What does the word Satan mean? He’s a trouble-maker. Amen. That’s exactly what he... He’s on his job. Yes. You say, “Well, he don’t make me.” I mean, I didn’t say he would make you doubt. But I’ll tell you one thing, when we get to the place to where we are free from all of these little things, you know, that Satan shoots a dart in there, you know, before you know it, see, if you’re not careful. Why, it’s so easy to bring a charge against somebody in your mind. Isn’t it? Um-hm. Yes sir. Satan will work on you to try to get you to see something wrong in your brother or sister. See? But, you know the Word of God tells us, don’t do that. “Judge not that you be not judged.” See? The Word of God is the judge. So let that handle the situation. Amen. And let that take place. And so, what we need to do is to be free from every imperfection. Alright. Now. You say, “In this life?” Well yes, in this life. Alright.

So now, man receiving of eternal Life, actually makes it possible for him to receive the Spirit of God. See? It makes it possible. He receives the Spirit of God, and God dwells in him. That’s exactly what the new birth is. The new birth is, you are a son of God. See? You are a child of God. So, being a child of God, you are a part of God. See? And you might want to put this down and read it. I ain’t got time to go to it, but in II Corinthians 6:16, if you want to read it, and Ephesians 3:14-21. Now, of course, this brings man again into the presence of God. That’s exactly what it does. It brings him again, across the chasm, into the presence of God. Listen to me. I don’t care how much a person shouts. I don’t care how much they speak in tongues. I don’t care how much they prophecy, and how much they preach, and say they’ve got this and that and the other. If they are not borned again, they are not in the presence of God.That’s right. No sir. You cannot come into the presence of God with sin in your life. No sir. Amen. I mean, He does not tolerate sin. No. It’s got to be His life. His life. Alright. So, healing comes along with that. Alright. So now, we want to make sure that you get these things.

Now, then what does this do? Well, if I’m understanding the scripture correctly, then this brings us to a place, Brother Richard, where we can go back, then to Matthew 17:20, and we can understand what Jesus is saying. “All things are possible to them that believe.” When? When you’re in the presence of God. When you’re in the presence of God. Amen. All things are possible. That’s right. All things are possible. You say, “Well, I just can’t get it Brother Holmes.” Well, now let me ask you something. Somebody said, “Well, maybe the Lord put this sickness on me. Well I don’t believe it. You might believe it, but I don’t. I don’t believe God puts sickness on people. No. I don’t believe God tempts people. I don’t believe that. So what you’re saying when you say that is, you’re saying that God is getting glory out of your sickness. Well why did He suffer those stripes for your healing if He’s going to glory in your sickness.? “Praise God, I’m sick,” you know, “Praise God I’m having a hard time, I’m sick.” Does that sound reasonable? No. Why do we ask God to heal us? Why do we seek God for healing and for a well body? We know what brings most of our sickness on, it’s our ownself. We know that. I mean, of course nature says that this body is weak and all, but our every day standards brings a lot of it on, you know, a lot of us, and I could go down the line, you know.

I went to a doctor one time, and I was so nervous, I was pastoring my first church. I was working on the third shift, and I was staying up sometimes two and three days, and not even take my shoes off. Just lay down across the bed... just to take a bath, and that’s all. And get on right back. I was working myself to death, you know. I thought I had to do it. I wasn’t getting but about twenty-five dollars a week from the church, and so I couldn’t raise 5 or 6 children on that, 7. So I had to work. See? So I was working and then I got down. I mean, I got so nervous, you know, and I went to this doctor. He said, “Do you believe in temperance?” I said, Yes sir. He said, “Well you’d better practice it.” I said, What do you mean? He said, “I’ll tell you what you’d better do.” He said, “You’re just a young man, but I’m going to tell you something.” He said, “If you don’t take off one day at least a week, and go down there on that river and sit down, and dare a fish to bite your hook, just sit there and relax, and get everything off of your mind,” he said, “you’re going to die.” He said, “Your nerves are in a bundle.” He said, “If you preach temperance to them people, you’d better practice it.” He said, “You’ve got to be temperant in all things.” And he said, “You’re not doing it.” He said, You’re working yourself to death.” See? At a young man. See?

So a lot of times we bring these things on ourselves. See? We bring these things on ourselves. We get out and take too much on us, and then we have to run and run and run and run, and then another thing we eat too much, you know. I mean I’m telling you the truth, and the wrong kind of stuff. And anything that you can get, you put into your stomach. It’s a wonder we don’t die. That’s the truth. I mean, hey, isn’t that right? My! And I was just thinking, you know, we don’t know what kind of... Well, I’d better be quiet. But look, I’m telling you the truth, ain’t I? I’m telling you, we bring a lot of this sickness... We’ll go out, we’ll run out the door, you know, in the cold weather, and don’t even get our coat on, half dressed or something. The first thing you know, then you might come right out of the house where there’s a little... You might not realize it, but there’s a little perspiration on your body. You run out there and all the pores are open where you’ve been in that heat. Then that cold air comes right in. You suck it in, and then you’re sick. See? Of course, we ought to treat our bodies right, and we can live a long time. Amen. Like God wants us to. Amen. He don’t want us to, you know... You know I’m telling you the truth.

Take care of yourself. Enjoy yourself. That’s the thing. Enjoy.You can’t enjoy yourself running here and running there, you know. I mean, hey, you ain’t got time! What good is the money if you ain’t got time to spend it? See? See? I just want to have a little bit of time, but I want to be temperant in all things. Now I got to hush, but I’m just telling you a few things, you know, that this new birth is supposed to put us into a place to where we’re free. Free. Amen. Like an eagle. Amen. Oh my! Mounted up on eagles wings. Alright. Then man will be able to walk again after the new birth in that spiritual realm with God. That’s right. You say, “Well Brother Holmes, will we see God?” Every day. Yes sir. Every time you open that Bible. Every time you open the message, you’ll see God. That’s right. He’s right there. Amen. Alright. Is that true? That’s absolutely the truth. Alright. So now, watch now.

Man will be able to walk again in the presence of God in a spirit, a faith realm with God. A faith realm, where he lives by every word of God. That’s Luke 4:4. I just got ahead of it. That’s Luke 4:4. Living by every word of God. Jesus told that devil, “man must live by every word, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Are you glad you’re a Christian? Are you glad you’re borned again? Well what we need to do is to see what goes along with it. See? A lot of times we don’t have time to get in there and see what goes along with it. See? A lot goes along with that life, you know. All the promises. I’ve just been studying the life of Abraham, you know, under the names of God. I was studying those seven names of God in the life of Abraham. That’s really something. That’s right. For every occasion, for every need Abraham had, there was a name that God appeared to him in. Amen. If he needed strength, He’s El-Shaddai. If he needed a provider, He’s Jehovah-Jireh. Yeah. If he needed healing, He’s Jehovah-Rapha. Whatever he needed, God appeared to Abraham in all of these different names. David talks about all of that, you know, in the Psalms. Don’t you love Him? Don’t you appreciate Him?

Come on Sister. I really appreciate the Lord. And I appreciate you, and I want to dig into these messages. Did into these messages, and lets look and see what belongs to us. We have got to acknowledge It’s ours before we can claim It. Amen. We can’t take it from somebody else. We can’t plow in another man’s field. We’ve got to know that it comes under the blanket. Under the blanket covenant. See? Amen. I love it. I love to study. I love to read. I love to just look into the Message and in the Bible. You know, you can take the Bible, and you can study and you can read all through there, and then the first thing you want to know, you’ll see something and you’ll say, “Well I wonder what Brother Branham said about that.” You ever do that? And then you’ll go searching and see what Brother Branham said about that.

Why I was reading Genesis 3 this morning and I looked at something and I said, “Well I’v seen it a hundred times.” Oh, a hundred? Thousand maybe. Maybe a hundred thousand. And I read it, and I’d never saw it just like that. God said that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman. We get so tangled up on the serpent’s seed, and the woman’s seed, until we miss that if we’re not careful. But He said He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Want to read it? Turn to Genesis 3. Start reading about 15, Verse 15.

See? So, now I said, “Well I’ve got to study that. I’ve got to go in there and study that”. See? And it just stood out. Put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and the woman’s seed. And the woman didn’t have no seed, so she’s got to have a seed. So that seed is Christ. Amen. And before we get done, we’re going to be going on into some of these things, and looking at them. Let us stand.

THAT DAY AT CALVARY 7-5 - THE ONE GREAT IMPORTANT THING THAT CALVARY MEANS TO US AND THE WORLD IS IT SETTLED THE SIN QUESTION ONCE FOR ALL. MAN WAS FOUND GUILTY OF SIN, AND SIN HAS A PENALTY THAT NO MAN COULD PAY. THE PENALTY WAS SO GREAT UNTIL THERE WASN’T ANYONE THAT COULD PAY THE PENALTY. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT GOD ORDAINED IT THAT WAY, THAT THE PENALTY WOULD BE SO GREAT THAT NO MAN COULD PAY IT, SO HE COULD DO IT HIMSELF.

THAT DAY AT CALVARY 8-2 - AND SIN DID NOT START ON THE EARTH. SIN STARTED IN HEAVEN. LUCIR--LUCIFER, THE DEVIL, WAS A CONDEMNED CREATURE FOR HIS DISOBEDIENCE BEFORE HE EVER STRUCK THE EARTH. SIN BEGAN IN HEAVEN, WHERE GOD PUT THE ANGELS AND SO FORTH UPON THE SAME BASIS THAT HE PUT HUMAN BEINGS ON. KNOWLEDGE, THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE... THE TREE OF LIFE, AND THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, WHERE MAN COULD TAKE HIS CHOICE. AND WHEN LUCIFER WAS GIVEN THE PREEMINENCES TO MAKE HIS CHOICE, HE WANTED SOMETHING BETTER THAN GOD HAD. THAT STARTED THE TROUBLE.