Death and Life Chapter 7

Let's bow our heads. Precious Father, we come humbly before You this morning, thanking You, Lord , for the benefits that You've given us and for the privilege, Lord, that we have to come back again this morning. We thank You for these precious people, Lord, that have come out now, they didn't come to see an old man, but they've come, Lord, to hear the Word of God. And I pray that You'd open up the hearts of each believer this morning. If there's here some, Lord, that might not have yet made their calling and election sure we pray that something would happen this morning that would cause their hearts to turn toward You. And I pray, Lord, that You'd fill our souls with the mighty Spirit of the Almighty God where we can benefit by the promises that you have given us, Lord, offering the Token as we come before You in prayer, knowing, Lord, we have to rule out all of the world and everything in order to present the Token. But when we have the Token, Lord, it is a fact that the price has been paid and there's nothing against us, Lord, and nothing that Satan could accuse us of. And I thank You for that promise, Lord, that You've given us. Pray that everyone will be blessed this morning under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as the Word comes forth. In Jesus Name the Son of Man we ask it. Amen.

You may be seated.

Good to be here this morning. Good to see you people. We're missing Brother Winston and his family. We know, you know Sister Ruthie's father passed away and they're down there for the funeral yesterday and they may be on their way back today. I don't know, but it's been kind of a trying time for them this week. We're also missing Sister Long. Sister Long has been sick now just about all the week. Well you say, "Well, she's sick all the time." I'm talking about she's had some problems this week. And she's had some blood in her urine and she's been suffering, I'm sure, and not able, you know, to tell the people just how she is suffering. And we've been praying for her so we believe that the Lord knows what He's doing and He'll...

Sometimes, you know, the doctors kinda' look like, well, their on their way out anyway so just sometimes they just leave them alone, you know. That's a bad attitude for a doctor to have because they have promised and pledged their whole life to the benefit of the people under any circumstance. They have to do that before they can get their license, and so, I mean, you know, they don't live up to it a lot of times, especially in a nursing home where there's so many. You know, they have so many they have to try to wait on and then they just don't get the care that they ought to have. So let's be praying for Sister Long. The Lord's let her stay a long time around, so we a lot of times we thought maybe she's was going out when she was up there at Taylorsville. She got real sick and the Lord brought her through that and now He's bringing her though this. She's better this morning.

I have a letter this morning from, of course, I received this letter day before yesterday from Brother Victor and I'm want to take time to read it so you can kinda' see what's going on over there. I haven't talked to Sister Rhonda today. I don't know if she heard from Don yesterday. I think Don had his first wedding yesterday probably. He had a wedding over there at Brother K. Yesuratnams down in Markupur. This is a run down on the meetings up through, I believe, it would have been yesterday.

"Greetings in the most Precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Son of Man, It's a great pleasure for me to meet you through this letter and to share our experiences with you. The worker's meetings in Hyderabad really went on well. The campus that we rented for worker's meeting is very good, it's very quiet and clean and they have very big auditorium and provided excellence accommodation and food for our pastors. The meetings really went on well. But this time we could have only two days. But our Great Lord really blessed these meetings and I hear from the pastors that they were really blessed by these meetings.

After the meetings we started traveling to different places and trying to as many as new areas to introduce the Message as we know that this is our duty to take the Message of the Hour to many new places and introduce the Message and share with God, share with them, you know, all that God has done this last day. So far we covered Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda Districts. In Warangal we went to Brother P. Daniel's place. (Now that's the one, you know, that passed away last year.) His wife and son welcomed us and we had a very good meeting there. The people are very receptive. And Brother David who was the helper of Brother P. Daniel is now taking care of the assembly over there. We hope that God will continually work in this area and lead them into many deeper truths to prepare themselves to met the Lord."

We had a great meeting last time I was in there at Warangal two years ago. It really was outstanding. I believe it was two, I think brother..., it was the time that Brother Tiny went with us, I believe, when we went in there and it was a good meeting.

"After that we had two meetings in Brother Samson's place. And there are two more brothers helping him in the ministry. These are all young ministers and we hope that they will stand firmly for the truth and be blessing to this area. We had good meetings in this area. After that we went to Khammam District and we went to Pastor Megia Jonah's place and from there we went to another tribal village called Kadacapuda. Pastor VijaCuma is working in this area. It is very dangerous area and hardly there is a route to reach this village. It is also affected by Nexolite terrorist groups. So we were really in a hurry to get out of this village before it got dark. But here we had really wonderful service. The people are so receptive and we could experience such a wonderful spirit anointing in the village. (Now I tell you, it's something, you know, and when I get to reading it I just get carried away. So you just forgive me. He said:) Thank God for leading us in a wonderful way. After this village we came to Nalgonda District and had meetings in Pastor Ratnam Raja's place and also Brother Ivenkat Ratnam's place. And we had wonderful service last night. On the way we met my sister Percious' family and they also attended for the meeting. Right now we are in Brother Nova's place. Tonight we will go to Bangera tribal village."

Now that's a tribal people there. They're all, you know, they don't live like normal people, I mean, and they live by their bow and arrows and things like that. They're way back in there and so they can take one of those bow and arrows, you know, like we brought back home. Most of you saw it. And they can knock a bird out of the air with them. I mean their, they got such a sharp eye, and they're such marksmen, I mean, they live by that. That's the way they live. They make their own bow and arrows and that's what they live by. So these are very primitive people and we're getting the Message in there. Now.

"Brother Rimcotta is pastor in this village. He told me that you visited. (Now, we went in there in 1991.) You visited the village there in 1991. Tomorrow, the 12th, we'll have three meetings in Brother Nova's place. Please pray for these meetings. From here we will move to Markupur to attend Brother K. Yesuratnam's daughter's marriage. Brother Don has been preaching continuously without tiring. His health has been good. We really thank the Lord for that. He's working very hard."

You know, if you've never been there you don't know, it's hard. It's hard. I mean, they're pulling from you constantly. It's not like here, you know, I mean, everybody's got their own idea, you know in America. But there they want to hear something. They want to know something. They want to..., they're begging, they're begging. Amen. All, constantly, "What about this, what about this? Amen. Won't you come over and tell us some more about this? Won't you come to my place, won't you come by." Amen. It's just a constant pull, constant thing.

So now, he said. "Brother we thank you again for all prayers. My heart is really longing to see you. And thank you very much for sending the money for my motor scooter. It'll help me a lot to go to many villages where there is no bus facility. It will save my time. Brother told me that everybody in the Tabernacle helped me to get this bike."

So he's really thankful for that, now. So we thank the Lord for what He's done for us and what He's doing for us over there in India. And that's a part of the ministry here. That's exactly what it is and we thank the Lord for it. And so, you know, when we drop a dollar in that mission, ten dollars, twenty dollars, some of you give a hundred dollars a month in there, some more, and, you know, it goes right in there to that mission offering. And so, that's where my tithes go.

Now, I want to, I want to mention to you this morning before I start the message that there may be a couple of things that I will say this morning that may be a little bit controversial or sound controversial. But if you'll check it out it is not. It is not contrary to the Word, the teaching of the Word. Neither is it contrary to Brother Branham's Message. So, you'll find out that Brother Branham didn't say some things that we think he said. You know. And so, we just have to study to show ourself approved unto God. And we're working our way now on in, of course, this morning we're going to be talking about the children of Israel going down in Egypt, and the promise of God to the children of Israel and how that He provided a place for them down there in Egypt before they ever went down there by Joseph going down, and all of these things they're very important for us. We need to know it. If somebody comes up and asks you something you need to give a reasonable answer. And so, I've got about three places here this morning I'd like to read. First of all I'd like to read in Exodus 12. You say, "When you going to get out of that Old Bible?" Well, I'll get out of there one of these days, but I want to first read, yeah, in Exodus 12, Verse 40 and I might read a little more than that but I want to make sure I read Verse 40.

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel,...

Now I want you to get the first phrase there. What was it? The sojourning, the sojourning of the children of Israel. Alright, so I want you to plant that in your mind real strong because I want to be emphatic on that and I want you to understand what I'm saying.

...who dwelt in Egypt, (comma) was four hundred and thirty years.

Alright, now, I want to ask you a question. Did that Scripture say that they stayed in Egypt four hundred and thirty years? Didn't say it, did it? No, sir. It said "the sojourning of the children of Israel". Is that right? The sojourning of the children of Israel was four hundred and thirty years. Alright. So, that is, has been an error so many times when people said that the children of Israel stayed in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. They didn't. They did not stay in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. Brother Branham never said they stayed in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. See? They didn't. They stayed in Egypt about two hundred and ten years, somewhere about two hundred and ten years they were in Egypt. Alright, so now.

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

Now we need some light on that from the New Testament and see how that Paul saw that. He was a very scholared man and let's see how he saw it. Now we want to look in Hebrews first, the 6th Chapter and I want to start reading about Verse 13 and read down through Verse 20.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Saying, Surely blessing I wilL bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto (His) heirs of (the) promise the immutability of his counseL, confirmed it by and oath:

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth inTO that within the veil;

Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made aN high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Now, Paul here, he's talking about the covenant with Abraham and the immutability of the promise by swearing by Himself. God swore by Himself because He couldn't swear by no greater. Now, in Galations, Chapter 3 Paul throws a little light on the same thing that we're talking about the time that they, the four hundred and thirty year period of time. I want to read Verses 16 and 17.

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And...thy seed, which is Christ.

And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after,...

Now, what did Paul say there? The covenant, the covenant was made and then four hundred and thirty years later the law came. Is that what he said? That's the way I read it. Alright. So, that's what Paul is declaring here.

...four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

See, the covenant was made before the law and then, of course, four hundred and thirty years after the covenant, after the call of Abraham, then that was when the, that was the end... When the law came that was the ending of the four hundred and thirty years. Another thing that we have been misled on many times is that when Abraham was called out of Ur that he was seventy five years old. He was not seventy five years old when he was called out of Ur. He was sixty years old. Now, I'm going to prove that to you by the Bible. So, now, you listen. Now these are things that, like I said, it could sound controversial. But, it isn't. It is not controversial. Alright. Now, in the 11th Chapter in the book of Genesis, I want you to turn with me. And I want to read Verses 31 through the remainder of that chapter.

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

Now let's continue on down now.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

So, not out of the land of Ur, but out of Haran. See? Amen. So, there was fifteen years there that he had waiting to get shed of his father. The time, now... Terah now, Terah, his father is the one that carried him into the land of Haran. And then God carried him out of Haran when he was seventy five years old. Alright. So now, with those things kindly settled down, and we're looking now at some things this morning we really... Our last lesson now on this, you remember we studied the covenant, the blood covenant. The blood covenant that God made with Abraham. Alright. So then we found out that Abraham and his descendents was to be God's covenant people. His descendents were the covenant people of God. Of course, we read Genesis 17:7 to back that up. And then through this covenant people we found out that God was going to send a Redeemer, through the covenant people of Abraham.

(So then we find in Genesis 22:17 & 18 that:) In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sands of the sea, as the sand which is upon the sea shore; And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou has obeyed my Voice.

So now we see that God has promised Abraham that his seed would multiply abundantly upon the face of the earth, even as the stars of the heaven, as the sand upon the sea shore. Alright. So that the people then that were in relationship with God; they were at the time that they went into, Egypt they were numbered seventy. There were only seventy of them that went into Egypt. Now, we want to look here at three names that stand out in the book of... Well, actually in the book of Genesis, the whole book of Genesis is grouped around five men. How many of you know that?  They're categorically placed in Scripture here identifying each one and giving them allotted  space in the book of Genesis. The first one was Adam. The second one was Noah. Right? The third one was Abraham. The fourth one was Isaac. The fifth one was Jacob and then, of course, the sixth one, Joseph, come in there, as the sixth one but it was at the end of the... So we find here now that these men had allotted Scriptures. If you want me to give them to you I will. So, I got those Scriptures for you, Brother Keenan, I just, I had them Wednesday night but I didn't think to give them to you.

So a lot of times when I go out of here I don't think of nothing else then. I'm, you know, I got things, a lot of times... When I'm in my study sometimes I'm nervous and then I get over my nervousness here while I'm ministering. I don't have the nervousness here while I'm ministering, the anointing comes. But then once I get through with it then I go back in a nervous condition again, which I never say nothing about. So, I mean, sometimes I might be quick, I might be sharp, I might say something that I have to apologize for right quick and I will do it if I do. But, you see, I mean, I'm trying to say that sometimes, you know, people don't understand. And but you have a great responsibility upon you when you're standing and dealing with God's Word. A great responsiblility. And that is something that you can't explain, but it's there.

But we find here that Adam dominates Chapters 1through 5. Right? And then Noah dominates Chapters 6 through 11. And then Abraham Chapters 12 through 26; Jacob, Chapters 27 through 37. And Joseph, Chapters 38 through 45. Now to give a brief run down onh these particular guys in there; I like to talk about them and I like to think about them. Now Isaac was the peace maker. He was called the well digger. He dug a well, you know, and the Ishmelites and some of them come along and took the well away from him and then he never fought, he never tried to argue with them. He just give them the well. And he went over here and he dug another well. And so, here, you know, have we got that yet? You know, he didn't even have the New Birth, now. He didn't have the New Birth, but he wouldn't fight. That's right. He was a peace maker. So he went over then and he dug him another well, Brother Richard. And then here they come, another group come took that well. So he goes and digs the third well. Amen. So when you get the third one dug, I tell you, you're getting somewhere then. That third stage of the journey was really something. Alright.

So then we find that he was an outstanding character. If you study his life all the way through, Jacob, I guess, was the most lovely type person as he took Rebekah and took her into his mother's tent and she became his wife. And then, of course, the two sons that were born from this union was Jacob and Esau. And you don't hear a lot about Esau because Esau sold his birthright. But the one that got his birthright was absolutely a stinker, a renegade, one of the worse people that you could ever think of. Now that's the truth. I'm telling you the truth, and not nothing good was said about him. That's right. And nobody liked him. He was a deceiver. And look what he done. He deceived his brother first of all. Then when he got down to the place where he was going to get him a wife then he was trickery. See? He put those certain types of sticks in the water because his father-in-law had told him that every speckled calf that's borned is yours. So he, in the watering trough he put these speckled sticks in there, you know, this certain type of thing, and every time the cattle come up to drink water they saw these speckled sticks. So when the babies were born they were speckled. So all of them were being born speckled. So he stole, he kept on his work, see. He didn't change until he met God. And when he met God that's where he changed. When God touched him and struck his hip and then He changed his name from Deceiver to Prince. And he was a great man after that. It shows you that it don't make any difference how bad your life is God can change it and make out of it what He wants it to be because the Seed was in Jacob and was not in Esau. So Jacob had to do what he did to get the birthright, because it was only in Jacob, not in Esau.

And then, of course, you find Joseph is one of the outstanding characters because he was the man that was sold into Egypt, sold down into Egypt there, and they thought that they had got shut of him. See? And so, of course, then they thought they had done... His brothers are the ones that sold him. And, you know, his daddy thought so much of him and made him a coat of many colors. And this is for some of the young people maybe, that you hadn't had a chance to read all of this, you know, and it's a beautiful story all the way through. See? And then they took the coat of many colors that his father had made for Joseph. But Joseph, see, he was the younger brother and he saw visions and he had dreams and he was and outstanding person and God was using him. He was a prophet. See? And so God was using him and allowing him to be brought up for a specific purpose. See?

What we're trying to do is to get you to see the plan of God that's set before us, and nothing can change that. And God is going to make sure that He makes arrangements for you out there before you get there. He's not going to wait until you get there. He's already made arrangements for you before you get there. See? So what He's doing, He's bringing up Joseph and getting him ready because He realizes that there's going to be a faminine down there in the land. And then, of course, there's going to be... He's going to raise up Joseph and train him and give him the understanding, the wisdom, Brother John, to go down there and make all provisions for those people before they get down there.

And don't you know He's done that for us? Amen. There's no.... You think about it. Sometimes you come along maybe and you see a wreck on the highway, a terrible wreck. If you'd been ten minutes earlier you'd been the one that was involved in that wreck. See, God makes provisions and protects us when we don't even know about it. Amen. So now we find out that the reason they went down in Egypt was because that they had no food and there was a faminine on up there and so they went down in Egypt for bread. And when they got down there, when the brothers got down there that had sold Joseph into Egypt, they thought, they never thought no more about Joseph. See? They took his coat, you know, and killed a lamb and made it all bloody and carried it to their daddy and told their daddy a lie that's "Looks like he's been destoryed by an animal," and all, but they sold him to these traders, you know. And they carried him on down and sold him to Potiphar down there and he was to be a servant in Potiphar's house.

And then you know how it came about that Potiphar's wife, she took a hold of him and tried to molest him, you know and, of course, there was no way that he was going to do it so he just slipped out of his coat and left. And he said he couldn't have nothing to do with his lord's... You know, the man that was feeding him and the man that was taking care of him, he couldn't mistreat him and he wouldn't have nothing to do with his wife. So what happened then, she took his coat and she lied and said "This man has tried to overpower me and so forth" and so you know the story. And then Potiphar carries it to the high order and then the first thing you know Joseph is in prison.

And then while he's in prison, of course, you know the story there, of how that the two men that were in there with him, the baker and the...what was the other one? Huh? Alright. And these two men, see, they were in there (and I didn't hear you, but that's alright. They heard you, they heard you.) Alright. So then these two men were in prison.

Alright. So now, you know, I hope ya'll never get an impairment of hearing because it is difficult, but if I can see you and look at your lips I can tell what you're saying. But I got to see you good, you know. But, I mean, I can hear, you know, but this far it's a little difficult. I didn't hear what you said.

That'll come to me in a little bit anyway, I'll know, I know what they are. But anyway, these men had dreams. And so one of them had a dream that   about - it was something about that, it was a destructible dream. And so the other one had a dream that was a beautiful dream. And so they brought... I'm not going through and trying to explain the dream to you. You know what they were, some of you. And so they carried this to Joseph. And Joseph was telling him about it and Joseph told one of them said, "Well, sorry to say, son, but your days are limited and you're going out to the gallows. They going to kill you. You won't get out of here." But he said to the other one, I believe it was the baker, he said, "Now you'll be restored back to your position in Pharaoh's house." Well, sure enough he was restored back.

And so now what happens? Pharaoh has a dream. And he dreamed this dream, you know, it was giving a rundown, God was letting him see that there was going to be seven years of plenty food and then there was going to be seven years of famine. And so now, see, the king was troubled because he didn't know what the dream was. It was in symbols, you know. And so he was worried about it and the baker heard about it and he said, "Now, there's one down there in prison, Joseph." He said, "He can tell you what that dream means." So then he brought him up there, you know, brought Joseph up and he told him exactly what it meant. And so then he said, "Well, there's no better man to set over this thing than you." So he comes out of the dungeons of prison, out of slavery, God brought him all the way through that, Brother Lanny, to bring him out and to set him up second place to, he was sold for thirty pieces of silver like Jesus, and then, about that amount of money, and then here he comes up now second to the king, amen, in rulership and he controls everything.

So God had made all these provisions and now here goes the children, here goes that little group down there to try to get some bread. And then they had to go to Joseph. See? Joseph was the only provider for them. So when they went to Joseph, Joseph understood that these were his brethren. But they did not know him. He'd had grown up and they didn't know him. So then we find out that he would give them their food and then he wouldn't take their money. See? He didn't want to take their money. So then he put the money back in their bag, you know. He would take their money and then it back in the bag and they'd go on. So then one day he said "I want to know how the old man is. How is your father? Is he still living?" They said, "Oh, he's still living, but he's aged you know."  And "How about the younger brother Benjamin?" See? And so they found out about that. And then he said, "Well, you won't get no more bread until you bring Benjamin."

So then when they told the old man that, why his heart failed because he had already lost Joseph. This was by his first wife, by you know, the wife that he worked seven years for and which he wanted so much, Sarah, I believe, and then she bore these two children. And then he would, he loved these boys. And he got the other one, Leah, you know, but that was by another work that he had to do seven more years to get her. And then, but anyway, he didn't want to let Benjamin go. He wanted to... He said "I can't let him do it because I'll never live through it. I'll never live through it if he don't come back." So they said, "We won't get no more bread if we don't take Benjamin." So then he finally agreed, so they carried Benjamin down there. And then, of course, you know, Joseph wanted a consultation with him. And so what he done he put something in his bag, you know, to make it appear that he had stolen something, see. And then he sent the guards out to get him and brought him back. Well then they thought surely, you know, "Our daddy will go down."

And then Joseph wept. Coming on up now to the days lesson. Joseph wept bitterly. He went and turned himself aside and wept when he come out and identifed himself to his brethren. And that's, you know, that's exactly what Brother Branham said will happen right over in the Jewish area there where the Hebrews right there, they're waiting to see the Messiah. They're waiting for that time. And you know how Brother Branham taught that about how Israel will receive God. They'll receive Him in a day, in one day.

I got laying on my desk at home letters from Brother George Brown where he had a dream. And he told, he wrote this dream out and drawed it out and sent it to Brother Branham. And so Brother Branham answered the dream. He interpreted the dream and sent it back to him, a part of it. And he said, "I'll tell you the other part when I met you." But he told him, he said,... Now it was about Israel and how they were going to be saved, because Brother Brown, Brother George Brown at one time he was a real strong Brithish Israelite. And he went that route for a while and he studied Israel. So then, Brother Branham told him, he said, "Now this thing, well," he said, "Israel will be saved in a day." He said, "It's not like we are, you know, just..." And that was in 1965 that Brother Branham told him that. So it was in the late hour. So we know that's the way Israel will be saved, as a nation, not as an individual, as a nation they will be saved. That's what Brother Branham said.

So now we find them going down into this country, they moved down in there. Alright. Now, God used Joseph to preserve his people. Now He out-tricked the devil again. See? That's what I'm trying to get you to see. He out-tricked the devil again, because, you know, the devil thought that he'd got shed of that man for sure when he got him down there and got him in prison. So He out-tricked him again and then out of this evil, all this evil, Brother T.B., come all this good. Amen. And so here they go down. Genesis 45:8.

So now it was not you that sent me hither,...

He told his brethren. "Don't worry about it. I'm not mad at you." See? Like Jesus hanging on the cross and said, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do." Joseph said, "I'm not mad at you," he said, "it wasn't you that sent me down here. God made this provision in your behalf." See? "So that you'd have something." And so here's what he's telling them now

...but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of his house, (See? Made me a father to Pharaoh and a lord of his house) and a ruler...(of) the land of Egypt.

That's pretty big territory for a man that was sold as a captive, wasn't it, I mean as a slave down there? But you see God works for all things to His glory. I don't care what you do, what you say and how anything, any, everything that comes about in your life is to benefit you if you can accept it in that way. All things, all things, not half of them, not a tenth of them, not a fifth of them, not three fourths of them, but all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them that are called according to His purpose. The covenant people of God have everything in their favor. They've got everything in their favor and yet they walk right over the top of it like they don't know anything about it, you see, or they don't want to use the benefits that God has given them. See? I mean, or either that or they don't know how to. You know, maybe they've not been trained how to use those benefits.

But these, what we're hoping... Some of you may have never read the Bible through. I doubt if - probably a few of you have. Not too many of you probably have read the Bible all the way through. What we're trying to do in this series is trying to cover the Bible of God's covenant people. We're trying to cover that Bible. Now we're going to be getting, we got one more lesson on this and then we going to be going on over into where Jesus come, see, and on the earth. And then it'll be getting so much better then for you because we have to really be careful to hold your attention in all of these things that we're talking about now, cause you might get a little drowsy, you might, you know you might wander a little bit, but these things are important for you to see how that God works His way all the way through. And I'm taking my time this morning because I want to get this lesson through where you can understand it.

But, if you'll remember now what I read there in Hebrews, in the 6th Chapter, Paul said "by two immutabilities." See? In other words, "it was impossible" he said, "for God to lie, and He swore by Himself because He could not swear by a greater." Alright, so brother we go back now to that place in the Bible, where, in Genesis there, in the 17th Chapter, where God said, "By myself I have sworn." "By myself I have sworn," he told Abraham. So we know that Abraham was under a covenant, under an oath with God that could not be broken. Amen. And all of this favor that God had given to these children of Israel now, the covenant people of Abraham, and now taking them down in Egypt... The most choicest land there is there is where they went. See? Pharoah gave Joseph the privilege to place them wherever they needed to be placed. So now we find where they put them in the land of Goshen. That was the richest land. And then not only that but Pharoah said, "What kind of a trade does these people have?" And he said, "Well, they're herdsmen or they are...." Yeah, and then he said, "Well, I need somebody to watch over my sheep. I need somebody to be a shepherd, you know, for my sheep." And so then they took, they took the old man and made him a shepherd, a ruler, over these things.

You'll find it all in the Bible if you want to read it and I could go in there and read it to you. And then they got the best jobs down in Egypt. They got, everything was in their favor. And so then something happened. Now but see, the thing of it was, they were multiplying so fast. They were multiplying so fast until finally the leaders of Israel got to looking and say, "Hey, they're becoming more than us. So they might come, and you know, they might come on us and overpower us." So then what happened? Pharoah sent out an order. See? Joseph is gone now. He's already died and went off the scene. Another Pharoah raised up that didn't know Joseph. And so now he said, "These people are multiplying so fast." You know, the blessings of God, like God promised Abraham, "Your seed is going to be like the stars and like the sand." And so, here they come, why they were having babies so fast, like we used to have here, you know. And first thing you know there were so many of them until they got worried about it, got scared about it. So here they go down then and they put forth a decree to kill all the male children from about two years old and down. And about this time there was a proper child born by the name of Moses. Right? And so Moses was born there, and I believe it's in the 2nd Chapter of Exodus, and then you'll find where he come into...

And then when he come in, now, it was under this time that it was impossible for a child to survive. They knew every move they made, just like the government knows every move you make now. They got your number, they got everything. You don't do nothing without them knowing all about it. So now you see, that's the way it was down there. They knew all about these slaves down there. So they... See, they had made them, now they had come from free people down there to slaves. They come under slavery there then and God working right on, because why? It's time for them to leave Egypt, Brother Gerald. It's time for them to leave so the pressures going to be put on. See? So now, God's going to put the pressure on. And now He's going to show His hand. He's going to show His hand right here, He's going to show that He can provide a mediator, a deliverer, right in the most particular crisis of time that could've ever been, right then. And so right here Moses was born. He was hid in the bulrush. And then, of course, he, God arranged it so that this woman would come down there and she would take him and he would be raised in the house of Pharoah. And all of the training of the Egyptians was in Moses. He was a smart man.

And so now we find that time comes now for something to take place. And so Moses goes out and he decides, "Well, these must be my people." And so he saw two striving, an Egyptian striving with one of the Hebrews and so he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. He knew that he had a call in his life. And so he didn't know exactly how to do it. It wasn't time yet, God wasn't ready for him. He was about forty years old. And so now he had to get about eighty years old before God really got to use him. And now what happens then, the next day he goes out and he sees two Hebrews struggling with one another. And he tried to set them right. And so they said, "Will you kill us like you did the Egyptian yesterday?"

So then he took flight and went into the wilderness. Alright. So in the wilderness then, on the backside of the desert, one day he was keeping watch over his father-in-law's sheep. And he had went down there and he'd married Ziporah, or Ziporah, however you want to call her, but I call her Ziporah, and he'd married her. And so then he got over here and he saw a strange thing, something that he'd never saw before. It was a bush that was burning. And the amazing thing about that bush was, it wasn't consumed. It was blazing with fire, but it wasn't damaged. And so he thought he would step aside to see more about that. God working all the way through. Now, this little lesson this morning, you see the hand of God working all the way through. So he stepped aside to see what's going on. And he heard a Voice, "Moses, Moses, take off your shoes. This ground that you stand on is holy." I can see Moses as he trembles. He reaches down and he gets out of them sandles, buddy. He didn't try to substitute something else. He didn't try to take his hat off. He took his shoes off. See? When God tells us something we got to do that. We're not going to substitute something. When God tells us one thing, we're going to do that. Amen. He's going to get that or else. So Moses, now, him being this great man that he is, now he fell on his face before God. And that's where he got his commission to go down. And you notice there was power given to him right there. And He told him, "You go down and deliver My people and bring them out."

So Moses forgot something. I wonder if anybody can tell me what that was? Huh? Absolutely. Moses got so busy, he got so carried away after God had called him to go down, he forgot to circumcise his son. And on the way down to Egypt with a Message to Pharoah, God was fixing to kill him. Do you believe that? That's what the Bible says. The Bible said He was going to wipe him out. The prophet that had been raised up for that purpose. Why are you saying that, Brother Holmes? To show you how important it was to carry out the orders that God had given to Abraham. See? That blood covenant, that circumcision was something that had to be carried out. There was not... I mean, they wasn't nobody going to get by with it, not even the prophet. No, sir. And so then, what happened? His wife, to spare his life, she took a sharp stone and cut the foreskin of her son off and threw it down at the foot of Moses and said, "You're a bloody husband to me." See? That's really a mouthful, isn't it? But you see she spared his life. She spared Moses' life there. Amen. To show you the importance of what God said, it has to be carried out.

That's what I'm trying to get you to see. Alright. So now, we're going on through here. We're trying our best to get this thing covered and we're trying to do it.... Every one so far we got done just about by noon and we're trying to do that. Alright. Now, by faith, by faith Moses, what did he do? He refused to be called the son of Pharoah. He would rather suffer the persecution, he would rather forfeit his right of being a king and to go and suffer with his own people. That is a real God-called man. And so we find out that he went into this position knowing that he was forfeiting all of his rights, everything that he had he was forfeiting that and he chose to do that.

And in Hebrews the 11th Chapter we find where that Paul tells us about how by faith he did this. By faith. By faith his mother put him in a bulrush. She built little ark, put him in a bulrush, by faith these things. Well, what was it? It was the mighty hand of God all the time, coming right on through bringing God's people right on through. Every crisis, every situation, there has never, Brother Branham said, "there has never been a time upon the face of this earth that God didn't have a true witness." Not one time. Even during the Dark Ages when they were killing them like flies because they were Christians. Nero hung them up around his big arena and soaked them with gasoline, or whatever they had back in that day, and lit them up with torches while they had the great gladiators fighting and all out there and that's what lit up the arena was saints of God, hanging around there, burning to stakes. It's been that way all the way through.

We've got, we've got it so good. We got it, Brother Gerald, we got it so good. We don't have no problems. We don't have nothing to worry about. Amen. And yet if something does cross our path, now you listen to this, if something does happen that we lose a little bit we complain. And we're always wondering if somebody is going to cheat us out of a little bit. We're afraid that somebody is going to take advantage of us a little bit over here, or a little bit over there. Come on. Huh? It's a shame. It's a shame. Amen. Do you know what the Bible said?  The Bible said that if someone comes to borrow somehing from you, you give it to them not expecting to receive anything in return. Huh? We can be selfish and not know it. That's right. We can be a miser and not know it, want to keep adding to our pile, adding to our pile. Add more to my pile, add more to my pile. Amen. If we're not careful we can be like it was in the days of David when he said, "Now, I live in a house of cedar and I got all of these things and God's house..."

But you see, I'm not talking about, what I'm talking about now is the fact that we as Christians have stepped down a long ways from what Jesus said we need to do. If they smite you on one cheek, fight them back. Huh? That ain't what Jesus said, is it? If they take you to court and take your coat what are you suppose to do? Give them your cloak. If they compel you to go a mile with them, say, "Why don't we just go two." Where are those people? Huh? It'll take the fussing and fuming out of you between one another. Did you hear what I said? It will stop that fussing and fuming between one another and can't agree on nothing. I'm talking about something that's real now. Amen. I'm talking about the Holy Ghost. Amen. I'm talking about the real genuine borned again Holy Ghost. Amen. When He comes into your life you'll begin to want to look and see what you've got. Amen. That's right. The happiest people in the world is God's people. Amen.

They are, why these people down in Goshen... Look. Now when the plagues begin to come... Moses went down there with an old stick. Now, hey, look, he's eighty years old, he's got an old stick in his hand, he's probably creeping along, you know, like this. What is he going down there for? He's going down there to tell the king, that's the greatest nation in the world, he's going down there to tell that king, "You let my people go. I come after them." With a stick in his hand he's going down to fight the whole army of Pharoah, but the truth of it is, he done it. The truth of it is, he did it, children. Amen. When the first, well, you know, the first time he went to Pharaoh, why Pharaoh laughed at him. You know, he throwed his stick down, it become a serpent. And Pharoah said, "That's a cheap magician's trick," said, "I got them all around here can do that." So they come out and they throwed their rods down and they become serpents. But what happened? All of a sudden this serpent of Moses went and swallowed up the serpent of Pharoah's magician. He reached down and got his stick up and he reached down to get the serpent it turned to a stick again, so he goes on out. He brought one plague after another, after another until the tenth plague. And not one of those plagues, now you hear me, not one of those plagues plagued Goshen, right in the same country.

God can keep His people. Like I said, if an atomic bomb or a hydrogen bomb dropped, if He wants to keep you without having one singe of your clothes He can do it. He kept the three Hebrew children in the firery furnance, didn't He? I'm talking about the power of God this morning. I'm talking about something that's real. Amen. They were standing for God regardless of what anybody said. The king said, "You got to bow down to the image of Daniel because Daniel's a great man." They said, "We love Daniel, but we don't love Daniel as good as we love God."  Amen. So, said, "If you don't bow down to him you're going to the furnance of fire, the firery furnance." So they said, "We don't know whether our God will deliver us or not, but we know one thing, we know He can, but we don't know if He will or not. But we know one thing, we will not bow down to your image." Amen. That's the thing about it. We will not bow to the things of the world. Even if we hit poverty, we still won't bow down to the things of the world. If we lose our house, we still won't bow down to the things of the world. If we lose what we got, we still won't do it. Amen. God didn't promise us all of these things. He said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, first, and all these things will be added unto you that you need, not that you want." Amen. Alright.

So now we find here that's something going on down in Egypt and, of course, you know, you know what I'm talking about. And now that tenth, that tenth plague that come along, it's a strange thing it had to do with blood. Right? It had to do with the blood covenant. Amen. So what was they told to do? Moses went over and he told his people, he said, "Put up a lamb on the tenth day. Make sure that lamb is without spot, without blemish." Can't have no blemishes, can't be crippled in one foot, it can't be no spot on it, it's got to be a perfect lamb. It's a type of Christ. "Put up that lamb on the tenth day and on the fourteenth day we're going to kill that lamb. On the fourteenth day we're going to kill the lamb. Alright, and we're going to take that blood and we're going to smite it on the doorpost and upon the lentle, because death is fixing to hit the country. Death is fixing to come."

Oh, listen. If we just know how close it was. Those people that went to bed last night in El Salvador. How many of you heard about the earthquake? 7.6. Brother John, they went to bed last night, they didn't know that nothing was going to happen and that earthquake shook that mountain down and covered over hundreds of houses, buried them. Buried them. And they've already dug out now over a hundred and they still don't know how many, twelve to fifteen hundred more people probably buried. They didn't know that that would be the last night that they would lay down. We don't know, see. We make plans for a long range thing, but we don't know whether we going to be there to get it or not. Amen. You see what I'm saying? This is a close Way. This is a straight Way. Amen.

Moses was a man of God, but when he forgot to do what God said, God did not let him by. I can show you another occassion after they got in the wilderness. Moses got vexed at the people because they kept grumbling, complaining, one thing after another, after another, they couldn't satisfy them. You know, some people can't be satisified, don't make no difference what you give them. And Moses had seen, he had seen the hand of God in everything. And then all of a sudden they then begin to cry for water. They got manna, the wanted meat, they got meat, they wanted something else. God gave them all of these things, see. And then finally Moses couldn't take it no more. You know, a man can't take but so much. And he took his rod and he smote the rock two times. Now it was alright for him to smite the rock, but when he inserted "I" and he called them a bunch of rebels. See? He said, "You bunch of rebels, I'll give you water to drink," and that's where he made his mistake, when he said, "I". The water come, but it wasn't Moses that give the water. And that water was more than just water.

When Jesus said, "I am that Bread that comes down from life, out of Heaven, that true Bread of Life. I am that Rock, amen, that the water came forth from." See? And what did God do to Moses because he done that? He would not let him go over to the promised land. That's right. He restricted him from going over. What am I trying to do? I'm trying to get you to see, regardless of how much you know of the Message, how much do we obey the Message? See? How much do we obey It? How far will we go with God? Amen. Will we go all the way with Him? Like I said about "Pilgrim's Progress", he had to go all the way. You've got to go all the way. You can't go a part of the way and then stop like Lot's wife. When they come out, Lot's wife got out of the denomination. Right? She got out of the denomonation, but she never got the denomination out of her. See? She had a desire to look back, she had a desire to go back. But they were told, "Don't even look back."

This is a serious thing, children. Serving God is a serious thing. Amen. It's the most beautiful thing that you could ever have in your life, but yet it's the most serious thing to say that, "I'm a Christian." To say that, "I'm a Christian" is one of the greatest privileges that a person can ever have in this world. To say "I'm a Christian." Amen. And if you are a Christian then the Scriptures said that you'll be Christ-like, because that's exactly what that word means. So we must be on our guard all the time because Satan is at you. All the time he's going to present something to make you do something, if he can.

Well, you see, Jesus Christ died on Calvary for those mistakes that we make. But why make the same mistakes over and over. We should, we should major by, you know, we, in other words, we should somehow or another make advancements when we make a mistake, we should say, "Now we won't make that one again." But when we begin to make the same ones over and over again. Like two children out there in the sand pile and Satan will get on them and he'll get them to fussing with one another. And then one of them might, you know, kindly reach over and pinch the other one or claw the other one. They're not going to hurt one another, you know. But here goes one "Waa, waa!" to mama and daddy. And then here comes daddy over to the other daddy, mama over to the other mama, and that's where the trouble comes, see. See? Satan's got his job done then. See? When you get.... You see what I'm saying? And then mama and daddy they get all in a spit and they get to fighting and carrying on and that just pleases the devil and he just sits back there and he's just as happy as he can be. See? Why sure. And that's what he wanted to do all the time. And we ain't got since enough to know it. Amen.

You see, we got to outsmart the devil. Brother Branham said, "We have the devil's answer." Amen. We got his answer so let's put him to flight. We can do it with the Word of God. Amen. But we got to make sure that we see his tactics. See? Oh, my. I remember when a trainer told me one time, said, "You ever roll off the balls of your feet," he said, "that's exactly what your opponent's waiting on." Said, "He'll crack you and you ain't got no support at all and your gone." And you try it. I've never thought of that. See? But, I mean, you just try it. If you ever got in the ring, I guarantee it, you're rolling on your front feet all the time, you're standing on your toes. Why? Because if you ever roll back on your heels you ain't got no support at all, you're gone. Amen. You can knock you over with a feather. But I guarantee you one thing, as long as you're coming forward he ain't going to do much with you. Not unless he gives you a real hard one. Amen.

So you see, we got to always be on the advance towards Satan. Never let him push us back. Don't give him no ground. Amen. Stand your ground with the Word of God. You can't do it within yourself, but, "Thus saith the Lord". Amen. That's what Moses had with the old stick, "Thus saith the Lord." Amen. It won't be long, it won't be long until this is going to happen, old boy, and they laughed at him, see, they laughed. But when that last one come, when that last plague come their laughter turned into fear. And there it was, the first born of every family was being, was dying, if the blood was not applied. And that took Goshen in, that took all of them in. This was the blood covenant. Israel was going have to show respect to the covenant that God made Abraham or they were going to suffer. Amen.

This nation has got to show respect to the old patriarchs back there, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and those that made this country and set it up. Amen. Set it up under... And then did you see where they're trying to get Ashcroft out of there because he believes in God? Did you see that? I mean, they don't want God. Why they come up there and said, "He said, 'God is our King, Jesus is our King'."  And said, "You know better than that. This government...." Did ya'll read that? Did any of you read that? Said, why one of the Senators come up and said, "We're not going to have a man like that." Said, "He said Jesus is our King." It sounds just like Pilot and the Jews, you know, sounds just like them. And you know what he said? He said, "Jesus ain't our King." He said, "We make the laws right here, and they carry them out." That's what he said. So we have gone so far away now. We have gone so far away. Brother and Sister we had better find our Goshen. We better find our Goshen.

May God bless you this morning and I hope you got just a little bit out of this. Amen. We got some quotes Wednesday night coming from "God Proving His Word". Amen. And I feel good about that. I tell you what, the Lord knows them that are His and Satan will never get a one of them. He'll never get a one. Amen. Not a one. I got boys here now they're getting up big enough to get the New Birth. Amen. That's what I want to see. All of the correcting, all of the whipping, and everything that we can do won't do as much good as one dip at Calvary. One dip at Calvary will do more good than all of the correction that we can ever do. Amen. That's right. So let's lead them into that Way. Amen. Do you love Him? I love Him.

Come on, sister. And I appreciate Him. You been good this morning and you've listened to a little panoramic, this little story, bringing up to where we are now in the Bible. And then we're going to go on a little farther one more lesson, I mean, that'll be next Sunday. And then after that we're going to get over where Jesus come on the scene, where these things begin to happen. Where things begin to happen in the other side after the law, you know. Amen. Alright, let us stand.

I told Phillip this morning, I said, "Have you thought about a Bible verse this morning?" And he said, "No." I said, "Why don't you use this one, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.'" Why don't we think about that when we start fighting for things? Why don't we think about Who our Shepherd is? Who our Lord is? Who our King is? Amen. It'll take the fight out of you. It will. It'll humble you down. Amen. Something happened the other day and I had to get on my knees. I forgot what it was. I was getting down on my knees and I said, yeah, I was... Sister Darlene was trying to show me something and I couldn't see it and I got down on my knees so I could get closer to it. I said, "Wait a minute, I got to get down on my knees." I said, "that's where I ought to be more anyway." Amen. That's where we ought to be more anyway, on our knees before God, thanking Him, praising Him because we are the Royal Seed of Abraham. Amen. "Walk in the Spirit of the Lord."

(Congregation sings "Walk in the Spirit" and "Had It Not Been".)

(Brother Gerald closes in remarks and prayer.)

Listed below are the Scripture and Quotes that were taken from the Message of our Prophet for the basis of this sermon.

GENESIS 22:17 - That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which [is] upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

GENESIS 22:18 - And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

GENESIS 17:7 - And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

EXODUS 12:40 - Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, [was] four hundred and thirty years.

HEBREWS 6:13 - For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

HEBREWS 6:14 - Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

HEBREWS 6:15 - And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

HEBREWS 6:16 - For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation [is] to them an end of all strife.

HEBREWS 6:17 - Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath:

HEBREWS 6:18 - That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

HEBREWS 6:19 - Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

HEBREWS 6:20 - Whither the forerunner is for us entered, [even] Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

GENESIS 3:16 - Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

GENESIS 3:17 - And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

GENESIS 11:31 - And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

GENESIS 11:32 - And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

GENESIS 45:8 - So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.