Death and Life Chapter 9

Congregation sings "Only Believe".

Let's bow our heads.

Father, we're so thankful to You tonight for another privilege. Thank You for bringing us together, giving us this opportunity Lord. We appreciate everyone that's here. We appreciate most of all Lord, the presence of God, knowing that where as many as two or three are assembled together in Your Name, You said You'd be in the midst, Lord. We know where You are Lord, that there's apt for any great things to happen Lord, always. Healings, victory over sin and Satan. All these things are accomplished in Your presence Lord and I trust Father that You'd would take us tonight and use us for Your glory. Open up the hearts of the people Lord to receive that that has been laid upon our hearts. We ask in Jesus' name, the Son of man. Amen.

You may be seated. It's good to be here. It's good to have another opportunity to stand at our post of duty. It's so good to see all of you and always glad to have this opportunity. We know there's some sickness and we miss John Stephen tonight, he's sick; and Michael Paul. We'd like to be able to see the victory come around and bring all of them back together. Amen. We have to believe to that end. Alright?

Now tonight I want to get right into the message and we're just going to omit any talking or anything so we can get right in there and try to get as much of it in as we can tonight. I've got a lot of Scriptures written down here. I'll tell you where they are, you can write them down, and you can look at them. I've covered some of them before. I'm going to re-cover them tonight, again. You can't read the Scriptures too much and you can't study the Bible too much. It's something that every time you read it, it's something new to you. He always has something fresh for us.

I was thinking, I guess... Recently I've been thinking a lot about the fruits of the Spirit, you know, just what it means. What does it mean to us? What is the fruits of the Spirit? In Galatians, Paul tells us, you know, what it is. Like I said Sunday morning, you know, I believe it was, when we pronounce judgement, then we've got to stand in that position. See? So we want to always make sure that we've exhausted every effort to do our part in what the Scriptures has said for us to do. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Everyone of those particular things you could preach about a week on each one of them. Our makeup, if we're children of God, that's what it should be made up of. We always should be very careful of how we deal with the truth. We should never be negative or never try to impress upon somebody something that's not true. In other words, be honest. Be honest if it cost you your life, be honest. I mean stand there and tell the truth, because if someone ever finds that you've mislead them you've lost their confidence right there. They won't have no more confidence in you, if it's your children, if it's your wife, whoever it is, they'll lose confidence in you if you don't tell them the truth. Amen. You know Brother Branham said, if you tell the truth you can come back every time and tell the same thing. But if you tell something to shade it, you might come back the next time and forget what you said, then you change the story a little bit. See? Then you set a trap for you own self. What I'm saying is we need to be truthful with one another. We definitely need to be truthful with one another. Let's make sure that we practice that a hundred percent.

Good to see Brother David coming in. He always gets in about time for the message and that's good. He works and comes straight on in after working twelve hours. That shows that he's hungry for the Message. We've seen them do it over and over. Some of the boys working long hours and then coming right in to hear the message.

Now as what I said, what we want to look at tonight in this little message that we have is, the subtitle that we want to put on this is " To Reject the Light of the Age Is Death". Now what is the light of the age? The Word. The Word of the age. So if we reject the Word of the age... It didn't say that we could believe part of it and reject part of it. We must believe all of the Word of the age and that's the only thing that entitles us to the Token. Without the Token, there is no guarantee that the price is paid for you. See? In other words, you must have the Token to prove that the price has been paid in your behalf. See? That's the only sign. That's the only Seal that there is, is the Token, which is the Holy Ghost. Amen. Nothing short of that will get you in. You might say, "Well, I'll come up with the foolish virgins." Well, I trust that you don't get that in your heart, because if you do you're going to come up lost as sure as your name is what it is. You know, if you come up with the foolish virgins, you'll come up lost.

Let us look at this a little bit. Of course, we know that God is light, don't we? God is light, alright. God is His word. Right? Alright, what is the Logos? It's that that come out of God, isn't it? Which is the Son of God, right? So, sometimes you read in the Bible where it says, "the Father and the Son". That's very easy to understand if you know what the Scriptures are talking about, if you have any spiritual revelation at all. The Father, of course, is the Great Spirit and the Son is the Word. Always. We know that. And so the Spirit and the Word are the same. You can't separate It. It's the same. Alright. So now our first Scripture is taken from Exodus 13:21

...THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD BY DAY...

The pillar of the cloud by day.We talked about that last Sunday, or this past Sunday. Then all of a sudden it becomes a pillar of fire by night. By night, it's a pillar of fire. Alright, so what was this given for? It was given for light, right? The pillar of fire was given for light to them by night.

...By night in a pillar of fire to give them light...

To give them light. Alright, it gave light by night to these, Israel, according to Chapter 14, Verse 20 of Exodus. Fire to give light in the night. Psalms spoke of that. I mean the Psalmist David in the 105th Psalm, he spoke of that in Verse 39. We just want to cover a few of these things and then we'll make some comments. I've got a few quotes tonight too, that I'd like for you to look at with me, so that we can understand what is light. If we reject the light of the age, of course, then we do the same thing that they did in Noah's day and any other day. See? What happened to them? The judgement, judgement is exactly what happens. Alright.

Now in Nehemiah 9, Verse 19, He said, "...the pillar of fire by night to show them light...". So what I'm trying to do is bring these passages of Scripture to you to let you see that all through the Bible it was spoken of, that this pillar of fire was for light. For light to the children of Israel. Amen. Of course, we know that when the pillar of fire hung over the tabernacle, of course,it didn't just give light to that tabernacle. It gave light to all of the camp. The whole camp, round about, received the light. The darkness was not there. I mean there was no darkness. Like we told you Sunday morning,  you know, when the pillar of fire moved and come between the children of Israel and the Egyptian army, of course, it was darkness to one and light to the other. See? It gave light to the children of Israel and darkness and blindness to the children of Pharoah. Alright.

So we know the night was light about them. Who said that? The Psalmist David. The Psalmist David said in the 139th Psalm, the 11th Verse, "...the night was light about them...". There was no night with them. See? There is no night with the elect of God. There is no darkness with the elect of God. It's all light. Amen. It's all light, and I want you to understand that, see. Now, if we can understand that this light is only in the Lord. You're not going to find it in a denomination. You're not going to find it in a creed. You're not going to find it in the Catholic Church by the Pope. He didn't have it. The only place you're going to find it is where the Word for that age is. God only shines His light where the Word of the age is and nowhere else. See, everything else is darkness. Everything else is darkness except right where the message is. That's the only place where there's light. I want you to understand that. We're not going off on some deep end somewhere. We've got scripture, we've got stacks of quotes. We can go on for six months telling you that if you fail to see this light and you reject it, you're gone. If you reject this Message, you're gone. I don't care who you are, how smart you think you are, and how great a preacher, or anything else. If you reject any bit, any of this Message you're gone. We've got to accept all of the Message, all of it. Amen.

So we know that this is the light of the age. Light in the Lord. Exactly what it is. See? When God brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light, what did He do? He brought a Message. He brought a Message that brought us out. Right? So that Message... whoever it was, Brother Gerald, that brought that Message is the light of the age. That's the light of the age and I'm going to prove that to you tonight by quotes, that whoever brought that Message is the light. How many of you remember when Brother Branham preached the message, "There Is A Man Here That Can Turn On The Light"? He said, "There is a man here, (a man), that can turn on the light. Amen. Nobody else can turn on the light except that one man. Amen. He turned the light on because it was the light in Him that manifest through Him and brought light to the Elect of God, which is the Bride of Jesus Christ. Amen. That's exactly what we're in tonight. We are in that light, that light is in us. If that light is not in us, then we're in darkness. I don't care who we are and how many churches we belong to or anything else. If we are not in that light and that light in us, then we are in darkness. Everything else is darkness. Amen.

So that light only makes manifest of the truth. What that light does is manifest the truth of the age, the Word of the age. We know that if God is light, and in Him there is no darkness, then He will not allow any compromise on the truth. You might say, "Well, I just tell you the truth, I just don't want to hurt their feelings". Then you compromise? If you compromise, God don't allow that. He does not compromise on the truth. No, you can't do it. He is truth and in Him there is no darkness. See? If He is Truth, and you're borned of Him, you're a child of His, then if you're borned of the Spirit of God you are the Word of God and the Word of God cannot deny what it is.

I couldn't deny that I'm Charlie Holmes, you know, in the flesh, because I've got all the characteristics of my father. I've got a picture of him that I could show you at the age of about sixty-five, sixty-nine, somewhere in there. Favor very much. See? Have a lot of the same ideas and thoughts and things because I picked it up from my father. See? If you are borned of the Spirit of God then you have the characteristics of your Father. See? You have the characteristics of your Heavenly Father. That's not just saying it and then say, "Oh well, I got the characteristics of the Father." What about when the pressure comes on? Do we still have the characteristics of the Father? That's what we need to look at. See?

A message that's been confirmed by signs and wonders, and prophecy that never failed, and people will snarl their nose at it and say "Why he didn't have any business putting that light over his head", or "that isn't nothing but mental telepathy or fortune telling or something like that." Jesus said, "You can say that against Me and I'll forgive you, but He said wait a minute, there's coming a time when the Holy Ghost is coming and you speak one word against that and it won't be forgiven you in this world, neither that one to come." See? So we have to be very careful how we speak against the Holy Ghost. See? Because if I'm a child of God, if I'm born into the family of God, I'm a part of the Holy Ghost. I thought the Holy Ghost was God. Amen. I believe that's right, don't you? Alright.

So now, if we say, now look, coming on down the line, if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie. That's exactly what the Scripture says, and do not the truth. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness. What is darkness? Anything outside of this Message. Anything outside of this Message is darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with God and we walk in darkness then the Scripture tells us that we lie and the Truth is not in us. I mean, that's a pretty strong statement. We do not the truth. See? Our efforts in that particular case is all in vain. Every bit of it is in vain. See?

If we think that we have communion with God, in which Brother  Branham... I wish that I could bring out, and I'm afraid to even try but I wish I could bring out what Brother Branham really taught about communion. It's so misunderstood today, what communion is. Communion is not taking a little sip of wine and a little piece of bread. Communion is talking with someone and that person talking back to you. That's communion. Brother Branham said it's been all traditionalized. They don't know what communion is anymore. They think if they do this once a month, you know, take a little wine and wash the saints feet, in which, that is good to do that. See? But that is not communion. No sir. Communion is deeper than that. Communion is when you have fellowship with somebody, when you're talking with somebody and they're talking back to you through the Word of God. When you're talking to Him and He's talking back to you. Why He talks to me everyday. Somebody said, "Did God ever talk to you?" Every day I live. Every day I live He talks with me because I never, never, never, never go a day without reading God's Word. When I read God's Word, He's talking to me. Amen. And then I talk to Him everyday. I talk to Him every night. Amen. I like to talk to Him because I know He'll always hear if I'm in the right attitude. Amen. If I'm in the right attitude He'll hear me.

Alright, so now, let us go on a little bit here because I want to cover some of these things and I want to get these quotes because they mean so much. Alright. So we find out then that the greatest evidence, the greatest evidence that a person is a son or daughter of God are them walking in the light. Now if they're a son or daughter of God, they're walking in the Light. The greatest evidence of that is if they love one another, if they have fellowship one with another. I've heard people, and I've read stories about preachers that would say that they've pastored a certain church and I've had pastors to talk with me in my lifetime and say some would sit on one side of the church and some on the other and they wouldn't have anything to do with one another. Well, I don't want to pastor it like that. No sir, I want one family, not two families, not three families. I want one family. Amen. See? If we're one family, we're all borned of the same spirit. See? Amen.

If we're going to snarl up at one another and snap at one another about every little thing. And then call yourself a christian? There's something wrong, isn't it? There's something wrong there. If you can't get along with one another, there's something wrong. That's right. It's not with God, the fault is you. Amen. Is this alright? If husband and wife can't get along together there's something wrong. You know that. It's the truth. If brothers and sisters can't get along with one another there's something wrong. So what we need to do is to make sure that we let that Light lead us and not side track into darkness. See? Because once you get out of fellowship with your brother or sister, you've stepped over into darkness then and you're not going to get no Light from God until you come back in line. That's the truth, isn't it? You know I'm telling you the truth. So we really need to search our lives and see what's going on everyday, everyday. We should have a deep desire to fellowship with one another. We should not want to shun one anothers appearance. We should always want to meet one another and have something good to say to them. Amen. Not have an attitude, you know, a chip on our shoulder, you know, but have that Spirit of Christ in our heart constantly. We need that. Amen. We need that constantly and more so as we see the day approaching of the end-time. I mean it's here.

The pillar of fire, the pillar of light, of course, it covered the whole camp like I said. That wasn't all that it did. It didn't just hover over the tabernacle. What else did it do? It led them. See? That same pillar of fire that gave them light in the camp, led them where they were supposed to go. You know. We pray for God's will to be done in our lives and sometimes it would scare us to death if He told us what His will was. When we pray like that are we willing? Are we willing under any circumstance for His will to operate in our life under any circumstance. When we pray for God's will to operate in our life that simply means that we don't have any. That means that our will is no longer in existence. That means that we have turned our whole body, soul, and spirit over to God. Amen. Thy will be done. Jesus taught them how to pray, "...Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven..." Amen. See, when we pray for the will of God, we'd better make sure we're ready to walk in it. That's right, because it might not be just exactly what you thought it was. That's what we've got to do. We've got to walk in the Spirit of God. See?

Now some people take prosperity for the leadership of God. Some people think that if they're prospering and everything, that they're in the will of God. That's no sign of that. No. Look at Moses. For forty years he was in Pharoahs house. He had everything. Amen. He was raised as the son of one of Pharoahs daughters. Right? That's exactly. Alright, so now, what if he would have said, "God has put me here and this is the great provident hand of God. See? I can help these children of Israel over here and I can help these people find God." Now he had a real good reason to say that didn't he? He'd been there for forty years. But what did he say? He said... The Scripture said, He chose. (It was his choosing. Amen.) He would rather suffer all the afflictions of the children of Israel than to have the pleasures and the riches of Pharoahs house for a season." Because what he'd accepted was eternal. Amen. What he accepted was eternal and what Pharoah had was just a shadow. Amen. Just a shadow.

Alright, so I want you to look at these things real close now tonight as we go on and one of these days... One of these messages that we're going to run into after a while is a deep message. "Consecration". We don't hear much about that anymore. Huh? No. Do we? But it's going to come one of these days. We want to make sure that we understand what is going on and that we don't get away from the truth, the light. Alright? Carnal reasoning is one of the worst things that a Christian can ever do. We must not reason. When God gives us a Message we must say, "Lord, You said it, I don't know how it's going to be done. I sure can't do it, but You said it." Abraham was 99 years old, Sarah was 90. What did He do? He said, "I'm going to visit you and you're going to have that baby." Why, Abraham said, "I can't do that, it will have to be You." See? He let that be known that it couldn't be him. That would have to be God. See? So what we need to do tonight is to surrender. See, that is the thing that we need to do is to surrender and; wait a minute. I've got a Scripture I want to read. Somebody turn to the 50th Chapter of Isaiah and I want you to read with me, Verses 10 and 11. Isaiah 50, Verses 10 and 11. Now I want you to listen to this.

WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEAReTH THE LORD, THAT OBEYETH THE VOICE OF HIS SERVANT, THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS, AND HATH NO LIGHT? LET HIM TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, and STAY UPON HIS GOD.

Now watch this, watch this 11th Verse

Behold ALL YE THAT KINDLE a FIRE, THAT COMPASS YOURSELF ABOUT WITH SPARKS: WALK IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FIRE, (Whew! Huh?) and IN THE SPARKS THAT YOU HAVE KINDLED. THIS SHALL Ye HAVE OF MINE HAND; YE SHALL LIE DOWN IN SORROW.

Don't never, you known when you get in a tight place, when you get in a place to where you think it's just a trying time for you, don't lean to your own understanding. That's the time you need to get a hold to God. You'll make the wrong decision every time. Amen. That's when you need to stop, because right there is where the pillar of fire has stopped, right there. Amen. Just stand still, be patient, wait a little bit. Go back and search and see what God said. Then the first thing you know the light will shine and He'll start walking again. Don't walk under your own sparks. That's your own fire, see? When you do that, you'll lay down in sorrow. What is that? You're lost. You don't want to do that. No sir. You want to stand still until God says move. And when God says move, you don't want to stop! You want to move, but you don't want to move in your own understanding. See? We don't want to do that. We want to make sure that we know the circumstances clearly before we make a move, see. Amen, because our carnal reasoning every time will bring sorrow to us. Every time it will do it. Alright? Now watch.

Light from the Lord told Moses that he needed to accept the reproach with his own people. Moses would have not did that had it not been for God. He was born for that purpose. Amen. You were born to serve God or you wouldn't be here tonight. Amen. You were born to serve. Why did you come in here; some from Florida and different places? Many of them that come in here and admitted that God was with it and in it, and then some little something happen, and they thought that they were walking in the light. See? When the light leads into something that the flesh can't take, sometimes people will accept darkness other than Light. Now I'm not bringing any accusation against anybody, I'm just telling you we walk in the light or we're in darkness, one of the two. One of the two. Alright?

So now, light from the Lord told Moses that the reproach of Christ was much greater, much greater than all the treasures of Egypt. Can you imagine that? The reproach, we don't have much of that anymore. God's children will have reproach. Amen. There's a reproach that goes along with serving God. See? So what did he do? He decided to step down from Pharoah's house and become one of the slaves, amen, and that's exactly what he was born for. All of the advantages that he had in Pharoah's house, he kicked them out the door and decided that he would go with that little group, the mud-dobbers. That's right. The ones that were off-scourers of the earth. That's right, yes sir. So he took the path of what? Faith. He took the path of faith according to what Paul said. By faith Moses did that. By revelation Moses did it. By revelation Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. By revelation these people did what they did, by faith they did it. Amen.

Somebody say "Oh, I don't know how to exercise faith." Well, you know when you get your machine and you start exercising? What are you doing? See. Your putting in action what is in your mind. Alright, so why don't you put God to the test sometime. Brother Branham said it's an experimental thing. Did you know that? Experiment on it and see if God's not real. Amen. We ought to exercise our faith. Amen. Like exercising to get some of the weight off of us, we ought to exercise to see God move in our life, exercise our faith. Amen. Get real about it. Say, "Lord I believe it. You said it, amen, and if You said it, I'm going to believe it," and He'll bring it to pass every time. Not one time but if you believe. He said, "If thou canst believe..." If you are walking in the light as He is in the light then there is no condemnation, none, no condemnation.

Alright, so we know that God is God. Amen. "Behold all of you kindled of fire..." I think my page turned there and I better turn back here where I won't go over the same thing again. Alright, now. So many people today without knowing it, and it's a pitiful thing, they are walking in the fire that they kindled themselves by holding on to traditions, by holding onto their own reasoning. "And the only fire that they've got," Brother. Branham said, "is a painted fire." See? By holding on to Pentecostal age, you've got a painted fire, you've got a painted fire. You might feel good on the outside, you might feel good on the Spirit, but that soul is not going to move to that. That day is over, it's got to be more than that today. See? The light moved. The light moved and come over into another day. Amen. You've got to get into that day, the Light of the day.

I've got some quotes I want to read. The light of the day. Alright. Now, Brother Branham preached a message, "The Man That Can Turn On The Light". He preached this in Jeffersonville, in 1963 and he said:

"...Now, every age has been the same.(Every age has been the same.) In the days of Noah those who rejected the Light. What did they do? Walked out into God's judgement..."

Everyone of them, every one. There were no foolish virgins there. They were all foolish. See? Watch.

"...What happened to Pharoah in the days of the Light of the burning bush that was in Moses?..."

Huh? That was in Moses, see?

"...(He) walked into the sea of death. What happened to Dathan?..."

Oh, that little fellow, he thought he could turn the whole thing around and convinced Aaron that he needed to build an altar and call the people to worship to that idol God. Yes sir. Dathan and Korah convinced Aaron. That's right.

"...What happened in all the ages to those who failed to walk in the Light,..."

Every age, what happened to them?

"...The Light of the day? it's Jesus all the time..."

See? People just don't know it. It's Jesus all the time. When you're walking in the Light, who are you walking with? Jesus, absolutely. See?

"...It was Jesus in the days of them men. It's Jesus today, for He is the Word..."

Amen, alright.

"...and the Word makes the Light. It's the Light of the day. Think of it now, real quietly...with sincerity, (and) ask, 'Are you walking in the Light (tonight)?'..."

Think of it real careful and see if there's anything in the Message that's been unfolded to us by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit that we have problems with. If there is then that is what we need to work on, right there we need to work on that. See? Amen. If there is a little smut on the bulb, start scrubbing it, start working on it, get it off of there so it can shine bright. You say, "Lord, I don't know how it will happen," like Mary did, you know? "Well, I don't know how it can be because I certainly don't know no man, but never-the-less you said it, and I'm the handmaid, and whatever You said let it be to me exactly according to the words that You have said." Amen. And when you get to that place Brother David then we are willing to walk in the will of God, not our own will. See? Then we're willing to walk in His will and we loose our will. Amen, we loose our will. It's a strong will. We have a strong will. Oh, yes!

I think about, a lot of times, the Martins and McCoys. Did you ever read about them? They fought for years and years and years. The sons fought, then their sons, and then their sons, right on down, over some feud they had back there that wasn't worth two cents. There's some so called Christians that are the same way. They will not get the thing and bury it! They leave the handle sticking out, you know. Every time something comes up they say,"Well I remember what they said over there. Well, I remember how he treated me over here." You haven't buried it, you aren't dead yet. You haven't buried it yet. Amen. When you bury it you don't mention it no more. It's over then, it's gone. Amen. If something comes up tomorrow you don't say, "Well, I know how he done me over here. Well, I know what happened..." No, if you got together and did what Christ said do, to iron it out, Brother T.B., that's supposed to be the end of it. If it isn't the end of it then you need another altar. If that's not the end of it, you'd better find another altar because you didn't get it settled. See? Amen. And if you didn't get it settled, it's still on the record. Huh?! And if it's on the record then you're in trouble. That's right. You say, "Well, I don't have to listen to you." That is the truth, but you have to listen to God. How are you going to determine whether God is speaking when these things are coming? You better make sure that you know what's being said. Amen. Alright, so now look. In "Shalom", in Sierra Vista, Arizona, 1964, Brother Branham said, Isaiah 60, Verse 1 says:

"...ARISE, and SHINE; FOR THE LIGHT iS COME TO YOU..."

See, the Light has come to us. Get up and rise and shine. We've got too much to praise God about to ever think any bad about our brother or sister. We've got too much to praise Him for. Amen. 'Praise Him', we used to sing that little song, "Praise Him in the morning, praise Him in the evening, praise Him in the noontime". Oh my! You remember that? Praise Him, the more you praise Him the better you'll feel. He wants to be worshipped. He wants to be worshipped. He doesn't want you to come up and say, "Lord, I appreciate You and I want You to take care of me through the night. You know all the needs and thank You Lord," and go to sleep. Huh-uh. Try sometimes, just praying until you go to sleep and it will do you good. It'll help you, that's right.

Alright. Now watch this. The Light come to us.

"Arise and shine for the Light is come to you.(The Light has come to you.) Rise and shine, the Light has come. The Word, Light, is vindicated again. The Light vindicated again, God's Word, so that you can see God manifested in His promise of the Light of the day, (Amen.) or the Word given to this age (See?), these promises that's made for this day, these promises that was said by the prophets, and by Jesus Himself. In this day... 'God, in sundry times...' Hebrews 1, 'God, in sundry time, in divers manners spake to their fathers through the prophets, but in this last day through (the) Son, Jesus...' "

Amen. He spoke to us through Jesus Christ. See? Still in Shalom now.

"WHEN HE COME HE WAS THE LIGHT OF THE DAY"...

Read the 1st Chapter of St. John and see. See? John come and said, Now he was not that Light but he was bearing witness to that Light. See? John was bearing witness to that Light. See?

..."There was supposed to come a Messiah"...

Well, what is a Messiah? Anointed One, right? Anointed One, not four, not three, not two. Anointed One, amen. How many was anointed in Noah's day? How many was anointed in Moses's day? How about Paul? See? The anointed One.

"...AND HE CAME JUST exactly LIKE GOD SAID THAT HE ...WOULD COME. When he did, what was he? The Light of the day..."

When he did come he was the Light of the day.

"...AND IT PRESSED DARKNESS SO AGAINST HIM!..."

See? It pressed that darkness.

"...Is that right? He had to give His life that the Light (would) continue, (See, that that Light would continue and it)could shine. He was the Light of the day. But why, why was He (that) Light of the day?..."

Why was He?

"...He was the vindicated Word that had been spoken, made manifest...." (See?)

"God said over this dark, gloomy, dismal, moISTy world that stood here without light, He said, 'Let there be light'..."

And there was light. Amen. What was the Light? The Word of God manifest. Is that right? The Word of God manifest was the Light for that day. Amen.

"...And it wasn't Light until that Word was manifested,(It had to be manifest before it was Light.)then it was Light."

"He said, 'There will come a Savior, a Messiah.' (Well), it still wasn't manifested until He came to manifest that promise. (Amen). And when He vindicated that promise He said, 'Search the scriptures for in Them you think you have Eternal Life; and They are They that testify of me".

"They said, 'We know not whenst(you) come'..."

Where'd You come from? Oh, my!

"...(Well)'...we're Moses' disciples'".

"if you were Moses' disciples'... I love this, if you were Moses' disciples, you would know me for Moses wrote of me'. See? He was the manifestation. He was the vindication of the Spoken Word of God by Moses.

Absolutely. Moses spoke of Him, He was the vindication of that Word that Moses spoke of under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. You say, "The Holy Ghost"? Yes sir! Yes sir.

"The hour is here. If I could've been back there before the days that the world was created, and looked down and seen the whole thing, and the Father had said to me, 'What day would you want to live?' (Hmm.) I'd say now, right now; this is the hour. This is the greatest hour that the Church has ever moved into just before the coming of the Bridegroom. (Amen) Oh, the real Church of the living God ought to be on fire;  (The real church of the living God ought to be on fire, in 1964, and here we are over here in 2001.) burning with the Light(Capitalized, Light) of the Gospel being vindicated among them. 'Rise and shine, for the Light's come to you,' the Light of this day. Isaiah was the light of his day..."

Huh? Hmm. I said it awhile ago, now I'm going to read it. I like that.

Old Brother Joseph, he used to sit back there and sometimes he'd be kind of quiet when I was bringing something real strong, you know, and then when I'd read it from the Message he'd scream. I got to where I'd say, "Now Brother Joseph, I'm going to read it from the Message now, it sounds better." He'd scream out, you know, and those big old hands would go up. I love him. Amen. He got side tracked. The last time I talked to him, big old tears come in his eyes. I said, "Joseph, why did you come to North Carolina?" He dropped his head, big tears come to his eyes. He said, "Brother Holmes, I come for the Word." I said, "It's still here." I said, "Quit running around here trying to get you a kingdom here and arguing about this little old piece of land down here." I said, "Get that off of your mind and get back and seek God." Amen. Tears come in his eyes. They're not happy. They're not happy. Have you prayed for some of those people? Alright, we could find a lot of things to say about them but, you know, they supported a lot of this work here. Huh? They sure did support a lot. They stood right there. I'm talking about the people that left this place. They stood right there and supported this work to get it over into India and to get it to different places. Amen. Let's pray that God'll take the film from their eyes, you know, and let them polish the Light a little bit. Amen. Alright.

"...Noah was the light of his day. Why? He had the Word manifested. And the Gospel,(of) the Bible Word for this day, is the Light of the day. What a glorious time that we're living.

What a glorious time we are living. Aren't you glad that you're one of them? Amen.

I had a dream last night. I've been thinking about it all day off and on, and it was a strange dream. I couldn't interpret it and wouldn't try to interpret it. Brother John, I started off with a little group of people and I had ordered for lunch to be fixed for them, like we were having something down here, except we weren't down there. That wasn't where we were. But anyway, then I looked and people kept coming. I said, "Well, I wonder if we're going to have enough. It seemed like the more come, the more come. And Brother Chris, I looked and there was about four or five different roads, seemed like, and there were lines of people, five or six abreast and they were coming through the chow line. I thought it's going to take a lot of food for these. It's going to take a lot of food for these people. I kept going around through the crowd. I kept going around and I wasn't getting anything to eat, I was not trying to get anything. I kept looking to see if the people were getting what they were supposed to. I kept watching. I said, "Now, I wonder, I wonder." Then I got to looking for the kitchen to find out where all this was coming from. So then as I was going down this long place to try to find the kitchen where all of this food was coming from because I had ordered it. I didn't see how there was going to be enough food for all these people. I could see them now. They were coming and they were so happy! They were happy! They were happy people. Brother John, I've never saw nothing like it, I never saw as many people in my life. I thought Lord, I don't know what it is, but them people are happy and they've found something. They've found food. Amen.

And then, I thought about what Brother Chris is talking about doing and I thought well, maybe that's what it is. Then I thought about India and Brother Don over there and thousands of people over there, and just a little group here. But God is a big God. Amen. I don't know what it means but God does. It was a spiritual dream because when they stay with me; I don't dream much, very little do I dream. But when I do dream, usually it's something that stays with me, so I know there's something to it.

Let's just keep talking about Jesus, let's just keep getting this Message out to people. Keep talking about what God is doing, not what He is going to do, not what He has done. Let's talk about what He is doing. Let's talk about what the Lord is doing now. Amen. Oh, my! There's a lot going on. Like I told Sister Darlene, I think it was today, I said, "Some of those people are working hard to get those messages.," Thinking about Brother Gene, you know. I said, "I'd just give anything if I could type like that." Just sit there and look off over here, and just going like this, (Brother Holmes demonstrates typing) I mean, it's amazing. And you know what? He was dying one day. That's right. God brought him back and put him in here for a reason. Amen. Everyone of you are here because God put you here. You wouldn't have been here. You wouldn't have come under a man like this. You're not under this man. Do you hear me? You're under the Light of the age, amen, the Light of the day. I love Him. Come on Sister. Amen. Oh, my! I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord for every one of you.

"They'll come from the east and west, from the land afar, to feast with the King, to dine as His guests, how precious these pilgrims are." Amen. Let us stand. Let us sing.

(Congregation sings, "They'll Come From The East And West".)

I've got to tell you something else about my dream. Some of you don't know what my favorite food is, but home-made dressing and giblet gravy, and chicken or turkey... I mean, you know, and that's what it was, and I could smell it. That aroma was coming through. I said, "Boy, it just smells so good. Boy, I hope we have enough." Then, I forgot to tell you that somebody, I don't know who it was, had called on me to pray over the food. I started praying and when I opened my eyes, everybody around, Brother Chris, it beat all I'd ever seen. I've never seen nothing like it in my life. I thought, "Well, alright, but that sure is good food. I smelled that stuff." I'll tell you, I got kind of hungry but I never did eat none of it. I never got involved, I was just thinking, "I hope they have enough.". Amen "I hope they have enough." They were so happy, everybody was so happy.

'They'll come from the east and west, the land afar...'

(Congregation sings again.)

Amen. Just think about that. There couldn't be anything greater than just to be a jewel in His crown. Regardless of how small it was, just the least one. Old David said, "Just let me be a floor mat in the house of the Lord. I'll be alright, just let me lay there at the door and let people come in and wipe their feet, I'll be in the house of the Lord". Amen, "Just let me be a doormat". You know sometimes we want too much. We just need to get down and say, "Lord, I'm willing to just be a doormat. Amen. If they want to walk on me, if they want to talk about me, I'm going to pray about them anyway. I'm going to pray for them anyway." Amen. See? If I can keep that attitude, brother, I'll guarantee you, that's the thing that the devil hates more than anything. You just love your enemies. Do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you.

The Scripture says, if you'll do that, brother, I'll tell you right now, the meek is going to do what? Inherit the earth. Amen. Somewhere or another if I am meek, I got a plot over here, Brother Josh. Somewhere or another I got a plot over there somewhere around Palestine, somewhere in there. If I'm meek, they're going to inherit the earth. That's what the Scripture says, and I believe it. Amen. Alright, amen. I don't want to go home. I just love to worship Him, praise Him, and think about it now, the Light of the age is the Word of the age, the Message of the hour, and outside of that is darkness. I imagine just one minute after the rain started falling and the water started coming up from the ground, just one minute after that, those great intellects that knew more than Noah did, they were saying, "If we just had another chance," Brother John. "If we just had one more chance." But it won't come. No sir. This is the day of opportunity. This is it. Amen. This is it now. Light has come to you. Rise and shine, Light has come. May the Lord bless you. I love Him.

Brother, come and dismiss us. Brother Don will be back now Saturday, and those of you who might want to go over, it's somewhere around... between 3:00 and 3:30, somewhere in there, supposed to be coming in, if you want to go over to meet him. I'm pretty sure he told me he hadn't had any sickness on this trip at all and so he'll be able. I know he'll be tired and all of that but he'll be ready to get up here and tell his experiences and the things that happened, Sunday morning. You be sure and be here cause he's going to tell us about them.

Brother Lanny dismisses in prayer.

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

MAN THAT CAN TURN ON LIGHT  JEFF.IN  V-6 N-1  SUNDAY  63-1229M"285 - While they continue playing, I want to ask... Every age has been the same. In the days of Noah those who rejected the Light, what did they do? Walked out into God's judgment. What happened to Pharaoh in the days of the Light of the burning bush that was in Moses? Walked into the sea of death. What happened to Dathan who started and then rejected the Light? Walked into the crack of the earth that swallowed him up. What happened in all ages to those who failed to walk in the Light, the Light of the day? It's Jesus all the time. It was Jesus in the days of them men. It's Jesus today, for He is the Word, and the Word makes the Light. It's the Light of the day. Think of it now real quietly while we're--with sincerity ask, "Are you walking in the Light?" While we hum it through again... [Brother Branham begins humming--Ed.]

SHALOM  SIERRA.VISTA.AZ  V-13 N-5  SUNDAY_  64-0112            "115 - Isaiah 60:1 says, "Arise, and shine, for the Light is come to you."

Rise and shine, the Light has come. The Word Light is vindicated again, the Light vindicated again, God's Word, so that you can see God manifested in His promise of the Light of the day, or the Word given to this age (See?), these promises that's made for this day, these promises that was said by the prophets, and by Jesus Himself. In this day... "God, in sundry times..." Hebrews 1, "God, in sundry time, in divers manners spake to their fathers through the prophets, but in this last day through His Son, Jesus Christ." See?

121 - When He come, He was the Light of the day. There was supposed to come a Messiah. And He came just exactly like God said He did--would come. And when He did, what was He? The Light of the day, and It pressed the darkness so against Him. Is that right? He had to give His Life that the Light continue, could shine. He was the Light of the day. But why, why was He the Light of the day? He was the vindicated Word that had been spoken, made manifest. No more than...

God said over this dark, gloomy, dismal, moisty world that stood here without light, He said, "Let there be light." And it wasn't light until that Word was manifested, then it was light.

He said, "There will come a Saviour, a Messiah." It still wasn't manifested until He come to manifest that promise. And when He a-vindicated that promise, He said, "Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life; and They are They that testify of Me."

They said, "We know not whence Thou comest; we're Moses' disciples."

88 - The hour is here. If I could've been back there before the days that the world was created, and looked down and seen the whole thing, and the Father had said to me, "What day would you want to live?" I'd say now, right now; this is the hour. This is the greatest hour that the Church has ever moved into just before the coming of the Bridegroom. Oh, the real Church of the living God ought to be on fire, burning with the Light of the Gospel being vindicated among them. "Rise and shine, for the Light's come to you," the Light of this day. Isaiah was the light of his day. Noah was the light of his day. Why? He had the Word manifested. And the Gospel, the Bible Word for this day, is the Light of the day. What a glorious time that we're living.