################################################################################ START OF FILE: 2012-08-05 - The Present Truth Pt. 4 - Barry Coffey.txt ################################################################################ SERMON DETAILS ======================================== Date: 2012-08-05 Title: The Present Truth Pt. 4 Speaker: Barry Coffey Church: Hickory Bible Tabernacle Type: Sunday Morning Duration: 1h 55m Language: English URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20130926202729/http://hickorybibletabernacle.org/thepresenttruth/ ======================================== TRANSCRIPT ======================================== My dad in your prayers he has been fallen a lot and as brother on all the moments dead as long as we pray God and as boy on a straight prayer this morning and also gave under all you have to do it better as a soon so we're thankful for that this morning. I mean it has an unspoken request this morning. Let's bow. Heavenly Father, as the song says, to have faith in you, Lord. We've we've done that in the past, Lord, and we've known you to have the answer. There's no question we have or no need that we have that's too great for you. Lord, this morning we just uh gather uh gathered in your presence, Lord, and humbly we stand before you, knowing that uh it's only by your grace that we're able to come before you with confidence as sons and daughters of God, Lord, and uh what a privilege that is for us to be able to uh enjoy that this morning, Lord, and to step into your presence, bring our needs to your uh altar, Lord, and so we do this morning these needs that have been uh brought before the uh body of Christ, Lord. We lift them up to your many serious needs, Lord. Uh health concerns, uh care for loved ones, and uh Lord, you know the intimate details of each of these requests, and we just commit them to you, Father. Lord, for those that are traveling, we pray for your traveling mercies, Lord, that you'd watch over them and protect them. Father, we're still rejoicing over the many testimonies, Lord, where faith has been applied and needs have been met, Father. We just want to thank you for that, Lord, and just ask that you would uh be with us through the remainder of this service, Lord, and that you'd anoint the musicians and the song leader and Lord the speaker, that you'd be able to speak freely to us today, Lord, and that we'd be able to receive. Just commit the rest of this day into your hands as well, Father, and uh we just want to be able to say at the end of it that it has been good to be in the house of the Lord. We thank you, Father, once again, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Just shake hands as you are being seated this morning. Amen. Welcome everyone. Service we're always glad to have you with us. Sister Beck is going to say ourselves. Fancy pews or pretty altar. They made their altar. Anyway, they talk to God and high close to God's big sky. On God's greener, I chance to draw any way I bow my knees a sacred place to me. I find my altar. Anyway, I talk to God. I don't have to find a pretty chapel or a bow that reaches to the sky. Anyway, I talk to God. I find my altar. Anyway, I talk to God. We have your word your presence. Let's sing another little chorus this morning. This is your house. As we just prepare to approach him this morning. Every time I've ever gone before somebody who's been famous or well known or heavily protected, someone like a Pope or President. I've always been instructed about how to approach Him. We don't go up to people like that just like anybody else. And so you can imagine now, if we are going before this morning, if we are going before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And this is what we're doing, folks. This is not just coming to church here to be in church. We've come here to hear from Him. We come here to approach Him and to come into His presence. And so let's just prepare our hearts now and say, Lord, I want to be right. I want to do the right thing. I want to say the right thing. We are your house today. We are your breath. And bring the burden. We are your. Asking, Lord Jesus, that you'd be pleased to dwell among us today. Lord, there could be nothing greater, Lord, in our gathering today. Despite the fact, Lord, that it's good for us always to be together, Lord. We consider ourselves to be friends and members of the same body. That we'll spend eternity together, and what a privilege that is, Lord, to be gathered together. But it's always special when you come, Lord. It's always special when you step into this presence among us, O God. And you come and just illuminate the Word of God. You give us understanding of the things, Lord, that have been hidden through the ages. What a blessing and what a privilege that is. And Father, you have called us to do different things, Lord. And some call to preach and some call to administer in the house of the Lord. But Lord, all of us are called to worship you. And all of us are called, Lord, to give you praise and thanksgiving. And we know you delight in the praises of your people. So may Lord your Holy Spirit come tonight, Lord, and just touch our hearts. Come this entire day and just touch our hearts and help us, O God, just to let go and to enter into your presence and receive the blessing that you have for us today. I ask, Lord, that you would forgive us of anything that would hinder the moving of the Holy Spirit. And I ask also, Lord, that you would just be gracious in forgiving us, O God, for our mistakes which are many. May now you just move in our uh in our hearts today in a special way by making the word personal and making it real as only you can. Come, I pray now among us. And we know that there are many that are away today, and some that are not well, and we commit them into your hands and pray that you'd be gracious to each one of them. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity we have today. We won't always have it, but while we have it, we want to appreciate it and give you thanks for it in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. And amen. Praise the Lord. I'm gonna ask you to stand to your or uh while you're standing to your feet this morning to take your Bible again. We're gonna read in a couple of places, but let's take one of them this morning. Um let's just pull this up here in Psalm 43, and I'm also gonna ask you to look in the book of Acts 24. Acts chapter 24, Psalm 43. Greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus today. It's certainly good to be in the house of the Lord with you, and uh trust that God will meet with us today. Two scriptures, both of them you've heard before, one of them we've read fairly often here, in dealing with this subject called the present truth. David writes these words in Psalm 43. Oh, send out thy light and thy truth, and let them lead me and let them bring me into thy whole onto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Acts chapter 24, verse 14. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, so worship by the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And may the Lord at his blessing, you may be seated this morning. Couple of very quick announcements here today. We are delighted to announce that today is the day when the Lord blessed and graced this earth with Josh Godwin. God bless you, Brother Josh. Sure appreciate you and Sister Sarah. And also Sister Margie O'Dell. God bless you, Sister Margie. Great to have you with us. Today and your family, and uh we sure do miss uh Micah Michelle, and uh they're not here today, I don't think we are uh appreciative though of your family, and also we wanted to acknowledge that this coming week, August 9th, is Andy Irish's birthday. God bless you, Brother Andy. We appreciate you very much, and also the same day is the Fox's wedding anniversary. How many years? 37 years. God bless you. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. May God bless you all. We appreciate you all very much. Um I wanted to mention a couple of things for you this evening. We're gonna be baptizing this evening after the evening service, uh, before we have our little fellowship tonight, and uh the Swaffords are gonna be uh baptized, Danielle and Stephen, and we're excited for that and grateful for that. We want to remember uh Brother Wayne gave you the list uh of the folks that are not here. We have a number of folks that are out this week. This is one of the last weekends before school begins, and so does a number of people that are on the road this weekend. And uh want to remember Brother Joel Franklin as well. We had an opportunity this past week uh for a couple of days to go in into go up into Ohio, and uh my wife and I had the opportunity to spend some time at Brother Lonnie Jenkins, and uh we were really uh blessed to have that opportunity and also uh to give you the report that he was very uh confident, he was in great shape, great spirits, and uh uh he's undergoing some natural forms of treatment for the cancer that he has, and uh I told him I said that our church uh certainly wants you to know that we are praying for you and and uh holding him up in prayer continually, and he just feels very confident about the path that he's uh he's taking there in terms of treatment, and uh we would ask you to continue to remember him in prayer and uh trust that the Lord will undertake for him. Rolani is eighty years old, and uh you know it's just uh just wonderful to be able to spend that time with him. And we when Briani and I get together like that, we just talk about everything, we talk about everything. And uh I I was saying to my wife afterwards, I surely would love to be able to go up for a couple of days and just sit with him and talk to him about some specific things in relation to the scripture because he has a very good understanding in many things, but uh I would ask you to certainly remember him in prayer. Lastly, we are honored today to have the Whitlock family with us, and uh they are here today, and uh we wanted you to meet them, and and uh they came down because we have been praying for Jackie. Jackie's the youngest girl, the Whitlock family, and uh she was the little girl that had uh the condition that's called craniosystenosis, and that is uh that is this uh a case where or situation where when a child is born, uh their brain is actually very, very small, and it doubles in size by the time they're nine months old, and then it triples in size by the time they're 36 months old. And in order to accommodate that expansion of brain cells, the brain or the skull cavity is not one solid piece, it is a bunch of plates that kind of move around like tectonic plates, and there are little what's called sutures that are in between those little plates in your head that are like hinges, and they allow the plates of your uh the of your head to expand. And when when you have enough expansion going on, uh they turn into bone, and that's what happens there. So we're all fearfully and wonderfully made, and that's how God decided to do it. So you didn't know that, that you had a lot more brain coming than when you were born. And uh for some uh children, and this is normally happens uh obviously in ch in early in life, uh, some of those areas called the sutures, they fuse and they turn into bone prematurely, and so therefore the the the head cannot expand to accommodate the expanding brain, and so they have to go in manually and they have to deal with that and open things up so uh there's not a problem. So we brought that request to you, and it was brought to many other churches and many other believers. And uh when the specialist, the neurosurgeon got a hold of this and looked at Jackie and measured her and did all the tests that were necessary. He sent her home and said she was perfectly well and normal, and there was no procedures whatsoever that were required. Jackie, would you come on up here for a sec? She's I was told that she wouldn't mind at all coming up here. So we are delighted and honored to have you with us today. God bless you, just stand right here. Now, I gotta tell you this, and she's delighted to let and I'll let everybody know that when the neuroscience. And measured her head, and that's what they do. They take pretty extensive measurements. Your head was actually bigger than your mom's, wasn't it? And you're very proud of that. So does that mean you're smarter than your mom? Yeah, it does. Well, I would just say this to you, okay? That even though you may have a larger head up here, your mom's got a lot, she's got a few more years on this earth ahead of you, so she's got a little more experience, okay? So despite size of your head, she's got a little more experience. That's bigger with her. So you still got to listen to her, okay? Because that's what the Bible says you've got to do. Well, Jackie, we are delighted that you're here today, and we are blessed to see how God has touched you and helped you. And uh we are just gonna pray that God will continue to bless you and lead you all your life. Okay? Thank you for coming up. God bless you. I baptize the whole family except for Jackie. So we're just delighted and honored to have all of them here today. Well, let's uh let's do this this morning. And uh I just felt directed uh again today to take this subject and uh talk a little bit about uh the the present truth here, and um and we're delighted also to see how quickly God answers prayer in bringing people here. That's wonderful. I gotta I gotta tell you that uh, you know, I was talking a little bit about uh foolishness on Wednesday night and uh the seriousness of the subject of foolishness, and uh I I felt kind of bad afterwards because uh last week in my mind, I had uh I had uh assumed that Brother Joe Green's meeting was going to be last week, and so I had arranged for a minister to come and preach last Wednesday night. And uh I didn't realize that his meeting is actually this week, starts on Tuesday, and so I was sitting in my at my desk at about 11 o'clock on Wednesday morning at home, and I texted the preacher who was gonna come this coming Wednesday night, which we don't have a service this coming Wednesday night. And I texted him and asked him, I said, Do you need a hotel room? You know, are you you okay? He said, Oh, he said, I'm at home. He said, Uh I'll see you next week. And it dawned on me that I had done something very foolish. I had assumed that uh I got my weeks mixed up. So this coming week uh is Brother Green's meeting, and uh we we don't have a service this Wednesday night, so I wanted to make that clear. I felt kind of foolish having done that. So in talking on Wednesday night, we talked a little bit about some of the problems that were found in the in the Corinthian church, and I want to deal kind of indirectly with that this morning, but we've been talking about this subject of the present truth, and about our ability and about our uh calling or our responsibility, if you like, to respond to questions that people have and to uh to respond to challenges correctly that people might give to us, and we want to be able to do that in a scriptural way. Uh no matter how convincing a person may be, no matter how much we want to think that things are right, they are not right until we can tie it back to an absolute, and we believe the absolute or the final authority, the final say, is the Bible. And so Paul tells us in these two scriptures that we have here, Paul and Peter, they tell us that we have a responsibility, and I'm reviewing just very, very briefly here. I'm reviewing uh for those of you that have not been here. And Paul said that he was set in defense of the gospel. You'll see it on the bottom of the screen here, and uh he he was one who had a uh responsibility, he knew, and it was not just his, but it was everybody who believed the truth, had a responsibility to stand in in defense and confirmation of the gospel, and you're all partakers of my grace, he says. So we have our we have a responsibility to answer questions that people might bring. And there are people who think sincerely then you might have gone off the deep end in believing what you believe. You have a responsibility to make them understand or at least explain to them that that's not true. Uh, we also too have a responsibility for the personal vertical, what I call the vertical relationship between ourselves and God, and that is as Peter described to give diligence, and this is something we have to be diligently working on to make her calling an election sure, and that's a personal thing. So we deal personally and intimately with the Holy Spirit, and that's between me and God, my relationship with him. I've got to be right. I gotta, I gotta think this way. And this is you know, this is worst case, but this is what you have to think sometimes. If I died today and I went down to the river, what would I say to him? And more importantly, what would he say to me? And I want to be ready. I want to have no questions. I want to make sure everything is erased, everything is under the blood, everything is forgiven, and there's no barriers whatsoever. And I've got to do that. That's between me and God. It's just like you and writing your will. A lot of people will say, well, you know, I really don't want to deal with writing a will until I'm near death. Which is convenient. I mean, it's kind of nice, but the problem is you don't know how near death you really are. Right? And after your, after your death, guess what? You're dead. And there's no one no way that you can change anything then. So you have to think about things about writing my will and getting my house in order and getting things ready, and it doesn't hurt for you to do that. If you're married, you ought to have a will. If you own land, you ought to have a will. If you own a property, you ought to have a will. If you have any kind of resources or investments, you ought to have a will. That's just good stewardship. And we ought to do that. And that's something that you had to prepare for. That's your business. That's between you and your family. You know, it's a private thing. Just like Peter is saying that you need to make your calling and election sure. But we also have this responsibility for people outside who would ask questions or maybe try to debate you or contest you on what it is that you believe. And we've been talking about that. Now, again, now here's two screens that are familiar to you. Brother Branham said, it must be, it must be what you're saying and what you're teaching, it must be according to his word that has been spoken. It must. I don't care how well you say this ought to be, or that uh or that ought to be, this or this, sorry, let me say it again. I don't care how well you say this ought to be, or that ought to be, or this ought to be. It's got to be according to his word, according to his time and his season. It doesn't matter how sincere I am, it doesn't matter how good of a speaker I am or am not, it doesn't matter, no matter what what uh minister you listen to, they might be eloquent and they might be able to piece it together in a wonderful way, and we might want to believe that it's right, but it isn't right just because somebody says it well. It's only right because the Bible declares it to be true. And we always had to be able to tie it back to that to the word of the hour. And that's very, very important to us. But there's a lot of people who want to believe that ministers are right simply because they're pastors teaching it, or they're this minister they like is teaching it. But it doesn't mean that it is so. So therefore, we had to be uh we had to be mindful of that, and that's where we have to study and make sure that uh everything is is uh right according to the book. Now, the nice thing about the scripture, though, and Brother Branham reminds us in 1957, he said the whole book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, and here he comes. We find in sundry times and diverse manners, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets and in the last day through his son, Christ Jesus. And he has revealed himself. And the book, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is nothing but one constant perpetual revelation of the Lord Jesus. How many believe that? And it's still unfolding and revealing itself, isn't it? You don't need to interpret it, it unfolds and reveals itself, and we're thankful for that. All right, now let's deal with our text here this morning. Paul writes this, and I learned a lot about this particular phrase here that we find in the first verse as I begin to study this and look at it. So let me dwell for a few moments on this word, heresy. And Paul says, This I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things that are written in the law and in the prophets. Now, Paul, the setting here is uh in Acts chapter 24, where Paul is in front of Felix, and uh he's giving a defense before Felix, and he's trying to let them know that uh, you know, these accusations that are made against me uh are really not true. But he says, and this is the way he says it now, so let me let me kind of paraphrase it for you. Uh this I confess to you. He says, I I I want you to, I want you to be assured that after the way which they call heresy, and they is important here. Because if you go back in chapter 24, you'll find that Paul is standing in front of a group of very knowledgeable and uh expert teachers of the law. They even had a person who was there, and I don't think he's mentioned in the in the Bible there. Yes, he's he's mentioned in verse 1 of chapter 24. This is what it says. And after five days, and Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertulus, who informed the governor against Paul. Now, Tertulus is not a very common, commonly known character, but he was actually a fellow who was a professional speaker. He was somebody who was paid to take an argument and and present that argument in a court of law or in a public forum. Tertulus was a man who was an expert speaker. And he was, he was there because the the people who were uh Ananias and the high priests and those that were uh elders in the church, they wanted to try to trap Paul. They wanted to try to confuse him in his words, and they wanted to try to uh trip him up some way so that he would make a verbal mistake, and they could all say, Aha, see, Felix, he's guilty, he's a heretic. And that's what they wanted to say. Because we know, we all know what we do with heretics, right? We burn them at the stake. Or we throw them to the lines, or we impale them on spears or whatever else. But if he's a heretic, we've got him. And we are afraid that we may not be able to out argue Paul, so we're going to hire Tertulus. And Tertullus was paid a lot of money because he was a professional orator to stand there in the court of law, if you like, in Felix's presence, and to be able to argue Paul down to the ground. And to be able to tie Paul up in knots and to make him look like he truly was a heretic who didn't know what he was saying. And Paul stands there in defense of himself, and he stands with Tertulus and Felix and all the other elders and experts that are there. And he says to them, I confess unto thee that after the way, which they call heresy, he says, that's the way I worship. He said, I'm not here to say that I'm not a heretic. He said, I'm not here to say that I am a heretic. He said, I'm just here to say that after the way that the forefathers worship God, he said, That's what I, that's the way I worship. And he said, I believe all the things that are written in the law and in the prophets. And he said, I and I have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And Paul says, besides that, I want to live in a way that is blameless before God and men. I'm not ashamed of what I believe. I'm not ashamed of what I stand for. He says, you can go back and find all of it in the Old Testament and all of it in the writings of the Fathers back there. He said, not a problem at all. And if you want to call that heresy, I'm guilty. That's the way Paul says it. He's not saying it, I'm not a heretic, I'm not a heretic, I'm not a heretic. I'm a believer, or I'm this and that. He doesn't say that. He said, if what I believe, which is what the promise, uh, the promises are in the scripture about a resurrection to come and about the Messiah to come and all the law and the prophets, he said, if that makes me a heretic, I'm a heretic. Not a problem. And Paul is, he's saying that in front of Felix now, at a great cost, because he realized this could cost me my head. Now let's take a look now at what the definition of a heretic is. This is very interesting. Paul's, or is the the word actually means a dissension from diversity of opinions and aims. Well, I'd have to say now for us. I'm guilty of the same thing. We have dissented from uh lots of different opinions about God and about the end time and about the times we live in, right? We've dissented from a lot of people about original sin? Wouldn't you agree? We've dissented from a lot of people about the Trinity? All right, hey, guilty as charged in number one. Number two, any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs in certain historical Christian, Jewish, or modern cultures, espousing such ideas can and were, can be and were punishable by law. Guess what? Number two, guilty is charged. Folks, come on now, are you with me? Any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. Absolutely. And uh if if if believing the Bible and applying it that way, because we are at variance with a lot of people, right? We are at variance with a lot of churches that say we should not have women preachers. We're at variance with a lot of pre a lot of churches and systems that say, you know, it's okay for a woman to cut her hair. We disagree with that, don't we? That puts us at variance with a lot of people. We would say that uh, you know that uh in in our in our system, in our belief system, because the Bible says so, that we we are sovereign. Every church is sovereign. We don't have a headquarters, our headquarters is the Holy Spirit. And uh our leadership comes from the Holy Spirit, so we're not subject to any other hierarchy or any other church. We have no central financial system, we don't have life policies that are group policies for ministers, we don't have anything like that at all. We are a sovereign group of people, right? Very, very few groups that are like that in this particular uh time and age. So, number two, we're guilty also. Although less common, number three, then in the medieval period, formal charges of heresy within the Christian churches still occur. Key issues in the Protestant churches have included modern biblical criticism and the nature of God and the acceptability of gay clergy. Guess what? Hey, uh I, you know, uh we would take exception also to gay clergy, right? And and some of the uh some of the ways that people describe the nature of God. Uh there are there are uh, I remember a number of years ago, I was reading in Reader's Digest, where there was an article uh about a new writing of the scripture. And it was written by a group of feminists, very strong clergyical clergy, feminist clergy, sorry. And uh they were very uh they were scholars and they were experts in the New Testament, so they decided to write their own version of the New Testament. And when they did, being feminists, they couldn't. Really put in that stuff about being subject to your husband and uh husband, you know, uh husbands love your wives and women reverence your husband. They had real trouble with that. So they decided as a result, we'd leave out all that. We just kind of leave out all those portions. And as a result, they came up with a very shortened version of the New Testament. I take exception to that. And if I disagree with that, and that makes me a heretic, or if they practice that and that makes them a heretic, uh, you know, I would have to say guilty as charge, because uh there's a lot of people that have opinions about things that we would disagree with. So now we we can find that uh over the over the years, a heretic to be labeled one had certain consequences. Here's a very famous picture, and this is uh a shot of or painting of Galileo in front of the Catholic uh council that pulled him up in front of it, and this was in the time period called the Inquisition. Now, this is not going to be on the test here. I'm just throwing this in for you to understand what uh what a heretic is. And this heresy was called inquisiteo uh heretase provitatus. Now, my Latin is rusty, but it means an inquiry on heretical perversity. Now, all that, all I'm saying is that this. When Galileo was pulled in in front of the Catholic church, they were still believing that the earth was flat. And Galileo said, nope, the earth is round and it revolves around the sun, and the earth is not the center of everything. And uh the Catholics came along and they said, nope, the earth is the center of everything. And Galileo said, no, the earth is just a planet that revolves around the sun. And the Catholic Church said, nope, the earth is the center of everything. And that was their teaching. That was the way that they did it. So they were about to label Galileo a heretic. And so the Inquisition was started to stamp out anything that was contrary to the Catholic Church. They had the power, they had the army, they had the might, they had the terror and the ability to strike fear in the hearts of communities and towns and cities and actual whole nations. They could go in and dominate them, they could intimidate them, and that's what they wanted to do. In the 12th century, they started to travel around and to be able to squash anything that was contrary to the Catholic Church. And that's what's called the Inquisition. There was a lot of people lost their heads in the Inquisition. There was an awful lot. Until Martin Luther came out and stood up and said, The just shall live by faith. And that's when he nailed the 95 thesis on the door. Now, the Catholics, they uh they like I say, they had the political power, they had the armies, they had the money, they had the resources to be able to strike terror in the hearts of all kinds of people, but you know what? They weren't right. They were overwhelming, they were big, they were powerful, but they were not right. Overwhelming and big and powerful and forceful doesn't make anybody right. It only means they're overwhelming, big and powerful and forceful. That's all it means. Satan is like that. Isn't he? Let me tell you something. The Catholic Church, as much as they came heavy-handed against people that were that were believing things contrary to the Catholic doctrines, it did not make the Catholic doctrine correct. And so they were labeled, many of those people were labeled heretics, but the truth is that those people were actually heretics themselves, the Catholics. Now, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11 for a moment here. Paul says, for first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. There actually, there actually needs to be some heresy among you. Here's another version of the same verse. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you, which of you have God's approval. There will always be, as long as we're we're an assembly, as long as there's an assembling of people, there will be different views on different things. But God will use that sometimes to show who's right. Now, it doesn't mean that a heresy should cause a church schism, okay? Hello? It doesn't mean that if there's a if there's a dissenting view of something, that it should cause a church division. What what the New Testament church requires us to be, and I realize I'm saying things a little differently here today, but uh the the the Christian faith requires us to be able to take our views and lay them at the feet of the Word of God so that it becomes the absolute as to what is right, and we have a responsibility to be transformed by that absolute so that we will be willing to lay down our ideas and take what the scripture says. Alright? All of you are from somewhere, right? You all came from a previous church, a previous background, denominational systems, or independent or another message church, or something else. Some of you. Came from the world. But all of you had ideas. Over time, the Holy Spirit is working with your mind to bring you in conformity with the scripture. And in order for that to happen, there has to be a willingness in your heart to lay down what you formerly held on to and believe that it was right. But remember now the quote I just gave you. It doesn't matter how much you think it ought to be right, it only matters what he says. Right? So that's what we've learned to do, and that's what the Holy Spirit's been doing in our lives over and over again. So Paul says, it's not surprising that there'd be uh, you know, heresies among you, among the church, he says, but but God will use that to prove what is right. When we know what is right, though, we should gravitate to that. Okay? God's provided a place of worship. Brother Bram said this. He said, Lord, how I thank you, can stand here at this platform and preach a word that's so contrary to people's thinking today, that they would call it heresy. They would call it spiritualism, they'd call it evil spirits, like they did when Beelzebub and they called Jesus Beelzebub. He said, But you see, you but but to see you right in the midst of this grand audience this afternoon and turn right around and confirm and prove exactly that's what's been preached, that it is the truth. That's a wonderful thing. You understand what he's saying? He's saying exactly like Paul is saying that that listen, uh, in the way that my forefathers worshiped, he said, you know, and they they referred to that as heresy. He said, I'm guilty. I worshiped according to the law and the prophets and the promises and the covenants. He said, That's the way I worship. Brother Branham says, today he said, it's so what God is allowing to come out is so different and diverse from established thinking. That they're calling it a heresy again. But he said, You come right around and confirm it to be the truth. Hey, if that makes me a heretic, Brother Bram says I'm all right. I'm in good company. You understand? He's not afraid of being a heretic in this sense. Because he is dissenting from the normal understanding of things. He's teaching things that people don't understand. But the fact that they don't understand it doesn't mean that it's wrong. It only matters what God comes and vindicates and what the scripture says. Right? Are you following me? I kind of threw a tongue twister at you this morning here. Easter Seal, 1965 again. He said, Watch the action of those disciples. He said, they're scared. And they knew that Jesus was a tr was the truth, but you see, it was against the popular idea, the popular religion of the hour, the most strictest religion, Pharisees, Sadducees, and so forth, cults and clans and denominations, they were against that heresy, but Jesus was the identified word. There was a lot of people who were against the disciples. There were a lot of people who are against the things that Jesus brought because it was against the popular idea and the popular religion. Just because it's popular doesn't make it right. Does it just because it's it's suddenly the majority of people believe doesn't make it right. Just because everybody, most people say that there is a trinity doesn't make the Trinity concept correct. It's got to be according to the scripture, right? And so here with the disciples and so forth, they were afraid of, uh, you know, they were obviously nervous about the reaction of the people there, but they knew that Jesus was the truth, and uh the the people were against that, but Jesus Christ was the identified word, and they held with that. And let me tell you something. In the face of threats against us, it is not us that holds us, it's Christ in us that holds us to the truth of God's word. Because we're human, just like they're human. It's God that holds us. Now, let's take a little turn now. Jehovah Jireh, 1962, Brother Branham says, and everybody that takes God at his promise is considered by the world crazy. Paul said, in the way that's called heresy, that's the way I worship the God of fathers, God of our fathers. Heresy is crazy, we know. It's foolishness to the carnal mind. Faith is crazy to everybody but God and the one that's got the faith. Think about this now. Faith is crazy to everybody but God and the one that's got the faith. Let's talk about some heretics then for a moment, or some crazy people for a moment. That's just very simply. We talk about Noah, right? Noah had a revelation by faith, Noah built an ark. Isn't that what it says? The Bible says by faith, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right? And so Noah heard from God that he had to build an ark because rain was coming. There was lots of people that must have sat out there in the audience, which probably would have been big at first, probably would have been large at first and listened to Noah and walked away and said, He's crazy. The guy is crazy. There's no such thing as rain. It would be just like uh me coming out and saying, you gotta picture it this way. It'd be just like me coming out and saying, tomorrow nails are gonna fall from the sky. You some of you would be sitting here saying, huh? He's gonna he's gonna change that opinion, right? Because if he doesn't, he's nuts, he's crazy. And Noah got up and said it again the next day and said, Rain nails are going to fall from the sky. And the next day he did it again, nails are going to fall from the sky. And he did it for a hundred and twenty years. I'm just saying, for instance, now. And Noah came out and said that. Now, all of you would sit there and say, But there's never been nails fall from the skies. No such thing as nails falling from the sky. We don't, we look, we've looked up in the sky. There's nothing up there but a Mars probe. And a bunch of garbage, right? There's nothing up there. So nails are not going to fall from the sky. And you would look on Google, right? Because all, I mean, all sensible people Google everything. And so they get on Google and they look and they say, Are there nails in the sky that are going to fall someday? And you look up there and there'll be no zero results in the search. There'll be nothing there. Because that doesn't even make horse sense. And there'd be nails fall from the sky, right? Hey, folks, that's the way it was in Noah's day. Rain had never fallen from the sky. There was none up there. There were no clouds. There was nothing there at all to produce rain in the sky. And all the water came up from the bottom of the earth. And so they'd all look there and they'd say, there's no such thing as rain. The guy is crazy. But you know what? Noah still came out the next day and said, gonna rain. Because faith is crazy to everyone but God and the person who's got the faith. To everybody else that's crazy, right? And here's Joshua now. He's gonna march around the city of Jericho, and he's looking at it, and somebody would have come up to him and said, A reporter would have come to him and said, Hey, uh, why are you doing this? And he'd say, Because I believe that the city's gonna fall down in a seventh day, and we're gonna blow trumpets, and the wall is gonna fall down flat. Yeah, right. Can you say that again? Yeah, sure. We're gonna march around this thing seven days, we're gonna blow trumpets and shout, and everybody's gonna shout like crazy, and this wall's gonna fall down. Has this ever happened before? No, it's never happened before, but it's gonna happen. First day, second day, third day, fourth day, right? Reporters are hanging around, they're all kind of waiting around for this seventh day. But you know what? They're all kind of labeling, you know, when Joshua's not looking, they're all kind of going like this because they think he's crazy. But Joshua still said it's gonna fall down. Seventh day is gonna fall down, right? And you know what? It's crazy to everybody but God and the person who's got the faith. Hey, listen, folks, welcome to welcome to the world of the crazy. Because you're the people that go to go to your school or go to your job and say, when people say, Ah, I wonder where it's gonna end, you can say, I know. I know, I know where it's gonna end. Where's it gonna end? It's gonna end. We're gonna be changed, we're gonna be taken out of here in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. We're not gonna die, we're actually gonna be taken out of here. Yeah, right. When has that ever happened before? Well, I can tell you three times in the old and three times in the new, but that's all. Uh, yeah, right. And they'd look at you like this, right? You're crazy. But you know what? Faith is crazy to everybody but God and the person who's got the revelation. Are you with me? So here's what, here's what, you know, the the idea is is that just because it may seem illogical to somebody, it really has to tie back to the scripture, and that's what we have our confidence in. Now, let's just look here at this also. In Hebrews chapter 12, Paul gives this admonition here at the end of the book of Hebrews, and he says, See that you refuse not him that speaketh. See that you refuse not him that speaketh. Now, Paul is speaking to the Hebrew church. These are people who are Jews or former Jews, at least. And he's letting them know that whenever or however, or through whomever, God speaks, don't refuse him. Don't refuse, don't turn away from him. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. So if in some way, if through someone God speaks, don't turn him away. Don't reject it. Even though it may not be according to the status quo, it may not be the way that everybody expects. Don't turn him away. If God is speaking from heaven, you listen to it. Through whomever God speaks to you, you need to listen to that. Because he said, Whose voice, 26, whose voice then shook the earth. And he's referring back to Mount Sinai when God came down on it and spoke. But now he promised, saying, Yet once more will I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. So God's gonna shake everything. And the reason is the reason is in verse 27, and this word yet once more signifying the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, where may we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. So the point is that God is not afraid to shake everything out of its place except the things which cannot be shaken. Those things which cannot be shaken, they'll remain. And God will shake and shake and shake, and he'll shake everything until those things that are unshakable and solid, they will remain. And with that, God will build a new kingdom on the earth. But God is not afraid to do this. So whenever God speaks, that speaking he said is for you, and he says, You need to take that because that in itself will make you solid and established in the present truth. Okay? Now, a lot of times we think, okay, I'm gonna get ready for the shaking. I'm gonna get ready. And a lot of people miss it because of the way it comes. Stay with me now. Brother Bram said, In Sirs we would see Jesus. He said, Not long ago, a pastor of a certain great That he came to me and said, Well, I'm getting old now. I've been here some 20 odd years, and we've had some of the most powerful meetings. And he goes on and he says to Brother Branham, he says, Oh, I'd love to love to see my city shaken for the glory of God. And it was it was Chicago. He said, a Matson Bose's church. Now, Mats and Bose, Joseph Matson Bose was a uh a great missionary and a great minister and so forth and had done great things in Chicago, and he was a friend of Brother Branham, and Brother Branham had gone there many years. And he said, I've longed, Brother Branham, and come here and had a prophecy from the Lord that if I'd come here to Chicago, I would see the mighty hand of God shake this place before the time to leave. And I said, Brother Joseph, honestly, I said, You're a great theologian and a great man and a doctor of divinity, but there's no doubt about that. I couldn't touch it, but I said, my precious brother, you have some poor spiritual discernment. There's where the church is missing it today. It's that spiritual discernment to see what God's doing. And they look way over the top of something here that's going on right here, and it'll be past you before you know it. It'll be past you before you know it. So catch the conversation now. Joseph Matson Bose is praying that God would shake Chicago. And Brother Branham's letting him know God has already spoken. This has already taken place. And he's looking for something like a great earthquake and a new Mandrid fault opening up and everybody being shaken onto their knees and coming to the altar and waiting for some physical sign or physical shaking where everything goes like this. That's what that's what he's waiting for. And Brother Bram says, You're looking way off for something. And God has already spoken from heaven. How did he speak from heaven? The way that God always speaks from heaven, and that is he sends his word to a prophet. And the prophet comes to Chicago and speaks and shakes everybody because he shook up the established church and the established weight and everybody's thinking. But you know what? It shakes out the believers, and they come every time. And guess what? If they're real believers, they'll be there when everybody else leaves and everybody wanders away. Everybody backslides and everybody does whatever they want to do. The believers will stay right there with God's word because they are believers, right? Are you following me? So Brother Bram's not afraid to go in there with the message that he has because he knows that's what God's going to use to shake the earth. And there's people there who are good theologians, they're they're smart and intelligent people, but they're missing the shaking that God is sending in our time. They're missing the upset that God's trying to bring, and the world might call it heresy, and the religious world might call it heresy, but it's true nonetheless. And you know, Paul in front of Felix here, I might lose my head, but you know what? I'm not backing down because it's true. I followed everything that the Bible says about uh, you know, the coming Messiah, and uh and I've uh I've looked back and I've taught it all in the resurrection that is to come. He says, I uh I'll tell you, I'm gonna stand here and say, I believe it all. I'm not afraid to say that I'm one of them, I'm one of them. And you and I, by God's grace, we're gonna have to have the same kind of fortitude to stand there in front of whoever and say, you know what? Even though you might make the claim about us and about me, it's still true. The internet is full of garbage, and you know what? Today it's full of garbage, and tomorrow it's probably gonna be full of garbage again. But you know what? It's the word of God is still true. I don't relate to all the riffraff that's out there, I don't relate to all the lies and stories that are out there, I don't relate to all the concoctions that are out there, I don't relate to all the accusations that are out there, but I'll tell you what, I'll hold with the absolute because the absolute is true. God's word is eternally true, and it doesn't change at all. And that's what I want to be identified with. And if I'm thrown in the same jail cell with a bunch of heretics and losers, hey, I'll still believe it anyway. If I lose my head, I'll be in good company. If I'm burned at the stake or thrown on spears, I'll be in very good company because there's a lot of people who went down that way because they stood for what everybody thought was absolute craziness. But faith is always crazy to people to everyone except God and the people who've got the faith. All right, now let's do an example here again. Now, we've been talking about the subject of revelation and how that when we looked at the subject of revelation and we looked at the book of Revelation, and we are looking continuing to do that. What is it that separates us from everybody else? I mean, what is it that makes us be able to stand in the face of the accusations that people make about what we believe? What is it that separates us? And the thing that does separate us is a revelation. God gave you something direct from his presence that sets you apart. It's election and it's revelation, isn't it? Election and revelation are two very important things. Things. Now, I got it, I got two screens, and then let's take a look at a few things. He said they had false Christs before Jesus' time. Always do. It's Satan running out of counterfeit to upset the minds and faith of the people before the thing actually happens. Satan is real, isn't he? And his job is always to upset to take away from spiritual growth and spiritual progress. That's his job always to do that. And he's running a counterfeit to upset the minds and the faith of the people before the thing actually happens. And didn't Gamaliel say the same thing to the Jews that day. Wasn't there a man out there raised up and professed to be this and took 400 in the wilderness and they all perished? And Jesus said, Every branch of my father, heavenly father hasn't planted. Jesus said it'll be rooted up. So Gamaliel said this. He said, Let him alone. And this was an accusation made against this sect back in the book of Acts. And Gameliel said, Let him alone, let the disciples alone. He said, Because if it not be of God, it won't come to naught. But if it be of God, we don't want to be found fighting against God. And the man used wisdom. So in his case now, in his case, he made a right response to this problem because they were accusing the disciples of you know causing a stir and so forth. And Gamaliel had the right response here. But the principle that Gamaliel voiced was this that if something is of God, you don't want to be found fighting against it. But there are times when you've got to leave something alone to see what it turns out like. And folks, that applies to you too. Because before this is all over, we'll see the real you. We'll see who'll stand, and we'll see who came because the rest of the family came. Some people come because the rest of the family comes. Other people come because they got a conviction, that's right. And there are times, even when you're young, you don't really know that. But over time, God manifests the fact that he has a bride, and you know what? They can't be shaken. They're gonna be there right to the end. And nothing God does, and nothing the devil does shakes them off. They're they're there right to the end, right? They got the goods. There are some people that you know they'll take any opportunity to miss church, they'll take any opportunity to get away from the things of God. Hey, the wind blows the wrong way. Uh if somebody shows up at their house or whatever else, I'll tell you what about about people showing up in my house. Anybody who knows me and shows up in my house, they know we go to church. So if you show up in my house and you're a guest, hey, we go to church. You got a choice. You can either come with us or stay here. But we're going to church. Because as for me and my house will serve the Lord. Should I not have just said that? Okay, well, let's go on. Now let's look here. If this is true now, in the church age book, Brother Bram said, No man knows the things of God save the Spirit of God, and he to whom the Spirit of God reveals them. And we need to call on God for revelation more than anything else in the world. Because the revelation makes God's word plain to you. It obviously isn't plain to everybody because if it was plain to everybody, everybody would be living a little differently. But let me tell you something. When God's when God reveals his word to you, and he said you've accepted the Bible and the truths of it, and it becomes real to you, your life is different. You're gonna spend your money different, right? You're gonna dress different, you're gonna speak different, you're gonna have different priorities, you're gonna have a different kind of a love, you're gonna have a different kind of love one toward another, you know, spouses and so forth. It's gonna be different. But besides that, you're gonna know what God's doing because God's got a program, and you're gonna know what God's doing. And there's a lot of things that God will do that a lot of people in the world have figured out how God's gonna do it, and most times they're wrong. Because the Savior that was promised in the old testament was never supposed in the minds of many people, supposed to show up like this. Moses had made the declaration in Deuteronomy chapter 19, the Lord your God shall raise up a prophet like unto me, him he hear in all things, right? Isn't that what Moses said? So you know what they were expecting? They were expecting this, they were expecting a lawgiver, someone with two tablets of stone, with with robes and flowing hair and standing on top of the mountain and saying, Come out of her, my people. Come on now. Let's be honest. They had this, they had this picture of Moses in their mind, a Jewish people. They had this this you know how it is that things are bigger in your mind than what they really are? You know? Sister Laura over here, yes, you wants to go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower. She's never been, right? Never been, but wants to go to, and she has this uh this this view of the Eiffel Tower, and it's it's gonna be like this, and oh and and that's natural, right? She, you know, that's she's uh he likes Paris and the French things and so forth, and Brothermarked in a mural, I think in her room about Paris, and it's wonderful. What a great father he is, and he's got this view, but you You know, when you get to the when you get to Paris and you see the Eiffel Tower, it'll probably be a little bit different than what you think. But you know, from years ago, whenever you've seen something and you remember it in your mind, and you think, oh, it's it's it's so big, it's so great. Many times we saw it as small children, and then when we go back and we realize not so big as it you all are relating, right? So, but now let's be honest. Now, the Jews probably had this idea of the one that Moses talked about. Oh, you know, the Lord your God should raise up one likened unto me, and he'll come like this, a great mighty warrior like David, and and he'll stand there to vanquish the foes that are against us and throw the Romans out and so forth. And guess who shows up? God gave him a baby. A baby. A little helpless, squealing little baby. And he's born here in this, not even a burn. And this is the savior of the world. You need a revelation to figure out who this is, right? But all this is a fulfillment of the scriptures. Zechariah chapter 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just in having salvation, lowly, riding upon an ass and upon the foal of an ass. Matthew chapter 21. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and come to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, they sent then send Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway you'll find an ass tied and a colt with her, loose them and bring them unto me. And then he goes down the street, and they're all laying branches in front of him, and they're shouting, Hosanna, and people are standing there looking at that, saying, Who is this? Who is this? And this is what it actually looked like. Here's Jesus coming into Jerusalem, and they're looking at that and saying, you know, could this be him? Let me tell you something. You need to have a revelation to know that this is the one that Zechariah spoke about. Alright, let's go a little further. And that's Brother Bram said in the unveiling of God, and that's God. He changed himself from a pillar of fire to become a man, and then change himself from that back into the spirit again that he might dwell in man. God, look at what he says. God acting in a man, what he really was. Jesus Christ was God acting in a man. Do you believe that? You can imagine now how people must, you know, they must back in the days of Jesus when he was on the earth, and how they must have looked when the Savior comes, he's gonna have a sword on his side and ride on a white horse and just run all of our enemies out and establish Israel again, like it was in the days of David and Solomon. Oh, it's gonna be a great time, and we're gonna stand there and say, That's my Lord, and oh, we're gonna be so excited to stand with him. And then one day, he shows up and does this. And everybody's saying, Yeah, that's that's my pastor. That's my I'm one of them, I'm one of them. I'm so glad I can see. I'm one of them. And not wanting to stay in the front row. Because here's Jesus doing things that are absolutely not what they expected. You understand now how in our mind we we can see things, right? You know what you need, you know what makes a difference for somebody to stand there and say, That's my pastor. What would what would cause you to say that? Only a revelation of who he really was. Well, you know, as you know, it got worse as time went on, and all the expectations that they have, because now here's this Jesus who I look at as my Savior. And he's the one that can turn water into wine. Now they've at least seen a few things, right? They they've drunk the wine, they've ate the fishes and the loaves, they were there and saw him walking on the water, they watched him raise Lazarus from the dead, and they had to somehow in their heart that this was the one, and then this day happens. And they take a crown of those thorns and they have them sitting down and they push these thorns down into his head, like this. After they beat the daylights out of him, and they push this down, and then they mock him, and they grab a hold of his hair and pull it out of his head, and they spit on him, and take all of his clothes off, and then they march him through the streets like a dog dying at the end of a leash. And they march him all the way up to the hill of criminals, and nail them to this cross and put it up there in a public square, naked, bleeding, suffocating, and ashamed. And you're gonna stand there and say, That's my pastor, yes, sir. What's the difference, folks? What is it that separates the people who who understand and those who don't? It's a revelation. That's the only thing, right? It's not the natural, it's not the obvious, it's not it's not those things that that we we look at in that way. And now, here at the end of at the end of that age, and Jesus died. And raise it, raise us again. And Paul says, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. And these he's relating to the people who actually laid him in the tomb, and he was, I mean, he was dead. He was dead. But he rose again. And he wasn't seen of everybody. He was seen of a few. And they they proclaimed they had they had something that let them know in their heart that Jesus Christ is not dead. He's alive. It doesn't matter that they get enthused or that they're in a church where everybody's saying it. You had to have more than that. Because the people of the way were persecuted. The people called Christians were looked down upon and they were persecuted, but they kept on. And even though it's called heretical, even though it's called heresy, like Paul says, we're going to believe it anyway. Because we've met him. We know him. It's not because we got a lot of facts and information. It's not because we got all the books and websites that declare him. That's not why we hang on. That's not why we're not ashamed to die for our faith. But I'll tell you why. Because we met him. We know he's alive. We know he's real. Let me ask you this morning. How many of you can say the same thing at you? Hey, you're not taking my word for it. You're not taking Brother Bram's word for it. You're not taking anybody's word for it or a Google certification for it. You're taking, you're, you're, you're believing and accepting because you know him. Got anybody here knows him? Anybody here met him? I've met him. I will tell you, he's worth meeting. I will tell you he's worth knowing. I will tell you he's worth loving with all your heart. I will say, and even if he never did another thing for you, it's still worth following him. And serving him with all your heart. He's real, isn't he? He hasn't appeared in this kind of a form in our time. He hasn't shown up and stood in my living room and given me a revelation on anything in a physical form. He hasn't done that, but I believe he's real. So the Church of the Living God, Brother Bram said, is built not upon the experience of a seminary or upon a bunch of men's creeds, but is built upon the spiritual revelation of God's word, the spiritual revealed truth from God's word coming from God out of heaven to every heart. And those hearts will not be shaken. And see that you refuse not him that speaketh from heaven. You understand now what Paul is saying? That God's intent, God's not afraid to shake everything, because he knows he cannot shake everything. He'll never shake anyone that's got a revelation that makes them solid in the present truth. And Brother Bram said that's the same kind of revelation that Abel got. That's the same kind of thing that holds the believers in every age. Now, let's say now, as we look uh as we look at the ages here as well, and we come down to our time, because we know that uh you know, when Christ being the cornerstone, he was in laid in the ground as a grain of wheat and began to grow through the ages there, and he buried, and he came through in all the different stages right to the very end. And said that he would appear in the last days and come and shake this world, and he has done that, and he is doing that. And what I read here, Brother Bram said is his word, and it will never change, it'll never pass away. It's eternally right. Do you believe that? So now I would say this to our detractors. I would say this to our critics. I would say this to our uh, you know, to our people who might say something contrary, that if we have dissented from the common view of most religions in the world, I would have to admit freely we're guilty. If someone would say to us that we believe things that are not commonly accepted among churches, I would have to say that I'm guilty also as charged. But I would like to add to that and say, because it is scriptural, I'm gonna stay with it. I'm not ashamed. If you want to call me a heretic, it's fine. I'm not afraid of that. Because I believe if the persecution increased, what God has put in us to bring us this far will also hold us in that season as well. You have nothing to fear. Are we all right? Now, Jesus, though, was not ashamed to go on the offensive. And uh, here's where I want to launch into something, and I won't conclude this, but we'll carry it on a little bit tonight. Because remember now what I told you last Sunday, I believe it was Sunday, that a person's absolute and the person's uh standard that they have influences their conduct. It influences their behavior. When you when you think about what people believe in our world, a lot of people believe that uh, you know, they believe certain things about. Government and they believe certain things about authorities and music and writing and so forth, it'll all reflect that in society. We find that if the values of the people are reflected in media, you can see how depraved the the American the North American mind actually is. And you look at the celebration of adultery and the celebration of sin and the celebration of promiscuity and all the other things that go on on the screen. Right? And the heinous crimes that are committed in our time. And a lot of it is a reflection. And it's interesting because a lot of people will say, well, uh, you know, uh I can do what I want, you can't limit free speech. Okay, let's say that everybody now is free to say whatever they want to, which they essentially still are in America. And you're allowed to create, you if I gave all of you an opportunity to write a story, for instance, all of you write a story, some of you would shake your fist at me and say, school hasn't started yet. But if I did give you the opportunity for all of you to write a little story, you'd write, you know, and it could be about anything. You you'd write a certain story. But let's say we went out in a in a classroom and we went out and did that, or we went out, uh, I remember when one of our boys was in university and they were given uh a list of topics to write about, you know, do an essay. And I I looked at that list of topics that one of the boys had brought home, and I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe two things about that. Number one, I couldn't believe that a professor would even put down on paper some of the things that he suggested those kids write about. And I would not even repeat them because they're still horrific in my mind. And then the second thing I was horrified at is that we're paying for this course. We're actually paying for this kind of education. I couldn't believe it. So if we if we gave you an opportunity to write something, and we gave to a college class or a public school class, and we said, all right, kids, you know, just have at it, just write as a story and come back. And then we went to Hollywood and we said, All right, you were going to pick ten studios and you guys create a movie for us. We wouldn't have anything essentially different than what we have now, right? The only difference, the only difference that would be reflected is your writing would probably be quite different and quite pleasant to read because of the absolute that you have in life, and the things that you hold dear, and the things that you hold precious are not perverted things. And rather, I like to think that it's out of Philippians chapter 4, things that are pure, things that are holy, things that are good, things that are just, things that are of good report. Right? Those are the kinds of things we would want people to know in our writing. But if your absolute is not the scripture and it's not the things of God, you're gonna write about all kinds of imaginary things. You're gonna write about uh the dark night or something else. Because people's conduct is regulated by the absolute they have in life. Now I said that to say this, that the the thing that changes a person for the better is God's word. Now that may seem obvious. But it is not just having a Bible, because you can literally, if you have enough money, or you have enough, you have two legs, you can go down to the library there and pick yourself up a Bible, and you can have a Bible. Just having and holding the Bible is not is not mean that you have this as an absolute. But when this is open to you and it becomes alive in your heart, and you realize this is God's word, this is God speaking to me. Wow, that makes it a little different, doesn't it? And he can say, I know the author, and I know the author real well, and uh he speaks to me out of his word. How many of you have been a Christian more than 10 years? Twenty years, thirty years. Still reading your Bible, Sister Molly? Still reading your Bible. You ever come across anything that's new or exciting? All the time. You know why? Because God's word is forever eternally true, and God is always quickening things out of it. It never ends. You kids that never put up your hand for the 10-year question here, you hold on. Uh your Bible really, if you keep reading it, it'll never grow stale. It'll never, you'll never figure it all out. It keeps unfolding and revealing itself. Hang on, there's more to come. So Jesus then now, in Luke chapter 11. Therefore, also the Bible says, the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will slay and persecute. At the blood of all the prophets which are shed from the foundation of the world, maybe required of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which purchased between Sorry, perish between the altar and the temple. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. And woe unto you, lawyers. For ye have taken away the key of knowledge. You entered not in yourselves. And them that were entering in, ye hindered. Jesus' most scathing rebuke was for these people who hindered people from entering in to that place where God really wanted to give them the understanding of what all these prophets and sages have brought through the ages. I have more for the people. And I want the I want the common people to enter in and receive the things that I have I have for them. I want them to enter in and do that. And he says, you folks have taken away this key of knowledge. And you prevented or hindered those that have attempted to enter into the kingdom of God. They're being drawn into that dimension and you've hindered that. Therefore, their conduct is never going to be fully acceptable to me because your conduct is regulated by your absolute. And these people are coming to the, they're coming to me. They're coming into the light of God's word. And you're hindering that. Therefore, they can never act fully the way they should act. In other words, if you're in a church where the half of the gospel is preached. Or we'd say that a portion of truth is preached there. And there are things that are said out of it that are true. But all of what is in there is not preached. The ministry does not have the liberty because of you know the system's requirements that they don't go there and they don't preach on that. They don't say anything about cutting hair, don't say anything about baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What that system is actually doing is hindering people from entering into all of what God's word says. So that God's word would have an effect on them, and their conduct would therefore be different because they've got full access to God's word. You understand, folks. If we were if we were limiting the people by saying, all right, we're not going to preach any more about what happened at the Garden of Eden here. We're not going to preach any more about serpent seed and the sexual sin in the garden. We're not going to say anything about that. We're not going to say anything at all about women's dress. We're not going to say anything more about that. You know what? Your conduct would reflect that. Now, some of you would say, no, I'll never change. But let's say that there was new people who came into the church and they were baptized and they were added to the assembly here. And they never heard anybody say anything about the dress of women, the conduct of men, and how we should act and dress and you know, clothe ourselves. And they never heard anything about that because I was forbidden to preach that by some hierarchy. Their conduct would reflect that. Isn't that true? Because you are a product of what you hear and believe. Now I don't know why you're doing this back there. What? My batteries are going dead. I knew I was feeling kind of rough this morning. Well, you know what? Let's change them there, Matthew. Dear Matthew. Let's do it. Maybe you can sing us a special while you're here. John Wesley describes this very well this way. Get me back to the next screen. Thank you, man. John Wesley makes a comment on this scripture. Bring me to the next script. There we go. John Wesley says that the key of knowledge is not the key to open knowledge that Jesus was referring to here. It's not the key to open knowledge, it is the key to open heaven. So you can imagine now what Jesus is saying here to those lawyers and those religious people. You're taking away the key that opens up heaven to those people. What a terrible thing. Here are people that are going to the synagogue and are going to listen to the scribes and the reading of the word. They're going to listen to the prophets. But when they get there, it's like kind of coming home and you forgot your keychain, and I got no way to get in now. I'm here, but I got no way to get in. What a terrible feeling that is. And Jesus is saying to the people, and John Wesley is conferring here that you're not just taking away a knowledge of the scripture because the A lot of people can have a lot of knowledge of the scripture, but they haven't entered into heaven yet. They haven't entered into heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And Jesus Jesus is telling those scribes and Pharisees here, you're taking away the key that opens up all of God's glories and all of God's blessings and the full value of God's word. You're taking that away from the people. And the people that are trying to get through that door, you're hindering them from going through. Woe unto you. No wonder he said woe unto them. Because this is God's will for you to enter in. It's God's will for you to go all the way. Come on. It's God's will for you to get there and to be there in the right shape, in the right condition. Just like Brother Man saw that bride who was going up that time, and they're all singing onward Christian soldiers, remember? And he said they were dressed right, they were in line, they were acting right, they were on their way to the right place, and Brother Random didn't hinder them at all. As a matter of fact, he cautioned them, stay in line. Stay in line, stay right with God's word. That is a real minister in this hour, folks. He's not trying to say, Oh, don't go that way, don't go that way, go this way. He's not doing that. He's saying, keep going. But when you go, keep in line with God's word, because that's the only way you're going to get in there. A real minister doesn't hinder spiritual growth. A real minister doesn't hinder by misinterpreting God's word. A real minister doesn't take away from the absolute of God's word, but rather he keeps that in front of the people because that's the key that unlocks God's blessings and God's revelation to you. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and your hearing has got to be right, or your faith will never be right. And by faith we're going to take the kingdom, isn't that right? Now, remember now. What you know and an absolute will affect your conduct. So if that's true, and I hate to stop it here, and I hate to stop it here. But I want you to understand this definition, and then we'll we'll just find a stopping place here. The key of knowledge, as Jesus defined it here, is the general knowledge of Christian principles, the things that are found in the scripture. But they also are the deeper and more perfect and enlarged knowledge of this religion or faith, such as belong to more advanced, especially things that are lawful and unlawful for Christians. Moral wisdom, moral wisdom, such as is seen in right living. The key of knowledge, Jesus said, is the thing that actually makes you live morally better than you ever have. It makes you have wisdom, it makes you have the ability. Listen now, it makes you to have the ability to choose what's right and what's profitable for your children, what's lawful and unlawful. Because to me, if you have this, you're not deciding whether I'm going to let my kids read Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I've decided long ago that they're going to read neither. Maybe I'm favorable. And if you're going to call me a heretic because I say that, I'm guilty as charged. I don't think that has any place at all in a believer's home. And Brother Random, Brother Branham is letting us know, and he's done that in many ways now, but I'm letting you know that that's at the core of what Jesus criticized those religious people for. That you are taking away, you are detracting from the knowledge of the principles of God's word that allow people to live right so that they can actually take the kingdom. We don't get into heaven because of our actions, but the people who are going to take heaven are going to act right. Because they got the Holy Spirit that quickens that word to them. But remember now, whatever it is that is quickened to us on the inside, it's got to find expression. So, going another step now. Peter says, likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, your wives, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. So, in other words, if if I've got this key of knowledge, and I it doesn't matter that I just say it. It doesn't matter that I just say, Well, I'm a Christian and I believe the Bible, I believe the message of the hour, I believe the message of the hour. That used to be impressive, and it used to mean something. It means very little anymore. Because a lot of people walk around and claim that they believe the message or they believe the Bible. But I would say this, let's put it this way. If you were a real Christian husband, and we got your wife here and asked her, you're sir, you're saying that you're a Christian husband. Sister, do you agree with that? Because she'd be the test as to whether he's a real Christian husband, right? And she'd be polite. And then we'd ask him to leave the room. And then we'd say, sister, you have all you have our trust here, and you have a, you know, there's nothing to be said, but just tell us now. Is this man really a Christian? Is this man really fulfilling what the scripture says right here? Does he give you honor? Does he show grace to you? Does he treat you with respect and so forth? Does he treat you like you're an heir together? And an heir, meaning that you're going to live together, not only in this life, but in the world to come. Is he that kind of a man? Because that's really the acid test, isn't it? It's not so much whether the husband says that. Most husbands always agree that they're right. Right? Guys, this is not the time to laugh. John, you shouldn't have laughed there. At least made anything visible, you know, because all the wives now are laughing. You understand it's not good enough for you kids to say, oh yeah, I'm I'm a I'm I go to Brother Barry's church, and I'm a Christian. Yes, sir. And I do, I believe this doctrine and that. I was baptized. Brother Barry baptized me. And I, you know, I, hey, that's great. I think that's great. I'd baptize more if I could. But the real test is not whether you can say that. The real test is whether you can live what it is that God's word now should unlock to you. God's word should unlock things to you. And it'll show you things to come. It'll show you mysteries of God's word. It'll show you how to treat your wife and your daughter and your and your son. It'll show you that you shouldn't come to church in shorts. I'm just talking about here. It'll show you that we live one way. It'll show you that living one way here and another way at home is not right. I don't know where, I don't know where the shorts thing comes in. I I don't I don't know where that comes in. I don't know. It seems to make inroads, you know, and things make inroads, and I don't know where that how much more do we need to preach things like that. Or dancing, like I mentioned last Sunday, right? And just picking something out of what Brother Branham said. Look, folks, there has to be a key. There has to be a way to live right. There has to, there has to be moral wisdom. Because there is moral perversity. There cannot, look, there cannot be a counterfeit unless there's a real to make the counterfeit from. We have moral impurity. We have moral diversity. We have moral dissension. People who dissent from moral standards that exist in our world today. We have that. And if we have that, there has to be a moral standard. And if there is a moral standard, how do we access it? How do we get into it? How do we receive from that fountain of purity? It is because we enter into the full value of what God has for us through his word. And what I'm telling you is that your conduct is regulated by the standard that you have. Now, last screen. Brother Williams, God ever be with you? Carl Williams, he's talking about, and your son in this great work, brother here, missionaries and so forth. How I appreciate this. Never, never get away from it, friends. He was talking about the choir singing and how good they looked and so forth. He said, Don't ever let the spirit of worship and that clean holiness ever die among you. Keep that light burning, for it's the lifeline of the church. It's Christ in his church. Do you get it? Keep that lifeline. Actual lifeline. And look, folks, it's not because you're doing great things. It's not because you got missionaries going everywhere. It's because Christ is in you, and that shows. That expresses itself. That lives itself out. And Brother Bram says, don't ever get away from that. He says, Don't let that spirit of worship and clean holiness. Don't ever let it die. Don't ever let it think that, oh, that was for another age, or that was for another time. We moved beyond that now. We've never moved beyond God's word. If it says it, we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And so therefore, those things become our identification. They become our calling card. They become the way we live. And Brother Bram said, that keeps you going. And he said, it keeps the light burning. It's Christ in the church. Your conduct. Believe it or not, now, your conduct actually represents Christ in the church. If you've got the right, if you've got the right understanding of things, got the right message, the right word, the right, the right understanding that's come to you. And you begin to reflect that in the way you live and treat one another. That's Christ in the church. Let's stand over feet. I'd like to preach another hour. I would. Because we're in a sense now we're on the edge of something here, and I just wanted to. I'd love to I'd love to keep going. But we will. We'll keep going. Let's say this. Let's say this today. And I want to live in such a way that people would. People would, even if they, even if they might think I'm a heretic heretic, because I disagree with the common way of thinking. Something something good about those people or something. They live right anyway. I'd like for people to be able to come among us and say, you know, they gotta they gotta love, they got a strength, they got a fortitude, they gotta revelation of things. Remember now, it's not it's not your diligence, it's Christ in you. It's Christ in the church that causes us to live the way that we live. What is that? Keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true, keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true. There's a race that I must run. There are victories to be won. Give me power every hour to be true. Sing it again now. Keep true, Lord Jesus, keep me true, keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true. Oh, there's a race that I must run. There are victories to be won. Give me power every hour, keep me true. Once again now, yes, keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true, keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true. There's a race that I must run, victories to be won. Give me power every hour, keep me true. I Jesus knows just what I need. Oh yes, he knows just what I need, he satisfies and every need supplies. Yes, he knows just what I need my Jesus knows, just what I need. Oh yes, he knows just what I need. He satisfies and every need supplies. Yes, he knows just what I need. Are you in sea? If the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwell in me, dwell in you, if the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwell in you, dwell in you, it will quicken your mortal body, if that spirit dwell in you, yes, it will quicken your mortal body, if that speech dwell in you again, if the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwell in you, oh dwell in you if the same from the dead, it dwells in you dwells in you, oh it will quicken your mortal body, if that spirit dwell in you it will quicken your mortal body, if that speech, oh sing it again now. Yes, if that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwell in you, dwell in you if that same spirit. That raise Christ from the dead dwell in you dwell in you Yes it will quicken your mortal body if that spirit dwell in you Yes it will quicken your mortal body if that spirit