THIRD MESSAGE (Part I)

Place: Life Tabernacle, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A
Date : 20.7.1969 (a. m.)

Let us pray. Loving God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you because you have called us for a great purpose. We thank you because you are living today, we thank you because we can feel you and we fear you and grow with you and walk with you. Lord Father, this morning open our understanding. Speak to us directly Lord. Lord we like to hear from you. The Bride wants to hear from you Lord. Open our understanding to know thy secrets of thy word. Lord we thank you for bringing us back to God’s Word through the prophet whom you raised up, Lord. Lord help us to meet thee, Lord help us to understand thee, Lord. Help us to know thy leadings and go with thee, all for thee. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask, Amen.

Sit down please. Praise be to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know sometimes when there is something new, which is revealed to us from the Word it thrills us and as you know it gives us extra strength. But the Bible, I have read for 25 years many times. My wife read 15 times before marriage, over and over. And everyday something new appears, but when we read an ordinary book, once you finish the book that is all. There is no revelation. That clearly shows man has to grow. If you can learn the whole thing in one day, like an ordinary book which you can read and finish it off there is no growth necessary there for a man. That is why God wants the Bride to grow and tells the people in so many wonderful ways just like the mother teaching the children.

Suppose a child is born, the father wants to teach the child, but the father doesn’t have patience. When a son comes and asks the lazy father doesn’t hesitate to say, "Get out boy and don’t worry me". But what does the mother say? "Come on let me teach." And to teach the children, suppose the mother says, "Say k-i-n-g, king and the child says g-i-n-g, ging. You must therefore have a lot of patience to teach the children. So God has been teaching man all along from creation. He has been teaching man to find God. Just like a teacher or mother teaching the children, with pictures.

You may say, "How did God teach man?" First of all, before anything was written, until Moses things were not written because God revealed the whole history to Moses in the vision on the mountain. And He said write this in the Book. So Moses wrote this in the Book. But before then how did man go along with God? Was God absent? No. God was teaching them like children. They didn’t know to write or read, they knew only to kill or fight, or do something like that. If you go to the jungle, they will not know how to read. I know a certain jungle in India; if you go to work among the hill tribes and you laugh at them they will kill you. So they tell you earlier don’t laugh. Because they think that you are fooling them and they will come and kill you. So we have to be very quiet; we don’t laugh even if something funny happens, we just keep very serious with a 6 O’clock face. You know what a 6 O’clock face is? Christians must have 2.45 face, but many times you know we have a long 6 O’clock face.

So this God of ours, taught the people. How did He teach about Jesus Christ? He just wrote in the heavens. The Zodiac signs, the 12 Zodiac signs were the redemption story. Then the Devil perverted that into astrology. But if you will notice our Zodiac sign starts with virgin, virgo. But the Devil’s zodiac starts from Ram, goat. That proves which is Devil and which is God. If you see any astrologer, he’ll chart his zodiac sign from goat.

But God’s people always start from virgin, virgo. That is why the oriental kings or the wisemen of the East saw His star in heaven, and they said we saw His star; that real God has a star. And that comes from the Virgo sign, virgin sign, with a branch in the hand, and that star is one in the constellation of stars called Branch. That’s why Jesus is called the Branch and He comes in the sign of the virgin. So from the Virgin, if you take all the twelve zodiac signs, it ends in Leo, the Lion. So we have come to the place where the Lion is roaring. And when the Lion roars, it is the end of the redemption story. So you see the astrologers in some newspapers, reading your horoscope, they’ll tell, "This week for you." They’ll say something is going to happen to you, what is your lucky star. In all the zodiac signs, you’ll find that there’s a man having a balance or scale. That’s judgement.

There’s a fish, and a man is pouring the water, but the fish opens the mouth and drinks all the water which signifies the Holy Spirit. So you see all along there, the good God of ours drew pictures for children to learn it easily. And all along in the 12 zodiac signs, there is also a goat. And then you can see what a goat is, rejected people on the left side of God on judgement. Then there’s a serpent there. And you can see all the things, pictures. You’ll find the whole redemption story there. And man was following God, and he knew what God was, what He looked like, from that sign. And then he called everything a name, Virgin, Lion, Goat, Fish, like that. And there is a zodiac sign called twins; two witnesses, you know. It was proof it was from God. So he had everything in the picture. And I’m sure God must have spoken to them and explained to them like a mother. And all these people would not have understood. Because I have seen in teaching my own children, you say c-a-t, cat, they’ll say t-a-c, tac. It’ll be backward. And the teacher sometimes comes, "Mr. Lawrie, your sons are mischievous." I say, "why?" "They beat the children." And I call them, "Children, why do you beat them? Can’t you learn?" "Daddy, we can’t keep quiet, when others come and fight with us; we have to punch thier noses. But the teacher says, "Your sons are fighting." But actually what happens, they forget and punch because I am a boxer. So the children want to be boxers. They are exactly what you are. You know, children imitate the father. My son went to the college, and someone told him, your daddy was a terrible fellow; fights and boxes and beats everyone, and he won’t have mercy. He’ll beat anybody, he knows all the arts of figting, was a foremost foot-baller, athelete. So he told my boy, "You’ll never make a fighter like your daddy." He said, "Yes but, I have that courage in me." So he took a cycle and was in a cycle race, and most of the college boys took part, and he was one of the boys who finished this long ardurous race and got the prize. Then one day, a boy came with a bleeding nose. "Your son beat me here." My son said, "Daddy, you were just like that. So what do you want us to do? We can’t control that." But when he came to the realization of God, he changed the other way. So what did he do? He set out, took the Bible and started preaching. I said, "why are you doing what I do?" And then he went to a meeting and said, "Please leave Daddy, don’t come." So I slowly took my car and went in the night and saw 5,000 people sit before him. Preaching, two hours. Small fellow, twenty two. And he started praying for the sick. The people are healed. People are filled. And he said all those that want to be baptised, come tomorrow. So I slowly slipped off. Next day, many people came for baptism. So I called my son and said, "Boy, you can take charge of my work in India; carry on." So now, day before yesterday he wrote, 1,000 people want baptism, they want you to return soon to India to baptise them, all Hindus. So you can understand about the mercy seat, they’re still getting people saved. So don’t think God has left everything and finished. You know, in the Song of Solomon, there is something important. If you are patient enough, and study the Bible....It was revealed to me from Canada to go to Chicago and I’ll tell you. So if you have the Bible, just read it.

First of all, God always taught the people what to do. So what did the people do? They wanted to see and believe. Now listen, this is the trouble all over, even today. The foolish virgins want to see something BIG. But God wants to show something big in the Word. That’s the trouble with man. Now he looks at the moon trip - Wonderful. What has he accomplished that God has not accomplished? He is going there to see what God has made. But man didn’t make the moon. But with all this moon landing, it never occurs to man what a big God we have, Who created the moon? We think about the wonderful moon landing, but never for a moment think what a great God we have, Who hung that ball in the heavens, the space. If we have that realization, then we know who we are. Man never realizes that he is standing on something which keeps on rotating, but any moment it may fall down.

But it is gripped by the Word of God. When I left my job, I thought God would let me down. But remember, six and a half million people going from Egypt to Canaan. All of them had food, all of them had water, to all of them everything came right to their home. But how did God manage? Some people say if all the people leave their jobs and go, do you think God will manage? Yes, much more than that. Some say yes, I’ll believe on God, but the trouble is, they have not that heart to follow Him fully. And I tell you, for the last 25 years, not one day has God let us down. Until now he has protected us. Today, many people say, it is impossible. But one day I was in a Christian Community. So one brother said, "Brother, I’m in difficulty, I got into some debts, I want some money." Now listen, I am a full-time worker, I have no money in my hand, but he tells me that he has no money. He is a business man. So I told him, "You want the money, yes I can pray." "Pray for money?" "Yes, you want the money, my God can give that to you." He said, "These Christians will never give you any money." "Don’t worry brother, the money will come from the roof." I prayed and within about five minutes a Hindu walked into the room. "I saw Brother go into this house, is he here?" "Yes." "Brother, I want to give you money." That was exactly the amount which this fellow needed. I took it and said, "Brother, here." "He said, "Brother Lawrie, your God is a wonderful God." That businessman asking a pauper for money, and God helping this pauper to give that businessman money. That’s the God we have. Has God done such things to you in your life? It is wonderful. Every man has a testimony. Don’t live on another man’s testimony. The trouble is, "Oh, God visited that man." WHAT ABOUT YOU? So, many people say, "Oh, God was wonderful to Peter, John and Jacob. What about YOU?

When I was in England, I had no money to send to my wife. My wife used to depend on me, I used to depend on my wife. So when I’m in trouble, I send a telegram to my wife, she has the money. If I want money, she sends it. When she is in trouble, she’ll send the telegram, and I’ll send the money. But one day, God took me to England and money could not be sent here out of India. And I could not send money into India, because I had no money. Three months my wife was telling, "Oh, I don’t know how I am going to live." Three children were there. So one day the children wanted fish. They said, "Mummy, we are near the seashore. Everyone eats fish, but you don’t give us fish?" She got so worried and said, "Your daddy went away somewhere and he never wrote us a letter even. I don’t know where he is, not a cent for three months. You better go and ask your Daddy’s God. So go and pray." So these boys took it seriously, and went to the room, "Lord, we want fish, Lord, we want fish, Lord." They prayed, and went out of the house. When they came to the door, a big fish fell right in front of them out side the front door. They took the fish and said, "Mummy, God has given fish." A big fish, not a small one, not a little fish. So my wife said, "Hey, God hears your prayer also." Why not? They had a nice fish meal. Then she wrote to me and said, "My, my, God is hearing the prayer of these children." Then later on, after three months we heard that this fish was bought by a big police inspector, as his wife went to wash the fish, an eagle took it and dropped it at our house. You say eagle, you talk about eagle, I enjoy the eagle. You can have pictures of the eagle, my friends you know some of the people are like Catholics now. They want pictures everywhere. We can have the prophet’s pictures no doubt, but they have become so fanatical on pictures.

There’s a lot of eagle business going on now. In every shop you find eagle pictures because they are saleable in America. But in India, they worship the eagle. Now suppose an Indian comes to your house, he will say, ‘Oh, we worship the eagle, they are also worshipping the eagle’. You come to India, they see the eagle in flight, they’ll worship it as their God. So, you can have pictures of eagle, but does the eagle do anything for you as it has done for my children? Try the eagle, he’ll do something for you. He was God’s messenger to send fish for my children, obeying the command of God to answer children’s prayer.

So first of all, God used pictures and everything and what did man do? He wanted to build a big tower. And what did he do in the tower? He wanted to put up a big tower, reaching to heaven. But can man reach heaven by building a tower? If you read that particular book, he did do something on the tower. If you read that book clearly, what did they do? They put the whole zodiac signs in a picture form and put it on top of the tower, "the top with heavens" so that they could think about and worship the zodiac signs instead of worshipping God through that. So they put up a big tower to reach these planet. Now today what is that sign? It is the emblem of the people who are flying to the moon today. Eagle now is on the top of the moon. So now don’t think you are having pictures of the eagle just in your home. It is going on the top of the moon. That is the emblem now.

So what happens? These people have the emblem of the zodiac signs on the tower and God said, my people whom I taught by pictures, they are worshipping the pictures instead of me. So he came down. When something like that happens, God comes down. You say God coming down is incredible? You want someone to say He can’t do that? But I tell you, if you turn to the Song of Solomon, it is said about the foolish virgins. Song of Solomon 5:2 onwards. "I sleep, but my heart waketh." What does it mean? I am sleeping, but I am thinking about God. Everything is all over for the foolish virgins. And what does it say? "And the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;" She’s undefiled, dove, everything. "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." What does the foolish virgin say? "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? What has she done now? She said, when you put on the coat, what does it mean? Going out for the service of the Lord. She says, mercy seat is over, everything is finished. I have taken off my coat. How can I put it on when I have taken it off? How can I go and preach the message of going to the people when I have preached already that the revival is over, mercy seat is over, how will I eat my own words? You eat your own words, or you won’t be a Bride.

Some people have preached through their hat, now they have to eat their own words. So they want to stick to their words and talk like that. If you are not a foolish virgin, you are to eat your own words and say I’m sorry, I’m mistaken, I’m coming out to God. But what do they say? I have taken off my coat, no more saving of souls. GOD IS NOT DEAD! GOD IS LIVING! So God is livng even though He has come down from the mercy seat, he has come down to see the Bride. So there’s mercy in the Bride. If you are a Bride there will be mercy through you. There is power through you. There’ll be revival through you.

And if you are not a Bride, you are dead, because you have taken off your coat and washed your feet. Why do you wash the feet? After doing all the ministry, washing the feet, talking to you and saying, "I have finished brother, I am waiting. I am going to go with the Lord Jesus when He comes." You are not going in the rapture, you are going through the tribulation. And the beloved comes and knocks at the door. Today He knocks at your door. What does He say? My beloved, open. What did he say in Laodicean Church Age? I’ll knock at the door, if any man opens the door, I will show him a vision or a dream? What did He say, "I will sup with him and eat with him". GOD IS COMING TO EAT WITH YOU AND SUP WITH YOU. And if you open your heart, you’re going to see something different. Get rid of your crude ideas, everything, He is saying I am knocking at the door, if you open the door, I’ll come into your house, and sup with you and you with me. We are going to be eating, dinner, lunch, that’s wonderful. You are going to have a fellowship, that close fellowship with God, just like Adam and Eve had. Jesus talking to them. Like Abraham and God had before destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. How can a Bride live without God talking? How can the Bride live without God’s message? You say everything is over? You are up to the boundary of Jordan. I’m not come to tell you that I am a big man, that I’m your leader.

We have one leader, Jesus Christ. Do not look to a man. Jesus Christ will come to your home, come to your heart and come to your life. You’ll see Him moving in your life. If I could see Jesus Christ in my life, talking to me, walking with me, why can’t you do so? Is this God partial? Bride is a part of the Body of Christ. Move along with Him. Take dictation from Him, the head. The whole body moves. But did you notice one thing? If there is scratching to be removed from the body, I cannot manage without my fingers. Without that I cannot do anything. The face cannot clean itself. If you want to clean God’s face, He has to count on the body. Without the body, God cannot do anything, my friends. And you must be a body of Christ or just be a worldly person? Just look at Christ and enter in and walk with Him. And what does this lady say? "I have put off my coat, and how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" Then what does God do? "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him". Now sleeping virgins, what does God do? He knocked and knocked and knocked, this girl won’t get up.

So at last what did He try to do? He put His finger into the hole and tried to enter. And the beloved sees what? What does she see? She doesn’t see the Bridegroom, she sees the FINGER OF THE BRIDEGROOM. When she sees the finger, then the heart is stirred. There’s somebody there. Then she opens the door. What has happened now? "I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh." They’re all sleeping, nice scent, everything. What’s that nice singing, everything nice. Everything’s smooth. Nice picture, nice group, nice tapes, everything. Message is going on. But you mean to say in India these people are going to hell without these tapes? I believe there are genuine God’s people in our country also. They don’t have tape recorders. I do have a tape recorder, but most of you have all the tapes. There, nobody has a tape recorder. But they’re on GOD’S WORD. You tell something, they catch it. But American people don’t catch it. They say, what does the tape say? Better say, what does the Bible say? Go to the tapes through the Bible. Don’t go to the Bible through the tapes; then you’re all wrong. That is why people who know the Word of God, easily know Brother Branham is the prophet of God, but they don’t worship him. They know there’s one to be worshipped, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you are a true seed of God, you’ll know that the Lord put his finger through the hole, to wake you up, because you would not open the door. The church people didn’t open the door.

So what did He do for the Bride? He put the finger into the keyhole and said, "Come on, I’m out here, I’m getting wet. You don’t open your heart to me". Then the foolish Bride and good Bride all got up. Opened the door, and what happened? "I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone; my soul failed when he spake." Now she is telling, when he spoke, my soul failed. She’s a foolish one, he’s gone. "I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer". Why? The door was shut. "The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me". Now listen, here the foolish virgin, she goes about now, she is searching but God is gone. So now she says, "Oh, my lamps are running out, I’ll go and see Him". And what do the watchmen do? They took the stick and smote her, you stay here, sit down, revival is over, everything is over, shut up.

Mercy Seat is gone, sit in your seat, come to the church, all is over. So what do the watchmen do? Preacher do? Take the stick and smite right on your head and say sit down, God’s all gone. They smote on your head. "Then, I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." What do the watchmen do? They smote this foolish Bride; took away her veil, and now she is naked. Everybody can see the nakedness. "Oh, where is God?" Not only the watchmen smote them, but the keepers of the wall....keepers of the denominations...keepers of the denominational spirit. They all were smiting, slandering, that’s what is happening today....the board and the committee. Tomorrow they are going to do the same thing for me, Brother Lawrie, that thief. But I know, the time is up. They’ll smite you. Be ready to receive smiting. They’ll wound you, they’ll slander your reputation, they’ll attack you. Be ready to stand up.

And what does the foolish virgin do? "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell Him that I am sick of love." Then she gives the description of the Bridegroom through the FINGER. You know, she gives the description of Bridegroom, not by looking at face, but through the finger, through the keyhole. So she says, "my beloved is white and ruddy. Oh, He is wonderful, His lips are red." So she had a revelation of the Bridegroom, only through the finger. But she never had a full revelation of Christ. So she tells, "Oh my beloved is wonderful. Oh I looked at his hand; white as snow". But the Bride will have a revelation of the head and everything, not just the finger. Do you know why the foolish virgin can’t see; is blind? Because the veil is taken off. She tries to see now, and what does she see, she saw only the finger, finger of God. And she made a denomination out of that, and said, all right, so she tried to go, she goes out. He is gone. After going, she gets a revelation of the finger. Then what happens, now what does God look like? Now suppose, Christ, when He came, the prophecy told that He will be going as a lamb for the slaughter. What does the Bible say.... about the burnt sacrifice? If you want to atone for your sin, you must bring an ox, and then give a burnt offering. So all is typed in the Old Testament. That is why God said, Remember Moses. Why? Moses gave commandments like pictures for the Bride to come to full revelation. So I cannot understand why these people who are in this message omit those two verses, Remember Moses. They don’t want to take it. So do you know why? If the Bride sees that Book, she will find out the Lord. If the Bride doesn’t see that, she will stop at Jordan. That is why they omitted Moses. They omitted also turning the hearts. Elijah comes to turn the hearts, that is all. His work is over. Not to take you from here to eternity. You know why?

Jesus came to die once. He is not coming down to die again. You know something. If God died today, again ..... if Bro. Branham represented the last stage of ministry, he could not have died. Because this is God taking charge. Because here no man can interfere. God has come there. It is His look-out, He will do the work, quick work. That is why He said the Lord will do a quick work.

It is not a work going through Books or television and radio. It is by the SPOKEN WORD. THE Bride WILL HAVE THE SPOKEN WORD MINISTRY. WHEN SHE TALKS, SOMETHING HAPPENS. And the foolish virgins will have a book ministry. Bride loves Spoken Word ministry. Why? Because she has seen the Master. And then who gets jealous? The book Bride. Oh! We are on the Books. But WE are on the WORD OF GOD. The books should bring you to the WORD OF GOD. BUT TODAY, THE BOOKS TAKE THE PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE WORD OF GOD. That is not the Bride. You may get angry with me, but when I go away I am happy because I am giving you something which is truth which is in the Bible, and I challenge anybody. This is not against the Word of God. That is why people say, "Oh!, he is not in the message, be careful". You are not in the message? Then what is the message, be careful". You are not in the message? Then what is the message? To be on the Bible. Sometimes people think like this. I love Bro. Branham, I have seen him, I know what he is. People do not tell me, believe like this. One day a man said, if you don’t believe like this, get out. I said believe like what? Believe like we say. That is terrible joke now. Thank God. The Bride is still on the Word and watching. So the Bible said, "He will come like a lamb for the slaughter. So you must go to Moses’ book, see what the lamb sacrifice is. What an ox sacrifice is?

Now let us come to that. What is a sacrifice? First of all, God wanted to talk with man. So He told Moses, make a tabernacle. And then, that tabernacle is the picture of the Gospel, everything. There was only one door. I AM THE DOOR. What is the meaning? I am the way, into the house. He said, I am the way. What did He mean by I am the door. If you have a door, if you want to come to this building, I open the door and walk in. But suppose I climb on the roof and everything, and come in that way; I am a robber. Why? If you try to lead a holy life, you are a robber. But if you come into holiness, just into God, you get Holiness. That is the door. You don’t struggle to get holiness..... people who are struggling for holiness, you are robbers. You can’t get holiness without Christ. I tried and tried and tried, every time, I failed. You try and succeed ? Don’t be liars, no man is ever good. Sometimes people ..... Oh! They look like saints, but they are hypocrites, you know. Go into their homes and see. They say I am trusting God. Go into their homes and see. Always the private rooms. I have travelled to many Pentecost churches. In fact I thank God He took me to every denomination.

And what did I find? They preach one thing, something against what they do inside. But we preach what we are. That is why people can see what is in the Bride, because you must be guileless as doves inside, but outward you look like serpents. You don’t look like fools, or they will just come and sit on your head. The wolves come in sheep’s skin. So we look like sheep in wolf’s skin. That is scriptural, Bible’s messages and all. So the wolves come only that way, not in any other way. Then you say, that preacher says, this preacher says.... compare the Word of God. When I told a brother, if Bro. Branham told anything, I won’t take it just because of the Prophet; I will come back to the Word of God, and then I will take it, only if it is true to the Word of God. Then you know what they say? You must take all what he says. No, I will take only what he says on the Word. Then they get angry. And what happens here? Within these two, some trouble comes.
 

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