23-1103A_THE IDENTIFIED CHRIST OF ALL AGES

Heb 13:1  Let brotherly love continue. 

Heb 13:2  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 

Heb 13:3  Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. 

Heb 13:4  Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. 

Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 

Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. 

Heb 13:7  Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. 

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 

***THE ONLY WAY THAT WE'LL EVER KNOW, TODAY, IF WE WANTED TO IDENTIFY HIM, TODAY, AND, I BELIEVE THAT HE RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  13      So many people have different opinions of Christ. As I travel in--in different parts of the country, and around the world, I find that so many people have their different opinions. You'd be surprised to know what some of their opinions are. Some of them thinks that He's just a wonderful teacher. Well, now, He was--He was that. That's just exactly. And many thinks that He was a great philosopher. Which, He was that. He, certainly, He was. And then some of them think that He was a--a good man. He, He was that. But, see, He was more than that. He was all of that, plus. Some of them think that He was a prophet. He was a prophet, but He was more than a prophet. He was what the prophets was, plus. See? So, what, how would we know now? If He was teaching of His teachings, He was a teacher and He was a great philosopher.

14    But the--the only way that we'll ever know, today, if we wanted to identify Him, today, and, I believe that He raised from the dead. I believe that with all my heart. And I believe that He's promised here, that, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." "And I am with thee always, and I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee."
 
*AND WE TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT GOD WAS, AND THEN DON'T SAY HE'S THE SAME TODAY, THEN THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG… AND, THAT, THAT'S A--THAT'S A FALSE CONCEPTION OF WHAT GOD IS.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  15      Now, those Words are, they're either true or they're not true. And if They're not true, then what are we doing here tonight? We are--we are wretched people, we're people that's--that's, well, we are deceived; the whole Christian world is deceived if He isn't the same yesterday, today, and forever, if He isn't alive tonight and with us as He promised. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation, or the end of the world. I'm with you always." Now, if that isn't the Truth, then there is something wrong, and we are--we are found false witnesses. Not only are we making ourself miserable, under a false pretense, but we are deceiving others. We are found deceivers, of something we're talking about, which isn't, if He's just a myth or He's just a historical.

16    What good is a historical Christ if He isn't the same today? What good is a God of Moses if He isn't--isn't the same God today? What good does it do to take your--your canary bird and feed him fine vitamins, to make him have pretty feathers and good strong wings, and then keep him in a cage? See, it doesn't do him any good. And we talk about how great God was, and then don't say He's the same today, then there is something wrong. We're caged up somewhere. And, that, that's a--that's a false conception of what God is.

17    The Bible plainly says, "He's the same," and that means He's the same. He's just as He was. He hasn't changed one bit, and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
 
*AND WHERE YOU HAVE JUST ONE UNBELIEVER OR A SKEPTIC SETTING AROUND, THE HOLY SPIRIT JUST CAN'T WORK, HARDLY.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  1g      The Holy Spirit is timid, very, very timid. And--and where you have just one unbeliever or a skeptic setting around, the Holy Spirit just can't work, hardly. Remember, Jesus led a man plumb out of the city, to heal him, one time, get him away from unbelief. He come into His Own city, and the Bible said, "And many mighty works He could not do." We don't want to think it that way, but the Bible said He couldn't do it. See? He cannot do nothing against your belief. You've got to believe it.
 
*IT'S ONLY TO BELIEVERS, THEY THAT BELIEVE. "ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO THEM THAT BELIEVE."

Someone has told me, many times, saying, "Brother Branham, I don't care what would happen; I don't believe It." Well, It wasn't to that person.

It's not to unbelievers. It's only to believers, they that believe. "All things are possible to them that believe." Unbelievers get nothing. And so they--they just don't believe nothing, so they get nothing. If they just got a cold theology, that's what they get. But those who believe in God, and believe that Jesus Christ is just as real today as He ever was, that's what they receive. "Just according to your faith, be it unto you."
 
*WE'RE BORN A CHRISTIAN. AND YOU DON'T JOIN IT. YOU'RE BORN INTO IT. THEN YOU TAKE THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

  1k      And so, Divine healing, the main thing is Divine healing of the soul. The Body of Christ, it needs healing worse than anything that I know of, is the Body of Christ. It's been so broken up by men's theology and denominational differences, until it's a sick Body. And I... And I tell you, it--it's needs healing, great healing. So I--I trust that the Lord will do a great thing towards the healing of His part of the Body that's in here.

We believe that there is one, one Church. And we never join It. Next Monday, I'll be fifty-five years old, and the Branham family never did ask me to join their family. I was born a Branham. That's how--that's how I am.

Now, that's how we're Christians. We're born a Christian. And you don't join it. You're born into it. Then you take the character of Christ.
 
*EVERY ATTRIBUTE THAT HE DIED FOR, AT CALVARY, IS OURS FROM THAT TIME ON, EVERYTHING THAT HE DIED FOR.

We don't heal the people. They're already healed. Every person is already healed. How many believes that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Now let's see how our congregation has been taught. There is two-thirds of them believes it, anyhow. Now, that, "He was wounded for our transgression; with His stripes we were healed." Every attribute that he died for, at Calvary, is ours from that time on, everything that He died for. "He was wounded for our transgressions; bruised for our iniquity; chastisement of our peace upon Him; with His stripes we were healed." We were healed, past tense.

Every sinner is saved. From the day that Jesus died on the cross, He forgave every sin of man.
 
***AND IF YOU'VE EVER GOT ETERNAL LIFE, YOU WERE IN GOD'S ATTRIBUTES…JESUS CAME AS REDEEMER. AND REDEEM MEANS "BRING IT BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED FROM."

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  1p      Now, God is a great--a great... like a great Being. "In the beginning God..." See? We... He wasn't even God, to begin with. God is "an object of worship." And He was called... There wasn't nothing, to worship. He was self-existent Elohim, and there wasn't nothing to worship Him. When He created Angels, then there was something to worship Him.

But in this great God, Elohim, was attributes. There was attributes in there to be God; attributes to be Father; attributes to be Son; attributes to be Saviour; attributes to be healer. All these attributes was in God. And if you've ever got Eternal Life, you were in God's attributes, because you got Eternal Life. Jesus came as Redeemer. And redeem means "bring it back to where it started from." Right. You were in God's thinking. He might have to breed this with that, and down here and down here.
 
***HE IS NOW IN YOU. YOU ARE HIS ATTRIBUTES.

He is now in you. You are His attributes. If you've got Eternal Life, your life always was. And you was God's thinking: the color of hair, whatever you are, you was God's thinking, and you're just materialized.

And that's what God was when He was materialized in Christ; God, displayed, manifested in flesh, in Christ. He became material; God that we could touch. First Timothy 3:16, "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: for God was manifested in the flesh." See? See? It was God being manifested, getting ready.
 
*BUT GOD HAS MADE AN APPOINTMENT, AND MAN MUST DIE AND FACE THE JUDGMENT. AND YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP THAT APPOINTMENT, FRIENDS. JUST REMEMBER THAT.

The food you eat makes blood cells. Blood cells builds your body. Every time you eat, you renew your life. When you were one year old, on up, on up till you got about twenty-two. And then, now, you're eating the same food. I'm eating the same food I did at sixteen. At sixteen, every time I eat, it built muscles and big and strong. I got my full matured. And then after fully matured, I'm eaten the same food, and better, and more of it, and I'm getting older and weaker, all the time. But every time I renew my life, then I wouldn't have to die. See?

But God has made an appointment, and man must die and face the Judgment. And you're going to keep that appointment, friends. Just remember that. And while we're here, tonight, we want to remember those things, that we've got to meet that appointment. There might be many you'll stand up and get away from, but that's one we're sure, every one, to meet. And now, in that, it's appointment that God has made with man. This body must, because it is yet negative. It's subject to death.
 
*SO DOES YOUR PHYSICAL BEING DIE, TO BE FORMED AND MOLD INTO THE IMAGE OF HIM.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  1t      So, He gets the Eternal Spirit, His attribute displayed in that body, then, like any picture in its negative form, it goes into the darkroom. There it's developed. It comes out to the perfect picture. And we go into the darkroom, but to come out after the negative has been a perfect picture, in the image of Christ. We go into the dark grave, into the darkroom for developing. It takes death to develop it.

Just like it takes death, to yourself, to develop the picture of the image of Christ, the life of Christ in you. You have to dump your own out, so that Christ can come in. You have to die to your self.
So does your physical being die, to be formed and mold into the image of Him. But there is still that attribute that cannot be destroyed. It can never be destroyed. It's God, in the beginning. It's God above us, God with us, God in us. And it's all the attributes of God: Eternal Life to the sons of men.
 
*ALL AGES HAS BEEN THE SAME. HE IDENTIFIES HIMSELF UPON THE EARTH, IN MAN.

26    And then, usually, man gets It so twisted up, and the world gets in such a shape, until He has to send some man, anointed. All ages has been the same. He identifies Himself upon the earth, in man. God does nothing without man. The Bible said so, you know. See? He always takes man, 'cause it was man He had to use, and let the man... Put him on free moral agency, knowing that he would fall, in order to display His attributes as a Saviour, for there was nothing lost. And, therefore, He chose man. He could have chose stars, He could have chose trees, but He chose man.

27    One time, standing, looking upon the harvest; Jesus, He said, "The harvest is ripe. The labourers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His harvest." And He was the Lord of the harvest. See? "You have not because you ask not. You ask not because you believe not. Ask abundance, that your joys might be full." See? He is depending on you asking, and believing that you receive what you ask for.
 
*REMEMBER, THE BIBLE SAID, "HE'S THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND FOREVER. WELL, IF HE WAS THE WORD IN THE BEGINNING, HE'S THE WORD TODAY, BECAUSE HE ALWAYS IS THE WORD.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  19      Remember, the Bible said, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." So we'll have to find what He is, out of other ages; to know what He was in the age that He walked on earth, the age before He walked on earth, and the age after He was on earth and left the earth. We'll have to find out what He was, to know what He is today, always, 'cause He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, but, in otherwise, we'll have to go back and search out, to see whatever He was.

20    Now we find out, in Saint John the 1st chapter, beginning with the 1st verse, it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Now that's the attributes, His Words; they're thoughts now, they're not expressed. See, "In the beginning is, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. In the beginning was the Word!" Well, if He was the Word in the beginning, He's the Word today, because He always is the Word.
 
*WE FIND OUT, IN THE DAYS OF MOSES AND ALL DOWN THROUGH, THAT HE--HE IDENTIFIES HIMSELF EACH TIME BY HIS PROPHETS.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  28      Now, then, in the beginning, we find out that He lotted His Word. We find out, in the days of Moses and all down through, that He--He identifies Himself each time by His prophets. The Bible says, "He does nothing till first He reveals it to His prophets." And, remember, God is unchangeable God. He never changes. He remains the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

29    Now we find out, in each age, that man gets into God's program. They draw up their own mind, and it looks good. It looks good, very fine. And sometime it's so close there might be one word different, but that one word means the difference between death and Life.

30    It was one word that started this whole ball a rolling, when Eve disbelieved one phase of God's Word. Remember, she didn't... Satan didn't just kind of throw the whole thing off. He said, "Oh, surely This will be this way, and This is that way, and God so-and-so, but surely He won't do this."
 
*BUT HE SAID HE WOULD DO IT, AND, WHEN HE SAID HE WOULD DO IT, THAT MAKES IT SO.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  31      But He said He would do it, and, when He said He would do it, that makes it so. See? Just, you must believe every phase of It. No matter what It says, believe It anyhow. If you can't explain It, believe It anyhow. You cannot explain God; no one can. God is known by faith, not by science. You believe God by faith, because He said so, and that settles it. As long as He said It's so, that cures the case. He said so; don't make any difference how much science says It's not.

32    Noah, Noah couldn't explain how water was up in the sky, 'cause science said there was none there. But if God said so, He is able to put water up there, so that--that settled it. See, he just believed God.

33    Always, the man who is anointed with the Word, believes what God said. Regardless of whether he can prove it, or not, he believes It anyhow. God does the proving.
 
*GOD IDENTIFYING, INTERPRETING HIS SCRIPTURE FOR THAT AGE, AND IT'S ALWAYS CHRIST. IT'S CHRIST IN EVERY AGE.

THE.IDENTIFIED.CHRIST.OF.ALL.AGES_ LOUISVILLE.MS  WEDNESDAY_  64-0401

  37      Now, the trouble with people, today, we find them living in the glare of another age. Just like Jesus found when He come, He found them living in the glare of the law, and ignoring what was to take place in His age. You know what's the matter today? What's the matter with the...

38    What was the matter with the Lutheran? Well, because they were living in the glare of the Lutheran age, when John Wesley found the secret of sanctification. They couldn't go, because they were living in the glare of Luther's age.
What happened to the Pentecostals?

39    Why, Wesley was so organized, until he was living in the glare of another age, they was in Wesley's age, when the baptism of the Holy Ghost fell upon the Pentecostals. See, they were living in what Wesley said, sanctification. It was hard for them to believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the restoration of the gifts. They was living in a glare of another age.

40    And that's what they was doing when Jesus come. Said, "We have Moses. We, we have Moses."

41    He said, "If you'd have knowed Moses, you'd have knowed Me. Moses wrote of Me. Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life, and They are They that testify of Me." That was the Scripture that was supposed to be.

42    God identifying, interpreting His Scripture for that age, and it's always Christ. It's Christ in every age. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's always been Christ.