24-0726A_THE MESSAGE OF GRACE PT-3 (FALLING APART)

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 

Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: 

Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 

Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? 

Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 

Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

Zec 4:7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. 

*THERE'S NO--THERE'S NO FOUNDATION NOWHERE. COMMUNISM, CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, POLITICS, MORAL, EVERYTHING HAS FALLEN APART.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  38    If that isn't the picture today, I don't know the world. It's looking for something to hold it together. It's just like it was two thousand years ago. The world two thousand years ago was looking for a Messiah to hold the thing together. But two thousand years ago, God gave the world a Messiah. Because if we're expecting something and looking for something, God will send it to us. And now, the world after two thousand years, has got back into the same condition it was two thousand years ago. She's dropping apart, nations... There's no--there's no foundation nowhere. Communism, Catholicism, Protestantism, politics, moral, everything has fallen apart.

And they're praying for a Messiah. But here's what I want to say: If He would come, would we receive Him, or would we do like they did? Would we refuse Him? Do we know what we really need? Sometimes we want--we pray for our desires, and sometimes our desires is not our need. We must realize that we do not understand what we need; we think we do. But God promised to supply our needs, and that He'll do.
 
*…IF YOU'RE A SENSIBLE THINKING FATHER YOU WOULDN'T DO SUCH A THING AS THAT; BUT YOU WOULD KEEP IT FROM HIM.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  40    Now, what if my little Joseph, seven years old, would want to go a-hunting with me, and would cry and scream to take my automatic shotgun loaded up with shells, "I can kill a rabbit, daddy"? Well, I--I could not let him do that, yet he--he thinks he needs it, but I know more about it than he does.

And what if your little baby of a year and a half old would see you shaving with a straight razor, and scream and cry for that razor? Yet he seen you shaving, he wants to do the same thing. Why, you know what's best for him. Yet you--you wouldn't let him have it, because if you're a sensible thinking father you wouldn't do such a thing as that; but you would keep it from him. And then many times that we want something that's contrary to God's knowing of what we have need of, so He wouldn't give it to us.
 
*HE CAME, AND--TO THEM, BUT HE DIDN'T COME IN THE FASHION AND IN THE WAY THAT THEY DESIRED HIM TO COME.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  41    And they were praying for a Messiah. They wanted a Messiah. But here's where it's at. They wanted Him in the way that--that they wanted. And God sent Him in the way that He wanted Him, and they refused Him. And they'd do it again today, do the same thing today. They'd refuse It again.

They do the same thing now as they did then. Why? For the same reason, the same reason. He came then, and we know He come. He came, and--to them, but He didn't come in the fashion and in the way that they desired Him to come. And if God would send us something today, we calling out for it, and the church, and when God sends it, we don't want it. It don't come to suit our denominational test. It don't come to suit our--our theological conception of it sometimes. But it's the--the very thing that we prayed for. The very request that we asked before God, God sent it to us, and we refuse it.

We want a Christmas gift from God, but we want it the way we want it. God sends it the way we need it. He knows what the nation; He knows what the church needs. But we think we know, but He knows really what it is.
 
*THE DEATH OF MODESTY.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  44    Now, as I said a few minutes ago, we come to this Christmas again, the world falling apart. Let's just name a few things that I jotted down here.
Look at the immorality of the world: never was in a lower state, hardly. I--I got an article here that I would just like to read a couple verses of it. It's found in a--a paper, a "Standard Bearer of Africa," says, "The death of modesty. Feminine modesty that beautiful quality that God has placed in the human family to safeguard its moral standard is dying today, as innocent mere women and girls have bowed their knees to the goddess of fashion and do not hesitate to confirm to the most extreme of shamefulness of modest modern styles." I got about a page of it here, how I never heard such a thing. "And sex appeal is regarded as legitimate both among Christians and non-Christians."
 
*THAT'S THE GOD-GIVEN QUALITY TO SAFEGUARD OUR MORALS.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  46    As this our precious Brother Arganbright and I came down the road early this morning, was talking about the subject. It's hard to find a girl with enough modesty to blush. They've heard so many dirty jokes and filth, and, why, you couldn't say nothing to make them blush. When a few years ago, no more than when I was a boy, a little thing wrong, their face would color up, a little thing pass by, and another little girl's little underneath skirt was showing in school, and I was standing, talk, and when she looked over and seen this little girl's underneath skirt showing, her little face turned red, and she walked away from me, a sixteen year old girl. Why, what a... That's the God-given quality to safeguard our morals.

Then can you wonder why I cry out against such nonsense as we're getting today, calling ourselves Christians, and women dressing and acting, and men smoking cigarettes, and everything else, and carrying on like this. And ministers in the pulpit, compromising, and won't even let you come to their pulpit to preach against such stuff. Wonder if we're not doing a whole lot today like they did back two thousand years ago.
 
WHAT WE NEED TODAY IS A MESSAGE ANOINTED WITH THE MESSIAHSHIP OF CHRIST.
 THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216
  48    Remember, when Israel got to doing that, God raised up an Isaiah. When that time was lived out, and they started again, He raised up a Jeremiah, on down through. And God doesn't change His way of doing things; He's the eternal God. He can't change. His first idea of doing it has to ever remain the same.

What we need today is a Message anointed with the Messiahship of Christ. But would they receive it? They pray for it, but would they receive it? No, sir, they wouldn't receive it. They crucify it like they did the first place. The human heart is deceiving.

Morality, national strife... Where was the world any more ready to fall apart in morals than it is today? And who set the--who set the pace? We Americans.

When I was at--at San Angelo in Rome, here not long ago, by the San Angelo catacomb, there was a sign up there to the American women to "Please put on clothes to honor the dead, before entering the catacomb." A religious nation, supposed to be a God-fearing nation, we're living on past experiences of other people, our forefathers which were Christians.
 
*NATIONAL STRIFE...

  50    National strife... There's never been a time in the world that this world was any more in a national tear up and falling apart than it is right now. Why, you see editorials, and newscasts, and--and commentators, and--and predictors, and so forth, saying of the bombs and what they could do: just any little nation destroy the whole world. And there's no peace among them. You can't bring peace that way. Peace and fellowship cannot come by--by politics; it come by Christ. They don't want to receive It.

How I could speak some things here: The corruptness in our own politics, why, politics is so rotten. You was hearing "Monitor" the other night, I suppose, or think this broadcast, hour or two out of Louisville here, where they connect across the nation. And they was giving... They do once in a while on different subjects, and they gave it on Mr. Nixon's turning away from politics when he lost his race, political race in Los Angeles, or through California, and would he ever come back? And when the broadcast, after two or three hours, I'd listened at it coming from down to Brother Charlie's house here, and listened at it coming up, Brother Wood and I, on the radio. And come to find out that Nixon, on all eastern country here, as far as the broadcast reached, from Mississippi to Pennsylvania, that he had beat Mr. Kennedy, and the people calling and expressing, almost four to one votes. Then a man stood and said, "If you hadn't have had crooked machines he'd be President." There you are. Politics, cheating, rotten on both sides. I don't blame him; I'd throw up my hands too, and let the nasty stuff corrupt. It's going with the world anyhow. But hold your hands towards Christ and say, "Here I come, Lord."
 
*AND THEN THE CHURCH CORRUPTION, OH, MY, THE RELIGIOUS CORRUPTION

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  52    National strife... And now, where you ought to think that they ought to be trying to hold together, they're so separated. That's the way it was in the coming time two thousand years ago when the world was falling apart. It's falling apart today under the same conditions.

And then the church corruption, oh, my, the religious corruption... Oh, it's ridiculous to see the world after two thousand years of the Bible and the Holy Spirit being here on earth, and today it's falling apart as bad as it was two thousand years ago. Religious corruption, politics entered religion, and religion entered politics. Such a horrible thing to see the condition... I know it's... You say, "Brother Branham, you oughtn't to be painting us a picture like this here at Christmas time." You ought to know the truth, what you ought to know. Now, how can...
 
*GOD WILL BLESS, BUT THAT BLESSING'S GOT TO COME UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS THAT YOU MUST MEET.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  54    God will bless, but that blessing's got to come under certain circumstances, certain requirements that you must meet. And if you don't meet those requirements, then the blessings and promises of God is non-effect to you. God promised to meet Israel as long as they kept those solemn feasts and things with--with sacredness and sincerity. God met them. But when He--they just went to making it just like a family ritual, then God refused to do it any more; He said they stunk in His face. So it's the same thing today, that we--we--we got to get back to what's the truth of the thing.
 
*DENOMINATIONAL STRIFE... WHAT CAUSED IT ALL, FRIEND, IS BECAUSE THAT POLITICS TOOK THE PLACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Political strife in the churches, we stand today with around nine hundred different denominations of Christianity each one fighting the other. Well, that's--wasn't quite that bad when He come, there was only about four or five sectors of them, Pharisees, and Sadducees, and so forth. But now we got nine hundred and something. Why, it's in a worse condition, the church is, at this Christmas, than it was nineteen hundred years ago at Christmas. Was in a worse condition now. Denominational strife... What caused it all, friend, is because that politics took the place of the Holy Spirit.
 

*THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO TAKE THE WORD OF GOD AND LEAD THE CHURCH TO VICTORY, BUT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND POLITICIANAL PROGRAMS… 

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  55    The Holy Spirit wants to take the Word of God and lead the church to victory, but educational programs and politicianal programs, creeds and denominations has led it in nine hundred different directions. So the church has no, the what's called church... I don't mean the real Church; she's still waves right on. Oh, yeah. She still stays the same. But what is called church in the world, that seems to be the--the framework that puts the--holds the world together, that knits what we call today the morals and things of the world, it's polluted. Its--its fibers are rotten, and she's... The termites of selfishness and--has eat the very foundations out from under her. It certainly is true. Now, just in the condition It said it would get, II Timothy 3, "Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," and so forth.
 
*CHURCH, PLEASE HEAR THIS….BACK TO THE WORD. THAT'S WHAT THE MESSIAH WOULD SAY.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  56    Then if we see politics in the condition that they are in the nations, and we see the churches in its corruption in its denominations, and yet we want God to come to us in those things... God will not come down in that gutter with us, under the things that we want Him to come by. He will not do it. He's holy, and He--He--He knows what's best. If we call, He answers us. And when He sends the answer, we refuse it. We want it the way we want it. And we try to get God, and try to save ourselves, by the very thing that's proven to us... Church, please hear this. The very thing that's godly proven to us, that's corrupted us, and yet were looking to that very system to save us. Back to the Word. That's what the Messiah would say.

Now, but we look to--to politics. We try for the national world; we try to save it through politics. The church wants our world saved (church world) through politics. This episode has struck the world time after time ever since the time of Moses: Same thing, politics trying to rule. And it's corrupt. There's no way a man can do it; there's nothing good in a man to begin with. That's the reason he has to die.
 
*I'D RATHER HAVE MY CONSOLATION BUILT UPON THE WORD OF GOD, AND THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST…

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  57    And when we--when we--when we see this world in this condition, seem to be falling apart in every age, when the world gets in that condition, the people prays. Oh, even the President calls for (What was it?) ten minutes or an hour or something of prayer. That won't do any good. What we need is not a praying, but a repentance, turning back, getting away from, forsaking. Come back to God. I'd rather have my consolation built upon the Word of God, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Presence of Christ, than all the security that politics or churches could ever give you. Certainly, 'cause I know That'll stand.
 
*WHEN THE WORLD…GETS IN THIS CONDITION, FALLING APART, THEN GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS THEIR PRAYER, SENDS THEM A PROPHET OR SOMETHING…

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  58    We didn't even have a nation, we'd been better off if we'd just have the nation of God, God's Kingdom. God always answers and sends them relief, but they don't want to receive it. That, God answers when the nation gets in these kind of conditions, every time. When the world, rather, gets in this condition, falling apart, then God always answers their prayer, sends them a prophet or something, some mighty prophet to blast it. But they won't listen to him. What do they do? Put him in the tomb. Jesus said, "Which one of you, your fathers didn't put the prophets out there in the tomb, and then white, make them white now, and build up their sepulchres? And you're the one that put them in there." That's right. "Which one of you?"

They cried for help. God sent it to them, and they rejected it. Then what, is God to blame or is the people to blame? The people's to blame. Certainly.
 

BUT GOD SENDS US PEACE. GOD SENDS US HOPE. WE DON'T WANT IT. 

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  69    He sent a Saviour, not to stomp out the nations. As we'd think today, we need a man who can stand up. America wants a man who will knock Russia to who wouldn't have it. Russia wants a man who will knock the rest of the world out and take them over to the moon. But God sends us peace. God sends us hope. We don't want it. Oh, say, "We--we can have peace; the nations wants peace." Truly. And they think they can have it when the U.N. gets together. Why, the U.N. is as far off of it as...

The peace that this world's got today is like a rubber balloon floating in the air: just every little wind can carry it anyway it wants to. Certainly. Any little change of politics just sways it from one side to the other. Can't say a prayer in the U.N. on account it might hurt the other peoples name, feelings that don't even believe in God. Oh, that's stabilization isn't it, just puff any way? And another thing, a balloon will blow up at anything too. Amen. And this world's so-called peace, by U.N. and so forth, will blow up. Right. There's no peace in that. Can't find peace by man-made achievement. It's not there. Carried away with every wind...
 
*LET HIS MIND BE IN YOU; YOU JUST THINK THE SAME, AND THAT'S HIS WORD. HE'S DONE EXPRESSED HIS THOUGHTS TO US.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  70    The church wants one. They want... Their peace is about waved about with every wind of doctrine too. Everything sweeps around, one of them say, "Oh, I think all we have to do..."

You think? You ain't got no think coming. God's done expressed His thoughts. You ain't got no right to think. "Let the mind that was in Christ be in you." And He purposed and done the will of God. He said, "If I do not the works of God, then don't believe Me." See?

You ain't got no think coming. He's the One does the thinking. Let His mind be in you; you just think the same, and that's His Word. How you going to think different? He's done expressed His thoughts to us. But we want to do our thinking, "I think they ought to do this."
 
 
*BUT HERE'S GOD'S THOUGHTS IN THE BIBLE. THAT'S GOD'S THOUGHTS EXPRESSED TO US.

THE.FALLING.APART.OF.THE.WORLD_  JEFF.IN  V-10 N-6  SUNDAY_  62-1216

  72    I was riding with a dear old soul yesterday, going up to pray for a sick child. And when we got to the sick child, the family didn't want us to pray for it; that was just this man's idea. However, on the road up, this lady said, an old lady about eighty-one years old, smart, brilliant woman, very nice, but she said, "I think what ought to take place (See? 'I think'), that all the churches ought to come together and be one." That's exactly what the devil thinks. But God wants a separation of His church from the things of the world. He don't want it mixed up in church politics. See? And what if God sent a Messiah to the world? And that--that lady was only thinking the thoughts of the whole world. What's the Confederation of Church but the same thought? What's the World Council of Churches but for the same purpose to achieve that very thought? That right? Well, then, lady, that lady only expressed the thoughts of the world.

But here's God's thoughts in the Bible. We ain't got no right to take different from That. That's God's thoughts expressed to us. We feel--find the world falling apart, and we're crying for something. Let's receive It. Now, if it receives and tries to lead us off to politics, that's the very thing that's corrupted us.
 
*BUT COME TO FIND OUT THAT CHRIST IS THE VERY HEART OF GOD.

WHEN.DIVINE.LOVE.IS.PROJECTED.SOVEREIGN.GRACE.TAKES.ITS.PLACE_  LIMA.OH  SATURDAY_  57-0126E

E-11    ….And that's the way it is with John 3:16. It isn't how much Scripture is written, it's what it holds. It holds a message to the world, that God so loved.

WHEN.DIVINE.LOVE.IS.PROJECTED.SOVEREIGN.GRACE.TAKES.ITS.PLACE_  LIMA.OH  SATURDAY_  57-0126E

  E-12    …..And when God so loved the world, God's Divine love to Adam's race, when He so loved it, Christ stepped out and sovereign grace took its place. God's love was met by sovereign grace. God gave His only begotten Son. You see it?

Now, I used to think that God was angry with me, but Christ loved me. But come to find out that Christ is the very heart of God. And in this beautiful type of the coming out of the children of Israel, how that Christ in type, was the smitten rock. And the only way that those people... After searching everywhere for water, they were perishing. And Moses, God's servant, took the judgment rod, which it was a judgment stick... It had brought judgment upon the unbeliever of Egypt, flies, gnats, all kinds of diseases, affliction. God's judgment stick that was waved in the hand of His servant, smote the rock, and rock gave forth its water, and a perishing people was saved. What a beautiful type of John 3:16.

  E-13    God loved the world that He... The smiting of the just judgments that belonged to us, they were all smitten onto Christ. And out of Him came forth rivers of living waters, speaking of the Spirit, that a perishing people might live. The waters of life coming from Him, a smitten sacrifice, an accepted One... And no matter how little... I love God for that.
 
*AND HE'LL CRY TO IT, "GRACE, GRACE, WITH SHOUTINGS AND CRYINGS." THAT'S WHAT IT IS TODAY: GOD'S AMAZING GRACE TO HIS PEOPLE.

  65    We've got theologians today; we've got Doctors of Divinity; we've got great men all over the world that's smart, intelligent, and educated. But it takes the simplicity of believing God to make His Word speak out to show that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Takes a humble heart dedicated to God, bring Jesus Christ unto present tense. Amen. If it taken theology, what would the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, and so forth, we wouldn't have a chance us poor unlearned people. But it doesn't take knowledge. "Not by power or by might, but by My Spirit," saith God, "I'll unfold this mystery." And he'll cry to it, "Grace, grace, with shoutings and cryings." That's what it is today: God's amazing grace to His people. How He takes the illiterate, the unlearned, shows that Jesus is the same.
 
*IT'S A ABSOLUTELY, GENUINE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD THAT BINDS OUR HEARTS TOGETHER IN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP AND LOVE.

WHERE.I.THINK.PENTECOST.FAILED_  SAN.FERNANDO.CA  FRIDAY_  55-1111

E-62    Love, God is love. "He that loveth is of God." Divine love, not affectionate love... There's two different kinds of love. Now, we know we get into this here "free love," and all kinds of stuff called love. But that's not Divine love. That's a mockery of the devil. You know that. There's two different loves: there's a love called "phileo love," and there's a love called "Agapao love."

A "phileo love," the Greek word, means "the love like I would have for you as a fellow, or my wife." You have for your wife a phileo love. Now, that love, if you'd catch a... You'd be jealous of her. If you'd catch a man insulting her, you'd kill the man for it. That's phileo love.

But Agapao love would make you pray for his lost soul. That's the difference. That's where people don't understand. See, it ain't some kind of an effectual, worked up mental condition. It's a absolutely, genuine Holy Spirit of God that binds our hearts together in Christian fellowship and love.

E-63    …..Then when God sees that you're moving on... Every son that cometh to God, must what? Be first chastised of God, tried, proven. Did you know that? You do that on any decision you make. God does it in making you. Every son that cometh must be chastised of God.

Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 

Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 

Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 

Eph 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 

Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.