Mark 01 verses 1-12 - The lowly Servant

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Sex was never the original plan of God

Sin started in Eden.

Eve was punished for being pregnant. She had conceived.

GENESIS 3:16   Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;

Eve was supposed to be Mary. She was meant to bring forth the virgin-born Son. Jesus would grow up, have no sin to die for, and then He would call up all His saints from the dust of the earth.

(Jesus will do this on the day of the resurrection).

Then there would have been just the right number of people to dwell on the earth. No extras to burn in hell.

Adam and his bride were a spirit-being in Genesis Chapter 1. (They were only put into physical bodies in Chapter 2).

So, in Genesis Chapter 1, God wanted them to produce by spiritual multiplication. Eve bearing the virgin-born Son and Jesus creating all His saints from the dust.

GENESIS 5:1   This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

God is a Spirit. Only the spirit of man can be in the likeness of God, not the body of a man.

Creation means to make out of nothing. Only the spirit of man is created out of nothing. Our bodies are made from the dust.

GENESIS 5:2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them,

and called their name Adam,

in the day when they were created.

The feminine attributes were in the masculine spirit of Adam.

GENESIS 1:28   And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

The fruit has its seed in itself.

GENESIS 1:12   …and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself,

after his kind:

Elizabeth said to Mary.

LUKE 1:42   And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

A baby is the fruit of the womb.

LUKE 8:11   Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Fruitful means the seed is in the fruit.

So, Adam and the woman were to bring forth a Baby (a fruit) Who had the fulness of the Word in Him.

This could not be done by any human effort.

They were supposed to wait on God until His Holy Spirit overshadowed the woman to conceive Christ.

That was the only conception that was part of God’s original plan.

When Jesus had grown up, He would have called all His saints from the dust.

That would have been similar to what will happen in the resurrection, except that nobody would have died.

But for Eden to last for eternity, everything had to be very precise. All creation had to be perfect. There was no tolerance for error.

Everyone had to move in tune with God's Will because God alone knew how to build for eternity.

Yet, to be in God's image, each person's spirit would have to have free will.

When Eve sinned, it was like throwing a bucket of gravel into a finely tuned high-power motor. It was a disaster. The creation was ruined.

We find that God changes from “multiply” to “greatly multiply”.

GENESIS 3:16   Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception

Eve chose to bring forth life through sex.

This means many would be born who would never serve God and thus never reach Heaven. All these extras who were never part of God’s original plan would also have to be born through women. This greatly multiplies the number of people who would be born, due to human free-will.

In addition, born of sex we are sinful people obsessed with self.

Ultimately, sin would have to be paid for.

Sex was the original sin so the Saviour had to be born outside of sex by means of the Virgin Birth.

So, Mark presents Jesus as the suffering Servant Who, as the strong Scapegoat, carried our sins far away down to hell to dump them on the Devil, the father of sin.

In Mark’s Gospel, there is no mention of the birth and childhood of Jesus. We meet the Servant as an adult who is qualified to do the work.

We judge a servant by his competence and dedication, not by his birth.

The new salvation plan was the Gospel of Grace

Satan’s sin at the beginning eventually produced God’s reaction in the form of the Gospels.

MARK 1:1   The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

The “Son of God” is the Man Jesus that the Spirit of God dwelled in.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

All of God's Spirit lived in Jesus.

JOHN 4:24   God is a Spirit:

God is not flesh and bone. So, the Man Jesus is not God. The Bible never says “God the Son”.

But you are everything that is in you. Because all of God lived in Jesus, that made Jesus God.

There was no Gospel in the Old Testament. Just the works of the Law that were centered around the Temple sacrifices.

But now a new salvation plan was dawning. The Gospel of Grace.

Sin entered Eden and when Adam was questioned about this by God, he made excuses.

The weakness of humanity is our desire to blame others. Our inability to own up to our own faults and shortcomings with brutal honesty. We do not want to be held responsible for our actions.

Adam’s big mistake was that he never repented but preferred to find excuses for his behaviour.

Eve preferred to blame the serpent rather than acknowledge her sin.

God then decided that if He was going to have any real interaction with mankind, it would have to start with sincere repentance and admission of sin on the part of mankind.

No excuses would be accepted.

The Gospel could thus only begin with human repentance and the acknowledgment of our human inability to save ourselves.

This forced mankind to believe in a Saviour Who was to come.

The Saviour Who alone could forgive sin and establish the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God put the emphasis on spiritual issues,

not on the political desire of the Jews to chase out the hated Romans.

Not on the love of money, position, and power that obsessed the Jewish religious leaders.

Especially their power to take the people's money.

MATTHEW 3:1    In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

:2     And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

God sent a prophet to the wilderness. Loneliness. Away from the crowds. Not seeking popularity. There was7 nothing to gain in the wilderness.

People tend to serve God for personal gain which is a big mistake.

They think, “If I do that then God will reward me”. This love of self-gain makes God sick.

We should serve God because we love Jesus.  Because we love the Bible and we love our fellow humans.

JOB 13:15   Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:

If God’s plan required Job to be killed, then Job was prepared to obey God.

Job did not serve God in order to prosper.

Job actually continued to serve God despite all that he lost.

So, John the Baptist began the Gospel with the foundation-layer of repentance.

Bethabara shows that the Gospel will Cross Over

JOHN 1:28   These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John preached in the wilderness near Bethabara, “the house of the Crossing” where Joshua had crossed over the river Jordan.

Jordan symbolizes dying to self.

We repent and our sin crosses over to Jesus which is why He had to die.

Then His innocence crosses over to us which is why we gain eternal life.

If you do not sincerely repent and die to yourself then you are never going to get far with God.

The big crossing over was the Gospel that the Jews would reject.

Thus Salvation, which was of the Jews in the Old Testament, would cross over and go to the Gentiles in the New Testament.

When He died, Jesus crossed over the River of Death and carried our sins down to Satan in hell. Then He rose from the dead to prove that He had crossed back again over the River of Death.

Thus, as the first fruits of the resurrection, He guaranteed that He could guide us over the River of Death to Heaven because He had paid the penalty for sin on the cross and down in hell.

Then raising our bodies from the dead, or changing our bodies if we are still alive, will be no problem for Him as we cross over from this mortal life to be caught up to our immortal life with Him in the air at His Second Coming (often called the Rapture).

After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the apostles then established the New Testament church. Calvary was the first prophecy in Genesis.

GENESIS 3:15   And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,

and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The heel of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream would be where salvation crossed over from the Jews to the Gentiles. Thus, Jesus took the place of the heel to make sure that our salvation was achieved.

LUKE 4:8  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, …

Jesus only worked with what was written.

Jesus believed that the Word of God was perfect and He quoted the Word to the Devil to chase him away.

Consider this analogy.

Satan, coming up behind Jesus as a snake would bite Him in the heel, injuring Him for less than three days during which He could not walk and lay in the tomb. A temporary delay which He overcomes within 3 days so that corruption cannot set in.

There is no corruption in Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. Thus there is no corruption, no mistakes in the King James Version of the Bible. That is what the unleavened bread at the Passover represents. A perfect Bible, an Absolute.

Why is Jesus is the Word of God? Because the thoughts in the Bible are His thoughts. And His thoughts are perfect.

But Jesus injured Satan in the head, and that wound will ultimately prove fatal to the Devil.

Meanwhile, the Devil’s brain is affected and damaged by the injury and he is unable to confine his thinking to Scripture. He keeps moving outside the Bible to pick up plausible unscriptural errors. After a severe head injury, blood leaks into the brain and this pool of blood swells. When the swelling blood pushes against the brain, death occurs. So the Devil is on borrowed time. His doom is guaranteed.

Satan lost his battle against Jesus, the Man, at Calvary.

Then the Devil switched to a new target to attack Jesus as the Word of God.

Satan's big enemy is the King James Bible. He has convinced so many that the 1769 edition of the King James Version of the Bible is flawed. Translators have produced over 100 different versions of the English Bible, all different in places. Thus modern-day Christians are becoming increasingly convinced that there is no perfect Bible. Many openly state that the Bible contradicts itself. As a result, they have no absolute foundation on which to rest their faith.

Satan's triumph is that the churches in the end become convinced that the King James Bible is flawed.

GENESIS 3:14   And the LORD God said unto the serpent…

GENESIS 3:15   And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The Child in Mary’s womb had no human father. Thus, Jesus was the woman’s Seed, as no man could claim that Seed belonged to him. This was the Seed of eternal Life.

The serpent’s seed is a sperm cell (shown below), the seed of natural life that is born of sex that has to die.

Thus, God cursed the serpent that was the most subtle beast, a mammal, that was closer to man than the apes. God turned the serpent into a snake or reptile as that is the creature that looks closest to the male sex cell.

Born of a woman, humans are left with a belly button scar. This is the mark of the beast on our bodies.

When life is over the human body lies in a grave that leaves a scar in the earth.

At the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate the people who were born of women then took the mark of the beast into their foreheads where their minds are, by rejecting Christ who is the Word. They preferred Barabbas, the man of death.

MARK 15:7   And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

Today churches condemn and reject the 1769 King James Version of the Bible, just like the Jews rejected Jesus.

The Gospel crossed over from Jew to Gentile when Jesus, after His death and resurrection, crossed over from Hell to Heaven.

The everlasting Gospel is Repentance

Peter, the great fisherman, pulled in the Jews on the Day of Pentecost, then the Samaritans (part Jew, part Gentile), and finally the Gentiles so that they could receive the Holy Ghost.

Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Peter replaced the baptism of John with the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38).

So, the water baptism of John the Baptist was changed, but not the initial repentance.

Then Paul, the tentmaker, stitched together Law and Grace as he showed us how the New Testament emerged from the Old Testament. Explaining that we need to die to self so that Christ can come alive in us.

This established the first church age that was built on the New and Old Testaments.

The Jewish candlestick with its 7 branches describes the seven church ages.

The churches then elevated human leaders above the congregation and thus human opinions replaced the Scriptures. Unscriptural words like Trinity, Good Friday, Christmas, and 25 December took over the beliefs of people.

The basic Gospel truths were lost in the Dark Ages as the Christian God lost his name. The church could find no one name for the three People in their Trinity Godhead. Instead, they came up with unscriptural ideas like "God the Son" and "God the Holy Spirit". Thus they moved ever further away from what the New Testament apostles had established.

EVIL means moving away from the New Testament's first church age.

LIVE is EVIL turned around.

Then truth would be restored during the last three church ages. The Bride would return to the New Testament beliefs of the first church age that was set in order by the apostles.

REVELATION 14:6   And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

This angel or messenger to the fifth church age was Martin Luther in Germany. He preached salvation by faith in Jesus alone.

The everlasting Gospel of repentance which applies to everyone who wants to make it to Heaven.

We have to believe in Jesus as our personal Saviour.

John the Baptist was the beginning of the Gospel, and he preached repentance and that the people should believe in the Saviour Who was soon to come. The Gospel always starts with repentance and believing in Jesus. Going to church regularly does not make us Christians.

Genuine repentance makes us Christians if we believe in Jesus as our personal Saviour.

REVELATION 14:8   And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Babylon, the Roman Catholic or denominational church system is fallen spiritually into unbelief by leaving the Bible for human traditions, and it is also fallen physically into sin.

Drink. Fornication. These evil habits are condemned. This angel or messenger to the sixth church age was John Wesley in England with his holiness preaching.

REVELATION 14:9   And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image,

and receive his mark in his forehead,

or in his hand,

In the forehead is the brain or mind.

Brainwashed to believe unscriptural church doctrines.

Protestant denominations are the image of the Roman Catholic beast.

A loud voice.

REVELATION 10:7   In the days of the voice of the seventh angel.

William Branham from America, between 1947 and 1965, revealed the hidden mysteries of Scripture so that we could be restored back to the apostolic faith of the apostles and the New Testament.

Mind control is exercised by the church leaders who ignore William Branham and who force their people into believing things that are not written in the Bible. Then people slavishly work for their churches. There are 45000 different types of denominational and non-denominational churches. New churches keep popping up as new church leaders get unscriptural people to follow them.

62-0318  THE  SPOKEN  WORD  IS  THE  ORIGINAL  SEED.2

Now, she left Jesus, the Word; Jesus, the Word; and married another man, called the pope, with dogma. Now she hasn't got Jesus. She's got a pope. Now we haven't got...

The Protestant hasn't got Jesus. It's got a denomination, same thing, an image unto the beast. So, she can't give Word-Birth to her children, none of them. She is a harlot, herself.

The Bible said she was. "She had a cup in her hand, and was giving out her doctrine to the people, which was an abomination, the filthiness of her fornication." What is a fornication? It's living unclean. And for her doctrine she is giving to the people, is the filthiness of her fornication. "And the kings of the earth, and all were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." Exactly right. Look at them. Boy, they would cut your throat, in a minute, for that. Not only Catholics, but Protestants.

…  And a Pentecostal church is just as bad, a bunch of jumping, and shouting, and speaking in tongues, and things like that. When it comes down, enough temper to fight a buzz saw, and turn you out of their congregation. If God come in there and raised the dead, if you didn't agree with them, they'd run you out if you don't belong to their organization.

The Gospel moved from Germany to England and then to America.

MATTHEW 24:27   For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Paul warned the elders of Ephesus.

ACTS 20:29   For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

:30     Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things,

to draw away disciples after them.

Human church leaders are elevated in self-importance and insist that people must follow them.

MARK 1:2  As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

God in the past used the prophets Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 to predict a messenger to come before the First Coming of Jesus.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). Thus, He never changes.

Jesus uses the message of William Branham to forerun His Second Coming.

54-0515  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS

Just the same thing He said when I baptized right down here on the Ohio River, many of you was standing there, twenty-three years ago, right on the Ohio River that Light, Angel, come right down to where we was at, and said,

"As John the Baptist was sent for a forerunner of the first coming of Jesus Christ,

your Message will bring the second coming of Jesus Christ."

The importance is placed on what brother Branham preached, not on him as a man.

A voice in the wilderness to chastise religious leaders

MARK 1:3   The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

The First Coming saw the prophet John the Baptist bringing a wake-up call. And the Jews only had about six denominational groupings like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenees, Scribes , and lawyers to take the people away from the Old Testament truth.

Today, before the Second Coming, we have 45000 different types of churches and denominations that are all different but are all claiming to be the truth. It is a real spiritual swamp. We certainly need another prophet with a wake-up call.

John was in the wilderness and very unpopular. Rejected by the synagogues (today, we call them churches) where people huddled together bluffing themselves that they were serving God. But they were just making up beliefs that suited themselves. They were not being Scriptural.

John did not restore anything.

He brought a new water baptism that the Jews had never had.

John also came to introduce the Messiah to Israel. This was a brand-new event.

John had nothing to do with the Temple or with the Jewish religious leaders. This was unheard of as far as the Jews were concerned.

John was ahead of his time. He knew the Temple sacrificial worship was rotten with corruption and about to end.

MARK 1:4   John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

The wilderness. A tough and lonely place. Following the leading of God is not the path to popularity.

Few people wish to believe in the Bible's truth.

MATTHEW 7:14   Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

We have to search for truth and be prepared for rejection.

MARK 1:5   And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Judaea, in the above map, is the green region

John was rough, tough, and unconventional. He shook up the Jews of that region. He asked for no money and called the religious leaders a bunch of snakes with their poisonous preaching. Yet the people flocked to him. They knew that he was a real and uncompromising prophet.

MARK 1:6   And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

Camel’s hair. Cheap and easily obtained, yet tough and rugged. There was no prosperity gospel here.

After the original sin, they placed fig leaf aprons over their loins. We instinctively cover up what we sinned with.  God replaced this futile man-made religion with animal skins.

Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden, covered in blood-stained skins. Eve’s virginity was broken and her blood was shed by the serpent, the most subtle beast or mammal that was above the apes. The serpent was cursed to crawl on his belly like a snake. He was obviously lying on his belly when he sinned.

Like a snake he had a forked tongue as he mixed truth with error. This is what John the Baptist detested most in the Jewish religious leaders. Their mixing of Scripture and man-made traditions. Pharisee, Sadducee, and Rabbi were never part of the Law of Moses. Yet these unscriptural positions had now been elevated to be the religious leaders.

Today we have unscriptural Popes, Cardinals, and Archbishops as church leaders.

So, the Jewish religious leaders used their position and power to turn the people away from Jesus, Who was the Word of God. Like snakes, they had the poison of religious error in their mouths.

Original sin was caused by an animal shedding blood. So, the shed blood of an animal would atone for sin. Thus, Adam and Eve walked out of Eden with their loins covered in blood-stained animal skins.

But John knew that a new Lamb was coming to pay for sin.

In a graphic reminder of how God forgave sin in Eden, where sin started, John wore skins over his loins. But he knew the perfect Lamb Who was coming would somehow provide the Blood that would properly atone for sin.

Honey is the one food that never rots. The everlasting Gospel is repentance. Repentance never becomes obsolete nor time expired. It remains a powerful antidote against sin.

Locusts, in their destructive capacity, are a symbol of demonology. John ripped them to pieces with his teeth. Thus, he ripped the hypocrisy of the religious leaders to pieces. He greeted the religious leaders of his day as if they were just a nest of snakes or vipers.  Serpent seed. Snakes were the end product of the serpent’s sin. Prattling man-made doctrines for payment, not preaching the truth.

MARK 1:7   And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

John was the messenger and forerunner of the First Coming. But He knew that the Messiah Who was to come would be far, far greater than himself.

To even compare the forerunner to Jesus is absolutely wrong.

“The latchet of His shoes”. His shoelaces.

The feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s Gentile image represented the seven church ages.

The feet are thus the symbol of the church ages.

Foot washing symbolized washing the seven church ages in the water of the Word.

(John the Baptist gave a sort of preview of this by baptizing the people in the river Jordan).

The revelation of the written Word opens our minds to the truth which washes the unbelief out of our brains or minds and allows us to work for God instead of working for a church or denomination.

In the natural, feet are covered in shoes that are tied up with laces.

Peering through the tied-up laces, all that can be seen is the tongue of the shoe. So, Pentecost majored in tongues, which is a useful gift of the Spirit, but one of the least gifts.

I CORINTHIANS 12:31   But covet earnestly the best gifts:

The first gifts to be mentioned are wisdom and knowledge and faith.

The word of knowledge means that you can understand the symbols of the Word so that you KNOW what a Bible verse means.

The word of wisdom is what is needed to join the different verses together to reveal a theme or pattern in the Word, which is a revelation of a deeper Scriptural truth.

If the feet are symbolic of the seven church ages, then only at the end of the seven church ages could a prophet come along who could reveal the mysteries of the seven church ages.

These mysteries were sealed up by the seven Seals that start in Revelation Chapter 6.

Undoing or revealing the mysteries of the Seals is the same as undoing the laces of the Lord’s shoes.

John the Baptist knew that was not his ministry.

“The latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose”.

So, another Elijah would have to come later at the end time.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

John the Baptist was already dead by this time. But another Elijah will come in the future who will restore the end-time church, as the little children, back to the original New Testament doctrines of the apostolic fathers.

The mysteries of Scripture were revealed by William Branham in America. But we, as the little children, have to prove his revelations for ourselves from the Bible. We have to be able to follow his revelations through the various Bible verses that link up to prove that what he preached is Scriptural.

MATTHEW 17:12   But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

John the Baptist had come and gone and the Jews had not grasped what his ministry was about.

William Branham would also come and go and the people would not recognize that he was trying to get them to base their beliefs on the patterns, that he revealed in the Bible, for themselves.

It is not enough to quote him like a parrot. You have to be able to prove that what he taught is all written in the Bible. Thus, you must be able to prove your beliefs just from Scripture.

If you cannot do this then you have missed what brother Branham’s ministry is all about.

When brother Branham revealed the first six Seals, he spiritually undid the laces on the Lord’s shoes to reveal His feet which represent the seven church ages.

The Seventh Seal was never revealed as it refers to the mystery of the Second Coming of Jesus. This is the biggest mystery in the universe and is very complex because it takes us out of space as well as out of time. Thus, nobody will know it until it happens.

If a person is still in space and still in time (getting older) and still has blood in their body and still has a belly button as a result of natural birth, then they are not part of the 7^th Seal. The belly button is the mark of the beast on our bodies that dooms us to die if the Lord tarries.

In their changed bodies the Bride will step out of space and time as they ascend to Heaven.

They will have no blood in their new bodies, nor a belly button.

The wise virgins will understand the Bible mysteries

If you look at the Ark of the Covenant. The mercy seat is caught between two cherubims.

The mercy seat at Calvary is revealed in the four Gospels which are held between the two Testaments, the New Testament and the Old Testament.

The four Gospels are part of the New Testament but only Jesus knew what was going on. As far as the church is concerned, the New Testament begins in the Book of Acts. The Life of Jesus in the four Gospels is thus a connecting link between the Old and the New Testaments.

Rather like Abraham's covenant in Genesis Chapter 15 when he cut his 3 sacrifices in half and then a light (the Holy Spirit of Christ) moved between the two halves of each sacrifice.

The 3 sacrifices represented the three stages of restoration of the truth in the 5th, 6th, and 7th church ages.

MARK 1:8   I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Now we come to the real meaning of the Holy Spirit baptism. Understanding the Scriptures.

DANIEL 8:27   And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision,

but none understood it.

Daniel understood the Hebrew words but he had no idea what they meant.

JEREMIAH 5:21   Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding;

which have eyes, and see not;

which have ears, and hear not:

People can read the words but have no framework or Big Picture to fit the Bible verses into. A picture is a revelation. A clear picture or pattern that runs through the Bible.

When Jesus spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus He explained His ministry as it was described by all the prophets.

LUKE 24:27   And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Jesus painted a picture of a suffering Messiah and then ran that idea through certain Bible verses that were found in all the prophets of the Old Testament.

Joining all those verses together into a complete picture was Wisdom and the “picture” they formed was “understanding”. This process is called revelation.

As each verse fitted into that framework or context, they understood the content of that verse.

Thus, for the first time, they had the true knowledge of each verse.

False teachers will paint a different picture but then cannot get all the Bible verses to fit that picture. Thus, they ignore or change the words in the Bible. They also have to introduce words and expressions that are not in the Bible. For example Trinity, Christmas, seven-year Tribulation, Pope, etc.

This is deception.

DANIEL 12:9   And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

In the end time, we have no excuse for not understanding the Big Picture. God will reveal the mysteries and will require of us that we can fit the Bible verses into this Big Picture.

In other words, take what brother Branham preached and prove those ideas just by using the Bible. In the same way that Jesus just used the Old Testament Scriptures to prove Who He was to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus.

II CORINTHIANS 13:1   In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

We need at least two witnesses. The quotes of the prophet must be confirmed by Scripture.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

The evidence of the Holy Spirit baptism is our ability to let Him guide us into an understanding of Scripture.

II CORINTHIANS 3:6   Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit:

for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Reading a Scripture without having a deeper revelation of what it refers to is not going to really help us.

MATTHEW 5:18   For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Every aspect of the Law has a reference to some deeper spiritual truth. The natural law and its ceremonies may have stopped but now they have a deeper fulfillment.

ISAIAH 42:21   The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake;

he will magnify the law,

and make it honourable.

The natural items of the Law refer to a much deeper spiritual truth.

For example:

LEVITICUS 19:19   … neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Linen refers to the righteousness of saints.

Wool refers to a judge’s wig.

Not mixing wool and linen no longer applies physically as it has found a deeper fulfillment.

The righteous saints in the Bride will not go to Judgement Day to be judged. They will do the judging.

The righteous missing the judgment is also applicable to the Bride

being caught up to meet the Lord in the air while the rest of the world goes into the judgment of the Great Tribulation.

I CORINTHIANS 6:2   Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?

REVELATION 19:8   … for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

DANIEL 7:9    I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like the pure wool

:10   … the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Thus, the law gets magnified. It no longer refers to the practical issues but takes on a much deeper spiritual insight.

The natural Passover lamb finds its fulfillment in the death of Jesus on Calvary as the Lamb of God.

ISAIAH 42:21   The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

In the parable of the sower, the good ground represented the ability of a person to understand the meaning of Scripture.

MATTHEW 13:23   But he that received seed into the

good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it;

which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

When Jesus fed the 5000 He wanted the disciples to understand why 12 baskets of rejected scraps were collected.

MATTHEW 16:9   Do ye not yet understand,

neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

When Jesus fed the 4000 He wanted the disciples to understand why 7 baskets of rejected scraps were collected.

MATTHEW 16:10   Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

The doctrine of the Pharisees was like rotten leaven (yeast) that would make the Jews of that time reject the Gospel of Jesus.

Then the disciples would gather those rejected Gospel scraps that the Jews did not want and present it as the New Testament to two groups of people, the church during the 7 church ages and then the 12 tribes of Israel during great Tribulation when the 144000 meet their Messiah.

12 and 7 are the two numbers that we meet in the Old Testament Tabernacle.

The 7-branched candlestick represents the light of the Gospel during the 7 church ages.

The 12 tribes of Israel are represented by the 12 loaves of shewbread that had to be eaten in the Holy Place. That is why the Jews are returning to Israel to meet Messiah.

Jesus is the Head of all the saved people who form His Body.

The head is joined to the body by the backbone or spine. The first 7 vertebrae form the neck. The next 12 vertebrae are connected to the ribs.

Nature is the third witness that testifies to the truth of the Bible.

Jesus now comes onto the scene to fulfill all the Scriptures that pertain to His ministry.

MARK 1:9   And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

Why was Jesus baptized? He knew no sin.

II CHRONICLES 4:6   He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them:

such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them;

Jesus was our offering for sin. He had to pay for our sins on the cross and then as the Scapegoat He carried our sins far away down to hell where sinners would be burnt. But He was perfect and could not burn though He walked through the fires of hell to dump our sins on the Devil.

REVELATION 1:15   And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace;

So, going under the water, where a person cannot breathe, represented the grave where His Body lay while His Holy Ghost won the victory down in hell. His Holy Ghost was our burnt Offering. The Holy Ghost went down to hell in our place, carrying our sins, but He was so perfect that hellfire and all its demons could not touch or burn Him. Thus, He was able to dump our sins on Satan the father of sin.

A ghost is the spirit of a dead person.

Then Jesus rose from the dead as He had won the victory over Satan, Death, Hell, and the Grave.

The Holy Ghost is the Father of Jesus

MARK 1:10   And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

Coming out of the water symbolized Him rising from the dead.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The fullness of the Godhead is all of God’s Spirit that dwelled in Him bodily. But God’s Spirit can project anywhere just like a TV picture of an actor can project anywhere outside where the actor is standing.

While Jesus sat on the mercy seat in Heaven He was able to project His Holy Spirit down to earth as a Pillar of Fire to speak to Saul on the road to Damascus.

Jesus sits on the throne in Heaven but is able to project His Spirit into the hearts of men and women who are born again.

The Lamb of God (the human Man Jesus) was to be led by the anointing of the Dove, the great Holy Spirit of God.

This is God’s plan. Human beings are to be led and guided by God’s supernatural Spirit which both indwells us and anoints us so that God can guide us.

MARK 1:11   And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Christians say the voice came from “God the Father”. But there is no mention of “God the Father” in the Old Testament nor in the first three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Who is was the Father of Jesus?

The man who places the seed of life in a woman’s womb is the father of the child.

MATTHEW 1:18   Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together,

she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

:20   … Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:

for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

So, the Holy Ghost is the Father of Jesus.

Thus, it was the Holy Ghost speaking when He called the Man Jesus, “My beloved Son”.

The success of Jesus as a Man was His unquestioning obedience to the Spirit of God which both indwelled Him and anointed Him outwardly.

John the great servant introduced a greater Servant

Mark introduced John the Baptist as a great servant of God who shook up the whole of Judaea and baptized Jesus in 11 verses. This man was a bundle of energy. He hit Judaea like a spiritual whirlwind.

Competent, energetic, and knowing what he had to do were the characteristics of a great servant.

Now Mark introduces a greater Servant. Jesus Himself. A Man of intense action who did not spare Himself. He knew His goal and He pursued God’s Will with a relentless focus.

MARK 1:12   And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

“Immediately”.  There was no laziness in Jesus. He was the ultimate Man of action.

God’s Will is not our human self-will.

Jesus sets the example as God’s Spirit drives Him away from humans and popularity.

Humans do not grow when we are comfortable.

There are few comforts in the harsh wilderness.

But that is where the Spirit of God molds human beings into subjection to God’s Will.

A harsh journey lay ahead. Christianity is not for sissies.