The Stature of a Perfect Man

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Love is the Capstone of your personal pyramid

2 Peter 1:5   And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6     And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7     And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

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But that's the stone that caps the whole thing, that makes it the pyramid through the complete seven church ages. Add … add this, add this, there's seven adds, the last one is Christ.

Christianity is built upon the foundation of faith.

But the individual must add seven worthy and righteous qualities to his or her faith.

The seventh addition is the love of God, which is Christ Himself as the Capstone sealing off the life of the individual as the Holy Ghost baptism.

We need to know what makes our faith effective.

James 2:20   But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

So Peter will explain to us what the 7 righteous qualities are that we need to add to our faith to make our faith work better so that we can achieve God’s will in our lives.

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There is seven qualifications to make the stature of God 

[for each individual].

… Peter is saying, here, how that we must be partakers of His divine nature. Now, each one of us are trying to grow into the stature of God.

… Faith is the key to unlock the way to become a virtuous Christian in the stature of God and be a living Tabernacle for the living God to dwell in.

Ephesians 2:8   For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9     Not of works, lest any man should boast.

God’s grace operates through our faith. But this faith does not come from ourselves, God gives us the faith that we need as a free and undeserved gift.

This is the crux. Our faith must produce good works, but it has to be Christ in us Who does those good works.

Good works have to meet at least two requirements:

1. What we do must be good, kind, helpful, considerate, and so forth in the eyes of man.
2. But our works must also line up with God’s revealed Word for our seventh church age of the Laodiceans.

If our works are unscriptural then God will not classify them as good, even if people are impressed with them.

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… God above us, in the Father; God with us, in the Son; God in us, in the Holy Ghost.

The same God in three manifestations.

God reflecting Himself in mankind (as individuals). God reflecting Himself in His church (as a group).

God has to create these qualities within each person. No person can produce these qualities by his or her own efforts or abilities.

Romans 4:5   But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

We must not regard anything that we achieve for God as being due to our own efforts.

Philippians 2:13   For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God gives us the desire to serve Him, and then God works in us to achieve His will.

Only believe what is written in the Bible.

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Or, a vulture trying to eat with a dove,  a vulture trying to be a dove. Could you imagine a buzzard out there, say, "You know, I'm a dove," and put a few feathers in him, say, "See, I look like..." See? He'd just be all out of shape. That's a man who professing to be something when he's not. See, you can't do it.

You can't say, "Now look, I'm supposed to have virtue, so I'll have virtue. I'm supposed to live godliness, so I'll just have it." Why, you're only trying to place feathers. Though they're in your reach, but you can't put the feathers in the wrong bird. See? It just won't work. And it only shows what a hypocrite that bird is. See? Could you imagine an old buzzard trying to have couple of dove feathers, say, "Looky here, see, I'm a dove"? See? Why, we all know he's a buzzard. See? See? That's all. We can tell that he's a buzzard.

Well, now that's the way it is, trying to manufacture Christianity. You can't do it. The first thing you've got to do, is be born again. You've got to be changed. See? And when you're changed, you become a new creation. Now you're getting right, now. See? Now you don't have to worry about the feathers, it'll take care of itself, when you are born again. Yes, sir.

Like I've always said. You take a hog, scrub him up and put a tuxedo suit on him, and turn him out there; he will go right to a mud hole and wallow. Cause, you see, it wouldn't do any good. He's a hog. That's his nature. Wallowing is his nature. You've got to change his nature, and the rest of it will take care of itself.

Now notice. You must be born again, that is, changed. There's got to be a change.

You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I know this certain woman over here, why, she never did do anything wrong. She's a good woman. Or, this such-and-such a man, he's a good man. He never does anything. You know he doesn't harm anybody." That doesn't mean one thing. He might make a good neighbor, but he isn't a Christian until he's born again.

Faith

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Faith believes God's Word. …  "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God."  That anchors it. It's there.

Romans 10:17   So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

We only display faith when we are being Scriptural.

Following a man-made tradition or doctrine, however sincerely, is not the faith that God is looking for.

Romans 14:23   … for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

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… Faith does the rest. So you must have faith for a foundation. All Christianity, all you are, all you'll ever be, is based upon faith in the Word. That's the reason I believe the Word.

… First, you must be born again. And then when you're born again, you have faith; you believe the Word. Until you're born again, you'll argue against It. If you're just religiously inclined, and you got a little human knowledge that you should do right, you'll never be able to agree upon the Word of God. You'll never do it. You've got to be born again. And, born again, it produces faith. All right. Then, after you get faith, this right here, f-a-i-t-h, faith, then you're just in position of growing.

In order to develop our faith, we have to go through trials.

1 Peter 1:7   That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,

To purify gold the people used to beat it to knock all the impurities out of it until the beater could see his face reflected in the shiny gold. We get hammered until we reflect Christ and His Word.

Now we come to one of the saddest Scriptures in the Bible.

Luke 18:8   ... Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

In the end time, almost nobody will believe the Bible.

There will be too much opposition to Bible truth. People will no longer have the strength to withstand error.

Matthew 10:22   And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Saved from the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. We need the strength of endurance.

Virtue

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Faith alone won't do it. Peter said, "Then add virtue to your faith." You must have virtue, in order to add it to your faith

…. Virtue is strength, power

…. Now, Peter is talking about building the House of God, see, the Temple of God, fixing it to a place… Before you can give out virtue, you have to have it.

Proverbs 31:10   Who can find a virtuous woman?

A woman is a symbol of the church. The true church is the Bride of God.

Who can find a church that has the virtues of God?

Virtue is moral excellence, the practice of duty, purity, and the power of producing the intended result.

Virtue is the strength to stand up for Scripture when all around you people are going for human opinions and popularity.

Knowledge

In the end, the written Word of God will be rejected by the church because Jesus is the Word.

Revelation 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

With the written Word being rejected in favour of man’s quotes and traditions, Bible knowledge gets less and less in people’s minds.

Hosea 4:6   My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:

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Knowledge, now, that don't mean worldly knowledge, 'cause that's foolishness to God; but knowledge to judge, judge what?  Right from wrong. How do you judge it, then, if you've got Christian knowledge with your virtue and faith? You judge whether the Word is right or wrong. And if you can lay aside all your creeds, and all your unbelief, everything that you claim you have done, then you have knowledge to believe that God cannot lie. "Let every man's word be a lie, but Mine be true." See? Now you're getting knowledge. That's supreme knowledge.

… When you got true virtue, add it to your faith. When you can walk out here on the street, live like a Christian, act like a Christian, be a Christian, add that to your faith. When you have knowledge.

You say, "Well, I don't know now whether this Scripture is just right. Now here is Acts 2:38, I don't know how to go about it with Matthew 28:19. I don't." All right. You don't add nothing, 'cause you ain't got It yet. See? What you going to do?

Because, you haven't got knowledge enough to know of God, yet, that the Bible doesn't contradict Itself.

Leave it alone. Don't say no more about it. See? Leave it alone.

But when you can see that the Scripture is not contradictory, that you can say that; and can see, that, by the revelation of God, the whole Word is wrote in mysteries, and only the knowledge of God can reveal It; then when you get and say, punctuate every Word of God with an "amen," then add that to your faith. Oh, you're getting to be a pretty good man right now. See?

You're coming up,

… Judge whether it's right or wrong, I should be born again or join a church.

Then you beginning. Judge right, when the preacher says, "The days of miracles is passed." The Bible said, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." Now which you going to believe?

(The preacher or the Bible).

… Christ never sent me to build organization. Christ sent me to build individuals to the stature of Jesus Christ,

that they might be the powerhouse and the dwelling place of the Spirit, by His Word.

…  And then after you're born into it, these are the things that He expects you to add.

… let the knowledge of God, when it comes to right and wrong.

When the Devil presents something that's not exactly Scriptural, walk away from it. That's right.

Proverbs 1:7   The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

True knowledge is when we fear to disagree with what is written in the Bible.

Isaiah 5:13   Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge:

Lack of Bible knowledge snares the believers who initially get saved by a personal relationship with Jesus.

These people easily take their eyes off the Bible as they are entranced by eloquent preachers who spread the net of enticing church opinions and traditions.

Soon they belong to one or other of the 45000 different types of churches and denominations rather than belonging to Jesus.

Revelation Chapter 18 lists the merchandise or money-making of the end-time denominational church systems. This is not just gold and silver but includes human souls.  The only time that Jesus really got angry was when He chased the money makers out of the Temple. Churches and money-making are a toxic combination.

Revelation 18:12   The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet…

13   … and slaves, and souls of men.

Lack of Bible knowledge has trapped people in the errors of denominational churches.

People become slaves to the church systems as they cease to think for themselves.

Obedience to church leaders has replaced obedience to the written Bible.

Revelation 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,

Come out of her, my people.

"Another voice". The inner voice of the Holy Spirit prompting us to get out of these man-made church systems that cannot prove their beliefs just from Scripture.

We need the knowledge of where Jesus, the revealed Word, is in our day and what it is that He wants us to believe.

Temperance

Temperance means being able to keep your temper even when you are provoked.

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

Temperance doesn't mean, "stop drinking alcohol," here, either. No, no. Temperance doesn't mean alcoholic cure, not in this case. That's just one of the lusts of the flesh. This is Bible temperance, Holy Spirit temperance that we're talking about. That means,

how to control your tongue, not be a tattler; how to control your temper,

not fly off every time anybody speaks cross to you. Oh, my!

Boy, a lot of us going to fall off before we get started, aren't we? See? Then we wonder why God is not in His Church, doing miracles and things that they used to do. Yes, sir. See?

Add these things. Add temperance to it. Oh, temperance, how to answer in kindness when wrath is spoke to you. Somebody say, "You bunch of holy-rollers down there!" Don't jump out and roll up your sleeves now. See? Not that. But talk with godly love, temperance, kindness. Is that the way you want to be? When you're riled upon, rile not back. Let Him be your example.

When they said, "If Thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread," He could have done it, and show He was God. But He had temperance. When they called Him, "Beelzebub," He said, "I'll forgive you for it." That right? They pulled handfuls of beard out of His face, and spit in His face, and said, "Come down off the cross!"

He said, "Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing."

… Now, if you got it like that, add it to your faith. If you still blow up and sass, and fuss, and stew, and carry on. You can't add that, because it won't add.

… But when you can really, with the sweetness from your heart, forgive every man, hold your peace, let it be gone... You can add that to your faith.

Tempering steel means heating up the steel until red hot and then plunging it into water.

God puts us through fiery trials and then washes us in the water of the Word.

Ephesians 5:26   That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Ephesians 4:26   Be ye angry, and sin not:

Anger makes it easy for us to sin. So it is best to control our temper and thus not be tempted to sin.

Patience

Man’s biggest problem is to manufacture something before God moved on the scene.

James 1:3   Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

God tests us to see if we will wait for His solution or whether we will rush forward to solve the problems in our own wisdom.

Eve should have waited. Then God would have used her for the virgin birth of Jesus.

Sarah should have waited for her promised son. Her impatience produced Ishmael and the Arabs who are a major threat to world peace as well as the main enemies to the Jews who descended from her promised son, Isaac.

Bible scholars like Dr. Scofield and Dr. Larkin attempted to understand Daniel and Revelation before brother Branham came to reveal those mysteries. Thus Scofield and Larkin have convinced most modern-day Christians that there is a Trinity, a seven-year Tribulation, no church age messengers, and that the Antichrist is a politician from the European Union, which they regard as the revived Roman empire, instead of being the succession of Popes. They failed to recognize that the Capitoline hill, where the temple of Jupiter was the headquarters of the pagan Roman empire, received a death blow from the barbarians in AD 476 and then revived as the Roman Catholic church with its official headquarters at St John Lateran Palace on the Caelian hill. All of these errors just make it harder for people to discover the revealed truth of Scripture.

Message preachers have unfolded a number of different seven Thunders revelations. Those who are unfortunate enough to believe these theories will not be looking for the seven Thunders in the future and will thus oppose them or ignore them when they do utter. John was told not to write them. You cannot know what is not written. Our only hope is to recognize them when they do utter as they will be Scriptural in some hidden way.

That means that we have to know the Bible in order to spot the seven Thunders as they happen.

In Acts Chapter 1 the apostles hurriedly chose Matthias to fill the gap left by Judas. Matthias is never mentioned again in the Bible.  The apostles would never have chosen Saul of Tarsus as they regarded him, quite rightly, to be a major enemy at that time. Saul certainly was a menace. But if the apostles had just waited they would have realized that God was going to change Saul and turn him into Paul who was the most effective of the apostles to the Gentiles.

Trying to do God a service when it is not His will, just messes things up.

Romans 5:3   And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

The tribulations of this life that we cannot control force us to rely on God, and thus we learn to wait on God. This is the secret to becoming an end-time eagle.

Isaiah 40:31   But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Eagles have brilliant eyesight. We need spiritual insight to grasp the patterns and symbols of the Scripture.

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

We need the knowledge of the truth so that we can understand the Bible.

Knowledge only comes when God decides to reveal it.

We cannot rush ahead of God in our own wisdom.

Then we will mess up and being Laodiceans, we will not know that we have messed up.

Revelation 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

"And knowest not" how badly out of focus our churches are.

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

Then, after that, fourthly, you want to add patience to your faith. If you got faith, "it worketh patience," the Bible said.

… . If you've got real, genuine faith, you'll have real genuine patience, because faith worketh patience. When God says anything, you believe it. That's all. You got patience.

… Noah preached a hundred and twenty years, yet. Plenty of patience. Not even dew fell from Heaven. Wasn't nothing. Just as dusty as it ever was, for a hundred and twenty years, but he was patient.

Then, God tries your patience….  Patience with God's promise.

…   Moses. Even one time, when that rebellion bunch of Jews had such impatience, they caused Moses to do something was wrong. But, yet, when it come to a showdown, God got sick of their action. He said, "Separate yourself, Moses. I'll kill the whole bunch of them, and start anew."

Moses throwed hisself in the breach, and said, "God, don't do it." What? Patience with the people that was rebelling against him. I wonder if we could do that? If you can't, don't try to build on this, 'cause it don't change, you know.

… If you don't, you don't come to that stature of the dwelling place of the living God, if you haven't got patience, patience with one another.

Luke 21:19   In your patience possess ye your souls.

Godliness

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

Godliness means "to be like God."

… Matthew 5:48, "Be ye..." Jesus speaking, in the beatitude.

Be ye therefore p-e-r-f-e-c-t, (What's that?) perfect, even as your Father... in heaven is perfect.

…  Ephesians 4, and begin with the 12th verse. All right. Let's begin up here at the 11th verse.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;...

Remember last night?

Don't try to take the other man's office. See?

... and some, evangelists; and some, pastors... and some, teachers;

"For the perfecting of God"? Does it read like that? [Congregation says, "No."--Ed.] The perfection of what? ["Saints."] Who are the saints? The sanctified ones. Amen. The ones started from down here.

Perfecting of the saints, for the working of the ministry (the ministry of Jesus Christ), for the edifying of the body of Christ (for the edifying, building It up, edifying): until...

Till we all come in to the unity of the faith, and... the knowledge of the Son of God, and to the perfect man, unto the assurance, (oh, my), to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

"Perfect," takes godliness.

To be like Jesus.

…That's godliness. When He was smite on one side of the face, He turned the other. When He was spoken rough to, He didn't speak. He didn't rile back. See?

Godly, always looking for one thing, "I always do that which pleases the Father".

Godliness means putting God’s will before our own selfish wills.

Matthew 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Luke 22:42   … nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

The key lesson concerning godliness is to wait on God rather than rushing in to ask for the advice or help of man. We cannot be godly until God runs and controls our lives.

Psalm 118:8   It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Proverbs 3:5   Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Trust God more than you trust yourself.

Proverbs 14:12   There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Jeremiah 17:9   The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Romans 3:10   As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Isaiah 64:6   But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;

Our best actions are just like filthy rags. Imagine our worst moments.

Luke 17:10   So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say,

We are unprofitable servants:

we have done that which was our duty to do.

If we do all that God expects of us then we are still making a loss for God because we do more wrong than right. After our best attempts, God is still left with a bigger mess to clean up than the good that we think we have done.

Thus we operate more out of God’s will than in God’s will.

God cannot trust his saints. Even Heaven is not clean enough for Him.

Job 15:15   Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints;

yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

16     How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

We, humans, are in a mess. We live in an evil and deceitful age. We need to be zealous to repent as only the Blood of Jesus can cleanse us. Then we would spend less time congratulating ourselves that we are right with God.

To the church of the Laodiceans God says

Revelation 3:19   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Brotherly kindness

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Adding brotherly kindness. All right. When we get to that, brotherly kindness, put yourself in his place,

"My brother sinned against me," said Peter. "Shall I forgive him," he said, "seven times a day?"

He said, "Seventy times seven."

Why this strange number?

In Daniel’s prophecy, the Jews were promised 70 weeks.  70 x 7 = 490 days.

Daniel 9:24   Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,

Numbers 14:34   After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days,

each day for a year,

shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years,

Thus 490 days equals 490 years that were promised to the Jews to the end, which is Armageddon. Then Christ would set up and start the 1000 years of peace.

So 70 x 7  means "to the end".

For the Bride, the end will be when the Lord leaves the Mercy Seat to claim His Bride.

Then the Bride will all be perfect and no more forgiveness will be needed.

But then, what we believe has to pass over to the Jews. During great Tribulation they will have a very rough time and many mistakes will be made. So they will need to forgive each other too, until great Tribulation ends when the battle of Armageddon starts.

Forgiveness is a great idea as we all need forgiveness, all the time.

Keep forgiving until the end.

That means we are all deeply flawed.

Each one of us is just a work in progress.

We all have a long way to go and have much improvement to make.

But we cannot be forgiven ourselves until we forgive others.

Love or Charity

God's love comes down as the capstone on your personal life, your personal pyramid of Godly attributes. That is the true Holy Ghost baptism. The person of Christ coming down onto your life as your personal capstone.

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Next thing, then, add charity, which is love. That's the capping stone.

One of these days, in the church

… Then they're waiting for the Headstone, which is love, for God is love.

… Then Peter here says, first, seven things: faith, virtue, (see, come up), knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love, add brotherly kindness, and then the love of God.

The Holy Ghost, Christ in the person of the Holy Ghost, comes upon you, in the true baptism of the Holy Ghost, and you got all these virtues sealed in you.

Then, God lives in a Tabernacle, called the Building, the living Tabernacle of the living God's dwelling place.

… the brotherly kindness of Jesus Christ, and the love of God, which is Jesus Christ. He's the Head and controls you. And your feet is the foundation, faith. Amen! Controlled by the Head. There you are. There is the perfect man of God, when he possesses these virtues.

…  No matter how strong these are built up, this is built up; if it's got a weak link, there's where she breaks. And it's no stronger than that weakest link. Now if you possess, you say you got this (faith), this (virtue), this (knowledge), you don't have this (temperance), there's where she breaks. If you got this (godliness), and haven't got that (patience), she'll break right there. You got this (faith), and haven't got that (brotherly kindness), it'll break.

… Then people look out and say, "That's a man full of virtue, knowledge (he believes the Word), temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, full of the love of the Holy Ghost. See, there he is, walking around." What is it? A stature that unbelievers can look at and say, "There is a Christian. There is a man, or a woman, who knows what they're talking about. You never seen a kinder, sweeter, godlier person." You're sealed. A seal shows on both sides. Whether you're going or coming, you see the seal just the same. There you are. See?

When a man or woman possess this, then the Capstone comes down and seals them into the Kingdom of God, which is the Holy Ghost.

…  And their life is dead and hid in Christ, through God, and sealed in there by the Holy Ghost. First Corinthians 12. That's right. See? You reckon yourself dead, then you're born of faith.

Then virtue and these other things is added to you till you're a perfect, living image of God.

Galatians 5:6   For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Faith can only work by love. So the love of God (which is the individual’s Capstone) energises that person’s faith to receive more from God.

There are two Capstones

Each individual has a personal capstone and there is one Capstone for the whole church.

Smyraean Church Age (Church Age Book)

NOW COMES OUR TRIUMPHAL CAPSTONE on the Baptism with the Holy Ghost.

... and be with Him forever seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

The Holy Ghost baptism  is the Capstone for each individual

Then God wants to place each Spirit-filled believer into his or her place in the spiritual church body of the seventh church age.

1962-1231  The Contest

Cap off the pyramids of our life, Lord; put the Capstone, Christ Jesus, upon each and every one of us. May His great magnificent, holy blessings be upon us all. May the fire of the Holy Ghost come upon us. May the power of the resurrection be manifested. God, how we thank You, tonight. We are Yours. We give ourselves fully to You, Lord.

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And remember this morning's lesson? These virtues has to be in there before the Capstone will even come on it. Oh, you might shout. You might sing. You might speak with tongues, and dance. That has nothing at all to do with it. Until these things, Scripturally proven and sealed into you, the Holy Spirit seals you in as an individual, then you're a son and daughter.

62-1104  Blasphemous Names

And now as in the individuals, these virtues and things, are knowledge and temperance, is added to our faith. Then when the Capstone comes, the Holy Spirit cements It together. There is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's why it's so short today.

62-1230  Is this the sign of the end Sir

You remember the pyramid Message? It's the Capstone. What did It do? The Holy Spirit capped off the individual and seal it, when we added to our faith; righteousness, and godliness, and faith, and so forth, and kept adding to it till we got seven things. And the seventh one was love, which is God. That's how He makes the individual, and caps him and seals him with the Holy Spirit.

This is the capstone for the individual.

Then, if that be so, He's got seven church ages, that He's had seven mysteries that's been sounded away, and they fought for, to bring back. And now the Headstone comes, to cap off the Church. Does the Thunders mean that, my brethren? Sirs, is that where we're at?

This is the Capstone for the whole church.

There are two Capstones.

1. The first Capstone is the love of the Holy Spirit that caps and seals the individual.
2. Then there is the main Capstone that comes to cap the true church at the end of the 7 church ages.

The Second Coming of Jesus is the Capstone for the resurrected church of the New Testament as well as the living saints who have changed into new immortal bodies.

First, the dead saints from all the church ages must be resurrected and then the living saints must be changed into glorified bodies.

While the Bride from seven church ages is still buried, the Capstone cannot come.

The Capstone can only come after the resurrection of the saints from the 7 church ages.

While they are still buried, there is no pyramid for the Capstone.

But we meet the Lord in the air so the pyramid has to be raised above the ground before the Lord comes.

Until the living Bride are in new bodies, they cannot be raptured or caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

1 Corinthians 15:52   In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed

Revelation 8:1   And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

The Seventh Seal is silence, a total mystery. We know nothing about it. It refers to the Second Coming of Jesus which is the biggest mystery in the universe. His Second Coming will be the ultimate Capstone.

In the last month of his life, brother Branham was still waiting for the return of the Capstone.

1965-1128  God's Only Provided Place of Worship

Sometime the Capstone will return, the head of all of it, and receive the Bride unto Himself;

1964-0418  Jesus keeps all His appointments

Now, just kept heaping up, and now it's all honed off, on top, ready for the capstone when it will come.

1964. A year after the Seals were revealed and he was still looking into the future for the Capstone.

The coming of the Capstone to cap off the church was a future event for brother Branham.

1963-0608  Conferences

It's come up through Luther, Wesley, Pentecost. And find out, the pyramid will be capped, one of these days.

… The Capstone was rejected. But It will come again, someday.

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

There is seven qualifications to make the stature of God (for each individual). There is Seven Church Ages, that God has brought the Church to this qualification (at the end of the seventh church age as the Church prepares for the resurrection).

… And then God, through that, has brought also Seven Church Ages, to show the seven steps that He brought, building His individual into His image, He's built a complete Church in His image.

And at the resurrection, this complete Body will be raised up

to live with Him forever, because it is a Bride. See? So that cuts in every age, every age that come.

… The Holy Spirit is above all this, welding this together, building (a what?) a perfect Church, for the Capstone to cap It off.

What's it been done again? It's manifested through Seven Church Ages, and seven Church messengers.

God builds up each individual and then He builds up the entire church.

61-0806  The Seventieth Week of Daniel

And Daniel said he watched this Gentile age until

the Stone come out of the mountain

that wasn't cut with hands. They had never put a capstone on that pyramid. It wasn't cut by man's hands. It's God's hands that cut the Stone. You see it? And what did It do?

It hit the image right smack in the feet, and broke it to pieces, ground it into powder.

Hallelujah. What happened at that time,

the coming of that Stone? Up went the church into glory at the rapture,

'cause it ended the Gentile dispensation. God ended it up, the coming of that Stone.

The Gentile civilization will be destroyed in 3.5 years when the Capstone comes.

We are all fast asleep but a wakeup call is coming

Gentile preachers have taken over the leadership of the church, trampling the truth and preventing the Bible truth from being preached. The coming of the Capstone will destroy the church systems.

It will be the ultimate wake-up call for all the churches.

A virgin is a clean woman. This represents saved Christians.

All Christian churches, wise or foolish, are fast asleep at the end. (All churches deny this because they "knowest not" their blindness).

Their pastors lull them to sleep with comforting words that they are safe because they are in that specific church, listening to that specific pastor.

But a wake-up call is coming.

That is when everyone is told to go out of whatever church they are in.

That is when the foolish virgins get such a shock that they even ask the wise virgins for help.

Matthew 25:5   While the bridegroom tarried,

they all slumbered and slept.

6     And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh;

go ye out to meet him.

They cannot find Christ in the church because He stands outside the church. Thus they must go out of the church to meet Him.

A cry implies distress. A massive worldwide disaster?

In the turmoil and aftermath of a global tragedy (maybe a massive earthquake), everyone wakes up to the fact that their churches have kept them asleep. No longer trusting the church leaders, they turn to Jesus, the Word, Who is outside the churches.

"Go ye out to meet Him". Jesus is outside the church door in the age of the Laodiceans.

Revelation 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

Matthew 25:7   Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

In the face of a harsh worldwide reality caused by a massive disaster, our complacent church-going will be totally inadequate. Lamp-trimming time is when the carbon or sin and unbelief in Scripture is cut out of our lives by our desperation to be ready to meet the Lord.

People will be prepared to believe the Bible, if only they could understand it.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished,

The mystery of God (the Bible) should be finished.

Brother Branham revealed enough for us to understand the Bible but people either ignored him or else twisted up his quotes instead of proving them from Scripture.

So for most Christians, the mystery of God will not be finished.

They will not know enough of the Bible to pick up the clues that pertain to the seven Thunders. Thus they will not be prepared for the Coming of the Lord as they will not have rapturing faith.

You cannot be raptured in this body.

You can only get rapturing faith when you are in your new immortal body.

The seven Thunders thus hold the key to the changing of our bodies.

Matthew 25:8   And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

Oil burns and gives light. Enough light to read and understand the Bible.

If we cannot understand the Bible then we wasted all these years when we should have been proving the quotes from the Bible by running the quotes through the Bible. Then we should be able to prove what we believe just from the written Bible. Like the first church-age Christians.

Although Paul was the messenger, they did not just believe what he said. They checked with the Old Testament Scriptures because the New Testament is based on the Old Testament.

Acts 17:10   And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11   These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The church                                                                                                     The individual

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

See what I mean? See how these virtues, these building materials, type in with the Church messengers, with the Church ages? Now, one of these days, we're going to take each one of these words, and study them out, and show that it proves it. It all goes together.

… Started back here. Where was the Church first founded? Where was the pentecostal Church first founded? By Saint Paul, at Ephesus, the star of the Ephesian Church Age, Ephesus.

The first church age were the fathers. The last church age are the children.

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

The end-time messenger, William Branham from America, has to restore the end-time believers back to the Bible beliefs of the apostle Paul and the first church.

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

The second Church age was Smyrna. "Virtue." Irenaeus, the great man who held up the Gospel of Paul.

Next Church age was Pergamos, who was Martin. Martin was the great man who stayed. Paul, Irenaeus, Martin.

Then in Thyatira come Columba. You remember? Here it is, drawed out right there. Columba. After Columba... The Dark Ages come in there.

Then come Sardis, which means dead. Luther. Hallelujah! What then? What come next after Sardis, Luther?

Then come Philadelphia. "Godliness." Wesley, holiness! "The just live by faith," said Luther. Sanctification through Wesley.

Then come in brotherly kindness, through the Laodicea. And we believe the great Message of the second appearing of Elijah, in the last day, shall sweep the land.

Paul brought faith in the written Word

Ireneus needed virtue or strength to stand for the written Word.

Martin needed knowledge of the truth to stand against the Roman church that at the Council of Nicaea began to kill the truth by introducing politics, paganism, and unscriptural words like Trinity and Good Friday.

Columba preached temperance so that people could stand against the brutal and violent excesses of the Dark Ages.

Luther in Germany needed patience as he could only restore part of the truth, justification by faith alone.

Wesley preached holiness so that people could live godly lives and take the Gospel out on the mission fields.

William Branham taught brotherly kindness because people who have learned more Bible truth easily learned to hate and attack anyone who disagreed with them.

Pastors learned to oppose teachers and reject them as a threat because they understood the Bible better than the pastors.

And pastors insisted on being head of the church and thus being beyond correction in their domination of their churches.

Message churches focused on quotes rather than Scripture but could not prove their beliefs just using the Bible.

62-1014  The Stature of a Perfect Man

Here you are, Seven Church Ages, seven steps. God building His Church, is like one person into an individual, into Himself. The glory, the Power of God, coming down through this, welding It together. Therefore, the Pentecostal people that let out the Lutheran, let out the Wesleyans and things, doesn't know what they're talking about. You see, they lived in this part of the temple. That's the way, some people can come up that high and drop off. But there's a genuine part of that, keeps making that building come on. "I will restore," saith the Lord.

You remember The Bride Tree? You remember the sermon on The Bride Tree? They eat It down, but He pruned it. They got denominational branches; He pruned them off. They raised up another church, denominational branches; He pruned it off. But the heart of that Tree kept growing. "And in the evening time it shall be Light." See? That's when come Christ, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus comes down and sets Hisself at the Head of the Church then, and He will resurrect this Church, being His Own Body.

In there is the Body.

And the way God is expecting us as an individual to grow, the way He has brought His Church in to grow.

Every Church age, It becomes one big Church. See?