Preached on SUN 31st May, 1998 At THE CHURCH AT ENUGU-EZIKE By APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA THE SON OF MAN © BRIDE OF CHRIST MINISTRY WORLD-WIDE
WE ARE
THE MINISTRY OF PERFECTION =
Reading of William Branham’s message: ‘You have to lose your mind to
this world, why? Because you are not of this world. When you cross over that separating line, you become fellow citizen of the Kingdom of God, oh man, how good it is.’
2. When you cross that separating line between Law and Grace, you become fellow citizens in the Kingdom of God which is the Kingdom of His dear Son, the revealed Christ.
3. However, when you are still at the other side, you have not crossed the separating line, you can never smell the Kingdom of His dear Son.
4. ‘How good it is to become a new creature. Go home and think of this both you and I, we are now the sons of God. Now are we sitting together in heavenly places. We will be in the millennium,’
5. Not that we will be in the millennium; we are now in the millennium already.
6. ‘Right now we are sons of God. Right now we are sitting together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus not just in the Church, in Christ Jesus. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is here. He is here with power. He is here with redemption power. He is here for the Exodus. He is here to bring every Church member into fellowship with Him.
7. He is here to bring every sinner no matter how low you are. He is here to bring the power of God’s redemption into your life and make you a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. The blood of Jesus Christ is said to transform the worst prostitute and make the lady a saint of her.’
8. And make the lady a saint of her. If the worst prostitute comes into this faith, the blood takes over her sins; somebody worst than Mary Magdalene, she automatically becomes a saint. Do we read more?
9. By the words of the Prophets we are preserved. You have heard the Apostles’ words; you have heard the words of the Prophets.
10. The Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets. The word of God has been the Chief Corner Stone. If I deceived you, William Branham deceived you; also the Bible deceived you.
11. But if the Bible didn’t deceive you, the Apostle didn’t deceive you; are you deceived? Stop your mental reasoning. The Servant of God can never go astray in His calling.
12. Do you know that every action of a Servant of God is influenced by God? And it is for a purpose that He, God, knows. Do you know that? We are trying to be children of God.
13. Let Me go to another book. This one is, “Redemption by Fellowship.” Please bear with Me. I want to read it for our own good. I know you will feed well today.
14. ‘But if you are not built open the right foundation, it is no good. What is the use of building on a foundation that has already been condemned? What use.’
15. Note it, of what use is building upon a foundation that is already condemned? Do you know that the Law was removed when Christ appeared on the scene? And since that time, instead of people to follow Christ wholeheartedly, they were still building upon the foundation that was pulled down.
16. Saint Paul said, ‘If I build down again upon the foundation which was pulled down, I make myself a transgressor.’ That was what he rebuked Peter for.
17. He said, ‘Peter, what foundation are you trying to build upon again? The wall of partition have been removed, the old wall you want to rebuild again so that you will start or giving Gentiles another Law. Far be it from us to make the death of Christ of non effect.’
18. No group has ever felt the impact of the death of Christ on the land. They have been holding partly Grace, partly Law. This is the Ministry of Perfection.
19. It requires the Prefect One to lead the Ministry of Perfection. And there is no other Perfect One except The Great Shekinah Cloud.
20. Don’t be surprised; we are gathering in the day and we expect in the day there should be Cloud. We are not walking in the night again. We don’t expect the Pillar of Cloud. If we are gathering in the night, it will reflect fire. The same Pillar of Fire is the same Pillar of Cloud.
21. ‘But if you are not built upon the right foundation, is just is not good. What is the use of building upon the foundation that is already condemned?
22. What use? As I said what is the use of trying to paper and paint an old building that the government has condemned? That’s what many people are trying to do today by trying to reform, restart a church; ‘I must try to teach, I must try to do a little different that we use to do,’ you will never see nowhere like that. See! You are just busy deceiving her, only wasting time.’
23. Only wasting time.
24. ‘I believe if I will just put my line and seal, all those things as good as they are, they are still a million miles off the road.’
25. You are still a million miles off the road. Can any man claim to know more than the Prophet of his day? You are still a million miles off the road.
26. Now, let us pause a little. All these years, what has been our work? Have we not been collectively bent on improving our character, our moral life by quitting drinking, fornication, adultery, lying, smoking and every other thing, yet they are one million miles away.
27. Even if we succeeded in keeping all those things, we have not gone near salvation! We have not even approached the Kingdom of Heaven. We are still operating one million miles away for we will end it up achieving our own self-righteousness which is as filthy rag.
28. “A gentleman at Abuja said, this woman walks slowly, quietly, gently; this woman, eh, she is holy!”
29. You do not know you are lost. That is the Commendation Letter of heathen ministry. You better behave like Sister Ike until all your sisters around you will call you a crazy and deceived woman. You better answer mad man, mad woman and obtain eternal life because you are covered under The Shekinah Cloud.
30. There was no sin in Israel and there is still no sin in Israel. No iniquity in Jacob. Why? God is with them. I have told you, there is no group under the Sun that can boast of worshipping under The Shekinah Presence of the Almighty God except this little flock (the Bride Ministry).
31. Verify, write letters round the globe. So, you are a blessed people because the Prophet saw Him lying in one of the jungles in Africa, therein lies the Eternal Glory.
32. He wanted to deny us of this opportunity. He ran to India because he became jealous. God struck him and brought him back. Telling him: “It must be Africa.”
33. And as Africans, we are polygamous. Amen! ‘Hey, Brother has come again. Could it be that brother had concluded plans to marry a new wife? He should go and marry and stop preaching this thing.’
34. I know some are waiting, any day Brother will carry one now, they will rush and carry three; that is Onitsha Church for you. Onitsha Church is a very wonderful Church! If you buy one cup, they will buy one dozen.
35. ‘I believe if I will just put my line and seal, all those things as good as they are, they are still a million miles off the road. You have got to start back to the foundation; you got to build a new place, not part of the old one.’
36. You got to build what? A new place, not part of the old order. Don’t try to patch the old one and don’t try to build upon the old one. Start a new one away from the old one completely.
37. When Jesus Christ was called to be a new priesthood, did God patch the Levitical priesthood? Did He patch it? He completely overhauled the system by abandoning it, went to another tribe that was away from the previous one.
38. Let Me tell you; if we ended where we stopped some months ago; we stopped at modifying the old foundation. We were modifying the old foundation by telling people why they shouldn’t pay Tithe, yet they should continue with the others. Yet we avoid unclean Laws. We were bent on moral Laws because of carnal jealousy.
39. A sister was telling Me, she said, ‘When I heard that comment concerning marrying new wives, I almost fainted in my house. The thing troubled me. I shuddered.’
40. I said, ‘Yes, I know why it was so because women by nature are very jealous; that is carnal jealousy and when we preach matters like this, men rejoice, women feel sad.’
41. I know sisters who told their husbands pop and plain, ‘Yes, this one has excited you so much. Don’t worry; after jumping up, try it! Try it and see. I say, try it and see; try it and see!!
42. All the messages that have been preached, it is only this one that you are jumping up and rejoicing over. Try it and see!’
43. And I tell you, men have become cowards now. Every message that is preached in the pulpit, when they get to the family altars, they will nail the thing harder, but when it got to this matter, they said, “Thank God; it is the Son of Man that said it. God, You know everything. I am just following Him. The message is not meant to be preached.”
44. Look at how they put it, even in your homes, you will cause trouble, “God, thank you. I am not the one that said it.”
45. Every other message preached here, they manifest it firm; they hold it firm. Read it in different translations and tell you, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ but for this one, every family altar is silent on the matter.
46. And they will say, “The Apostle said, the Son of Man said”. Even if a man will try to preach it, before he will say few words, a written note would be sent, ‘Remember, the Holy Ghost said this matter should not be preached in the homes, the family altars and the pulpit, thank you.’
47. But a time will come, the man will turn round, check the thing, change it a bit. Let Me tell you, you are all cowards! Somebody should have scaled the odds one day, take the thing up and break it down well, well with red eyes so that your place will be uncomfortable.
48. You will hear, ‘Do you really love me? So you want to marry another woman?’ You want to know the mind of the man? The man will say, ‘If we discuss it, you will not agree.’
49. Don’t worry, God knows why he said only married people will be here because this matter is a bombshell. Nobody has ever gone this way before. If you don’t marry many wives, how do we have polygamists here?
50. We say we are polygamists. You are like those that preach against outcasts. If you agree that there is nothing like outcasts in our day, Christ has taken care of it. If a sister is said to be an outcast, I will set an example by marrying her.
51. If after preaching it, when it comes to my turn to marry, I will avoid her or I will tell my people to go and enquire about her family background. When I heard that she is an outcast, I changed my mind, and went somewhere else.
52. If I am in that Church, I will call a meeting and say, ‘Let no man take this man seriously; he must marry the girl. If you marry her and after one year, nobody dies, thank God. Thank you.’ I will pick three at once.
53. Let Me tell you, this Church is a wonderful one. Looking at them now, you cannot believe that these are the people that were singing praises, ‘Feeling so much happy, talking about this good old way.’ Just one second, everywhere has chilled.
54. Let us press further. William Branham preached, they called him women hater. I came and preached, they called Me women lover.
55. John the Baptist came, he was not eating, he was not drinking, and they said he had a devil. Jesus came, eating, drinking, sleeping with harlots, they said he was a glutton. What can we do to please this generation? Amen.
2
BUILDING THE TRUE TEMPLE
Reading of William Branham’s message: ‘All those things as good as they are, you are still a million miles off the road. You got to start back to the foundation. You got to build a new place, not part of the old one. Build a brand new one.
2. That is the reason why you see so many mistakes; so much indifference. Now a man can have an intellectual faith and he hears most people today calling themselves Christians. What do you mean by intellectual faith Brother?
3. Now man wants to be even in our polluted conditions as we are today, man was meant to serve God. That is the full duty of the earth. But a man has a soul and therefore, that is a part of God. The most greatest species of all the species of the earth is the man.
4. And then going in connection with his Maker, he becomes a superman always because he is a son of God. He becomes acquainted with His Maker; with the Creator of all things and in that man being acquainted with his Maker he becomes a part of his Maker.
5. He comes back into fellowship with his Maker. Mortal being is the only one who lives in mortal habitation’, Mortal beings are the only beings that will live in mortal habitation. ‘Immortal beings live in immortal habitation.
6. Then the place that we go into until we return back to is not a place of brick and mortar and clay or precious stones or jewelry.
7. It is a place of condition that will hook out of this dimension that we live into, into another dimension. And it is a house, a tabernacle, a dwelling place.
8. Jesus said, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days and they thought he was speaking of Solomon’s temple but he was speaking of his own body and he has gone to prepare a place for every believer, that the very moment you step out of this mortal region could just go out into it or some supernatural feeling or go into a tabernacle or a dwelling place and that might be right here in this building this morning.
9. In a place that no other radio activity or nothing could touch is here solely fixed by God alone. Listen, Moses had been dead for eight hundred years, lying down for around six or seven hundred years and there, he preached on mount transfiguration all of them in their immortal estate talking to Jesus before he went to Calvary.
10. You see what I mean? I got a revelation the other day standing up here at Mt. Aroma at the observatory, and gave the time and space over to man and I saw the light travelling so many thousand miles per second.
11. I cannot believe that there is a house way out yonder, but I believe that that house which God was speaking of is here right now. That is the place where the mortal being which ceases to be mortal live.
12. And I believe that’s where Jesus is today; The resurrected Lord Jesus just out yonder somewhere, a million miles away, but right here present with us now, but when our bodies become in tune with God becoming a part of Him, then our soul will pick up the power of the Holy Spirit to vindicate the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his power of omnipotent; the great omniscient to live among us today and he will fellowship back with his people again.
13. The greatest majesty with his glory now spreading forth as he desires to fellowship again with his people like he did in the Garden of Eden.
14. If you do wrong, you will never get far with it; if you do right you have got to come into glory with it. He is done did it; He is God. He is here. He knows the funny thoughts of your heart. He knows who you are and everything you have done.
15. Listen, I don’t care how long you have joined but sin separated them. They went off in sin. God had only one preparation for a sinful man to reach a holy God and that wasn’t by self righteousness, it wasn’t by patching up an old thing. It was by death and resurrection.
16. The only way God condemned a man in the Garden of Eden because he has sinned is his whole body was full of mire and never can you turn a liquid. Listen, I don’t care how much you join church; how many good things you do, they perish with time.
17. You buy a widow coat when she is cold; you buy her food when she is hungry, you send the little kids off the street, that’s good, no need to say light or dark but my brother and sister you are a miserable being until that old foundation is swept out.’
18. You are what? All together, even if you sponsor the publication of this ministry, feed the whole Church, lavish your wealth and property for this Message, you will remain a miserable brother or sister, until the old foundation is completely swept away.
19. You see why Saint Paul said it is a very serious matter. No figment of the old foundation should be placed into this new foundation.
20. I don’t care how you value the block or the wood or some of the things you removed from that building; away with it! Everything in this house must be completely new because it is by this new living way that we have access to the Throne of Mercy.
21. By this Priesthood from Judah which is a new and a living way, by his blood at Calvary; not blood of bulls and bullocks, by this new and living way, we have access, boldness to approach the Throne of Mercy.
22. No figment of the old building, old foundation should be traced in this new building; it must be entirely new. Is it promised in the Bible?
23. Behold, I will do a new thing, that if it is fully explained to you, you can never, never echo ‘Amen’ to it.
24. The reason why this message is sounding strange to you is because you have never gone this way before, and two, you want Me to speak just like other prophets you knew before.
25. If I should speak like them, why did God send Me? He would have pointed everybody to them.
26. I like the way God is moving in trend. Let Me tell you, if the Law is not removed, you will all perish. As long as there is Law, by and by, one or two persons must offend, and everybody must offend.
27. Can the lie represent the truth? It may take one million years to come, yet nothing will represent it. Brother Ben, is that not scripture? God bless you.
28. Bench rabbis, pulpit rabbis, away with the old foundation! Haven’t you seen the punishment?
29. Look at what God used in typing the Ten Commandments. He used Trinity and things that you are holding worst than Trinity, that you are likened to the people of Israel.
30. When Moses hung that brazen serpent, it was for a certain purpose. When the purpose had been achieved, the thing should have been removed. Instead of it to be removed, the people continued bowing down to the brazen image!
31. Generation upon generation, until it became sin in the sight of God because it had outlived its usefulness. The time had expired. Until Hezekiah came on the scene, brought the thing down, destroyed it.
32. All other people that came before Hezekiah, they were transferring it from place to place. Repainting the brazen serpent year after year, giving it fresh look, exactly what we were doing under the Law. Returning what we have forfeited to the Law, refurbishing it, giving the Law a fresh look. Making it even look better, beautifying the Law.
33. When they come to the pulpit, come and see the eyes of Law enforcement agents, “How, How, How, How can, How can, How can? In this Church? In this church? No, No, No, No.’ Come and see their eyes, men and women.
34. Wherever there is Law, there is murmuring and complaining because Law is made with anger. It is obeyed with anger.
35. There was a brother that placed a Law, every day he will come to his family altar and speak very hard on that, “The spirit of I don’t care, carelessness,” he was uplifting this Law, one day he went out, forgot something there, came inside the house.
36. Because he has taught them the Law, they knew when the man who gave the Law had offended the Law. All of them arrested him; they all arrested him in the spirit and started punishing the man.
37. Physically, they hadn’t the boldness, but spiritually they were saying, “If somebody had done this, Brother would have been hammering on this, but because it is he that did it, he will not talk again.”
38. The Law was against him; the same way the Law was even against God. When the Law was fighting against God’s righteousness, the Law was indirectly fighting against God.
39. ‘But still no fellowship just as miserable as they could be because they built upon the wrong foundation. You got to do the right thing, the right thing first. If you don‘t, your whole starting is wrong, you got to go back to the foundation.’
40. Your whole starting is wrong. You have to go back to the foundation.
41. ‘There is only one foundation for fellowship, only one side, or one ground that God ever spares to welcome man back to Adam’s fallen race; only one. That was in the Garden of Eden. He did spray it back by the way of the shed blood. I believe in the blood.
42. Now, God made a reconciliation for Adam and Eve; He made through the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute through the shedding of the blood … you could worship the Lord, but still not in the right way? It will not be record to you for reconciliation.’
43. Note it, when you worship in the wrong way, it can never be record to you as reconciliation. In other words, you worship amiss. The time of Moses is gone; it has expired.
44. Do you now see the multitude that is going to hell? By this message now, have you now seen with the eyes of faith that outside this Bride, the rest are heading to hell? By this message, is it not clearer that we are a group away from all of them?
45. Tell me whether there is any group preaching what we are preaching now? Don’t be surprised, William Branham is in the Church. He is now bearing witness.
46. William Branham is having fellowship here, I mean right now. William Branham is sitting in heavenly places with the saints, fellowshipping with Christ. Amen.
3
WALK CLOSE TO THE GUIDE
Reading of William Branham’s message: And today, we still use self sufficiency and use vain ideas and philosophies of men. You can worship the lord but not in the right way. It will not be record to you for reconciliation.
2. Why don’t we ponder over it? Why do we have our ups and downs? Think about it? Why do things go the way they are going? It is because first, we got to go back to the foundation.’
3. You see this is the problem which was what Holy Ghost told us about. Each time we lay hand on the Law, we hold our heads on our hands, ‘Brother, pray for me. I don’t know what is happening in me. Please, pray that God will restore me to my former height.
4. You don’t know your former height; you were very high in unbelief; very high in the Law and then God saw you could not stay there. He loosened the bonds, both you and the building collapsed.
5. God is trying to build a new house where you will stay. You are saying, ‘pray for me that God will take me back to my former height.’ Do you know more than God? He is doing everything to save you.
6. To some of you He used long bamboo to push you down. God brought all of you down from that height you felt you have attained, gave you another message so that you will know that you will suffer and perish if you continue in that way. That was the end of the Law.
7. If you have not been to prison before, you don’t know the benefit of liberty. The Law was a prison yard and we were all there. Now that we are at liberty, we can tell the world that liberty is better than imprisonment.
8. God bless you. Let Me go a little further. The title of this one I am about to read is, ‘Israel and the Red Sea,” preached 5th March 1953, ‘I will have to answer for what I say before you as a servant and why will I shun to tell you the truth of God?
9. If God has so honored the word that I have preached, he is resting around the word and honoured it, then surely He wouldn’t let me say something that was wrong,’
10. Has God caused me to carry this message to distant lands, around the world, until all have believed that truth, how can He now leave me to mislead you? Is He not the same God that has been leading? How can He now turn round? Can he do that? Put your finger in the Bible, He has never done it before.
11. Let us read further. ‘I PERCEIVE YOU ARE A PROPHET,’ preached 14th April, 1953. ‘That’s the most important thing of the day, is a good God sent preacher. I admire them,’
12. A good God-sent preacher; I admire them, ‘and their gift is far beyond anything could be done in anywhere; is a preacher, one who knows how to rightly divide the word of God, is the most wonderful gift in the world is to be a minister. This was the New Testament modern day prophet, the preacher’.
13. ‘IMAGE OF THE BEAST,’ preached October 1964, ‘Do you think that God Almighty, will give me the ministry will cause around like this, with supernatural signs and things which have never been seen in the New Testament.’
14. Remember he received that thing in part. If He that received the fullness is here and he that had it in part was not misled, how can He that has the fullness mislead? This man was walking with a true light.
15. Let us go ahead, ‘Do you think that God Almighty will give me the ministry to cause around like this with supernatural signs or things which has never been seen in the New Testament can let me walk in error like that? Certainly not.’
16. Certainly not! This one is, “UNPARDONABLE SIN”,
17. ‘If God has so honoured His word to heal the sick and the blind and the afflicted and has swept it across the world, surely He wouldn’t let me go out with an error then, would He?’ Amen.
18. We want to read few things before I will hand over to the Brother that is coming after Me. ‘You can only thank God as you do, as you did the servants that God sent.
19. You can only thank God on earth as God’s servants that were sent on earth by divine inspiration, interprets the word.
20. You want to put down some scriptures for it, 1st Corinthians 14:15; “You follow me as I follow Christ.” Luke 8:15.
21. Corinthians 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” KJV.
22. Listen to Me, Church, don’t ever dispute your Guide’s Word.
23. ‘Follow me, if you don’t, you come out lost,’
24. If you don’t, you do what? You see why I was warning you in the beginning: ‘Run after Me; don’t think I am coming back to pick you. I am not coming back. Don’t attempt reasoning. Reasoning will produce unbelief.
25. “It must not agree with your philosophy before you say, ‘Amen.’ If it agrees with your philosophy, then you are the author of the Bible; you are God. We will start worshipping you.
26. ‘And remember when you leave Me, you are on your own. So, you have to keep close to the Guide.’
27. When you leave me, you are operating on your own. Thus, let us walk close to the Guide.
28. sometimes those preachers are led astray by their conjecture. That is the reason I have no denomination; I have one headquarter. Where ever He sends, I will go! Whatever He says, I do.’
29. ‘God has always sent a guide in the ages. God has never failed, in all the ages. God has never failed, He sends a guide and He goes to perfect that guide. You got to believe him, you got to go the way he says,’
30. You have to go the way he says.
31. ‘If you get into the wilderness and your guide says, ‘we go this way,’ and you refuse; you go that way, you are going to come up lost.’
32. Because you are now walking on your own and you don’t know the way.
33. ‘God sends us a guide, to guide us. We got to follow that guide no matter what we think; what looks reasonable, what looks ridiculous. You are not subject to reply back. The guide is the only one’.
34. The Guide is the only One. ‘God in his own intellect sends prophets. They were guides; because the word of God came to the prophets; they were guides. They instructed the people as they had heard.
35. They instructed the people and guided them. And now God had always sent His Guides. He has always never do without a guide all through the ages. God always had, somebody, a representative on this earth.’
36. All through the ages, He always had somebody that represented Him here on earth.
37. ‘God in the Old Testament sent prophets; they were guides because the word of the Lord came to the prophets. They were guides. They instructed the people as they have heard. They were instructed and they instructed the people and guided them and now God has always sent His guide.
38. He always never do without a guide all through the ages. God always had somebody that represented Him on this earth in all ages. Oh, how the word has been contaminated with that, blind, blind guider. He doesn’t want you to rely on your own understanding.
39. God does not want you to rely on your understanding or your thought or any man made thought. God sends a guide and God wants you to remember that, that’s His appointed Guide and we must remember Him, yet He said, ‘Jesus said, I will not leave you, but I will pray to the Father to send you another Comforter,’ and this Comforter when He was to come He was to guide us to all truth.
40. And the word of God is truth and the word is life and the way, the truth and the life. And the Holy Spirit always speaks of the word, ‘I have got many things to tell you; you cannot understand it now, but when He comes, He will guide you to the truth.’
41. That is the message: ‘The coming of the Seals,’ and at the preaching of the Seventh Seal, the mystery of God is revealed to know who God is; what He is; how He exits, the nature, the being. You are supposed to be all the way up here by that time.
42. See! He will bring us into the full stature of sons and daughters of God, a Church that is washed with the blood of Christ, that is bought without money, is paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
43. A guide; an expert that knows what you say; knows what you did; what you discussed, knows where you are going; a guide, the correct guide will guide you to all truths and His word is the truth.
44. The Holy Ghost is that we have a man down there that is filled with this guide. He was shining like a beacon light…and the guide said, ‘That is far enough. Go back, sit and wait. And they begin to dispute with the guide.
45. Don’t ever dispute your guide’s word. Follow him. If you don’t, you will come up lost. And remember when you leave him, you are on your own. So we will have to keep close to the guide.’ Amen.
4
THE BASES OF OUR FAITH (1)
All that want to dispute us, maybe thinking that what we are saying is just man made or we just went home, sat together and decided to come and embarrass everybody with one thing or the other, you can now see that what we speak is exactly the mind of God; Almighty God Himself bearing witness.
2. If the Lord Himself did not bring us back from where we were heading to, we would have actually ended it miserably because we were filled with just man made righteousness. We were one million miles away from God’s righteousness.
3. Where we think God was holding us guilty was too far from where God is still holding us guilty. Do you know that today, the whole world is guilty of rejecting their Savior?
4. In the Word, they acknowledge Him, but in action, they deny the Savior. They have not accepted that sacrifice that was made.
5. If you watch the way they preach salvation, redemption in Christ, they preach as if one will get it from what we can achieve.
6. If you watch them all, what they believe is their salvation, they work it out by trembling. How? Okay, I am afraid, I am trembling, will that give me salvation?
7. Every day, ‘God ooo! God oooo!’ What have you achieved with there? There is no fear in love?
8. Perfect love drives away all fear. That is the ministry we are in; God making a romance with the Church.
9. This is exactly what God means by sending that Power of Heaven to come where we see perfect love operating in the Camp, where there is no schism.
10. You know, where there is no Law, there is no schism. Where there is no Law, there is no suspicion. My brother is my brother; my sister is my sister because he cannot offend me, for there is nothing that proves he has offended.
11. My brother is guilt free; my sister is guilt free. And that is the height God wants to bring the whole Church.
12. Going by the Bible collections we considered recently, we have succeeded in washing out all the rabbis; pulpit rabbis, Bench Rabbis.
13. What is left in the Church is nothing but the Bride. Remember, He is presenting her unto Himself. Who knows how He will adorn her to be pleasing unto Him? Amen.
SECTION TWO
THE INTERLUDE
PART 1, VOLUME 2
Preached on
THURSDAY 4th JUNE, 1998
At THE CHURCH AT ENUGU-EZIKE
By APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA
THE SON OF MAN
5
THE BASES OF OUR FAITH (2)
Romans 4, Living Bible or Amplified. Read from verse 3, ‘For the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God, and that is why God cancelled his sins and declared him ‘not guilty’.
2. God did what? Have you believed God?
3. ‘But didn’t he earn his right to heaven by all the good things he did?’
4. You know Abraham went to heaven,
5. ‘No, for being saved is a gift; if a person could earn it by being good, then it wouldn’t be free, but it is! It is given to those who do not work for it.’
6. Is it Bible? If you earn it, then it is a not a gift.
7. ‘For God declares sinners to be good in His sight if they have faith in Christ to save them from God’s wrath.’
8. Do you accept that Christ can save you from God’s wrath? We are saved by the finished work at Calvary.
9. ‘King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared ‘not guilty’ by God,’
10. An undeserving sinner that is declared ‘not guilty,’ a criminal is declared, ‘not guilty’.
11. ’Blessed and to be envied,’ he said, ‘are those whose sins are forgiven and put out of sight.’
12. From verse 13 through 16, ‘It is clear, then, that God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not because Abraham obeyed God’s Laws, but because he trusted God to keep His promise.
13. So, if you still claim that God’s blessings go to those who are good enough, then you are saying that God’s promises to those who have faith are meaningless, and faith is foolish.
14. But the fact of the matter is this: when we try to gain God’s blessing and salvation by keeping His Laws we always end up under His anger, for we always fail to keep them. The only way we can keep from breaking Laws is not to have any to break.’
15. The only way we can be free from breaking the Law is for us not to have any Law at all.
16. See the 1st Corinthian Church, what Paul did there because of his experience in Jerusalem.
17. He brought the Ten Commandments back. He thought Peter was right. In the First Corinthian Church, it was trouble, trouble, trouble; war, war, war; judgement, judgement, judgement.
18. St. Paul caused it. The first Corinthian Church didn’t see peace for one day. There was division amongst them.
19. There was schism, there was trouble; every time fornication, adultery; the man placed the Corinthians in bondage.
20. ‘So God’s blessings are given to us by faith, as a free gift; we are certain to get them whether or not we follow Jewish customs if we have faith like Abrahams, for Abraham is the father of us all when it comes to this matter of faith.
21. That is what the scriptures mean when they say that God made Abraham the father of many nations. Abraham is the father of us all if we have faith like him.’
22. Glory be to God. 2nd Corinthians 3 from verse 7, ‘Yet that old system of Law that led to death began with such glory that people could not bear to look at Moses’ face.
23. For as he gave them God’s Laws to obey, his face shone out with the very glory of God-though the brightness was already fading away.
24. Shall we not expect far greater glory in these days when the Holy Spirit is giving life?
25. If the plan that leads to doom was glorious, much more glorious is the plan that makes men right with God.’
26. It is a plan that leads to what? Doom. What was that plan? The Law.
27. ‘In fact that first glory as it shone from Moses’ face is worth nothing at all in comparison with the overwhelming glory of the new agreement.
28. So if the old system that faded into nothing was full of heavenly glory, the glory of God’s new plan for our salvation is certainly far greater, for it is eternal.
29. Since we know that this new glory will never go away, we can preach with great boldness, and not as Moses did who put a veil over his face so that the Israelis could not see the glory fade away.
30. Not only Moses’ face was veiled, but his people’s minds and understanding were veiled and blinded too.
31. Even now when the scripture is read it seems as though Jewish hearts and minds are covered by a thick veil because they cannot see and understand the real meaning of scriptures. For this veil of misunderstanding can be removed only by believing in Christ.
32. Yes, even today, when they read Moses’ writings their hearts are blind and they think that obeying the Ten Commandments is the way to be saved. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord from his sins, then the veil is taken away.’
33. What is the sin? Neglecting the finished work, disbelieving Christ; that is unbelief.
34. When they turn to Christ in repentance dropping the Laws of Moses, He saves them.
35. When you read the Law, your mind is blinded and you can never see the glory of God.
36. Their consciences can never free them. When people out there read the Ten Commandments, they think that is the way they can be saved, but the Bible has made it clear that they can never be saved by obeying them.
37. Any Church that always preaches the Law, God can never abide with them. Anything you are afraid of, that is where Satan will conquer you.
38. There are many groups (churches) that are baptized in the name of Jesus. They don’t pay tithe; they are here on the land.
39. If that is the reason why God sent Me, He would have been pointing everybody there before I came. If that is the perfect Will of God, I would have remained where I was. By this message, have you now seen that we are a group away from all of them?
40. The Prophet said that God will reveal Himself to a little group, the Bride, which will be away from all other groups in every ramification. Is the line not clearer now?
41. Now we see two parallel lines that can only meet at infinity because no human being born of a woman can believe this message. It requires the Elect to say ‘Amen’ to it.
42. Legalists here are still thinking about it; they are still hiding their fear, showing unnecessary fear, ‘This time around, AIDS will now kill all of us.’
43. Fly away let me see! Why are you entertaining such fear? It is because you are a legalist.
44. Wherever there is Law, feeling can never stop. A little while, your heart will go there. You are a legalist. Hallelujah! Amen.
45. Galatians 5 verses 1 and 2, Living Bible, ‘So Christ has made us free.’
46. Who has made us free? Christ
47. ‘Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get all tied up again in the chains of slavery to Jewish Laws and ceremonies.
48. Listen to me, for this is serious: if you are counting on circumcision and keeping the Jewish Laws to make you right with God, then Christ cannot save you.’
49. Christ cannot do what? SAVE YOU IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR YOUR MORAL EXCELLENCE; ONE MILLION PERCENT MORAL EXCELLENCE, CHRIST CAN NEVER, NEVER SAVE YOU.
50. All messages that have been preached were all aimed at establishing moral excellence. Amen.
51. Thank you and remain blessed in Him eternally. Selah.