Things that wasn't so from the beginning

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 ... of his days, teaching things that wasn't so. I suppose if He'd come today, He'd find the same thing---things that wasn't so from the beginning. If you always want to know what's truth, go back to the beginning. Go back to Genesis, and you can take every cult and every true from today. The plants all began in Genesis, because Genesis is the seed chapter of the Bible. And if we want to know what is right, go back from the beginning.
Just like I was trying to say last night, when God once makes a statement, He can never vary from that statement. He's got to keep it all the way through. What He said in Genesis is the same thing in Revelation, and all the way through. He's God, and that's all, see. And all of his words are true.

2 Now, we find out that when Jesus came He found teachers that had taken the Word of God and had perverted it to suit themselves. They had taken the commandments of God, and perverted it into a creed.
Now remember, there is only one creator, and Satan is not a creator. What is sin? Sin is unrighteousness, and unrighteousness is righteousness perverted.
Maybe I'll make it clearer. You're a mixed congregation. You listen to your doctor---I'm your brother. For a man to live with his wife is righteousness. He's married to her. The same act with another woman is death. One brings life, the other one is death, see.
Unrighteousness is righteousness perverted. What is a lie? It's the truth misrepresented. So that's what Jesus done. And what all of us will get into, as long as we take and add, or take away from God's Word, it's perverting God's Word.
So when Jesus come, He found out that they had taken God's Word and perverted it, and made a tradition of man. And He said, "Why do you change the Word of God [by taking their traditions, and changing the Word of God, making it say something that it really did not say.]?"

3 We find out that He found that in his day. And He'd find it here today. And Him, in the presence ... or, in the person of Holy Spirit---the same God that always has been, dwelling in his people in the form of the Holy Spirit---it witnesses out through the true believer that man perverts God's Word to fit their creed, instead of making their creed fit God's Word.
I want somebody to find the Apostles' Creed in the Bible, as we'd say it today. "I believe in the Holy Roman Catholic church, the communion of saints." Anything that communes with the dead is spiritualism. There is only one mediator between God and man: the man Christ Jesus. That's all. There's no other mediator. So, anything ... they pervert the things, making an Apostles' Creed.
If the apostles had any creed, it was Acts 2:38. That's what they preached continually, and pounded into the people. It was repentance towards God, and so forth. That is ... if there's any creed in the Bible, that would be it, that the apostles used.

4 So all their leadings of the Holy Spirit stayed with the Word. And if any man or angel ever says anything contrary to the Word, Galatians 1:8 said, "Let him be accursed." It must be the Word of God.
Paul said, "If an angel from heaven comes to you with any other gospel than that which you've already heard, let him be accursed." So, we believe that heavens and earth will pass away, but God's Word shall not pass away because the Word is God. God said that his creation will pass away, but God cannot pass away.

5 Not no place for jokes ... the pulpit is no place for jokes. I think the Word of God should be preached from here with the solemnness of the heart, and we should remember it. But just to say that... To make this point, the old darky, here somewhere in the South, one time made a statement. Said he'd rather be standing on the Word of God than stand in the heavens. They asked him why. He said, "Because both heaven and earth will pass away, but God's Word shall not." That's right. We got to stay on the Word.

6 Jesus, when He came, He said, "Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you a divorce from your wife. But it wasn't so from the beginning." Now we find out they took the commandments of God, and made them of none effect.
When Jesus came, He found people looking to the church for salvation. What did they get? Creeds. Each denomination makes up its own creed. And then that's what He found---the people depending on the church for salvation; and they found man-made creeds.
And if He come today in person and talked to us, He'd find the same thing: man making the Word of God fit their denomination, giving them creeds. And there is no salvation in the creeds, if it's not the Bible. It's got to be Bible, because his Word is... All we have need of is his Word. And his Word, when He is the Word... The Word of God is God. That's all. It's his Word, Himself.
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God ... and the Word was God." And the Word is still God. It's still God.

7 Now we find out that when He come, He found the men then taking the commandments of God, and making them of none effect---by taking the commandments of God, and suiting it around to meet their creed, so it was of none effect. And the church looked ... the people looked to the church instead of looking to God's Word. So therefore, He said it wasn't so from the beginning.
We find it's the same today, as I've quoted two or three times already this morning, and (Watching that clock, it makes me nervous.)... So I want to say this on, that this is true. Then in that day as it is now, and now as it was then, they holler out, "Where is God?"
Why, the very thing that... They've left God when they left his Word. That's the reason we have things the way we do today, is because people left the Word of God.

8 If a doctor wrote a formula, prescription, and you added something to it, or taken some away from it, you'd kill your patient. That's right. You've got to keep it just the way it's wrote. There's enough antidote there to upset the poison, enough poison to kill the germs. Too much poison in it without the antidote would kill the patient; and too much antidote without the poison... What would it do? It wouldn't help your patient. So you've got to keep it right.
And that's the way God's Word is. It's God's prescription. Yes, brother. It's God's prescription to his people to cure every sickness, every disease. Sin and physical, whatever it may be, it's all met in God's Word. Amen. It's God's Word. It was so at the beginning; it was so in the middle age; it's so in every age, and it's so this morning, just the same as it was when He spoke it, because it cannot deviate one speck because it's God's Word.

9 Then people today, no wonder they cry out: "Days of miracles is past. There's no such a thing as divine healing." Why do they do it? Because they've took God's Word, and made their creed wrapped up in it; and it makes the thing wrong. And it hasn't got no power in there. If an angel, or bishop, or archbishop, or whatever it might be, come and change one word, it'll change the whole prescription. Let's say exactly what it says, what God said. Let's leave it right like that.
The churches is gone today. They're off on a tantrum somewhere---making organizations, making denominations, bringing people after creeds instead of after Christ. I don't want no creed but Christ; no law but love, and no book but the Bible. That's exactly what we have got---God's creed, God's prescription. It's God's antidote for sin. It's God's antidote for our healing, and it's God's power made manifest to us as we take the Word in our lives.
Now we find out that they answered all that, "Where is the God of Moses?" The reason Moses stayed with God, and the things was, God was following Moses' prescription ... Moses was following God's Word, the way that... Peter, James and John hit the mark every time because that they followed the Word.

10 Here some time ago... Everybody knows I like targets, and shooting, and so forth. And I had a little Model 70 Winchester. I stood out, and at fifty yards on a target range, I drove eight bullets through the same hole at fifty yards. And it got out a little bit adjust. You'd have to fool with it, and tinker with it. And I like to do that---kind of settles my nerves. And I couldn't make it come in. I thought it needed rebedded.
I sent it back to Winchester Company. They sent it back, and said, "Oh, Brother Branham [or Mr. Branham]," it said, "that Winchester is one of the best." Said, "It'll group a inch at fifty yards [at twenty-five yards, I mean], a inch at twenty-five yards." Said, "That's the best you'll ever get it."
I knowed different. I knowed at fifty yards I drove eight straight tacks with it. So, I knew that that was wrong. Now, that's the way... And I couldn't rest till I got it back. Now it'll do the same thing.

11 Now, I'm not one of these people that likes to hit and splatter. "The church says so, so just let's stay with it." If the apostles, by the Word of God, by the commandments of God, by the same Holy Ghost that we got, drove the tacks to divine healing, to powers of God, if we'll stay with it... We know it's so. Then stay till we zero in, that's all, for we know it did once.
How is the days of miracles is past, and Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? How can that God be dead that raised again, and is alive forevermore? How can we make it to a creed, when God has no creed? God is a person. God dwells within his church, and you are his church. If you've been born again, and filled with the Holy Ghost, you are God's church.
God dwells in you. You know He tabernacles with you. When God came down, was made flesh and dwelt among us, what did He do? He spread his tent amongst human beings. He crossed his cast from God to man to become ... that man might become like Him. Oh! He became me, that through his grace I might become Him.
Oh, what a great thing! We'll never understand what it was. No wonder people call out today. "Where is God?" Get back to the Word. Get back to the beginning.

12 In the beginning, He said to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. These signs shall follow them that believe." That was it. Get back to that same Word. It'll produce the same thing. They followed that Word, and it zeroed in and drove a tack. Every tack, every promise that God made was made manifest.
If we'll get back to that same Word, it'll drive the same tacks, do the same miracles, perform the same things, make the same light, make the same creature, raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out devils, see visions, prophesy. It's the same gospel that drove the tacks then. If we'll get back to the same...
Like, if the gun's back in same condition as it was at the first place, the vibrations all out of it, it'll zero that bullet right straight. And if we get all the vibrations of unbelief out of us, God's work will still be like it was at the first beginning. That's exactly right. It'll zero every time. It did once; it'll do it again. Don't be satisfied with a creed, or something. Stay right there until the Word zeroes.

13 It reminds me of the time when the mother and father, or foster father, of our Lord Jesus had taken Him up to the Pentecostal feast. And they went three days' journey, and finally they missed Him. They couldn't find Him.
That's the way the church has gone now. It's gone more ... it's gone about two thousand years' journey, and missed Him. Here it is. There's signs everywhere appearing of his coming, and they say, "Where is God? Where is God? What become of Him?"
Did you notice Mary and Joseph searched for Him among their kinfolks but they found Him not? Today we go back to see if the Methodists has got Him, the Baptists has got Him, the Presbyterians, or the Lutherans. No, sir. They didn't find Him. Neither will we find Him today. No matter how much we try to go back and revive some of them old dead denominations, we'll never do it.

14 Where did they find Him? Where they left Him. Hallelujah! Think I'm a holy roller? I guess I am. You'll find Him just like they did, where they left Him. Where they left Him, that's where they found Him. That's where the church will find Him.
Where did they leave Him? At the Pentecostal feast. Where will the church find Him? Back at the Pentecostal feast, where they left Him at when they pulled away from the doctrine of the apostles and so forth. Back in them early ages back there, they pulled away from it, and formed their own creeds, and started the Nicolaitane doctrine, formed the Catholic church---organized a religion of what's called the Christian religion.
And from there they've organized, and broke down the things, and brought all the Christians into creeds, and so forth; and mixed it all up, till it's just the same conglomeration that He found when He came. It's exactly. Back to the beginning where we left Him---when He was powerful, when He raised the dead, and healed the sick, and cast out devils---that's right back to the beginning, where we left Him.

15 You say, "Where is He? Is He with the Methodist? Is He with the Baptist," or even, "Is He with the Pentecostal?" No, sir.
Go back to the ... not Pentecostal organization. Pentecostal denominations. That's a name. Who can organize Pentecost? Tell me. Pentecost is not an organization. Pentecost is an experience to any believer. Back to the experience. Not back to an organization, but back to an experience. Pentecost is an experience.
Let me tell you something. You look at the fruit the Pentecostal churches are bearing today, you'll find out they're not started from the beginning. Arguing, fussing, stewing, up-side-down, pulling for this, and pulling for that. Jesus said in John 14, or John 15, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Is that right?

16 Now, you farmers, you Texans, Louisianans, and what you may be here, any one that's got common sense that ever seen a vine grow, knowed that the vine does not bear fruit. The branches of the vine is what bears fruit, but it gets its life from the vine. Jesus is our resource of life. Yes, sir. Now, we'll notice then if Jesus is the resource of all life, that's He's the true vine. The very life that's in the vine is in the branch. And if that vine puts forth a first branch, and that branch is... A bunch of grapes comes forth on it. If it ever puts forth another branch, it will be a bunch of grapes. It'll put forth another branch, it'll be a bunch of grapes. And it will be the same kind of branch on to the end of the vine. O God! (Now I need my half hour; just getting ready. Amen!)
Every time that vine puts forth a branch, it will be like the first branch. Why? Because the life that's in the vine will put forth the same type of branch. If the first vine brought grapes, the next won't bring pumpkins. The next won't bring citrus fruit. And then, after while on down like that, it won't do it.
If the true vine puts forth a branch, and if Jesus is the branch in the first ... or, the vine... And the first branch that brought forth, they wrote a book of Acts after it. Is that right? The Pentecostal church, the real Pentecostal church. And it wrote a book of Acts, with signs and wonders following the believer. If that real true vine brings forth another true branch, they'll write a book of Acts behind it. Yes, sir.

17 Here in Arizona not long ago, I was looking at a tree in a man's yard, a citrus tree. It had nine different kinds of fruit on one tree. It was... Every one of them was a different fruit. It was a orange tree to begin with, but it had pomegranates, it had lemons, it had grapefruits---all different kinds of citrus fruit. Why? They were grafted in there. They were living off of the life of that tree, but they could not bring nothing but what they was. They couldn't bring oranges, because they're a grafted vine. But every time that tree brought forth a true branch from itself, it was an orange tree. But oranges it bore.
That's the way today. We've grafted Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian vines into the true vine, and living off of the strength of it. But it can't bear nothing but creeds and denominations. But if that vine ever puts forth another branch, it'll be interdenominational, powered with the Holy Ghost, just exactly like it was on the day of Pentecost. Back to the beginning! Amen. I better quit. Amen.

18 If that vine ever puts forth another branch, it'll be just like it was at the beginning. We graft all kinds of church creeds into it: Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist. And they every one bear Baptist fruit, Methodist fruit, Pentecostal fruit, and everything else. But when it comes back, if that vine ever brings forth another true branch, it'll bear Holy Ghost fruit. Amen.
They say, "Well, we are Methodist."
It wasn't so from the beginning.
"We are Baptist."
It wasn't so from the beginning.
"We are Presbyterian."
It wasn't so from the beginning.
"We don't believe in speaking in tongues."
It wasn't so from the beginning.
"We don't believe in divine healing in our church."
It wasn't so from the beginning. Hallelujah! All we need today is turning back to the beginning again---back to the beginning. Hallelujah! My time's up. Let's pray.

19 Lord Jesus, oh, may I live to see the day that the church goes back to the beginning. Grant it, Lord. Fill this little place this morning. Unctionize this little pastor here, Lord, and these others. Give us of thy glory. Give us of thy grace. Give us a meeting here, Lord.
Let us forget about other things and go back to the beginning, for we know that our Master speaks in our hearts this morning. Get these grafted vines away from there. Separate yourself from unbelief. Go back to the beginning. That's where it was so. And, Lord, we want everything so from the beginning.
Lord, let our experience, if we've never had it yet till this morning... If there's someone sitting here that's never had that beginning Spirit experience, and got that same Spirit that poured out on the beginning, why should we take a substitute? Why should we take something fanaticism? Why should we take some radical, cold, formal, indifferent creed when the Pentecostal skies are full of the real genuine article? Why take a substitute?
Lord, let's go back to the beginning, and receive it like they did at the beginning, and have the same works, signs, wonders that bears the same fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience. God grant it. Hear us, Father, for we commit this little church, and this revival to You in your hands, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

20 God bless you. I hate to have to run, but it's after eleven now. I'll see you tonight.