<TITLE>13. Par 355-368</TITLE>L-355 It depends on what seed is sowed in your heart. If you come to church just because you're afraid of hell, if you join church because you don't want--you don't want to go to hell, you're still a cocklebur. If you--if you join church just to be popular, you're still a cocklebur. If you done all these formal things that's to be done, and that's all you got, you're still a cocklebur.

L-356 But a real, genuine Christian presses towards perfection until the world is dead and you become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Then, it's impossible for that man to ever fall. What the Bible said! See how that compares with the rest the Scripture? See how It lays it right in there to its place?

L-357   How can It say here, "A man that's once saved can never be lost" and come over here and say, "But, if you are lost, or blaspheme, it's impossible"? Sure, if you're a blasphemer, you're not a Christian.

L-358 "No man, speaketh by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed." Saint John 4... or First John 4. No man speaking by the Spirit of Christ, calls Jesus "accursed." Every spirit, of God, that's in the Christian Church, agrees with everything God said.

L-359 We read here, and say, "He was wounded for our transgressions. With His stripes we're healed."

L-360 The old carnal mind say, "Days of miracles is past. I'm Dr. Jones." See? "There's no such a thing as Divine healing. No such thing as heart-felt religion. You're just a bunch of worked-up. You're emotional. See, that's all there is to it. There nothing to it. We are Presbyterians. We're Lutherans," or whatever it is. "We know where we're standing."

L-361   But what does the Spirit of God say? Jesus Christ, the same here! "Amen," says the Spirit of God. It agrees quickly with the Word. Yes, sir. It's right there. See what I mean now?

L-362 "These carnal reforms works death," said Paul.

L-363 But where Life is come, this perfection, "He that heareth My Words, believeth on Him that sent Me, has everlasting Life, and shall never come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto Life. I'll give him everlasting Life, raise him up in the last days. All the Father has given Me will come to Me, and none of them is lost." Can't be.

L-364 So, here is what it does--what it does. People thinks that that makes people loose. Brother, you don't serve God under a frown of a serpent. God is not one of these guys with a blacksnake whip, driving you around. He's a Father. He's Love. God is Love. And the Bible said, in Saint John, "He that loveth is of God."

L-365   You love God. I wouldn't be, if I went out and--and got on a drunk tonight. I never drank, in my life. But if I went out and got on a drunk, I wouldn't be afraid of getting a whipping. That isn't the reason I don't go--go, don't go do it. The reason I don't do it, is because I love Him. He loves me. It's not a works of law. It's not something that I got to do. It's because He's already done something for me, and I love him for it. There you are.

L-366 So, with that Spirit in there, which is promised, "I give unto him everlasting Life, and they shall never perish." Did He lie or did He tell the Truth? He told the Truth. So, you see how This interprets? The impossibility is for a man to fall after he's once in grace. He can't. He can fall, sure, but not back to repentance, back to the place and to do the old works over again.

L-367   So, you all trotting from revival to revival, one place and then another, don't you see you're not stable? You're not established. Now, surely... You say, "Brother Branham, I don't know if..." Surely God would not give me the ministry He has, and let me be in error. And if it wasn't proven by the Scripture, then it would error, but here is the Scripture to back it up.

L-368 The churches never missed a place... People go, join church, fuss, fight, stew, and--and everything, and just live any kind of a carnal life, "Oh, yes, I'm a Christian."


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