<TITLE>09. Par 309-320</TITLE>L-309   Now you say, "What about that, Brother Branham? How does that look?"
Now, just to read, I think, "The Scripture doesn't say that." That's not talking about a Christian. That's talking about a man that heard the Word and turned away from It. See?
For if we sin... (What is sin? Unbelief.)... if we disbelieve wilfully after the gospel has been preached to us, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,

L-310 What is sin? Unbelief. Read Saint John, the 4th chapter. Jesus said, "He that believeth not is condemned already." Sin is not smoking, drinking, committing adultery. You do that because you're an unbeliever. That's just the attributes. You do that because you're an unbeliever. Just to quit smoking, quit drinking, and so forth like that, that doesn't mean you're--you're a Christian. That's just the attributes of your conversion. But, you can, you can do either side, and still not be.

L-311   Now notice.
... he that disbelieves wilfully after he...

L-312 Not--not, "After he received Christ in his heart." The Bible doesn't say that. Said, "He that..."
... if we sin wilfully, disbelieve wilfully, after... we have received the knowledge of the truth,...
Get it? Wasn't talking to a Christian, at all.

L-313 Some woman come to me, not long ago, and said, "Brother Branham, I'm a Christian, but I blasphemed the Holy Ghost."

L-314 I said, "It's impossible." A Christian could not blaspheme the Holy Ghost. You can't do it. A Christian spirit bears record with Christ's Spirit. See? And you'll call, everything of God, "God's."

L-315 But if you're carnal-minded, you'll make fun and laugh at the Holy Ghost; I don't care how much you go to church, you're still a sinner, and you're blaspheming the Holy Ghost. When they seen Jesus discerning their thoughts, they said He was a "fortune-teller."

L-316   Jesus said, "You've... I'll forgive you for that, but when the Holy Ghost is come, you speak a word against It, it'll never be forgiven you."
Because, they said, "He has an unclean spirit," calling the Spirit of God, "an unclean thing."
A Christian can't do that.    A Christian will always call the Spirit of God, "Righteousness." See? A Christian cannot blaspheme the Holy Ghost. It's the outsider that blaspheme.

L-317 That wasn't Christians standing there. It was religious people, it was orthodox Jews, doctors of divinity, and so forth, and they were making fun of Him and His works, calling the works of God, that, "It was an unclean spirit doing it."

L-318 And how many do you think today blasphemes the Holy Ghost, that's got D.D.D., PhD. on their name? How many great, stiffed Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, walk the street and make fun of the operation of the Holy Ghost, just as polished scholars, and slick as a button? That's right. But they make fun of the Holy Ghost, and therefore they blaspheme It.
But a born-again Christian cannot do that. He'll say, "That's my brother. That's the Spirit of the living God." That's right. A Christian cannot blaspheme the Holy Ghost.

L-319 It's the sinner that blasphemes the Holy Ghost; the unbeliever, the sinner, an "unbeliever." There's only two thing: either you are a believer, or an unbeliever.

L-320   Now, notice here, to make this real wound up now. I had a vision that's always bothered me. Years ago I used to look at that. I said, "Oh, if a man once received the Holy Spirit then, and then would backslide, he'd be lost forever." I couldn't get this other to make sense with that.


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