Standing in the Gap Pt.3
II PETER 2:4-9
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness (Darkness is ignorance of the truth), to be reserved unto judgment;
(Peter is speaking of an event that took place before God had placed man upon the earth)
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness (Noah was a man that preached what was right – a man that knew God and who by his ministry was able to reveal God to the people), bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (From angels in heaven that sinned and were cast down to hell, to now man on earth becoming ungodly. We want to note this word “ungodly” – it’s a person that lacks an understanding of God)
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; (From angels in heaven that fell, then to Noah, and then directly to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of which is a prophecy of this end time age.
The judgements that fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is showing us of what God will also do to this end time sodomite age now. Because Satan knows what God does to a people that fall into a Sodomite condition, and so this is why Satan is forcing this sodomite spirit so much in the world now, because he loves to see people destroyed, and He loves to think that he is the one that will force God into it doing it knowing that it pains God greatly to have to destroy people. But for Satan, it feels like winning at a game of chess against God.
How did Satan destroy in Eden? - he just deceived God’s children into sinning against God, and then God was forced to bring judgement upon them, and the only person that got joy from it all was the devil and his fallen angels.)
7 ¶And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (the bible calls Lot a just man – you are not justified by being a good person, you are justified by your faith in the word revealed to you for the season you live in)
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
But God knows how to deliver each and every person who has received the word for their age regardless of their situation, so we can be certain of this concerning ourselves and our loved ones of whom we stand in the gap for.
Standing in the Gap Pt.3
*Lot had spent many years living with Abraham his uncle, and during those years he had seen many things and had become acquainted (by his association with Abraham) with at least some level of a true concept of the character of God.
*But when Lot ends up in Sodom in a backslidden condition, we know that at the time of when the angel visited Abraham and revealed the secret of Sarah’s heart and Abraham negotiates with God from 50 righteous right down to 10, we know for sure that Abraham would have had backslidden Lot and his family in his thinking.
*And so the Lord had already made a way for Lot to be saved by sending the two angles down to Sodom first before he went down there himself to judge it - and so God knew exactly what to do in order to deliver Lot out before the judgement fell - this is showing us that He knows how to deliver every person regardless of their backslidden state, and especially those of whom have received a revelation of the truth of this hour regardless of what level they are at, because it is by this revelation that we are proclaimed by God as righteous, because Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness – Roman’s 4:3 – Galatians 3:6 – James 2:23.
***Your righteousness has nothing to do with your conduct – it has to do with your concept. It was Abraham’s revelation of God that counted for righteousness. A revelation of the word is a clear concept of the word.
LUKE 17:28-30
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. (The destruction of Sodom could not come while Lot remained in the city – the events of the story makes that very clear, because this is a principle of God, in that He will not condemn the righteous with the wicked – His justice just won’t allow it because He is too much in the details for that to happen)
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
We have seen this prophecy that was spoken here by Jesus of the revealing of the son of man – we have seen this very scripture of prophecy become history in this time that we are living in right now.
***So in this story of Abraham and Lot and the cities of the plain, God is showing us something of this hour now.
Because we want to notice carefully the respect that God had toward Lot at the time of this judgment taking place, even though Lot was in a backslidden condition. This is why we must always show respect to people even if they are in a backslidden state, because they may still possess a true concept of God like what Lot did, and that is the part that God respects.
BIRTH.PAINS_ PHOENIX.AZ V-3 N-4 SUNDAY_ 65-0124
230 … Just to show the last sign that Abraham saw, the Elected group pulled out, away from Sodom. Now, don't miss this parable, whatever you do. The group that had been pulled out, that wasn't in Sodom, to begin with.
231 But two of the Angels went down into Sodom. And when They got down there, we find Lot. And He found him in a backslidden condition, all homosexuals and perversions.
JESUS.CHRIST.THE.SAME.YESTERDAY.TODAY.AND.FOREVER_ TUCSON.AZ TUESDAY_ 63-0604
168 …There was Lot, down in Sodom, the lukewarm church member, half backslidden.
*Brother Branham tells us in another message that Lot was a penny’s worth of change in God’s pocket as opposed to Abraham who was a silver dollar.
GOD'S.WORD.CALLS.FOR.A.TOTAL.SEPARATION.FROM.UNBELIEF_ PHOENIX.AZ V-3 N-20 TUESDAY_ 64-0121
75 All these believers, as we could go on for hours, all these were like a bunch of change out of your pocket, in God's hands. You pull out a bunch of change. There is pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half of dollars, dollar, all in coins. Now, that's what the world is, in God's hand. There is some people that just can have a penny's worth of it, and God can only use them in a penny way. That's all they can buy. Don't reject them. If they can't believe the real Truth, don't turn them down, don't kick them out and say they're not in It, because God uses pennies sometime.
76 Lot was just a penny, Abraham was a silver dollar, so it taken a hundred Lots to make an Abraham. And so will it take... A hundred carnal believers will never stand in the presence of a genuine Christian that's separated from the carnal things of the world, living in Christ Jesus, where the Word can flow through him.
77 He can only take a penny's worth; that's all he's got. So you see people that say, "I don't believe in healing. I don't believe in these things," just know it's a penny, but just let him alone. See? Just a penny's worth, and so that's all he can buy. Don't stop him; just let him alone. Remember, that's just all the farther he can go.
*So we can begin to see the picture here.
Lot was a lukewarm church member, that was half backslidden – and he was not even of Abraham’s group, and it would take a 100 Lot’s to make one Abraham.
*So when we start to do the math, we find out that when Abraham negotiated with God down to 10 righteous in Genesis 18, but God wanted to showed us something of His character and grace in Genesis 19 that not only would He save the entire population of a wicked city by the presence of just one righteous man, but that He would even save it for a man that was a lukewarm church member that was half backslidden and a 100 times less than that of what Abraham was.
*Abraham thought that God’s lowest grace limit was set to around 10 righteous, but we find out in Genesis 19 that God’s grace was literally a thousand times greater beyond what Abraham had negotiated down to.
**What are we being shown here? We are being shown that God’s grace is able to go a thousand times beyond the limit of what our human minds would ever think possible.
**God used a backslidden man that was 100 times less than that of Abraham, and showed us that that was still enough to save the population of the entire city of Zoah that was full of wicked people of whom Lot probably didn’t even know.
Zoar = "insignificance"
Talk about AMAZING GRACE… and HE CARETH FOR YOU…
If God would respect a backslidden man that was a hundred time less than Abraham and spare an entire city of wicked people because of his presence in that city, how much more can we be sure that He will spare those of whom we are also standing amongst.
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*We have been studying this subject of standing in the gap for the past few weeks. And we have found many places in the bible that have helped us to see clearly why this experience of Standing in the Gap was place by God in Brother Branham’s life directly after the event of the word of the Lord that had come to him by the opening of the seven seals.
STANDING.IN.THE.GAP_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0623M
Notice the date of when this sermon is preached – this is only 3 months since the seals were ministered back in late March of ‘63 – and so this is the experience that has been going in Brother Branham’s life since that time of the opening of the seals – since the “word of the Lord” had come to him in a way that he had never had experienced it so great before – but now he finds himself without a feeling for the people that he has been directly sent to – so he knows that before he can continue, that something has got to change in his heart)
161 …Something's got to change me, because I, in my heart, if I go out there feeling the way I do now; I still feel that they ought to have heard that Message, they ought to a-done it. And I don't have the feeling for the people that I should have. Until I can get that feeling, there is no need in me going, because I'd be a hypocrite.
Remember that he had made up his mind that he was going to run away 1100 miles into the wilderness from civilization, and then we see how that Jonah tried to do the same thing, because directly after the word of the Lord came to Johah, he immediately tries to run away 1100 miles to Tarshish for the same reason, because in his heart there was no feeling in him to save the lives of a gentile people who were under judgement.
*And so for Jonah, for the story to go on, and for an entire population of a wicked city to be saved, Jonah needed to have a change of heart first – and through the experience of the storm he goes on to prove that God had changed his heart by how he stood in the gap for the lives of the sailors on the ship.
*Abraham stood in the gap for Lot in Genesis 18
*Lot stood in the gap for the people of Zoah in Genesis 19
*Judah stood in the gap for Benjamin in Genesis 44 – Judah was the one that went into what he thought was a harlot in Genesis 38.
*Moses stood in the gap between an angry God and a stiff-necked people in the book of Numbers and other places.
*Rahab the harlot stood in the gap for her family at the time of when Jerico was under judgement – she had received the messengers, and so because of that the judgement would not pass over her to her family.
*Christ on the cross stood in the gap for a solitary condemned thief, and also for the entire human race.
EZEKIEL 22:30-31
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
*God is desperately looking for people who have received truth to stand in the gap for others who are under judgement.
*So by all of this, we know for sure that the heart of God is far greater for mercy than it is for judgement – it is not in God’s great heart that any should perish, and He proved that in Genesis 19 by sparing an entire city full of wicked people for the sake of just one backslidden man because this is what took place with Lot and the city of Zoah.
**God would not go over Lot to destroy the people of Zoah of which Lot probably didn’t even know one of them personally.
THE.SPOKEN.WORD.IS.THE.ORIGINAL.SEED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0318
106-3 All the Old Testament was types that point to Christ and His church.
When God found Lot in Zoah, the entire city was spared for the sake of that one man - a type of Christ, by one man all are saved.
This is showing us that salvation has nothing to do with how good or how bad our works are, it is showing us that it is the righteousness of Christ alone.
**So when we take this experience of the Brother Branham of him trying to run away from the commission that God had place on his life, and then place his experience back in the bible to see how the bible will interpret this modern event in his life – then we find that the same experience took place in the story of Esther, because directly after the ministry of Mordecai’s message came to Esthar, she needed to have a change of heart in order for her to be able to put her life on the line and to stand in the gap for her people.
And so for the story of Esther to go on into the story of a victory for her people, she had to first have a change of heart – and so we see this same event is lived out in Brother Braham’s life also before the message could go on into “their tremendous victory in the Love Devine.”
*So this is showing us something for our lives also, in that after the word has come to us in this hour (of which it has), because we know that that is what qualifies a person to be able to stand in the gap for another person – because God has great respect for a revelation of his word in that heart of a person.
*The word of the Lord came to Jonah – that was what qualified him, and so then he was able to stand in the gap after he had had a change of heart.
The Word of the Lord came to Moses – he also stood in the gap.
The word of the Lord came to Abraham, and Rahab, and Esther.
**God is looking for these types of people who are qualified by the fact that the word of the Lord has come to them, but He is also looking for these same ones to come into a willingness of heart to stand in the gap in the time of judgement, because God’s heart is to spare life and not to destroy life – this is a fact that runs all through the scriptures.
JEREMIAH 5:1
1 ¶ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
So God has a plan by which He delivers people, He knows how to do it.
How did He deliver Noah? - He showed him a tree that had to be cut down, and then He shows him the sap that he had to pitch the ark with in order to keep the judgment out. What was that tree? Christ!
*How did God deliver in Egypt? - He showed Moses how to kill a lamb and put the blood on the door post and lintel. What was that lamb? Christ!
*So when we look a Lot, He is being delivered out of Sodom by two angel’s – so it is Christ in the form of these two angels, and these angels look like ordinary men, so God is showing us of how that he can use the ministry of men to deliver people.
*When we study the events of the experience of Beyond the curtain of Time – they were all shouted out that they were trusting in the ministry that God had sent to them during their lifetime on earth to deliver them. “if you hadn’t gone – we would not be here”. This is a very powerful concept because the angel told him that all he ever loved would be there, and all that ever loved him would be there. So if you want to be there, then you can be sure to be there just by loving the prophet and his message.