Good evening, beloved friends and brethren present.
And now, on this occasion we’ll hear this subject that we have: “THE CROWN OF THE VIRTUES.”
We read in chapter… First Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1 to 13, where it says:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
LOVE: “THE CROWN OF THE VIRTUES.”
Love is the crown of virtues. That is why when the human being was lost due to the fall of the human being in the Garden of Eden, God tells us in the Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verses 14 and on, He says:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
See what the First Coming of Christ was: It was the manifestation of God’s love for mankind.
“For God so loved the world (mankind), that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God’s Love manifested in favor of the human being is for eternal life, giving us His Son: Jesus, so that He may give us eternal life through His Sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross; and that whosoever believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life; may receive Christ as his Savior, wash away his sins in the Blood of Christ and have his sins blotted out, have his sins taken away, and receive the Holy Spirit; and thus obtain the new birth and obtain a theophanic body of the sixth dimension; and for the Last Day he will obtain, in addition, an eternal, immortal and incorruptible body, just like the glorified body of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ; for we shall all have a glorified body, and thus we shall be in the image and likeness of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, you see that it is a manifestation of God’s Love, of the Divine Love in Christ, two thousand years ago, in the fulfillment of His First Coming.
That is why two thousand years ago the Age of the Coming of the Son of Man was not in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh age of the Hebrew Church under the Law, rather it was in the Age of the Cornerstone; for the Age of the Cornerstone is the Age of the Coming of the Son of Man.
And since the fulfillment of the Coming of the Son of Man is the manifestation of Divine Love expressed through human flesh, His age is the Age of Divine Love; and that age crowns the Church, it is the crown for the Hebrew Church during His First Coming and it is the crown for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ during His Second Coming.
The coming of that age is the greatest blessing, as an age, for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is why Christ Himself is represented as the Cornerstone.1
Notice that the age is also the Age of the Cornerstone; and the virtue: love is the virtue that crowns, it is the crown of all virtues; therefore, it is the cornerstone of all virtues.
And now, that is so for all human beings as individuals and is it so for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before a person can obtain the crown of all virtues, and thus be coronated with the crown of all virtues, he has to have passed through the previous virtues; and then all virtues are at the crown of all virtues, because all virtues are in love.
In love we have faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, fear of God and brotherly love; all these virtues are within divine love.
Now, let’s see, for each person as an individual, who passes through different stages and those virtues and stages are manifested in him; later on, at the end, we have the promise of receiving the crown of all virtues: divine love manifested in all the sons and daughters of God, in all its fullness.
Just as He manifested the previous virtues, He will be manifesting the virtue of divine love at the Last Day, and will be crowning each individual with the Holy Spirit in all His fullness, with the fullness of God; and that will come to be for the elected of God…:
Just as we have received the first fruits of the Spirit by receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and obtaining the new birth, and obtaining a theophanic body of the sixth dimension: For the Last Day we will receive our transformation, if we remain alive until the dead in Christ are resurrected; but if anyone departs before then, it doesn’t matter: He will resurrect in this end time and will resurrect in an eternal body, along with the saints of the entire Church of Jesus Christ who have already departed; and He will be with us again in an immortal, incorruptible and glorified body.
And when we see them, the saints who have departed, when they resurrect in eternal bodies, then those among us who are living, will be transformed; and thus we will be crowned with the crown of all virtues: With the fullness of God; we will be adopted, we will have the double portion: The portion of the theophanic body of the sixth dimension and the portion of the eternal, immortal and glorified body, which we will receive in this end time.
And now, for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as Mystical Body of believers, we find that it has had its baptism as the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, just as, by obtaining the baptism of the Holy Spirit and obtaining the new birth, we obtained the first fruits. The first fruits is the “down payment”; but for the Last Day we will obtain the fullness, in addition.
And the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has obtained the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit manifested in each angel messenger from age to age. That has been a manifestation not of the fullness, but of the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, wherein a theophanic body of the sixth dimension has been operating, manifested in human flesh, operating the ministry relevant to each age; and those are the seven spirits of God that travel all the Earth.
But all of that corresponds to the first fruits of the Spirit of God, working through a theophanic spirit, which has been manifested in a body of flesh; and that has been the messenger of each age, wherein, the Holy Spirit has been working.
But for the Last Day the Holy Spirit will be working in a messenger in the Age of the Cornerstone, which is the crown age, that crowns the Church of Jesus Christ; and it will begin with the first fruits, but then it will reach a stage where He will adopt that Angel Messenger, He will transform him, and then, from then on it will be in all His fullness. And we will have the fullness of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit in human flesh, in an immortal, incorruptible and glorified body; and that will be the first occasion where the Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the Covenant, the Holy Spirit, will work a ministry in a glorified body, after having done it in Jesus Christ, after Jesus Christ was resurrected.
And now, we can see the great blessing that Christ has for this end time. In other words, this is the time for the fullness of the Holy Spirit for us as individuals, where we will be filled with the fullness of God, we will be transformed; and then Christ will be in us, manifested in us as sons and daughters of God, with glorified bodies; and that will be the second occasion, because the first one was in Jesus. And so it will be also for the Angel Messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Last Day; and it will be the second occasion in which the fullness of God will be in a man who will have an immortal, incorruptible and glorified body.
The first occasion was in Jesus and the second occasion will be in the Angel of the Lord Jesus Christ; and with him will be the group of the elect of the Last Day, who will also receive that blessing: The transformation of their bodies; and the Spirit of God will be manifested in all His fullness in each member of the Mystical Body of Christ of the Last Day.
And the dead in Christ will resurrect in eternal bodies and will all also be in the fullness of God, along with all of us; but in the time in which they lived, they could only obtain the first fruits of the Spirit, which we have also obtained, but He has promised that we will —in addition— obtain the fullness of God: The crown of all virtues.
And now, see how this mystery of the crown of all virtues will be manifested in us as individuals and in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as Mystical Body of believers.
And in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as Mystical Body of believers, in the Age of the Crown, which is the Age of the Cornerstone, Christ will be manifested in the Last Day by adopting His Angel Messenger in the Last Day. He will adopt him, and then Christ will be manifesting all His fullness in him.
And that will be the manifestation of Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, of the Holy Spirit in His Church at the Last Day, as the crown of all virtues, crowning His Church in the end time, where we are living in. And also in us as individuals, transforming us and giving us an eternal and glorified body, and manifesting Himself in us in all His fullness.
Therefore, the same thing that is done with us as individuals, is done in His Church as the Mystical Body of believers.
That is why the virtues mentioned by Saint Peter in Second Peter, chapter 1, verse 1 to 8, agree with the seven ages; and then love (which is the one that is placed in number 8, which is the age – which is the Cornerstone) agrees with the Age of the Cornerstone and with the eighth messenger, the messenger called the Angel of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation, chapter 1, verse 1 to 3; and Revelation, chapter 22, verse 6; and chapter 22, verse 16; of which in chapter 22, verse 16, Jesus says:
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.”
It is in the manifestation of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Angel of the Covenant in His Church, in the Angel Messenger that He sends, that He will crown His Church as Mystical Body of believers, He will crown her with a ministry: The ministry of Christ through His Angel Messenger, in which the ministry of Jesus will be operating for the second time, and that of Elijah for the fifth time and that of Moses for the second time.
And that is how, in the Age of the Cornerstone, which is the Age of the Crown, the Age of Divine Love, the age of the virtue that crowns all virtues, we will have —from different angles— the fulfillment of the crown of all virtues.
That is why Reverend William Branham says that the only thing that conquers all, that always obtains the victory, and that conquers the devil himself, is love. That is why in the Age of Divine Love, the Age of the Cornerstone, Christ will obtain the victory against the antichrist, and Christ will obtain the victory against death as well, in favor of all of us, because He will resurrect the dead believers in Him and will transform us who are living; and thus we will obtain the Great Victory (where?) in Divine Love, and in the Age of Divine Love, which is the Age of the Cornerstone.
Those who lived in past ages couldn’t obtain the victory against physical death, because their physical bodies died; and even from among our brethren from our time, some have also departed; but on Earth a group of God’s elect of the Last Day will remain who will obtain the victory even against physical death, because we will be transformed; and then the Word that is written concerning physical death will be fulfilled, which will not have power against the elect of God who will be changed at the Last Day, because when we are already transformed we will not die, because it is a new, immortal, incorruptible and glorified body.
Saint Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 49 and on:
“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (in other words, we will bring a theophanic immortal body, and a physical, eternal and glorified immortal body; and thus we will be in the image and likeness of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ).
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption…”
Therefore, being in these mortal, corruptible bodies, we can’t enter the Millennial Kingdom and be kings there in the Millennial Kingdom: We need an immortal, incorruptible and glorified body, which He will give us. When? He said: “…and I will raise him up at the last day.”2
To whom? To the believers in Him who would depart; and to those of us who are alive and remain alive, He will transform us. And then we will have a glorified body like the glorified body of Jesus Christ, and thus we will be in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ our Savior.
He goes on to say:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery (remember that it is a mystery of the Kingdom of God)<em>; We shall not all sleep (in other words, not all will die), but we shall all be changed…”
It doesn’t matter that a person has departed after believing in Christ, after being an elect of God, after obtaining the new birth; he has nothing to fear if he dies physically or continues living to be transformed when the dead in Christ resurrect: We will all have a new transformed body, an eternal body.
“…but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound…”
That is the Last Trumpet or Great Voice of Trumpet, with which the elect of God are called and gathered, in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 31, where it says: “And He will send His Angels with a Great Voice of Trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four corners, from one end of Heaven to the other.”
Those are the same Angels that He sends at the end of the age or end of time to carry out the Harvest, wherein the wheat will be harvested and the tares as well. The tares will be bound in bundles to be burned in the fire, in the great tribulation, where the atomic fire will be unleashed; but the wheat will be gathered and stored in the Storehouse of God. The wheat represents the elect of God and the tares the children of the wicked one.
“…at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
Now, you see, when we are transformed, death is swallowed up in victory; and that is where we will obtain the physical victory against death, because we will be transformed and we will no longer be mortal; we will be eternal, immortal people, like our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, with an immortal, incorruptible and glorified body; and then we will see Him in His glorified body, because we will also have a glorified body; just as we can see each other, why? Because we have a mortal, corruptible and temporal body, and therefore we can see one another.
Now, we can comprehend that for this end time the crown of all virtues comes to us as individuals.
Remember that God is Love,3 and the Coming of the Holy Spirit in all His fullness for the Last Day is the manifestation of the crown of all virtues: of Divine Love.
And now we can see how we have arrived to the time of the Age of the Cornerstone, which is the Crown Age, the age that crowns all the ages; that is the Age of the Cornerstone. Therefore, in that Age of the Cornerstone, all that has to do with the crowning of the virtues and the crowning of all things, will have to be manifested in that age.
For example, like the Coming of the Lord, the Coming of the Son of Man for the Last Day is the Coming of the Cornerstone, the Coming of the Crown. Christ is the Crown and He crowns His Church, because He is the Head of His Church.4
And now, we can see where we find ourselves at this end time in the Mystical Body of the Lord Jesus Christ: We find ourselves in the Age of the Crown, the Age of the Cornerstone, so that all the things that are represented in the Age of the Cornerstone, all the things that are represented in the crown of all virtues, are manifested, because in the crown of all virtues (which is love, and God is Love), there are all the virtues, and that is where all of God’s Creation, which is Love, has come from.
Since we are in the crown of all virtues as an age, we can expect nothing but that all things corresponding to the crown of all virtues, which have been promised to be fulfilled in this end time, will be manifested.
We don’t know in what year. We know it is for the Last Day, which is the seventh millennium, but we don’t know in which year of the seventh millennium. But the important thing is to be receiving the Word of Christ, that Word of Crown, which is the Message of the Age of the Cornerstone, the Message of the Gospel of the Kingdom being preached. And with that Message: Being made known all that must happen in this end time; because that Message revolves around the Crown, who is Christ our Savior, the Cornerstone; it revolves around Christ, the Cornerstone.
He is that Cornerstone in His First Coming and He is that Cornerstone in His Second Coming. And in His Second Coming is that what the prophet Daniel interpreted to King Nebuchadnezzar is fulfilled, who had seen a stone not cut with hands that came and struck the image, that is, the statue that represented the kingdom of the gentiles.5 Struck it where? In the feet of iron and clay. And the kingdom of the gentiles is found in this end time in the feet of iron and clay.
It was in the legs of iron in the First Coming of Christ, which was the Roman empire; and now the kingdom of the gentiles is in the feet of iron and clay.
And it is for this end time the promise of the Second Coming of Christ: That Stone not cut with hands, which Daniel says came and smote the feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces; and then that Stone grew and became a Great Mount, a Great Kingdom that filled the entire Earth; and that is the glorious Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
Now, we can see the great blessing that has come to us in the Divine Program, the blessing of living in the crown of all virtues as an age; the crown of all virtues as the fullness of the Spirit of God, to be manifested in this end time in us as individuals, bringing us our transformation and making us equal to Jesus Christ: With a glorified body, and making us physically immortal as well. For we are already immortal inwardly, our soul and our spirit: The theophanic body, the spirit that we have received from Christ; but for this end time, in addition to those blessings, He will give us another great blessing: And that is an eternal and glorified body, wherein a flu will not be able to touch us.
So onward serving Christ our Savior all days of your lives, because your redemption is near, that is, our transformation. The redemption of the body is near, and we have to be ready to obtain that transformation.
I will see you at the evening activity, God willing, at the location that has already been assigned. (They all fit, right?). Miguel is going to make the announcement. It is in the auditorium of the Municipal Library. How many know where it is? So the only one who doesn’t know where it is is me, Miguel. So from here then they will take me to that place, to have fellowship with you tonight during the public activity, for all people.
Well, onward serving Christ in this end time; because we are in the time of the crown of all virtues.
You see, the diagram that Reverend William Branham used has seven virtues here, and then He comes to the Age of the Cornerstone, He comes to the Cornerstone, which is love. Love is the crown of all those virtues, and in love are all virtues.
May the blessings of Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, the Divine Love, be upon all of you and upon me also; and may soon the number of God’s elect be completed, and may soon the dead in Christ be resurrected in eternal bodies and may we be transformed. In the Eternal Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.
“THE CROWN OF THE VIRTUES.”
1 Ephesians 2:20
2 John 6:40; 6:44; 6:54
3 First John 4:8; 4:16
4 Colossians 1:18
5 Daniel 2:31-45