Good evening, beloved friends and brethren present, and those who are in different places. Greetings to all of you; and warm greetings to Dr. Miguel Bermúdez Marín with all my heart.
For this occasion, let’s read in Exodus chapter 23, verses 20 to 23; and it says the following:
“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.”
For this occasion, as an introduction to next Sunday’s Bible study, titled: “OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE ONE SENT AT EACH TIME,” in this introduction we will see the base of this subject for next Sunday’s Bible study.
May God bless our souls with His Word and allow us to understand It.
Throughout the Scripture we can see that God has sent His Angel for the deliverance of the Hebrew people; and the Angel of the Covenant is none other than the image of the living God.
It is the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel of God, God’s heavenly body that appears in that Pillar of Fire, and sometimes appears as a person from another dimension, in other words, in the form of an Angel or heavenly body or theophanic body. And that is none other than the Messiah, the Christ, through whom God created all things.
In Saint John, chapter 1, it tells us:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Here it shows us the Angel of the Covenant, the Word, the Angel of God, the Word, who was made flesh and was known by the Name of Jesus or Jesus Christ.
Verse 18 says:
“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
In other words, through the Word, the Angel of the Covenant, God made Himself known to the human being since Genesis. Every time the Angel of the Covenant appeared, it was said that God had appeared to the person or to the people, and had told them such-and-such a thing.
Many of them, like Moses,1 Jacob, also Manoah,2 wanted to know the Name of the Angel of the Covenant, because they knew that the Name of the Angel of the Covenant is the Name of God.
That is why when Moses says to God: “If they ask me what His Name is…” (meaning, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had appeared to him). The Angel of the Covenant tells him: “I Am that I Am. And you shall say to the people: I Am has sent me to you.”3
Here the I Am is the Almighty God manifested through the Angel of the Covenant, that is, through His heavenly body, which is the heavenly body of Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. That is why in Saint John chapter 8, verses 56 to 58, of Saint John, Jesus Christ says:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
How was Jesus Christ before Abraham? He was the Angel of the Covenant, He was Jesus Christ in His heavenly body, in that Pillar of Fire called Angel of the Covenant or Angel of the Lord.
In Hebrews, just as we read in Saint John chapter 1, where it says that all things were made by Him and without Him nothing was made that has been made; in Hebrews, Paul the Apostle—knowledgeable about this mystery—says in chapter 1 of Hebrews, verse 1 and on:
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds…”
The universe was made by God through Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, before having His body of flesh, which is none other than the image of the living God; and it is also the physical likeness of God in His body called Jesus.
The Angel of the Covenant is none other than Christ in His heavenly body, who was made flesh. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us human beings (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father), full of grace and virtue.”
No man has seen God – saw Him at any time. When Jacob said: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved,” in chapter 32, verses 24 to 32 of Genesis, we find that the One he had seen was God veiled in the heavenly body, he had seen the Angel of the Covenant, in whom God was; because the Angel of the Covenant is the image of the living God, it is Christ in His heavenly body, in whom God is in all His fullness.
And then, when He was made flesh and dwelt among the Hebrew people, He was none other than Emmanuel, God with us in human form, in a body of flesh visiting His people of the Old Covenant; because He must come to the Covenant people when He fulfills the promise of His Coming.
That is why the Apostle Saint Peter and Saint Paul, when they speak of Christ, show Him as the image of the living God, the Angel of the Covenant made flesh in the midst of the people.
In First Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16, it says:
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…”
How was God manifested in the midst of the Hebrew people, in the midst of the Covenant people? God was manifest in the flesh. In other words, God manifested Himself in a body of flesh called Jesus, He manifested Himself as a human being of this earthly dimension, to carry out the Work of Redemption through His physical body, His body of flesh, which would die as a Sacrifice of Atonement for all those written in Heaven, in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
And now, we have seen that Jesus Christ is the Angel of the Covenant in His heavenly body, through whom God created the Heavens and the Earth. All of Creation was made by God through His heavenly body. As simple as that.
In Colossians, chapter 1, verse 12 and on… Chapter 1, verse 12 and on, of Colossians; Saint Paul says:
“… Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light…”
The saints, which are the believers in Christ, have an inheritance.
“… to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness…”
This means: He has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness, from the power of the kingdom of darkness, from the kingdom of the wicked one, from the kingdom of the fifth dimension…
“… and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” (we have been translated into the Kingdom of Christ, the Kingdom of the Messiah, which is in the spiritual realm),
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.”
And now, the image of God is Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, and He is the Firstborn of all Creation.
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”
All of Creation was created by Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, and for Him. He is the owner, the heir of all Creation; they were created by God through Him and for Him. And we have been translated into that Kingdom of Christ by being born again. By being born again we are born into the Kingdom of the Messiah, the Kingdom of the Angel of the Covenant, the Kingdom of God which is in the spiritual realm and which is going to be in the physical realm in the Millennial Kingdom and for all eternity.
Because the Gentile kingdom will be removed in the stage of the feet of iron and clay, which is the stage it is currently in. It started with the head of gold in the time of King Nebuchadnezzar; then it passed to the breast and arms of silver, which was the Medo-Persian Empire; and then it passed to the belly and thighs of brass, which is the Greek Empire; and then it passed to the legs of iron, which is the Roman Empire of the Caesars; then it passed to the feet and toes of iron and clay.
In the stage of the legs of iron, of the Roman Empire, Christ was crucified in His First Coming by the Roman Empire. Then, at this end time the Second Coming of Christ will be in the stage of the feet of iron and clay, which will be broken to pieces with the Coming of the Messiah, the Coming of the Stone cut out without hands, at this end time in which we are living.
As God has done in the Old Covenant by sending His Angel, now notice what takes place under the New Covenant. To the people and with the people of the Old Covenant runs parallel what would be happening with the people of the New Covenant, which is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which appears on the day of Pentecost, where She is born, and where the gap opens in the middle of the seventieth week of the prophecy of Daniel, chapter 9; and there is a gap there for the appearance, the birth of Christianity or of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And given that in the middle of the seventieth week is when that week stops with the crucifixion of Christ, we find that Israel has three and a half years left of the seventieth week; because in the midst of that week the Messiah would be cut off according to Daniel chapter 9; and soon God will return to Israel to continue the seventieth week, fulfill the three and a half years left to be fulfilled of that seventieth week. That will take place when He completes His Church and carries out the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of us who are alive.
Therefore, Israel is waiting for the Coming of the Messiah; a promise which will be fulfilled for them very soon. But before that, since the day of Pentecost, Christ is dealing with the believers in Him, with the believers in Christ, under a new dispensation: the Dispensation of Grace, which is the sixth dispensation, of which Christ is the messenger of the sixth dispensation, the Dispensation of Grace.
In all the dispensations it has been the Angel of the Covenant, Christ, the image of the living God, through which God has manifested Himself in each dispensation; and He has sent the messenger of each dispensation, through whom He has veiled and revealed Himself to the people. It has always been God through the Angel of the Covenant speaking to His people through a man, a prophet, as Zechariah chapter 7, verses 11 to 12 says.
And now, God, who spoke through the prophets, then came and spoke through Jesus, and then has been speaking through the apostles in past times, and has continued speaking in the midst of His Church through the different messengers He has sent for each age or stage of His Church, through whom He has called and gathered the elect of each age in His Church.
And now notice here, Revelation, chapter 1, verse 1 and on, says:
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”
And now, Christ tells us that this is His Revelation, of Jesus Christ; and that He has sent His Angel to show His servants these things, the things which must shortly come to pass.
In Revelation, chapter 22, verse 6, it says:
“And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.”
And now, “the God of the holy prophets,” in other words, the God of the heavenly bodies of the prophets, it says: “sent his Angel.”
Just as God, under the Covenant that He gave through the Prophet Moses, sent His Angel, the Angel of the Covenant, the image of the living God, the heavenly body of God; now Christ says in the New Testament, in Revelation, that just as God sent His Angel under the Covenant that He gave to the people through Moses, now in the New Covenant Christ says that He has sent His Angel. Chapter 22, verse 6, says that He has sent him “to show His servants the things which must shortly be done.” And in Revelation chapter 22, verse 16, it says:
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
And now, He has sent His Angel for what? To testify these things in the churches.
Referring to this Angel, Rev. William Branham says that this Angel is a prophet; just like when the Angel of the Covenant was made flesh and was known by the Name of Jesus He was a prophet, He was the Son of man; He was God veiled in His heavenly body, the Angel of the Covenant, and veiled in His body of flesh called Jesus, which is the physical likeness of God. And we can see that there is a great mystery there.
That is the mystery that the believers of the end time of the Dispensation of the Law were not able to see, and it is also what those of the Dispensation of Grace will not be able to see at the end time; but the believers in Christ written in Heaven, in the Lamb’s Book of Life will see it.
Notice what Rev. William Branham says in the “Fifth Seal”: page 94 of the Book of Quotations, he says [The Revelation Of The Seven Seals, “The Fifth Seal,” p. 346-347, paras. 201-209]:
811 – “201 Have you caught anything? [Congregation says, ‘Amen.’—Ed.] (…) I might not have to tell you then, Sunday.” (And Sunday was the day he was going to speak about the Seventh Seal). “Notice. Notice. Wonderful! Now, now, notice now.
202 And then according to the—the time that God was going to deliver the antediluvian world, He sent the eagle. (…)” (meaning a prophet, because prophets are represented in eagles).
203 Do you believe that the time, even on John, on the Isle of Patmos, this Message was so perfect that He couldn’t trust It with an Angel? You know, an angel is a messenger. But do you know the messenger was a prophet?”
The Angel of whom Jesus says: “Behold, I Jesus have sent Mine Angel,” Rev. William Branham says that Angel is a prophet.
“811 – [203] You believe that? Let’s prove it. Revelation 22, let’s see if it was a eagle. Yeah. See, he was a… Sure, he was an angel, he’s the messenger, but it was a prophet that revealed this whole Book of Revelation to him.
204 Revelation, the 22nd chapter and the 19th verse, (…)
205 Watch what John seen here.
…I John saw these things, and heard them.
206 Now he’s closing. This is the last chapter.
…And when I…heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed these things, which showed me these things.
207 And, ‘he,’ then, ‘the angel,’ see.
Then said he to me, See thou do it not:…
208 No true prophet would be worshipped, or messenger of any kind, see. (…)
Then said he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
209 See? Now, the Book was so important, that, It is the Word of God. Now watch. And when the Word of God is brought forth, It’s got to be brought by the prophet, because that’s who the Word of God comes to.”
And now, we can see that if God is going to give the revelation of His Word to His people in an age, it has to come through a messenger for that age. That is how the Word of the Lord must come in each time. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing without first revealing His secrets unto His servants, His prophets.” (Amos chapter 3, verse 7).
In Quotations, page 41, paragraph 330, it says [60-1204M – “The Revelation Of Jesus Christ,” p. 16, paras. 108-110]:
“108 And it was sent to the… ‘And signified this by his angel unto John.’ We do not know who the angel was. The Bible doesn’t say who the angel was. But we know that it was a prophet, ’cause the Bible later said, that, ‘I Jesus have sent my angel to testify these things which must shortly come to pass.’
109 Then we find out that when John started to worship the angel, the angel said, ‘See that you do it not.’ Revelation 22, I believe it is. And he said, ‘For I am of thy fellowservants and of the prophets.’ It might have been Elijah. It might have been one of the prophets. John was an apostle. But this prophet was sent.
110 And John, being an apostle, look at the nature of the rest of his epistles, prove that it wasn’t John wrote it, because it has no nature like John. Take First John, Second John, so forth, and read it. And look at the nature of that, then look at the nature of this. John was a writer and was an apostle, but this is the spirit of a prophet. It’s a different person, altogether.”
When the Angel of the Covenant, of the Old Covenant, who delivered the Hebrew people from bondage in Egypt, was made flesh, He fulfilled the First Coming of Christ among the people of the Covenant that God established with the Hebrew people on Mount Sinai. And it’s to the people of the Covenant in effect that the Angel of the Covenant came, the veil of flesh which in heavenly body had led Israel, through which God was veiled and revealed, manifesting Himself and delivering Israel, and leading them to the Promised Land.
And now, we find that under the New Covenant, Jesus Christ says: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.” He is doing the same thing the Father did with Him.
And now, in the New Covenant… just like in the Old Covenant, God, through the Angel of the Covenant, veiled Himself and revealed Himself through the different prophets and spoke to the people… In Zechariah chapter 7, verses 11 to 12, it tells us… Chapter 7, verses 11 to 12, says:
“But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.”
And now, how did God speak? He spoke through His Spirit, which is the Angel of the Covenant, which is Christ in His heavenly body; He spoke through the prophets who were anointed by the Holy Spirit, by the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel of God, in whom God was veiled, inside a body of flesh called a prophet, through whom He manifested Himself. That is why when the Messiah came, He was also a prophet, Jesus, in whom God was veiled and revealed in all His fullness to His people Israel.
And now, at the end time we can see throughout the history of the Church, that Christ has been in the midst of His Church in Holy Spirit. He said: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Saint Matthew chapter 28, verse 20). And also Saint Matthew 18, verse 20, where it says: “For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there Am I.”
Just as He was in the midst of the Hebrew people the whole time, under the Covenant of the Law, veiling and revealing Himself through the different prophets and speaking to the Hebrew people, we find that Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, has been in the midst of His Church the whole time in Holy Spirit, veiling and revealing Himself through each messenger at each time, in each stage, and calling and gathering His elect from each age.
And just as the Angel of the Covenant two thousand years ago, after manifesting Himself through the different prophets, was manifested in Jesus, was veiled, was made flesh… “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” (Saint John chapter 1, verse 14.) And that was to carry out the Program of the First Coming of Christ, the Coming of the Messiah, to carry out the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the people; the Angel of the Covenant came clothed in a body of flesh. The Angel of God who had delivered the Hebrew people now comes in the form of a man called Jesus, in the form of a prophet; because when the name “Son of man” is used, the title Son of man, it is referring to a prophet.
At the end time, the same One who has been in the midst of His Church the whole time in Holy Spirit, will manifest Himself in the midst of His Church to give us the faith to be changed and taken with Christ to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
He didn’t manifest Himself in all His fullness in the first messenger of His Church among the Gentiles: Saint Paul; but He manifested Himself in the portion pertaining to that time of the first stage of the Church. He knew many things that will take place in this end time, related to the Coming of the Lord with His Angels.
He didn’t manifest Himself in all His fullness in the second stage of His Church either, nor in the third, nor in the fourth, nor in the fifth, nor in the sixth, nor in the seventh; but He will manifest Himself in all His fullness in this end time, and He will bring forth the resurrection of the dead believers in Christ and the transformation of us who are alive in that end time, in that last stage of His Church, which pertains to the Age of the Cornerstone; just like the time when the Word was made flesh pertained to the Age of the Cornerstone. As simple as that.
At the time of the Age of the Cornerstone we will know the Angel that Christ sends to testify of these things to the churches; and that is when we will know the mystery of the Angel who Christ sends to testify these things which must happen; and we will be obeying the Word of the Lord, the Word of Christ, the Word of the Holy Spirit for this end time. And that will be: “OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE ONE SENT AT EACH TIME.”
Just as they obeyed the Voice of the One sent at each time through the manifestation of the Angel of the Covenant from age to age, through each messenger; at this end time there will be the group of believers of the Last Day that will be changed; and if anyone goes ahead of time, he will be raised with all the dead in Christ when they rise.
They will all be hearing, and obeying the Voice of the One sent of the Last Day, of the Holy Spirit manifested in the Angel that Christ will send at this end time, just as He sent in each age an angel-messenger in each age.
At this end time He will send a spirit of a prophet. Just as He sent a messenger spirit in each past age, He will send a spirit of a prophet at the end time in which we are living. And through him He will deal with His Church and He will deal with the Hebrew people, and He will also carry out a great manifestation for the whole world. As simple as that.
The important thing for us is that we will be obeying the Voice of the One sent of the end time, just as the people were obeying the Voice of the One sent in every age, the Voice of the Holy Spirit through the messenger pertaining to each age. That is how we will be at this end time: obeying the Voice of the Holy Spirit, of Christ, through the One sent by God at the Last Day in the Age of the Cornerstone.
It has been a great privilege for me to be with you in the introduction of next Sunday’s Bible Study, God willing; and I trust that next Sunday we can see more clearly the subject we will be studying in next Sunday’s Bible School.
May God bless you and keep you; and continue having a joyful evening, filled with the blessings of Christ our Savior.
I will leave Rev. José Benjamín Pérez with you here, and in each country I leave each relevant minister to continue.
Until next Sunday, God willing. Have a good evening, everyone.
Pray a lot for next Sunday’s service. Everything we will be seeing in that subject for next Sunday, God willing, will be very important.
May God bless you and keep you, and may He prosper you spiritually and materially, and use you greatly in His Work at this end time.
“OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE ONE SENT AT EACH TIME.”
1 Exodus 33:18-23
2 Judges 13:1-21
3 Exodus 3:13-15