Questions & Answers
Questions 80 (COD Page 383)
Now, here is another one; let’s see what it is. All right. Please explain the parable of the five virgins. Does a Christian sin?
103 Now, the parable of the five virgins-or the ten virgins it is, please excuse me. The ten virgins is found in Matthew 25:1. Ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom (now notice!), and five of them were wise and had oil in their lamps, five were unwise and did not have oil in their lamps. While they slumbered, the cry-cry come, “Go meet the bridegroom.” And the ones that had oil in their lamps, trimmed their lamps, the fire was burning, and they went out to meet the bridegroom. The others come to buy oil, and they told them to go and get from-oil from those who sold it. While they were going, the bride come and the-and the-the wise virgin went in, and the sleeping virgin was cast out.
104 This is going to hurt, really hurt, but I’ve just got to say it. I never asked the question; I’m just responsible for answering it. Now, this comes so close to home, brother, so close, till I hope
that it helps instead of hurts. Usually you have to hurt... As mama used to say when she give me a whipping, she said, “It has to hurt before it does you good.” Well, that-that is right. See? I couldn’t see it then, but I-I see it now.
105 Look, the... All ten of them that went out were virgins. Now, there were ten virgins went to meet the Lord. Now, the word virgin means “sanctified (does anybody know that?), holy, pure, sanctified.” There were ten of them that went out to meet the Lord.
106 Now remember, they had been falling asleep in one watch, two watch, three watch, on till the seventh watch. But these really went to meet the Lord. And remember, as they went, the Lord came. That was the coming of the Lord’s time. Not who was in the watch...
107 Jesus spoke where that some fell in the first watch, and some in the second watch, and some in... But at the coming of the Lord they all wakened down. But on this case, it was the last watch, because they went out, ten of them, to meet the Lord. And five smoked out their lamps, and took no oil; five had oil.
108 Now remember, oil in the Bible is a symbol of what? Can anybody say? [Congregation replies, “Holy Ghost”-Ed.] Holy Ghost! Then you could be clean, and pure, and sanctified without having the Holy Ghost. Cleansing is what you are...
109 Now watch, I’m going to take like this bottle. And it’s laying out here in the chicken yard, and it’s all full of filth. I pick it up; that’s justification: “I’m going to use this sinner.” And the next thing I do if I’m going to use it, I’ll have to cleanse it. And then, if I cleanse it, what do I do to it? Sanctify it. The word sanctify made-means “clean,” same thing as holy. Holy-holy is a Hebrew word, sanctify is a Greek word. The word sanctify means “clean and set aside for service.” But then, blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled, then they’re put in service.
110 The vessels... The tabernacle of the Old Testament, the altar sanctified the vessels, and they were set aside for service. When they were filled, they were in service.
111 Now, there’s where you dear, precious Nazarenes and so forth, left the mark. See? We all... Why are you failing? Why did Pentecost run off and leave you. Because you refused to walk in the Light. That’s exactly right. See? That’s exactly. The first altar I ever knelt at was at a precious, old Nazarene altar down here. God bless them, good, holy, clean church, but you’re so legalistic that you go, “You must do this, and you must do that. You must do this,” and don’t realize it’s the grace of God and you’re called by election. It’s not he that willeth or him that runneth, but it’s God that showeth mercy. See? God predestinated the Church before the foundation of the world (we got a question on that in a few minutes. See?), predestinated the Church before the foundation of the world.
112 You cannot, taking thought, add one cubit to your stature. “No man can come to Me except My Father draws him first.” See? See, it was God that did the calling, God that did the pulling, God that set the Church. Now, now, you say, “Brother Branham, that’s pure Calvinism.” No, it isn’t. Now, wait! I don’t believe that God takes a man up and just says, “Here, I’m going to pick you up and... ”
113 All these Baptists and Presbyterians say, “Well, I believe on the Lord, I don’t have-don’t condemn my conscience!” No wonder, you haven’t got nothing to condemn. They say, “Well,
dancing don’t hurt me. Drinking a little sociable drink wouldn’t hurt me.” Because there’s nothing in there to hurt. “Telling dirty jokes wouldn’t bother me.” Because why? There’s nothing in there to hurt.
114 But I don’t serve the Lord because I think He’d send me to hell if I didn’t; I serve Him because I love Him. I serve Him because there’s something in me. If you go out and say, “We’ll, I have to quit doing this because my church don’t believe in it,” you’re just playing the part of a hypocrite. That’s right. But if you do it because that you love it, and-and it’s a contribution to God, and something in your heart making the love of God so greater to you than these things, now you’re on the right line. But if I didn’t drink, smoke, chew, cuss, do nothing else, I’d still go to hell. Sure! I joined all the churches, was baptized, and had my name on all the books, and played a good part, and lived a good life, “Except a man be borned again, he can’t even see the Kingdom of God.” That’s right!
115 Now these virgins, ten of them slowed up. What stumped the Nazarene people was this: Because the Pentecostals took the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost is speaking in tongues. They got them down at the altar and made them say something or another over and over till they spoke in tongues. A real, true Pentecostal wouldn’t go for that. The devil had a lot of things in your Nazarene church too. See? And he’s got a whole lot of things in the Pentecostal church, but as far as the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that’s the Truth. That’s exactly the Truth.
116 There’s a lot of them, I know. I’ve heard people speak with tongues. I can’t judge; I wasn’t sent to judge. I’ve heard a whole lot of it; sounded like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. But I know there’s a real Holy Ghost that speaks with tongues. And I know that’s right. Yes, sir!
117 But they seen the people come in and say, “Glory to God, I got It.” Well then, that’s the same thing... Now, don’t call that Pentecostal because they jumped up and down, and spoke in tongues, and you seen them out there with somebody else’s wife or somebody else’s husband.
118 You say, “Is that the Holy Ghost?” You Nazarenes shouted all over the floor and done the same thing. You said you had It when you shouted. See? There’s no way at all that you can prove it by-but by your life you live. “By their fruits you shall know them.” That’s the way it is. The godly life and Christ working with you confirming the Words, signs and wonders following with a godly life, that’s the real thing. Now, you can have a lot of signs and not the life. You can impersonate the life without the signs, but when you see them both together, then that’s it. That’s the one. Now! And then, remember, the Bride... Now I might finish this if you’ve got just a few minutes time, go on it.
119 Look, a woman is going to cut off a dress. She’s got a large piece of goods. (Let’s call it what? Calico, gingham, or something another, some kind of a name that you got. Let’s say it’s silk.) And she’s got a pattern. And she looks over this big piece of goods. Now, it’s up to her where she lays this pattern. Is that right? She can choose it from any part of this goods, and the whole goods is sanctified, it’s clean. See, it’s election. God’s election. So what does He do? God takes by election and places this pattern of Christ anywhere He wants to on the goods. Then it’s cut out. The rest of the goods is just as holy as this part was holy, but by choice God made His choice before the foundation of the world. Didn’t Paul say in Corinthians-Corinthians 8, I mean, Romans 8, that, “Can the Potter... can the clay say to the Potter, why makest me thus?” Can God, Who is just, when He could say to Esau or Jacob before either boy was born or done right or wrong, “I hate Esau and love Jacob”? It’s because that by foreknowledge He’d knowed what Esau was and what Jacob was. He knows what’s in man. Before the foundation of
the world He knowed, He...
120 If you could explain the word of infinite... Why, the word infinite... I say there’s been a hundred billion tons of gnats in the world (that wouldn’t start it), a hundred billion tons of gnats in the world, and each one of them has batted their eyes a hundred trillion billion times. And not one of them ever batted their eye but what God knew it before the foundation of the world. That’s infinite. That’s something on the word of infinite. See?
121 He is infinite. So before the foundation of the world He knowed just exactly what you’d do. And He sent Christ, not just to be... If somebody, “Well if I’ll just quit my meanness and follow Him,” or something like that, that isn’t it. He knowed who would be saved, so He sent Christ to save that what He foresaw would be saved. That’s exactly right.
122 Now, the Church Itself has Eternal security. If you’re in the Church, you’re secured with the Church. But when you go out of the Church, you’re not secured. See? Now, you stay in the Church.
123 How do you get in the Church? Joining hands, writing your name on a book? By one Spirit we’re all baptized into one Body; that’s the Church. How? Through Holy Ghost baptism we are sealed in the Body of Christ. How long? Until the day of your redemption. Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed until the day of your redemption.” Sealed away until the day of your redemption. Now. Certainly, certainly, that’s the Holy Spirit.
124 And now, that Church was taken up, and the remnant of the woman’s seed who keep the commandments of God and have faith in Jesus Christ (see?), not the Bride, the remnant of the woman’s seed. Then the dragon spurted water out of his mouth to make war with the remnant of the seed. That’s when the protestant church under the Federation of Churches, which is the image to the beast, which is now being formed... And there’ll be a boycott upon all churches like this.
125 Like we’re in a great tax gathering right here now, a dispute, trying to say that we’re not a church, and we got Constitutional rights to say that we are a church. As long as the Constitution stands there, no amendment to that, then we absolutely have the rights, just as much right as anybody. Our forefathers stood for that. But what have we done, we’ve broke every Constitutional laws that they can break, and soon the Federation of Churches, which all the churches and denominations are invited into, and the devil’s got in and making worldiness and everything in local church members and so forth like that, and great congregations, and class, and society, when the little old church is still down yonder being borned again in a mess like any birth is, still paying the price, still getting down and dying out, acting the same way they did when they first got born at the day of Pentecost, same kind of a church down there... They’ll be closed and shut out under the Federation of Churches. It’ll be a boycott like a union or something. You’ll either come in or you’ll go out.
126 The mark of the beast is on today, and the-the Seal of God is the Holy Spirit. To reject it is the mark of the beast. Ever who sees the Holy Ghost, that you’re supposed to receive It, and don’t do it, automatically you take the mark of the beast, because there’s only two classes to exist: all that didn’t have the Seal of God had the mark of the beast. So to receive the Seal of God is to receive the Holy Ghost. To reject It is to have the mark of the beast. There’s the whole thing. That’s exactly right.
127 Now, the Bride went up, the remnant left here. And she is the one who come in the second resurrection. “Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, on which the second
death has no power.” That’s right. The second resurrection will be the White Throne Judgment, then the church... “Don’t you know,” said Paul, “go amongst the unbelievers and the lawyers and so forth when the saints shall judge the earth.” These matters should be judged before the Church, not before the unjust magistrates and so forth, but before the Church our matters should. Dare you take one another to the law. And God pity a man that’ll take a Christian to law. That’s right. Paul even dared them to do it.
128 Now, that’s the Bride, and there goes the sleeping virgin, left on earth. The wise virgin goes into Heaven with oil in her lamp. I know we could spend a lot of time on that, but I got-I’m going to hurry to get through this.
129 “Do Christians sin?” Absolutely no! There is no Scripture where a Christian sins. He cannot sin. I know there’s a resentment to that. Well, we’ll just go to First John 3 and see what the Scripture says. A Christian does not sin.
130 Did you ever see a black, white bird or a white, black bird? Did you ever see a drunk, sober man? No! You never did see a sinner, saint either. There’s no such a thing.
131 Now, if this gets just a little touchy, you just put a lot ofnbalm in, you know, and it’ll-it’ll cure up just in a little bit now.
132 Now, the Scriptures is our absolutely, infallible proofs of what we are speaking of. First John 3rd chapter and the 9th verse. All right, listen to this!
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Listen, are you ready? Got your jackets on, the armor all buckled up? Listen close, ’cause this is shocking.
Whosever is borned of God does not commit sin;... (How’s that?)... for his seed... (His seed, God’s.)... remaineth in him:... (The man!)... and he cannot sin, because he’s borned of God.
In this the children of God are made manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither... that loveth not his brother.
How can you have denominations and draw barriers and things like that, and say you’re borned of God? No such a thing. It’s a mock of the-Satan. That’s right. But a man that’s borned of God cannot sin; it’s impossible for him to sin.
133 Watch! Just let me take this crucifix just a minute if it’ll come off of there. Who was the sin offering? Jesus Christ. How do we get in Christ? Who died for us? Christ. What did He die for? Our sins. He took my punishment. Is that right? And then how do I get into Him? By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body. And when in this Body, we’re covered by the Blood and free from the judgments. He cannot sin, because there’s a Blood sacrifice laying for him day and night. Hallelujah! He can’t sin. He has no desire to sin. If he does it-if he does do something wrong, he don’t mean to do it. The Bible said in Hebrews the 10th chapter, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth (and He is the Truth), there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. He that despised Moses’ law died under two or three witness, how much more sorer punishment suppose, though worthy, who’s trod the Blood of Jesus Christ under his feet and counted the Blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified with an unholy thing, and done despite to the works of grace.”
134 For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body and are free from sin, and we cannot sin. There is an atonement waiting for us. And if there’s still desire in your heart to sin, you have never been baptized into that Body, because you are dead and your life is hid in Christ through God and sealed by the Holy Ghost. Christians don’t sin. They make mistakes, but they don’t sin. Amen! That’s the reason they don’t, for he cannot sin.
135 How can I have a... If I go down through the city here, and the mayor of the city says, “Mr. Branham, I know that you make sick calls. There’s speed limits. The highest speed limit in the city is about thirty miles an hour. But I’m giving you permission to run ninety if you want to, ’cause I have faith in you that you wouldn’t do it unless you had emergency call or somebody dying yonder in a wreck. And I’ll give you permission, as the mayor of this city, that you can run any red light, do whatever you want to, just go right on.” How could a little two-bit officer ever arrest me out here making forty miles an hour in a thirty mile zone? He can’t. I cannot break any speed laws in this city, because why? I’m above the speed laws. Amen! I hope you see it.
136 And when we are dead, and God has recognized our repentance, He’s recognized our baptism, He’s recognized the Blood of His own Son, which by faith has been applied, He recognizes His foreordination, and knowed that I’d do it, and has recognized me in Christ, dead... And Christ died in my place when He was slain before the foundation of the world. My name was put on His Book as a Christian. Hallelujah! Christ died my death. Christ is my Sacrifice. And God could not impute to me sin anymore. He’s give me the Seal of the Holy Ghost as a witness that I’ve passed from death unto Life. Whew! That does it.
137 Then they that are borned of God does not commit sin, for he cannot sin. In the Old Testament each year there was a remembered of sin. But Christ, by one sacrifice He has
perfected forever the worshipper. “The-the worshipper once purged (Hebrews 10)-the worshipper once purged has no more conscience of sin.” So you take these people that run in the church and jump up and down, and shout, and speak with tongues, and act just exactly like a Christian, and run out, and the next year they got to come back again, next week. They’ve never come anywhere to begin with. They’re only impersonating, for the Bible said that the Holy Spirit seals us into Christ until the day of our redemption. Hallelujah! That’s what makes me rest assured, ’cause God promised it.
138 No more sin. The sin question’s settled. That’s the reason sin looks so dirty to a Christian. That’s why women out here with these shorts on look so dirty to a Christian. That’s why vulgarity, that’s why dirty things, that’s why smoking, drinking, gambling, all these uncensored programs on television, all that stuff seems filth. Why? You’re of a different Kingdom. You’re borned into the Kingdom of God and sealed by the Holy Ghost until the day of your redemption.
139 He that’s borned of God commits no sin, for he can’t sin. The seed of God is in him, and he cannot sin. As long as that Holy Ghost is in there It takes every desire of sin away from
you. Amen! You can’t sin; there’s no more desire. We could take a long time on that, but let’s hurry. We ain’t going to get through them, I’m afraid.