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OUR COURSE BEGAN

WHERE PAUL’S COURSE ENDED

Thought for the book taken from the

Message delivered on July 27, 2014

Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

©2014 by Ben Howard

All rights reserved. This book cannot be sold,

nor in any way be used for the soliciting of funds.

All scripture quotations are taken from

the King James Version Bible

Published by the Sound Of Liberty

7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia 30534 U.S.A.

www.SoundofLiberty.org

[email protected]

OUR COURSE BEGAN

WHERE PAUL’S COURSE ENDED

Today we will be reading in several places starting in 2

Timothy, Chapter 4. Here Paul is writing a letter to Timothy,

but it wasn’t for Timothy alone; it was for us all, and it has been

good down through time. Timothy became a minister very

young. Paul met him early in his ministry; even when Paul was

still under the Jewish teaching. Paul being a Jew himself acted

like the Jews and was taught at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew

the law (the Old Testament) very well; and as far as human

perfection went, Paul was really a good law keeper and was well

respected amongst the Jewish people; especially the Pharisees.

He was a great defender of the law. But unbeknown to him, he

was a chosen vessel unto God. His job for the Pharisees was to

persecute the believers in Jesus Christ. But one day while on his

way to Damascus, breathing out threatenings to persecute the

saints, the Lord appeared to him as a great light. Paul fell down

to the ground and was blinded by the brightness of it. And he

heard a voice speaking unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth

thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Paul

didn’t realize that his life was getting ready to make a radical

turn; his destiny being fixed forever. And Paul asked, “Who art

thou, Lord?” And the reply came back, “I am Jesus whom thou

persecuteth.” Can you imagine how Paul must have felt? It was

an answer that would change him forever. No wonder he

changed his name from Saul to Paul.

In Acts, Chapter 26, we find Paul here giving his testimony of

this heavenly encounter in his defense before King Agrippa.

And it is here in Verses 16-18 where Paul tells us of the

commission that was given to him; for the Lord Jesus said, “But

2014 Our Course Began Where Paul’s Course Ended 2

arise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this

purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things

which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear

unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto

whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from

darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may

receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are

sanctified by faith that is in me.” This wasn’t Jesus in the form He

was in when He walked around here in the flesh. But this was

the spiritual Christ revealing Himself to Paul. Please notice here

that while Jesus was here in the flesh, He was under the law

Himself. He came, born of a woman, made under the law.

(Galatians 4:4) But when He was crucified He took the curse of

the law off all of those who would receive Him.

In Galatians 3:13-14, it says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the

curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is

every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might

come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the

promise of the Spirit through faith.” And then in Romans, Chapter

7, Paul writes that the law has dominion over a man (or woman)

as long as he liveth. But death frees us from the law. Verse 6

says, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein

we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the

oldness of the letter.” And when Jesus came forth from the grave,

He came forth in newness of life; and He said that is the way we

will come forth by being in Him. We get that new life.

So after His crucifixion and resurrection Jesus was no longer

bound by the covenant to the Jews that God made with

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob just to go to the Jews. Because when

He went to them, they turned Him down and rejected Him, and

not only that but they had Him crucified. He then went down

and preached to spirits in prison and brought the saints out that

believed and had accepted God’s ways before Calvary. This

included all that accepted God’s ways even before the law all the


way back to Adam. They were raised from the dead when Jesus

rose.

In the Book of Matthew 27:52-53, when Jesus raised from the

dead the graves were opened and many of the bodies of the

saints which slept arose and came out of the graves and went

into the holy city (Jerusalem) and appeared unto many. And

according to Ephesians, Chapter 4, when Jesus went up He led

them up with Him. Afterwards Christ came back on the day of

Pentecost in the form of the Holy Ghost.

This happening began a new day in the working of God;

starting with the baptism of the Holy Ghost first to the Jewish

people, then later to the Gentiles as God had raised up Paul to

bring a message to them and to lay a foundation for us to build

upon. And that was his message as he preached to both the Jews

and the Gentiles. He was calling out a people for the name of

our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of these Gentiles were living after

worldly ways and were sinners to the extreme. That’s why Paul

said concerning them, “Some of you were adulterers, some of

you were fornicators,” and continued naming all sorts of sins.

(1 Corinthians 6:9-11) He said, “And such were some of you, but

now you are washed, now you are sanctified, now you are

justified, and now you have been made part of Him.” (I want to

read that to you a little later.) In other words, your past life is all

washed away and it makes no difference, whatsoever, what type

of sinner you were, because when you accept Christ you are a

new creation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, when a person looks at

a born again person’s life, they are looking at a new creation.

They can’t go back further than the time when they accepted

God’s plan of salvation, because their sins are washed away;

their sins are gone and our Lord remembers them no more.

(Hebrews 10:1-3) They are forgotten about. The Bible says in 2

Corinthians 5:21 that Jesus took our sins and He gave us His

righteousness, and to that special group, the wife of the Lamb,


He clothed us in fine linen, clean and white, which is the

righteousness of the saints.

When Paul began to preach his message, the vision of what he

was to do became clearer and clearer as he went along. In

Philippians 3:14, he says, “I haven’t obtained it yet, but I press

towards the prize of the mark of the high calling,” that is the wife

of the Lamb. And he introduced a people to Christ, and called

them virgins, to be married to the Lamb. Paul said, “I have

espoused you to Christ, that I may present you to Him as His

wife.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3) Then he said, “But I fear lest as the

serpent beguiled Eve that you’ll be beguiled from the simplicity

that is in Christ.” He was telling them, “We must be aware that

some want to make it complicated and put people under the law

and other things; don’t be beguiled from the simplicity of it, be

a virgin unto Christ. The serpent wants to get you away from

the Spirit of the Word, which is the tree of life; for he knows the

letter of the Word killeth.” So the serpent doesn’t mind us

having the letter of the Word so much, as long as he can

manipulate it in a way to keep you from the tree of life.

Now we begin to see why Paul had to lay a foundation for his

message, which was separate from the twelve Jewish apostles.

So the title of my message today is, Our Course Began Where

Paul’s Course Ended. And you will see in this message that our

course, our message, our gospel begins where Paul’s ended.

Paul made known that he was going off the scene and he gave

certain instructions. But he told us to keep pressing on. And he

told us to lay aside many things; one of them being the doctrines

of baptisms. He said, “Go on to perfection.” And throughout

time many true men of God have said, “Don’t stop just because

God takes me home. You go on!” Paul warned Christ’s

espoused virgin that the ole serpent was going to get in (beguile

them from the simplicity which is in Christ); and he did. And

yes, the church fell away; it went through seven church ages.

The church ages began before God took him home, and has


ended in our day as God has restored us back to the Word that

Paul preached.

So we are to build on that foundation that Paul laid. And our

message began where Paul’s ended as we build God’s spiritual

house. We take what Paul preached, his trumpet, and hook it to

this trumpet message. We can’t build on any other foundation;

for the building just won’t fit upon any other. Paul was a master

builder according to 1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Paul said, “I laid the

foundation.” But he didn’t say he built the building. He laid the

foundation as a wise master builder. Then he said, “Another

buildeth thereon.” He had to lay the foundation so that the

building would fit exactly on it.

Yes, Paul said, “As a wise master builder I’ve laid the

foundation.” (And this building will fit perfectly upon it.) And

then God took him home. When Paul finished his message he

wrote to Timothy; 2 Timothy 4:5, “But watch thou in all things,

endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy

ministry.” Verse 6, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of

my departure is at hand.” Here Paul is telling Timothy, “I am

leaving. I’ve got my part done. I’ve finished my part. I’ve got

the foundation laid. And as a wise master builder I laid it

perfectly.” And he said, “I’ve got a virgin engaged now. She is

to be married (but that’s at the end time).” So there is a ministry

that picks up here at the end time to build right directly upon

the message that Paul preached. And the wife knows that this

is the only message that fits right on top of what Paul preached

and goes exactly with the foundation that Paul laid.

Now let’s get Verse 7, “I fought a good fight, (And he sure did.)

I finished my course…” Now I want you to notice that word

finished, “I have finished my course.” This was a man that was in

tune with God. He said, “I’ve done my part. The foundation is

laid. The virgin is already engaged to Christ. This is what God

sent me to do. That’s why my message has broken down the

wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles, as the wife


is made up of both people making them one.” (Ephesians 2:14)

He broke down the middle wall of partition where there is

neither Jew nor Gentile but we are all one in Christ. And then

he said, “We are baptized into the body of Christ.” And then it

was time for him to go. He said, “I’ve finished what God called

me to do. My part of the building is done.”

As a builder myself, I know that once the foundation is laid the

workers that laid it have done their job; they’ll load up their tools

and go on to another job. But they leave a perfect foundation to

build a perfect building upon. So that is what Paul is saying

here. “I’ve finished my part of it. I’ve finished my course.” And

then watch what he says, “I have kept the faith:” In other words

he didn’t dilly-dally around, and he wasn’t pulled to the left and

pulled to the right. Once he came into the full knowledge of

what God ordained him to do, he laid a perfect foundation. At

first, he had to feel his way; it was a long, many years ministry.

This ministry began after the Lord Jesus appeared to him while

on the way to Damascus and gave him his commission. After

this the Jews were afraid of him, and what he taught about going

to the Gentiles. But he had to get this revelation in order to lay

the foundation. And throughout the years Paul grew in grace

and in the knowledge of the Lord. And that is what the Word

teaches us to do.

At first, he just preached what the Jews were preaching. He

didn’t know actually how to teach circumcision and many of the

other things he later taught. He didn’t have it all clear and

straight in his head by revelation early in his ministry. But God

led him a little at a time. This is seen in Acts 16:3; for when he

found Timothy (whose father was Greek and mother Jewish),

Paul took him and had him circumcised to please the Jews that

were holding on to the Jewish law. For Timothy was very

impressed when he heard Paul preach, and he believed. He said,

“This is the truth!” And he began to get in there and do what

was right. But the Jews said concerning Timothy, “He hasn’t


been circumcised.” So Paul took him and had him circumcised

to please the Jews who were keeping part of the law for their

salvation. And now it’s the same scenario with water baptism

as we have reached the end of the church age. For Paul picked

up the same baptism that the Jews used and introduced it to the

Gentiles in the early part of his ministry. Then later he began to

preach to the saints the baptism into the body of Christ. He said

in 1 Corinthians 1:17 that Christ sent him not to baptize (in

water) but to preach the gospel that would baptize them into his

espousal message. God continued leading him and guiding him

until he found his place in God’s plan. His job was to lay a

foundation and take a message to introduce a people to be the

wife of the Lamb, made up mostly of the Gentiles; but thanks be

to God many of those precious Jews came in and accepted what

Paul preached. And those (both Jews and Gentiles) that believed

Paul’s preaching concerning the body of Christ became one

people to become the body of Christ for that hour.

Now in this last day there’s a similar situation in the realm of

the Jewish people. They call themselves the Messianic Jews.

They believe in Jesus but they can’t fully turn loose of the law,

and that’s what Peter and the other eleven apostles believed. But

later when Paul came into the fullness of his message he said,

“It’s not necessary to be circumcised. It’s not necessary to keep

the law. You can eat and drink what you want. Jesus Christ

makes you free. Your righteousness is of Christ.” And because

of this, Peter and the other apostles to the Jews didn’t want much

to do with Paul. They were not aware that Paul’s job was to lay

the foundation for the body of Christ to be built upon here at the

end time. Paul’s writing to Timothy was near the end of his life.

Paul died that same year or maybe a year later. He was put to

death between 65 and 67 A.D. So this was probably written in

the last year of his life, because he said, “I’m ready now to go

home! I’ve finished all that God gave me to do.” And we praise

God for it!


Now, we have finished what God had for us to do up to this

point. And the next thing to happen is the raising of the dead

members of the body of Christ and our translation into our

glorified bodies as we are raptured. And now our message has

picked up exactly where Paul’s message left off. So it’s not

surprising that we are so thankful for the foundation that Paul

laid to accomplish this—and now we are going to see the

building completed, also. There’s where we are at. The rapture

is near. The Lamb has married His wife. And this message has

connected exactly with what Paul preached. It picks it up and

just takes it on. Paul said, “I espouse you to one husband,” and

his message has brought us to a place where we connect with

the sounding of this trumpet whereby we become bone of His

bone and flesh of His flesh. Last week’s message was entitled,

Becoming Bone of His Bone and Flesh of His Spiritual Flesh, showing

the wife. What is the wife? That’s what some people ask; what

are you talking about when you say, “wife”? Well, the Bible

says, “His wife has made herself ready and to her it was given

to be dressed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the

righteousness of the saints.”

There are many people today that quote Paul continuously,

and I praise God that they recognize the importance of Paul’s

message. But the point is they can’t take it any further. Being on

the foundation doesn’t get us married to King Jesus. In the Book

of Revelation, Chapter 10, Christ Jesus comes back in spirit form

and it shows the fullness of His spiritual coming. There are two

legs of His coming. The first leg was on the day of Pentecost; He

put His right foot on the sea, the populated area over there. The

second leg is over here in this western country. He set His right

foot upon the sea, and His left foot upon the earth; making the

fullness of Christ. That’s after the completion of the seven

church ages.

In Revelation, Chapter 10, we see both legs (feet) of the

spiritual coming of Christ; the whole or fullness of Christ is here


for us at the end time. The restoration of the first leg took place

here in the United States of America, as well as the second leg of

the spiritual coming; making the fullness of Christ in our very

day. In other words, the former and latter rain in one

happening. That’s why this message I’m preaching picks up

exactly where Paul’s message ended. Some people say, “Brother

Branham’s message picked up where Paul’s left off.” Well, in

Brother Branham’s message he always quoted Revelation 10:1-

7. That deals with the church ages, the mystery of God, “When

the seventh angel sounded he finished the mystery.” But let me

say this, Paul never one time indicated that there would be seven

church ages. So whatever is hooked to Paul’s message has to be

after that part of the Word (Revelation 10:7) has been fulfilled.

And Jesus spoke of it in Matthew, Chapter 13, about seven

parables, the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, where wheat

and tares would grow together and that’s the way it would be

until the end time and then He would send His angels and there

would be a great separation. Now that has been completed.

That’s why this message I’m preaching picks up in Revelation

10:8-11 where the Mighty Angel brought the little book and gave

a message to us and said, “Take and eat,” and it contains

everything we need to complete the building that Paul laid the

foundation for.

In Paul’s message he was saying, “that I might present you

unto Christ (present you unto the Husband) as a chaste virgin.”

But the thing is, Paul’s course was finished before the marriage

took place. When he wrote to Timothy, he said, “I’ve done my

part, but the Word goes on and you must move with it.” Paul

wrote, “I’m ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at

hand. I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith.” And

then he says, Verse 8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of

righteousness,” Paul spoke excessively of this righteousness. And

that’s why I talk so much about this righteousness. We’ve got to

have that righteousness to fit upon Paul’s foundation. And it


can’t be keeping Sabbaths or what you eat or drink and such. It

has to be by His righteousness by faith. We deny our own. He

took our sins and gave us His righteousness, and therefore we

are as righteous as He is righteous. That is the only way to get

to the place to where we are as righteous as He is righteous. Still

some ask, “How can we be as righteous as He is?” It is simple.

We accept His righteousness.

Remember here what Paul had told Christ’s espoused virgin,

“The serpent will try to get you away from the simplicity that is

in Christ.” But this plan is so simple. Jesus Christ took our sins

and He gave us His righteousness. We can’t do one thing to earn

it. The only thing He wants is us. And the Bible says in

Revelation 19:7-8 that it was granted unto her that she should be

clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is His

righteousness. It was given! Not of works lest any man should

boast. You can’t boast about this. You could spend your lifetime

trying to be righteous and still miss it. Don’t be like the Jews

who were trying to keep the law for their righteousness.

(Romans 9:30-32) Paul explained to the Jews that the law would

be here and would be relevant until the seed came and that

Christ was that seed. But they wouldn’t hear it; it was just too

simple for them. But there was a small seed group that believed,

and they laid aside the law and accepted the righteousness of

Christ by faith without the law.

When the church fell away, it fell down to a lower level. They

had to go through the church ages with a survival message, and

that is where Christ had to walk among them as High Priest. The

High Priest makes intercession. And throughout the church

ages this showed a similarity of what Israel went through in the

law age (Old Testament). The Gentile churches are seen under

a church age law as the churches took their communion; they

took bread and wine and that kept their conscience alive while

waiting for the seed (which is Christ) to come again as is seen in

Revelation, Chapter 10. That made them feel like they were


righteous. But since the seed has come we are no longer under

the church age law.

There was a man that came by my house a while back. First of

all he said, “I heard you were dead.” Well, I am; but not the way

he thought. He said, “Somebody said you had a heart attack and

died.” Well, I died before I had the heart attack. I’m talking

about dying out to self. He continued talking and said, “My wife

and I are really close to God. Every morning the first thing we

do is take communion. We take some soda crackers and grape

juice before we start our day and that gets the blood applied to

us.” Well, I just let him talk. I didn’t want to go into a lot of

things since he just stopped by for a moment to see who

pastored here and what was going on, because of hearing that I

had died. Well, that’s the way the churches did through the

church ages; they took communion and did foot washing,

among other rituals, to get them through that time period until

we got back to where we were baptized into the body of Christ

as we have come to Ephesians 4:13-16.

The Bible says that by one Spirit we are baptized into the body

of Christ. We’re married to Him; we’re Christ the wife. Jesus

gave us the Christ part of His name and made us Christ in the

earth. So many of these things that the church did in the church

ages are no longer profitable, as we have been baptized in the

body by this trumpet message. We look at those things as rituals

that the fallen church did coming through that church age time

period while awaiting for Christ’s return as seen in Revelation,

Chapter 10. For when the church fell away it went through that

fallen state for seven church ages. (Revelation, Chapters 1-3)

But He has brought it back in this last day to where we fit exactly

on Paul’s foundation.

God started this process under the reformers as the church age

messengers brought certain truths as they were revealed to them

in their particular age. And then in these latter days God sent a

prophet named Brother William Branham to begin getting us


back to what Paul preached, and telling us that we had to get on

the Word and that the church ages were over. (Revelation 10:6)

That’s when the prophet told about what the thunders said

(which were the seven church age messengers, him being the

seventh). Then came a voice that said, “There should be time no

longer.” This time period is over with now. He finished his

course and God took him home. He sure gave us a good start,

although some of the things that he said won’t fit upon Paul’s

foundation. One of the things he said was, “The Word doesn’t

come to anybody but a prophet.” Now where are you going to

fit that on Paul’s foundation? Sorry, my friend, it just doesn’t fit.

But as God has continued giving revelation of the Word, we now

see that he was speaking of the Word as it applied to his ministry

as an Old Testament type prophet. But our Lord kept right on

moving us onward.

Then here came Brother Raymond Jackson after him to fill the

part of revealing to us about the Jews (second part of the fifth

seal). This is the voice of the archangel, or the second part of the

ministry spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. But he also said, “I’ll

tell you what’s going to happen; there are seven men (seven

thunders) that are going to come. And these seven men will

have a message to move us to the final part of this move of God

for the bride.” Well, show me in the Word of God where that

fits upon Paul’s foundation. There’s no place where Paul

indicated that seven men would come. Although there were

seven men that came, but they came through the seven church

ages, which are over. But now God has raised up this apostolic

ministry of the trump of God to pick up right there in Revelation

10:8-11, and it takes us right over to 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which

tells us about the three parts (stages) of the coming of the

fullness of Christ.

First there was a shout that went forth, and that is revealed in

Matthew, Chapter 25, which shows ten virgins who were light

carriers. There was not much difference in their appearance, but


as more and more revelation of the Word came, many of them

were unable to walk with it after being awakened from their

sleeping condition. It was at this time that five of them realized

that they were foolish because they had not prepared properly

and their lamps were going out. Only five of them had sufficient

oil. Then while the foolish went away and began to hunt oil back

in the other stages of Christ’s spiritual coming, the marriage took

place and the door was shut. How sad, because there was some

oil for them in this message. But the foolish sought it in the first

two stages of the message, but the light had moved on to the

final stage, and the marriage had already taken place and the

building had already been built. This message of the last

trumpet of God did the job. There was a shout and the voice of

the archangel, but now here’s the trump of God. And in this time

of the trump of God there’s a group living on earth, and the Bible

says they are, “We which are alive and remain,” meaning we don’t

die at all, we are changed!

For many years I have been dealing with funerals, but I have

always kept in mind that there was coming a time where there

would be a group of people who were going to be changed while

they were living. The Bible says it will be at the time of the

trumpet message (1 Corinthians 15:51-57), and the trumpet

message is the only message that fits perfectly with Paul’s

message. And the good thing about it is those who died in the

Lord that are part of the wife will come forth first. The dead in

Christ shall rise first. We will see them. Just as the Old

Testament saints were seen when they arose from the dead in

Matthew 27:52-53. They even went into the city and appeared

to many.

So at this time of the resurrection, you might just look around

and see one of the saints of God, and then look around again and

they’re gone; because here’s why. When Jesus came forth from

the dead (and the Bible says that we’ll have a body like unto His

own glorious body) His disciples were eating and discussing


what had happened to Jesus, “We thought this was the man,”

and suddenly there He sat at the table with them. First of all

they said, “It’s a spirit.” And Jesus said, “Does a spirit have flesh

and bone?” That’s when He said, “Have you anything to eat?”

And they sat before Him fish and honey and He ate with them

and He talked with them, and suddenly they looked around and

He was gone. And they ran out preaching, “He has risen! He

has risen!” And the Bible says there in the Book of Acts 4:33,

“With great power the apostles gave witness of the resurrection

of the Lord: and great grace was upon them all.” So those are

things that happened. Now let us be looking for the promises of

this hour.

Let me say this again, there’s a message in this last day that fits

right upon Paul’s message, and our course begins where Paul’s

left off. And he said, “I laid the foundation.” He didn’t say he

built the building. He said, “I laid the foundation.” And said,

“Another will build thereon.” Let’s finish Verse 8, “Henceforth

there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the

righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto

all them also that love his appearing.” Did you love His appearing?

I love His appearing! Yes, He has already appeared to us. I’m

not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ coming as the King. He

is coming as the King after the tribulation. That’s when He

comes as the Jewish Messiah and the King of the earth. But right

now, the Christ, in the form of the Mighty Angel has come.

I preached a message recently that we put into a book entitled,

God’s Message and the Behind the Scene Powers to Bring it to Pass,

which goes into great detail explaining all of this about the

Mighty Angel. Here Christ came and the Bible says that He

triumphed over all powers and principalities. And here He is

today, the Mighty Christ, in the fullness of His Word coming

forth! That’s the wife of the Lamb. How did we become part of

Him? By one Spirit we have been baptized into His body. In

Ephesians 4:5 it says there is one baptism. And that is being


baptized into this trumpet message. We’ve been baptized into

Christ.

Let’s go to the Twentieth Chapter of the Book of Acts. This is

where Paul is getting the saints together to tell them, “I have

finished my course.” Here he is saying, “This is all of it for me.

I’ve finished my course. I’ve kept the faith. My departure is at

hand.” Let’s start with Verse 24, “But none of these things move

me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my

course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord

Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” That’s what we are

doing; testifying of the gospel of the grace of God. In other

words, it’s not of works; it’s grace. So Paul was telling them in

Verse 25, “And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have

gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.” This

was his last time talking to them. God let him know, “Paul,

you’ve got the foundation perfect. You’ve done exactly what I

wanted you to do. When the building comes, it is going to fit

exactly upon this.” God told Paul, “There’s someone else…”

That’s what I want to read a bit later, where Paul said, “I laid the

foundation but another buildeth thereon.” (1 Corinthians,

Chapter 3)

Continuing with Verse 26, “Wherefore I take you to record this

day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.” In other words, “I

have preached the Word gun barrel straight.” Verse 27, “For I

have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” A lot of

people want you to piddle around with some things and not

touch certain things. Watch Paul. He said, “I haven’t shunned.

I know it wasn’t popular.” If we had read on where I was

reading there in 2 Timothy, Chapter 4, we would find, “all men

have forsaken me.” And then he named a few, and said, “Now

only Luke is with me.” Praise God for Luke! But Paul said, “It

is finished.” Now this building has set upon Paul’s foundation

and we are putting the little finishing touches on it, as one does

as he is finishing up a new house.


Now watch as we read a little further here. Verse 28, “Take heed

therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy

Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he

hath purchased with his own blood.” Watch now, he is telling them

what is going to happen to them after he is gone. In

Thessalonians he tells them that the spirit of iniquity has already

began to move (which will develop into the antichrist). In

another book entitled, Now That Which is to be Done Will Now Be

Done, there is a chapter in that book called, The Great Falling

Away: From the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which takes

us into deeper depths of this. It shows the revelation of how the

tree of knowledge (the written Word of God) is being, and has

been, manipulated by men. And that is what Paul was dealing

with; carnal men that wanted to draw disciples after themselves

and were manipulating the Word of God to do it. But it says

here in Verse 29, “For I know this, that after my departing (He is

saying, “Let me tell you what is going to happen after I’m gone.

That’s why you really need to get your heels in the ground;

because after I am gone this is what’s going to happen.”) shall

grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” And then

here’s the kicker, Verse 30, “Also of your own selves shall men arise,

speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.” That is

somebody wanting to get the people to follow them. They’ll

preach a while in order to get influence over the people and then

pull them away from the truth and start their own little work

(“of your own selves”). But Paul knew this Word was going to

live on. It fell away and went through the church ages, but God

has brought it back here at the end time. Now there is a message,

an apostolic message that fits exactly upon what Paul said.

In Verse 31, Paul goes on, “Therefore watch and remember, that by

the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day

with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word

of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an

inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” Now inside the


body of Christ we don’t have to be warned; because we’ve got

the mind of Christ. And thank God they had many of the same

things that we have today. But the fullness of Christ was not

available until the Mighty Angel of Revelation, Chapter 10, came

as seen with one foot on sea and one foot on earth. This shows

both legs of His spiritual coming; whereas the Holy Ghost was

only the first leg of this coming. (This revelation is brought out

wonderfully in the messages that were recently put into book

form entitled, What Kind of a Sign Are You Looking For?, The Wife

of Christ Receives Both Legs of the Coming of the Lord: Remember the

Feet!, and The Galilean and the Revelation Chapter Ten Coming of the

Lord, which are available on our website or upon request.) The

fullness of Christ is here! We’ve got the gifts of Christ. We’ve

got the Spirit of Christ. It’s Christ in you, leading and directing.

And He gives us the same mind. The body of Christ has one

mind and we are in one accord and we seek to edify one another,

not to pull somebody off to the side and start a work or

something.

Now in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3, our course begins where

Paul’s left off. I need to get this. Paul only laid the foundation

for us to build upon. And he did such a good job. But if I am

just preaching, “Paul said this; Paul said that; I’m going to do

what Paul says;” well that is good to get on the foundation. But

if you do what Paul said, he said, “You go on!” He said, “My

course is finished. I’ve kept the faith. I laid the foundation.

There’s going to be another to build on it.” And that other is

Christ Jesus through the body, His body with the apostolic

ministry in the leadership position.

Let’s read it here, starting with Verse 9, “For we are labourers

together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”

And he tells us what his part of it was. Verse 10, “According to

the grace of God which is given unto me (not us, but unto me), as a

wise masterbuilder (I like that. He wasn’t sloppy at all. He was a

wise master builder. And here’s what he said he did.), I have laid


the foundation (What did Paul do? Paul laid the foundation. In

no place did he say that he built the building. In no place did he

say that he got the virgin married to the Lord Jesus. But he said,

“I introduce you as a chaste virgin (for you to be married) that I

may present you.”), and another buildeth thereon.” What he is

saying here is, “This is my part. I am leaving. My departure is

at hand. I’ve got my part of the building built and now I am

leaving! Because another crew is going to come in and build the

house.” He says, “Another buildeth thereon. I’ve done my part.

I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Now there is

laid up for me a crown of life, and also for those who build upon

this foundation (the wife).”

The Bible says, “The foundation of the Lord standeth sure.”

We can’t build another one. And if we try to bring this in a way

that doesn’t line up with what Paul preached, then we are trying

to build another foundation. But he says, (continuing with

Verses 10-11), “But let every man take heed how he buildeth

thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which

is Jesus Christ.” And he goes on and tells some of the material

that some people try to build with; but there is a wise master

builder in this hour that is building on the right foundation with

the right kind of material. Because everything you put on Paul’s

foundation is going to be tried. Yes, it is. We will be true and

build on it. We will not be careless. We will trust the Lord.

If we open that word up, trusting, we will see many things.

Trusting is almost like the love of God. Trusting; our salvation

rests upon it, and in trusting Him, He will meet our needs. And

if you ever have time to dig into that word trusting, you will find

as I did that it is just laden with goodies. I could take that word

and give you so many things. We’ve got to trust in the Lord,

and when we do there’s faith, there’s the gifts of the Spirit,

there’s our leadership; it all goes under the heading of trusting.

If we open the door to trusting, we’ve got something that’s

inexhaustible. Everything that God has for us comes through


trusting. That’s faith. Paul says, “I am what I am by the grace

of God. And this grace wasn’t put upon me in vain.” With what

God has given you and showed you, can you say, “Lord, this

grace wasn’t put upon me in vain; I’ve labored more

abundantly; Lord, my life has been for one thing, that is to do

your will”?

The trumpet message is exactly what Paul said it would be.

This message begins where Paul’s ends. And now this message

is building that building and putting the finishing touches on it.

It’s a beautiful building. It’s the body of Christ, the wife of the

Lamb, the last trumpet. Paul said, “If a trumpet gives an

uncertain sound who will be able to prepare?” He blew the

trumpet in his day then God took him home. He blew the

trumpet to lay the foundation. And this trumpet message blows

in this end time, the last part of the message of the spiritual

coming of the Lord. Amen. As the trumpet sounds, the dead

are going to rise and then we which are alive and remain are

going to be changed. And there is an element of people that are

we which are alive and remain who will not go by the way of the

grave. We which are alive and remain shall be changed in a

moment, in the twinkling of an eye. When? During the

sounding of this last trump, just after the dead in Christ rise.

And those that are baptized into the body are hearing the

trumpet sound, and it is the finishing up of the house, the

marriage of the Lamb, which is the Lord Jesus Christ our

Husband. And in the finishing up of it, it doesn’t go to the grave;

it goes up. And even those that are in the grave will come up

and together we will be raptured away to glory. God bless you

today. Let’s just bow our heads in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we just praise you. We thank you, Lord, for your

goodness and mercy. And I pray, God, that these words we’ve spoken

today, that you will take them and just bless and use them for your

glory. May the people understand there is a trumpet sounding, there’s

a body of Christ, there’s the wife of the Lamb, and Paul laid the


foundation for us. And his message ended; he finished his course at the

laying of the foundation. And our course began here at the trumpet

sound in this last day to finish the building. Bless each one, we pray,

that hears this, and open our ears and our eyes that we may receive that

which you have given us today. In Jesus Christ’s wonderful name we

pray. Amen.


AUDIO/VIDEO SERMONS AND BOOKS

At present this is a complete listing of sermons by Brother Ben

Howard recorded on Cassette tape, CD's, DVD's, and Mp3

formats. Also, there is a collection of published books that are

available for download or by request as well. Please feel free to

visit us at our website often as new materials are constantly

being added, or write to our postal address below.

Sound Of Liberty

7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia 30534 U.S.A.

www.SoundOfLiberty.org

[email protected]

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