To Loose and to Bind -
Key to the Kingdom of God
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 101

St. Matthew 16:19, "And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

St. Matthew 18:18, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Jesus, when they come down off the mount, He says, "Who do men say I the Son of man am?" (St.Matthew 16:13-20). "Some say You're Elijah; some say You're of the prophets, and some say You're this, that." He said, "But Who do you say?" Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Watch. "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona (the son of Jonas); flesh and blood never revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven has re-vealed this to you. You never took a seminary; you never took a schooling; you never took a course of theology, but My Father has revealed this to you. And upon this rock (the revelation of Jesus Christ)... Upon this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it."

The Catholic Church says that he was the stone, the literal man, Simon Peter. If that's so, it backslid a few days later (Matt. 26:69-75). That wasn't it.

The Protestant say that He built it upon Himself, Jesus Christ, the Stone. Both are wrong. Not to be different, but He built it upon Peter's revelation of Who He was. It was the spiritual revelation about Him Who He was, that He was the Christ. The Church is built upon the confession of the revela-tion from the Word of God - and He is the Word of God. It is built upon spiritual, revealed Truth.

And Jesus said then: "And I say that you're Peter, and I'll give to you the keys of the Kingdom. And whatever... Because you've got a spiritual open channel between here and heaven... Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you: But you depended on God, and God revealed it to you; and it's abso-lutely the clear Scriptures that tied together. I say you're Peter. And I'll give to you the keys; and what you bind on earth, I'll bind it in heaven; what you loose on earth, I'll loose it in heaven." That's that Divine revelation of the Word made flesh. It was flesh in that day by the Son, the Groom, it's of flesh today by the Bride. Whatever you loose on this earth, I'll loose it in heaven." And I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven." What is the King-dom of heaven? The Holy Spirit. The Bible said, "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21).

Now, He said, "Some standing here will not see death until they see the Kingdom of God coming in power" (Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1). Just a few days later till Pentecost. See?

Now, look what an error they made, go out and forgive sins and so forth like that, what an error. Let's see. They put the keys on him. Now, He set his face right straight to Jerusalem. Jesus was crucified, died, rose the third day, was on earth forty days among men, ascended up into heaven, told them to wait till they seen the Kingdom of God come upon them; at this time the Fa-ther will restore the Kingdom in a spiritual form to them. They went up to the city of Jerusalem and waited there for ten days and nights (Luke 24:48-53), and all of a sudden, the baptism of the Holy Spirit (the Kingdom of God) come with power upon them (Acts 1:8). Is that right?
Now, watch. Peter, uneducated, couldn't even sign his own name stood upon a little soapbox or something and begin to preach (Acts 2:14-36; Joel 2:28-32).

Now, we find out here then, that the correct way, and the real way, and only way that was ever ordained... And Peter had the keys, and on the day when he preached, they said... Peter had the keys and he had the authority, or Jesus lied. And it's impossible for Him to lie: "two immutable things, it's impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18). He had the keys. Jesus give him the keys. When He rose on the third day like that, He had the keys of death and hell (Rev. 1:18), but not the keys to the Kingdom. Peter had them. Exactly right.

And now watch, Peter, you got the keys hanging on your side, and you're preaching. The question comes, the first converts of the new church, the early Christian Church...

"Men and brethren, what can we do to be saved?
Now, Catholic, now Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, are you on new church doctrine? Find out if you are.
Oh, be careful, Peter; you got the keys hanging on now. The first Gospel message...

Jesus, a few days before that, before He was crucified, said, "Peter, I'll give you the keys. Whatever you bind, I'll bind it; whatever you loose, I'll loose it. Now, whatever you do, I'll recognize it in heaven." Because He has given him this authority. If He's a Man of His Word, He'll keep His Word.

He give us the keys saying "Whatever you bind on earth... That's the royal seed of Abraham as promised, the Holy Ghost in us now, with the Keys holding to sickness. He conquered sickness. Sickness cannot stand in His presence, and He said that He gave us the keys to do the same thing - conquer sickness. "Whatever you bind on earth, I'll bind in heaven."

And here Peter is standing here; the Holy Ghost had fell for Its first time, and Peter was asked, "What can we do to be saved?"
Watch out, you're sticking the key into the Kingdom for the first time. Je-sus told you a few days ago (was ten days ago), said, "Go baptize people in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." What are you going to do? But He give you the keys because you had a spiritual revelation. "For My church will be built, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it."
And take your creeds and dogmas, and whatever you wish to, but it'll fail miserably (It has been.), but the power of the living God shall move on and on into eternity. Like a streak of radium, She moves on without end.
Peter, you got the keys. Whatever you do here, God's got to recognize it in heaven. Is that right? "What do you say, Peter? What can we do to be saved?"

Peter said... Don't go say a "Hail Mary." There's no such a thing, do a no-vena. Don't come and shake hands and put your name on the church book and have them sprinkle a little water on you. No such a thing, that's Catholic dogma that the Protestant church is bowing to.

He didn't say "All of you go... And now, Jesus told me a few days ago, for all of you to go and be baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Not a man that had spiritual revelation, wouldn't say that. He said, "Re-pent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to them that's far off, and as even as many as the Lord our God shall ever call" (Acts 2:37-41). That's it. The keys are used here like Christ will use them in heaven. Then the key stuck in, and it locked; it locked in heaven.

The keys went "click" here, and it went "click" there. He kept His Word. So it don't confuse you now, does it? Certainly, Matthew 28:19 was titles, not Names. And what does a key do? It unlocks something, the mystery.
Peter had the spiritual, revealed truth. That's the reason he knowed the difference between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a spiritual revelation. That's what you're understanding tonight, where the Holy Spirit's opening it up to us.

The Bible said unto Peter and to the rest the apostles, "Go ye into all the world; whosoever's sins you remit, to them they're remitted; whosoever's sins you retain, to them they're retained." That I might say it so that someone might not understand what I mean; Jesus said to the apostles, "Whoever's sins you forgive, I'll forgive them too. And whoever's sins that you do not forgive, and hold it against them, I'll hold it against them too" (St.John 20:23). That's what Jesus said. Watch the Catholic church push towards that.

They picked that up and taken it to their priests, but that's carnal. Watch. It was the spiritual, revealed Word that did it. That's the reason He told them to go baptize in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He knowed they knew Who He was.
But let's find out how they did it. Then if we find out how they did it, then we should do it the same way.

Now, Peter said, "Repent, everyone of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Is that right? And that's the reason the keys turned in heaven to any other name, any other way, any other form... It turned on earth, and it turned in heaven; or Jesus didn't keep His Word to Peter. And every place in the Bible they was baptized after that, they were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:16; 10:48). And those who were baptized before - like the disciples of John (Acts 19:1-6) - that had to come and be baptized over again in the Name of Jesus Christ to get the Holy Ghost.
That's God's provided way to remit sins. The Word forgives sins 'cause It's God. And this predestinated gift was given to the Spirit-filled Word body.

See, it has to come spiritual revelation. Flesh and blood never told Abel that Cain was wrong. But it was a revelation that Abel had. It was blood (Gen. 4:3-5). It was blood, not fruit, that took us from the garden of Eden. It was blood. And Abel by spiritual revelation was revealed of God that it was blood. "And he, by faith," Hebrews 11:4 says, "he offered to God a more ex-cellent sacrifice than Cain." Which God accepted his sacrifice. There you are. He offered it by faith, by revelation.

Reference:
"Hebrews, Questions And Answers, Part I", pg. 397-398, par. 163-176
"Questions And Answers" (54-0515), Q-No. 37, pg. 187-189, par. 234-256
"Hebrews, Chapter Seven, Part II", pg. 363, par. 445-447
"Queen Of Sheba" (61-0119e, Beaumont), par. 53
"Blasphemous Names", pg. 18 / "Dedication" (62-1111), par. 31
"Does God Change His Mind" (65-0418), par. 80 / "It Is The Rising Of The Sun", pg. 25
"The Serpent's Seed", par. 32-33 / "Abraham, the Patriarch" (Vol.22 No.7), par. 61-62

Spiritual Building-Stone No. 101 from the Revealed Word of this hour, com-piled by: Gerd Rodewald, Friedenstr. 69, D-75328 Schömberg, Germany
Phone: (+49) 72 35 76 13, Fax: (+49) 72 35 33 06

There's coming one with a Message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard It.
[Bro. Branham in "Conduct-Order-Doctrine", pg. 724]