The Benefits of the son of God to us no. 4
For
God So Loved ther World He Gave us His Son
Saturday
evening, July 31, 2004
Rev Brian Kocourek
This morning I would like to bring out another
benefit that I seemed to miss when I listed the 37 benefits that God has given
to us through His Son in sermon number two of this series on the benefits of
the Son of God. And since this is such an important benefit, I do not see how
we could preach this series without it. Therefore, we now have 38 benefits
through the Son of God to us.
And it is obvious to the Bible student that this
benefit must be included in this benefits package we receive as sons from God
our Father
John 3:16 For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life
1)
Faith and Love are
inseparable Faith is Love,
only in a passive form Love is Faith in an active form Therefore you can say say you have faith but unless there is an expression of
that faith it is dormant and lifeless .
Galatians
2 Corinthians
8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and
knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in
this grace also
2 John 1:3 Grace
be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love
2 Thessalonians 3:5 And
the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting
for Christ
2 Timothy 4:8 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
Ephesians
Ephesians
James 2:5Hearken,
my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
James
Galatians 5:6 For
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love
Ephesians
Ephesians
Ephesians
Colossians 2:2 That
their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Colossians 1: 4 Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all
the saints,
2 Timothy
2 Thessalonians
2 Corinthians
1 Timothy 6:11 But
thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness
1 Timothy
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But
let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and
love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation
1 Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
Ephesians
2 Timothy 1:7 For
God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind
#2) God is Love, and we express our love for God by what we do with
his Word
1 Corinthians 8:3 But if any man love God, the same is known of him
1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him
1 John 3:1 Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not
1 John 4:10 Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins
1 John
1 John
1 John
1 John 4:17Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world
1 John 4:18There
is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear: because fear hath torment He that feareth is
not made perfect in love
1 John 4:19We
love him, because he first loved us
1 John 4:20If a man say, I love God, and hateth
his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
1 John 4:21And
this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother.
1 John 4:7Beloved,
let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth
God
1 John 4:8 He
that loveth not knoweth not
God; for God is love
#3) Love
is an action, it is not
passive, it is active, and it is an expression.
1 John 2:15 Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him
1 John 3:23And
this is his commandment, That we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment
John
John
John
John
John
1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments
#4) Love demands
fellowship
1 John
1 John
John
John
John 13:35By
this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another
John 13:34A
new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another
James 2:8 If ye fulfil
the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
Hebrews 13:1 Let
brotherly love continue
1 Peter
1 Thessalonians
2 John 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not
as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the
beginning, that we love one another
2 John 1:6 And this is love, that we walk
after his commandments This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the
beginning, ye should walk in it
Ephesians 1:4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love
Now, let's examine this
fellowship. Because we are Looking at Fellowship. And what is this word fellowship?
Brother Branham said, fellowship is two fellows in one
ship. In other words, the people were together. You can not have fellowship
staying away from the people.
Now,
remember, brother Branham taught us that the Pillar of Fire appeared three
times for 3 exoduses. With Moses, Paul and William Branham. Therefore what we are talking about, if it
took place in the first exodus, it must repeat in the other 2.
From the message EVER
PRESENT WATER 61-0723M 87, Brother Branham said, Now, we find out that, along this road,
after they got like this, they come to a place of Horeb.
And H-o-r-e-b, Horeb, then
we find out... Let's break that name down. That's where the name "Horeb" means, a "dry place" or a
"desert." And when we get out of fellowship with one another in
the church, and out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, it brings us to a dry
place, a desert, nothing alive, everything got stickers on it. See, a
desert, a little piece of cactus with that sticker on it. Did you know what
that is? That's a precious little tender leaf that hasn't had no water; it's just wound itself up so tight till it's a
sticker. And when you see somebody like that, maybe it's a precious soul
that could been watered right, would've been a tender little leaf or something.
But instead of that, it's wound itself up till it's a sticker, just punching at
everything, you know, finding fault. Only thing it needs is just water.
That's all. It just--it just needs a--a revival, or a breaking up, a
refreshing from the Lord. it'll unfold its little self,
if you'll just put it to the water.
89 But that's where
them who live in that place has to suffer with the conditions of that place.
And those who desire to live in that kind of an atmosphere of where
everything's just punching and fussing, and quarreling and stewing like that,
well, you'll just live under that atmosphere; that's all. But we don't have to
live there; it's not necessary for us to stay there.
And I say this morning, you
don't have to be that way, and you don't have to live under them conditions.
There is something you can do about it. You know the people who feel the
sorriest for themselves are the people who are the most self centered. Brother
Branham taught us the way up is down and the way down is up. He said if you
have a selfish heart them give everything away. If you are feeling low, then
find some one to help.
II CORINTHIANS 8:1 ¶ Moreover, brethren, I want you to
understand the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
These people gave beyond
their ability to give, but they had to plead with Paul to take their offering
of support for the people of
I heard a top executive of
a very large corporation one time say, when I am feeling depressed, I get up
from my desk and go try to help someone. I go out onto the street and find
someone to help. Then when I can see there are people in a worse condition than
I am, and I can help them, it takes my mind off of my own troubles and I see
how insignificant my own problems are. Try it sometime, I know it works. What
you all need to cure your blues is a good tour of
Or just go down to
Now the word for fellowship
in the Greek is the Word
[koinonia {koy-nohn-ee'-ah}]
and it means 1) fellowship, association, community, communion, joint
participation, sharing what one has in anything, participation, intimacy:
Without it you will dry up
in your Christian experience. Without fellowship, you will begin to find fault,
you will begin to pick at and make fun of. I knew a person once who said, he
liked to rent videos just to sit around and make fun of the people in them.
What a wonderful thing to do.
Now, you don't have to live
in an atmosphere like that, you can change it. You can't have fellowship
without first having love. If you don’t believe me try it some time. Go
to some church where they despise what you stand for. Go to a Pentecostal
church and tell them you believe God sent a prophet William Branham and tell
them what you believe, and see what happens. Then try to fellowship with them?
You can't. How can two walk together
lest they be agreed.
Try it in this message. Go somewhere that doesn't believe like we do and
tell them you believe Brother Vayle is a man of God. You can feel the hatred.
Try it on the internet. Go to one of the chat rooms and tell them what you
believe and one by one they leave until you are left there alone. I know, I've experienced it first hand.
So you must have love
before you can fellowship. In fact brother Branham said in His Message called FELLOWSHIP 60-0611B E-18 Now, fellowship comes by love. And love
requires fellowship. If you love your wife, you've just got to get with her
and talk with her. If you love your friend, you've got to get with him and
talk to him. And if you love God, there's got to be a basis for fellowship.
You cannot have complete fellowship and livelihood without these agreements.
You cannot be married without an agreement. You cannot have a wife without some
kind of an agreement. And that agreement is based upon your vow. You cannot
have fellowship with God without coming to God's agreement. And there's a basic
thing for fellowship, and that's the Blood, the Blood only. It's been God's way
from the beginning, and it will be till the end. The only place of fellowship
is through the Blood.
GOD’S PROVIDED WAY FELLOWSHIP
60-0709 P:31 And what made God provide this way? Because God is
love, and love demands fellowship. Love demands fellowship, like the young boy
when he meets the--the young lady. And oh, she's got eyes like diamonds, and
she's got teeth like pearls, and a neck like the swan, and oh, she's the
prettiest thing in the world.Now, you just can't go
up and say, "You're mine; here we go." There's got to be some kind of
an agreement. Some kind of an agreement has to be reached, before you can enter
into fellowship with this young lady. You have to come to an agreement. And
that's the way when we see God and know that He is God. We look at His creation
and His great Being, what He's done and how great He is. Then there has to...We
have to come upon the basis of God's agreement. And that was by the way of the
Blood; that's the only way.
And if you can not love
your brother, then you do not get together with him, it's just that simple. No
love, no fellowship.
And that's the problem with
so many people today. They don't take the blood of Jesus into their fellowship.
And then they hear something they don't like and they get all puffed up and
hurt feelings. And pretty soon the devil has you out of
fellowship and then watch your family go down hill right then. Brother
Branham said you need to carry the blood into your fellowshipping. Instead of
getting hurt, you cover it with the blood. When someone says something personal,
cover it with the blood. When someone gets a bit nozy,
or pries into something you might consider personal? Cover it with the blood.
Don’t get angry, don't get uppity, but cover it with the blood. And you can't
cover it with the blood if your own motives are wrong. Because
Love covers a multitude of sin.
Now, Solomon was not the
wisest man for nothing. And He said in
PROVERBS
PHILIPPIANS 2:1 ¶ If [there be] therefore any consolation in
Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having
the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind. 3 [Let] nothing [be
done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others. 5 Let this mind (attitude) be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus:
Jesus gave us a commandment
when he said, JOHN
JOHN 15:12 This is my
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved
you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
JOHN
Paul taught this same
principle when he said,
ROMANS 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he
that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not
covet; and if [there be] any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. 10 Love
worketh no ill to his neighbour:
therefore love [is] the fulfilling of the law.
I THESSALONIANS 4:9 ¶ But as touching brotherly love ye need not
that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
Peter taught it, I PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see
that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:
And John the Apostle of
Love brings this to our attention when he said, I JOHN
From the message THE TOKEN 63-1128E 100 brother Branham said, "As we see
the great end-time signs in the earth, warning us the time is at hand, we
should love one another more than we ever did in all of our lives. There should
be such a hunger to get to church. There should be such a hunger for us to get
to one another. It should be a love affair. I can't
hardly wait to get to
That's the way
the Church ought to be. Just seeing that the power of God, what It's done for
us, we should be counting the moments, getting together in love, that we can
fly away someday to meet Jesus. 103
Somebody said, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, you scare the
people, saying that the coming of the Lord is so near." I said, "They
shouldn't be worried about that. That should be the most
happy thing we know of." Uh-huh, yeah. "And He will appear the
second time to all those that love His appearing," who love and longing
for it. It's a love affair. And how we ought to love one
another, because we're fellow citizens in the same Body. We should have love one for another.
106 Warning us, the time is at
hand... Believers should be separating themselves from the things of the world,
the cares of the world. That's the reason I hammer at women and so forth the
way I have. And then separate yourself from these TV programs. Separate
yourself from this
And he said if you love one
anther, love requires fellowship. It's a part of love. How can we say we
love the brethren and won’t fellowship with them. I've had brethren who have
left this church come to me and apologize for the way they left and tell me
they love me. I just said, if you really love me, why don’t
you come back. Will they do it? They will if they really mean what they
say. And they won't if they don't. How
can people say to one another, I love you brother and then won't visit with
you. That's not love. Love demands fellowship. That's thus saith God's
Prophet. He said, Now, fellowship comes by love. And love requires
fellowship. If you love your wife,
you've just got to get with her and talk with her. If you love your friend,
you've got to get with him and talk to him.
None of us are perfect, but
that is what the blood is for. If you walk in the light as He is in the light,
it brings you into fellowship and then the blood takes over.
EPHESIANS 1:5 In love
He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
His love not only
predestinates us, and covers us by His blood.
I CORINTHIANS 1:8 Who shall also establish you unto the
end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God [is] faithful,
by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no
divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment.
PHILIPPIANS 1:3 ¶ I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all
making request with joy, 5 For your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6 Being confident of
this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it]
until the day of Jesus Christ:
Now, the opposite of
fellowship is being cut off from fellowship., and we
showed you without any doubts a few years ago the scriptural principles that
brother Branham laid out for us when he spoke of the world becoming neurotics.
And I continue to be amazed to see that Word come forth from this pulpit and
then it happens in the congregation. It just shows that it is a living Word we
preach.
Remember how we showed you
the first attribute of neurosis is anxiety, worrying about what might happen.
Then that leads to compulsion, trying to fix the problem, and then that leads
to obsession which takes place when you get so focused on fixing that problem
that it possesses you, and that leads to phobia, and fear has a penalty, it
causes you to stop doing what you used to do and that lead's to depression and
your depression and dissatisfaction leads to disassociation, which is cutting
yourself off from fellowship. Then what happens, step 7 you become a total
neurotic. And you are converted, you are changed, and you are gone. And we've
seen that Word come to pass exactly like I've preached it right here in this
congregation.
EPHESIANS 4:17 ¶ This I say therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of
their mind, 18 Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated (that means cut off from fellowship) from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart:
88-2 EPHESIAN
CHURCH AGE - CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT 3 The fervent
desire to please God, the passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in
the Spirit, all begins to fade and instead of that church being on fire with
the fire of God it has cooled off and become a bit formal. That is what was
happening back there to the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The
abandonment to God was dying out and the people weren't too careful about what
God thought of them as they began to be careful about what the world thought of
them. That second generation coming on was just like
89-1 That cycle of revival and death has never
failed. All you have to do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit
when men and women dressed like Christians, went to church, prayed all night,
took to street corners and weren't ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit.
They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store
buildings. They had reality. But it
wasn't too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine new
churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves. They
put gowns on the choir. They organized a
movement and ran it by man. They
soon began to read books that weren't fit to read. They let down the bars
and goats came in and took over. The cry
of joy was gone. The freedom of the
Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on
with a form; but the fire had died down and the blackness of ashes is about all
that is left.
89-2 A few
moments ago I mentioned that John understood what it was to love God. That
great apostle of love would certainly see it when the church began to lose that
first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, "For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word)." One little
deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ. People say they love God,
they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and
sing and have a great emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and see if they are in that WORD,
walking in it, living in it.
If they go through all the other and then don't walk in that Word, they can say
they love God but their lives tell another story. I wonder if John didn't
see a lot of that before he died; people saying they loved God but not obeying
His Word. Oh,
89-3 But as
usual people don't heed God's warning. That revival fire built upon the sacred
Word is so wonderful, and the manifestation of the Spirit so blessed, that a
little fear creeps in and a whisper in the heart says, "How can we protect
this truth we have? What can we do to see this revival goes on?" That is
when the "antichrist spirit" comes in and whispers, "Look, you
have the truth now, see that it doesn't get lost. Organize and set up your
creed of what you believe. Put it all in a church manual." And they do it.
They organize. They add to the Word. And
they die just like Eve did for taking One wrong word.
It's God's Word that brings life. And
it's not what we say about the Word that counts, but it's what God said.
INVASION OF THE USA 54-0509 213
You take a little bitty girl, little bitty boy, put them out here, let
them live with somebody... You take a man... I can take my boy, let him be out
for a day with somebody; let me come in, I can almost tell you who he's been
with. Certainly. Watch, that environment, that spirit
catches him. You go into a church, where the people all... You go into Holy
Ghost churches, or Pentecostal churches, they call it. Look everybody be... Oh,
they run and jerk their head back and forth, the pastor does; watch the whole
church begin to do the same thing. Let the men, the people, get up and just
carry on terrible, or something another; watch the whole thing do that. Get
into a place where the pastor's real starchy and cold; watch the whole group do
it. You come into that environment. You take a man that's a good moral man, and
let him marry a little old woman that ain't worth a
dime; it isn't long till he ain't worth a dime
either. That's what happened to Ahab. Take the same, vice versa, let a nice
little woman marry an old man that ain't worth a
dime; the first thing you know, she's doing the same thing he is. How could I
go, this morning, and point my hands on little broken up homes and things like
that, where lovely little mothers come into a drinking dad, and things like
that, and thought they could do something with them, and now the whole mother
and all of them is a drinking and going on. It's environment.
217
What is it? It's the Devil. It's the Devil, the invasion. He swept into
this nation like a roaring lion. He set hisself down
here in the best place they had, in
220
You couldn't sell old fashion button shoes here in town today, at all.
Women don't want them. They want the toes out of them. The
rest of the women's a doing it. That's right. When you go to church, you
can't sell them old-time religion, 'cause the other woman, she don't want nothing to do with that. No, sir.
"And no need me going down there. I just believe; that's all there is to
it." Oh, brother, the Devil believes too. That's right. You'll repent or
perish.
RECONCILIATION
THROUGH FELLOWSHIP 56-0120
E-21 So we find out that man must come back to
his Maker. Then when Adam realized that sin had separated him, he became an
alien, a wanderer away from God, without hope, wandering around in the garden,
knowing that he was separated from God, knew that he didn't have fellowship no
more; it made him a wanderer. And man to
this day, when the sin problem, he still becomes a wanderer. He will go to
one church awhile; he longs to have fellowship. He will join the Methodists, or
the Baptists, or the Pentecostal, or some church. He will go in there, and he will find
imperfection in the church among the people; he will leave this church and take
his letter and go to another church. He
will go from church to church; he's a wanderer yet, away from God.
#5) and 5 is the number of Grace,
Love is servitude, for love is giving. And we prove our love to God by
serving His Kids.
John 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I
might take it again
1 John
1 John 3:17But
whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1 John 3:18My
little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in
truth
John 10:17Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again
Hebrews
Hebrews
Galatians
Galatians
Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless
let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the
wife see that she reverence her husband
Ephesians
Ephesians
Ephesians 5:2 And
walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour
Ephesians 4:2 With
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Ephesians 4:16 From
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the
body unto the edifying of itself in love
Colossians
2 Corinthians 8:8 I
speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to
prove the sincerity of your love
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 6:6 By
pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by
love unfeigned,
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 2:8 Wherefore
I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him
2 Corinthians 2:4 For
out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears;
not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have
more abundantly unto you
1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 4:9 But
as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
1 Peter
1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him
2 Corinthians