Benefits of the Son of God
to us no. 15
Unity of The Faith
Rev. Brian Kocourek
The fifteenth benefit or promise of God to us concerning His Son is that
it brings us into The Unity of Faith.
For our text let’s turn
to Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the
unity of The Faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ:
Now, this is a complex statement that the
Apostle Paul is giving to us here, and there are several points in this one
statement that he is making here. But in order to understand what is being said
in this verse of Scripture, we must back up a few verses to get a better
understanding what he is trying to tell us.
Beginning at verse one we read, EPHESIANS 4:1
¶ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Notice Paul calls himself a prisoner of
the Lord. Now, the word prisoner used here in the Greek is the Greek word
desmios, which means to be bound to, or captive to. Paul is not saying he is a
prisoner as though he has done wrong and is in prison for it. But what he is alluding
to here is that he has bound Himself to the Lord. He is a captive audience to
what God is doing. In other words, his entire focus is not on the world nor the
things of the world but on what God is doing in his hour. Therefore he can
earnestly proclaim to be a captive of the Lord, bound to what God is doing. And
then He declares, I beseech you, which means I exhort you and I encourage you
that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
Notice he is saying, you have a calling
and your walk should be that which is befitting that calling. The word worthy
that is used here was translated from the Greek word axios which means
suitable, or in a manner that is becoming such a calling.
He said, I encourage you to walk worthy or
in a suitable manner concerning the vocation in which you are called. Now,
there are vocations and then there are avocations. Don’t get the two mixed up.
Now, a vocation is an inclination, as if in response to a summons or call to
undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; a calling. A
divine call to a religious life.
Now, contrast that with the
word avocation which the “a”inserted before as a prefix means against, and thus
an avocation is a diversion from your vocation. Usually an avocation is an
activity taken up in addition to one's regular profession, 2.
One's
regular work or profession./
Therefore
we can see that the Apostle Paul’s calling was that of an Apostle, that was His
calling or vocation, but his avocation was tent making. Not exactly a hobby,
but he enjoyed doing it and he was able to make extra money by it in order to
do the things he wanted to do and provide for himself the creature comforts he
desired to have. But his first love of course was to the calling by which he
was called.
That
is why he could declare himself to be the
prisoner of the Lord. Not by force but by a Love of the calling by which he
was called. And he said, I beseech you that you also will walk worthy of your
calling. Then the Apostle tells us how to walk worthy of our calling. He says
in the next verse, 2 ¶ With all lowliness (now, lowliness is having a humble opinion of one's self; a deep
sense of one's real littleness; Like brother Branham had when he talked about
leaving a hole in a bucket of water, and said that is how much God needed him.
And not only must we be truly humble, but he continues by saying,) and meekness, (and
meekness is a being mild mannered, and gentle and then he adds) with longsuffering,
(and that means being patient, and showing a slowness in avenging wrongs) forbearing one
another (that mean to bear with one another, and to do so he says) in love;
And all this is done for the purpose
of 3 Endeavoring to keep the
unity of The Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now, let’s stop here for a moment and talk
about this unity of the Spirit. Because he is telling us that we must be
humble, and gentle and willing to bear with one another in order to keep the
unity of The Spirit in the bond of
peace. Notice he is talking about the unity of the Spirit and then he says in
the bond of peace, In other words the bond of peace is the humility,
longsuffering, and gentleness that we exude in our walk. A man that is always
ready to fight is not a man of peace. And notice he is talking about the bond
of peace. So we are talking about something that binds together in peace. A
bond is something that is like glue. It is that which holds together. We bond
would together with glue, and the unity of The Spirit is unified or held
together by the Bond or in the bond of peace. And that bond of peace comes by
not what others do to or for us, but how we handle ourselves with others as we
walk our walk.
Then the Apostle Paul qualifies what he
has been saying by the next verse where he adds, …
4 There is one
body, and one Spirit, even as ye
are called in one hope of your
calling;
Notice then if he is saying there is but
one body and one spirit, then we should not look to ourselves as individuals
but as a part of a whole. That One spirit is the same spirit whereby we are all
baptized into the one body. And that is by the same spirit that gave birth to
the Son of God, and Sons of God. Because
it all comes back to the One and Only True God, who we have been given birth
into His family. And then Paul continues in the next verse by saying,
5 One Lord, (and that word Lord is the word kurios which speaks of the
sovereign owner, so Paul is saying there is only One owner, then he says) one faith, (and we know that faith is a revelation, therefore
there he is saying there is only one Lord and therefore one revelation of that
One Lord, and thus only) one baptism, (and
that one baptism shows us that this One Lord is the) 6 One
God and Father of all, Who is above all, (for He alone is
sovereign) and
through all (for it is by him and through him that all things
consist), and in
you all, (if you are born of his spirit, for if you are born of his
spirit then His Spirit is alive in you.
But just as any child that is begotten
of any Father, every child does not have
equal amounts of the Father’s genetic makeup. And so Paul continues saying in verse
7 But unto every
one of us is given grace (and
remember, grace is a special endowment from the Father, and he tells us that every
one of us is given this special endowment) according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
So we have the spirit by measure, but
Christ Jesus without measure. That is what Paul is saying and that is why
William Branham could tell us that we have the spirit by measure, because he
told us what Paul told us. And then in the next verse he tells us how this gift
is measured out.
8 Wherefore he saith, (Now who
is this He that saith? It is the same one Paul said when he said there is one
Lord, and One revelation of that One Lord and that One Lord is the One True God
and Father of us all) When he ascended up on high, (when God ascended
up on High) he (God) led captivity
captive, and (this same God who led captivity captive) gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he (God)
ascended, what is
it but that he (God) also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He
(God)
that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he
(God) might
fill all things.) 11 And he (God) gave some to be apostles;
and some to be prophets; and some to be evangelists; and some to be pastors and
some to be teachers; (For what reason? )12 For the perfecting (or the furnishing
off which is the maturing) of the saints, (and) for the work of the ministry, (now
the word work here comes from the Greek word ergon which means the actual
business of the ministry, the doing of it, and this is all given into the hands
of these men) for
the edifying (which means the building up) of the body of Christ: 13 Till (or until the time comes that) we all come in the unity of The Faith,
(and notice he says The Unity of The Faith, so we are not just looking at unity
for unity sake here, because this Unity of The Faith is based on) the knowledge of
the Son of God, (and that knowledge of the Son of God will bring us)
unto a perfect
man (unto a man that is finished off, fully mature and ready for
adoption and ),unto
the measure (which is proverbially, the rule or standard of judgment)
of the stature (which
means metaphorically of an attained state fit for a thing, or the maturity) of the fullness (or
the completeness)of
Christ:
In other words he is telling us that
although we are given this spiritual endowment in a measure, yet within that
measure is the potential to come to the same place of completeness that the Son
of God which had received the fullness had come in terms of Sonship and
understanding our position and relationship to the Father.
And notice how it comes? He has given to
the body five gifts to perfect the body, or to bring the body to maturity that
it might reflect in the body the mature nature or stature that was exemplified
in the fullness of Christ. And he tells us that we will have these 5 gifts in
the church EPHESIANS
4:13 Until we all come in The Unity of The faith, and of The
Knowledge of the Son of God, and that Unity of The Faith will
come froth because of the Knowledge of the Son of God and will bring us to the
place of a
perfect man, a mature and fully complete son of God, unto the same measure of the
stature( or age of accountability or maturity that was exemplified) in the fullness of
Christ:
So we see then that there is to be a Unity
of The Faith. And notice not just a unity, but The Unity, the One and Only
Unity of what? Of The Faith, for there is only One Faith and that One Faith is
the Revelation of the One Lord. And
notice he combines this “The Unity of The Faith” with the knowledge of The Son
of God. So you see unless you have the knowledge of The Son of God you will not
have the right revelation of the One Lord.
Now, the world has tried to unify men
throughout the ages by whatever schemes men could come up with, and it has
never worked. And I am afraid they are still trying to do so even right among
us in this message.
They are trying to have unity meetings
among us in this Message but it will never work. What can it produce but
carnality unless it is based upon The Faith. Now, how can two even walk together
lest they be agreed. That means if two are attempting to walk together they had
better be in agreement where they are going to go and how they are going to get
there. Because if one thinks the road is to the right while the other thinks
that road is to the left, then there is no way of ever getting to the place
even though you might have the same destination in mind.
Look, the Muslim thinks he is going to
heaven, and the Catholic thinks he’s going to heaven, and the Baptist thinks
he’s going to heaven, and the same with the Pentecostal and the Methodist and
in fact every religion that believes in God, believes also in a heaven that men
will end up in if they live according to the rules and creeds of that religion.
In fact the main objective to most religions is not whether or not there is a
heaven, but what separates all religions is the way to get there.
Now, Jesus told us there is only one way
that we can get to the Father and that is through him.
JOHN 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And how is that? Because no man has ever seen God, and if they
have never seen Him how are they going to know Him.
JOHN 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him]. So the only way that we can know God is through the declaration
that the Son of God gave to us concerning the Father. And that is why no man knows the father
unless He first knows the Son. But if he does not even believe that the Son was
indeed a son, then how could he possibly know the Father.
MATTHEW 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no
man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man who the Father is (Luke
In I
JOHN
Jesus told us in JOHN
Jesus tells us that men should set a value upon him even as they
do the Father. So if they don’t, if they
say the body went back to gasses after his death then they have not rightly divided the word of truth, and also they
do not honor the Father for certainly they show no honor to the Son.. So what are they wanting to unite around?
Brother Branham said from his sermon SUPER SIGN
63-1129 79 Today we think, "Well, now, if we can all get together,
in the unity there is, or in a council, the multitude of counsel there is
safety." That is true, but what kind of a multitude are you counseling in?
How can you walk together? How can you throw these denominations together? Some
of them believers, and some unbelievers, and some make-believers, how you going
to put them together and walk together? "How
can two walk together except they be agreed?"
Paul told us there is only one way of unity, and he called it The Unity of The Faith. And I have gone
around the world at least 18 times to try to Unite the Bride to Christ by The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, because that is the only uniting that will bring
forth the stature of the fullness of Christ in the bride because that is the
only thing Paul said would do it. And I have seen brothers who were so far off
base that they were worshipping the Messenger come to repentance and receive
the Revelation of Jesus Christ and His Presence and these brothers have come
into The Unity of The Faith and are actually understanding what it is to become
a son of God in the image of our Older Brother Jesus because they have
repented, and have embraced the only Revelation that will bring The Unity of
the Spirit. And they will come for
thousands of miles to hear the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and whole churches have walked over 26 kilometers
through jungles and over mountains just to hear the revelation of Jesus
Christ. They will travel for a month
down the
But I get back here in
Brother Branham said in his sermon WHO DO YOU SAY THIS IS? 64-1227 57 I wonder today, if our prayers... You hear
them say, "Pray for a great revival. Pray for this. Pray for a breaking
forth. Pray for unity."
I wonder, if God would send such a program, if we would accept it. I just
wonder if we would accept what He sends to us. You see, The reason that we pray for these things,
because we know it's needy. But when God sends it in the way that He wants it,
then it's not according to our taste, and therefore, we won't receive it. And
that's the way it was in that day. If He was not in the taste of their belief
and their... They would not receive Him again today.
Finally in closing I would like to share this quote from Brother
Branham concerning the only way to come into unity.
GOD'S PROVIDED
PLACE OF WORSHIP 65-0425 60 And
now, we see this forced religion right in view now to bring all the little
groups into one great unity, they
call it. Some of them believe in this, and some believe in that; and some deny
this, and some deny that. The Bible said, "How
can two walk together except they be agreed?" It'll never work. We've got to be in an agreement. And what in agreement with what?
Not in agreement with one another, as much as we've got to be in agreement with the Word, with God. That's what
it's got to be in the agreement with. Now,
we find out that a forced unity was
represented by groups of people at
Let’s bow our hearts and our heads in a Word of Prayer.
Dear Gracious and loving Father, we hear the cry for unity in the
land and yet we see so much divisiveness, division, and disunity even among
those who believe you have sent to us a prophet in this hour. Yet this very one
that you sent to teach us the way, has taught us what you wanted us to know
concerning how to come into The Unity of The Spirit, and The Unity of The Faith,
but the people seem not to understand that this is the only way we can enter
such unity.
I think Father it is the people’s pride that gets in the way. I
think that this nation and it’s people need a humbling if we are to break free
from this spirit that has it bound.
Help us O Lord, and may your people hear the voice of your servant
and come out from among the prison cells and come into the Unity that only The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, and the knowledge of the Son of God can produce.
Grant it Father, that we might have one more opportunity to sweep across this nation to
teach the people the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of your Son.
For we ask it in the precious name that you have given us to gather together
into. That name in which you named your only begotten son, our older brother,
and that name which you have named the entire family of God, the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Grant father that we will receive the Unity of The Spirit and the
Unity of The Faith for we ask it in the name of your Son Jesus Christ who took
on your own name, Amen.