Benefits of the Son of God
to us no. 19
Kings and Priests
Rev. Brian Kocourek
This morning we will speak on
the nineteenth benefit or
promise of God to us concerning His Son, and our understanding His role as a
Son. This nineteenth benefit teaches us about our role as Kings and Priests. For
without understanding the relationship between the Father and His Son, and that
there is indeed a Son who is not the Father, we could not see the roles of sons that
has been laid out for us. These roles which we are to fulfill have been taught
to us by Jesus Christ the Son of God, and therefore, through knowing Him and
understanding the roles that He played out in relationship to our redemption, we
too have been given roles to play out as sons and daughters of the most High. And without understanding His relationship
with the Father. and how He was instructed to
play out the roles given for Him to
fulfill, we will never come to an understanding of the roles that we have been
given to fulfill here on earth.
First of all,
we should ask ourselves the question, what roles are we talking about? Because
it would help if we understood just what roles we are to fulfill here on earth.
Because there is nothing worse than to know that God has something for you to
do but you are not sure what that thing is.
Therefore, in
order to understand our roles that God has for us let’s go to the Book of
Revelation to see what these roles are that He has ordained us to.
Revelation 1: 1 ¶ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to
shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Now, before we
continue on let me just emphasize what is being said here. He begins by
speaking of The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, brother Branham told us the greatest of
all revelations is The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the supreme deity of
Christ, and he said you can’t get to first base without it. Secondly, he is
telling us here that this revelation of Jesus Christ was given from God to
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Then he tells us this Revelation was signified to
John by His angel. So we see that John is being told this Revelation, and that
is what this book is about.
Now, William
Branham said in his sermon,
And that speaks
of “God in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself.”
And unless this Revelation of Jesus Christ becomes alive to you
personally, you have not even been born again, and therefore have not even
gotten to first base. You are not even in the game to begin with.
And when
brother Branham said you can’t get to first base without having this revelation
of Christ we know he was referring to the sport of baseball when he used that
phrase. In other words, in baseball if you do not get to first base you are
out. That means you are out of it altogether.
You are not even in the game at that point. That’s why he said in the
sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed that the new birth is the
Revelation of Jesus Christ becoming personally alive to you. And without that you are not even born again.
Christ is the mystery 63-0728
P:120 Look, Christ in you makes Him the center of Life of the revelation.
See? Christ's Life in you makes Him the center of the revelation. Christ in the
Bible, makes the Bible a complete revelation of Christ. Christ in you makes you
the complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's trying to do? What
is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham, what is the new birth?" It is the
revelation of Jesus Christ personally to you. Amen. See?
Now, if you are
not even in the game, he said, there is
not even any need to try to talk to you about the game, because you wouldn’t
understand it.
Questions and answers COD
61-0112 P:167 No need in talking to him, 'cause
he don't even know, you couldn't get to first base with him (See?), 'cause he
don't know what to do. But that's it. You see?
Now, I want you
to also see how brother Branham applied this same metaphor, in the sermon Manifested sons of God 60-0518 P:58 he said, He didn't even
get to first base, he's nowhere. He's a sinner to start with.
And from the
sermon Why 62-0622E P:73 he said, He that
believeth not is condemned already, has not even get to first base. You're out of
the game altogether, put out before you even got to the plate. You've got to
believe every Word of God.
Jehovah Jireh 61-0209 P:53 Sin is
unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already." You can't even get to first base unless you
believe every word of God and call anything else to It as though it was a
lie.
Queen of
At Kadesh Barnea 56-0527 P:31 In
Remembering the Lord 63-0122
P:50 For there's only one sin, and that's unbelief. "He that
believeth not is condemned already." See? You don't even get to first base
if you don't believe. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and
the Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him."
So you see the importance of receiving
and believing the Revelation of Jesus Christ? Because without it you will never
even know there is a role for you much less know what that role is.
We know that without the revelation of
Jesus Christ which is the doctrine of Christ you do not even have God. And you
do not have life, and let’s face it, the roles that God has for us are for His
Sons you would not even know exist. And if you do not know that He is a Father
much less your father, how could you even begin to understand the role that God
has for you.
I have seen too
many times amongst Pentecostal believers
good desire to want to serve God, or be used by God in some capacity, but they
always seem to bypass the Word of God to find what it is that God wants them to
do. I mean they have the right motive and the intentions seem right, but they
think they can find out what it is by forcing the hand of God in some way or
manner. You can’t force God into anything. So you had better let go and let
God.
Amongst the Pentecostal people there is too much
mystery and hocus pocus involved in the way they try to get the mind of God. If
you want the mind of God open your Bibles. That’s all. Open your Bibles, and
then get out of the way. But what I have seen is sort of like sticking your
finger in their mouth and then holding it up in the air to feel which way the
breeze is blowing, and then saying that is the way God wants me to go. That is
not how you find your role in Christ. You find it in This Word. You see God has
a role for each of us to play, but it must be done in accordance with his word,
and in the order in which his Word declares.
Yes, God has
rules to the role you are to fulfill. And the rules are His rules, and you must
do it the way He said it is to be done.
Mighty conqueror 58-0610 P:6 Just remember
this; that's a good lesson for the church of the living God. If we don't play
the game according to the rules, we'll be disqualified at the end. You have to
keep the rules of the game to win. And if the rules of the game in this place,
is a man must be borned again to enter into the fellowship of Christ and His
church, and we might be the greatest denomination on earth, but if we haven't
played the rules of the game, we'll be disqualified at the end. We've got to
come straight with God's rules. It isn't our rule; it's His rules, that we've
got to abide by. We're running the race according to His rules, and we have to
abide by them.
So what are the rules to follow
concerning any calling or role that God has ordained us to fulfill?
Trying to do God a service
65-0718M P:52 Notice, now notice, there in following God... Now, I want you to
kinda jot this in your mind. To keep God's commandments, to do anything right
for God, to do God a service correctly, there is five musts (See?), to do God
service correctly.
52 .But there's five musts; I want you to remember these. No matter how sincere a man may be in doing
it, doing God a service, these five must be there:
Then brother Branham lists those five
musts as the following…
First, it must be His time to do it.
Second, It must be in His season.
Third, it must be according to His Word
Fourth, it
must be given according to the person He has chosen to do it by.
Fifth, It must be a-vindicated by the Word of God.
There's your five musts.
So what does it
mean to be a-vindicated? The word vindicate means to be proven. In other words
it comes to pass.
To make it
simple, there is another place where brother Branham said to know the will of
God there are three things that must be. First it must be revealed to you in
His Word, then secondly, it must be quickened in your spirit, and
third, it must come to pass. Then you know that is the will of God for
you.
Now, in getting
back to knowing and understanding our roles, we find in Revelation 1: 1 ¶ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him,
to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent
and signified [it] by his angel unto his servant John: 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of
Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 ¶ Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy, (and hear means to
understand) and keep
those things which are written therein: for the time [is] at hand.
(Yeah, how are you going to keep it if you do not understand what it is?)
4 John to the seven churches which are in
Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and
which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; 5 And
from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of (out from) the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath (now
that is past tense. ) hast made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Notice he did
not say we will be, but he said we are
already Kings and Priests. So the role is already defined by this Word, but
now, how do we go about performing the role which we have been ordained to? The
first thing is we must know what it means to be Kings and Priests. For it is
not what we think it is, but rather what He defines it as. And we have for his
Mouthpiece a vindicated Prophet to tell us what the roles are to be.
Seven church ages 54-0512 P:24
My,
just look at John get all wound up there, when he look. He just goes to
speaking. He said:... to him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, And hath made us kings and
priests unto God... his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.” He has made us priests and
kings unto God." "Us"
is plural, not "made me priest and a king", but "made us," the Church. Now, he's
addressing these seven churches, for it's
And over in Hebrews It said that we, the Church, is the royal priesthood, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a peculiar people (See?), a holy nation, peculiar people, royal priesthood, offering (Here it is now.) offering
spiritual sacrifices. Every man and woman that comes to God enters into the
veil.
So we see the
role of a Priest is for intercession and for performing sacrifice, which is the
fruit of our lips giving praise to his name. HEBREWS 13:15 By him therefore let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of
[our] lips giving thanks to his name.
1 Peter Chapter 2
Verse 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
Identified Christ of all ages
64-0617 P:21 And until you come in behind that badger skin, until you get out of
your old skin, your old thoughts, your old creeds, and come into the Presence
of God; then the Word becomes a living
reality to you; then you're awakened to the Shekinah Glory; then the Bible
becomes a new Book, then Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. You're living in His Presence, eating the shewbread that's only
provided that day for believers, priests
only. "And we are priests, royal priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar
people, giving spiritual sacrifices to God." But you must come in, to behind the veil to see the unveiled God. And God
is unveiled; that's His Word made manifest.
So you see in this role of Priest is not
something we are to wait until the Millennium to enter into, but we as priests
are invited to come into the Holiest of Holies and enter into the Presence of
the Mighty God unveiled before us. We are now, Priests of the most High God.
Not, will be but He hath which is past tense, he hath made us kings and
priests. And we are invited into the presence of the mighty God unveiled before
us to eat of the shewbread that is provided for us daily. Then what did the
priests do back their? They offered up sacrifice to God for the sins of the
people. They became intercessors in the presence of God, and offered up
sacrifices which we do when we offer back to God the fruit of our lips giving
praise to His name.
The Priest echoes back the Word of God as
a propitiation for those who are outside the veil. Those not walking in His
presence. In essence applying the token
for our loved ones to be saved. Making intercession for them in the presence of
the Lord.
Will I find faith when I
return 51-0508 P:35 Our bodies are groaning, and we have an inheritance. And we're
children now, heirs of the Kingdom (Oh, my.), kings and priests unto God
offering spiritual sacrifices. What does
a priest do? Make a sacrifice. What is a spiritual sacrifice? That's what
these sons and daughters do, which are kings and priests, yet not in full
possession, but they're making sacrifices, offering to God spiritual
sacrifices: the fruits of our lips giving praise to Him (Amen.), fruits of our
lips. You say, "Brother Branham, I just don't feel like praising
Him." That's the time to make a
sacrifice. Praise Him anyhow. Kings
and priests, sons and daughters offering spiritual sacrifice, the fruits of our
lips, giving praise unto His Name.
Messiah the 61-0117 P:29 You see what
Messiah is? Messiah is the Kingdom of God, anointed ones, them anointed with
the same Spirit He was anointed with. One said to him one day, "Will my
sons set at the right and left hand?” He said, "Can you drink the cup that
I drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?” She
said, "Yea." And He said, "You will. But the Kingdom, to sit
right and left hand is not Mine to give.” So it showed that we could drink the
same cup of persecution, be called Beelzebub or whatever it might be, and still
be baptized with the same Spirit He's baptized with. So if He was called
Messiah, which He was, because He was anointed with that Holy Spirit... And any church that's anointed with the same
Holy Spirit is a Messiahette, a littler, smaller, god. And someday when
this body is resurrected, I hope
beforehand that God can get a hold of a bunch of people that'll manifest His
power in every dimension that it's supposed to be in. Messiah, anointed One, a
King to deliver, a King... You're
kings and priests, kings to bring in, priests to minister to, a Messiah. His
signs was to follow in all ages, reflecting His Light, His Presence with His
Kingdom people.
Now, I want you
to notice that he said Kings to bring in and Priests to minister unto. He said
a King to deliver. Now the word deliver means to bring forth a child, as we say
to deliver the baby. To bring forth life. But it also means to declare or to
express in words, as we deliver a speech, we are declaring or expressing our
thoughts in speech. And finally the word
deliver mean to bring forth or produce, and what does a King bring forth or
produce? A kingdom of course. And we
are interested in only one kingdom, and that is the
Great warrior David 55-0118
P:25 Notice, David was called by election. He was elected, called,
anointed, and placed (See?): elected by God, called from sheep herding to be the king, anointed, and positionally
placed. Look. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph; Abraham: election, Isaac:
justification, and Jacob: grace, and Joseph: perfection, nothing against
Joseph. All right, there you are, called. Are you a David? Called, elected
first by God...How many Christians here, raise up your hand. You're not a
Christian by your desire; you're a Christian by God's desire. Amen. "No
man can come to Me except My Father draws him first." You was elected by God before the foundation of the world to be a
Christian. That's Scripture. Jesus said, "No man can come except My
Father calls him.” First thing you was elected, called. Then when God elected
you, then He called you, and you heeded to His call. Then He poured the
anointing oil on you, the Holy Ghost. When the cruse of oil... What does the
oil represent in the Bible? Holy Spirit. When he poured the oil upon him, he
baptized him with the Holy Spirit in a symbol form. Amen. I hope you get that.
That just come fresh. He poured the oil upon him, just went all over him, a
whole horn full of it (Amen.), not sparingly. And that's the way God pours the Holy Ghost on a man, not sparingly, just
baptizes him into it, anointing him with the Spirit. Notice, he right then, when that anointing
struck him, he was positionally placed as king. Amen. You are placed positionally in Christ Jesus as kings and priests.
Is that right? The moment you receive
the Holy Spirit, God places you in the Kingdom, an heir. What a beautiful
picture. There you are.
Now, you were born into this world to become
Kings and Priests, and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you are anointed to
your roles. Every king must be anointed when he comes forth to take his
role.
And when was it made possible for us to
come into these roles, or to begin expressing these roles? When the seals were
opened. Then are we to take possession now, or must we wait until the new
earth?
REVELATION 5:1 ¶ And I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed
with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who
is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither
under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 4 And I
wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book,
neither to look thereon. 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to
open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 ¶ And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the
throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as
it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. 7 And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. 8 And when he had taken
the book, the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down before the
Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which
are the prayers of saints. 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our
God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. Notice
the scriptures says He already hast made us which means it is already done, but
then he speaks of future tense when he says we shall future tense reign and
rule on the earth. 11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12 Saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13 And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour,
and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. 14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four [and]
twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Now, in order to understand the roles of
kings and priests that we are called to, we must first understand what these
roles entail and how we are to learn these roles. Now, look, Jesus was born to be
King of the Jews. He was born a Prince of Peace but He will be crowned King of
Kings. He was anointed by God to come into His role. Yet he had to learn that
role, as you and I must first learn our role.
Hebrews Chapter 7
Verse 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth
a priest continually. That
is why it is so important to study to show yourself approved a workman that needeth not be
ashamed. 2 Timothy