Christ Revealed in His Own Word # 9
To Prepare for that Time
Wednesday evening April 17, 1996
[
Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship]
Sunday we
examined pp. # 2 of Brother Branham's Message of Christ Revealed in His Own
Word where he was praying to God and
said, "And we believe that we're
ending up this world's history now, and soon
time will fade into eternity; and we
want to be ready for that hour. That's why we have assembled here this
morning, is to prepare for that time.
We focused our
thoughts on this end - time theme of time fading into Eternity and we expressed
what Webster said the word fade means to slowly disappear. We examined this
slow disappearance of time and found it to be part of God's great end - time
strategy. We also saw how that the very Message he was preaching that night was
part of the great preparation of God's people to be ready for the blending into
Eternity. He said, "we believe that we're ending up this world's history now, and soon time will fade into eternity; and we want to be ready for that hour.
That's why we have assembled here this morning, is to prepare for that time.
We saw the hour
Brother Branham is speaking of in [ Revelations
10: 1 - 7 ] Where verse 6-7 tells
us that time shall be no more. I want you to notice that there are certain events that surround
the ending of time as we know it. First,
there is a descent by a Mighty Angel, (the Angel of the Covenant, none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ). We established this by a few quotes from brother
Branham telling us that the Pillar of Fire was the Angel of the Covenant, the
Lord Jesus Christ in the Form of the Holy Ghost.
In the 20th
Century Prophet film brother Branham was asked about the picture taken with the
Pillar of Fire above His Head, and he replied... To my opinion, It's the same Angel of God that followed the children of
Israel from Egypt unto Palestine. You know as a scholar yourself, that was the
Angel of the Covenant, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then this makes
us some of the most privileged people to ever walk the face of the earth
because we are the very witnesses of the manifestation of [Revelation 10: 1 - 7] Read... This makes us witnesses of one of the
greatest events to ever take place in the history of mankind. The Very Angel of
the Covenant, Jesus Christ Himself, in the same form as he came to Paul and
Moses, as the Pillar of Fire. But this
time when He came down He brought with Him an open Book. Now this is very
significant, because we also see in the First Exodus with Moses that God had
come down to the people from the Mountain as Well. Then it was Mount Sinai,
this time it was mount sunset. "It
shall be light about the evening time, the path to Glory you will surely find,
in the water way, there is light today, buried in the precious name of Jesus
Christ, Young and old repent of all your sins, the Holy Ghost will surely enter
in, the evening light has come, It is a fact that God and Christ are One."
But just as He came down with His Word back in Moses day, and the people
rejected His Word for Law, so have they today, rejecting the very thing that
will take them out of here in a rapture. They have rejected it for popularity
and money and even women.
Oh! You say,
"surely, not in this Message?"
Surely and absolutely in this Message!
Men in this Message teach polygamy as being a right thing. That's women
isn't it? And others running for the buck. I know of a minister who went to a
church and bragged to a couple other ministers that he hurried the vote so he
could get the tithe away from another minister who was sending it to missionaries
overseas. I know of another minister who drained a church of over $300,000 in
it's slush fund and then when there was no more to be gotten he left and took
over 300 of the people with him. Money, Money, Money, Money, Money, sounds like Balaam to me. And wasn't Balaam a contemporary of Brother
Moses.
Now in
Revelations chapter 10, The first thing
I wish to point out here is that the mystery of God will be finished when this
scene unfolds. In other words, until
this scene happens God and Godhead will continue to be a mystery. But, when
this happens, then the mystery is done away. Secondly, this scene begins with a descent of this Mighty angel who brother
Branham called the angel of the Covenant, none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ.
From The Breach
pg. 74 he says, " And when the seals
are broken, ( Rev 5) and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel, the Messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon
land and upon sea with a rainbow over His Head. Now, remember, this Seventh Angel is on earth at the time of this
coming."
Thirdly, you will notice He comes clothed with a cloud and a rainbow over His head. In Life magazine we
have a picture of this Cloud which formed His Wig which is part of His clothing
and if you hold the picture up to the light, you will see a rainbow over His
head because there is a photo of a rainbow on the reverse side of the page and
by light we can see the revelation ( rainbow).
A wig is an ornament for the head pointing to or bringing the attraction
to the head. It also represents a Judge, being a white wig. We see also that
His face was so brilliant it shown forth as the very Sun itself. And His feet
as the Pillar of Fire. Fourth, He
came down with an open book. And
then He cried with a loud voice as when
a lion roareth. And Fifth, we
find this happening at the time when the seventh angel is here on earth. Now let's just examine these five points.
Now, what I want
for us to see here this morning is that Brother Branham has told us in this
opening prayer to God, that Time is fading into Eternity and we should place
the emphasis where he placed it and that is the fading of time. Time is slowly disappearing at such a slow pace that all the events which are
associated with this fading out of time are overlooked and misplaced altogether.
You know that is true. People are looking for a sudden coming and a sudden
catching away and yet the coming of the Lord is upon us and has overtaken us
and the people are so asleep that they are failing to focus on the events of
the Ending of time. What we are failing to recognize is the slow process
involved in our change of the body. We always thought that in a moment in the
twinkling of an eye that we will be changed, but we have found that the
scripture and brother Branham have taught it contrary to that. Paul taught us
in [Romans 12: 1 - 2 ] that we'll
receive our transformation in our
bodies only after we receive a change of the mind first. (Read) And the slower our minds are changed the
longer time it will take for the physical bodies to follow.
He said, time is
fading into Eternity. Time is slowly disappearing right before our very eyes
and only those who are watching and aware of the events that are associated
with the ending of time as we know it, will be caught up into the Eternity that
has appeared before us in the form of the Pillar of Fire. For God Himself is
the Author of Eternal Life. But for the rest of humanity, we see another story
unfolding.
[ Luke 8: 13 ] Notice these are those who hear the Word but do not take heed to
what it is telling them and they end up with nothing. It says, the devil comes
and takes away the Word out of their hearts which is he takes it from their
understanding. And of course when they no longer understand what the Word is
telling them, they soon lose hope and sight of the real picture and before they
know it they are drifting away and drifting off to sleep.
[ Luke 21: 31 - 36 ] The scripture tells us to take heed, to be
very careful that we do not miss out standing in the Presence of the Son of
Man. It also tells us that many will be so bogged down by the cares of this
life that they will miss out on this great end-time event and therefore that
DAY will come upon them unawares and they will miss out on it. It also tells us that being caught up into
the cares of this life will be a snare that will come upon every one who is
living in that day but we are also told that there will be a small number who
have been accounted worthy who will not fall for this trap and thus they will
stand before or in the presence of the Son of Man and receive all that is to be
given in that day.
He said in his
opening prayer of this Message Christ
Revealed in His Own Word,
"we believe that we're ending up this world's history now, and soon time
will fade into eternity; and we
want to be ready for that hour.
That's why we have assembled here this morning, is to prepare for that time
So we see that
the world's history is now ending, and time is fading, it is disappearing
slowly, ever so slowly, and because it is fading so slowly many are missing the
events which constitute the end of time as we know it. In [Rev 10: 7] where we read the words, "and time shall be no more"
the literal translation is " and "time shall be no more delayed." And Brother Branham is praying that we will
be ready for this entering into Eternity and so He tells us via this opening
prayer that this Message and our gathering to this Message of Christ Revealed in His Own Word
has something to do with our preparation
for this great event of time fading out and eternity beginning. Oh, brothers
and sisters, don't get so bogged down in your every day lives that you miss
what God has in store for those that Love His Appearing.
We see in [Deut 28 : 1- 2 ] That if we take heed
to the Voice of God that all these blessings will not only come upon us but
shall overtake us. Now this is like in a race when you have your eyes set on
the goal tine. And he is telling us that as they come upon us we will not even
see them coming but they will soon not only come upon us but they will overtake
us and we will be swept up into the current of the tide. But this tide is God
sent to take our boats home to Glory. But on the other hand, those who do not
pay close heed to the Voice of God, curses will come upon them and overtake
them as we read in [verse 15].
Did not Jesus
Warn us to be ever watchful and praying for this hour to come? Let's read again
[ Luke
21: 36] and now let's close with [ Mark 13: 29 - 37].
I am told that there are many of the telephone hooks-ups
this morning across the nation, from coast to coast. Wherever our voices is
coming, may that little group be blessed. Heal the sick that's among them. 3
And I pray that You'll cleanse their
souls from all evil. Help us here this morning at the Tabernacle that we also may enjoy that great privilege.
And we ask that You'll speak to us today through Thy written Word, and may the
Spirit reveal to us the things that we have need of, as we have gathered
nationwide now, feeling that we are a small people, but have a place among the
redeemed, because we have believed on Jesus Christ. 4 Grant these things to us, Lord, and when we close the service and
we go to our different homes across the nation, may we say like those from Emmaus, "Did not our hearts burn within
us as He spoke to us along the road?" 5 Now, Father, I know
that whatever I would say would be certainly insufficient. With the--the fine
Christians throughout the nation now that's tuned in, it wouldn't be--it
wouldn't be adequate. It would not be something that I could say that could do
any good, because we're all in the same category. We're human, mortals, but let the great Holy Spirit speak; may He
take ahold the Word and just reveal Himself. We're waiting on Him now, in
Jesus' Name. Amen. (May be seated.)
Now what is the
Great event associated with the end - time? Is it not the Revelation of Jesus
Christ? Who He is and Why He has Come down? Did not brother Branham tell us
that the very purpose of His ministry
was "To declare Christ, That
He is here!" So, then what we
are looking at in this opening prayer is that this Message Christ Revealed in
His Own Word is given to us for a preparation for Eternity, for a cleansing of
our sinful souls, For a cleansing of our sinful minds. Then if we are to be
cleansed by the washing of water by the Word, I believe that our hope all lies
in this One Focused thought of Christ
Revealed in His Own Word. For
what is our hope, or crown of rejoicing, are not we in the sight of Jesus
Christ at His Parousia? His Presence? Are we not washed by the Light as we walk
in the light? Then with this in mind, I
want you all to be truly searching this Message as we begin to study it for the
Revelation of Jesus Christ is the greatest event to ever strike the earth, even
greater than the crucifixion and resurrection because without it the
Crucifixion and Resurrection will do us no good. We are told in [ 1
Peter 1 : 3 - 13 ] that this end
time revelation of Christ will bring forth salvation and that in verse 13 we
are told that a special endowment of Grace will accompany this Revelation.
[ 1 Cor 1: 4 - 10 ] why? [ 2
Cor 3: 15 - 18 ] because the hearts are ordained to change. Our
understanding is ordained to receive the Glory of God. [ 1
Cor 13: 12] [ 2 Thess 1: 10 ]
& [Col 3: 4]