Christ Revealed in
His Own Word #11
The Things We have Need Of
Saturday Evening, April 27, 1996
Brian Kocourek Pastor, Grace
Fellowship
Being that this
is Communion service tonight I would like to focus our attention on thoughts
that would help us in our humanity and the conditions in which we so struggle
in this flesh that Paul called the Body of this death. In order to do so, I still want to keep with
the continuity of this Message called,
Christ Revealed in His Own Word, this being number 11 in our
series. And so tonight let's read from
PP. 3 - 5 as follows:
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CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD
JEFF.IN V-4 N-10 65-0822M
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.
Now before I read
the next pp. I just want you to catch this thought here, where Brother Branham
prays to God and says, "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." There
is the key right there. May those things we have need of be Revealed to us.
[ Phil 3: 15] (read) Now in order to grasp what Paul is saying here and what
Brother Branham is inferring in his opening prayer, let's grab the full context
of Paul's thoughts by going back into the Book of Philippians and reading those
other verses of Scripture that will give us a better understanding of Paul's
mindset here.
[ Phil 3: 1 -2 ] Notice Paul says, Beware of dogs, Now he is not
speaking of the canine critters, but he is speaking of a false ministry of men.
Men of impure minds concerning the Word of God. That is why he also calls them evil workers. These are men of
impure minds, and they show a
forwardness in their speech and actions that implies a defiant
disrespect as is displayed in their open insults and contemptuous speech and
behavior toward them that are the True called of God. That is why we are
commanded to beware of these men. The word BEWARE means to take heed of them,
to be careful of them, to observe and discover and to understand their ways in
order to avoid dealing with them, in order to avoid being ensnared by them. In
other words to carefully examine these men and their ways so that you will not
be caught off guard concerning their schemes and doctrine. The best thing is to
just avoid them as we are told in to do in :
[ Titus 3: 9-10] The word reject here
means to avoid. Just forget about them,
for after two admonitions or exhortations concerning the word, you will know
where they stand and if you haven't been able to change their thinking after
two attempts, a third will not get you any further. So don't waste your time
any longer with them.
[ 2 Tim 2: 23] Don't even get involved in
any further discussions with them because they are usually of such a foolish
nature that they not only openly oppose the True Nature and Precepts of God but
what they most often do is to run after thought that lead no where. Completely
undisciplined in their minds to the things of God. These are self directed men,
impossible to take any correction concerning the Word of God. In other words,
ignorant "know it all's."
[ Romans 16: 17 ] and again this word
avoid means to actually turn out of the way from them. Have nothing to do with
them.
[ Matt 7: 6] Don't even give them the
knowledge you have, because they will only use it to turn on you. Now you may
say what kind of Evangelism is that? That is thus Saith the Lord Evangelism. But don't worry, the law of Scriptural law
and law of averages says you won't get invited back any way.
Christ Revealed
in His Own Word #11
Saturday Evening, April 27, 1996
Every Prophet and
man of God who were ever sent by God to a people with Thus Saith the Lord, were
not accepted by the people they were sent to any way. Only one here and one
there will ever receive it. Even John Wesley when he began to expound the Truth
of Justification by Faith, Luther's Message, in his biography said, When I began
to preach of salvation by faith alone, I preached at St. Lawrence in the morning of May 7th and in the
afternoon at St., Katherine Cree's Church. I was enabled to speak strong words at both: and was
therefore the less surprised at being informed, "I was not to preach any
more in either of these churches." Two days later he preached at
St. Helen's where he wrote in His journal, " My heart was now so enlarged
to declare the love of God to all that were oppressed by the Devil, that I did
not wonder in the least, when I was afterwards told, "Sir, you must not preach
here no more." And it was the same when he preached at St.
George's, St. John's, and St. Benet's. ....Then when Wesley's Message began to
be received by the common people, professional jealousy took over amongst his
colleagues in the ministry and all out attempts were made to try and discredit
him. The attack of the clergy was reinforced by all the filthy devices of
journalism. And we have seen the same attacks in this message against the
Presence of Christ. They oppose the Presence, So they must be preaching His
absence.
As Brother Hall
said, We cry out "He's Here! He's Here! Praise be His Glorious Presence!" So then those who oppose what we teach, must
be shouting, "He's not here! He's not here! Praise be His Glorious
Absence!" And if we which
preach Presence are wrong, then to preach absence is correct! You see how
ridiculous they are. So just avoid them, that's what Jesus said to do.
[ Mark 6: 11] and we see the obedience of this in Paul's ministry [ Acts 13: 40 - 52]
Now in getting
back to our text, we see Paul in [ Phil
3: 1 -2 ] tell us to beware of these workers of evil. Now this word evil
here is a mode of thinking, feeling or acting which is wrong or wicked in it's
nature.
In [ Hebrews 5: 14 ] We are told to have our senses exercised to
know the difference between Good and this evil. (Read) We see also the obedience to this in [ Rev 2: 2] And did not John admonish us in [ 1 John 4: 1] to try
or put to the test every spirit? Then why are people so gullible? I'll tell you
why. Because they are children of disobedience and not true sons. For the True
Sons of God will exercise discernment. They will be able to know the difference
between those who are true and those who are not.
In Fact in { Malachi 3: 16 - 18 ] We also see at
the time of the Great Gathering together unto Him, there will be a group of
people who will also be exercised to know the difference between those who
serve God and those who don't.
We know at the
end time this evil mindset will be prevalent among those who pose as shepherds
but are not. { Matt 24: 42-51 ] And
so we see that there is a certain mindset amongst those who believe and are
faithful and those who are not. The faithful shall be feeding the flock the
Meat for the season while the others so not. Then what are they feeding?
Themselves and their ministries. Or should I say themselves and their own self
importance.
[ Ezek 34: 1 - 16] So notice that He musty come and when He
does it is in Judgment, as the Great Judge.
[ Matt 21: 33 - 41] Now with this parable in mind, what can we
say are the attributes of the evil servants? Is he not self serving in his
nature. But look at the attributes of the true servant, he will render back to
God the Fruits of the season which we are told by brother Branham that the
fruits of the season is the teaching of the season.
Christ Revealed
in His Own Word #11
Saturday Evening, April 27, 1996
Now with this in
mind let's read again from Brother Branham's opening prayer where he said, "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."
Again let's read
from [ Philippians 3: 1 - 3] Now notice
here that Paul tells us that we can not have any confidence in the flesh. Not
in ours, nor in that of any others. And
this is the key that I want to bring home this Communion service. But to expand this thought let's continue in
[Philippians 3: 4 - 21] read.
Now in verse [9] he let's us know that we are not to
depend upon our own right - wise - ness, for we have none. "There is a way that seems right unto man, but the ways thereof
are the ways of death." This is the key to understanding the body of
this death as we have studied in [Romans
7] a few weeks ago.