Christ Revealed in
His Own Word #13
Christ Revealed Through His Word
Sunday Morning, May 5, 1996
Brian Kocourek Pastor, Grace Fellowship
This morning I would like to continue in our study of Christ
Revealed in His own Word and this is number 13 in our series. This morning I
would like to examine the closing words of Brother Branham's opening prayer
which we find in pp. 4 & 5. So
let's read..
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 fine Christians throughout the
nation now that's tuned in, 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 I want you to notice the thoughts he expresses here that
He is asking our Heavenly Father to completely take over an speak through His
lips for He tells us that as a mere mortal being he really has nothing to tell
us that will help us in any way, but if God were to take over and begin to
Reveal Himself to us and Speak through
His Own Word then we would benefit greatly.
Now, again his exact words were thus: Now, Father, I know that whatever I would say would be certainly
insufficient. With the fine Christians throughout the nation now that's tuned
in, 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.
Now here we find a little subject that I would like to
address and that is the revealing of Christ. It really is not a little subject
because to address it correctly, we must utilize the entire Bible from cover to
cover for this Bible is the entire Revelation of Jesus Christ. And so with this
in mind, I would like to break down these thoughts and try to systematically
cover it in a way that will leave you with a better understanding of God and
His Son.
As you well know, when we study the Revelation of Jesus
Christ we are talking of not only a
subject, but a person and the relation of this person to the Godhead.
Brother Branham told us that there is but One God! As so does the Scripture.
[ Deut 6: 4 - 9] This thought of One God is so important to God that he
commanded us to teach it to our children.
Now we also find this in the New Testament as well.
[ Ephesians 4: 1 -
7] Notice that Paul tells us that there is
One God above all, and then he also tells us that this one who is above all is
also in us all. Then He tells us how in verse [7]. Read
Now, what I want to show you this morning is how this Father
of all is in all.
[ John 5: 26] And this is how the Father is in us all. He is the author of
Life and it is His Life that is in each One of
us Who have been born anew of His Spirit.
[ John 3: 1 - 7] You must be born again or you will never even see which
means to understand the Kingdom of God.)
It will always remain a mystery to you.
And how are you born again. He said there are two births. The first one
comes by water. The mother carries the baby in her womb surrounded by amniotic
fluids. Basically water and blood. Then when the child is born this housing
let's go and the water rushes forth and then the child comes into this world.
That is the way Jesus said He must be first born of water.
Then He says, He must be born of water and then of the Spirit. And so the
question remains and has remained throughout the seven church ages as to how
the second birth must come. He said this second birth must come by the Spirit.
You must be born of water and of the Spirit. And so we see that Pentecost
recognized the Birth by the Spirit as being a necessary event in our lives
which must come forth in order for us
to see and thus enter the kingdom of God. The problem is that like every other
move of God, after it began men came into it and brought their own thoughts and
thus perverted the peoples understanding of this Scripture.
[ 2 Cor 11: 1 - 4]
These men came in and brought with them
false teaching which also introduced the people to a false Gospel, which then
brought the people to believe in a false Jesus and thus gave them a new birth
but a false new birth which was not the Spirit of God but another spirit which
was a false spirit. And who were these
men?
In [ verses 13 - 15] Paul tells us they are Satan's ministers,
posing as ministers of Righteousness.
Now to you this may be puzzling but to God it is not. He has warned His
people from the very beginning to be careful what they hear and to whom they
listen to.
[ Deut 13: 1 - 5] Now notice that God allows these men to rise up in order to
test you. But I also want you to notice that God has never left His people
without a voice. And we know that God's voice is a vindicated one. The voice of
God is His Prophet's.
[ Deut 18: 15 -
22] You will notice here that God will give
us a True Prophet to speak His own words, and in this Prophet God will
vindicate the man by not allowing His words to fail which he speaks, because it
is not the man speaking but God Himself is speaking through His lips.
But what we see in the end time is a picture of men rising
up who proclaim to be ministers of righteousness but are actually only impostors.
[ 2 Tim 3: 1 - 14] So we see the
importance of knowing the one who is teaching you. Not just know the man but
knowing what it is he is trying to teach you and knowing his motives for doing
so. This is very important, because we know that these false teachers will be
causing many to lose there place in the way of righteousness and these men will
cause a great falling away from the truth. And notice that these men are not
only deceiving, but they themselves are deceived as well. So they are sincere about
what they teach. Doesn't the scripture tell us that Judas himself was sincere
when he kissed Jesus with the kiss of betrayal. The actual Greek says, he
kissed Jesus affectionately again and again. [( kataphileo) To kiss much, again
and again, tenderly.] so there is what sincerity will get you. Brother Branham
said those people who sacrifice their children to the crocodiles are sincere or
they wouldn't do what they do, but they are sincerely wrong. Sincerity has
nothing to do with it, "it is not
him that runneth or him that willeth, but it is God who showeth Mercy"
" Not by might nor by power, but by My Word Saith God." It must all come back to this Word or it
is of no good to us. Brother Branham speaking of the Gifts said, why do people
want to go after the false when the skies are so full of the Real. And what was
first written in the skies? The Word of God.
[ 1 Tim 4: 1] It tells us that some shall fall away from the Truth. Now
this falling away is from the Truth. Not just from truth in general, but the
Truth which is the Message of God for the people of that hour. And there will
be a falling away from what the end-time Message is declared to be. The Truth
of It. Paul also warned us of this in
the book of [ Acts 20 : 26 - 31] & [
Acts 13: 40 - 41] Here we find that Paul tells the people that God will
bring forth a declaration to the people and this declaration they will reject.
Now this is fitting because brother Branham said of His own Ministry the
following words, " " This is my ministry, see, to declare Him,
that He is here!" [FROM
THAT TIME PP. 227]
Now, just before he said these most notable words, he said
the following. " How many knows there’s a difference between
the Appearing of Christ and the Coming of Christ? It’s two different words,
Now’s the Appearing; the coming will soon be. He’s Appearing in the midst of us, doing the works that He once did, in His church.” Now if we truly believe that brother
Branham was God's ordained Messenger for this age, then we must
examine carefully what he was trying to tell us. If in fact
Christ has always been here, then what do we need a prophet to tell
us what we already know. In [JOHN
1:18] we read " No
man hath seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath declared Him.”
As Scofield noted, "He hath literally led Him
forth into full revelation. The example we see of this
declaring is in Jesus' answer to Philip in [JOHN 14: 9] He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father. Jesus went on to say that this declaring of the Father would
repeat.
Again we see in [1 JOHN 1:1-3] So we see then that is
the Life that became manifested. Jesus said, no man has seen God but the Son
hath declared Him. Now, let's go back to this thought on Life and the new birth
for a moment. Remember, we read where Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must
be born again" if you are to be able to ever see the kingdom of God.
Right? And this word see is a Greek word He uses which means to understand. So
in essence what Jesus is telling Nicodemus is that you must be born anew of the
Spirit of God if you are to be able to understand the Kingdom of God which is
His Word. We find then that this is where the confusion comes in. Many people
do not understand what the Spirit of God is? They think it is some mystical
sensation and do not know that Jesus Himself said, "My Words are Spirit and they are Life." Let's just turn tot he scripture and see for
ourselves. [ John 6: 63] read.
Now if His Words are Spirit and they are Life it is because
we also read in [ John 1: 1] That God is
His Word. (Read) And so if we see
then that God is the Word and His Word is a Seed according to [Mark 4: 13 -20] Those who do not go on to produce the same life as in
the Word seed are those who the devil takes the Word from their heart. Now as
we have studied, when the word heart is used in the scripture it means their
understanding. So when the word is not understood then it can't bring forth any
evidence of the Life is the Seed into the person. [ Matt 13: 18 - 19]. So you must understand the Word of God. We find Jesus very specifically telling this to the Apostles in
verses [10 - 16].
Now, then, if the Word is meant to be understood for it to
do you any good, and if not just any one will have an understanding of it, then
we see that only the Elect can not be deceived, because only the elect will
have what it takes to receive the Word and all others will not receive it.
And this brings us back to what Jesus said about being Truly
born again of the Spirit of God. If we are born of the Spirit of God and God's
Spirit is His Word, then our new birth can only come by God's Word becoming
alive in us, quickened by His very Presence. [ 1 Peter 1 : 23 ] And so here in 1 Peter we see two forms of a new
birth. One form is Corruptible, and the
other which is not corruptible is by the Word of God entering in and setting
your Soul aflame. Hat is why we find in [
2 Peter 1: 2 - 4] That every thing we have need of in this life comes
through the Word of God. Even the Divine nature which is God's own Nature in
us. Therefore you can not escape the fact that every thing must come back to
this Word. We van not go by feelings,
we must go by the Word of God. Brother Branham many times said, " the
Bible never asked you if you feel it, it asked you if you believed it."
And that is the crux of the situation.
The Bible tells us that at the end time people will be
seduced away from the Truth by men of reprobate minds concerning the Truth. Men
who can not in any way shape or form come to an understanding of the Truth
because they are not ordained to understand it. And because they do not
understand it they therefore will preach error concerning the Truth and
therefore the Message of the Hour. If
brother Branham said, " This is
my ministry, see, to declare Him, that He is here!" then we
can be sure of one thing, and that is those who are not ordained to understand
this, will not preach Christ, and they will not preach that He is here. And if
they do it will not be the same one that He preached. As they did in the Alpha
so shall they do in the Omega. They will bring in another Jesus, another Gospel
message and therefore those that hear them will receive another Spirit.
[ 2 Peter 2: 1 -
3] read...
Notice that these will bring in a false message. It does not say that
they are on the outside preaching there false doctrine, for what good would that do. They are on the
inside of it but they bring into it, that which does not belong in it, thus corrupting what is inside. And notice
also their purpose is to fleece the people. To make merchandise of them.