Christ Revealed 15 Reprobate Concerning The Faith

Christ Revealed in His Own Word #15

Reprobate Concerning THE Faith

Sunday Morning, May 12, 1996

Brian Kocourek Pastor, Grace Fellowship

Wednesday night we examined 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 we have spent the last two messages examining these closing words of Prayer and we found that Brother Branham is emphasizing that not only He, but no man has anything that could really help other men, because let's face it, we are all mortals with the same death watch upon every one of us. But then He asked God Himself to come in the form of His Spirit to take ahold of His Own Word and through His Own Word bring about the change that is needed for us to move from Mortal to immortal. So then we went to [ Deut 18: 15 - 22] Where You will notice that God promised to send us a True Prophet, One that would only speak His words, Words that He would place in this Prophet, and God promised to vindicate this man by not allowing His words to fail, because after all, it will not be the man speaking, but God Himself will speak through His lips. Then we found in [ Deut 13: 1 - 5] that God will allow certain men to rise up in order that He might test you and I. And we see the result of this test in the Alpha Ministry where Paul said because the people let down their guard, they not only heard a false Gospel of a False Jesus, But in believing this false Gospel they received a False Spirit as well.

[ 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. We see also that this false spirit comes via a false word, and thus a false new birth takes place. Not a new birth by an incorruptible Word but a false birth by a false word, bringing forth a corruptible life. 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.

[ 2 Tim 4: 1 - 4 ] Now this scripture was given to brother Branham by the Angel of the Lord as His Calling. And we see that the people have itching ears and so they will heap to themselves a multitude of teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear. The people turn their ears from the Truth and turn toward fables. [ 1 Tim 4: 1-2 ] There must be a falling away, and this falling away we are told is from THE Faith. And their is only One Faith...One Lord...according to [ Eph 4: 5 ] And so we se that the falling away will be from this Message. I know men who have served this message what seemed to be faithfully for 27 years and then turn and say they never really believed it and walk away from it? What is it? Have they gone loony? Ministers who understood vindication and preached it for years and suddenly they plunge into polygamy, and adultery and fornication. Others who have been so faithful for years and then all of a sudden they quit supporting the work of God.

And others who followed the message for years and then go back into the world. Some don't even believe in God any more. In [ Luke 18: 8 ] Jesus asks the question, " When the Son of Man cometh, Shall He find Faith on the earth? And that is what we are looking at this morning. Shall He find Faith? Shall He find Revelation? But what we see in the end time is a picture of men rising up who proclaim to be ministers of The Faith but as we see them manifest themselves, we find they are actually only impostors. [ 2 Tim 3: 1 - 14] So we see the importance of knowing the one who is teaching you. Not just knowing the man but knowing what it is he is teaching 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 Faith and these men will cause a great falling away from THE FAITH. And notice that these men are not only deceiving, but they themselves are deceived as well. So they are sincere about what they teach. 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.]

Now another thing I want you to understand is that we read in verse 8 we are told that these men that resist THE FAITH are also corrupt concerning THE FAITH. Paul told us in [ Gal 1: 6-8] That they are preaching not an altogether different Message, but a perverted one. And this word perverted that Paul uses is a Greek word Metastrepho which means to turn your mind from and away from. So what these men are preaching is a Gospel that will actually turn the minds of the people away from THE FAITH. And we also find in [ 2 Tim 3: 8] That the way they will do this is to do just like Jannes and Jambre did. Now Jannes and Jambres never disputed with Moses and said, " Hey there, you can't do that!" No, they agreed that it could be done and they did it themselves thus trying to diminish the power of vindication by their own magic. So they were imitators of the One Who was Real. But notice the scripture tells us that these men are men of corrupt minds, and they are reprobate concerning THE FAITH.

Now I would like to ask you this simple question, what does it mean for these men to have reprobate minds concerning the Faith? [ Romans 1: 28 & Titus 1: 16] They say that they believe every word, but in their works they deny Him. Reprobate concerning THE FAITH. Now the word reprobate is a Greek word adokimos which means, "one who has been rejected not having stood the test and therefore unproved and unfit." And who could that be? Could God ever reject His own? [ 2 Cor 13: 5 ] We are told to test and scrutinize our own selves to see whether we be in THE FAITH. And then he let's us know that we are to thoroughly acquaint our own selves and to know and understand how that Christ is in us, and if He is not in us then we are reprobates and fit only to be rejected, ad fit only for the burning.

Now [ Hebrews 6: 8 ] tells us that the reprobates are fit only for the burning. And we find out that these are those who were spoken of in verse [ 6 - 8 ] who themselves rejected THE ONCE FOR ALL ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE FAITH and thus they proved themselves to be reprobate concerning THE FAITH. So then what are those people who are reprobate since they are those who only are fit for burning? We find our answer in [ Matt 13: 26 - 43 ] Who does the scripture tell us is fit for the burning? The tares right? And who are the tares? Serpent Seed right? It says they are the children of the wicked one. And how do we know this? They were sewed by the enemy, which is the devil, right? So we must ask ourselves this question. When the scripture speaks of a people with reprobate minds, who is it speaking of? Serpent seed, right? It is the Serpent Seed who is incapable of coming to the knowledge of The TRUTH. The attributes of the Elect on the other hand is one which let their own thinking go and thus they pass the test and are given the mind of their Father. Let's face it. In Bible times a Father would have his son trained up in the ways of His business. He would be trained under tutors and governors until the appointed time of Adoption. When the child reached a certain age and he showed that his mind set was the same as his Father's, he would then be adopted into His fathers house hold and given the privileges of a Son with his name on the check book as brother Branham put it. But what have we got today. Young people raised in this message well up in their years and yet still run around with a teenager mentality. When are they going to grow up? When are they going to become responsible, or maybe we should ask the question, can they become responsible. Or have they been rejected. Is it later than we think?

I hope you can see that a reprobate mind concerning THE FAITH is a mind that shows that it comes from a certain lineage. It is a Serpent Seed lineage. We bear long with people I know and we hope for the best, but after two admonition we are told to simply reject or avoid those who just will not receive the Truth. Why? Because there is nothing in them capable of receiving the Truth. They have a broken cistern for a mind. You cram in to their minds the Word of God in it's Entirety and within days they have forgotten what they were excited about. Why? Because it all leaked out. Broken Cisterns. Now you say what does this have to do with this Message? Brother Branham is preaching Christ is Revealed in His Own Word, and thus I am trying to tell you that if you can not receive the Truth of the Message, What Paul calls THE FAITH then you can not be a part of God or a Son or Daughter of God. And if you are not One of His then you have got to be one of the Devils Kids. That's all there is to it. There is no in between place to hide.

You say, well there is certain parts of the word I just can't do, but I believe it. Then you don't pass the test. There's a leak in the cistern somewhere. Well I just don't have faith to pay my tithe. A broken cistern somewhere. [ Mal 3: 7-9] return unto Me and I will Return unto you. There you are. Then how can we say we believe when we don't do. James said, "what good does it do to say I believe and I have Faith when you don't do what you say you believe. He said show me your actions and I will know what you believe." 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 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.

The Bible tells us that at the end time people will be seduced away from the Truth by men of reprobate minds concerning the Faith. 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 Faith and therefore the Revelation 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 this same Christ, and they will not preach that He is here. .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. Now this brings us to this Message of Brother Branham's that we are studying Christ Revealed in His Own Word. Now what comes to your mind when you hear the word Christ? Do you think of the Son? Or do you think of the Father? Who then is being revealed in Whose Word? Is the Word, Jesus the Son's Word? Or is it the Father's Word? I want you to think about these things because they are very important. Did not Brother Branham tell us that both the Oneness and Trinitarians were wrong concerning their understanding of the Godhead? Did he not tell us that God is not One like your finger is One? So then if the Godhead is not One like your finger is one, and He is not three as the Trinitarians believe, and he also told us that God is not two-ness or fourness, then what is it? Fiveness??? No! Absolutely not, that would be absurd! So then what is the Truth of the Godhead.

[ 1 Tim 3: 16 ] There is no doubt that there has been a mystery held back from the people about the Godhead. But Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed. [ Col 2: 9 - 10 ] & [ Acts 17: 28 - 30 ] The Truth of the Matter is that there is One God and He had a Son. And this Son did not come to the earth to declare Himself. He came to declare the Father. He did not come to reveal Himself, He came to Reveal the Father. He did not come to manifest Himself, He came to manifest the Father. [ John 14: 6 - 10 ] when you see me, you see the Father [ 1 John 1: 1 - 3] The life was manifested and we have seen it's manifestation. So I would like to ask the question, when you see the son who were you actually seeing? The Son or the Father in the Son? Who was revealed tot he people when Jesus Spoke to them? The Son or the Father? You need to know this if you are to understand what has happened in this hour. [ Romans 1: 1 - 4] The Entire Bible points to this relationship of God to His people and how this relationship will be brought together by the instrumentality of His Own Son. [ 1 Tim 3: 16 ] & [ 1 Cor 15: 20 - 28 ] &[ Romans 6: 4 ]

[ John 5: 30 - 32] then [ 33 - 40 ] Now here is the catch. If Jesus could do nothing but what the Father showed Him first to do, then everything He did and everything He spoke was simply another doing it, and He had no thoughts of His own to express. He was the first of a great lineage of God who had no thought coming. I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. We are to come forth in His image, then if we are to have the mind of Christ, we will do as Jesus did and that is nothing, except what God has spoken for us to do through His Word. He was simply a yielded vessel in which His Father spoke through and acted out His redemptive plan through. Yet He was an individual with his own thoughts and his own feelings, yet under such Love for the Father that He freely gave up His own thoughts for God, His Fathers will.

[ Luke 22: 39 - 42 ] This yielding up of His own Spirit to the Spirit of God, and remember, the Spirit of God is His Word, For "My Words are Spirit and they are Life", Jesus said. Then Jesus was not merely a man and yet He was a man. For their is one mediator between God and man and that is the man Jesus Christ. He was both God and man. The flesh was not God , the flesh was man. When He wept at the grave of Lazarus, that was a man, but when He cried out, Lazarus come forth! That was more than a man. That was God. [ 1 John 1: 1 - 2 ] That which was invisible became visible, became manifested. The Life was manifested - How? [ John 5: 26 ] & [ John 1: 14 ] The Word, The Logos was made flesh, notice verse [18] it is the son which hath declared the Father. This word declare means to openly show and set forth into view. And this brings us now to The One Who is here today.

[ Rev 3: 20 ]Brother Branham told us that it is the word of God that is outside knocking trying to gain entrance. And we see the same scene unfold in [James 5: 7 - 9 ] And who is it knocking? The Judge! And then Who is the Judge? The Word! [ John 5: 22 - 32], so then it is not really the Son who is Judging, but it is the Word of the Father through the voice of His Son. [ John 12: 48 ] You see, a true Judge, a real Judge will not try a case based upon his own opinions of how he feels the law should be stated. A real True Judge will only bring forth into execution what has already been stated as law. A judge does not make up the law, he is only to render the interpretation of that law into effect. He does not show partiality in dealing with the case before, he simply looks at the facts and weighs those facts with the Word set before Him. [ John 7: 24] Therefore a real True judge does not look at the person, only the Word. He deals only with the word. Impersonal. Judgment is based upon the Word and the Word only. What does the Word say about it? Sewing and reaping! Was the Word broken or was it not. And what does the Word say about the situation? Condemned or justified? The Judge looks only at the thoughts and intents of the law. [ Hebrews 4: 12 ] And this has already been fulfilled in our very day before our very eyes.