Christ Revealed in His Own Word #18
Some Will Depart
From THE Faith
Sunday
Morning, May 26, 1996
Brian
Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship
3 CHRIST REVEALED IN HIS OWN WORD 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. 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.)
For the past few
weeks we have been looking at the importance of having a vindicated Word and
what it means to us in contradistinction to a non-vindicated Word.
[ 1 Peter 1:
23]LIVE BIRTH VS STILL BIRTH
We have examined
the times and the conditions of the last day in which we are told in [2 Tim
4] that men will come to the place where they will not endure sound
Doctrine anymore. And since the word doctrine means teaching, and the word
sound means free of admixture, we find that men will not endure sound teaching,
teaching which is pure to the Word, and if they will not endure sound teaching
which is free of the admixture, then they most certainly will not endure the
teachers who are teaching sound doctrine. So we find they will no longer put up
with or endure, or even tolerate the sound teachers. So then what sort of teachers
will they have? Men who are reprobate concerning the Faith.
Then what will
they do is they will not endure sound teachers? We are also told that they will heap to themselves
teachers that will say what their itching ears want to hear. Let's read it for
ourselves.
[ 2 Tim 4: 3-4]
AMPLIFIED "For the time is coming when people will no longer
tolerate sound and wholesome instruction, but having ears itching for something
that is pleasing and gratifying, they will gather to themselves one teacher
after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and
to foster the errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the Truth and
they shall wander off into myths and man-made fictions. Fables = make - belief
And so we find
then what these self proclaimed teachers are, in fact is a bunch of politicians
who will not teach the Truth, but they will teach what the people want to hear.
And so we find then that through these men, many will be led astray from the
Truth and they will be turned unto man-made fictions. These men will turn the
people away from what is real to that which is make-believe. Thus we actually
see the prophetic utterance of God that tells us that their will arise
ministries that are especially made ( ordained in life) for the purpose of
alluring away from the Truth those who are only make believers themselves. Now
this is important to understand, because we know that the Elect will not be deceived.
But here we find certain men who are ordained to teach the make believers make
belief. In other words, they will teach them how to play church. [ 2 Thes 2: 10
- 13 Wuest The people are gullible
In [ 1 Tim 4:
1-2 ] we read AMPLIFIED But
the Holy Spirit distinctly and expressly declares that in the latter
times some will turn away from THE FAITH, by giving heed to deluding and
seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach. And so we see that 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 since we were
instructed by God's Vindicated Prophet that Faith is A
Revelation, and since there is only one revelation spoken of in the
Scripture and that Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ according to [Galatians
1: 12, 1 Peter 1:13, 1 Rev1: 1] therefore we see that any other revelation
besides the Revelation of Jesus Christ, (Who He is and what He's doing), is
pure and simply a false precept of man. And so we see that the falling away
will be from this Message.
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
manifesting themselves, we find they are actually impostors.
And now this brings
us to the next point. These men who are called impostors are actually ordained
to their roles of condemnation. In [Jude] we read that these men
crept in unaware. The NIV says for certain men who were of old
ordained to this condemnation secretly slipped in among you. In [ 2 Tim 3: 13 ] we read, But
wicked men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading
astray others and being deceived and led astray themselves.
And finally we
find that this group of make believers who have heaped to themselves teachers
to tell them what their itching ears want to hear. We find this also in [ Hosea
4: 6 - 9] Like people like priests.
Now with this in
mind, I want to show you the difference this morning between the make-believer
and the foolish virgin.
27-4 THREE KINDS OF BELIEVERS 63-1124E Now, the make-believer hangs around and acts
just as pious as he can, but down in his heart he's trying to find what, ...
see how you do it. Oh, if the country isn't full of that part of the hypocrite.
That's a Judas. That's exactly. Hangs around, becomes part of the group,
he was the treasurer. See? He stands around; he's always got his hand out
for money. You can tell that one thing; he's always fishing for money,
and got his hand out for this, and he is a make-believer. He acts like a
believer, but down in his heart... You remember, he wasn't fooling Jesus.
28-2
THREE KINDS OF BELIEVERS
63-1124E There's that
make-believer that's just waiting. He'll sing like that, "Oh, I believe
this, and I believe this, and I believe this, but oh, you know I heard somebody
say so-and-so times..." See? Just long with ears... A
real believer don't hear nothing but the Word. That's all. He watches
the Word. He ain't looking for no loopholes; he ain't looking for no gimmicks.
He believes God, and that settles it, and he just keeps going on. See?
There's the believer. The unbeliever
fills up in a minute, and he can't stay to listen to ten minutes to the
message; he's got to get up and walk out. It's against his creed, and he just
won't have no more to do with it, so he goes out. Then the make-believer
hangs right on, that Judas. See? That's the deceiver. That's the--that's
a rascal (if I have to say such a word). Judas, he hangs around.
28-4
THREE KINDS OF BELIEVERS
63-1124E This is the time...
Sometime these make-believers are very popular with the people (That's
right.), these make-believers. See? Some of them are mighty men, educated,
doctor's degree, big pay, everything; some of them are great men, shrewd, just
like sons of Satan would be. Look how Satan come right up there and agree with
every bit of that Word. He's just waiting to find that weak spot in Eve to
where he could show his power to deceive her, to betray her. That was--that was
Satan, and here Satan is in a form of Judas in that age. That was Satan in the
first age. What was he? Agreeing
with the Word till just one little thing... He was just trying to find a place
where he could get a weakness, and that's exactly what the Judas finds
right now. He'll come right along with the meeting, and watch right around
until he can find that little spot that he... "Oh, there it is; that's
it. (See?) Oh, that's the way it's done." See? That's just exactly.
[156 Ten Virgins 60-1211M] Now, watch, they, both of them were virgins.
Now, let me get this. Here, let's take these two right here. This is a virgin
and this is a virgin. This was a foolish virgin and this was a wise virgin, but
both of them are virgins. Now, if you'll
take that name "virgin" and run it down, it means--it means
"holy, clean, sanctified." The word "sanctify" comes from
the word "sainted," which means "clean." Like the Hebrew
word... Now, that's a Greek word; "sanctify" means "clean."
[ E-35 Sudden Secret Going Away of the Church 58-1012] How many of you, all perhaps, have read of the
virgins? Some were wise and some were foolish. "Virgin" means
"purity." They were all good people, everyone of them virgin,
sanctified vessels of God. But those who had oil in their lamps went in. And
the others was left out. They were all virgins, everyone people that you
couldn't put your finger on for anything wrong. They everyone believed in the
coming of the Lord. They were ready to go meet Him, but some of them let their
oil go out. Don't let that be your case. Keep oil in your lamp.
Oil is the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Never let it drain from you. When you feel your
love dying away, your sincerity to Christ, and to the cause, quickly go
to Him Who has the Fountain of Oil and buy for yourself a filling of the Holy
Spirit.
Now how then do
we go to Him and refill these lamps? [ Psalm
119: 105] Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my
path. In fact we find brother
Branham tell us the same thing in connection with his explaining this lamp the
Wise Virgin had that was lit.
[73 Conflict Between God and Satan 62-0531]
Fire is the confirmation of the
Light coming from the Word. The smart virgin, the wise virgin, had oil in
her lamp, and she trimmed her lamp and lit it. Now, what is it? Now, God
is the Word; the Oil is the Spirit; and the Fire is the Gospel Light on that
Oil. Amen. God said so. See? That's the vessel. All right. The Oil is in
the vessel, and the Fire burning it, shows that it's reflecting the Light of
what the Word said. See? That's the reflection. Now, that wise virgin could
do that; but that other, foolish virgin, was on the outside, had no Oil. And
they couldn't reflect nothing but just their church and their denomination.
See? Now, "You say the Word... You said the Word was Spirit?" Yes,
sir. God said, "My word is Spirit." That's right. The true Bride must be unified by the Word.
Now, remember, if she is a part of Christ, she has to be the Word of Christ.
In order to be the Word of Christ, you have to be baptized into Christ. And
when you're in Christ, you believe Christ and Christ is the Word.