Christ Revealed in His Own Word #22

Lingering Debts

Saturday Evening, June 22, 1996

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

 

This evening I want to take our thoughts from brother Branham's Message Christ Revealed in His Own Word, and this will be number 22 in our series. The thoughts we will speak on tonight will be from right after brother Branham's opening prayer when he addresses the people in an informal manner concerning a few issues which have come to his attention. Now some people would think that this introduction and chit chat is basically non essential, but I believe we have found that every Word of God has a purpose behind it, and even in this warm up to the audience there are certain things that God's Prophet brings to our attention that will help us in our daily walk with our Saviour. So let's just read beginning at pp. 7.

 

7  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  Now, we have a request here, that there's a very dear brother... And I think that Prescott, I believe, is hooked in this morning, up in Prescott, Arizona. Sister Mercier's father is just been on his road here to the meeting I understand, and had to be taken to the hospital with a heart attack, Brother Coggins. And also Brother Junior Jackson, I think he's in on the next radio down--or the next phone down in Clarksville or New Albany, and his father is in the hospital, I understand, with serious operation of cancer in the liver. So we want certainly remember those in our prayers. And now, there's others here too, but we don't want to take up the time. God knows all about them, so let us pray for them now.

 

8  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  Dear God, as that dear, old, wrinkled-hand man, Brother Coggins, an old veteran of the field, laying in the hospital this morning somewhere, suffering from an attack on his heart, God, that poor old heart's went through much troubles. I pray, God, to help him. Grant it. He loves life like all of us does, and he wants to live. Lord God, grant it. We across the nation pray in Jesus' Name for him, that You heal him and bring him out. We believe that You will, and he'll-come right to the meeting.

 

9  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  We pray for Brother Jackson, his precious daddy, laying there near death now. And bring in the world a fine boy like Junior, and I pray, dear God, that You'll heal him. I know it seems impossible. The medics, the doctors,-they don't know what to do in that kind of a case... But we remember Brother Hall also, when the very best of the physicians here said (in Louisville), "He's just a few hours to live," with cancer in the liver, and he's living today (And that's twenty-five years ago.) because of Your grace. So I pray, that You'll heal Brother Jackson today, Lord. Let Your grace and mercy be with him.  And all this great pile of handkerchiefs, and cloths and things that's placed here and requests, You know them all, Father. I pray that You'll grant healing to all of them, in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

 

11  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  Now, start this morning, I didn't think that I was going to come down at the first place last Sunday. And then again when we announced it, I come down. Brother Neville had me to speak, and then we announced I'd be down today, and it hasn't been notified out around the country to the peoples. And we got this telephone system now, which is very, very fine. The people can set right in their homes or gather in their places, their churches, and so forth, and hear the service. I appreciate that.

 

12  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  Now, I see laying here, there's been many requests this last week on what I said last Sunday on the message... I believe--I forget what I titled it now. But that I said something about paying your debts. And you know, no matter what you say, it's misunderstood by many, not 'cause they don't want to misunderstand it, but you just simply misunderstand it. And now, someone said, "Should we buy a car?" or, "What should I..." Now, that isn't what Jesus spoke of, or the Bible there, that said, "Owe no man nothing." That's lingering debts that you could pay. Pay them. That's owing no man nothing. It doesn't mean... My, we owe our rent, our telephone bill, and whatmore. We owe those things, and we pay them. But an old lingering debt that you could be paying on, pay it off. See? Now, don't go with anything hanging on you like that.

 

13  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  I remember a time when I was sick once when I was a boy. I came out of the hospital owing about two thousand dollars. And there used to be a drugstore here, Mr. Swaniger; I owed him about three or four hundred dollars in medicine bill. He didn't even know me, And the man... I went to him. I didn't know him, and he'd just send it up there anyhow, never refused to send it; and I said, "I owe you." it was Mr. Mason down on Court Avenue and Spring. And I said, "I owe you. And I'm just still awfully weak, but I'm trying to go to work. Now, if I can't pay you..." I'd just become a Christian; I said, "First thing, Mr. Mason, as my duty to God, I owe Him my tithes. I want to pay Him my tithings first." And I said, "Then my next duty is pay my debts." I said, "My father's sickly, and we got... There's ten of us children in the family." But I said, "If I can't pay you no more than twenty-five cents on that bill each payday... If I can't pay you even the twenty-five cents, I'll come by and tell you about it. I'll tell you, `I can't do it this time.'" And I, by the help of God, I paid every bit off. See? But that's what I mean. See?

 

14  CHRIST.REVEALED.IN.HIS.OWN.WORD  JEFF.IN  V-4 N-10  65-0822M

  Just don't... Somebody say... Oh, some Christian here at the church one time went out and got some work done on a car here, and the man come down... The man said, "I'll pay you. I get paid Saturday," or something or another, and he never paid him. And weeks after weeks rolled by and never paid him, never said a word. And the man come and asked me; ... See, it reflects against the church. It reflects against Christ. If you can't pay him, go tell him, say, "I owe you, and I'm going to pay you. I'm a Christian, but I--I just--I can't do it right now, I've got... I owe this." And you remember, it's on God's books too, you know, that you do. So that's... I'm trying to for myself and for all of us together, try to be ready, for we know we're getting near something, very near of something's going to take place. So we want to be ready. When the coming of the Lord is drawing so nigh now, we want to be ready for that great hour.

 

Now there are two thoughts that we see here this evening, the first is the need to be lifting one another up before God in Prayer, ( Intercessory prayer of the saints) so to speak, not as the Catholic's do, because their saints are dead. But we as Living saints of God holding up one another before God in prayer. And we will get more into that as we approach the communion table later on. But the thought I wanted to use for my text tonight is what Brother Branham quoted Jesus as saying. " Owe no man nothing."  And so in order to better understand what is being said here, let's turn to the Scriptures tonight and examine this thought in more detail.

 

Brother Branham said from the message, God Hiding Himself in Simplicity, that He did not have time to break it down as it should be broken down, and so he told us to study it and when we gather together we should break it down and study it. And so that is what we are doing this evening, and that is what we have been doing for the past 10 years.

 

Now I say this because when I was visiting out West the last few weeks I met a minister brother who did not believe we should do this. I had told him how I ministered the Word to you. That I took brother Branham's tapes and preached from them Word by Word, beginning with the opening prayer and staying right with his thoughts until we completed the Message. I told him that we took 16 months and 125 Sermons from God's Only Provided Place of Worship,  and 75 Sermons and 12 months from the Message ONENESS.

 

This brother told me that brother Branham's Sermons did not need to be broken down, that they were already broken down and needed no interpretation. Then he said, we are to say only what the Prophet says. And you know what, when you ask them what the prophet said, they can't tell you. They brag that their Apostle hasn't changed a word of what he has been preaching since 1958. Now that is nothing to brag about. A lot of Truth came forth after the Seals were broken and that wasn't until 1963. So if this man hasn't changed since 58, then they have a lot to catch up on.  Anyway, I told him that to take the Message to the Word is not bringing forth our own interpretation. It is doing what God's Prophet told us to do. It is saying what was said, only from the Scriptures, not from our own preconceived understanding.

 

And so for your sakes, before we study further brother Branham's message of  Christ Revealed in His Own Word,  let me read a few things brother Branham said about this.

 

22-4  {124}  GOD.IN.SIMPLICITY  JEFF.IN  63-0317M

  Now, study that. Study it all. And you people who are visiting here, when you go to your motel rooms, take those things and ponder over them. We don't have time to break it down as it should be broke down, but I want you to do it when you get to the motel, or hotel, or wherever you're staying, or the home. Gather together and study over it.

 

And so this does not only pertain to the Ministry, but it pertains to every individual in here as well. Father's, break it down for your families. That's your duty before God to make sure your family understands. After all, if they have no mental understanding, then how can the Holy Spirit anoint the Word to them. Brother Branham taught us that the Word must first come to our minds, then when it is understood in the mind, then the Holy Spirit anoints that word in our mind and brings it down into our Soul making it a Spiritual Revelation.  From Blasphemous Names, pg. 23 he said, "Coming to you, your mental faith, right here, comes the Holy Spirit, coming down into your mental faith making it a Spiritual Faith. Then the Spiritual Faith only recognized the Word."  He also said from the Message Interveil, pg. 37  "There's an intellectual faith, and there is a Faith from the heart." So we see that there are two types of faith. One that is mentally  understood and one that is spiritually quickened. 

 

33-3 REVELATION.OF.JESUS.CHRIST -- CHURCH.AGE.BOOK.CPT.1

As much as we believe in trying to find the oldest and best manuscripts to get the best record of the Word possible, we will never get the true meaning of it by study and comparison of Scriptures, sincere as we may be. It will take a Revelation from God to bring it out. That is exactly what Paul said, "Which things we also speak, not in Words which man's wisdom teacheth, but the Holy Ghost teacheth.." I Cor. 2:15. The true revelation is God interpreting His own Word by vindicating what is promised.

 

E-14  HEAR.YE.HIM  CHICAGO.IL  56-0930

  Now, when a man is inspired and he reads the inspired Word, the two inspirations together gives a result. Now, you can never... No matter how well you study the Word, It'll never do you no good till you're inspired yourself. It takes your inspiration with... The Word's already inspired.

 

54  WHAT.SHALL.I.DO.WITH.JESUS  JEFF.IN  V-6 N-6  63-1124M

 God has already got It laid out. Let the ministry study It. But you see, they take somebody else's word about It, some group of men.  They're so blinded to the Truth, that when the Truth is presented, they fail to see It. But you see, God is just. He's got It wrote out there. He's got It wrote out right here in the Book, what's going to happen today. So It will be fulfilled. But others that's not ordained to see It will never see It. See they've--they got it all mixed up; and that's the way they had it then. They'd never knowed that It was Him.

2-2  SATAN'S.EDEN  JEFF.IN  V-2 N-20  65-0829

 And sometimes these little crude expressions brings us to something, and gets us to study and puts you to reading the Word. And that is what I want all my congregation to do. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." So read the Word; study It. And study It with the eyes of God to give your intellectuals understanding of how that we should live in this present day.

 

And so that is what we want to do tonight. To take the Word of God as brought by His Prophet to us in this last days, and to study it, and to lay in the Presence of the Son and become ripened by it. And so with this in mind, let's bow our heads and our hearts one more time as we go to the Author of this Great Message realizing that brother Branham had no more to do with than nothing, just a voice that God used to speak through, and even against his better judgment because he wanted to be a trapper. And knowing that it is the Lord Himself  Who has descended with  the Message of this hour, then let's go to Him and ask him to anoint His Word to our hearts and our minds tonight that He might drop it into our Soul and that it might become Spiritually Revealed and quickened to us preparing us for the Rapture. Read

 

[ Romans 13: all ]   Prayer....

Now wee find in this Chapter of Romans that Paul is not just mentioning  about paying your debts, but he is speaking about getting yourself into such a state of mind (mindset) that you are not living in this present world with a view that this is the all of it.  Rather Paul is letting us know that we should be of such a mindset that we are always looking with a heavenly view in all we do. Therefore as he said in    [Colossians], whatsoever we do in word or in deed we should be doing it with the full intention of Our Lord Jesus Christ in mind.

 

[ Colossians 3: 12 - 25]  Remember what we read for our text tonight, brother Branham said,  "I said something about paying your debts. And you know, no matter what you say, it's misunderstood by many, not 'cause they don't want to misunderstand it, but you just simply misunderstand it. And now, someone said, "Should we buy a car?" or, "What should I..." Now, that isn't what Jesus spoke of, or the Bible there, that said, "Owe no man nothing." That's lingering debts that you could pay. Pay them. That's owing no man nothing. It doesn't mean... My, we owe our rent, our telephone bill, and whatmore. We owe those things, and we pay them. But an old lingering debt that you could be paying on, pay it off. See? Now, don't go with anything hanging on you like that.   Now, you might ask how a person could profess to be a Christian and do things like that, but it happens all the time. I knew a brother who owed his aunt a few thousand dollars for a piece of property he bought from her to build his house on and  she complained bitterly about not being paid for the land. I talked to the man and he told me that he never paid her because she had plenty of money. I said, what does that have to do with the fact that you owe her. Pay her what you owe her and be done with it. He finally paid it off. But you see, what it does is that  it reflects on your testimony and the testimony of God's  Church and His Message.

 

Brother Branham went on to give us the illustration of a man who owed another man and even said he would pay but just kept stalling on paying what he owed. And brother Branham let us know that we won't get away with it, he said, ...." And you remember, it's on God's books too, you know, that you do. So, I'm trying to for myself and for all of us together, try to be ready, for we know we're getting near something, very near of something's going to take place. So we want to be ready. When the coming of the Lord is drawing so nigh now, we want to be ready for that great hour.

 

I like that! He said, you remember, It's on God's books!  Years ago, brother Vayle  told me, He said, "Brian, you watch what a person does with their money and it will tell you what kind of a spirit they have."  Even Brother Branham warned us about the three things that will get to a man is money, popularity and women. But the problem is that most people think they are exempt from this. Yet watch what they do with their money and it shows what is in their hearts. Brother Branham said, it's on God's books, ... you think he'll just brush it aside because of the blood of Jesus Christ! Don't fool yourself.

 

232-418  HEBREWS.CHAPTER.6  JEFF.IN  HEB  57-0908E

  Now, you say, "Well, can't we backslide?" Absolutely. And when you backslide, you're going to get it; don't you worry. Abraham got it, and the rest of them got it, and you'll get it. Don't you think it gives you a right to sin; it doesn't. You'll pay for everything that you do. You'll reap what you sow. You do one little sin, and you'll reap a whole washtub full. That's right. But, brother, that don't mean to say that you're lost. That's exactly right. Abraham reaped exactly what he sowed. That's right. But he was still saved.

 

And so we see the real focus here is getting ourselves ready. Now what does it mean to get ready. He is speaking of the Coming of the Lord. We already know that God Himself has come and He is here as The Great Judge, yet we still see people pulling deals right in this Message. I have often thought, "why is it that we see people falling left and right and not seeming to grasp the day and hour that we live. What would make people say they believe the Message and yet not want to live it". Now I am not preaching works, here, but How can we truly say that we believe every word and yet pay no attention to what the

 

Word is telling us. Is this how we are to make ourselves ready?  I have seen young men and women in this Message fall into adultery and all sorts of sinful living, and yet when you talk to them they will tell you they believe every Word. They say, It's just that I can't seem to live it. And I ask them this question, Why is that?  Is God so weak, and His Word so weak, that He can not help us and sustain us through the journey? "You have not because you ask not." I know that brother Branham said, "we backslide a thousand times daily", that is true, but yet if I willfully do that which is wrong it is iniquity."

 

117-1 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE -- CHURCH.AGE.BOOK.CPT.4

 Romans 8:17-18, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Unless we suffer with Him we cannot reign with Him. You have to suffer to reign.  The reason for this is that character simply is never made without suffering. Character is a VICTORY, not a gift. A man without character can't reign because power apart from character is Satanic.

 

But power with character is fit to rule. And since He wants us to share even His throne on the same basis that He overcame and is set down in His Father's throne, then we have to overcome to sit with Him. And the little temporary suffering we go through now is not worthy to be compared to the tremendous glory that will be revealed in us when He comes. Oh, what treasures are laid up for those who are willing to enter into His kingdom through much tribulation.

 

Now as far as backsliding, I do believe we all backslide daily. But God does not look on our mistakes, but on the intent of the heart. And if we walk in the light then the blood of Jesus Christ avails on our behalf.

 

[ 1 John 1: 7]

66-47  QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS  JEFF.IN  COD  54-0103M

But on backsliding, remember, you backslide every day. There's no way at all for you to keep out of it. All right. But you backslide to the people in the church, but not before God... See? You backslide on Christ, but you don't on God. 'Cause, when you sin, you're gone. But you're constantly falling. Paul had to die every day. Is that right? He had to die every day, repent every day, and just constantly repenting all the time. See? And if Paul had to do that, then I'm going to have to too. Aren't you? That's right.

 

Now you might ask, how can I backslide on Christ and even on the people but not on God? Well, look, in [ Matt 5: 48] Jesus said, Be ye perfect even as my father in heaven is Perfect.

 

685-Q-168  QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS  JEFF.IN  COD  61-1015M

 See, temporarily, minor, every one of us backslide many times a day. We know that. We're all guilty, every one of us; there's none of us perfected. And as long as we're in this body, we are still... No matter how much the people try to tell, "I've got sanctified; I can kiss this woman or do that," he's lying; he cannot. Now, that's all.  I don't try to say, "Lord, let me see how close I can go." It's, "Lord, keep me as far away as I can get." See? Just stay as far away as... Remember, you are still human beings. See?

 

[Hebrews 10: 26] Now that is willful denial of the Truth. Sin is unbelief and as brother Branham told us, "Lying and stealing and smoking and drinking isn't sin. Those are just attributes of unbelief. We do those things because we don't really believe."                                                             

[2 Tim 2: 15 - 21]

E-33  LAW  CHICAGO.IL  55-0115

 But the Blood in Christ was perfect. Now, I will never be perfect. And you will never be perfect. I will never be perfect in your sight. You will never be perfect in my sight. But let's lay that aside. What about in God's sight? I look at you as a human. I look at you as a brother. But God looks at you through the Blood of His Son as a redeemed one. Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And not what you've done, you have nothing to merit it, but it's what Christ did for you

 

E-30  TESTIMONY.AND.INSIDE.LIFE  CLEVELAND.OH  50-0823

Now, all the prophets spoke of this day. Isn't that right? These things would be taking place in this day. And said in the last days, scoffers would come. Is that right? Now, look the way He said the spirits would--or the Spirit speak--spake, that in the last days, people would be. They'd be heady. You know what heady means? High-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Look at these arenas and things over here, the stadiums: Sundays and everything else, they fill up the picture shows and the dance halls. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, incontinent, fierce, and despisers of those that are good... Holy-rollers, hillbillies, and everything else... See? Despisers of those that are good.  Not as we are good. But my, there's none good but God. But God is in the people what makes them good, marks the perfect man. It's God in you that makes it perfect. See? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." See? "Be ye therefore perfect." How can you be perfect? Not in yourself, but in Him. God don't look at you then; He looks at Him. Well, you say, "I'm in Him."  How do you get in Him? By one Spirit we're all baptized into one Body, and then you're in Him, when you're baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body: I Corinthians 12. Is that true? Then in Him..

  28  ISRAEL.AT.THE.RED.SEA.1  JEFF.IN  IC 35-64  53-0326

  God has already glorified His church. Those who He justified, He also glorified in the church, in Christ. If you're justified in Christ, you're glorified in Christ already, as far as God is concerned.  Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." How could you ever be perfect? But in the sight of Christ tonight, every born-again Christian is perfect. I'm just as perfect in God as Christ was. You are too--every other believer. For it's not my holiness, it's His holiness. God can't accept mine; I have none. But I come in Christ, by faith. And by Christ I'm in Him, and perfect in the sight of God.

E-14  WATER.OF.SEPARATION  CHICAGO.IL  55-0121

  God looking through the Blood, He doesn't see you no more as a sinner, He sees you redeemed. Amen. You're redeemed because He only sees you through Christ. That's the reason we can be perfect. Not perfect in the sense of sinless, we're perfect in the eyes of God when we're in Christ. That's the reason He said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."  Paul in the 10th chapter of Hebrews trying to explain the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things could never make the comer unto perfect, because God was looking through animal blood. But now He looks through the Blood of His Son. Perfection come by Jesus Christ.  Now, I'm not perfect in your sight. You may not be perfect in my sight. But what about in God's sight? There's where it lays. And if you're borned again into the body of Christ, then God looks upon you as a perfect as Christ was Himself. Amen.  Nothing you can do; it's not by any works you can do at all. It's by grace God has give you this offer, and if you've accepted it, in the sight of God you are perfect, redeemed, washed in the Blood of the Lamb, Without fault, without blemish, without spot. Isn't that marvelous?

 

  E-61  INFALLIBLE.WORD.OF.GOD  CHICAGO.IL  56-0406

  Sometimes when you get the new spirit, you think then that you've got the Holy Spirit, but it isn't; it's the new spirit. The Holy Spirit will witness Jesus Christ.... He's perfect. And you can't be perfect, but as long as you're in Christ, you are perfected by His vicarious suffering and death at the cross. God doesn't see your sins. He sees nothing but one perfect Person, the body of Jesus Christ. He can't. That's the reason Balaam, the hired prophet, thought surely God would curse Israel, because look at the things they had done wrong. But he failed to see the smitten rock, and the brass serpent going before him, making atonement. God couldn't see through the atonement, His blood that answered its place. See?

 

65-42  QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS  JEFF.IN  COD  54-0103M

  Now--now, you don't have to be baptized to receive the Holy Ghost, because you can receive the Holy Ghost when your heart's right. See? Because on Acts 2 Peter give a formula to--a formula to "Repent, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." But then, in Acts 10:49, God turned around and give the Gentiles the baptism of the Holy Ghost before they was ever baptized at all. You see? So, you see, it's the condition of your heart.  Then said Peter, "Can we forbid water, seeing that these has received the Holy Ghost like we had it at the beginning?" You see? So then he--he constrained them that they must be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Then Paul, in Acts 19, said... Paul, having passed through the upper coasts of Ephesus, he finds certain disciples, and he said unto them, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"  They said, "We not know whether... know not whether there be any Holy Ghost."  He said, "Unto what was you baptized?" They was.  They said, "We were baptized unto John."  He said, "John baptized unto repentance, saying that you should believe on Him to come, that's on the Lord Jesus Christ." And when they heard this, they were baptized again in the Name of Jesus Christ. See? So then that's...