Christ Revealed in
His Own Word #24
Stabilized in
Perilous Times
Sunday Morning, June 30, 1996
Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship Tabernacle
This morning we
want to read from PP. 15 -17 of
Brother Branham's Message, "Christ
Revealed in His Own Word." This will be number 24 in our series. In pp. 15 we see Brother Branham beginning
to introduce the topic of his Message.
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Now, we want to get ready and speak now on a
little subject here that I chose for this morning by the help of the Lord. Now,
I want you to notice that he is not taking credit for this Message, but he is
telling you the Lord has something to do with this topic. And we'll speak just as
briefly as we can, because of the hookup of the people. I hope you all across
the nation, got a fine morning like we have here in Indiana: nice, cool, fine
weather, we're having now since the rain, and it's very fine. 16 Now, I want to read from the Book of Hebrews
the 1st chapter and from the Book of St. John the 1st chapter. Hebrews 1:1-3 and St. John 1:1 for a text.
My subject this morning is a study
in the Scriptures. Now, let's read [Hebrews
1:1-3]:God, who at sundry times...
divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, But in these last days spoke unto us by his Son,
who he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world; Who
being in the brightness of his glory, and... expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, set down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high;........ What a beautiful
reading. Now, [St. John 1:1:]
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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Now,
and my text ( subject) this morning is: "Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word." Now, where I come to the
conclusion to talk on this was, because that... Knowing that what we say we mustn't just say because
we're gathered together to just haphazardly speak on anything, but it's something that will help stabilize the
people, (
Now I would like to add, that is the reason we can't add our own thinking to it. Because it is God's Word, and not our
own. And that is why it is so important to say what he said.) Now let's continue...for
we are going to pass through dangerous, treacherous waters. We're already
sailing through them. And sometimes, I guess it's with you like it is with
me, that seems like that so much of it, it's such a scary. 18 I was just talking to a young minister and his wife in the room
just a few moments ago. And both of them are nervous just like the rest of the world, rest of the human beings
on earth. I said, "Remember, Satan's
got a punch coming at you." I don't care who you are, God... He's got
a right to that one punch. Which had you rather be, that punch, be blind, or be
an arthritic setting in a chair, or be nervous? See? He's got somewhere he
could punch you. He's got a right to that
open place. Now, that's the spot you
got to keep covered all the time.
Wednesday night
we examined these three paragraphs and we looked at brother Branham's thoughts
about the perilous times we are going through. I asked you to think very soberly and seriously about what God's
Prophet is trying to tell us here, because after all, his purpose in this is to
get us ready for the Rapture and the going home of the Bride. And so this
Message will help us to become ready if we take it to heart. And also I want
you to remember the quote I read Wednesday night where Brother Branham told us
that the Appearing is where our refuge should be, because as long as we are in
Christ we are safe from these dangerous waters that we are moving through. And
what are these dangerous waters? Before
I read them to you from the Word of God, I want you to focus on this one
thought this morning, and that is this, "As we move forward through these perilous times, we will be constantly
buffeted by our weakness in this flesh. Now Brother Branham told us here that
the devil has a right to punch you in your one place of weakness, and so we
must keep that open place covered. You see, as long as we keep our weakness
covered up, then the devil has no place to punch you. And this is the key. As long as it is not covered he has a right to it,
because you give him that right, by exposing it to him, but if you keep it
covered up under the Blood of Jesus Christ, then he can not get to that
weakness. And how do we keep it under
the blood? By walking in the Light. [ 1 John 1: 7] "If you walk in the light as He is in the Light, You have fellowship one with another, and the
Blood of Jesus Christ Cleanses you from all sin."
Þ In [Isaiah
1: 18] we find that although your
sins are as dark as scarlet, yet they will appear to be as white as wool, and
although they are as dark as crimson, they will appear to be as white as snow
in the eyes of God. Why?
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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
Þ Notice Isaiah
tells us that although our sins are scarlet and crimson, yet they appear white
as wool and white as snow. ( Show illustration of looking at red through red.
How it appears white!
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"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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
Þ [ Psalm 119: 9] you are cleansed by the Word
Þ [ Eph
5: 26] You are washed
by the Word
Þ [ Rev 22: 13-14 (Scofield = blessed are they that wash their robes) 12: 11] Notice the efficacy of the
Blood, and how it comes through the Word.
Now brother
Branham is telling us here that we must keep ourselves covered by the blood,
and this comes by keeping ourselves covered under the umbrella of the Word for
this Hour. Brother Branham was a professional boxer and he was trained to
fight, and he is teaching you how to overcome and how to fight the devil. And
the first thing he learned in boxing was to cover up, to protect his face and
front with his hands and arms. Because if you get hit directly in the face or
the chest or stomach, you will be winded and weakened, losing what strength you
have left. And so we see the natural typing the spiritual. He is talking about
a fight here.
Þ [ Psalm 27: 1-5] Brother Branham used this scripture to take
His text for the Rapture Message. And notice that it speaks of a time of
trouble. And yet notice how we are told that during this time of trouble we are
to keep our focus on Him Who is our Refuge. Now in this time of trouble God
will hide us in His Secret place. And we find where that place is in [ Psalm 31: 19-20]
[ 2 Timothy 3: 1 - 17] AMPLIFIED: But understand this, that in the last days
there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble - hard to deal with
and hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self and utterly self-centered,
lovers of money and aroused by inordinate and greedy desire for wealth, proud
and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive, blasphemous and
scoffers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. They will be without natural human
affection, in fact callous and inhuman, relentless-admitting of no truce or
appeasement. They will be slanderers-false accusers, trouble makers;
intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of
good. They will be treacherous betrayers, rash and inflated with self-conceit.
They will be lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and
rather than lovers of God. For although they hold a form of devotion and
sanctity, they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it - their
conduct belies the genuineness of their profession. Avoid all such people-turn
away from them. For among them are those who worm their way into churches and
captivate silly and weak-natured and spiritually dwarfed church members, loaded
down with the burdens of their sins, and easily swayed and led away by various
evil desires and seductive impulses, These weak women will listen to anybody
who will teach them; they are forever inquiring and getting information, but
are never able to arrive at a recognition and knowledge of The Truth. Now just
as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are
hostile to and oppose The Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and
are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as The Faith is
concerned. But they will not get very far, for their rash folly will become
obvious to everybody, as was those men mentioned. Now you have closely observed
and diligently followed my teaching, conduct, purpose in Life, patience, Love,
Steadfastness. Persecutions, sufferings, such as occurred to me at Antioch, at
Iconium, and at Lystra, persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord
delivered me. Indeed all who delight in Holiness and are determined to living a
devoted and Godly life in Christ
Jesus will meet with persecution-that
is, will be made to suffer because of their religious stand. But wicked men and
impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led
astray themselves. But as for you, continue
to hold to the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced,
knowing from whom you learned them. ... 16
Every Scripture is God-breathed, given by His Inspiration - and profitable
for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and
discipline in obedience, and for training in righteousness which is holy living
in conformity to God's will, in your thoughts,
purpose and actions. So that the man of God may be complete and
proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So we see then
that there is coming a time of trouble, and Brother Branham said, we
are now sailing through dangerous, treacherous waters.. But notice the
Message we see here in the Psalms and 2 Timothy 3. During these times we are to
stay focused and tucked into the cleft of the Rock. In other words, we are to
keep our weak spot covered from the darts of the enemy. Now how do we do
this? By staying focused on Christ Who
is Here. And He is the Word. And then we are covered by His Blood. [ 1
John 1: 7]
Christ Revealed in His Own Word #24
Sunday Morning, June 30, 1996
Now to follow though
with this thought on our keeping our weaknesses covered up, let's examine this
thought a little further on how walking in the light makes the blood
efficacious to us. And the reason I say this is because over the years, some have preached that there
is no more mercy because the Lamb left the Mercy Seat when the Seals were
opened. They get this from the Brother Branham's message Souls in Prison Now. And
Since the Mercy seat has to do with the efficacy of the blood, we need to know
what this means to you and I as a Christian people and how it effects us as
well who definitely need the blood to cover our faults and mistakes.
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See,
it wasn't revealed when that Seventh Trumpet sounded, or the Seventh Angel
or--Seal was opened, then there was silence in the heaven: See? It wasn't give
away, what would take place. But under the Sixth Seal where these Trumpets
opened... Remember, under there we find out that the Lamb came forth, appeared
on the scene. He had left the mercy seat. His work of redemption was finished.
And He came forth
and took the Book out of the right hand of Him that set upon the throne, and
time was no more. And immediately an Angel appeared in the 7th chapter--the
10th chapter and 7th verse, saying, this Angel came down and swore that time
was no longer. But you see, in this Book was what was redeemed; it was the Book
of Redemption. And everything that He had redeemed was written in that Book.
All that He died for was written in the Book, and He could not leave His
mediatorial seat until He had thoroughly redeemed, and He couldn't redeem it at
the cross, because they were predestinated in the Lamb's Book of Life, and had
to stay on there to make intercession until that last person was finished.
Glory.
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This was a very hard thing to speak to you
people. I'm so thankful to see the people up from everywhere. And you... I--I
so... I don't know that this thing is true, but it's got to be that way
sometime. See? It's got to come to that, and it could be now. See? And every
way, the world will carry right on. People will still come to the altar;
they'll still cry out, but it won't do any good. See? It'll be gone. See? It'll
be over. There won't be no mercy. Remember that. "And the sanctuary
becomes smoky." "He that's filthy is filthy still, he that's
righteous is righteous still, and he that's holy is holy still."
There's no more mercy; when the
Lamb takes the Book, that's it; that's all of it; and it looks a whole lot like it could be now. Maybe we have
another day. Maybe today's that day. Maybe tomorrow is the last... Maybe
tonight's the last night. Maybe this is the last year. I don't know, friends.
I'm telling you. I don't know. It'll never be told me, but when God takes that
last name and redeems it from that Book of Life, that's all of it.
Now what happened
was that some ministers took this quote and said mercy is over. Back in the
late sixties a doctrine went around that mercy was over. But He did not say it
was over, he said at the time that the last one comes in it is over. Then at
that time He that is filthy will remain filthy, and he that is rightly wise
will remain rightly wise. Now, we have already shown that it is the Word that
cleanses and washes away our guilt and our sin. So you can not dis-associate
Mercy from the Word of God. To think you are entitled to God's Mercy but you
reject His way to that Mercy, shows that you never have received His Mercy in
the first place.
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If
we disbelieve It willfully after the Truth has been presented to us, there will
be no more mercy. No more mercy will be granted. Pastor, listening to this tape, what about it? Member of the church,
listening to this tape, what about it? What are you going to do, if we
disbelieve it willfully? Can't wash it off your hands. You can't pass it on to
the headquarters; it's going to backfire right back to you. You've heard it.
What about you? How are you going to stand in that day? He is either on your
hands or in your heart, one or the other. God help us.
Christ Revealed in His Own Word #24
Sunday Morning, June 30, 1996
And so we must
know where the Mercy seat is, and Who it is that is seated in the Mercy seat,
and what the Mercy seat is for. Because by knowing where the Mercy seat is, who
is seated there, and what it is for, then we will better understand the purpose
behind the Mercy seat and this will ensure that our focus is on the correct thing.
Now before we
read, remember we are still focused upon the Message "Christ is Revealed in His Own Word" and the PP's.. 17-18
where Brother Branham said, we must keep our weak place covered up So we then
are looking at the purpose of the Mercy
seat as we read the next few scriptures..
[ Exodus 25: 17 =>] Now as we read the words here we see the
word Mercy seat is used. The Hebrew
word for Mercy seat is Kaporreth and it
means the place of atonement. So this is the place where our atonement is to be
made. This plate or seat was where the high priest sprinkled the blood from the
sacrifice, so in effect it is where the blood was at . And I want you to also
take note that it was made of pure
Gold. Now we also know through our studies that gold signifies Deity. [ 18 -20
=>] The next thing I want you to
notice is two cherubs which covered the
Mercy seat with their wings. Notice how
each Cherub were at opposite ends from the other and that each one faced the
other from the opposite side showing that they were in opposition to the
other. Now remember, Moses was
commanded to make this as He saw the pattern in heaven. [Hebrews 8: 5] [ 21 =>] Now notice that this seat was to be placed upon the ark of the
covenant. Now what was so important about the ark of the covenant? Let's look
back at verse 16 to find out. [ 16
=>] Now the ark was basically just a box made out of shittim wood, but it
was to house the Word of God, or the testimony which God was to give them. So
we see the whole purpose of the ark was to be the dwelling place for God's
Word. [ 21-22 =>] As these two cherubs faced each other their wings
stretched forth and it was here in the fold of their two sets of wings that the
throne of God was to be. Right in between these two cherubs who were facing in
opposition to each other and yet both facing the Presence of the Most High
God. And it was here that God would
dwell with man seated on His Word. And
notice what He said He will do here. "And there will I meet with you and
commune with you, above the mercy seat but between the two Cherubs.
Now who were
these two cherubs and why were they represented on opposite ends of the Mercy
seat?
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Satan was literally cast out of Heaven by Michael
the Archangel and God. I want you to
notice here that we have two cherubs who led in worship and God. And Satan
became jealous of Michael's position with God.
So who was Michael?
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"And at
that time Michael shall
stand, the great prince." Michael was Christ, of
course, who fought the angelic
wars in heaven with the devil.
Satan and Michael fought
together--fought against each other rather.
172 Q & A-
JEFF,IN 64-0823 Satan was
the most beautiful angel. He was
a cherubim that overshadowed. And
17-7 Marriage & Divorce.--
65-0221 Did you know Satan was co-equal with God one day? He sure was. All but a creator; he was
everything, stood at the right hand of God in the Heavens, a great leading cherubim. [ Isa
14: 12 - 14] & [Ezek 28: 12-15]
THE.SEAL.OF.GOD
61-0216 Now, we find out he was the first murderer. And he
was the first one
to have jealousy. Lucifer
got jealous of Michael. Brought it right down to the earth and transferred
it into man. And Satan came by taking on this evil, took the
first mark. God marked him.
No one was to kill him. Let him
alone. But you remember, he--as
soon as He marked him he went out
from the presence of God. Hold on to that now. Oh, we
don't have time to give it a real through study because, oh brother,
we could dig this here for six
months, see. Never touch the outsides
of it, see
[ Exodus 26: 34] [ Exodus 30:
6] [Exodus 40:20] [Numbers 7: 89]