Christ Revealed in His Own Word #66
The Old and New
Testament
Sunday, January 5, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
This morning I
would like to continue with this Message of Christ Revealed in His Own Word,
and we will begin reading at PP. [70]
[70]
The continuity, how that Enoch translation, a type of Israel being carried over
in the ark... So perfect... The Word of God is so perfect, even to the Old and New Testament is two halves and
one whole. Right. Old Testament's
half of It, and New Testament's half
of It. Put It together, you got the whole revelation of Jesus Christ.
There's the prophet speaking; here He is in Person. See? Two halves and one
whole.
Now before we go
any further, I would like to examine this thought here just a little because
brother Branham will be explaining the importance of this in a few paragraphs
as we read further. Now notice here that he is telling us that it takes both the Old Testament and the New
Testament to make up the complete Revelation of Jesus Christ. He told us
that the Old Testament is only half of this Revelation and the New Testament is
only half as well. And so we see that One without the other will not give us
the whole Revelation of Jesus Christ. Throw out the New Testament and you have
Judaism. Throw out the Old Testament and you have an incomplete Revelation of
Jesus Christ making Him a Trinity or some other strange sort of three headed
God. And, so we are being taught here
that the essentially of having the complete Word of God is absolutely necessary
in order for us to receive the full disclosure of Jesus Christ. When Jesus was taken up to the mountain with
Satan, Satan quoted various Scriptures
but Jesus said “It is also written”.
And this is what we see brother Branham telling us here, that it is
essential to have the full Word if we are to have an accurate description or
identification of the Who and what Christ is.
[71]
Now, we don't want to take too much. Now,
remember, the Old Testament is not complete without the New. And the New could not be complete without the
Old. That's the reason I said, two halves: one whole. For the prophet said,
"He'll be here; He'll be here; He'll
be here. ( Now I want to ad this, Notice that he is speaking in
the future tense for these things.) They'll
do this to Him; they'll do this to Him." ( You see, that is speaking of a future event, therefore
the prophets spoke in a future tense, a
looking forward to. And then brother Branham goes on here to speak in the
present and past tense, as he describes the New Testament to us). And here He is, "He was here; He was here. And they did this to Him, and they did this to Him." I just
preached on that a few nights ago.
And so we see,
the way in which Brother Branham presents the Old and New testaments are this: First of all the Old Testament represents the Promises made by God, concerning Himself
and His Son. And Secondly the New Testament represents the manifestation
or fulfillment of those promises. Therefore, what He is trying to get
across to us, is that the Promises alone do not fully tell us the whole
picture, because it’s still left open to interpretation of what it means. And
as long as we can guess or surmise what it means, then there’ll be still room
for error. But God interprets His Own Word by bringing it to pass. Therefore,
when we see this interpretation, we then have a Word that has been made more
sure, as we are told in [2 Peter chapter 1].
Therefore what we
are hearing from Brother Branham is this,
“the Old Testament (which we know as the Promises) could
not be made complete without the fulfillment of those Promises (which
then were written in the New Testament).
And the New Testament, (which
expresses the fulfillment, manifestation or interpretation of the Old Testament
promises,) could not be made Complete without having first had those Promise
recorded (which is the Old Testament).
Now, as we study this Message, I
don’t want you to forget, that it is called ,“Christ Revealed in His Own Word”,
and therefore the theme of our study is how Christ is revealed. And if we are to see Him the same today as He
ever was, then we must be able to recognize the difference between the Word in
a condition of promise, verses that same Word in it’s condition of fulfillment
or manifestation. Because as long as the Word is still in a condition of
Promise, it is yet to be viewed as being somewhere in the future. But when we
recognize the fulfillment of the promise, we then are made partakers of the
Revelation as well, and, we having received the full disclosure of the Promise,
are therefore recipients of that promise.
And so we shall continue with this study of Christ Revealed in His Own Word
as we read from the next paragraph of this Message.
Christ Revealed
in His Own Word #66
Sunday, January
5, 1997
[72]
Now, in order to study the Scripture... Paul told Timothy, "Study It, rightly dividing the Word of God
which is Truth (Let’s look at
this statement here. [2 Tim 2:15](
The word rightly divide here is a Greek word which means to teach directly and correctly).
Now,
notice how brother Branham puts this. He says, , "Study It, rightly dividing
the Word of God which is Truth”. Now
is He saying, study by rightly dividing the Word of God and this Word of God is
Truth? Or is he saying, Study God’s Word and if you rightly divide it, you
shall receive the Truth of His Word?
Now to see the difference,
first of all let me explain that every denomination that calls itself Bible
believers, believes that this Bible is the Truth. Yet many of them, in fact all
of them, teach it in error. And so what they are doing is taking the Truth, and
presenting the Truth in such a way as to present it in error instead of as
Truth. And so we see here, that Paul is telling Timothy, that the Word of God, though it
be the Genuine Word of God, must be rightly divided, in order for it to be True.
For if you do not rightly divide God’s Word according to the right division of
that Word, it will not be true. And
that is why we see Jesus in [Matt 4]
doing battle with Satan over the Word of God. Because Satan is using it for one
thing, and Jesus is telling Him it is not to be used for that thing, because
there are other scriptures that bring into balance the things which Satan is
saying. [Matt 4:1-10]
Now, what does
sit mean to rightly divide the Word. Well, before we give you the definition
that brother Branham gives to us, let’s look first at the effects of a wrongly
divided Word of God, Because we know according to [Deut 28] That if you take the Word One way it brings blessings, but
if you take it the wrong way it will bring curses. [Deut 28:1-2, & 15]. Again, we have an example with Eve in the
garden. The serpent did not rightly divide the Word, and so he gave Eve a wrong
understanding of the word and therefore, caused death to enter. [Gen. 2: 16-17] Now in [Gen.
3] we see that he was able to convince Eve that there is another reason
other than death, that they were to avoid sexual contact. And that was that by
having this union it would actually make them wiser, and give them more
knowledge. And so he altered the Word by changing it’s meaning, and in altering
it’s true meaning, it actually brought error and death instead of Truth and Life. [Gen. 3: 1-14]
We also find in [Gen. 4] The same thing. Both Cain and
Able offered sacrifices unto God. Now a sacrifice is what you give back to God.
But before you can give it back to God, you must first have received it from
God. And so we find that the Scripture tells us that Cain’s sacrifice was an
excellent sacrifice, and yet it was also a wicked sacrifice. [Heb 1:4] (read) Now notice here that
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. So Cain’s sacrifice was
excellent. And why was it excellent? Because it was based upon the word of God.
[Exodus 22:9 & Deut 26:2] But we
also find that Cain’s sacrifice was considered evil.
[1 John 3:12] Notice here that we are
told that he slew his brother because his works were evil. The slaying of his
brother, although this was a wicked deed, was not the evil works. The evil
works is what caused him to slay his brother in the first place. And the evil
works was his own sacrifice to God which was rejected by God, while Abel’s
sacrifice was received by God. [Gen. 4:
2-8] Now notice that after he talked with Abel, he slew him. And why did he
talk with Abel? Because God had accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not his own. And
God had told Him that “if he did well, he would be accepted,
but he didn’t do well, and therefore he was not accepted. Now the Septuagint
translates this here as: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted? You did rightly offer, but
you did not rightly divide.”
And so we see the
right division of the Word is essential in our relationship with God. Cain’s
offering, although it was scriptural and a first fruit offering which is a
resurrection or harvest offering, was rejected, because it was out of season.
For in [Hebrews 9] we are told, “without
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”. And therefore, because Abel offered blood
first, it was accepted, whereas Cain offered another scriptural sacrifice, but
because it was not in the continuity of God’s plan, and it was therefore out of
the season of God’s plan, it was therefore rejected.
Br. Branham
continues [72] Now, in order to study the Scripture... Paul told Timothy, "Study It, rightly dividing the Word of God
which is Truth, And then he goes on to tell us what this means. He
tells us: "Then there's three musts in the Scripture. In using God's Word
there is three things that you must not do.
Christ Revealed
in His Own Word #66
Sunday, January
5, 1997
Now, let's study those for the next ten minutes: Three things
that you must not do... And all out in the land wherever you are across the
nation, be sure to put these down in your mind if you haven't got a pencil. You
must not do these things. We
tell you all the time how you must do; now, I'm going to tell you what you must
not do. Now, you must not misinterpret
the Word. You say, "Well, I believe It means this." It means just what it says. It needs no interpreter. And you must not misplace the Word. And you must not dislocate the Word. And
if we would do either of these, it throws the whole Bible in a confusion and in
a chaos.
Now before we go
any further, let’s just break this down as he said it. We know there are three must not’s that we
must never do with the scripture.
#1) You must not misinterpret the Word.
#2) You must not
misplace the Word
#3) You must not
dislocate the Word
Now, first, let’s
see what Webster tells us these three words
“Misinterpret, misplace, and dislocate” mean. We shall try to make these
as simple as possible:
#1) Misinterpret :
Simply means to interpret wrongly, to understand or explain incorrectly.
#2) Misplace : Simply means to put in the wrong place. To wrongly place or to improperly
place.
To take away from the proper, or natural position,
time, or character
#3) Dislocate : Simply means to upset the order or
connection of.
Now let’s examine
this first MUST NOT from what Brother Branham has told us. [74]
Notice. To misinterpret Jesus in
the form of God in a man you would make Him--you would make Him one god out
of three. (Now, he is not saying here that Jesus was not God dwelling in
Human flesh, but he is saying, to misinterpret Jesus in the form of God in
a man, you would make a trinity. So we see here the misinterpretation
of Jesus
in the form of God in a man, is a trinity of persons. Then he
says, To misinterpret Jesus Christ
being the Word, you'd make Him
one god out of three, or you'd make Him the second person in a godhead. And to
do that, you'd mess the whole Scripture up. You'd never get nowhere. So It must
not be misinterpreted. ( now he can not be saying here that Jesus Christ is
not the Word, for the Bible tells us the Word became flesh. And there are many
other times that Bother Branham tells us the He is the Word, But what he is
telling us here is that the misinterpretation of Jesus Christ being the Word, would
make two Gods. Then he says, And if you
say that a certain thing, you put an
interpretation on It, and you apply
It to another time or It's been applied to another time, you also make an incorrect interpreting. Now by this last statement here we see
that to misinterpret is to incorrectly interpret and therefore brings a wrong
understanding and error. And in this case we are talking about the Revelation
of Christ. So, then to misinterpret the
Word Concerning Jesus Christ will give you another Jesus, Andother Spirit. [2 Cor 11]
[76] If
anybody misinterpret Jesus Christ in
the Bible of not being God Himself, (in
other words, making him strictly human and not deity in flesh, as the Jehovah
witnesses do), or make Him the second person, or, one god out
of three, this would upset every Word in the entire Bible. It would break the
first commandment, "Thou shalt not have any other god before Me." All
right. It would make the whole Christian race a bunch of pagan worshippers
worshipping three different gods. See what kind of a Bible you'd have? Then
it'd make us what the Jews say we are: said, "Which one of them gods is
your god?" See? So you see, you can't--you mustn't misinterpret the Bible,
for Jesus Himself is the Interpretation
of the Bible when He's made manifest in the age that the part of His Body is
being made manifest. If it's a hand age, it must be a hand; it can't be a
head age. If it's a voice age, well then, it can't be a foot age. See? And now,
we're at the eye age. And now, the next is Him Hisself to come. Seeing,
prophetic...
I hope we can see
the importance of saying it just like
he said it, and not trying to interpret it ourselves. But in order to do so you
must understand it. There are many who claim to believe this Message who
say, “say what the tapes say, and only
what he said.” And yet they do not know what he said, and therefore can
not say what he said.
Christ Revealed
in His Own Word #66
Sunday, January
5, 1997
For, in order to
be able to say it like he said it, you must know what it was that he was
saying. Other wise, you might be quoting word for word and still misquoting,
because you will be misplacing, or dislocating the things he said from their
proper context. Just like those ministers who quote brother Branham as saying,
“The
pastor is your husband, spiritually speaking.” They turn this into, “the
Pastor is your spiritual husband”.
Now, there is a big difference between saying the pastor is your husband
spiritually speaking and that he is your spiritual husband. One shows only
a type whereas the other shows a locked
in fact. When Jesus said, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would
have gathered you as a hen does her brood.” He was not saying that he
was a mother hen. He was simply saying,
as a hen does this to her chicks, so
would I have liked to do the same. But you see, this is where those who are not
ordained to this Revelation of Christ will never be able to come to the
knowledge of it. They will constantly struggle with these words of God spoken
through the prophets, and they will continue to misinterpret them and misplace
them and dislocate them from their proper connections. [Matt
13: 10-16 & 2 Tim 3:5-10]
[2 Peter 3: 14-18] wrest = twist , to turn aside, to pervert.
we also find Irenaeus showing how the heretics utilize the scripture to twist
it to their own assumptions in order to make their own opinions seem to have a
Bible foundation. [Gal 1:6-7] Paul called it perverting the scriptures.
CHAP. VIII.--HOW THE VALENTINIANS PERVERT THE SCRIPTURES TO
SUPPORT THEIR OWN PIOUS OPINIONS. 1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord
taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect
knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures;(4)
and, to use a common proverb, they
strive to weave ropes of sand, while they
endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions
the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the
apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support.
In doing so, however, they disregard the
order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By
transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out
of another, they succeed in deluding
many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their
opinions. Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image
of a king has been constructed by some skillful artist out of precious jewels,
should then take this likeness of the man all to pieces, should rearrange the
gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a
fox, and even that but poorly executed; and should then maintain and declare
that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skillful artist
constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by
the first artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect
transferred by the latter one to the shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the
jewels, should deceive the ignorant who
had no conception what a king's form was like, and persuade them that that
miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king. In
like manner do these persons patch together old wives' fables, and then
endeavour, by violently drawing away
from their proper connection, words, expressions, and parables whenever found,
to adapt the oracles of God to their baseless fictions. We have already
stated how far they proceed in this way with respect to the interior of the
Fullness.
And as you can
see that these three musts that brother Branham is bringing to us here have
been an important discipline since the very founding of the Church back 2,000
years ago. You must not misinterpret
God’s Word. And how do you know the interpretation of His Word? God interprets His Word by bringing it to
pass. So we wait for God to do the interpreting, then we will know that our
understanding is correct. But too many people try to impress one another with
what they know, and yet they really do not know. For if they knew, they then
would make no attempt to try and figure out what is going to happen in the
future, but instead, they would be content to simply lay in the Presence of the
Word as it comes into manifestation to them in their own age. Why should I care
what the millennium will bring, or the New Jerusalem. Even if I did know, there
is nothing I can do to add to it or take from it. So why waste the energy
trying to figure out what is not necessary to figure out. Just wait for it to
happen. The same thing about marriage and life in general. Don’t waste your
time trying to figure out what it will be like or when it will happen. Just
enjoy yourself in the state you are now in and then when that state changes,
enjoy your new condition. Keep focussed
and the God of all Comfort shall stablish your heart.