Christ Revealed in His Own Word #124

Naked and Blind

Wednesday, August 6 1997

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

 

 

[Rev 3: 14-19] [Rev 16:15] Read .. [ .. Prayer

[159]  In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it.

 

Now, before we proceed any further into paragraph 159, I would like to stop just for a moment to fix our thinking on these two attributes of the people in this last age. Now, what does the word blind mean, and what does the word naked suggest to us? Of course we know that these are two different words, so we’ll need to break these two end-time attributes of the end-time people down individually first, and then once we have established there significance with the end-time atmosphere amongst the people, then we shall attempt to tie them in together in order to gain a better understanding of how they fit together with what Brother Branham is teaching us on the Revealing of Christ and why most people will not accept it.

 

Now, we find these attributes being used here to suggest a certain setting among the people because no matter what we are looking at, we shall know it by examining their characteristics. Because the characteristics are what distinguishes one thing from another making them different, or setting them apart from others. As an example, some people have red hair and others have blonde while others have brunette. These attributes of coloring in the hair change the appearance of the individual. And then a blonde has a certain pigmentation in their skin that is different from a brunette, and red head.  Some people have freckles and others have an olive colored complexion. Some people are tall and skinny, some are tall and large framed, and others are short. So the individual characteristics that people possess in their genes comes forth in their appearance and distinguishes them as being different from others.

 

Now, when we speak of Characteristics we are not just speaking of physical body traits, because you may have two people who have many similar body features that look close enough alike that by appearance only you can not tell them apart from one another. But in their innate character, they have other traits or characteristics that set them apart from others, even those whom they look exactly alike. I have know a few sets of twins that look so much alike that by appearance only I could not tell them apart. But when I got to know them, there were things they did that gave them away as to their individual characteristics.

 

Webster says that characteristics are those things which constitute a special character; a distinctive or distinguishing trait  or feature or quality that is peculiar to the individual. He said the word characteristic suggests  the indication of a quality that is peculiar to and helps identify something or someone.  And we find further by examination that there are individual characteristics which set apart the individual from others of his or her class or kind, and there are characteristics that are peculiar to the class or kind, and therefore speak of a certain type of nature that is being manifested. 

 

Now, the attributes that brother Branham is referring to are not those attributes that are distinguishing marks in an individual and sets them apart from all other individuals as much as they are attributes or characteristics that speak of or are an expression of a certain class or type or kind of people. Because if these were spoken of as being in only a certain individual then they would be those traits that set apart only a small few from al others. But when we read in the scripture pertaining to these attributes they are being used in a way as to tell us or warn us of a universal trait that will affect most of mankind with the small exception of an Elect few. In other words, those who are in that Elect Few will not be found with the characteristics of the majority who are naked, and blind and don’t even know it.

 

Now, we’ll begin our study tonight by examining first what the Scriptures mean when using the word naked or nakedness. We all have our own understanding what the word means, but let’s just place our own thinking aside and let’s look to what God’s Word says about being naked, or nakedness. But what does God define as being naked? That’s what we want to know.  And so, let’s turn to the Scriptures where this word is used... [Exodus 28:40-42] Here we see that God defines nakedness as being an exposed leg from the thigh up to and including the loins. Now, we know that this is not what most people consider nakedness, because most people wear shorts and swim suits and all sorts of apparel that brother Branham said, the total amount of material could hardly wad a  shotgun. But God said to show or expose the thigh or upper leg and the area of the loin is considered to be nakedness to Him.

 

Now, some of you boys are too old to be wearing shorts. Brother Branham said,  [pg. 21-pp. 3-5  Satan’s Eden 65-0829]  She causes her Adam to lust for her. She took off the clothes that God dressed her in back in Eden for her journey through this wilderness; she took them off. She stripped herself down, when God had her wrapped all over in skins; she's begin to shave a little off each time. Now, she's back to where she was at the beginning. Now, she's got her Adam to wearing her underneath clothes.   A man, put on them little old sissy looking shorts, and get out here. I don't think there is much man to him. He is the biggest sissy I know of. See, she's got her perverted Adam to act like she (See?), wearing her underneath clothes. She seen what she could do out yonder when she took off all her clothes, but her underneath ones; that's the shorts, of course that's a woman's underneath clothes.   And here her Adam is wearing them now, which according to God's original Word is an abomination for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man, and a man put on a garment pertains to a woman: from the original Word. Think of it.  Now he now wears her bangs also. He combs them down, puts a curler in them. Some of the most sickly sights I've ever seen in my life is some of those kids out here today with their bangs combed down like this, and colored bleached hair with some kind of peroxide something and bleach in it, and roll it in curlers making bangs. You big sissy. That's a horrible thing to say from a pulpit, but judgment begins at the house of God. You don't even know whether you're a man or woman. And I understand that our United States Army is coming out next in shorts. That's right. See what the perversion is? It is a woman's clothes, wears her bangs.

 

[E-59  Presuming 62-0610M]  Women put on little sexy clothes, and walk out on the street. Say, "Yes, I'm a Christian." They're presuming that's the thing they should do. Now, please, sister. I'm your brother. If your mother was the right kind of a woman, she'd tell you the same, or your daddy, or your husband.

  And any man will let his wife get out on the street in them shorts and things like that, it shows how much man's in him. Let his wife set there and smoke a cigarette before him, and know that that thing... What's his children going to be?  Don't worry about communism whipping us. We've done whipped ourselves. It's our own rotten morals. And where did it start from? Because the Gospel was let down at the pulpit, where it began: sissified preachers, with not enough real baptizing of the Holy Spirit in their soul to stand and tell the Word of God. Don't spank the child for juvenile delinquency; spank the parents. It's parent delinquency. They let them get by with it.

 

So we see then that to be naked is to expose certain parts of our bodies that are to be covered in humility. Now, that is in the physical sense of the word, we know that the natural always types the spiritual. I’ve even heard brother Vayle speak about the washed out look that people like to wear, like the washed out jeans and he said, that’s because they have a washed out religion. Brother Branham in a Message called “Countdown, ”said, “All the natural things are types of the spiritual things.”  And from the Message, Diseases and Afflictions, He said, “All the natural things of the earth type the spiritual. Everything in the natural types the spiritual. You know that, most of you.” From the Message Demonology, he said, “Everything in the natural types the spiritual. Are you aware of that? Everything in the natural types the spiritual, regardless.”

 

So we see then that the natural types the spiritual, right?  So then we can see that those people who are so willing to expose themselves in the natural are also willing in the spiritual to do the same. And they are naked and don’t even know it. Now, remember, you are not held accountable until you hear the Truth, and then when you hear it, you are from henceforth held accountable. And when is the age of accountability? Some would say when they are no longer young children. Others would say, when they are no longer children period. Because the Scripture reads that a man should not wear that which pertains to a woman.

 

[Deut 22:5] Now the word for woman here is a Hebrew word which means woman, wife or female. And the word for man is a Hebrew word which means one who is strong and able to fight. [1041-Q-319  Q & A COD  64-0823E]  319. Brother Branham, is it all right for a--a young child to wear slacks and shorts?  How young? Just let you be the judge of that; if you're a Christian. A little girl or any little bitty kid, I imagine, I don't know, I... Only thing I know, the Bible says it's an abomination for a woman to wear a garment that's--that pertains to a man. See? "A woman," didn't say, "a child." But now, I just...

 

You just suit yourself about that, I... For my part, I see nothing wrong with a little bitty kid, little bitty girl four or five years old with a... When they're little fellows, you know how I mean, they'll run around out there in the yard. If she's wearing, what you call slacks or whatever, is a little bitty kid, I don't see nothing wrong with it. Maybe...   See, I'm just telling you what the Word says. It's an abomination for a woman to wear a garment that pertains to a man.

 

[79 Influence of another 62-1013]   Did you see this court order this week here in Indiana? What a shame. Less than fifteen years ago a family here in Port Fulton (I think some of the family's setting here tonight.)--here in Port Fulton, they sent a little girl home from school for wearing shorts to school. And this week they're trying to sue and put out of the school (and they did it), a little girl that refused to wear shorts in school. What's the matter with our nation? I thought this was a land of free; I thought we had a right--religious freedom.   This father stood up and said, "It's against our religious belief for our children to wear shorts, our little girl of sixteen, seventeen years old, to wear shorts; it's against our religious belief." And they dismissed and expelled the child from the school.

 

[Luke 8:26-35] Notice when he was in his right mind he was also fully dressed. [Doors in a Door 65-0206]   Now, how can we, sisters, how can we in this nation where we claim to believe and be Christians, and every year they take more off? When that person never even heard the Name of Christ, but just accepted Him in their heart. No, you couldn't tell them they were naked; they didn't know it. But they covered themselves up like this to walk away. The next day, or two, you'd find them with clothes on of some kind.  Oh, my. There's something wrong somewhere. It's a twisting up of theology. The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, like He did to the man who called "Legion: we found him clothed and in his right mind." And I begin to believe that it's a spirit upon the people that drives them into that Americanism and Frenchism, and all kinds of worldlism and churchism. But let them once come to that Master, and they feel that knock at the door, they'll put clothes on and act like women and men, and they'll be borned again Christians. Amen. Yes.

 

[Hebrews Chapter 4]  And yesterday, while Brother Tony--or Brother Wood and I were coming through the street, and some more--some of the men... There was a little lady there in Louisville, coming down the street, lovely looking little woman, with a--clothes on that was horrible: just a little way up on the hip, and a little ribbon tied on her hips on each side, and a little bitty round piece of cloth in front of her, and tied with a string behind, walking down the street, horribly, and every man on the street looking at her. I said, "She doesn't realize that she's guilty in the sight of God with committing adultery with every man that looked on her in that manner. And she'll answer at the day of judgment for committing adultery with those men."  Jesus said, "Whosoever looketh upon woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already." That's right.   So, you see, Brother Wood said to me, "What do you allow for that, Brother Branham?"   I said, "It's either mental deficiency or devil possession." There's only two things to make it. A decent, clean woman won't wear those things unless she's devil possessed. That's exactly the truth. Now, a pilgrim that's on his road to heaven, he lives in a different atmosphere. You don't have to worry about him looking at her. He'll turn his head if he's got God in his heart, for he's living in an atmosphere that's a million miles from those things. That's right. You don't want to be guilty of that stuff at the judgment. So he turns his head and say, "God, have mercy on the woman," and on he goes.   We're in our journey. We're on our way to Canaan's land. We're on our way to that eternal and blessful rest that God has given us. And in the journey, we're tempted. We're tempted of all kinds of things, but yet be tempted without sinning.

 

[135 Token The 64-0308]  Then when we pray, we must have the Token to present with our prayers, as I said, and now believe for ourself and apply the Token to the whole family like in Egypt, Jericho, or either in Acts 16:31. We find out that Paul told the Roman centurion, say, "Believe thou, and all thy house shall be saved." Apply it to your family. If you got a unsaved child, lay the Token right on top of him, say, "Lord God, I claim him." Stay right there. If you got a mother or a loved one that's lost, lay that Token on them, say, "Lord God, I claim it."  Move out, of all the worldly trash, out of your house, get ready for it. Burn up your shorts. Throw your card tables away. Get rid of your cigarettes.

 

Dump your unbelief and your church papers in the trash can where they belong. Amen. Then you're getting ready. Then what do? Then apply the Token in prayer, with real evidence, real faith. Apply it, apply it with confidence. When you apply the Token, know that you're cleaned up. "If our hearts condemn us not, then we have our request."   As long as you people are doing them things that's wrong, how you going to ask God to do anything for you when you know you're wrong? That's the reason we just stagger up and stagger back. I'm not saying this to hurt. I'm saying this to straighten out, to get things right. How you going to build it upon the chars of a Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

And that is a key to the Revealing of Christ that so many are missing Him, and He is Here just as real as He was when He spoke to Cleopas on the road to Emmaus,  In fact, from the Message,  [ My Redeemer Liveth  55-0410S] he said,   Did you ever stop to think this morning, as far as returning, that is, to become visible? He's already here with us now. He... We someday... Now, today just imagine that His Presence being here today. The Lord Jesus is in another world, or another dimension, right here today in form of Spirit. His Spirit is blending in with our spirit. Our eyes can't see Him, because that they're physical yet, unless there would something happen that we could see vision. But He is here just as visible, just as real as He was the day that He spoke to Mary at the grave, or He met Cleopas on his road to Emmaus. His Presence is here. It can be feeled with that, felt with that inner charge that's on the inside of the human body, called the new birth. The soul has been magnetized unto Him.  And once in a while, when you let your mind be concentrated on Him, believing on Him, after while something, a reality, you can feel something sweep over your being. That's the vindication of His resurrection. It's not a "guess so." It's not "I hope so." But to every person that's borned again, it's a "know so." It's... You know it. It's right there. And when you become contact with Him...  I've seen saints say, "Oh, can you... The Presence of the Lord is near." You say, "Why, there's something..." Why, certainly. He's right there, right up... He's rose from the dead, and He's standing right by you.

 

[Eph 5:13-16] we should be redeeming the time, and I hope we see the importance of keeping ourselves pure and undefiled in this world that we live. And remember, brother Branham said they either have a devil or they are mentally gone and that is what he brings into his thoughts on the condition of the people in this hour as he continues in paragraph 159 of Christ Revealed in His Own Word. [159]  In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it.  Even their mental faculties are gone, their spiritual faculties of mental--spiritual understanding. ( then notice the scripture that he quotes). [2 Tim 3: 1-6] See? Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (The power of revelation, they don't even believe in it. See?) And that is a sad indictment on the church today. They are incontinent, they can’t help themselves. Why? Because they are possessed with a devil and they have lost their minds. He said they would be mentally gone and you can sure see it today when you walk down the street. The filth gets worse and worse each year.  And the problem is that the church doesn’t even believe in the power of Revelation he said. They say, I can’t help it. If you can’t help it then you are mentally gone, and there is no hope for you. And Pentecost is the worsted bunch of illegitimate sex minded, touchy feely, free loving bunch of  whore mongering diatribe that calls themselves Christians today. And they have shown themselves to have gotten worse than the Catholic church in only 50 years as Brother Branham predicted they would be. And yet we hear people in this Message wanting to go back to that? Don't they see the same things were said in Moses day? And those who were saying it were the ones who had there sex orgies right in the camp of the Believers while Moses was away.

 

Oh, God, if the Prophet of God is looking down upon the camp of those who are claiming to believe His Message, what’s going to happen when he returns. You think Moses was angry, what about what is going on now in the name of this Message. Homosexual deacons and ministers, handling the Word of God and the communion table. Polygamists, Adulterers, Fornicators, and all claiming to be called to handle the holy Fire of God! Such filth!

 

[46-1  Souls in Prison Now 63-1110M] But it's been years since I come off the field, four, about five years since I come off... What is it? What's done this? Is that been why it was like it was in the beginning in Genesis, "God's long-suffering"? Remember, when He made the world, the seventh day He made nothing. He rested. See? God was long-suffering in that sixth year, not willing that any should perish, but all might come to repentance. God was long-suffering.   Again also in Genesis 15:16 (if you want to put it down) 16:15, He told Abraham, over in that land of the Amorites, their iniquity (They were Gentiles now.), "I can't take you in there right now, because the iniquity of the Amorites, the Gentiles, is not fulled up yet, but I will judge them. I'll come in that fourth generation, and then I'll judge that nation with a rod of iron." Is that right?

 

[133  God of this Evil Age 65-0801M]   Notice, but God is waiting till the iniquity of these modern Amorites is filled. Don't worry; He'll have His Moses ready at that time. There'll be an exodus someday to the promised land. There'll be a Moses come along who'll call out, restore the faith of the children back to the fathers. It'll come one of these days. The... You say, "Well, look how we're progressing." Sure, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. It'll come one of these days, let them destroy themselves. Civilization, knowledge perverts God's Word to suit their own taste. Every denomination does the same thing. Satan then preaches his own gospel of knowledge in his own church.

 

[16-3  The Third Exodus 63-0630M]  Now, we find out that all this has took place because... waited... revivals... The Methodists, the Lutherans, the Baptist, the Campbellites and--and all different ones; they've had great revivals. The Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, and Pentecostals, all had great revivals; but the great exodus hasn't come. Why?  God told Abraham He'd keep him in the land right then, but the iniquity of the Amorites wasn't yet full. And God has waited patient. Them people trying to figure out; they can see the Scripture run right into something, run right into something; they say, "This is the day; this is the time," but you fail to understand that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet fulfilled.  17-2  Then there comes an exodus, and we see it; that the people themselves can see back down the stream of time, that the thing is cursed. They take a wedge and a fine Babylonian garment again. And that's the thing that curses amongst the people, when man tries to inject his own ideas about things.  We got to stay with that Word; that's commandments of God was not to touch nothing in that city, that cursed city. Don't touch it; leave it alone.  And Achan thought that he could take this gold wedge and live pretty decently like the rest of the world... and fine Babylonian garment. Oh, at the Achans in the camps... See? But the thing's cursed, and it continually cursed. It was cursed since the very Nicene Council at Nicaea, Rome. It's been cursed ever since, but God's let the iniquity fill up until the time of the Amorites is about fulfilled. 19-1   All right, the iniquity wasn't full yet of the Amorites, so they had to linger and wait before the exodus. But when the Amorites got their iniquity filled, then there come a spiritual exodus or natural exodus, to lead the people to a natural land, where a natural Amorite had once dwelt--called that their land.  And the iniquity of the Amorite denomination, that's called themselves the church so long, till their iniquity is about fulfilled. There's coming an exodus where God will show who's who, where the church itself, the Bride of Jesus Christ will be exodused out into the land that's promised: in My Father's House are many mansions in this place. You don't have to go there and fight like they did; it's already prepared. If this earthly tabernacle dwelling be dissolved, we have one already waiting. "That where I am, there ye'll be also." The great exodus at hand. Watch how God did that exodus. What He... what preparations He made, and study just a minute, then look at today.  20-2 The iniquity of the Amorites was fulfilled. The time that He promised Abraham was fulfilled, and the time of deliverance was at hand. And God permitted a pharaoh to raise up who knew not Joseph, and Raamses was born. And right after Seti come Raamses, and Raamses was that one who knew not the blessings of Joseph.  And he didn't know what the spiritual side was; he was only a political genius, that he could take Ethiopia and all the rest of the countries under military might, and that's all he knew was the--the military might.

 

[10-4  Why Cry Speak 63-0714M]  I think any man with a--or woman, boy or girl... And I think in the intellectual conception of what they think the Word is and so forth, never can have a full foundation stand until they have met that Light that brings that Word to a reality.   I think no church in its practice, no matter how intellectual and fundamental it might be, that church cannot thrive until the supernatural is made known among that people, and they see it, something that they can talk to that'll talk back to them that a-vindicates this written Word.   Now, remember, when Moses met this burning bush that Word was a-vindicated exactly. It was the Word. Moses didn't have to worry, "What's this voice all about? What is this Being here?" Because God had already wrote on the Scripture in Genesis that, "Your people will sojourn in this strange land, but they'll be brought back after four hundred years--will come back into this country again, for the iniquity of the--the Amorites is not yet fulfilled."

 

 [111  Warning then Judgment  63-0724]  Like Abraham, God told Abraham, "Your seed shall come into this country and sojourn here for four hundred years, and then I'll bring them out with a mighty hand, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." See? God knew that cup was going to fill up. He was speaking with His prophet. He told him now, "You see that cup of the Amorites down there (See?), but their iniquity's not filled up yet, Abraham. Don't say nothing about it now, hold off, but it will come. And when their cup's filled up, and then four hundred years, I'll drive them out like locusts before you, and I'll establish your seed here in this land." Amen. That's the prophet of the Lord.

 

[159]  In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it.  Even their mental faculties are gone, their spiritual faculties of mental--spiritual understanding. See? Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despises of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (The power of revelation, they don't even believe in it. See?)... They don't believe in such things as prophets, and so... They don't believe in it. They believe that Malachi 4 is to be a certain church or certain organization. When he come the first time he was a man. When he come the second time with a double portion, he was a man. When he come in the form of John the Baptist, he was a man. See? In the last days when the evening Lights begin to shine, eyes will become open and you'll see where you're going. Then the Body is already formed, standing upon it's feet, taking motion, moving by the Holy Spirit. What? The same One that moved upon the prophets that wrote the Bible, the same Holy Ghost moving in a Body, filled with the Holy Ghost, moved in the Holy Ghost out of every organization and every kindred, tongue, and people.