Christ Revealed in His Own Word #141
Lord, what Will Thou Have me to do #3
Wednesday,
October 08, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
[Luke 18:18-27] Prayer 168
Dear God, laying here is handkerchiefs, and there's sick people
everywhere. And I myself, Lord, am tired and wore out this morning. I pray that
You'll help us, dear God. We look to You for strength. You are our Strength.
You've helped so many, dear God. The
other day, thinking down there in that woods, walking around with Brother Banks
Wood, when the doctors... His heart was so bad he couldn't hardly walk around.
Then to think how little I knew up there walking in those mountains after that
vision, "I must get that lion. I must see that lion killed." And then
coming down there and standing there in Tucson at Furr's Cafeteria, and see his
clothes all bagging down, his eyes drooped, I said, "God, if You can show
a vision where a lion is, surely You can show about Brother Wood." And then it come, "Lay your hands upon
him." And here he is today, back, our Brother Banks again, strong, running
up and down those mountains. How we thank Thee, dear God. You're the same God
to all of us as You'd be to Brother Wood. I know You love him, because he's
Your servant, honest, and sincere. 170 And I pray, dear God, that You'll deal with each one of us, and forgive our sins, and heal our sicknesses of our bodies. Make us more like You day by
day, Lord, until we come in that full statue of Jesus Christ. Grant it, Lord. I
trust that You've searched every heart now and we know what to do. We ask for
You to bless us now, in Jesus' Name.
171 And while we have our heads
bowed, is there any here present or out in the telephone land across the nation
that would just like to, while you're praying, and your heads bowed, just raise
up your hand to God now. That's all you can do; it's crowded in here this
morning. Just raise up your hand to God, say, "God, make me more like
Jesus; I want to be more like Jesus." God bless you. Out into the land
across the nation, hands just everywhere, just a solid mass. Also mine lifted
up. "I want to be more like Him. Search me, Lord, and find if there be any
evil in me; take it out. I want..." We're
just here so long, yet we're going to leave whether your-- no matter what
you are, how rich, how poor, how young, how old...
This evening, I would like
to take a short Message on this last thought that we read here from paragraph
171. Brother Branham is closing out this wonderful Message of How “Christ
is Revealed in His Own Word”,
and in closing he says, "I
want to be more like Him. Search me, Lord, and find if there be any evil in me;
take it out. " We're just here so
long, yet we're going to leave whether your-- no matter what you are, how
rich, how poor, how young, how old...
So we see that whatsoever we
do here on earth, no matter how much we lay up here on earth, it will not be
taken with us tot he other side. There will be no rich and poor over there.
There will be no big I’s and little you’s over there. Death is a great
equalizer. At the grave, men must leave their earthly treasure, never to use it
for status again. Therefore, what does it matter what you might gain in this
world. What does it matter what status, what power, what riches, you can not
take it with you. You will enter the other side the same as every one else.
In the Book of Job, [Job 1:21] we read, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of
the LORD.” Therefore, we can say the grave is the great equalizer. Because you
come into this life naked, meaning with nothing but the skin God gave you to
cover you body, and naked you will leave. At the point of death everything you
own transfers ownership. YOU no longer own anything but your Soul, and even
that has departed your body. Therefore, this body that we so pamper ends up
with nothing. We hear all the time people making statements of how sorry they
feel for this person or that person because they died a pauper.
Everyone dies a pauper. [Ecclesiastes 1:1-12] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,
vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor
which he taketh under the sun? [One]
generation passeth away, and [another] generation cometh: but the earth abideth
for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his
place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto
the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again
according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is]
not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return
again. All things [are] full of labor; man cannot utter [it]: the eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Let’s just stop here for a
moment and ask ourself what Solomon is saying here. He is looking our at life
and he sees that what labor a man does, it seems to never go away. Just what
happens in nature, where the sun comes up and goes down and yet tomorrow, it
will repeat itself all over again. You go not work today and you work real hard
and tomorrow, it’s the same old thing. You work real hard trying to get your
work done, and yet when you come back tomorrow, it’s all there, and even more
than before, so why do people subject themselves to work that they don’t even
enjoy? He is trying to tell us that if you’ve got to work, and every man has to
because of the curse in the garden, then if you must labor, you should at least
do that which you enjoy doing. Because you will be doing it over and over and
over again the rest of your life. And he goes on to say,
The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which
is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the
sun. Is there [any] thing whereof it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath
been already of old time, which was before us.
[There is] no remembrance of former [things]; neither shall there be
[any] remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come
after. And
so we just plod along in this world under the conditions that were left to us
by Adam because of the curse.
In chapter 3 we read,[Ecclesiastes 3: all] To every [thing there is] a season, and a time
to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time
to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted; A time to kill, and a
time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and
a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away
stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to
refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and
a time to cast away; A time to rend,
and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love,
and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace; What profit hath he that worketh in that
wherein he laboureth? I have seen the
travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath
made every [thing] beautiful in his time:
also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work
that God maketh from the beginning to the end;
I know that [there is] no good in them, but for [a man] to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that
every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it [is]
the gift of God. I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever:
nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth [it], that
[men] should fear before him; That which hath been is now; and that which
is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. And
moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, [that] wickedness [was]
there; and the place of righteousness, [that] iniquity [was] there. I said in
mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for [there is] a time
there for every purpose and for every work. I said in mine heart concerning the
estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might
see that they themselves are beasts;
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one
thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all
one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is]
vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust
again. Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
Wherefore I perceive that [there is] nothing better, than that a man should
rejoice in his own works; for that [is] his portion: for who shall bring him to
see what shall be after him? Don’t ever become unthankful, [2 Timothy 3:1-2].
[Ecclesiastes 12:13-14] Let us
hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether
[it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.
We all think of what a great
thing it must have been for Solomon to be the wisest man that ever lived, yet
when you read the Book of Ecclesiastes which he wrote, you will see a man who
had it all, and yet he was miserable because of it. [Ecclesiastes 4:4-6] Again, I
considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of
his neighbor. This [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit. The fool foldeth
his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Better [is] an handful [with]
quietness, than both the hands full [with] travail and vexation of spirit.
[Ecclesiastes 5:10] He that
loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance
with increase: this [is] also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased
that eat them: and what good [is there] to the owners thereof, saving the
beholding [of them] with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man [is] sweet,
whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer
him to sleep. There is a sore evil [which] I have seen under the sun, [namely],
riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by
evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and [there is] nothing in his hand. As he
came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and
shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this
also [is] a sore evil, [that] in all points as he came, so shall he go: and
what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind? All his days also he eateth
in darkness, and [he hath] much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. Behold
[that] which I have seen: [it is] good and comely [for one] to eat and to
drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all
the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it [is] his portion. Every man
also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat
thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this [is] the
gift of God. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God
answereth [him] in the joy of his heart.
[Ecclesiastes 6:1] There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it [is]
common among men:
A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he
wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not
power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is]
an evil disease. If a man beget an hundred [children], and live many years, so
that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and
also [that] he have no burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than
he. For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall
be covered with darkness. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known [any
thing]: this hath more rest than the other. Yea, though he live a thousand
years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place? All
the labor of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. For
what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk
before the living? Better [is] the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the
desire: this [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit.
Now, let’s go back to Christ
Revealed in His Own Word and see how this ties in with what Brother Branham is
telling here.
172 Standing yesterday to a little poor bunch of people way up in a
mountain down on the creek, there's a little family there, a man I been talking
to about God so long, come down, his little wife, seven or eight children, him,
a little bitty spindly thing, out there trying to work, a couple dollars a day.
And a man let him live in a little shanty, and there his wife up there, nearly
ready to have another child; and she had a big, broad ax up there chopping wood
and pull it down, baby on one hip pulling the wood with another, come down to
cut that wood to can some blackberries to keep from going hungry through the
winter... My, how we felt sorry for her, and Brother Wood and I went and got
the truck, and went over there, and cut her wood, and brought it in. A grateful
little woman, and standing there. I felt sorry for her, and we kept praying for
them.
173 And her little baby took epilepsy. We went and prayed for the
little baby, and God healed it. And the other day her husband had a hernia. And
went in... I'd been talking to him. He smoked, both of them. She used tobacco
and he did too: typical of mountain people. And then I kept talking to them
about it. Yesterday morning when I went in about daylight, here he come walking
out holding his hands together, said, "Brother Billy, I'm a changed
man." He said, "I've smoked my last cigarette, and I'm over on the
Lord's side." She said, "I
just smoked my last one too." Oh, plant the seed, "I the Lord have
watered... I'll water it day and night, lest some shall pluck it from My
hands." 174 Oh, God be merciful now, I pray, and give us the desire of our
heart, 'cause in our hearts we want to serve You. Now, Father, they're all in
Your hands, everywhere. They're Your children; deal with them according to
mercy, Lord, not in judgment, but in mercy, we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
[Luke 6:20-49]