Christ Revealed in
His Own Word #88
Sunday, March 23, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
Wednesday night we read from
paragraph 104 where brother Branham said,
[104] Now, we know God chose by predestination His church, His place,
His prophets, and all
about it. By foreknowledge He
predestinated His prophet. And when
the age arrived, He had His
prophet arrive at the same time and inspired him as He wrote the Bible by him. Now, God wrote the Bible only using the prophet, because
that's His way of doing it. So see, It
is the Word of God and not the word of man. “Now, we know God chose by
predestination #1) His church, #2) His place, #3) His
prophets, and #4) all about it, and #5) the timing, as we hear him say, ““By foreknowledge He
predestinated His prophet. And when
the age arrived, He had His prophet
arrive at the same time. Now,
don’t forget that this message is about Christ being revealed through
His own Word, but it also entails the way, or the instrument that God uses in
revealing Himself through His Word. Now in this paragraph he tells us “we know that God chose by predestination”,
and then he tells us what this predestination consists of. There are four particular things, that are
predestinated and 1 thing which is not so particular. And as we stated a few weeks ago, there are three things involved
directly when God wishes to Reveal Himself. First we have the One Who reveals,
second, we have the One in Whom He reveals, and thirdly, we have the Ones to
Whom He reveals. The One Who reveals, The One in Whom He reveals, and the Ones
to Whom He is revealed..
Now, in order for God to
Reveal Himself, we see in paragraph 104 that God chose to perform this
revealing by predestinating certain things. His church to receive it, His
Prophet, to reveal it, the place and the timing and then other miscellaneous things not as directly related as
the first 4. #1) He predestines His Church, #2) He predestines His place where
He wishes to Reveal Himself to that Church, (the Geographic location).
Remember, the Light began in the East but through-out the Seven Church Ages, it
keeps moving westward. #3) He
predestines His Prophets to be the revealer of Himself, and #4) He predestines the specific age for the
Revealing to take place. There is a specific time involved with the Revealing
that is to take place....and finally #5) He said, “Now, we know God chose by predestination His church, His place, His
prophets, and all about it. So we see that this other category is an
“All
about it” category, where we can lump together other assorted details
that He was not specific with, but that God considers important enough to
predestinate as well. And He does this in order to guarantee Himself, that the
Revealing of Himself will have all the necessary elements needed do be
effective and actually do what He has ordained for it to do.
So we can see then that God
knows what He is doing. He not only knows what He wants to reveal, but He knows
what He wants to accomplish with the revealing. Therefore, He plans the place,
and the time of the event, the Vessel to reveal through and even the audience
to whom He wishes to reveal Himself. God does not do anything by happenstance.
He never guesses. He thoroughly plans out what He wishes to do down to the very
minutest of details, in order to ensure the outcome will be as He desires.
[Luke 14:28-35] For which of
you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it]? Lest haply, after he hath laid the
foundation, and is not able to finish [it], and all that behold [it] begin to
mock him, Saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against
another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with
ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way
off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
First of all He said that in
order for God to Reveal His Word there must be a people to whom He Will reveal
it. [Luke 1:17] And he shall go before
him in the spirit and power of Elias,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the
wisdom of the just; to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord. To
make ready a prepared people. Therefore, the people have already been prepared
somehow, and the job of this Spirit and power of Elijah is to make them ready
for the Lord. Jesus said in, [John
15:16] “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and
bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye
shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
Now, Jesus said, I
have chosen you, and ordained you,” . In other words,
Jesus was telling them that they just didn’t happen to stumble across this
great Revealing that was taking place in there midst, but that He had “set
forth and put into place” their involvement.
We see in this statement of His, the importance of God selecting
before-hand, the players that are to have a part in this great drama that is
about to unfold. As I mentioned
Wednesday night, what good would it be for a drama company to put on a play
that requires a real understanding of Shakespeare and then perform that play
before a group of little children who wouldn’t have a clue to what was going
on. So we see, that the audience is a
very important part of any drama if a message is to be received through the
acting out of the drama.
And Brother Branham said
from, paragraph 172 of the Message, [Super
Sign], Now, you all can't be that one, but you can be a part of that with
your faith. All of them couldn't be a Jesus, when they was on earth, but they
could believe Him and accept the message. There was one Moses, one Elijah, one
Noah, on down, always been that, but the rest of them could accept it. And they would've had no ministry unless
there'd been somebody believe it. Jesus
would've had no ministry 'less somebody believed it. Paul would've had no
ministry 'less somebody believed it.
The Holy Ghost has got no
ministry by the Word today unless somebody's willing to get away from their
creed and come back to the Word again, no matter how well it's here and how
real it's here. It's here now. I know it's here. I feel it. I know it's here.
The Word says it's here. "Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name,
I'm in the midst of them." And I truly believe that He's here, the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
So there must be a people
who are ordained to receive it. [Acts
13:48] And when the Gentiles heard
this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. So we see then that there first must be
a purpose or plan, and this purpose or plan is specifically ordained for a
specific group of people who are ordained to receive it.
In [I Cor 2:7]Paul tells us that God’s hidden Wisdom is revealed for
our Glory. He said, “But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our
glory:”
Now, to this point we have
seen that God not only ordained a Glory to be revealed, but the people to whom
it should be revealed. [Romans 8:18]
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.
Now we understand that this
Glory is actually ordained to benefit a certain group of people, but he also
mentioned about the time and place of that revealing as well. And that is what
I would like to speak on this morning. Wednesday night we brought out these
five predestinated things which are essential tot he Revealing of Christ. We
focused our thought’s on a predestinated people and prophet, but this morning I
would like to focus on the time or season of this great revealing.
Now, we are all familiar
with [Matthew 24]and that it speaks
of the end-time. Let’s examine this scripture this morning and see why this is
so. (Read) [Matt 24:1-3] Now, notice
that the disciples asked Jesus 3
questions. #1) When shall these things be?
What things? Jesus had just told them that the temple that they were
looking at was going to be torn down.
The 2nd question they asked Him was, “What will be the sign of thy
Parousia?” And the 3rd question was, “And what will be the sign of the
end of the world?” Now, as we read further we will find that Jesus answers their questions, but not in the
order that they were asked. The last question He answers first. And what was
that question? It pertained to the end of the world, and what signs would indicate
when the end was here. “And what will be the sign of the end of the
world?” In other words, what
will be the indicators that the end-time is here?
[Matt 24:4] Here we see that Jesus is telling them what the
indicators of the end-time will be. Deception.
He says, take heed, that no one deceive you! Take heed, be careful, be
aware, these are attributes which
indicate that a mental awareness will be so very important. In other words,
don’t be lulled to sleep like the sleeping virgins were. Be awake, be aware,
weigh carefully the evidence that will be presented to you and consider the
matter very thoughtfully, because of you don’t, you will be deceived. And what
evidence is that? Let’s read on.
First of all, we see in
verse 5 that the deception will involve men who claim to be anointed by God. [Matt 24:5] For many will come in my name
saying, ‘I am anointed’, and shall lead many astray and cause them to wander
away from the truth. So what we
see here thus far is not only men will arise who claim to be God’s anointed,
but by this anointing they will lead many away from the truth. So there is a
two fold characteristic being presented here. False anointed, and deception
with it.
Now, to this point Jesus has
given this indicator which has to do with the Word. But there are other
conditions which must be met as well, to nail down the end-time. Let’s read
verse [6-14]. Now notice that Jesus
tells us other indicators of the end-time. In verse [6-7] He says, “wars will come”, and we have had in
the twentieth century more wars which have involved all the nations of the
world than in any other time in history. Two world wars, and a Korean and
Vietnam war, as well as the desert Storm in which the nations assembled against
Iraq. But this Jesus tells us is not the complete indicator. He said, there
will be famines and pestilence, and earthquakes in many places, and we have
seen these in extraordinary numbers in the twentieth century. But in verse [8] Jesus tells us that all these things are just the beginnings of
sorrow. That word, beginnings means the
commencement of. And thus the beginning of the end.
In the next verse He gets
more specific, as He says, that there will come a pressure, which we know to be
the squeeze. And in verse [10] He
says, that another indicator that the end-time is at hand is the condition of
the people. He said, “and many will offend”. That word offend is a Greek word, Scandalizo which speaks of scandal and
distrust that begins to overwhelm the people, causing many to loose confidence
and become distrustful in the things or ones that they should have trust in. But as a result many
will fall away, and they will begin to
betray one another. Just look at the White house, as an evidence of that. The
one thing we should be able to look up to in this nation and yet the people
have no more confidence in that than they could in a convicted rapist.
Then in verse [11] He speaks of the false prophets
taking over and the deception that results. And in verse [12] we see the saddest condition of all. “Because iniquity abounds,
the love or many shall wax cold”. Because the people know to do right and they
don’t do what they know is right, it causes the love of many to wax cold.
Continuous, contempt and violation of the law causes a response among the
people, where they just don’t care any more. They have become apathetic. But don’t fail to notice verse [13], that’s our verse because we are 13
as a nation, and He is speaking in this verse of a people that will overcome. That word overcome is a Greek word
which means to be patient. To persevere under trials and hardships, and yet
holding fast to the faith.
Finally in verse [14], Jesus tells us that finally when
this Gospel is preached throughout the world, the end will be in progress. That
word, then shall the end come, doesn’t mean that everything is over at that
point, but it actually means it shall have arrived. And so we see the many
attributes which designate the arrival of the end-time season. And the ministry
of the Pillar of Fire went around the world seven times which is completion. “I hope you can see that we are definitely
at the end-time”.
Now in verses [15-20] Jesus is answering the first
question asked, when will these things be? When will the Temple be destroyed? (Read)
Now, from verse [Matt 24:21-Matt 25] Jesus is focusing
His attention to answering the second question which deals with the time of the
Parousia. Now, I want you to notice how He answers the second question just
like He began, by going backwards in His
answer. He begins by looking at the last portion of the time of the Parousia,
which is at the time when the squeeze turns into tribulation, and He says, then... which means at that time....(read) And notice He speaks of those
days being shortened. So we see that the time of the tribulation will be
considerably shortened compared to the rest of the time of the Parousia. (read on).
Notice by verse [23] He is fully into the subject of His
Presence. Now, in verse [30] I don’t
want you to be confused, because Jesus is not speaking chronologically here
when He says, and then this will happen
and then that will happen. What He is doing here is what He did to begin with.
He is listing characteristics and attributes which are signs or indicators of
His Parousia. He is not saying that this one leads to that one.
But as I have already
stated, the word, and then, simply means and at this time, or and
during this time, these things shall take place. Other wise, in verse [30] you would have the Parousia and
Coming after the tribulation period, instead of before. But notice verse [31] must be tied to verse [30]
and if verse [31] is after the
Tribulation then the gathering of [2
Thess 2:1] would have to be as well. And this is why many men believe that
the tribulation will happen before the coming of the Lord. They are mis-reading
this scripture as a chronological order instead of a listing of identifiers to
the Parousia of Christ.
In verse [36] Jesus said, “But of that day or hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Now this does not mean that no man will ever
know, because He did not say that. He said, no man knoweth, which is present
tense. Because He then goes on to tell us that there will be certain things
that will take place that will be indicators of that day. In verse 37, He tells us that “as
the days of Noah were, so shall the Parousia of the Son of Man be.” And the word, AS simply means in the same manner. AS what? AS the days were then ...SO SHALL the days
be, at the Parousia of Christ. Then Jesus goes on to tell us that the
scenario will be like when two people are so close together, that they eat
together and sleep together and are in the field together, together, yet a separation will still result.
I think it is time to take
inventory. In 2 Thess 2 we are warned that we won’t really know the time and
season of the Parousia until there comes a falling away first. Then in the Book
of Timothy we are forewarned that there will be a falling away. An Attrition
will set in. The lure of things will be so strong that the people will
completely be set off guard and before they know what happens, they will have
turned away from the truth and it will be too late then. But we see that there is a certain time that
is predestined. And that just doesn’t mean a time as in a specific date, but it
means a time as in a season, and a season has tell-tale characteristics. [II
Thess 2:6] And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Notice that the scripture
here speaks specifically of a time when this revealing is to take place.
[Ecclesiastics 3:1] To every
[thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: &
[3:7] A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; So we see here that there
is a time and season for the Revelation of that which was hidden to be spoken
out and made known.
Notice that as we read the
various Scripture pertaining to a season or time that each gives us evidence
that we are looking at a time or season that is evidenced by having certain
characteristics which help us to identify the season. In other words, each
season has ear-marks, or certain characteristics which stand out in such a way
that you know the season by observing it’s characteristics. In the fall, the
leaves turn color and fall off the trees.
Winter has it’s own identifiers, such as colder weather and snow. The
summer is marked by hotter days and drier weather. The Spring is ear-marked by
a resurrection in nature. And so each season can be identified by it’s
characteristics.
In [I Peter 1:5] We read, “Who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.” So
we are talking about a last time, or last season, revelation. In fact the Wuest translation translates it this
way. “you who are constantly being kept
guarded by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in a last season which is epochal and strategic in it’s significance. And
the word epochal means having to do with timing. And we see here that this
timing is part of the strategy just like timing is part of the strategy for any thing, from building a
house, to war to even games.
[II Thess 1:10] When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all
them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed ) in that day. So we see that there’s
a specific day when this Glory is to enter into the Elect. Notice the words,
when and in that day. These speak of a certain season that will be ear-marked
by the Parousia of Christ and the Glory of God in the saints, because the
ministry of Paul, His Testimony will be believed in that day. So the believing
of Paul’s testimony will be the ear-mark of THAT DAY! And what was Paul’s
testimony? That Christ has raised from the dead, and had returned as the Pillar
of Fire. [I Peter 1:13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ: