Christ Revealed in His Own Word #91
“Sovereignty”
Sunday, April 6, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
[105] God is a Person. God can
speak. God can talk. God can write.
He didn't have to do it that way, but that's the way He chose to do it. He
didn't have to do it that way, but He chose to do it that way. Now, you say,
"God wrote with His finger, His own majestic finger, the Ten Commandments.
So God could write It Hisself if He
wanted to." See? ( I’d like
to interject the thing he is talking about God being able write Himself if He
wanted to is the Bible.) But He chose to write It through prophets
(See?), because it was His attributes,
His Word, He expressed through them, making it all a part or a part of Him.
See? He could write with His finger. He also took His finger and wrote on the
walls of Babylon, "Thou art weighed in the balance and found
wanting." He wrote with His own finger.
[106] God can talk. Do you
believe God can talk? He talked to Moses on the mount in a burning bush. You
believe that? Yes, sir. He talked to John in the form of a dove. You believe
that? Said, "This is My beloved Son
in whom I'm pleased to dwell in." He talked to Him. He spoke to Jesus
on Mount Transfiguration before Peter, James, and John. He can talk; He's not a
mute. God can talk. So He spoke to Jesus on Mount Transfiguration. And He spoke
to Jesus before a whole multitude of people, when the people said, "It
thundered." But it was God speaking to Jesus. And almost all of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John is Jesus speaking. He's God. So God can talk.
Now,
if you are Oneness in your thinking, you would have to believe that it was
somehow Jesus throwing His voice, like a ventriloquist, so that it appeared to be coming from above
or somewhere else. And that is about how ridiculous some of the doctrines are
that men believe. Let’s look at the scriptures for a moment and examine the
various times that God spoke and Jesus was Present but silent.
Now, the essence of what
Brother Branham is telling us here is that God can speak, and He can write, and
He can do whatsoever He wants to do, but the fact is, that He chose to use
prophets instead of speaking directly to the people Himself. And God is SOVEREIGN, and He will do what
He well pleases, and no one is going to tell Him what He can and can not do.
And if God chose to use prophets to speak to the people, then that is His
decision and just because you may not like the way God does things, doesn’t
mean you can do anything about it. You tell people that God still uses prophets
and they think you’re some kind of a nut or something. You talk to anyone who doesn’t believe this
Message, but have heard that we believe God sent a prophet in this hour, and
they’ll compare you to those Star
Trekies who committed suicide out in California. Now, those people were crazy,
and yet it is you that they think are crazy.
Those people were not even Christian people. They were more of that New
Age belief which mixes Eastern mysticism with the Bible, and Mother Earth
folklore, and who knows what else. But
try to explain to family members, or friends who don’t believe this Word, and
it’s just about an impossible task. So what is the answer? Just let them alone.
They can’t see The message of God because they are not ordained to see it, and
there is nothing you can do to help them to see it.
If you say that you believe
we are living in the end-times, they will tell you that you are off your
rocker, yet they themselves know that things can not keep going in the way they
are without something very cataclysmic happening. But, the thing of it is, they don’t believe the Bible, and if
they don’t believe the Bible, then how could you ever think they will believe a
Prophet that the Bible speaks about. You have got to believe the Bible before
you could believe what someone tells you about it. Because after all, the Bible
was written by the Prophets. And if they won’t believe the Prophets past, how
could they ever believe the Prophets present tense. So if they don’t believe
what the prophets wrote, certainly they won’t believe what he says on tape.
After all, it is not the Bible, nor the Prophets that they are rejecting, but
they are rejecting God Himself who spoke to the Prophets, since the Prophets
only wrote down what God told them to write. People don’t change, and demon
spirit’s don’t change, they just go from one
body to another.
[1 Sam 8:1-21] When the people wanted a King instead of a Prophet,
God told Samuel, “ It’s not you that the people are rejecting, Samuel, It is Me that they
are rejecting me”. And we look back through the scriptures and even
though God sent men among the Jews who were prophets, and even though the Jews
have a long history of having had prophets of God come among them with a
Message from God, yet if you will examine the scene, it played out just about
the same every time. The prophet showed up and the people thought he was some
kind of strange weirdo, and they never received the prophet’s message.
No, not until after they
killed off that prophet and then the judgments came upon them; then they said, “my
goodness, maybe that old crackpot was right after all.” But they never received a prophet while he
was living. And people don’t change. They ever remain the same. Because it’s
the same unbelieving spirit’s that inhabit them from time unto time immortal.
Now, this morning, I was
going to speak on the identification of God’s presence in and with a Cloud, and
show you many scriptures that will help you to better understand how that in
many ages, especially the Three periods which we call an exodus, how that God
has identified His Presence among us in a cloud, and actually a Cloud has then been a peculiar witness of the
Presence of God among man.
But this morning, I felt
more led to speak directly on this subject of the Sovereignty of God as Brother
Branham is bringing across to us, when he says, “God is a Person. God can speak. God can talk. God can write.
He didn't have to do it that way, but that's the way He chose to do it. He didn't have to do it that way, but He chose to do it that way” And,
then, when we look at Sovereignty we must look at choice, or will, for that is
what makes God Sovereign. Now, the
word, Sovereignty according to Webster:
is
the state or quality of being sovereign. Simply put, it
shows the power and status of the one who is sovereign. And of course
the word sovereign means: Above
or superior to all others in rank, rule, and power. One
who answers to no other. And it comes from two words, super meanin
above, and to reign, meaning to have dominion over. Therefore, to be
sovereign means to reign over supremely.
Now, most people don’t believe that God is Sovereign, especially
in their own lives until something happens that they have no control over. Then
they seem to melt and will acknowledge that God and only God can help them
through that particular hurdle.
Otherwise, they seem to have no time for the Great Sovereign God. So, really, then, what most people have is a God of convenience. One who is there
only when they need Him and then when they are not in a bind, they forget all
about Him. which then, doesn’t make Him sovereign, for by the definition of
sovereignty, they would be the ones who are controlling, since they can turn
Him on and turn Him off in their lives whenever they please. But don’t let this
attitude fool you. “God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Now, to begin with, in order
to establish our understanding of what the Sovereignty of God is all about, we
must first establish what it is that God is sovereign over. For the Word sovereign
we have found means to be the Absolute as brother Branham would put it, the
final say, and the ultimate. To be sovereign we found according to Webster,
there are 3 basic things, rank, rule, and power. He must be Ruler,
Supreme Ruler. And since God is perfected in three’s, we shall begin by
examining these three attributes of the sovereign God.
#1) Now,
let’s begin by examining Rank. What
do we mean by rank? In the Armed Service we use the system of rank, can any one
tell me what the word rank refers to? Rank has to do with Authority! The level of authority. The word rank comes from the word range
which means to place in a certain order. So we see by definition, that God in
order to be Sovereign, has no equal, and there is none beside Him. In [Isaiah
37:16] we hear Hezekiah speaking to God of His Sovereignty. (read) And in [Exodus
20:1-7] We hear God telling man just how this acknowledgment of Himself and
his relationship to God should be carried conducted., because remember, if God
is above all in rank, and this rank has to do with a certain prescribed order,
then God is a God of order, which must be followed. (read)
In [Exodus 34:14] we read that God is a jealous God and will not allow
for us to worship other things in His place. Now the word worship according to
Webster comes from two words, worth
and ship. And worth is the value we
place on something, and the word ship is a suffix which means the state or
condition. Therefore our worship has a rank as well, and that rank is the result
of the order in which we place God. He is to have the pre-eminent place in our
hearts, and minds and souls. Then any other would have to be a lesser being
than He for if He is the Sovereign, He is the Top in rank, in order, and class.
That is why I cannot for the life of me figure out how people can be so stupid
when it comes to God in their life.
[Matt 22:36] when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is,
He replied.. “To love the Lord your God,
with all your heart, all your soul, and mind.” But in [Mark 12:30-33] He adds one other ingredient, and that is strength,
which we find God Himself speaking of in the Book of [Deuteronomy 6:4-18]. So actually when God speaks in His Word about
loving Him with all of our heart, He
is speaking about Loving Him with all of our understanding. Then when He speaks
of loving Him with all of our Soul, He is speaking of loving Him with all that
we are as a person, because our soul is who we are, it is our life, our breathe
and our being. Then finally He tells us to love Him with all of our might or
strength, which is to say, with all of our energies. Because, we could say that
we love Him and even do perhaps in our understanding, and in our being have a
love for Him which supersedes our love for anything else, but that is still
coming up short of what God wants. He wants us to place our energies into this
love. He said, teach them diligently to
our children! That takes an effort, and that shows your love to God.
For what woman would love a
man, and never show it. She may say, I love you but if there are no outward
movements of Love then it really means nothing. For love in itself is self
sacrificial in it’s nature. Paul tells us that “Love suffers long, and is kind,
and does not envy, and is not over inflated, and does not behave itself
unseemly, and is not self seeking, and is not easily provoked, and thinks no
evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but only in Truth, it beareth all things, hopes
all things, and endures all things, and it never fails.” Now, what is He saying? That Love is
something that is very difficult to have because you can’t have it by keeping
it to yourself. You must give it away,
in order to possess it. You must exert what energies you have in the
process of showing this Love, and proper worship, or worth ship. This proper
showing of your love and devotion to the most valuable person in your Life,
Your God.
I should stop here and say
the same thing about marriages today as well.
The Spirit of this age is women worship. No where on earth is it
stronger than in this country. That shouldn’t be strange considering the
Message to the Bride of Christ has come out of this country as the light ends
up in the West. Therefore, if there is a True Message to get a Bride ready,
then satan will create a false message to make her unprepared, and will destroy
the correct Bridal atmosphere. That spirit elevates women in a position of rank
that is equal to that of husband. And
rank has to do with authority, & women want man’s authority. [Isaiah 4:1] “And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘we will eat our own bread, and wear our
own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our
reproach.” What reproach? Not
having what they call equality. We will eat our own bread, What does
that mean? We will be the bread winner, and we’ll by our own clothes, but we
want to be called by your name to take away our reproach. Mrs. so and so, but
she has her own mind, her own heart, and her own energies are poured into her
own soul, and her concern is no longer for her children, and husband, but
herself. That’s the condition of the women of this nation. And it shows we are
at the end-time!
[Future Home] Listen, let's just read it. Look here. “ And in that day seven women shall take
ahold of one man saying, We'll eat our own bread,... wear our own apparel: only
let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach... (That's the end
time where we're living now: marriage, divorce, and prostitution, and
whatevermore.) In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and
glorious,... the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely... them
that... escaped of Israel... (How that you escaped all that damnation.
See?) And it shall came to pass, that he
that is left in Zion, and he that's a remnant in Jerusalem, shall... (Let's
see.)... in Jerusalem, shall be called
holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: (See?) Wherein the Lord shall have washed away
the filth of the daughter of Zion,... (Remember that's always the Bride.
See?)... and shall have purified the
blood of Jerusalem... (That's the remnant of the Jews plus the Bride.
See?)... and in the midst thereof with
the spirit of judgment,... (Fire, that's always God's judgment. When He
makes His final judgment, calls you, justifies you, and brings you to
redemption, then His judgment breaks forth upon you, and the Holy Ghost and
Fire cleanses away the sin. Then you're His. Same thing He does to the earth
when He purges it with fire.)... and by
the spirit of burning. (Now look listen, are you ready?)
And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and
upon her assembly, a cloud of smoke by day, and a shining of... fire by night:
for upon all the glory shall be a defense.
We’ll get into this cloud
in our next service Lord willing. [Mark 12:30-33] With all our understanding,
soul, mind and strength
Now, to this point we have
established that sovereignty has to do with rank. Being, numero One and
everything else is a far and distant second.
Look, even the thoughts of being equal with God got Lucifer kicked out
of heaven. [Isaiah 14:12-15] and yet at the end-time satan, when he incarnates
himself in the false prophet, shall once again try to exalt himself to be equal
with God. [2 Thess 2:4] but we know
that God has said, “Thou shalt have no
other Gods, period.”
And we are talking about
rank here. In the order that God has set down, we have a Father who is above
the Son, [Eph 4:6](read) And in [Heb 5:8] we read, And though He were a Son, learned He obedience to the Father by
the things that He had to suffer”.
Both Paul and Peter even acknowledge this order when we read in [2 Cor 11:31] &[Eph 1:3] & [1 Peter 1:3]
of the God Who is Also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again in [1 Cor 15:23-28] So we see that the Son
is subject to the Father, and shall be still.
In [Q & A] “On top of Mount Zion will set the Lamb. And
the city will need no light, for the Lamb is the Light thereof. And above the Lamb will be the Father,
which is the Logos, God, the great Light, the eternal Light that'll shine just
above the throne. And Jesus will not be on His Father's throne, He'll be on His
throne. And the Father will hover over
the Son,..”
Now, as we said earlier in
this message, sovereignty, In looking
at this first point alone has to do with rank, and this rank has to do with the
will and choice, God’s Choice, God’s Will. After, all, rank is a matter of
choice, position, and placement which
is a matter of order as in ordained. [Psalm 37:23] & [Eph 1:11]
Our pre-dstiny which has to do with God’s order and placement, is a result
of and has it’s dependance upon His own
Will. For after all, if God created the earth for His own pleasure, [Rev 4:11] then, what He does with what
He has created is His own business. But we will get into that on Wednesday
night when we look at rule and authority.
In [Isaiah 9:6-7] we see the
ministry of Christ is to establish the order that God has ordained for His
Kingdom.
We also find the ministry
under the Pillar of Fire was to set the church in order. Under Moses, Paul and
William Branham. That is why Moses was a Law Giver, Paul was a teacher to the
Gentiles, which is a setter in order, and has to do with placement, and William
Branham had to set the church in order with church order before the seal could
be broke. Remember the order, ABC = Always Believe Christ! In Moses day we read, [Ex
27:21, 39:37, 40:4, 23, Lev 1:7,8, 12 ; 24:8]
In Paul’s day we read...[ 1 Cor 11:34, 14:40; Col 2:5, ] And
since we know that the things that Moses was commanded to build concerning the
Tabernacle were to be done after the pattern of the heavenly vision, we can see
then that there had to be an order in Heaven as well. In [Hebrews 8: 1-5] Paul speaks of a heavenly order that was a
foreshadow of the earthly ministry. And that Heavenly ministry was that of the
Melchisedec order. [Hebrews 5:6, 10, 6:20, 7:11, 17,21]
Therefore, if we are to
learn of the sovereignty of God, we must first learn the first rule of this
sovereignty, which is that God has the supreme Rank, He is Number One, and that
He therefore has a specific order to
everything that pertains to His Sovereign Position.
During the course of our
study on the sovereignty of God we shall move next time into the second rule of
sovereignty which is rule, itself. And we know that Rule is authority, and then
authority becomes power for power is authority. Thus as we study the Sovereignty of God we shall also see how it
is that God becomes. For we know that God
is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Yet the Omniscience must come before
the other two, for God is not omnipresent as if He is in all places at all
times and filling all space, but His Omnipresence comes from the fact that He
is all knowing, (omniscient). And thus of the three,... Omniscient, Omnipotent,
and Omnipresent, the greatest of these, and the highest order, is Omniscience.
And this is where Sovereignty comes forth from. God’s power and strength comes
from His Omniscience. For could you imagine having all power and not knowing
how to use that power?