Christ Revealed in His Own Word #95
“ A More Sure Word”
Sunday, April 20, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
Wednesday night we spoke
from paragraphs 107 - 111 where brother Branham made a comparison of the
prophets and how that they had to live a separated life from the brethren. [111] Prophets
did not always understand what they were writing or what they were saying, or
they would in no wise have said it, if they could've understood it. See?
But the Bible said they were moved by the Holy Ghost: moved. When the Holy
Ghost moves you, you move. God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the
prophets that were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's why all ages, the people who
were spiritual consulted the prophets about the times and what was to happen. The prophet-writer must be in constant
fellowship with the Author. See? He
must live constantly in the Presence of the Author to know what the Book's
going to be. See? The prophet-writer, he had the pen and ready anytime,
constant fellowship with the Author, which was God, to strike down whatever He
said put down. See? Showed what kind of a life He must... A separated life from all of his brethren...
We examined the scriptures
and showed how many of the prophets were either cut off by their own brethren
or somehow God did something that caused them to be cut off. In many instances God never told them the
end from the beginning, and they had to learn on their own the hard lessons of
life and living each day as it came, one day at a time. And many times when
they were trying to help their own brethren, the ones who they were trying to
help seemed to never understand what it was that was happening, and so they
would become angry with the prophet brother and put him out from their own
midst. That is why Brother Branham said, the prophet lived “A
separated life from all of his brethren”...
Think about that. He said, “A
separated life from all of his brethren”... Totally misunderstood, and
therefore resented when they were only trying to do what was helpful for their
brethren. And then finding themselves totally separated from the ones whom they
loved and therefore wanted to help. [Psalm 103:7] Moses knew God’s way, but
the people only saw the acts of God. So they did not understand what was
happening. And therefore, they took it out on Moses.
How many of us here this
morning would be willing to live a
separated life from our brethren. I want you to think hard about that. Whether
you wanted to or not, to be cut off from your own brethren. Well, that’s the
way it was because that is the way it had to be. God knows that when a person
is too close to his own flesh and blood, he begins to live for that flesh and
blood and tends to lose sight of the pre-eminence that God wants for
Himself. Paul testified of this when he
said,
[1 Cor 7:32-34] Amplified “My
desire is to have you free from all anxiety and distressing care. The unmarried
man anxious for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; But the
married man is anxious about worldly matters, how he may please his wife. And
he is drawn in diverging directions - his interests divided, and he is
distracted from his devotion to God. And the unmarried woman or girl is concerned and anxious about the
matters of the Lord, how to be wholly separated and set apart in body and
spirit; but the married woman has her cares centered in earthly affairs, how
she may please her husband. Now, I say this for your own welfare and profit,
not to put a halter of restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly and
good order and to secure your undistracted and undivided devotion to the
Lord.”
Now, Wednesday night we
examined the scriptures pertaining to this thought of a separated life from the
brethren that Brother Branham brought to our attention.. We looked at the Life
of Abraham beginning at [Gen 12: 1-4]
where God promised Abraham that He would bless him, so long as he separated
Himself from his kin folk. But Abraham allowed His Nephew Lot to come along and
for the next few years there seemed to be more trials than blessings for
Abraham. There were trials of famine, and captivity, and lying, and fear, and
even a backsliding. But finally it got to the point that there arose enough
problems between Abraham’s people and Lot’s people, that they finally had to
separate. Notice how God finally had to
intervene on Abraham’s behalf in order for Abraham to finally obey the Word of
the Lord which told Him to separate from family and kin. At the end of [Chapter
13] we begin to understand why God waited before blessing Abraham. It seems
that the problems that Abraham had were because he had not totally separated
himself away from what God had told him to do, and the problems he had were a
result of His trying to keep those family bonds together. [Gen 13: 14-18]
We also looked at Isaac, who
had to be separated from his brother Ishmael, before God could bless Him. In
fact Ishmael only mocked Isaac when Isaac was at the stage in his life where we
was being weaned from milk to strong meat. And we find that it has been that
way with those of us who have been weaned from milk to strong meat as well.
When the elect of God began to take hold of this Message of God’s Presence, we
too were mocked and ridiculed by those who call themselves our brethren. [Gen
21: 5-12]...
We also discussed Jacob? He
too was a prophet of God who did not receive his blessings until He departed
from his kin. When he got away from his kinfolk he met Rachel and then God
begin to deal with him.
And what of Joseph? God had
to allow his brothers to get so angry that they themselves separated Joseph
from their presence, and they sold him into bondage. Once Joseph was alone with God and separated from His
brethren, then did God begin to work mightily in Joseph’s life, and bring to
pass the things that He ordained. [Gen 45: 1-8]
And what of Moses? When he
got around his brethren he tried to deliver them his own way, and God had to
make him flee for his life. Once separated from his brethren, then God begin to
deal with him until he was finally child trained and ready for the job that God
had for him to do.
Now, in each of these cases,
we find that the separation from the brethren was only a beginning. Once the
person, the prophet of God, was away from his brethren, then God could deal
with them for the specific purpose that God had purposed. But once they were
trained, in some instances, God allowed the brethren to come back into their
lives again.
Even the Apostle Paul had to
separate himself from the brethren for the space of about three years and he
went to the desert where he could get alone with God. Once He knew what God had
for him to do he came back around to his brethren, but they rejected Him, and
once again he was forced to live about 14 years away from them working with the
Gentiles. Finally he returned to Jerusalem and was welcomed by some of the
brethren. But what I see here is that God had a work for Paul to do that was
separate from what He had for Peter and the rest of the Apostles to do. And
therefore, God will, many times bring about circumstances that may seem to put
you at odds with the brethren, but that is for a purpose. God has His way of
using these circumstances to bring Glory to Himself. God used them here to
spread the Gospel.
And what about Jesus, raised
in Galilee of Nazareth? He had to leave there as well. And it seems that so
often man, being just what they are, seem to be affected by the brethren in a
way which does not fit into God’s provided plan. Therefore, God has to bring
about a separation between brethren, in order to bring into manifestation His
divine purpose. We should always keep
this in mind, when we see these separations taking place and we just can not
seem to understand the why’s and where for’s.
Finally, let’s look at [Genesis 1: 1-11] to understand why
separation is important before God can bring forth the promise. Notice that
when God’s word goes forth it causes separation. But notice that the separation
has to do with separating unlike things. And this separation of unlike things
has to take place before life can come forth into manifestation. Why? Because
every seed brings forth after it’s kind. And without separating first we would
have a hybrid life coming forth. Therefore God separates His Prophets who are
the Word manifested away from the brethren to guarantee a manifested Word that
is free from the thoughts of the brethren, or the thoughts of man.
“all things shall work together
for the Good of those who are the Called according to His Purpose”. Therefore,
when we see the brethren separating themselves over very little and sometimes
trivial issues, we need to back up a moment and become aware that God is about
to do something. Remember, when brother Branham tried to find a scripture in
his new Bible that Meda had given him? Remember how he said, he couldn’t find
the scripture, and an old priest came up and said, “don’t worry son, Go is about to
do something.” Well, I think
that would be good advise for every one of us as we see the separation of
brethren away from the Body of Christ. God is about to do something. “Be
still and Know!”
Now this morning, I would
like to continue with paragraph [107]
Took His own fingers and wrote on the sand one day. He spoke; He preached; He
prophesied with His own lips; God did when He was made flesh and dwelled among
us: God manifested in flesh. If He can write, speak, can't He also tell others what to do? Certainly can. He can talk to
them in a human voice. He can write and show them what to do. He has done it.
So God in sundry times and divers manners spake
to the fathers through the prophets. And He said on this writing, that not
one jot or tittle shall ever pass away until It's fulfilled, and then It's manifested. Then It will pass,
because It's manifested, and It can't pass then. But just the Word Itself is
made flesh. "Jot" means "small word." "Tittle"
means "small mark." Not even one punctuation, one expression,
anything shall ever fail in the Word of God. It can't fail, because It's God, God manifested in the form of a human
flesh. For it's God Himself in
letter form, prophet form, manifested in flesh. Now, that's the reason
Jesus could say, "The ones who spoke to you, you call them gods, who spoke
to you by the Word of God," said; "and they were gods." Those prophets when they were anointed with
the Spirit of God and brought exactly the Word of God, then they were gods. It
was God's Word speaking through them.
[108] It can... They can only interpret as the Author would
permit them to interpret. Now, if you want to find that, that's II Peter 1 and 20 and 21. All right.
'Cause this... Where God... There's no private interpreter; He does His own
interpretation. God speaks and interprets It Himself, then reveals it to
whomever He will, hides from all others. He don't have to reveal It to anybody,
'less He wants to. And He don't... He's expressed His whole thing in the
Scripture; therefore, the whole thing is already made known; He's just setting
there watching it happen. No. Just seeing the Body be made and come back to the
form of His Bride again. All right.
[109] Believers believe It,
like Abraham that called things contrary to It as though it was not. It also,
this Word discerns the secrets of the hearts: Hebrews 4:12. It discerns the
secrets of the heart.
Now this morning I would
like to take a short thought but a very important thought here from these last
few things we read from Brother Branham’s Message. He said, “Not even one punctuation, one expression,
anything shall ever fail in the Word of God. It can't fail, because It's God”, and then he also said, “Believers
believe It, like Abraham that called things contrary to It as though it was
not”.
I would like to stop here
and ask some questions this morning. “How many here this morning, believe every
Word of God to be true. How many here this morning believe every promise that
God made to you in this Bible? How many of you take this Bible to be something
that is personally revealed to you, and for you personally.” As I asked
my father before he died, I said, “Dad, do you believe that Jesus
died personally for you?” And he said, “yes I do!” Then I said,
“dad, I’m just saying this next thing for my own benefit, because I just want to be sure for my own
self, “Dad, do you believe that if Jesus died for no one else, that His death
was for you personally? ”And he said, “Yes, that’s the way I believe it.”
And so I would like to ask you this morning, the same question. Do you believe that Jesus Died for you
personally? Do you believe that He wrote this Bible for you personally? Do you
believe that He has come down in this hour to bring you personally away with
Him? Then do you believe that every promise He made in this Bible He must keep?
Then are you calling those things which are as though they are not, and those
things which you can not see as though
they are?
And that is what I would
like to examine this morning. Our Faith
in this Word. For it’s a late hour and He is coming for those who have Faith in
this hour. He said at the end-time that things would seem so bleak that He asked the question in [Luke 18:8] “When the Son of Man cometh,
shall He find Faith on the earth? And in examining the way that this
was said, the word find means to find out for ones self by inquiry and
thoughtful examination.
So then why do things so
often appear to be so bleak and not
going the way that we think they are supposed
to go. Why does it seem so often that we are forsaken and we struggle while the
unbelievers appear to be getting most of the brakes? There is a very simple answer to this question. And we can find
it in our Bible. [Hebrews 12:6] chasteneth = means to correct and instruct and how
does He do this?
Through scourging! [Hebrews
12:6-8] But why scourging. Because He is trying to mold into you His Divine
Character. And in the long run you will find that His Character in you has more
value than Gold itself. And that is what the trials are all about? To see where
our hearts are, because in [Matt 6:21]Jesus
said, “where your treasure is, there will be your hearts also”. Therefore we find that God has ordained for
us certain trials of our Faith which we must go through and pass. And we are
ordained to pass.
[1 Peter 1:5-7] Amplified, “You
who are being guarded by God’s power, through your Faith, till you fully
inherit that final salvation that is ready to be revealed for you in the last
time. You should be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little
while you may be distressed by trials and testings, So that the genuineness of
your faith may be tested for the purpose of being approved,, your faith which
is infinitely more precious than perishable gold which is tested and purified
by fire. The proving of your faith is intended to result in your receiving back
your Praise, Honor and Glory when Jesus Christ the Anointed One is Revealed.”
So, we see that God has a
purpose for what we are going through.
Remember always then that He has given us a promise, according to [Romans 8:28] That “all things shall work together
for good, that is to say, for the benefit of those who Love Him and are The
Called out ones.” But have you ever wondered why God said this? Paul
must have felt the same need to have assurance during times of trial as we do.
And so we find God speaking through Paul about these times of perplexity and
anxiety, as we go back to the 22 verse of Romans 8. [Romans 8:22- 39] (read) Notice verse 24 as well, we are saved
through hope which is earnest expectation, yet Paul tells us that if we see it
then it is no longer expected. Therefore as we have spoken before, we have got
to come to the place where the Word becomes so real, so manifested, that it is
no longer down the road, but is opened up before us. Then when we get to that
place we shall no longer groan and travail, because we shall have arrived at
the final destiny of the pre-destined destiny.
Therefore, I think sometimes
it is important for us to remember and perhaps go back to this scripture and
rethink why God said this to you and to me. In fact, I don’t know how you feel
about this scripture, but I believe it was written for me personally. And
remember, we are studying how “Christ is Revealed in His Own Word”, and
therefore as Jesus Said, “As a man thinketh in His Heart so is he,
and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Therefore, a
man is know by His Word, and He can not live any higher than his own word.
Therefore if the man will not honor his word, then he is without honor. And yet
we find that God’s Word tells us that “He is not a man that He should lie.” Therefore,
the very power of God stands behind what He has promised to you through His
Word. And “nothing can separate you from the Love of God, “no height, no depth,
no powers present and no powers to come, and certainly no thing created, which
includes Satan, can separate you from the Love of God”.
Therefore when God makes you
a promise, He intends to keep that Promise. [Hebrews 6:13-15] Here we see that God stands behind His Word, but
sometimes He does make you wait for the fulfillment of the promise. And
therefore, the promise is His part and the patient waiting is your part. [Heb 6:16-19] And here we find that God
could not swear by any higher than Himself, therefore what He has promised to
us, He also confirmed it by an oath. And as we saw last week, the Cloud has
been God’s sign of His Covenant with Man. His everlasting covenant. And we saw
it with Abraham, With Moses, With Jesus, Paul and William Branham. Therefore,
God has shown to us that He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and He
changes not. And since He has brought forth His Cloud and has sent for His
Voice with a Shout in this hour, we should have more assurance than ever that
He is here to back up every Divine Promise that He has given to us through His
Word.
[Romans 4:13-16] Notice that it might be made sure! That is the key.
It is not what we can do to ensure God’s promise to us be fulfilled, but it is
what He said. It is Faith in what He said, which is revelation of what was
said, and Who said it. [Hebrews 10:35-11:3] He will come, He
has promised it, and He will not tarry. In fact He is here. The only problem we
have is that we think everything has to be done at our time table and we forget
so easily that God has His own timetable. [2 Peter 3:9]
It is not slackness on the part of the Lord. He has given us His Word, and he
expects us to be able to wait upon the fulfillment of the promise.