Christ is the Mystery no 156
Rejected
Brian
Kocourek
John 6:60 These things said he in the synagogue, as he
taught in
This
evening I would like to take our thoughts from various quotes from brother
Branham's sermon Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed. He talks about how we
are to come to the place that we are more than willing to walk alone with
Christ. In fact we become so much like him, that it is not our separating
ourselves from others, but we are so one with Christ that we become odd to
others. We become rejected by others just like Christ Himself, was so One with
His Father that he became a rejected King.
In
order to do a thorough review of this Bible principle, we will have to take many
examples throughout Scripture, and not only Scripture but throughout the
history of the church just so we can nail down this principle.
But before we do let's bow our heads in a word of Prayer.
Now,
let me read a few quotes from Christ is the Mystery
beginning with pp. 100 "Now,
down through the ages He has been slowly unfolding this mystery. Can you see
now? Now, down through the... how that He... What happened in the prefigure now? He opened Adam's side and took part of
his flesh, which was Adam, to make Eve. The Bride has to be the Word, for He
is the Word. She cannot stand on creeds; She
cannot stand on denomination; She cannot stand on good behavior; She has
to stand alone on the Word, because She's part of It; She was
taken from Christ. See?
NOtice he tells us here that she must come to the place where she will be
willing to stand alone on the Word if she has to. Now let's go to paragraph 222
and read some more.
222 "Listen.
Listen close now. I want you not to fail to get this. No other church, no other
sign, no other fellowship, no other government, no other testimony, no other
creed, no denomination is accepted outside of this. God accepts nothing else
but that. Christ in you, the hope of glory the only thing that God
recognizes. No fellowship, no church, no creed, no denomination, no
nothing; everything else is dead. Its fragments that has to be cut off, pruned
off away from the thing that Christ might live with preeminences
in you. Not referring back... I got one laying here that says, "It's
my organization..." That's got to be cut off too. "I got my so-and-so
here; this says this." "My mother will tell me I'm a
holy-roller." That's got to be cut off too. See? "Well, I know my
husband wants me to wear these shorts." That's got to be cut off too. See?
It's got to be cut off and pruned till there's just you and Christ alone.
See? Um. Think.
Notice,
it is not as though you are totally alone, because he promised to be with us
always. But you are alone with Christ, you and Christ alone. And this is the
condition every believer that will receive the rapture must come to. Because the
Rapture is not a whole group it's individuals, I'll take one here and one
there. Two in the bed and one is taken the other is left. Two in the field and
one is taken and one is left. So this condition of being so
One with Christ that you and He stand alone will be a universal condition, but
with individuals only, not with a group.
Your
attitude will have to be the same attitude that was in Christ. You will have to
be willing to stand alone with Christ and His Word, no mater what the church
says, no matter what father, mother, sister, brother say. Because Jesus said
who ever is not willing to walk alone with Him is not worthy of His Kingdom.
Matthew
Now,
let's skip ahead to paragraph 291 Oh, the devil's
howling about this. The manifested truth of the promise of the Word in
Her alone... They don't have the answer. When Jesus come, why didn't
those Pharisees...? He said, "If I cast out devils by the
finger of God, who do you cast them out by?" He stood alone,
and His Church stands alone. She's not hooked with nothing. But He was
identified by God, being the body that God dwelled in, and the Church is
identified by His Body doing the same thing. She is His Body, the manifested
Truth of His promised Word for the last days. And She
and She alone stands by it. That's why the devil is howling, these
great organizations set up something to close her up. They'll never do it. She'll
be taken up, not closed up.
Ok, so that settles the
question, will they close the churches before we go.
He says here "no". She goes up, not
closed up. Then who are closed up? Those who are
left behind, when the tribulation settles in. But notice as he stands
outside the church knocking, and has been put out of the church, I believe she
will also. Because every ministry that was used by God throughout the ages, came down to the wire where that ministry was rejected
and put out of the churches.
Exodus
17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and
the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast
brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4 And
Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
Now, remember the people were supposed to stone those
who were cursed, so you see the hearts of the people how they would curse the
One God sent to lead them.
Leviticus 24:23 And Moses spake to
the children of
Numbers 15:35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be
surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without
the camp. 36 And all the
congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he
died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
And so when they stoned Stephen they took him outside
the city and there stoned him exactly like Leviticus said, because they thought
he was a cursed because he claimed Jesus was the Messiah.
And they also tried to do
this with Jesus as well. John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at
him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst
of them, and so passed by.
John 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone
him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from
my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The
Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for
blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest
thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God
came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say
ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of
my Father, believe me not. 38 But
if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and
believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. 39 Therefore
they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, 40 And
went away again beyond
Spoken word original seed 62-0318E P:158 Listen, ...God's messengers always has been rejected. You believe
that? Moses was rejected. Is that right? Jesus was rejected.
And Luke said in
1 Samuel
8:6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they
said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And
the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that
they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,
that I should not reign over them. 8 According to
all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of
Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other
gods, so do they also unto thee.
Children in the wilderness 47-1123 P:31 Notice.
They're going down in there, how perfect it was with the Scriptures. How Joseph,
the younger son, rejected of his brethren: Christ,
rejected of His brethren. He wore a coat of seven colors, Joseph. And the
seven colors, of course, represented seven colors in the rainbow, which
was a covenant. And God always has His covenant people.
Revelation chapter one 60-1204M P:115 And
what did they do to Joseph? They pretended he was dead, and they throwed him into a ditch. Took a bloody coat of seven
colors that his father...There's only seven colors in the rainbow.
And the rainbow, we know what the... We get to it a little later, I think,
tonight. The rainbow over Him here, Jesus, where He's to look upon as jasper
and
Oh, my, they thought they could get rid of Joseph and
his covenant with his father, his brothers did that to him, and that covenant
of seven rainbow colors his father had given him they cut it up and bloodied
it, and tried to destroy the covenant between his father and him, because of
pure jealousy, and so do they today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today
and forever. He couldn't help that he had been a loyal obedient son and his
Father honored him with the rainbow covenant. Yes, remember when the son was
adopted and placed into his position in the family he was given a special
covenant coat. And Joseph's coat of many colors, (and
many means seven see Isaiah 4:1)
representing the covenant God had with His Sons. And that coat, that symbol of
the covenant of His acceptance by His father caused them to be jealous because
they did not know God's plan for the hour, so they tried to destroy him because
they were jealous. Now, God doesn't change and people don't change either.
And then we find Jesus speaking of His rejection in Mark
Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did
ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
Luke 17:25 But first must he suffer many things, and be
rejected of this generation.
Luke 9:22 Saying, The Son of
man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
Mark 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of
man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief
priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
The religious circles have
always rejected the ones that God sent to them to bring the Word of correction
to them. Why? To prove they are bastard born and not true sons, for the
Scripture teaches, in Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not? 8 But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons.
And if we are standing true on
God's Word we could not expect any different treatment now could we?
John
From his sermon, Present stage of my ministry 62-0908 p. 52. Brother
Branham said, "I say this. When a man
stands true to the Word, not just in one meeting, but in every
meeting, when a man stands true to the Word, the time will come
when they'll leave him. Exactly. They did it. They
did it to our Lord. They'll leave him when he stands for Truth. "All
men has forsaken me."
2
Timothy 4:6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
9 Do
thy diligence to come shortly unto me: 10 For Demas
hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto
Thessalonica; Crescens to
Present stage of
my ministry - 62-0908. P. 53 All men had forsaken him. 54. How I think of that, how a
servant that'll stand true to the Word, sooner or later, just remember, the
people are going to forsake him. Now, we want to strike that just for a
few minutes, and I won't keep you too long now, 'cause I want you here in the
morning. Always when God's servant stands true to the
Word, all forsake him. Now, just take anywhere you want
to, anytime in the Bible or in history, that when a man stayed
true, no matter how popular he was, when he stayed true to the Word, the time
come when the religious world forsaken him and cut him off. Now, just read
it as you take the Bible from Genesis over to the Book of Revelation, and pick
up in the Pre-Nicene Council and take down to the Nicene Fathers, and every
man, every saint, every prophet, every true servant of God
that stayed with the Word, was forsaken by the ecclesiastical thing and cast
down. And Paul was one of them. 55. And if
there'd be one today, it'd be the same thing. It's exactly the truth. You
have to hit that place. It has to come. They think that a man that would
have a ministry like that, he ought to have the world right under his thumb. He
should, but they won't come under his thumb. See? And a man like that
wouldn't put a ministry, a world under his thumb; he'd put it under His
Master's thumb; 'cause he's not here representing himself; he's
representing his Master. 56. You know, man try to seek honor one from
another, and they honor one another, and dishonor God by doing so. See?
We try and make big people among us, and when we're no big people and little
people; we're all little people. There's only one big One among us, and
that's our Lord. See?
We
all know the history of Martin Luther and John Wesley.
Luther was excommunicated from the catholic
church even though he never set out to leave the church, he set out to
bring correction by the Word of God, but he was rejected by the very church that
God sent him to straighten out.
And what about Wesley? He had to resort to open
air meetings to hold his crowds because the churches shut him out. He preached holiness
so much that the churches were uncomfortable with his words, and resorted to
kicking him our before he even finished his sermons.
From Reformed Reflections,
we read, "After his dramatic conversion, John Wesley
brought the Gospel to regions where it was previously unknown. Amid markets,
fairgrounds and coal-pits he boldly proclaimed the message of salvation. The
reaction was fierce. Wesley and followers were persecuted and scorned by the
Church, press and mob, by magistrates and "elite." Although Wesley
was an ordained clergyman of the Church of England, he was prevented from
preaching in his own denomination. Many of his erstwhile colleagues regularly
used to shower their anathema over his head. What many people found disturbing
was the Methodist "lay" preachers. They
seemed at once to be a challenge to the established church and a challenge to society."
"The 18th century was
an age of satire. In plays and novels Wesley and the Methodist preachers were
shown as religious fanatics or whining hypocrites, in popular prints, as the
deceivers and exploiters of their flocks. Because he was shut out almost
entirely from the pulpits of his church, Wesley organized societies to provide
training for converts."
From
his sermon, Church Choosing Law for Grace March
16th 1961 brother Branham said,
"A man who ever amounts to anything is a man that stands alone,
him and God alone, that's the man. On the
Let
us pray