Christ is the Mystery no 163
Hearing and not understanding, seeing and
not believing
Brian Kocourek
This evening we will pick
up where we left off in our study of Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed and
at pp. 260 where brother Branham says, "Wesley
was a man of God, but what followed him? Fallen angels got into it. What
was the angels first? Created beings of
God that fell for Lucifer's wisdom, fell for Luther--Lucifer's wisdom.
I would like to point out
here that brother Branham
called them "created beings". He never called
them sons. He never called them begotten ones, but created beings, and
therefore it is impossible for them to come forth after the likeness of the
Creator, and receive the
And
you see what they become? Fallen angels. And
organizations from man of God who's went forth to establish truths in the
earth, before that truth could go along and proclamate
and get on to the real revelation of Christ, fallen angels come in and
took it over and made denominations out of it. That's the reason the
revelation of the Seven Seal mystery had to be unfolded. Now, you see it? What
they left off... If Luther would've went on, it'd been
here. If Wesley would've went on, if Pentecost
would've went on, what would they'd done?
Now if he says each time God sent forth a Message this
thing takes place, then why would this time be any different. There are many
following the Message now who believe in the Presence of Christ which some
identify as the Parousia, but some are offended by this word, and believe
differently concerning Who it is that came down in this hour. They say the Lamb
has come, but then that would make the Appearing the Second Coming, because the
second coming is when the lamb comes down. The reason they do not understand
who came down is because they do not understand the Godhead. And if you do not
understand the Godhead, how are you really going to know Who
came down?
I mean if you do not understand the difference between
the Father and His Son, then how will you ever understand this Message? And
then how can you understand Who came down?
In reality, what it boils down to is what
the Apostle Peter warned us about in 2 Peter 2: 1-3.
where men would enter the message as teachers,
but they would bring into the message destructive heresies that would deny the
Son of God. They brought a Oneness mindset into the
Message and they have taken over the Message because they are in the majority. And
that is exactly what br. Vayle told me personally, he said, "Brian, the Make-Believers have taken over this Message."
Now, if they are going to bring into the Message
destructive heresies, then they had to get it from somewhere else outside the
Message in the first place and brought it in with them.
The Wuest Translation of
2 Peter 2: 1 says it this way. "But as there
arose false prophets also among the people, even as also among you there shall
be false teachers who will be of such as to bring in alongside of true
doctrine destructive heresies even denying the Lord who purchased them,
bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their licentious conduct to its consumation;
on account of whom the way of truth will be reviled.
In other words, these men will come into the Message
and give a wrong understanding of the Word of God and the people will be caught
up into what these men say as evil interpreters of the Word of Truth.
3 And in the sphere of covetousness with
fabricated words they will exploit you, from whom: for whom from ancient times
their judgment has not been idle.
Covetousness, greed, and in order to exploit you they
will make up (fabricating words) and make
up doctrines or making up things as they go.
And we know before brother Branham left there was
already by that time 17 different versions of the Message.
Some believe there is no Son of God, and the Father
was actually the Son in disguise. Others believe there is a son of God but He
only became the Son of God after the birth in
And so as for the Appearing and Coming, many taught
they are the same thing even though brother Branham said they are two different
words and mean two different things.
Still others came in and taught a Jehovah Witnesses understanding
of the Parousia. I know because back in the 80's I did my research in writing
the books and I talked to the Best known teacher of
Jehovah Witness doctrine in this entire region, and he confirmed to my
suspicion that some in this Message were teaching exactly how they taught it.
And that is because they had no clue on Who came down, because they did not
understand Godhead.
So you can see that although God sent down a Message
to clear up the mysteries, because men add their own thinking to what the
prophet taught, much confusion was brought into the Message. And so people are
more confused than ever. But William Branham was not confused. And if we say
what he said the way he said it, then we won't be
confused either.
And brother Branham tells us in pp. 261 Now, there's only
one thing can happen. There has to be a message at the end time when there
is nothing else can follow It. And now the ecumenical world has set up such
a regime that there can be no denomination or no not nothing else follow it. You're
either in it or you're not in it.
So what he's telling us here
is that you are either in this Message or you are not. Because
everything else is organized and denominated.
They've all held to their own
opinions against the opinion of God. They've all decided to hold to their own
values rather than the values of God. And if Jesus said our oneness with God
was based upon receiving His Glory which is His Opinions, values, and
judgments,
then there is no other way to become one with God than the provided way that
Jesus set forth in John 17.
John
Then brother Branham says, The fruit is in the top of the
tree, and the Light is shining on that
predestinated fruit, and she's ripening into Christ-like fruit,
bringing forth the same mellowness and sweetness and the same Spirit that
He had in Him. Hope you see it. See, I try to put too much in one day. I
wear you out.
262 So
look, they sold out to reasoning's, sold out to reasoning's of
denomination. "If I can just belong to this. The
mayor goes to this church." See? "If I can be a Methodist or a
Presbyterian..." Just look where they've gone. I've just explained
them limbs are pruned off; they're dead. They're not connected with
Christ anymore; (or) they'd
be bringing the same life. They're not connected with it, but
they're like a citrus fruit. Any citrus fruit will live on a citrus tree, but it'll
bring its own fruit. You put a grapefruit in a
orange tree, it'll live by the orange tree, but it'll bring forth
grapefruit. You put a lemon in there, it's a citrus fruit, it'll bring
forth an old sour lemon, but it's living off of the life. And that's
what denominations are doing by, under the name of the Church. It's the Bride
that's the original Tree, the original Spirit. The revelation comes from
Christ, not the denomination: Christ.
Notice he said, they come
into this Message, they join to it, they are grafted into it, but since they
are not born into it, they are joined into it. And since they were not born
into it, they will live off the life of The Message, but they will bring forth
their own fruit, their own thinking and their own manifestation of their fruit,
not Christ's fruit.
51-1
So that ought to tell you right there, that unless you
are born of this Word, and the same Life that was in Jesus is in you, you will
never come to John 14;12.
69-1 Ephesian Church Age - Church Age
Book 3 Now out of this first key that we have received of the
Lord, there comes another and slightly less wonderful truth. I said that the
Now, back to Christ is the
Mystery of God Revealed and we will read several paragraphs before we stop to
comment.
263 Notice. What's the denomination trying to do? Exalt
itself like Lucifer. They so call themselves the church, the bride,
which they are in Revelations 17,
as we spoke of, the false bride. Above Christ's little flock, the Bride,
Lucifer thinks and exalts himself above the humble Word of God's Truth by the
knowledge of the revelation and has placed himself by seminary education and
theology, until they have got themselves up, and if you don't belong in
their group, then you are a out-wash.
264 like
Lucifer did in the beginning, saying to the people just exactly what Lucifer
said to Eve: "Surely God will receive us; we feed the poor (That's
good.). Surely He will receive us; we are a great denominational; we are a
beautiful church. Why, look at our great buildings. Look at our great
membership. We stand in the millions. Surely God will not turn that group
down." The same thing that Cain did, brought
in the pretty fruits from the ground that he had tilled, and toiled, and
worked, and brought in the fruits and rejected the humble blood of the lamb.
265 God
have mercy that men and women will not think I'm saying this to exalt something
or some personal revelation or something. I'm only telling you the Truth. Can't
you see what they're doing? I speak it loud and harsh, but you got to drive
a nail till it clinches if it's going to do any good (See?), so you'll see it.
See?
266
Now, saying to the people, "Surely... You mean to tell me that our great
Catholic church that's stood all this time, our great Methodist, and our, Look
at our forefathers." See? But they broke the Word of the Lord.
And Eve was God's, one of His. She was a byproduct of Adam. And because she
doubted one word of God's Word, it did it.
267 And
here's Lucifer at his job again today. And remember, the antichrist is not
communism. The antichrist is so close like the real thing till it'd deceive the
very elected if it was possible, Jesus said (Matthew 24)--the
elected if it was possible. Lucifer again--Lucifer again is breaking
God's unity in man by his limiting the Word of God to his reasoning's, what
he thinks is right, and what he thinks, he breaks the Word of God. And the same
thing he did in the days of Jesus. And Jesus said, "You by your
traditions has made the Word of God of no effect."
And the denominations by their organized intellectual
reasoning's has made God's Word of no effect upon the people.
That's right. They just can't see it. Then they say, "Where is the God of
the Bible?" He's right here. He's the Bible, what He is.
In other words, he gets the
people to the place where all they have is their own opinions, because they
have turned down God's opinions, and what they fail to see is that God's
opinions are life and power. Because as we brought out
Sunday, Revelation is not reasoning. They turn down revelation for
reasoning because to them they do not know the difference. But Revelation is
the manifestation of Divine truth. In other words there must be an element of the
supernatural involved in Revelation or all you have is reasoning and intellect.
But when the dictionary
tells us the word revelation means Manifestation of Divine truth, and the word manifest means to make
something that was hidden clearly seen, then we know there is some form of supernatural
involved in the manifestation of Divine truth.
Just as Elijah asked God to
allow his servant to see the host of angels, so God has allowed us to see the
angel of the Lord in this hour through the lens of a camera.
Now, let me explain about revelation
as being a manifestation of Divine truth by giving an example
from Scripture. We all know that there will be a Rapture. But we know the
manifestation will be only evident to the Bride, right? Well, we have a prophet
who taught us that 1 Thessalonians 4 is
the Rapture.
1
Thessalonians
If the Rapture is the Shout, Voice and Trumpet, then
no one who does not see the Shout being the Message will see the Voice which is
the resurrection either. What he is saying here, is that if you are meant to
see the manifestation of the Rapture when it takes place, you have got to see
the manifestation of Presence in that Shout (Message) among us now, for if you
see His Word for this hour in manifestation, then you will also see the Word
made manifests for the promise of Voice and Trump as well.
And as we know, The Lord does all Three
things Himself as He descends. A Shout first which is a Message, The Voice next which is the Resurrection, and then
the Trump which is the Catching away or what we call the Rapture.
So if it is the Lord who is doing these three things,
then you've got to see the Lord Who is doing them. Then if you see Him in the Shout,
you will also see Him in the Voice and in the Trump.
I think what Brother Branham is telling us here is
pretty plain and simple. If you see Him, you see Him and it doesn't really
matter what stage of the Shout, or the Voice or the Trump
He is in. Because we are talking about the Word of God which is alive and
actively bringing to pass every detail that it said would happen.
So, by seeing the Manifestation of the Presence
of God now, we will not miss seeing the manifestation of the Presence
of God in the resurrection, or in the Trumpet, which brother Branham called all
three phases "the Rapture". Now that is a comforting thought. In fact
Paul said, in verse 18 Wherefore
comfort one another with these words. Let me explain it this way.
Then what about those who've
heard the Shout and they left the Shout which is the Message? Well, there is no
denying they heard it, but that doesn't mean they entered into it, believed it
and were affected by it.
So will they also hear the
Voice? No, absolutely not.
The
Apostle Paul told us in Romans
So you see the Message, the
Shout has gone out as words into all the earth, and all have heard, but not all
who hear have entered into what they heard and believed.
You see, they never saw the
Lord in what took place in the Shout. They might have heard the Shout, but they
did not see the Shout. They heard the Word, but did not see or understand it.
See means to understand.
Hebrews 12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of
words; which voice they that heard entreated that the Word should not be
spoken to them any more:
Notice
the Apostle Paul told us that some who hear wish not
to hear any more. He did not say how many words they heard before they came to
this conclusion, just that some heard and wished not to hear any more what they
were hearing.
Let
me explain, the same Apostle said in Ephesians
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: (Notice both us and them he says heard the Good News) but the word preached did not profit them, not
being mixed with faith in them that heard it. So it comes down
to Faith which is revelation. Those who hear with no revelation, no anointing
on that Word, hear words only and not being mixed with the anointing, which is
revelation, they hear and do not hear, they see and do not see.
And
that is exactly what Jesus taught us himself as we see Matthew 13:3 And he spake many things unto them
in parables, saying, Behold, a sower
went forth to sow; 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5 Some
fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they
sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun
was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And
some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But
other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some
sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9 Who hath ears to hear, let
him hear.
Notice in this parable Jesus tells us although the
same Seed or Word is sown into many different places, the seed coming to
fruition all depends on the preparation of the one it falls upon. Notice as we
read on. 10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why do
you speak unto them in parables? (Notice the words, to them...why do you
speak unto them in parables? We see in the book of Mark this same
parable reads, "Why do you speak to those on
the outside in parables".) 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Notice he says, it is given unto you to know, but the others it is not given for them to know."
And this word to know was translated from the Greek word "ginosko", which
has nothing to do with an intellectual understanding, but rather all together
to do with a knowledge that comes experientially. In other words, the knowing
is based on experience.
And then Jesus says, 12 " For whosoever hath,
(that
word hath was translated from the Greek word echo, so he is saying, whosoever
is made in such a way as to be able to echo what they hear) to him shall be given, (this experiential knowing) and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, (whosoever
is not made in such a way as to be able to echo)
from him shall be taken away even that which he thinks that he hath. (even
that which he thinks he is echoing. Just stop for a moment and think of the
implications of what we just read here). did not Jesus say in Matthew 7:23 "Many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord did I
not preach in your name etc, etc, etc. And he will say depart from me ye which
work iniquity, I never knew you. I never had any experience with you
Matthew
Now there is your key, they
hear not even though their ears hear the words, and they see not even tough
their eyes see what is taking place, but he says because they do not understand
what it is they are hearing and seeing, therefore they do not hear nor see
because they do not understand. Isn't that exactly what the next verse tells
us?
14 And in them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By
hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart
is waxed gross, (their heart is their understanding, they have made up their minds, and
refuse to open their hearts to the truth) and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and
I should heal them.
You see, it's all about what effect the Shout, the Message will have upon you. Here he says these
are not converted, and the reason they are not converted is because even though
they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, yet they understand not
what they hear nor do they have any perception of what they are looking at.
They are clueless, and thus the Word can not convert them. That is exactly what
1 Corinthians 2 tells us. Because they
have not the Spirit of God they can not in any way, shape or form understand
the things of God.
Then Jesus in the next verse
says, 16 " But blessed are your eyes, for they
see: and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say
unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see
those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and
have not heard them.
So we see quite a difference
between those who see and hear and those who see not and hear not even though
both groups have seen with their eyes and have heard with their ears.
Then Jesus goes on to explain
this parable. 18 " Hear ye therefore
the parable of the sower. 19 When any one hears the
word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one, and catches away
that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way
side. 20 But he that received
the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and anon with
joy receiveth it; 21 Yet hath he not root
in himself, (no
root, no gene seed, no election and predestination)
so he endures for a while: but when tribulation or persecution arises because
of the word, by and by he is offended. (So what does he do? he drops out.)
22 He also that received
seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the cares of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, chokes the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Now, this is the second group which are taken out because of the deceitfulness of
riches.
23 But he that received seed into the good
ground is he that hears the Word, and understands it; which also bears
fruit, and brings forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Look at the effect the Word has on this group. They
produce fruit to show the Life of the Word has taken affect in their lives and is producing fruit continuously.
You
see, that is what John also said in 1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled, of the Word of life; And we see with the eyes
of our heart.
This
next Scripture lays out best how they can hear the Shout but not enter into it.
The
Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians
So
the difference between those who hear the Shout as mere words of man, or those
who hear it as the very Words of God, there is a big difference. Because those
who hear it as God speaking, he says it will have an effectual work in you that
believe.