Christ is the Mystery no 178
Review number 1
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This morning i would like to begin our review of the series we just
finished called Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, in which we began this
series studying the sermon of brother Branham called by the same title, Christ
is the Mystery of God Revealed. It was
I believe this entire series
helped us to draw closer to God our Father, and helped us to better understand
the relationship that Jesus Christ had with His Father, and how we as sons are also
to be conformed to the image of the first born son.
Our first sermon in this series
was entitled Being led of the Spirit, And our second sermon was
called "what is the Doctrine of Christ
producing in you?" I believe the first title is very
indicative that we were led of the spirit while studying this sermon of Brother
Branham's because many things that were spoken of throughout this series have
come to pass exactly as spoken over the past two years.
These first two sermon titles
alone ought to tell us what was on the mind of Brother Branham when he preached
this sermon. But then we see the next title was dedication, and in viewing this
subject we delved deeper into the very life attitude that God expects from His
children, reminding them what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but
ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? We read
then from the Bible called The Message, where the
Apostle Paul said: Who do
you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter?
Servants, both of us are servants, servants who waited on you as you gradually
learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our
servant assignments. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God
made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the
center of this process but God Himself who makes things grow. Planting and
watering are menial servant jobs that pay minimum wage. But what makes these
jobs worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in
which we are working, that’s all.
And
then the next sermon was entitled Hearts of the
Children, where we broke down how God deals with the heart into
seven points.
The first
is that God searches and tries your heart: That is
what any good physician would do, and so the Great Physician could do no less.
So what is the great Physician looking
for as he discerns our hearts? He first is looking for the condition of our
heart, to see if it is a healthy heart.
And that brings us to point number
2. A healthy heart
is one that Loves God with all our heart: we
gave many Scriptures for that but have not time in
this recap to do so.
3. We
examined Heart disease, and how it effects the heart
making it become hardened: In the
natural it is called atherosclerosis. When this takes place your heart has a
very hard time to pump oxygen and nutrients to the rest of your body thus
weakening the body. And in the spiritual when we see the same thing when the
hearts are hardened, the people become weak in their will to serve God and
build up the body of Christ. The rest of the members of the body also suffer
when the heart becomes hardened.
We examined when the heart becomes
hardened there are things that we can do to cleanse our hearts in the natural
just as there are things that we can do in the spiritual as well. For starters
we need to change our diet. Because what we feed on determines much the
condition of your heart. We know that science has certain products that it uses
to cleanse the heart. Well, God uses the Word of God and His Spirit to cleanse
our hearts and make them soft and supple in the spiritual.
4. God cleanses your heart:
5. God places His Word in your Heart:
6. The Heart is the Dwelling place of the Holy Spirit:
Finally in step seven we
see that after our heart operation is successful and God has injected our heart
with his Word and Life, we see that we have an assurance in our hearts, and
assurance brings rest, and peace which is contrary to the stress which brings
heart disease.
7. God places an assurance in your heart:
Colossians
2:2 That their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of
the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of
God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Then in our fifth sermon we
spoke on how God tests His children for their reactions. We looked at Hebrews 11 and examined all the
trials that accompanied the faith of the believers in the Old Testament,
especially Abraham as the father of our faith and we saw how God put him to the
test just like He tries and tests every son that cometh to Him.
Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered
up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten
son,
So
don’t think it is a strange thing when you seem to be under a
conditions where you are seeing all kinds of trials and tests coming
your way, be thankful that God thinks enough of you to be testing you.
That’s
what we are told by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter
And
James points out that our tests are to produce in us a crown of Life. James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him.
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
into divers testings; 3 Knowing [this], that the
trying of your faith worketh patience 4 But let patience have [her] perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the
appearing of Jesus Christ:
Victory Day 63-0421 When it looks like everything's gone wrong,
God's giving you a trial. He's got confidence in you. He don't
have to baby you around. You're not a hotbed plant, a hybrid. You're a real
Christian. God's giving you a test, see what you'll do about it. Amen. No
wonder Peter said, "These fiery trials, why, count it a joy. It's more
precious to you than gold." And many times we hum and haw, "Oh, well.
If I just..." Well, that's something God give you to overcome. He knows
you'll do it. He's put his trust in you.
And
that is what Wuest translation tells us as well. "In which last season you are to be
constantly rejoicing with a joy that expresses itself in a triumphant
exuberance, although for a while at the present time if perchance there is a
need for it, you have been made sorrowful in the midst of many different kinds
of testings in order that the approval of your faith,
which faith was examined by testing for the purpose of being approved, that the
approval being much more precious than the approval of gold which perishes.
The NIV says "these trials are
necessary so that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise,
then Glory and finally Honor."
I Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such
as is common to man: ( In other words, there are
certain kinds of trials and temptations we receive just because of our human
nature, but the key is the next thing he says here... but God [is] faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].
End time evangelism 62-0603 P:52 Noah had a terrible time, but finally one
day he had a trial. And all that go with God has trials; your faith is tried.
When you start to live for Him, then every neighbor's going to talk about you;
everything's going to go wrong for you. Just remember that; for it's God trying you. The Bible said, "Every son that
cometh to God must be first proven, chastened, child-trained."
In
sermon number six we spoke on How the Word of God discerns what is in the
heart. And we spoke on the Sign of Messiah that God reflected in brother
Branham's ministry.
Then in number 7 we spoke on
the importance of Loving one another and what that really means.
These were still the pre-text thoughts of brother Branham before he got into
his text for Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed.
We showed that the attitude
of a Christian according to Brother Branham, was where he said, "I'd rather have a church... Listen, just a
moment. I would rather have a church that knows nothing about any spiritual
gift, and just be so in love with each other and with Christ,
I'd rather have that than every spiritual gift operating in the church. Now,
that might sound hard in a Pentecostal group, but I would rather have it. Where
there is gifts, they'll fail. Where there is gifts, they'll bring confusion. Where there is gifts, they can be questioned. But where there is love,
it is perfect. That's right. And if you had perfect love
you'd have perfect gifts. That's right. So work first with love. That brings
fellowship, and fellowship brings gifts. , Way to have fellowship 55-1009 P:18
Now,
if you understand that these gifts he is speaking of here are not just speaking
in tongues and things like that, but the gift or wisdom to know the Word and
the Gift to Teach the Word. These are also part of the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
and if you understand that then you can see that this applies to all of us who
believe the doctrine as well.
1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy,(that’s the gift to preach or teach) and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am
nothing.
Listen,
if there is a church in this world that should understand the doctrine and live
it, it is those churches who understand the doctrine of Christ. Yet, br. Vayle told
me on more than one occasion, "Brian these people have it but they don't have it". And that’s true for just about
everywhere. The people might have it mentally, but they don't have it
reflecting out from their hearts in the way they conduct their lives.
Brother Branham said I don't care if the man's wrong. If he's
wrong and sincere in his heart and you're right in your belief and you're wrong
in acting the way you're acting. I'd rather be in his place than be in yours.
That's right. I'd rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart. God
will respect it more. So if a man is wrong, what of it? Help him. He needs
help. Love him. If you can't love your enemy the same as you love those who
love you, you're no better off than the publicans. That's right. That's what
the Church has failed to get. I hope you get it tonight. I hope you see what
I'm talking about. in his sermon, Getting in the Spirit 61-0428 47
And again in the sermon, Godhead Explained 61-0425B 40 "as long as you fuss, you're both wrong (See?), because I would rather be wrong
in my doctrine and right in my heart, than to be right in my doctrine and wrong
in my heart." See? I said, "After all, it's your heart's
condition. "And I made that a practice to
know this, that if a man, no matter what he does and how much he differs, and
what he says about me, if in my heart, not from just a duty, but from my heart
I can't love that man as well as I love anyone else, then I know there's
something wrong in here. See?"
Now, God is Love and so if
we have His Spirit living and abiding in us, then we ought to possess God's own
Love in our vessels as well. And the Apostle Paul said, 2 Corinthians
The word constrain
means 1. To compel 2. confine: 3. inhibit or
restrain; hold back:
In other words, the word “constrain”
speaks of a force that governs our behavior in a forceful way, for some
purpose greater than ourselves. And if we are talking about the Love of
God, then it is this Love that constrains us.
Paul said, the love of Christ constrains us. Not just any love, but the Love of Christ is what constrains us. This love of
Christ causes us to do what we normally would not do.
In fact that is what brother Branham
told brother Vayle when he went to brother Branham and asked him to seek God
for a vision or word from God as to why he did not have the same kind of love
he saw in brother Branham. And Brother Branham told him he did have the Love of
God within Him. Then brother Branham explained to him, that the Love of God constrains you to do what you would not normally do,
but you do it because of your Love for God.
Once we began to understand
what this attitude of Christ is supposed to be in our lives, not just to
believe the doctrine but to reflect it in the very way we live our lives, we
then began to focus in on the Life of a Christian in our next sermon called, "Number 8, we
called "what is a normal Christian Life.
This sermon was preached only two
days after brother Vayle died on June 22 of 2012, and in looking back was very prophetic
concerning what this Message would go through during the next 2 years after his
death.
I began by reading from Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed pp.
43 where
brother Branham warned us saying, "Love one another above everything. Love one
another. Don't... No matter what the devil tries to say... Now, you're all
one great, big, sweet group now, but remember my warning. See? Satan won't
let that stay that way. No, sir. He'll shoot
everything, if he has to bring somebody in to make his target. He'll bring
some critic or unbeliever in, set him down, and cause him to fellowship with
you under the quietness and things. Then he will shoot that guy with some
kind of poison stuff, and he'll start through the church with it. Don't you
take sides with it.
Don't you have nothing to do with anything else.”
Now, notice
that we are warned by God’s prophet to stick with what he taught us, because
there will be men who are ordained to come into this message with poison, and
brother Branham called these men “critics” and “unbeliever”.
The Apostle Peter also warned us this
would happen. In 2 Peter 2:1 we read, But there were false prophets also among the
people, even so there shall be (That's future tense) false teachers among
you, who privily (that means not openly but in a subtle
manner, they) shall bring in damnable heresies, (so the question is bring into where?) even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by
reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of.
(Now, this word pernicious,
brother Vayle told us years ago in The rapture series,
that this word “pernicious” means “bloodless”. So they will turn down the blood in
turning down the one that bought them.
Notice that what these men do is to bring
the way of Truth into disrepute by what they do and teach. In other words they
become a stain on the true revelation of Jesus Christ which is the Doctrine of
Christ, and they bring a reproach against those who stand for the Truth and are
identified with the Messenger of Truth, but because they have come in along
side of the truth and preach their heresy, they bring the rest of us into a
reproach, those of us who are doing all
we can do to stand for the truth, but through their association with the
Message, the entire Message is looked down upon and the reputation of God's
Servant William Branham is brought into question.)
3 And through covetousness shall they with
feigned (or made
up) words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long
time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
Now, the Wuest Translation puts it this way, 2 Peter 2:1 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 a nature as to bring alongside of true doctrine destructive heresies,
even denying the Lord who purchased them, bringing upon themselves swift
destruction. So
there will be men right in the Message who are going to deny the son of God,
because it was his blood that paid your debt. 2 And many shall follow their licentious
conduct to its consumation;
(Now, the word licentious means Having
no regard for accepted rules or standards. In other words there is
nothing normal with these guys, every thing to them is an extreme. And you see
it everywhere today. Everything has to be extreme. Can’t the people see that
those things are driven by spirits? And then in religion, through Pentecostalism
you see extremes everywhere and especially in the message.
2 And many shall follow their EXTREME
conduct to its consumation; on account of whom the way of truth will be reviled. Well what is the way
of Truth? It’s this Message, and what is considered a normal Christian walk.
Peter is warning us that 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.
So they are here brothers and sisters,
and they are in this Message to poison as many as will drink their cup. and so the warning
went out, and we have seen this Word fulfilled in our very midst.
Therefore
in this first sermon on what is a normal Christian life we compared it to what
is not a normal Christian life. Because among those who call
themselves Christians today, the majority do not live a normal Christian Life,
but an abnormal one. And one that brings the name Christian into
disrepute.
The next sermon, number 9,
we spoke on the subject called the complete body, and we saw how it can not become complete without the right
motives and objectives, and how that the complete body could only be made
possible through love.
As we get older, we realize there is
more to our Christian Life than just what understanding we might accumulate
concerning the Doctrine of Christ. There is also supposed to be an application
of the doctrine of Christ in the very life that we live.
In 2 John 1:3 Grace be with you, mercy, and
peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Father, in truth and love. notice there is a
mercy and a grace that we must also have and John ends this thought with the
words, in Truth and in Love.
And we know that Truth is The Doctrine
of Christ, but this truth apart from Love will never do you any good. The
Apostle Paul who said if an angel or any man preach
any other Gospel than what he preached let him be cursed, and this same Paul
told us in 1 Corinthians 13: and I would like to read it from the
Translation called The
Message.
1 If I speak with human
eloquence (that means with powerful
persuasive speech) and angelic ecstasy and that means ( 1. Intense joy or delight. 2. A
state of emotion so intense that one is carried beyond rational thought and
self-control: an ecstasy of rage. 3. The trance, frenzy, or
rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation.) and this Apostle said, if our preaching is done in such a way as to be able to sway
anyone who listens to us, but we don't love, then we’re nothing but the
creaking of a rusty gate.
Now, that is quite a
statement, because it puts the onus back on us to not only have the right
doctrine but our hearts need to be right as well. And we all know brother
Branham said “if you have
the right doctrine but your heart is not right, God would respect you more if
your heart was right but you didn’t have the doctrine right.” Then in verse two the apostle said, … and remember, this is the same Apostle that said if
you deviate from what I have said, you are cursed, and he said, ….
2 Though I could speak God's Word with such
power, and reveal all His mysteries and make everything plain as day, and if I
have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't
love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the
stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no
matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love
never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Love Doesn't have a swelled head,
Love Doesn't force itself on others,
Love Isn't always "me first,"
Love Doesn't fly off the handle,
Love Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, (It keeps no record of
wrongs,)
Love holds no grudges
Love Doesn't take joy in when others fall short,
Love Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Love Puts up with anything,
Love Trusts God always,
Love Always looks for the best,
Love Never looks back,
Love But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired preaching
will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach
its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is
always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be
canceled. 11When I was a child I spoke as a child, because I thought as a
child, but when I grew up, I left behind those childish ways for good. 12Now,
we don't yet see things as clearly as we should. We're squinting as thought
looking through a fog, peering through a mist. But Perfect Love comes, then we'll see everything as clear as it really is, because we will see it as clearly as God sees us, knowing him
directly just as he knows us! 13But for right now, until that completeness comes,
we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: we have Faith
which is revelation, and hope which is an earnest expectation, and we have love
which is perfectness. And the best of the three is love, because love is an
expression, an outward expression of our Revelation and hope.
That
is why Paul could say there
remains Faith, Hope and Love these three, but the greatest of these is Love. Faith is the revelation, it is the access, it is the
foundation, it is the starting point, but when Faith truly takes a hold upon a
man, it begins to move that man into an action. And Hope is the catalyst that
begins the faith toward action. Faith in itself is a passive thing, but if it
is a true genuine faith, then it will begin to move the person who possesses
that Faith toward the goal of that Faith. And hope is that thing that causes
man to move forward with faith. Faith is the power, but Hope is the steam that
is released by that power, and Love is the outward action that comes forth by
that Divine Revelation. Galatians
5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
(right-wise-ness) by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which
worketh by love. So we see that Faith without Love remains dormant, and
passive. And we see that Faith is motivated by Love. Therefore, love is greater
than faith because it can move our faith from a passive faith into an active
faith.
Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter one that after we (as a church) have received
the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, then our Faith will begin to become manifest in
a way that it will outwardly show in our love for the brethren
, and at this time, then we will be ready to receive the Spirit of
Wisdom and revelation in the Knowledge of God.
Now, brother Branham wasn’t
always filled with love for his brethren. There was a time when he would have
shot three boys in cold blooded murder because of what they did to him, and he
wanted to get even. But something happened to him,. And
he entered into the fellowship of the suffering of Christ. And that is one of
the reasons why brother Branham’s ministry was so effective.
Two reasons that I know, he
said the reason my ministry was so successful is because I love the people. And
the other is because he was able to enter into the fellowship of their
suffering.
Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision;
but faith which worketh by love. Galatians
1 Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
1 Thessalonians 1:3 Wuest Translation "Remembering unceasingly your works produced and
characterized by the Faith which is yours, and your toil which is motivated and
characterized by your divine and self sacrificial Love, and your patient
endurance under trials which finds it's source in your hope which rests in our
Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of God, even the father."
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians
Position in Christ 55-0116A P:29 When you're outside of Christ, you don't
understand the heavenly place. When you're out there, you look and say," Oh, that bunch of
fanatics, they don't know what they're speaking about." The reason you
don't know because you've never been a partaker of the fellowship of His
suffering. You've never laid your hands upon His blessed sacred head, and
felt the pains of
pp. 44 Now, do you remember that? The enemy will
come. And when he does, just cling that much closer together.
And the one that the Devil is using for an enemy will either get out or come in
and be one of you. That's all. Don't never clan among one an--or talk, make
yourself clannish; we are one. I couldn't say, "Left hand, I'm mad at you;
I'm going to take you away 'cause you're not a right hand." He's my left
hand. I want him to stay there. Even the little tip of my finger, I want it to
stay right there, every little part of my body stay right there. And God wants
us as a Body of believers to stay right exactly with one another, right it with
one another.
The next sermon in our series was number 10 which we called Moving
on, and began by reading from paragraph 44
from Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed.
Now, do you
remember that? The enemy will come. And when he does, just
cling that much closer together. And the one that the Devil is
using for an enemy will either get out or come in and be one of you. That's
all. Don't never clan among one another or talk, make
yourself clannish; we are one. I couldn't say, "Left hand, I'm mad at you;
I'm going to take you away 'cause you're not a right hand." He's my left
hand. I want him to stay there. Even the little tip of my finger, I want it to
stay right there, every little part of my body stay right there. And God wants
us as a Body of believers to stay right exactly with one another, right it with
one another.
We had spoken from 1 Corinthians 12 concerning the complete body, and
how one part can not say they have not need of any other part, no more than
anyone could say they only need one of the five fold ministry, making it a one
fold ministry.
The Apostle Paul spoke of
the complete Body in 1
Corinthians 12. And I said in this sermon, that I want you to
never get the idea that we have formed a circle around John 14:12. and I have never been
for making a camp around the Parousia nor making a camp around the Doctrine of
Christ. We call the website Message Doctrine because it deals with The doctrine Brother Branham taught, but I do not wish for
anyone to make a circle around the Message Doctrine. Our circle should be
around Christ if we are to have a circle. And brother Branham said in many
places, that anyone who believes that Jesus is the son of God,
is my brother.
Therefore I went on record, saying that I
do not wish for any of you listening to this sermon to make John
I never intended for it to be an issue, I simply
pointed out that when we use Scripture we need to make sure we say it the same
way it is written. We need to be honest in the way that we apply Scripture and
make sure we do not try to cram a square peg down a round hole. We must not try
to use Scripture that doesn’t fit our doctrine in a way that crams it or crops
it to make it fit. If it doesn’t fit it just doesn’t fit. we should always
remember what brother Branham said,
First he said we must not Misinterpret
the word: Misinterpret means to interpret wrongly, to
understand or explain incorrectly.
Secondly we must not Misplace
the Word: Misplace means to put in the wrong place. To wrongly place or to improperly place. To take away from the
proper, or natural position, time, or character.
And third we must not Dislocate the word:
Dislocate means to
upset the order or connection of the Scripture.
And if there is Scripture that seems to say something
different from what our doctrine teaches, if we are honest, we will take a
second look at how we are presenting our doctrine. because to do
otherwise is to either break one of those three must not's.
I think if you look carefully
at the first ten sermons we spoke on from brother Branham's Message Christ is
the Mystery of God Revealed you will see a trend begin in that we could see a
honing in on the life of Christ, and the fact that we are becoming more
sensitized to the leading of the Holy Ghost and a dying out to self. And if you
can summarize the last two years, it would be that in becoming conformed tot he
image of the first born son, we have learned that we must also die to self,
that Christ might live in us, that he became us that we might become him.
Let us bow our heads in prayer.