Christ is the Mystery no 190
Understanding Doctrine
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This morning we will not be reviewing any particular
sermons in this series but more explicitly we shall focus our thoughts on
exactly what does it mean to understand doctrine. we
take our text from Brother Branham's sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God
Revealed and read from pp 191.
191 "Well," you say, "now
wait a minute, Brother Branham, you're talking about the Old Testament." He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's the full revelation of God. If God ever says anything, He
can never change it. He
always magnifies it, not change it. The law was
magnified, not changed: magnified. "Whosoever commits adultery shall be guilty of death, but
whosoever now (magnified) looks upon a woman to lust after her..." He never changed the commandment;
He magnified it. "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," one day
in the week. Now He magnified it. The rest comes from keeping the Spirit of
God. "Precept upon
precept, and line upon line, here a little and there a little; hold fast to
that what's good, for with stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to
this people. And that
is the rest. That's the refreshing from the Presence of
the Lord. And yet
they would not hear it," and wagged their heads, and walked away to their
denominations. Uh-huh. This
is the refreshing
(See?), magnifying the Sabbath day, to you Sabbatarians and
so forth. Oh, my. He don't change; He magnifies it. Hell has
spread her gates to receive them.
Now, don't forget that
thought because we are going to have to come back to it, if we are to
understand what it takes to understand the doctrine. Because if you add one
word or take away one word that changes the meaning you can only do that
because you do not have a correct understanding of the doctrine.
Now, the Scripture that brother Branham is
referring to in this paragraph 191 is from Isaiah chapter 28.
Isaiah 28: 9-13 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand
doctrine?
These words are
very applicable to this hour because the people just do not seem to grasp the
doctrine of Christ correctly, even among those who say they believe their is one God who had a Son. But notice, God is saying
here "who can I get to understand doctrine?" So there's a question
mark. He says, "to them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?"
Notice another question here. He is inferring here that these people are incapable
of understanding. Then what does that tell us about
this hour when we have people who have sat under a vindicated prophet and an
anointed teacher and still don't understand the doctrine.
In fact the Apostle Paul told us it was
not to be fulfilled in his age either, because he said in Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be
teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become
such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every
one that uses milk is un-skilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong
meat belongs to them that are
of full age, even those
who by reason of use have their
senses exercised to discern both
good and evil.
So then the understanding of the doctrine
could only come in an age when the Elect have come to full maturity that can
only come from a Full and complete Word. When that which is perfect has come then that which is in part is
done away with. 1 Cor
Now, in getting back to Isaiah 28 we will pick up at verse 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Now a precept is: a command or
principle intended especially as a general rule of action. And notice He said, For precept must be upon
precept, precept upon precept...
Not precept then we
change the precept and give you a different precept. But He said, For precept must be upon
precept, precept upon precept...
As brother Branham said,
If God ever says anything, He can never
change it. He always magnifies it, not
change it. The law was magnified, not changed: magnified.
And that means that line
shall be upon line, line upon line. In other words, if I write the
Words out on a line, and I echo them, I must write the same words on top of the
other words that are already written. Line up on line. Precept
up on precept.
I can not
say in one place Ephesians
4:5 One Lord, one
faith, one baptism, And then preach that there are two or three Lords.
I
can not say Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him and said, The first of all the
commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
And then tell you that I am teaching the Doctrine of Christ and tell
you there are two Lords or Three Lords as the Trinitarians teach. That would
not be line on top of line, and precept on top of precept. The precept is,
"There is One Lord". And to teach Two Lords is not in line with the
precept. That is why brother Vayle in Godhead number 7, called the teaching of
Two Lords a fallacy. He said, "You know,
people don't understand about two lords. Well I'm going to tell you about two
lords. Two Lords is actually a fallacy." And then he said, "That's why It says in Ephesians,
"one lord."
But people, they can't think for themselves. They just don't know, when the
word... "Oh, Vayle's preaching two Gods." You know, Paul said, "Stupidity
only requires one answer-stay stupid." That's Lee Vayle. Paul said
"ignorant."
So when brother Vayle corrected the error concerning
those who were teaching a "Two Lords" doctrine, he said people are just going to stay ignorant because they
just can't think for themselves.
And that about sums it up. And he called it a
fallacy, and the word fallacy means: a wrong
belief: a false or mistaken idea: the quality of being false or wrong. So
if it's wrong and they still preach it after being told it is wrong, what can I
say?
So we are talking about
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and notice that the sole purpose
for these principles are for the general rule of action or conduct.
But what if our doctrine brings forth no action? And how can it if it is not
based upon previously taught precepts. because precept
must be upon precept and line upon line in order for it all to line up
correctly.
And that is why wrong
doctrine can bring forth no action. Therefore if no action results from the doctrine then either one of two things exist.
1) Your doctrine has no
life
2) You do not understand
the doctrine itself, because the precepts of the doctrine or principles of the
doctrine are supposed to produce an action, for that is their sole purpose.
Then we are told in verse 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. Now, what is another
tongue except it is another language. So we have a promise here that at the
time of adulthood, when the children of God are grown up and ready to receive
the Doctrine, there will come one speaking another language than what
the people of God knew at that time. A language that is not common to man, but
a language that will bring with it the rest that comes from the presence of the
Lord. Because it will line up precept upon precept and it will line up line
upon line. And this will bring the rest, for as brother Branham knocked seven
times on the pulpit and said there is relaxation under the seventh seal, so
there must come a final rest for the believer in Christ and His Word, and that
rest comes from the fact that the He, God will come down with a Shout, A
Message, and speak to the people in a language that the scholars do not
understand, nor the theologians, but the Elect Seed of God shall understand and
they shall find rest in that Voice that Speaks from heaven in the form of a
shout.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
So even though this one who will come from
the very Presence of the Lord will come with words or basically a Message, and
that in a language they are not accustomed to hear, those Words are supposed to
bring rest, because He that brings them is our rest, and yet the people will
not hear them. They will not understand what is said. Because hear means to
understand.
Hear recognize act on word 60-0221 P:18 First, faith cometh by hearing, hearing
of the Word of God. Then the believer hears It,
recognizes It, and acts on It. The carnal man will hear It, the
sound of It, but never... "Hear"
means to "understand" It. Look at,
is looking at something; but to see it, is to "understand" it.
"Except a man be
borned again, he cannot see or understand the
If people will not hear or understand the
words that bring rest, then they are not at rest and can not be, and they will
always be looking for something else.
NIV Isaiah 28:11 but they would not listen, so then,
the Word of the Lord to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule
on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there - so that they
will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured.
Again, let me
read this also from the New American Standard Here is repose," but they would not listen.
So the Word of the Lord to
them will become, "Order on order, order on ¨order, line on line, line
on line, a little here, a little here," That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snare, and taken
captive.
In other words God comes down
with a Shout, a Message, and the people will not stop to listen, and not only
that, but they will not take what the Scripture says, the precept, and place
the message upon that precept. So the Message to them becomes just a bunch of
conduct, order, and doctrine. And the very purpose of the Shout is to bring
rest and relaxation under the Seventh Seal. And rest comes from total trust,
and thus because there is a lack of trust that this vindicated Word says the
same thing as the precepts of the Bible, and because they can not take a line
from the Message and place it on top of a line from the Bible, that the two
seems to be at odds, when they are not. It is just the people have not been
trained to know their Bibles, and so when they hear the message they think it
is a new Message, when God came to restore that Word which the palmer worm and
locust denominational spirits ate away through the ages.
God did not come to bring a new message, He came to restore the Message Paul brought.
Even Paul said in 2 Thessalonians
Now, this is the same Apostle who said in Galatians 1:6 "If any man preach
any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
"If any man does not line up precept
with precept, and line with line, let him be accursed".
Therefore it is imperative that the very
first principle in understanding the doctrine of Christ is that we must line up
precept with precept, and line with line if we are to understand the doctrine
correctly. And those who do not do so, will not understand the doctrine at all
and they will therefore produce a very mixed up understanding, and this will
cause them to go and fall back into what they came out of, just like Israel
because they did not understand the message of their day wanted to go back to
Egypt where they came out of.
"So the Word of the Lord to them will become, "Order
on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little here,"
That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snare, and taken captive.
Did you ever stop to think what takes them
captive here? It's because they did not receive the life of the doctrine,
so the doctrine becomes to them just more rules on top of rules, and more church order on
top of church order, until the people completely fall away from the Doctrine
that was sent to bring them rest, assurance and trust.
Instead of being set free by the Life in
the Doctrine, they become ensnared and are taken captive by the rules of men
instead. So the same Word, the same Message that was sent to free a people,
to bring them rest is the same Message that will ensnare them and make them
captives.
That is what we read in 1 Timothy 4. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, (that means the Spirit speaks for the expressed purpose) that in the
latter times some shall
depart from The faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines
of devils;
Now, is not just
departing from faith in general, but from THE Faith, and he said there is only One Faith, and that is the faith of that One Lord. In other words, the revelation of Jesus Christ. So in departing from The Faith they
must also depart from The One Lord.
From his sermon, Earnestly contending for the faith 55-0123E P:2 The faith, not "a" faith, but "The" faith, .. .Now, many
people say, "Well, I would go down to that meeting, but it's against my
faith." There's only one
faith: one faith, one hope, one Lord, one baptism. You believe it?
One faith, and that faith is in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
So we are warned
that at the end time some shall depart from The Faith. Now, listen they had to be in The Faith, or as brother Branham put it, they had
to have "The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, in order to fall away from it. So the question is, what will
take them away from the
Faith of Christ, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, The Doctrine of Christ. What will take them away from the
Doctrine?
We are told in
verse 2. they will Speak lies in hypocrisy; having
their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Now, what does
that mean? It means they know better but they say something other than what the
precept said anyway. They will say it one way, but when they are pressured by others
they will say it a different way than what they said it the first time. So they
are liars but they actually know better. And a hypocrite is a stage actor, one who plays
with different masks on.
So when he talks
to you he's your friend, and when he talks to your enemy he's not your friend,
and with these kind you never know where they stand. And the political world is
full of them, and so are the churches.
And so Paul now
tells us what it will be that they will turn to when they turn away from the
Doctrine. He says, 3. Forbidding to marry, (splitting up people who were joined by God where the vow
says, What God put together
let no man put asunder.)
Threatening spouses that if they do not believe it my way they do not believe
it at all, and therefore we can not stay together which is totally against what
the Apostle Paul said, when he said, "if the unbelieving spouse wishes to remain
with the believing spouse they can be sanctified by remaining together." But they do not care what Paul said, because they can
not place precept upon precept, and so they hear something they think is new
and they depart from the original precept, which is antichrist to do so.
Notice Paul says
this will take place at the end time. They will fall away from The Faith, The
Revelation, The Doctrine of Christ, and when they do they will turn to
things like abstaining from eating meats.
And notice in the
reading of 1 Timothy 4 he tells us they will preach these false
doctrines because they will depart from THE FAITH. So they have to be in The FAITH
to depart from it.
In Isaiah
29: 8-9 we read8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats in his
dream; but when he awaken, his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams,
and in his dream he drinks; but when he awakens behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite:
Now, let's continue to read in Isaiah 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry:
they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10 For the LORD hath poured out
upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath
closed your eyes: the prophets and
your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 11 And the vision of all is
become unto you as the words
of a book that is sealed, which men deliver
to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I
cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And
the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray
thee: and he saith,
I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch
as this people draw near me with
their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their
heart far from me, and their
fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
NIV verse 13 ..."Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by
men."
New American Standard Their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by
rote,"
Amplified " Their fear and reverence for Me are a
commandment of men that is learned by repetition (without any thought of the
meaning);"
And so no matter how well they were taught
it will all become as though they had never been instructed in the first place.
14 Therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work
among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men (teachers) shall be hid. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their
counsel from the Lord, and their works are
in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?16 Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay:
for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that
framed it, He had no understanding? 17 Is it
not yet a very little while, and
Christ is the Mystery of
God Revealed
"Now, you can see now the end time Message, why It's rejected. Can you? Now,
no denomination, but the revelation of His mystery. See? No denomination, the revelation. God's
not known by denomination. He's
known by revelation. Look, God in His Body, Christ, and Christ in His Body, the Bride (Oh, my.) God made manifest in Christ; Christ made manifest in the Bride.
And as God took from the body of Adam the woman and she fell, then God has took
from the Body of Christ, His flesh, His Body, which is His Word, and is
bringing a Bride out that won't fall by denomination or creed. No,
sir. But She's coming back to the pure unadulterated
Word of God being manifested. I hope every man that hears this tape and every
woman will understand that. See? She's the second Eve, but She's not breaking and spoiling Her skirts
of purity and holiness to Her Husband. She'll stay with this Word regardless of
what anybody says. You can have all the ecumenical moves you want to and all
the affiliations.
193
And they're going to bring a
persecution on pretty soon and shut up all the churches. You see that. And churches like this who's not in denominations, they'll use them
for storehouses then. And if
any man goes and offer a prayer for anybody else that don't belong to the
economical movement will be shot on the spot. It's already. That Lutheran
minister, the head of it, said so. It's right here. You can read it right here
in your magazines. It's right. Don't
make any difference what they say; that Church will stand true in this Light. She's already proved it back yonder,
and She'll do
it again in the face of everything. It's the Word of God. And let all
ecumenical movements and everything else will be gone. She's going to be there
without spot or wrinkle. Right. She'll stand there."
Now we hear
Jesus speak of knowing a man by his fruits, in the book of Matthew 7:15-20. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye
shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of
thistles? 17 Even so every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.20 Wherefore
by their fruits ye shall know them.
Now, what does He mean by this? You will know Him by his fruits?
William Branham taught us what the fruit
is in The Anointed ones at
the end time. 65-0725M
P:42 He said, "What is the fruit? The Word for, the fruit for the season; that's what
it is, their teaching. The teaching of what?
The teaching of the season, what time it is, man's
doctrine, denominational doctrine, or God's Word for the
season."
Closer examination of this scripture,
allows us to see that you will be able to tell who and what a man is by his fruit, his teaching, what he teaches. Does he
have precept lined up with precept and line lined up with line? Is he able to
take the Message back to the Bible and line up what the Scripture says with
what the End-time Message of God tells us? can he show
us from the Scripture what the message says? Is he lining up the principles and
precepts, and line of the Scripture with Line of the Message?
Or is his teaching scrambled and all
over the place. Therefore it is the fruit, what they teach that identifies and
declares the man. Now remember, he begins by warning us about false prophets.
And he calls them wolves in sheep’s clothing, but then talks about their fruit.
He's using metaphors to get a point across. We must ask
ourselves what is a teaching but the very thoughts of this person made known
through words.
Therefore if we break down this thought
of what a man’s fruit is, we find that it is his thoughts, what he is
thinking. And we find a righteous man will have righteous thoughts, which are rightly wise thoughts or
correct thoughts for the season he lives in. Or better said, A righteous man will have thoughts that are
a correct match for the season.
And that is why John
Isaiah 43:11 I, even I, am the
LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the
Jesus Christ the same 61-0118 P:68 The elected church, not the lukewarm (They
got theirs.), but the elected, called out church... Can you read between the
lines? See? Called out Church will receive that sign, and that was the sign
of the Messiah. It's the sign of the Messiah among us. We're not
Messiah, but the Messiah lives in us which "Messiah" means "the Anointed One," and it's got to anoint all of us. If it
anoints one with a sign, and the other one doesn't believe it, what good would
it do? It's got to be all of us together. And together, if Jesus
Christ will appear here tonight and do the same Messiahic signs that He
did back there before the Jew and the Samaritan, would you receive Him as your
Saviour and as your Healer? Would you? That's a big statement. Receive Him
as your Saviour. Now, remember He cannot heal. His first thing, He wants
you to believe it.
Abraham's grace covenant 61-0317 P:59 Notice, He changed his name, and then
give him a sign that the end was at hand. Abraham then went out, set one
hot morning in the tent door, about up around noontime, and he looked and he
saw three Men coming. And Abraham knew that there was something strange about
them, so... run out... Somebody said the other day, a converted Jew, said that
them three men was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Nonsense.
He didn't say, "My Lords." as a heathen, he said,
"My Lord." Lot was the one called the two
Angels, "Lords." The backslider down there, shows
exactly where that same class lives today, make
God four or five different people. God's one God. Right. "My Lord,"
said Abraham.
Be not afraid 60-0609 P:25 But Abraham, the elect, there was an
Angel stopped with him too and performed the very same sign that Jesus did,
the sign of the Messiah. He never had seen that... Abraham, he was a
stranger. The two angels was going on into
And
from his sermon, Micaiah the prophet 61-0426 P:66 Well, if that
was sign of Messiah yesterday, then... You can't find one Scripture
where He did that before the Gentiles, or to the Gentiles, now, 'cause the
Gospel hadn't yet gone to the Gentiles. But He did promise that at the end of
the Gentile age, when the Gentiles now are looking for a Messiah... Are we?
Well, then, if He appears in a different form than He did then, then it
isn't the same Messiah. So He's got to come to the Gentiles in the same
thing. And Jesus said He would. Said, "As it was in the days of
So we see that the sign of Messiah was
to be displayed before us before the return of Jesus Christ the Son of God
which we call the second coming of Christ.
Now, people get this sign of Messiah
mixed up with John 14:12, and it is not John 14:12.
The sign of Messiah is the sign of the
Word itself in our midst, which is Hebrews 4:12.
The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than a two edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart." That's your sign of
Messiah.
Visions are not the sign of Messiah,
because God promised us through the prophet Joel that He would pour out His spirit upon all flesh,
and the young men would see visions and the old men would dream dreams. So visions are not the sign of Messiah. And healing is not the sign of
Messiah, for even Judas went forth with a healing ministry. And miracles are
not the sign of Messiah, because 1 Corinthians 12
tells us that miracles are gifts to the church.
1 Corinthians 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the
same Spirit. 5 And there are
differences of administrations, but the same Lord. (that's
Lord singular) 6 And
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which
worketh all in all. 7 But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another
the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another
faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the
same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to
another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers
kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But
all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as he will. 12 For as the
body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit. 14 For the body
is not one member, but many.
So we see, miracles, and healing, and
even Word of Knowledge, and discerning of spirits are
not the Messiac Sign. And Hebrews
In fact brother Branham said, "I can talk to a man for three minutes and
tell whether He has the Holy ghost or not, and you can
too." So here he
is not talking about reading the thoughts and intents of the hearts, here he is
talking about what spirit motivates a person.
But Hebrews
But John
John 14:12 however is essentially being so full of the same Life that was in Christ
that you think His thoughts, and thinking his thoughts, you say what he says
and you do what he does. That is it in a nutshell. If the Spirit of Jesus Christ is in
you, it will quicken your mortal body and that is this body that you are now
living in.
And if we are to be conformed to the image of the first
born son in this
hour, we must have his mind in order to think his thoughts in
order to say what he says, in order to do what he does. Other wise we
are not conformed to His image, but we are doing and saying and acting
according to our own mind, our own thoughts. And that will get you nowhere with
God real quick.
Those who were Elect
in Moses day did not look to Noah’s Message for the bread of life in their day.
They received Moses Message in Moses day.
In Jesus day, those who were looking to
Moses message missed Him when He came, and yet Moses said how he would come. He
said, the lord thy God shall
raise up unto Thee a prophet from the midst of Thy brethren like unto me, and
this is the guy you must hear." But did they believe
Moses? No way. Oh they fussed about what he said, and were so tight in their
circles that if you believed what Moses said in a way they didn't believe they
wanted to put you out of the synagogue.
They had spent hundreds of years trying
to figure out precept upon precept and line upon line of what Moses and the
prophets wrote, and when Jesus came quoting line upon line, and precept upon
precept, and identified as a prophet by doing the sign of a prophet, and
vindicated by God, they
turned him down flat because he wasn't in their camp.
They went plumb into legalism and the
law instead of listening to how Jesus weaved the Law and prophets together to
bring forth a Message of rest, hope and Life.
He taught precept lined up with precept
and line laid up upon line. But because their doctrine and their creeds were
already established in their own minds by what they thought the law and
prophets taught they missed the Messiah when he came.
The very God they claimed to worship was
in their midst and they knew it not. And cast aside the man Jesus in Whom God used
to openly declare Himself to the people.
And so unless line is upon line, and
precept is upon precept, you will have no clue as to what this message is all
about, and you will die in your legalism, and self righteous creeds.
In closing, we see in Psalm
1 the righteous man, and how he keeps himself watered in the Word
daily.
"For precept must be upon precept and
line must be upon line. For this is the rest."