Christ is the Mystery no 196 Review 19
Christian Life review no 3
Brian Kocourek, pastor
This morning I would like to review
a few more sermons
we preached on in this series from Christ is the Mystery, and in the mini
series we took on what it means to be a Christian.
To begin we will pick up at Christ is the Mystery no 123 Christian Life No 4 Doctrine The Voice Of
The Sign
This sermon dealt with "the voice of the sign", showing that in the
Alpha as well as in the Omega, people sought after the sign which was a prophet,
but they rejected the voice of the sign which is the doctrine that prophet
taught.
From his sermon, Go Tell 60-0417M pp. 113 Br. Branham said, “God told Moses, "If they won't hear the voice of the first
sign, then they'll hear the voice of the second sign." Not so much the sign, but the
voice went with it.
So we see that brother Branham believed
the emphasis was to be placed upon the voice of the sign rather than just the
sign itself, because after all, the voice behind the sign is what the very sign
is given for. The voice is the very purpose for the sign in the first place.
In Exodus 4:1 we read, And Moses answered and said, But,
behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say,
The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A
rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it
became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4 And the LORD said unto
Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his
hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5 That they may believe
that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6 And the LORD said furthermore unto
him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and
when he took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as
snow. 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom
again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his
bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his [other] flesh. 8 And it shall
come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of
the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
So we see this scriptural term “The Voice of the Sign” is not a term Brother Branham made up himself,
but is something God used. Therefore this scriptural principle brother Branham
taught us called “the Voice of the Sign” is very important to the Elect.
From his
sermon, Queen of
Notice that brother Branham is letting
us know that the emphasis is not to be placed on the sign itself, but rather the Voice behind that sign, that is what is important to watch.
From his sermon called Voice of the Sign 64-0214 45 brother Branham said, “Now, we find out here the burning bush was a sign.
It was given to attract the attention of Moses. Now, that's what God gives a
sign for, is to attract the attention of the people. That's what a
sign is for: to attract attention. And when we go down through the
Scripture here, as we teach it now for a few minutes, and find out if that
isn't so, that He gives these signs to attract attention. And then, when He
gets the attention of the people, then the voice of the sign begins to speak.
Jesus healed the sick to attract attention. See? Then, when He begin to preach... See, always it attracts attention.
47 The burning bush was given to Moses to attract the runaway prophet's
attention, and he turned aside to see what it was. Then the sign gave a voice.
The sign itself gave a voice. Now, these voices and signs are to alert the
people of God's Word is just about ready to be vindicated. Always the sign is
to attract the attention of people.
Now, we have seen our last
sign, and that last sign was the sign of Messiah, but the sign of Messiah was
not the important thing. The important thing was the Voice of the Sign, which
was the doctrine that God came down in a Shout
to restore.
The emphasis is not and never should be
on the sign itself, because the sign is only to attract the attention. But once
the attention has been attracted, “Voice of the Sign ” takes over. Then what about the Epiphanaea that took place on the
What good did the Parousia of Christ do
for those who did not know God had come down? So God gave used a sign to
attract the attention of the people. That’s His epiphany, or Epiphanaea. It means a shining forth. An illumination and
the purpose of the illumination, the Light, the Pillar of Fire coming down, was to get the attention of the people. Why, Because the sign has a Voice.
Look, brother Branham taught us that every
sign from God has a voice behind it, because the purpose of a sign is two fold.
#1) To get the attention of the people.
#2) Once the attention is held, there is a voice, a Message that the sign declares. That’s the
whole purpose of the sign.
Brother
Branham preached the message, "Voice of the Sign" several times. In the one preached 64-0214 pp 55 he said, “There, watch real close now. He is going to
speak, so He has to attract the attention by a sign. And the sign's voice is
what He's going to say. His Word... His promised Word's going to be
vindicated now. See? "I made a promise that I would take them out by a strong hand, I'd
show My power in that land" and whatever He's going to do. Now,
He made the promise to Abraham. Here He is ready to do it, so He gives a
sign, a Pillar of Fire laying back in a burning bush. And He tells Moses,
"Now, you're
going to be My mouthpiece. Go on down there and I'll be with you." And when he got down there, then the
promised Word that He had promised was vindicated. That was the voice of the
sign. You get it now? Notice, "I have heard their groans. I remember My promise." 57 God
never changes. He
always does it in the same way. The coming of a prophet is a sign
that God is ready to speak. Now, search the Scriptures. See? The Bible
says, God said Himself He did nothing until He revealed it to His prophets. That's right. He does it through them,
because it comes to them; that's His servants, you know. All
right. The coming of a prophet is a sign that's overlooked by the
people every time. They overlook it. They never get it somehow, 'less it's
those who got their eyes open to see it. Those who are elected to see it,
does see it. But the coming of a prophet was the sign that God is ready
to speak, 'cause if God ain't going to speak, the prophet wouldn't be on
earth. Now, remember that. He wouldn't be on earth, unless God was ready to
speak. And that's the way He speaks is through those channels. The unchanging
God never did do it any other way.
In 1982 Brother Vayle held a convention
in
59 Notice. This is
always God's way of making His voice known to His people. He sends His
prophet and gives a sign, and then takes His voice that's been spoken before on
His Word, and vindicates it by this man; and they know that it's His voice,
because it's a promised Word of the day. Oh, if people could only see that.
If they could only stop just a moment and realize that...
You see, there's no way to make them believe it. There's not a way a man... God
himself can't do it, make the people believe it. They've got to believe it.
And if there's nothing there to believe with, how can they believe? See?
No matter what you do... The Bible said, "Though He had done so many miracles, yet
they could not believe," because Isaiah
foresaw it, and said, "They got ears and they can't hear, eyes and can't see." And yet He was perfectly the
Messiah, done exactly what the Messiah said. And they said, "This man just breaks up churches, and he...
We don't know from whence he comes." See? Isn't that strange, that they would do that? But the
Bible said they would do it.
61 And the
Bible also said in this day they'd do the same thing: "Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more
than of God, false accusers, incontinent, despisers of those that are good;
having a form of godliness, but would deny the vindicated Word, the power
thereof, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and so forth. From
such turn away. For this is the kind that organizes women's societies,
and goes house-to-house, and leads silly women, lade away with divers lusts,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." See? Now, that's prophesied. And
that's got to come to pass because it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Notice.
"But their folly
would be showed up as Jambres and Jannes
in the last days." 62 Now, always making known His voice to His people by His
prophet sign... Now, I'm talking about Moses. That's where I'm banking
back, and then see where we're at. God's Word is manifested by the voice of the
sign. Now, the sign that is promised for the day is done before the people. And
then the written Scripture comes forth is the voice of that sign. If it doesn't
give a Scriptural voice, then stay away from it. See? It's not God, 'cause God
can't promise this for today, and say, "Well, this is it." See? God
cannot do that. God cannot promise something for one day and say, "No, no.
It won't do that. That was for another day." What He promises, He must
stay with it. And the real Scriptural sign is the Scriptural voice.
Voice of the Sign 64-0214
89 Notice, the
Pillar of Fire sign, and then the voice of the sign spoke. See? The Pillar...
Sign of the voice was there, ready to speak. The sign only showed that the
voice was ready to speak. Get the idea? The sign shows God's voice is ready to
speak.
Voice of the Sign 64-0214 154 Now, notice, Jesus' first ministry... Oh,
they all--everybody wanted Him in their church. Oh, my. He's a great Fellow.
Sure, He went in all the synagogues, read the scrolls, and set down. Everybody,
"Young rabbi..."But one day He begin to talk
to them in another way. The voice of the sign begin
to speak. And when the voice of the sign begin
to speak, nobody wanted Him. One of them said, "This man's crazy. He's a cannibal, trying to
make cannibal out of all of us." See? He never explained it. Let them go.
Notice here
that Brother Branham is telling us something else about this Voice of the Sign.
He is telling us that not everyone can receive it. It is not for everyone. And
so it must be rejected by those who do not want the voice of the sign.
Voice
of the Sign 64-0321E E-33 Notice, sign. What does a sign do? The sign is to
attract the attention, and get the elected ready and out of the way before
judgment strikes. That's what Noah did, got the elected ready. The rest of
them... And what does it do? The sign and the voice of the sign condemns the unbeliever and gets him ready for judgment. It
gets the elected ready for the escape. That's what sign is. That's what
signs are given for, for the coming judgment. E-34 To
the elected, they see it, like the little woman with a pure heart in a defiled
body, and the Pharisee with a pure body and a defiled heart. It condemned one
and saved the other one. And the very judgment that saved Moses,
condemned the world, his preaching. It gets the elected ready.
What's the elected ready for? When they see a God sent sign, they look back in
the Scripture and see if that's supposed to be there. "Yeah, here it is.
What is it? Pending judgment." Then the
elected listens to the voice. But the unelected ignores and says,
"Nonsense. Go on. We'll take the same old school." That's the way
they did in the days of Luther. That's the way they did in the days of Wesley.
That's the way they do now, way they've always done. But it is a sign, and it
has a voice that follows the sign. And the voice is identified as a
Scriptural voice. Now, don't forget that. I keep that going in, because I
may never see you again. I wished I had a way that I could come down here
somewhere, and get all my brethren when they had no revivals going on, put a
tent up, and just set day after day, and teach it till it really soaked in. But
He wouldn't permit that, I don't think. See, we're too close to the end.
Now, this is important that we see here
what brother Branham is saying. He tells us that all will see the sign, but only the elected
will be open to the voice of that sign. And because they believe the Voice of the Sign it is
salvation to them, but those who turn it down, judgment is all that is left for
them. Therefore, the Voice of the Sign is for our benefit to rescue us and get
us ready for deliverance. That’s what it was for in Moses day, and that’s what
it was for in Paul’s day. Then if God does not change, why do we think it would
be any different in our day when the same Pillar of Fire has come with the same
sign as He did with Moses and Paul.
God Who is rich in Mercy
65-0119 191 Moses
was given two signs, and each sign had a voice.
That's right. I preached on it here sometime ago, somewhere, on "The Voice
Of The Sign." It must have a Voice of the sign.
It's a changing. Always it's that way. If it isn't, then it didn't come from
God. If a man comes out with an odd peculiar ministry, that's found in the
Bible to be the Truth, and that man stays right in that same old denominational
doctrine, forget it. Nothing to it. God don't do a
thing like that. That thing, that's rotten manna that's got termites in it, or
wiggle tails, or whatever you want to call it, from forty, fifty years ago,
still trying to eat that old manna that fell way back years ago. And the
children of
Then why do
men keep preaching the same old denominational doctrines and claim to believe
the sign. They see the prophet, so they see the sign, but why do they keep
preaching the same old watered down doctrine that they held back in Pentecost?
The Token 64-0308 77 He displayed His sign as Messiah, and so
forth. And they, many of them, said, "Yes, I could go for that."
Well, now, if that was a sign, there's got to be a voice of that sign. What
was the voice behind it? When He begin to teach His
doctrine and call them a bunch of snakes in the grass, He wasn't
popular from then on (See?) when the voice came with the sign. The sign went
first.
Notice what Brother Branham just said
here. The voice
behind the sign is the doctrine. But they do not want the doctrine,
therefore, they do not accept the Voice of the sign. They point to the
sign, the prophet but they do not want the doctrine he
taught.
Lean not unto Thy own
Understanding 65-0120 190 Lean not to your own understanding. And after the sign went forth,
and the Voice following, and the churches begin to turn me down and
close their doors upon doctrine, that any of them dare not to stand before
me to say it's right or wrong. I challenge any of them. Uh-huh. Not to be
smart, but I know where I'm at. See? That's right. What did they
do? What did they do? They shut every door. "Now, what are you going to
do?"
Notice again that brother Branham tells
us that the church turned down the voice which is the doctrine.
Meanest man I Know 62-0127 E-21 Oh, I would've loved to have been there to
listen to that. No doubt, I believe that every person here would've longed to
be there, to hear what He had to say, listen to His doctrine, what
His doctrine was, how He expressed Himself, and what type of a voice
He had; and look upon His face and to see Him performing His works, and
discerning the thoughts of the people, and telling them of different things and
diseases they had, and pronouncing them healed. I would've loved to have been
there. Oh, my. I would like to have seen that.
You know, these churches claim to
believe the Word of God, yet they turn down the doctrine which is the
voice of the Sign. Did you know what the definition of the word Logos
is? It is the word that is used in John 1:1 in
the Beginning was the WORD, the Logos, and the Word,
the Logos was with God and the Word, the Logos
was God.
Now, everyone quotes that but do they
know what it means?
The word logos means -- Word or speech, a word uttered by a living voice, which embodies a conception or idea
It also means 1b) a decree, a mandate an order -- what is declared,
a thought, declaration, aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim, and it also means 1c) discourse –
instruction, DOCTRINE, and TEACHING.
Therefore, we can say of John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Doctrine and the
Doctrine was with God and the Doctrine was God.”
From his sermon, Sir we
would see Jesus 63-1112 P:98 The Word and Christ is the same. Then if the Word promises (the
Word) that this is to happen in the last days, the Spirit of Elijah is even to return in the last day (That's right.) upon the
peoples, and He's to turn the hearts of the fathers--children back to the
fathers, the doctrine, the principles of the Bible. They've got away in denomination, organization.
So we see that the Spirit of Elijah was
to turn the hearts, and remember the word heart is used in Scripture to
represent the understanding. So the Spirit of Elijah was to restore our
understanding to the doctrine the church fathers held to which was the doctrine
of Christ.
And this same John wrote also in I 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 Doctrine of life; 2 (For the life was
manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew
unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us; 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
his Son Jesus Christ.
That is why God said, Deuteronomy 32:1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and
I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2My doctrine shall drop
as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the
tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because the rain gives life to
the herbs of the field.
Proverbs 16:15 In the light of the king's countenance is
life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain. In the Kings Presence is life and
his favor and Grace is His Doctrine.
377-2 Resume of the Ages - Church Age Book Cpt.10 “the latter rain can come only after the
former rain which is the spring or TEACHING rain. The latter rain, then, is the HARVEST rain.”
Therefore you had to have the
Prophet of God come with teaching, and then another rain would follow,
with is the Harvest rain. And
since the Teaching rain and Harvest rain are both rain,
and God said His Doctrine is as the Rain, then both rain must be the Doctrine
going forth. One to teach and the other to manifest that which was taught for
harvest purposes. When that last elect Seed is in
And
that led us to Christ is the Mystery no 124 Christian Life No 5 Attributes Of The
Early Church
1. The Early Church was Humble, and they
knew they didn't have it all figured out, and they were open minded -
2. They loved the Word of God above all - and "They searched the Scriptures daily". They didn't set back and wait
until Sunday came along to hear the Word of God, they searched the Scriptures
daily to hear from God, and to know what to do, then they did it. It was filled
with the Works of God because the people weren't satisfied with an intellectual
Gospel, they wanted the Gospel because it was Life to
them. They lived and breathed the Word.
They listened to and were obedient to whatever
the holy Spirit would reveal to them. The Bibles says
they were "having a ready mind to listen" Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so..
The identifiable characteristic of
organization is they will not permit their members to check anything out that has
not been approved from their group of preachers that they have recognized as
"in the faith".
Acts
Acts
Number 3.
"They Lived the Word that they loved".
2 Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts,
known and read of all men: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the
epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart.
Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and
they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Therefore
the early Church were called Christians because they
were Christ Like.
QA Image of the beast 54-0515 P:32 There's only one way to be a Christian.
The word "Christian" means "Christ-like." And you can't do
it; you can't work it in yourself; there's no way at all you can do it. You
have to forget yourself, die out to yourself, and let Christ come in and live
the Life of Christ in you.
Jesus Christ the same 56-0426 P:34 And if a man professes to be a Christian he
has got to live that same Christ-like life... If the Spirit of Christ is in you
it'll certainly do the same works that Christ did. And that doesn't just mean the
miracles he did, but it means to talk like he did, act like he did, love like
he did, give of self like he did.
4. The Christians in the early Church
were not biased when it comes to the Word of God, but they held fast to it, because they had the attitude that
either it is in the Bible or it is not - But the organizational person like the
synagogues in the first church Age, were instructed by Jewish teachers not to
listen to Paul. But the Christians sought out the truth, and were impartial
enough to listen to what Paul's explanation of the Scripture was, and they were
honest with the scripture when they heard it. True believers do not judge
others immediately even if the influence of their leaders commands you to do so?
True Christians are objective and not motivated by an
organizational spirit? They do not set up camps, and then judge others based on
what their camp teaches. They are open to all the Word and it matters not
where it comes from.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
5. True believers when they hear the truth, are quick to repent. "times of this ignorance.. now
commanded men everywhere to repent" The organizational spirit keeps the people ignorant of
all truth except the truth they have selected to build their camp upon. Jesus
said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (right-wise-ness) shall be filled. People who just blindly follow
Nicolaitian instructions are ignorant of what really is taking place.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
6. The Early Church Loved God and the
brethren - The Apostle Paul and Jon both
said, "he who loves God hears us" A true believer is careful not to judging others by
hearsay which is second hand or third hand information he hears from others. We
are told those who will be rejected are they who love and believe a lie.
1 John 4:6We
are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he
that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved,
let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is
born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is
love. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
John
7. The seventh attribute of the
early church Christian is that they were very conscious of their works or deeds
before God and men. That means they were very conscious to
do as Christ did.
Church Age Book 5 - The Pergamean Church Age P:65 "I know thy works." These are the identical words uttered to
each of the seven messengers relative to the people of God in each age. As they
are spoken to the two vines (true and false) they will bring joy and gladness
to the hearts of one group, but they ought to strike terror in the hearts of
the other. For though we are saved by grace, apart from works, true
salvation will bring forth works, or deeds that will please God. I John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you; he
that DOETH (worketh) righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." If this :
means anything at all, it means that what a man DOES he IS.
And that brought us to Christ is the Mystery no 125
Christian Life No 6 Revelation Your Ultimate Reality where we took our text from
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 Hear, O
Now, children are very perceptive and
they are quite aware when their parents are just weekend Christians. But here
it tells you to teach
your children about
the word of God when? When you
are eating and walking and in the car driving, and when you are fishing, and
when you are hunting, and when you go out to eat, and when you are in bed at
night, and when you are sitting around your home.
In other words, when your child sees you living the life,
and walking the walk, they will walk it with you and they will live it with you. That is what dedication of our
children is all about, but we can not do that with out consecrating our own
selves as parents first. Because if you do not walk the walk, they will know it
before you are even aware of it. And there is no greater hindrance to a child
growing up in the admonition of Christ than to have parents who are not living
that life themselves.
Now, what we focused on in this sermon
was verse 7 for it has words that strike home how
important it is for us to teach our children’s minds.
In verse 7 of the NIV it tells us Impress them on your children. Talk of them when
you sit in your home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and
when you get up.
Now, verse 7 in the Amplified
version is even more
memorable, it says, “And these words which I am commanding you
this day shall be first in your mind heart; then (when? After you have established the
word of God as first in your own mind and heart, then) you shall whet and sharpen them, so to make them penetrate,…
Now, the scripture uses symbolism here
to get the message across. If you wish for a knife or dagger to cut deeper into
the flesh, you must first make sure it is very, very sharp, so you use a wet
stone to sharpen the blade in order to make it penetrate as deep into the body
as it can possibly penetrate. So he says.. you shall
whet and sharpen them, so to make them penetrate, and teach (that’s number 1) and impress them diligently upon the minds and hearts of your
children, (that’s number 2) and (number 3)You shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, and (number 4) when you walk by the way, and (number 5) when you lie down and (number 6) when you rise up."
I hope you can see the importance of not
being wishy-washy with your children. We see that the people were commanded to
place pictures and Scriptures and all sorts of things that the children will
actually see with their eyes and when they see with their eyes it will have an
influence in their minds and in their hearts.
Now, we have already explained what it
means to wet and sharpen the Scriptures to your children, But
what does it mean to IMPRESS them upon their minds. The word Impress means 1. To affect strongly, favorably: 2. To produce or attempt to produce a vivid impression or image
of: 3. To mark or stamp with or as if with pressure: impressed a design on the
hot wax. 4. To apply with pressure; press.
So it is not a laid back
attitude you are to take with your children, It is an attitude that when they
do wrong, it seems like the end of the world to them. You do not impress
without a press, for the word is IM-PRESS as in making an imprint
or impression. When you press a coin into wax or clay
to make a mold, that is what you are doing to make the
mold. And the word should be presented as Life and death, not lackadaisically.
let us bow our heads in prayer...