Christ is the Mystery no 199

Review no. 22 Christian Life no 6

Understanding Vindication

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

 

Christ is the Mystery no 133 Christian Life No 14 Understanding Vindication

 

This evening we will begin our review by reading from paragraph 229 of Christ is the Mystery where brother Branham says, "Not say, "My church done..." My church has nothing to do with it. It's an individual, one person. All hell is against this teaching. All hell's against this truth, but it is the truth. Jesus never said, "Now, Peter, you, and John, and all the rest of the people, now that you've got the revelation now; the whole church is saved." No, it was to him personally.

 

Then why in the world do people believe that they are saved because God sent a prophet and gave Him revelation. Isn't that what he's essentially saying here?  He's saying the whole group was not saved because God gave the revelation to Peter, and neither are those who follow William Branham saved just because they believe he was given the revelation from God. You've got to have that same revelation or you are lost. That's what he's saying.

 

Then brother Branham continues, "I say unto thee ('thee,' not to them,) to thee, thou art Peter, upon this rock I'll build My Church." And the word "Peter," means "a stone"; "stone" means "the confessed one, or the separated one." Upon a certain stone, upon a certain thing (See?), a called out, the Church called out, upon this stone, upon this revelation. "Flesh and blood never revealed it to you, but upon this revelation (called out group) I'll build My Church in them, and all the gates of hell will never be able to withstand it. Not one hair of your head shall perish. You are Mine; I'll raise you up in the last day, give unto him Eternal Life and raise him up at the last days." There it is, the revelation. Not them, but him, an individual: not a group, an individual. All hell's against it.


Now, listen in case you are one of those who think he's talking about himself here. he just told you the whole group isn't saved because one person is saved. The whole group isn't revelated because one person is revelated.

 

Now, Paul does tell us in Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

Now listen, it is very apparent by what Paul is saying here that you don't even have to have entered into the unbelief of the one man Adam to suffer the consequences of  His unbelief, Because he says, 14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned (that had not disbelieved) after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

 

From the translation called the VOICE we read, 13 Before God gave the law, sin existed, but there was no way to account for it. Outside the law, how could anyone be charged and found guilty of sin? 14 Still, death plagued all humanity from Adam to Moses, even those whose sin was of a different sort than Adam’s.

 

And isn't that saying the same thing as Hebrews10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

 

So if the sin is before the knowledge of the truth, then there is no way to account for it. But if you sin willfully after you have come to a knowledge of the truth, you will not ever be forgiven unless you can undo what you did, but what are the chances of that happening to someone who knowingly snubbed the blood of Jesus Christ and trod it under foot with their disrespect?

 

15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

 

Let me read it again from the VOICE 15 But the free gift of grace bears no resemblance to Adam’s crime that brings a death sentence to all of humanity; in fact, it is quite the opposite. For if the one man’s sin brings death to so many, how much more does the gift of God’s radical grace extend to humanity since Jesus the Anointed offered His generous gift.

 

Now, how did the gift of one man abound to many? Because when he died, his spirit was released from that body and came back upon many. They many, were baptized with the same Spirit of the One man when he the one man gave up His spirit on Calvary. so Paul is not saying that because Jesus was saved you will be saved. He is saying that if that same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead comes into you and dwells in you, it will also make alive your mortal body just as it quickened and made alive the body of Jesus.

 

Romans 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies (plural) by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

 

And this is the key right here, That if God's Spirit, the same Spirit that raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you, it will quicken, make alive your mortal body. And then Paul goes on to say in verse 16  The Spirit itself will bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

 

So what does that mean, His Spirit itself will bear witness with our spirit. Most people have no understanding what this means, and they think it is their own spirit bearing witness with God's Spirit. But how in the world would you know whether your spirit is bearing witness with his Spirit of any other Spirit?

 

You see all the people in this world who claim to be Christian, and the millions who claim to be born again and filled with the Holy Ghost, most of them have an unholy Ghost and not the Holy Ghost. Most preach another Jesus and another Gospel and have taken on another Spirit as Paul mentions in Galatians 1 and 2 Corinthians 11.

 

Galatians 1:6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another (heteros) gospel: (that means a Gospel with a different nature. When we speak of heterosexual, we speak of the opposite gender, the other gender, the gender of a different nature. And then Paul adds) 7  Which is not another; (now this word is not heteros, it is allos and means different altogether, and Paul says there Gospel is not altogether a different Gospel, but it is a Gospel with a different nature, and then he describes how it is made a Gospel of a different nature. He says,) but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now, this word pervert was translated from the Greek word, Metastrepho which means to transmute or (figuratively) corrupt:--pervert, turn. And the definition of transmute means: to completely change the form, appearance, or nature of (someone or something)

 

So they do something to the Word, the Gospel that completely changes the nature of it, perverting it from the original truth.

 

Then Paul warns the people by saying, 8  But though we, (he includes even himself here) though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have already preached unto you, let him be accursed.

 

Now, listen to this warning, he says if anyone, or even any angel, preaches any other Gospel than what we have already preached. And this word other here was not taken from heteros or allos, but this time it is taken from para, which means in the vicinity or proximity of. So in essence Paul is saying is  telling us that if anyone, or any angel which is a messenger, if anyone at all comes preaching a Message that is even close, or in the proximity of what was preached but is not exactly what is preached he is cursed, and those who would listen and believe it are cursed also.

 

God does not want you to believe something close tot he truth, he wants you to believe His Word, period. Remember how King Agrippa told Paul, "you almost persuadest me to be a Christian," and we found out that almost persuaded is still not persuaded, and an almost the same Gospel is still not the same Gospel at all, because it preaches a different

Jesus and the people receive a spirit of a different nature.

 

9  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. 10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. 11  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

Now, let's go to 2 Corinthians 11:2 and see where Paul says the same thing to the Corinthians. 2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, (an allos Jesus, a different one altogether) whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, (a heteros spirit, one of a different nature) which ye have not received, or another gospel, (a heteros Gospel, one of a different nature) which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (why do you put up with so easily enough).

 

So Paul would not for a second put up with a Gospel with a different nature or the receiving of a Spirit that had a different nature. Then he says, and why do you put up with it so easily enough.

 

Now, we already brought out here this evening that if you have the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead living in you, it will quicken, that is to make alive your mortal bodies to that Spirit.

 

Just as Jesus said in John 14:12 if you are a believer, it is because you have my Spirit and if you have my spirit, then you will do as I do, talk as I talk, and live as i live, because it is my Spirit that lives itself in you.

 

Spoken word original seed 62-0318M P:99 "The works that I do shall he do also." And what did He do? Just as the Father led Him, what He saw. Saint John 5:19, just... "I do nothing till the Father shows Me."

 

Shalom 64-0119 P:34 Your life proves whether Jesus is with you or not. Your life shows whether He's occupied here, or whether He's still in His heavens or not, whatever you are. "The works that I do shall you do also." How could you have Christ in you, and then the very Spirit in you deny His Word, take up a creed instead? It can't do it. He would defeat Himself by denying His Own Word. Just because somebody put a wrong interpretation to It? You got a Bible, you can read like anybody else.

 

But they tell me that you can not understand the message unless you hear it through the filter of this teacher here or that preacher over there. But that's not what brother Branham said, he said You got a Bible, you can read like anybody else.

 

And so we see these little cults start up where one guy says, you got to hear it from me, because I got it from brother so and so, and he got it from brother so and so who knows what the prophet taught. In other words, "you got to hear it from this brother who translates it into his language from what this other brother has translated into his language from what this other brother said who tells you how to understand what the prophet said."

 

So now instead of a thinking man's filter which is the Word of God, they have 4 additional filters you have to go through in order to have it 100%.

 

Seems to me all you have to do is to look at the nature of their spirit and see how different it is from the nature of the Prophet who reflected the nature of God and that ought to tell you they have perverted it along the way somewhere.

 

And yet we are told in scripture 2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

 

Now in  continuing with paragraph 230 brother Branham says, ... "But His mystery is only revealed to His beloved Bride. That's the only one could see it. He said, "Well did Isaiah speak of you, you hypocrites, you snake in the grass. You go out here and say, 'Oh, the great holy prophets, we mark their tombs; we polish them.'" He said, "You're the one that put them in there." Did He say it?

 

Now let's skip ahead to 231 May I say this. His Spirit calls unto you, "whited walls, you hypocrites, calling yourself something when you take the intellectual conception of men and leave the Word go, instead of come pregnated with the Seed of God, the Word in you. You've taken every other hybrid..."No wonder she set as a whore, because she commits spiritual fornications, (now listen to his definition of spiritual fornication) teaching the people things of man and not things of the God.

 

Notice what brother Branham says next. "God's Word cannot be questioned; He meant just what He said. But she questioned it because it was presented to her, "Oh, God surely didn't mean that." But He did mean that. God means every Word He says. And It doesn't need any private interpretation. It's just the way He said It. Well, you say, "How do you know about the Bible?" I believe that my God has guided this Bible; He watches over His Word. He knowed that atheists and infidels would rise in the last days, so He's watched over It. This is exactly the way God meant It. It's the way It's to us now. Now, we must believe It. One Word off of It, and we lose our fellowship, go off into death, eternal separation from God, just as Adam and Eve did. We must believe God's Truth.

 

You think brother Branham was being sarcastic here and really didn't mean what he said? Listen, when you begin to doubt one little thing God says in this bible or on those tapes, that is the minute you die right there. That is the minute you go one Word off, and that is the slippery slope the devil wants you to take. Get you away from the Tapes so he can confuse you even more with the Bible which has been debated by man for centuries, because man does not want to take God literally for what he said.

 

Unfailing realities of God 60-0626 P:79 But the Holy Spirit will bring you back to Pentecost, every time; they did in the Scripture to everybody, and it will in this day to everybody. It'll bring you back to that reality. It'll bring you back to a baptism of power of the Spirit, that'll lead you and will never take one Word off the Bible. It'll stay right in the Bible. Where It says this, it'll follow right on through it. The Holy Spirit will. It brings a reality. What did He do? He had to get these ignorant fishermen, didn't even have clothes, just something wrapped around them, fish-aprons, and so forth, no clothes; so ignorant they couldn't sign their name: unlearned, no education. But He found somebody. He had to get somebody. But He found men in that kind of a state, that was willing to surrender, that was willing... They had nothing else to hold. They didn't have any churches, any denominations and anything. They were just ignorant fishermen, sheepherders; didn't know how to write, didn't know how to read, nor nothing. But they had nothing to lose, and He got to them, and they surrendered. They said, "Whatever You say, Lord, we'll do it. We'll follow You."

 

In Revelations 22:18 we read,  "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.


So don't mess with this Word brother or sister. Leave it as it is. Find out what Word promises are yours for this hour. And don't try to make it say something it doesn't say. That's where people go off. And remember, one word off and your finished. Your adding to it will put you in the tribulation, and your taking away from it takes your names out of the book of Life. God don't want you to mess with His Word. Keep it just as He said it.

 

2 Thessalonians 1: 7-12   And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Now, in getting back to our opening paragraph that we read for our text,  where brother Branham says, "Not say, "My church done..." My church has nothing to do with it. It's an individual, one person. All hell is against this teaching. All hell's against this truth, but it is the truth. Jesus never said, "Now, Peter, you, and John, and all the rest of the people, now that you've got the revelation now; the whole church is saved." No, it was to him personally.

 

Notice, it is to individuals, not to some group who thinks they have it just because they might have had a wonderful pastor or teacher to listen to.

 

Earnestly contending for the faith 55-0123E P:28 Paul was down here in the natural realm with his Ph.D. See? He didn't know... He had an intellectual faith, but he didn't have a Divine faith. There's quite a difference in me having an intellectual faith than a Divine faith. There's where you, my Baptist friends, fail to go on. You get the intellectual faith by that, but it must be a Divine revelation of Jesus Christ to you that just came out of the heart. The intellectual faith is not enough. That's all right, but it only brings you to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a personal experience of the birth, the new birth, regeneration, making a new creature in Christ. Notice, Paul jumped on his steed, and down to Damascus with some letters from the high priest, said, "I'll arrest everyone of them heretics. I'll bring them back."Look how the Gospel got spread. It didn't set still like it is today. Brother, when they seen the works of God doing performed to those apostles, away they went. They were really on fire. They were doing something. Probably Philip's revival produced a great thing. And when over there Paul on his road to Damascus from Samaria over to Damascus, God had done called a man, and filled him with the Holy Ghost, and give him the gift of discernment. And his name was Ananias. So Paul on road down; that's the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Paul on his rode down, trotting along down on his big old steed, just a bluff, pulling out great big old things. "I wish I'll get down to the big...?... I--I'll take care of them. I will stop all that rare noise and them visions all that prophesying. I'll put a end to it." And about that time the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel, never appeared before him, but smacked him right in the face and knocked him off his horse. Amen. Begin to wallow around him, looked up, and it was so bright around... The same Pillar of Fire, a Light that shined down stronger than the sun in its--middle of its heat. Paul shook his head. He said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Said, "Lord, Who is it I'm persecuting?" What a difference.
God said, "
Now, you see what I'm going to do to him? I'm going to make him--I'm going to make him a vessel; I'll make him serve Me." God's got a way of doing things, you know.

 

Notice the revelation didn't come to Paul from some preacher or teacher, but by a personal manifestation of the Spirit of the Living God that knocked him off his high horse. In other words, it deflated his arrogant know it all spirit. And the Presence of God will do that every time, for God is not a respecter of persons, and He is the same and change not. Therefore, if a man is arrogant, he has not come into the presence of God yet.

 

Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:147 Notice, God holds this key alone. No theologian can tell you. It's not known; it's hid from them. They know nothing about it. So the schools... "Well," you say, "I got a Ph. LL.D." You only make... To me and I believe unto God and to any real, true believer, that means you're just that much farther away; you just backed off. God is not known by education; He's not known by how to explain it. God is known by simplicity and of revelation of Jesus Christ in the most illiterate person. See? Not your theology; it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. "Upon this rock, I'll build My Church." No other rock's accepted; no other thing's accepted; no other Roman rock; no other Protestant rock; no other school; no other nothing; but on exactly the revelation of Jesus Christ in a new birth. He born in there and injects His own Life, and your life is gone, and the Life of Christ is projecting Itself through you with the preeminences to the people that they see the very Life, and works, and signs and wonders that He did is doing the same thing through you. Outside of that, the rest of it's not even called to at all.

 

Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:124 The new birth is Christ, is a revelation. God has revealed to you this great mystery, and that's the new birth. Now, what are you going to do when you get all that group together, where the revelation is perfectly in harmony, and God expressing it through His Word by the same actions, the same things that He did, making the Word manifest? Oh, if the Church only knew its position. It will one day. Then, the rapture will go when it knows what it is. Now, notice. You say, "Brother Branham, but that ain't..." Oh, yes, it is, too. It is the Truth.

 

Christ is the mystery 63-0728 P:120 Look, Christ in you makes Him the center of Life of the revelation. See? Christ's Life in you makes Him the center of the revelation. Christ in the Bible, makes the Bible a complete revelation of Christ. Christ in you makes you the complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's trying to do? What is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham, what is the new birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus Christ personally to you. Amen. See? Not you joined a church, you shook a hand; you done something different; you said a creed; you promised to live by a code of rules; but Christ, the Bible... He is the Word that was revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what takes place, it's Christ. Pastor, priest, whatever it might be... It's Christ in you. That is the revelation that the Church was built upon.

 

And that brings us to Romans chapter 8 again, and we will pick up at verse:13   For if ye live for self, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16  The Spirit Itself beareth witness (who bears witness? The Spirit, and who is he bearing witness of?) with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

And how does God bear witness with your spirit that you are a son?

 

19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

 

In other words, when God bears witness is when his Life lives itself out in you, performing or manifesting His Life in you, what His Spirit would do itself, it does so in and through you. That is how God vindicates you are a believer.

 

In his sermon, You must be born again 61-1231M P:121 brother Branham said, "When you're borned again, God vindicates you.

 

And you say, "oh yeah? I thought God only vindicates His prophets?" And some say, "I thought God vindicates his teachers?" Listen, most people do not understand what the word vindicate even means.

 

Just because God vindicates you as a Christian doesn't mean you have "thus Saith the Lord" or everyone is suppose to listen to you now. The Word of the Lord comes from God through His prophets. God said in Amos 3:7 that he would not reveal anything except it come through one of His prophets. That's His channel for revelation.

 

The word vindicate simply means: to show that someone or something that has been criticized or doubted is actually correct, true, or reasonable

 

Now let's get back to our last quote and continue reading, "That's how God vindicates all of His nature. What? By their fruits. That's the way He vindicates His ministry. That's right. All of His servants are vindicated the same way He vindicates nature. How do you know it's a peach tree? 'Cause it bring peaches. How do you know it's an apple tree? Bearing apples. How do you know it's a Christian? Christian signs bear from it; Christian life comes out of it. How do you know he's a teacher? The Word comes from him. How do you know he's a prophet? The Word comes through him, bears record, vindication. It proves itself. How does it become that? When it dies and becomes one. That's right. When we die and become a new creature in Christ Jesus, it gets us with our calling; we stay with our calling. The fruits of the Spirit follow us when we are His servants. When we are borned again, the fruits of Christ's Life follows us. That's right. How do you know it's a peach tree? It's got peaches. How do you know he's a Christian? He acts like Christ; he walks like Christ; he talks like Christ; he lives like Christ, above sin, victorious. What does he do, say, "See what I done"? Christ didn't do that. He gave all praise to the Father. That's right. That's how you know it. By their fruits you shall know them. What must..."Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot even understand the Kingdom of God."

 

And what does that tell you? It tells you the reason so many people are so messed up in their minds, because they are not born again. You know, we've had enough name calling to last a Millennium, and it isn't right. Don't call people demons when they have no clue what the Bible says. Pray for them, because unless they have the Spirit of Christ they can not understand the things of Christ. Pray that they get born again.

 

Now, listen? we just read where brother Branham said 

 

I will restore 54-0620A P:38 Now, notice. A man can be ever so fundamental in his doctrine; he can be ever so sincere in his heart (I hope this sinks deep. I want it to.), but unless God confirms it, it's no good. God vindicates. God always has, from back at the beginning, from Abel, plumb on to the ending over here in Revelations, you'll find out that God a vindicates His Church with signs and wonders as the believers. Believers always have signs and wonders among them. Jesus said, in Saint Mark the 16th chapter, "These signs shall follow them to the end of the world. They that believe and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. These signs shall follow them that believe: In My Name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues; if they take up serpents or drink deadly things, it'll not harm them. If they lay hands on the sick, they shall recover." And today, the churches... You preach that doctrine, they take the confirmation is a man that goes to church, good, quiet, religious type of man, pays his tithes, supporter to the church, believes in the church. Brother, that's no sign at all. That's the world's sign. But God's sign is what He said it was. Amen.

 

I can show you quote after quote from William Branham where he speaks of vindication, and he doesn't assign it only to God's prophets. He assigns it to many things, such as "God vindicates His truth, God vindicates His gifts, God vindicates His ministries, God vindicates His Apostles, God vindicates His Prophets, God vindicates His teachers, God vindicates His Pastors, God vindicates His servants, God vindicates His children, God vindicates His Word,  God vindicates His Message, God vindicates you if you are a Christian, and God vindicates Believers, and God vindicates His presence.

 

Obey the voice of the angel  50-0713  P:16 Now, we know that He's here with us tonight. He's sent His Spirit to vindicate that His Presence is with His Church

 

 I will restore  54-0809A  P:44 Brother, that's God among His people, vindicating His resurrection in His Church.

 

Why it had to be shepherds  64-1221  P:70 He give always His prophets the supernatural sign to vindicate that it was God in them; for there cannot be the Presence of God without supernatural things happening. Never did Jehovah ever appear without supernatural following Him. It has to be. So He always a-vindicated Himself that He was with these prophets by confirming what they were prophesying of, if it was according to His Word.

 

Harvest time 64-1212 P:69 He vindicates every Word, and we live by It. Hallelujah. Live by It. "Man shall live by every Word," every Word vindicated. Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. Shall follow them that believe." Take ahold of It; God vindicates It, that It's the Truth. Where, the seminaries and theologians, inspired by Satan, say, "You can't trust It. That's for the apostles. The days is passed. There's no such thing. That was only meant for the apostles to prove the Gospel then. We have learned people today." They had better learning then than we got now. Tell me any church that can come up with that Sanhedrin, when their great-great-great-great-grandfathers had to be priests behind them. One crooked word in that scroll, or, why, they'd stone them for it. They had to stay right exactly. But they missed seeing the real Kernel of the Word when It come, the Life. That's why they were condemned and called the workers of Satan.

 

Paradox a 62-0128A P:99 The Bible said there are given to us first apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, all for the correction of the church, to keep the church in order. Sometimes our pastors tells us things that it trims us. But God vindicates it by the man with the Word, proves it.

 

Presuming 62-0117 P:77 If you say you're a believer, God vindicates it. You don't have to presume anything.

 

Presuming 62-0117 P:76 These are the commandments; these are the things to watch. The fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, faith, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience. That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's the things, the evidences; that's the vindication. That's how God vindicates it. He proves it to you. What was the difference in Moab up on the mountain with seven altars and seven rams, and Israel down in the valley with seven altars and seven rams? Both of them keeping the commandments of God, both of them trying to do it, but God vindicated Israel. How did Cain, when he made an altar just as pretty, or prettier than Abel's, he offered fruits. He give his tithes; he brought his income into the house of the Lord. He knelt on the altar; he bowed hisself. He prayed; he worshipped, just as sincere as any man. But God vindicated Abel by consuming his sacrifice.

 

Why it had to be shepherds 64-1221 P:67 Notice, He said, "As the Father sent Me, so send I you." The Father that sent Him, went in Him to confirm the Word. And the same Jesus that sends His people, goes in the people that He sends; that's saying, "The works that I do, shall you do also." Sure, He prayed that we might be one: one with Him, not one with an organization, not one with a system, but one with God. For God and His Word is One, and Jesus and God was One, and you and I and the Word must be one. That's right. We must be one in agreement with the Word. Not what somebody else says, This is of no private interpretation. Take It, what It says, and believe It; and God will vindicate It, and prove that It's right. You think it's just for disciples only, take His Word for it; go try it once and see. You'll find out that it will work for you just the same as He promised. Yes, sir.