Christ is the Mystery no 224

Review no 47 Twins no 24

And Darkness comprehended it not

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Let us pray...

That is the story of the church. That is the story of Twins. The Light comes, and the darkness comprehend it not. They don't understand it. It's Light, and they are darkness. And the darkness can not comprehend the light. But the Light comes to the darkness and shines upon it, but is rejected by the darkness because they just do not comprehend what the Light is all about.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Anointed Ones at the end Time 65-0725M 198 Notice. The Light has to come; it's not in darkness. The Light comes to the darkness, and the darkness perceives it not. Notice now, the anointed ones in this day. As Moses brought out those children of Israel, and they listened, and got all confused with that great nation up there... Now, Israel was interdenominational. It had no land, had no home; it was going to a home. We have no church; we're going to a church, the church of the Firstborn, the church that's in glory, not the church that's on earth by a man, the church that's in glory, the called-out ones, predestinated to Eternal Life. See? Going to their home, and when they come up to the place to cross over, they doubted the Word. And come back after Joshua and Caleb, and them had went over and brought back a bunch of grapes to prove to them the land was there, the Word of God's promise, "It's a good land, milk and honey." And brought it back on this side to prove it to them, and they tasted of it, and said, "Oh, oh, we can't do it though." What happened? They perished in the wilderness. They stayed right there and organized themselves, and died, ...

Queen of Sheba 61-0219 E-34 You can't hide it. You can't hide genuine life. You take natural life, botany life. Let that sun come warm. Now, like in my country, the little seeds drops off, out of these flowers; they die. They have a funeral procession; the skies cry down great big October tears and buries them in the ground. The seed bursts; the pulp runs out. That isn't the end of that flower. Just let the sun, the s-u-n, who has control of all the life of botany, and then when it begins to shine upon the ground and get it in a certain temperature; no other temperature will do it. Nothing else will put that color in there but the sun. So you let it get in the right temperature, the right atmosphere, and that little germ of life hid somewhere in the dirt, will come forth again.

Did you ever lay concrete walk and notice in the spring of the year, where is your thickest of the grass? Right around the edge of the walk. What is it? It's that seed that was buried under that walk. And when the temperature gets right, the season gets right, you can't hide life. It'll work its way right through and come stick its little head up and praise God. Because it's life. You can't hide it when the s-u-n is a shining. Just as sure as the s-u-n brings botany life, the S-o-n brings Eternal Life. And you can't hide it. It'll shine forth. There's something has to happen. Jesus said, "If they hold their peace the stones will immediately cry out." Something takes place. When God, the eternal God, begins to shine His Spirit down, those that are ordained to life will recognize it. They'll come and walk in the Light, live in the Light.

Both sides of the Twins, the Spiritual, and the carnal; both believe they are walking in the light. Both believe they have the light of God. The foolish virgin thought she had enough oil to get by, but her lamp went dry, she ran out of oil and thus she ran out of light.

Matthew 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4  But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight there was a cry made, (notice this cry which was made, the root word means a scream went forth, which is a shout. And what was this shout?) Behold, (that means look and see) the bridegroom,(he's here!) come ye out to meet him. And where were they?

Notice Matthew 25 tells us, the One who is outside the door is the Groom, and we are told in Revelations 3:20 that He is knocking at the door of the church, he's trying to get in. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

And in James 5 we see it is the Supreme Judge Himself that is the one who is standing at the door. 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, (that is the same command the ten virgins were given, Behold the bride groom, come out to meet Him. And here James tells us) behold, (Look, See) the judge is the one Who is standing before the door.

Now, notice he is telling us the same thing we read in the beginning of our sermon that Brother Branham said, "grudge not brethren." How can you be holding onto grudges when you're standing in "His Presence". You can't do it without ignoring the one Who is Here. You've got to ignore the one who is here in order to be holding a grudge.

If you really, truly, believe with all that is in you that the Judge of heavens and earth is here, you would not be holding grudges, because that only shows your focus is not on Him, The Bride Groom, The Judge of heaven and earth. But your focus would have to be on the one who did you wrong and you are holding a grudge with them.

Can you imagine a bride on her wedding day focusing on the women who had been her rivals instead of focusing on her Groom?

Look at the story brother Branham told us of the young girl whose parents owned a ranch and they both died, so her uncle came to run the ranch, and his daughters treated this cousin like a step child, and made her do all the cleaning and cooking, and chores of the ranch house. But when the Groom asked her to be ready, did she focus on those who had been mistreating her? No, sir. She began to prepare herself for the time he would come to receive her as His bride. and that is the way we are expected to be as well brothers, and sisters.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

And that is what Our Groom is looking for when he comes. Not a bride who walks around with her head hung down, having a pity party. "Oh, poor me". No, he is looking for the character in his bride who is so focused on getting ready to meet him, that she has no time to focus and fuss with those who did her wrong.

7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. Notice all the virgins, wise and foolish heard the midnight cry, which was "the Shout" of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which is "the Message" and notice what that midnight cry was? It said, "Behold. Look, see, get your focus on Him, for "he's here, he's here, come out to meet him., he's here."

As brother Branham said in his sermon, From that Time, "my ministry is to declare Him, that he is here." That's the midnight cry, "behold", which means "look and see". That's what the word "behold" means: to perceive through sight or apprehension  2: to see, to gaze upon. and you can not gaze upon Him if he is not present to do so.

And notice when they heard this "cry", this "scream", this "Shout", this "Message", "he's here" the first thing they begin to do was to "trim their lamps".

Now, we are told in Psalms 119:105 "Thy Word O God, is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." The word "trimmed" was translated from a Greek word "kosmeo" which literally means "to put in a proper order". In other words they began to search the word for meaning to this Shout that they were hearing. And the command was "he is here, come out to meet Him." In other words, if you are going to meet him, you will have to "come out from among them and be ye perfect saith the Lord." And in meeting him, you experience Him. You have an experiential relationship with Him. Ginosko, if you recall from last week.

Therefore in order to trim their lamps, they began to search the Word of God to find out what this "midnight cry" (the Shout) was all about. They trimmed the Word. They began to rightly divide the Word of truth.

And while they were trimming their lamps, they realized their oil had run out, and so they which were foolish went to them which were wise and said, 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; (I'm sorry but we can not do what you ask, you got to go where we got it from and get it for yourself. Our oil won't do you any good, you've got to have your own oil. You can't go in on what we've got, you've got to get it for yourself.

Hidden life in Christ 55-1110 P:54 And that's the way it is in that kind of a light. When you're just living out here, and say, "Well, I believe all right, but I just can't go all the way with this, and I don't believe this and that. I believe so much, and if my church don't teach it, well, I couldn't accept it." See, you're smoking up. The least little thing comes along, your chimney gets all smoked up, and the first thing you know, the light goes out.

And it is really sad to think there are so many people who are placing their trust in someone else's experience because they have no experience with God themselves. But you will never make it brothers and sisters by trying to ride in on the coat tails of someone else. Too many people are thinking, the prophet had it, and that's good enough for me, I will ride in on his coat tail. Oh, no you won't. And some even think, well, brother Vayle had it, and I'm counting on that. Or they think my pastor has it, so I will ride in on their coat tail. But God doesn't have grandchildren, he only has children, and you've got to come the same way William Branham came, and brother Vayle came and your pastor came.

Now, let me comment on that for just a minute, because this is very important.

Spoken word original seed 62-0318E P:40 Jesus said, "But few there'll be that will be saved. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there'll be that'll find it." Just a few. If He said few , that's the Word of God, that Seed, there'll be a few. Won't be no tens of billions and billions. It'll just be a few that'll find it. Them that's predestinated to it, they hear it.

Strait is the gate 59-0301M P:45 They thought everything that belonged to the church would be saved. Jesus said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, and but few there'll be that'll find it." Let me warn you this morning, church, be careful. It takes time today in our self-righteous, self-sufficient generation of hypocrisy that we're living in, an hour that when men and women stand in the churches and in the pews, and sing the anthems of God, and walk out of that church, and smoke cigarettes, and drink whiskey, and go to dances, and live for the world, and tell dirty, smutty jokes, and call themselves Christians. And men and women can walk from the pulpit or from the church, and from the place of the power of the resurrection, where that same Messiahic sign is a-moving among them, and not be a new creature in Christ, there's something wrong. When the papers can blast it; and from coast to coast, back and forth, from the frozen regions of the north to the tropical jungles of the south, God sends it, and people constantly turn their back upon it. Then what can we say? What can we do? We turn back to the Scriptures where He said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, and but few there'll be that'll find it."

God's way made for us 52-0900 P:63 I can see him start out like that, and all of them. They get to the side of the mountain yonder, they can't even get through, 'cause, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there will be that'll find it." ... (and then he said,) Brother, I'm not packing up to go to heaven. I'm unpacking to go to Heaven. Hallelujah. There's a rapture; cut loose everything. The Bible said, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, that we might run this race with patience."

You see brother Don what's been talking to you to cut loose of everything? You know where that come from? That come from your Father. You've caught His vision. he gave it to you in a dream instead of a vision, but it's right in line with what the prophet is saying here.

Strait is the gate 59-0301M P:58 "if you want to know who's going to make it, find me one person in our city that sighs and cries, constantly bothered and wearied, and praying for the abominations that's done in the city. Can you raise your hand and put it on one person? Then take this Scripture, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth to Life, few there'll be that find it." That's the only ones that was to be sealed.

Everlasting Life 54-1231 P:40 I'm "laying aside every weight that so easily beset me". And I've got to "run this race with patience. For straight is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there'll be that'll find it." There's only room for you and Jesus. Nobody else can go through.

7  Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. (They heard the midnight cry, they realized the day and hour which they were living, and they realized "He's here."

And they began to search their Bibles, and when they did the foolish virgin realized she didn't have what it took to bring light upon this Midnight Cry to see it clearly for what it was because she had no oil in her vessel. She had been slumbering and sleeping, and "as it was in the days of Noah wherein they ate and they drank, they married and gave in marriage, they bought and they sold, until Noah entered into the Ark," ...and they were so caught up into their daily activities, they missed the day of their visitation and perished in the flood. and Jesus said, as it was then, so will it be at the revealing of the Son of Man.

8  And so the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. (it's dark here, we can't see like we used to be able to see, our oil has gone out. What Holy Ghost we had upon the Word at one time we seem to no longer have. Every thing is getting dark, "for gross darkness has covered the land".)

Sudden secret going away of church 58-1012 P:35 How many of you, all perhaps, have read of the virgins? Some were wise and some were foolish. "Virgin" means "purity." They were all good people, everyone of them virgin, sanctified vessels of God. But those who had oil in their lamps went in. And the others was left out. They were all virgins, everyone people that you couldn't put your finger on for anything wrong. They everyone believed in the coming of the Lord. They were ready to go meet Him, but some of them let their oil go out. Don't let that be your case. Keep oil in your lamp. Oil is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

Never let it drain from you. When you feel your love dying away, your sincerity to Christ, and to the cause, quickly go to Him Who has the Fountain of Oil and buy for yourself a filling of the Holy Spirit. Our nation gone, morally corrupted and ruined, our politics corrupted and gone, our leaders... O God, what could we do about it? You can put a good man in, and he comes out a crook. There's only One we can bring now, that's the Lord Jesus. Let's make ready for His coming.

9  But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. (you've got to get your own oil, you've got to get your own experience, your own relationship with Him, my relationship with him won't do for you.)

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door (the Word) was shut. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

In other words, "I used to know you as my wife, but I no longer know you as my wife any more." That's The great divorcement that Doctor Hoyer spoke of, who was perhaps the Greatest Greek Scholar in the United States had ever had, and that is what he said to br. Vayle concerning this verse and the correct translation of it.

13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

So we see they had light in their lamps at one time, but that light went out. The oil dried up, and they were put away in the divorcement by God Himself.

Ephesians 4:17 ¶ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having their understanding darkened, they become alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Notice they had understanding, but it became darkened. How? Because of the ignorance of their heart. And what happened to them as a result of their understand becoming darkened? it says, "they become alienated from the life of God."

Now, this word "alienated" means: to make unfriendly, hostile, or indifferent especially where attachment formerly existed, to cause to be withdrawn or diverted.

To cause to become withdrawn because they are diverted away from their first love. That's the falling away brothers and sisters. And we see it happening all around us.

19 Who being past feeling (this means they have become apathetic, they just don't care for the relationships they had any more. and being in this condition, they) have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. as brother Vayle so often said, when they turn down the Word, they turn to sex every time.

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 Word 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. 4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Notice he said, "we cannot commune", or enter into this fellowship, if we are walking in darkness. Light and darkness cannot co-exist together.

In II CORINTHIANS 6:14 The Apostle Paul tells us, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: (What is an unbeliever? Besides being someone who does not believe, it also means: unfaithful, faithless, not to be trusted, perfidious, unbelieving, incredulous, without trust) for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial (the worthless and wicked Satan)? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

The very name church means called out ones. The very purpose of sanctification is to separate ourselves from the world and the things of the world. You know, right in this message we have people who do not even understand what it means to be justified and then sanctified. They talk about being filled with the holy Ghost, but then they want to argue the Word with you, and they can not accept what the Message really says. To be justified can only come through Faith which is a Revelation. You are justified by Faith. And there is only One Revelation, and that is the revelation of the One Lord, therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Understanding how that by Two God could make One man.

And then that Revelation calls for a total separation from unbelief and unbelievers. This separation is called sanctification. Thus we have Justification leading to separation or sanctification, which then gets you ready for the infilling of the Word which is the Spirit of the living God. But as long as you will rub elbows with the unbelievers, you keep yourself open to believing what they believe, and therefore, you are not yet sanctified. It is that simple.

He said, 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

1 John 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. 9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

John 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

Let us pray...