Christ
is the Mystery no. 28
The
Image of the Invisible God no. 11
Conformed
to the Image (Attitude) of Christ
September 23,
2012
Brian
Kocourek
Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because
the carnal mind is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because of
righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of
Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in
you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we
are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live. 14 For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we
cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified
together.
And let’s skip up to verse 29
before we pray
18 For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. 19 For
the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the
sons of God. 20 For the creation was
subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also
will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. 22 For
we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together
until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly
waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not
see, we eagerly wait for it
with perseverance.
26 Likewise
the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us[b] with groanings
which cannot be uttered. 27 Now
He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for
the saints according to the will of
God.
28 And
we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those
who are the called according to His
purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren. 30 Moreover whom He
predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things? 33 Who shall bring a
charge against God’s elect? It is
God who justifies. 34 Who
is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes
intercession for us. 35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As
it is written: “For Your sake we are killed
all day long; We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present
nor things to come, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
O, my what a wonderful, wonderful Word we have from
our Father. Now tet us pray, Dear
Gracious Father we are so thankful for your word because with it you created
the worlds and with it you gave us new birth. Help us to understand what the
Message is all about, and why you felt it so important to come down yourself in
this hour to finish your great plan that you purpose in yourself before the
foundations of the world. Grant to us that the very mind that was in Christ would
be in us for we ask it in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.
I am exited about the Message this morning because we
have been studying for seven weeks now
“the Image of the Invisible God” and this will be number 10 in our mini series
on “The Image of the Invisible God”. Now, the purpose for this mini series has
been to get us to focus on the characteristics of God because after all your
character is made up of the sum total of your characteristics. The
actual dictionary definition of characteristic is “a feature that helps to distinguish a person”, whereas the word
character is “The combination of
qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from
another”.
Therefore as brother Branham preached several messages
called, “God is
indentified by his characteristics”, and therefore, the sum total of
all the characteristics that make God, God he poured into Christ Jesus who was
the very character of God expressed to the world.
In fact in the Message God identifying Himself
by His Characteristics 64-0320 P:35 Brother
Branham said, “The
old Urim Thummim's gone, but the Word's
still the thing that identifies the characteristic of God, the promise of
the hour that we're living. There is God's
characteristics, identified by the promise of the hour that we're living in.
That makes God the same as He was in sundry times.”
And from his sermon entitled Identification
64-0216 P:23 brother Branham said, Tthe
Character of God was Christ. He was the Reflection. He was God made visible:
notice, God made visible. In the beginning was God. He wasn't even God then.
No, a God's an object of worship. Only thing He was, was the eternal, and in
Him was attributes. And those attributes were thoughts. And those thoughts was
expressed to words, and word was made manifest. What is it? It's all God
becoming tangible. And you are part of God. And Jesus come to redeem those that
was put on the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. It was
in God's thoughts. And that's what He come to redeem. And them, as soon as it strikes to them, they see it,
because the life is in there. But if
the life isn't in there, then what can they do? See? They don't see it.
They'll never see it. See?
And the whole thing is, Jesus said, "At that day you'll know I'm in the
Father, the Father in Me, I in you, and you in Me." The whole thing is God becoming material, like a husband and wife
becoming one together: God and His church becoming one.
Therefore if we are to understand the character of
Christ in which we are ordained to be conformed to His image, and remember, his
image is not the outward appearance, but the characteristics that made up his
character and that is what makes up his image. Therefore, being conformed to
his image is being conformed to his character.
Now we read from Romans 8 for our text and we saw how
that when we are born again we must die to self in order to be born of God’s
Spirit. In fact brother Branham said in his sermon, You must be born again 61-1231M P:54 “Yes,
to be born again you must go through a
process of death; everything does. You take a grain of corn; if that corn
ever expects to live again, it's got to die first. If a grain of wheat ever
expects to live again, it's totally impossible for... That corn, that wheat,
that flower, that tree, that grass, that vegetable, everything that expects to live again must die first. Then how you
going to escape it? You got to die first.
You got to die. Die how? To yourself, die to everything, so that you can be born
again. You've got to do that. If you
don't die, you can never live again.”
Now, that is what Paul
meant by to live for self can never please God. God don’t want to inhabit your
life and share it with a gossip? He don’t want to share the same house as a
person always looking for fault in everyone? You’ve got to die, and let him
live your life for you. He wants you to have his own character in you living
His life through your body.
Now, to better get a
grip on our character and where it is and where our Father has ordained for it
to end up, let me read from Romans 8 again except this time, I will read it
from the New Bible called The Message. But I want you to read along with
me from your Bibles, to see how just changing the word flesh which is somewhat
obtuse to self, creates a very personal understanding of this Scripture here
and keys us into how the very character of
Christ is to be developed in us.
THE MESSAGE 5-8 Those who think they can do it on
their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get
around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find
that God’s Spirit is in them, living and
breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open,
into a spacious, free life. Focusing
on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.
That person ignores who God is and what
he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of
yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this
invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re
talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwell, even though you
still experience all the limitations of sin, you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason,
doesn’t it, that if the
alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life,
he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he
does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body
will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t
owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do
is give it a decent burial and get
on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places
to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you
received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously
expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and
confirms who we really are. We know
who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are
going to get what’s coming to us, an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes
through. If we go through the hard
times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with
him!
And that is the key to our being conformed to the very
image of Christ if for the very character of Christ to be developed in us. And
this is not just my own thinking here, this is what our vindicated prophet told
us.
Identification
63-0123 P:51 We've got to take the entire full Gospel. We
must, And now, being that we have identified ourselves as full Gospel people,
let's mold our character. We're invited
to be molded in His Image, that we might reflect His Presence. "And the
works that I do, shall you do also. The
Life that I live, so shall you." We're invited by God to take Him as
an Example, and let our character be
molded like His. What a thing. My. Then when we let His character be in us, then we have become sons by having
the mind of Christ: mind, which is
His character. Your mind makes your
character. "Let the mind," Paul said, "of
Christ, this mind that was in Christ be in you." Let that mind of
Christ be in you. It molds the character
of a son of God.
Identification
63-0123 P:66 But for you to let your character be molded into the image of God, that He projects Himself, and you are His
idol walking on the earth, the expressed
image of Him...
Identification
63-0123 P:19 Now, Jesus
gave us the Example of what we ought to be looking at, when He reflected His Life
to us through the Word, what we should see. When we look into God's mirror,
we should see our self identified with Him. That is a perfect Example. Now, but
we find out that as we go along through life, that our character molds the image that we are. Each one knows that.
You... As you live, so is... Your
character molds you to what you are. Now, you have seen people that you
just love to be around. Yet they might not exactly be in your bracket of
society. And again, they might be of a different race: the colored, or the
brown, or the yellow. But there's just
something about that character, that you just love to be in their presence.
Because each person is a little dynamo of their own, and you put out an atmosphere. And then you see people that were noble
people, but yet you were always glad to get away from them. It's just they
create such an atmosphere around where you are. Nothing against them, they're
nice people, but you just don't like that atmosphere they--they are--they're
in. And their character creates whatever
they are, makes them what they are.
Now, notice he said or
character molds us to the image of what we are. So how can you expect to be
conformed to the image of the first born son, if you do not have his character?
And how do you expect to have his character if his characteristics are not
projecting through your vessel? And we have spent 10 sermons so far on the
image of the invisible God showing you the different characteristics that
identify who God is, His Image. And those characteristics are like His genes or
DNA on display. Our DNA, our genes make up the characteristics that define who
and what we are. And they are programmed into us at birth. Then why would we
think that the characteristics of God-Life are not in us at the new birth? All
we have to do is to develop that picture until it is complete.
So how do we do that? Paul tells us in verse 17. He
said, if Christ is alive in us then we will live his very same life, and do
what he does, and say what he says. and if we do what he did, and go through
what he went through, then we will also receive the Glory that he received from
God. Let me read it again. 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ, if
indeed we suffer with Him, that
we may also be glorified together.
Now, the Apostle Paul makes this very plain also in 2 Timothy 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also
live with him: but then notice what Paul says next…12 If we suffer with
him, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
So it is very apparent
that when Christ is living in us, we will reflect to the world the attributes
and characteristics of Christ and in so doing, we will suffer because Jesus
told us that if they denied him they will deny us.
The Apostle Paul told
us in Galatians
2:20 I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I am living; yet it is not I that is
living, but Christ is living in me: and
the life which I now live in this self, this flesh of mine, I am living by the faith, the revelation of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
So it is very apparent
by all these Scriptures we are reading this morning that God’s plan was to send
his son into the world to conquer death, hell and the grave, and to conquer the
human flesh for us, since it is his very life, that same life that lived itself
out in the son of God, has come back upon us in the new birth to live itself
out in you and me. Then if it is the very same life, it will do the very same
things, and speak the very same words, and live the very same life. And in
doing so that life in you will also be a man of sorrows acquainted with grief,
and it will be despised and rejected of men as that life was as it lived itself
out in the first born son of God.
Jesus told us in John 15:18 If the world hate
you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. But don’t forget the promise of Glory is greater than the suffering we
must go through. And that is your key to your sanity in going through the
trials of your faith.
Now, this coming to a full
display of the character of Christ in our lives is what the scripture calls the
perfection. The word perfection actually means to be finished off, fully
mature, complete.
And we find that it is the
ministry of the five fold that is to point us to our perfection.
Ephesians
4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
So you see it is our duty to be pointing you to the
way of perfection, which if you will notice it is coming to full maturity. That
you be no more children.
Verse “13 Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, (and faith is a
Revelation, and this speaks of only one Faith One Lord, one revelation of that
one Lord) and of the knowledge of the Son of God, (Now,
how are you going to have mature walk with God as your Father if you do not
even believe he is a father? And if you do not understand the relationship
between God and his first born son, how are you going to understand what it
means to be a son yourself?) Notice, it’s to take us unto a
perfect man, unto the measure, (the metron, the portion) of the stature (that’s the
character) of the
fullness (or fulfillment) of Christ: Then when we have dome to the
character of Christ which brings fulfillment to Christ, it is because God
doesn’t want a bunch of babies, he wants mature sons who can be heirs of His
kingdom. Notice, 14 That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking
the truth in love, may grow up into him
in all things, which is the head, even
Christ:
So God wants us to grow up
to be like Christ Jesus his first born son.
Now, let’s see what the Doctrine of Christ is all
about. John tells us that if you don’t have the doctrine of Christ you don’t
have God, and Paul then says you can’t stop there with just having mental
conception of it, he says we must enter into it to go on to perfection.
Hebrews 6: 1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,
let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works, and of faith toward God,
We are talking about going on to perfection, to our
full character in Christ. He said laying aside the principles of the doctrine of
Christ let us go onto Perfection. Now, noticed he did not say laying aside the
doctrine of Christ for without the doctrine of Christ you can’t even have God.
2 John 1:
9 Whosoever transgresseth, and
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Now, we also know that the word “hath” used here was
translated form the Greek word “echo” which means to reflect or repeat over
again and again. So therefore we can read it as
“Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, echoes not God”. He can’t reflect God,
and he can’t even say what he said in the way He said it. He can not say what God said, again and
again. And what does God say? He that abideth in
the doctrine of Christ, he hath (he echoes) both
the Father and the Son.
And to echo the son
means you echo life, for that is what the Apostle John told us in 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son
hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He that echoes
the Son echoes life; and he that echoes not the Son of God echoes not life.
Now, we read f that in order for us to go on to
perfection we must get beyond the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Now,
that is not saying we must leave those principles as though they no longer are
necessary, but that rather he is telling us that we must not stop there, but we
must continue into the doctrine of Christ in order to go on to perfection,
because those principles are only the first part. That is what the word
principle means, the first part. And too many people just stop short once they
begin to see “the doctrine of Christ”, that there is one God and He had a son,
and they just stop right there. But what we have seen in our studies is that
getting to the principles is not what it is all about. Just knowing there is
one God and He had a Son is not what God intended for us at all. He never
intended for us to stop there. The devil knows there is one God who has a Son
and the devil trembles.
But what the doctrine of Christ is to do is to bring
forth perfection in sons of God. That is what the doctrine of Christ is to do, and
Paul says in order for it to produce perfection in the believer we must not
stop at the principles of the doctrine but we must continue into the doctrine
of Christ until we come to perfection.
Brother Branham told us that we have the perfect
revealed truth. And he read from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians which said, Questions and answers COD 64-0823E P:27 I Corinthians 13 says this: "When that
which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away with." So all these little things of jumping up-and-down
like a kid, trying to talk in tongues, and all these other things, when that
which is perfect... And we do have today, by God's help, the perfect interpretation of the Word with Divine vindication. Then that which is in part is done away with. "When I
was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child; but when I become a
man, I put away childish things."
And from Questions and Answers COD 64-0823E P:82 302. Please explain I Corinthians 13:8-12. Now that the perfect Word is restored to the
church are these verses fulfilled? Now, I think I just went through that,
didn't I? "And when that which is perfect
has come, that which is in part shall be done away with." Paul said, "Though
I speak with tongue of men and angels, and I do all these things here... But
when that which is perfect is come..."
Now, is there anything perfect but God?
No, sir. Is God the perfect? In the
beginning was the [Congregation replies, "Word."--Ed.] and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. The Word's still God. See? All right.
When that which is perfect is come,
that which is in part is done away with.
Now, look, we have by God’s Grace a perfect word by
the presence of a Perfect God, which is to bring perfection into the Elect at
this hour. That is why we are not to stop at the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, but we are to come fully into an understanding of the relationship
between the Father and His Son that we might understand our own relationship
with the Father even as Jesus understood His own relationship with the Father.
That is where our perfection comes, in knowing even as we are known. And that is 1 John 3:2, Beloved now, we are sons, but it doesn’t look
like what we ought to be, but when He shall appear we shall at that time appear
with him in glory, in “doxa” in the same values, with the same
opinions and with the same judgments. Therefore knowing who we are, because we
can see Him as He really is.
Now, in looking at the characteristics of God on
display in his offspring throughout the old testament, we see in the
patriarchs. Abraham represented Faith. He is called the father of our faith. Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the
law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us
all,
But remember, brother
Branham quoted the apostle Paul who said, “they without us should not be made perfect.”
And brother Branham
said, What Holy Ghost was given for 59-1217 P:20 Notice now what taken place. God pouring
Himself into them... Now, the church has got to a place, from Luther, Wesley...
And the revival's on with the Pentecost. And now into this age that we're
coming now by the same Holy Spirit, just more of It... Now, when them Lutherans
back there got saved, they got a portion of the Holy Spirit. When the
Methodists got sanctified, that was a work of the Holy Spirit. See? It was a
part of the Holy Spirit. "They without us
are not made perfect," says the Scriptures.
See? Now, God... As the Light has begin to shine in the last days, He's expecting us, a great thing from us,
because where there's much given, there's much required. So He's going to
require much more of us than He did of the Lutherans or the Methodists, because
we walk in a greater Light, with a greater power, with a greater witness than
they had. Now, we have a greater witness of the resurrection. We have
things more firmer, more sure than they had.
And so we see in the saints of old certain attributes or characteristics
that were in God but we have come to the perfect word in this age, and they
without us can not come to perfection. They need the other characteristics of
God, they need all the characteristics of God to be made perfect or complete.
Brother Branham said from this sermon The
Masterpiece 64-0705 Paragraph 41 Abraham
portrayed Christ, of course; so did Isaac
in love: Abraham did in faith.
Isaac did in love. Jacob did by his
grace, because "Jacob" means "deceiver"; and that's
what he was. But God's grace was with him. But when it come to Joseph, there's nothing against him, just one
little scratch (for the foundation must also be a masterpiece), when he told
his father, the prophet, "Say to Pharaoh that your people are cattle
raisers and not shepherds, because a shepherd is an abomination to the
Egyptian." But when the old prophet got before Pharaoh, he said,
"Your servants are herdsmen." So it scratched it. See? That's why it
still makes it the masterpiece.
Now, we know that Abraham represented Faith, and Isaac
represented Love, and Jacob represented Grace, and now we see Joseph who
represents perfection, because Joseph’s life was perfect except for one small
blemish. And so we see how that Joseph in his perfection represented Christ. 92 Notice, how that he was portrayed in
Joseph, the top of the foundation, the most perfect of all of them. We find
that Joseph was born to his family; and he was by the legal woman actually,
which was Jacob's wife. And notice also, that when he was born, his father
loved him; and his brothers hated him
without a cause. Why did they hate him? Because he was the Word. See the very foundation? See how the head
of the foundation come. Now look at the head of the body comes. Now, watch the Head
of the Bride come. He was the Word. And they hated him because he was a seer.
He foresaw things and told them; they happened. No matter how long it lingered,
it happened just the same. And by being
spiritual he was excommunicated from his brethren. They ought to have loved
him. But they hated him because he was a prophet and he was spiritual. And they hated him.
Now, I want you to notice how he goes back and forth
between Christ and Joseph here because both were the Word, but Jesus was the
fullness of the Word. But let me also say that every prophet of God was the
Word of God made flesh to his generation.
And it was not the man that the people hated but the Word of God that
was manifesting from that prophet that the people hated. Just like Samuel. And
they rejected Samuel from being ruler over them. But God told Samuel, it is not
you they are rejecting but Me they are rejecting. And God was The Rejected King. The people did not want God to rule
them, they wanted some man they elected to rule them, and so is it today.
And we see how that the life of William Branham was a
perfect reflection of the Life of Samuel, for it was the same Spirit of Christ
that operated in Samuel in the same way that it operated in William Branham.
And the church world rejected him because they wanted their denominations to
rule over them.
In THE MASTERPIECE brother Branham brings out the
similiarities between Christ and Joseph. 93 Notice, he was sold for almost thirty pieces of silver,
(so was Jesus)
thrown into a ditch, (actually it was a well, and Jesus was thrown
into the garden tomb) and supposedly to be dead, but was took up from the ditch. (And
Jesus was raised up from the tomb) And in his time of
temptation in the prison, the butler and the baker... We know that the butler
was saved and the baker was lost. And in Christ's prison house on the cross,
one was saved and the other one was lost,
two thieves, two wrong doers.
94
And we notice he was taken from his prison to the right hand of Pharaoh, that
no man could speak to Pharaoh, only through Joseph. And when Joseph left that
throne of Pharaoh, the trumpet sounded throughout
95
So will it be with Jesus. How He was loved of the Father and hated of them
denominational brethren without a cause. He was sold for thirty pieces of
silver (as it was), and put into the ditch supposedly to be dead. On the cross,
one lost and the other one saved, and was lifted up from the cross, and sets at
the right hand of God in the Majesty, the great Spirit, which had been
reflected in Him. And no man can speak to God, only through Jesus Christ. Think
of it. And when He leaves that throne, starts forth, the trumpet will sound and
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Remember, he was the son
of prosperity. Everything that he did prospered, whether it was prison or
wherever it was, it come out right. And hasn't He promised for His children
that He'd make everything work together
for the good, whether it was sickness, prison house, death, sorrows,
whatever it was, that it would work for the good to them that loved Him. He
promised it, and it must be so. It's got to be there. It's figurative spoke to
us in Him. He was that perfect Image of God.
97
Now, we see here also that when He comes again... Remember, Joseph by
revelation saved the world by his great prophecy. The world would've died if it hadn't have been for Joseph. And the world would’ve been dead if it hadn't
have been for Jesus: "For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish."
God is reserving Life.
98
On and on we could go. Because He was simply the match of David. He was a match
of Moses. He was the match of Elijah. He was the match of Joseph. Everything
that was portrayed or foretold by in the Old Testament, matched right into
that. What is it? Showing a perfect Redeemer that we could put our old, dirty
clothes into the laundry and go claim it again. It’s been washed in the Blood
of the Lamb. We can claim what’s our own. And everything that He died for, we
can claim it.
That is why we can go on unto perfection! Because
Jesus Christ made a way, and Paul said to go there we must come up through the
principles of the doctrine of Christ, but then not stay there, but keep moving
into the doctrine of Christ until perfection comes.
In his sermon Hebrews Chapter 6 57-0908E P:32
Brother Branham told us that perfection comes by Christ, he
said, “Now He's beginning to talk
about... What is it? "Let's
go on to perfection..." Now, he said, "Not carnal,
laying the foundation here of doctrines and baptism and reformations and so
forth. Let's not do that. Let's
go on to perfection." The
subject is perfection, and perfection
comes by Christ. And how did we get in Christ? By joining the church? By one Spirit we're all baptized into one
Body, not by one tongue talked in, one hand shook in, one water baptized
in, but by one Spirit we are baptized
into one Body. You get it? That's
the perfection. And when you
come into that, you are in Christ, and the world is dead to you. And you walk with the Lamb each day, and your
steps are ordained of God, what to do. Oh, the trials and testings that we
go through. You say, "Do you have testings?" Yes, sir.
There is no doubt that
we all have testings, for every son that cometh to God must first be tried and
tested, and so was Joseph tried and tested. But he went into
perfection because that was Christ in Joseph. And Christ in you is your hope of Glory,
and the glory is the doxa which is the very mind of God in the believer. And that is your
perfection, by one spirit being baptized into one body, and
then having the mind that was in Christ in you. What more could you ask for?
The trial of our Faith
is supposed to produce in us Praise Honor and Glory, that is what the Apostle
Peter said it would do. In 1 Peter 1: 7
he said, That
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ:
And remember, Paul told us
in Romans 8 and in his letter to timothy that we must suffer with him if we are
to reign with him. And that is exactly what happened in the life of Joseph. His
character was perfected through his suffering.
Joseph was a son of Jacob, God’s prophet whose name was
changed to
Now, we are told that Joseph was only 17 years old
when he recognized his son ship and began to take on a new role in the family.
Because of his close relationship with his father, and due to this relationship,
his brothers separated themselves from him. But Joseph by now had recognized
his calling. And once he began to recognize his calling, and stepped into that
role to help his father in the business because he could be trusted more than
his brothers, and because he was a better steward than they had shown
themselves to be, his father promoted him to do more for him in the family
business and placed him in a leadership role which did not set to well with his
brothers who were much older than he was. It was then in the doing or shall we
say, as his role became more and more revealed to him God began to display a
supernatural presence or communication with him, and his brothers recognized
that he had something in his life that they did not have. And so they became
jealous of what he was doing.
Genesis
37: 4 And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him,
and could not speak peaceably unto him. 5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Verse
13 And
Now, Joseph could not help that God gave him those
dreams, but they hated him without a cause. He was an obedient son, and for this God rewarded him with his
calling, and revealed to him what his role would be and because of petty
jealousy the other brothers hated him. And so we find them saying in verse 20 Come now therefore,
and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil
beast hath devoured him: and we shall
see what will become of his dreams. 21 And
Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of
their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
Now, we all know the rest of the story and all the
suffering but what I am trying to point out is this, that the call is first,
then obedience to the call, then God makes more clear in a supernatural way His
approval with the obedience and when that happens jealousy strikes the brethren and then the real trials and tests
come because you know your calling, you know your role, but your brothers don’t
accept your role, and yet you were given that role because of your obedience to
your father.
And the point I want to get to this morning is this.
After all those years of imprisonment, I think about 14, and all those years
separated from His Father whom he dearly loved, which I believe was about
twenty. Let’s look at the character that was developed into this son of God,
and see why He was called perfection by Brother Branham. Let’s turn in our
Bibles in closing and look at all the built up anguish and bitterness those
years could have brought to this man of God, but he looked at the end instead
of looking at the trials.
Genesis 45: 1-2 Joseph couldn’t hold himself in any
longer, keeping up a front before all his attendants. He cried out, “Leave! Clear
out—everyone leave!” So there was no one with Joseph when he identified himself
to his brothers. But his sobbing was so violent that the Egyptians couldn’t
help but hear him. The news was soon reported to Pharaoh’s palace.
3 Joseph spoke to his brothers: “I am
Joseph. Is my father really still alive?” But his brothers couldn’t say a word.
They were speechless—they couldn’t believe what they were hearing and seeing.
4-8 “Come closer to me,” Joseph said to
his brothers. They came closer. “I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into
9-11 “Hurry back to my father. Tell
him, ‘Your son Joseph says: I’m master of all of
12-13 “Look at me. You can see for
yourselves, and my brother Benjamin can see for himself, that it’s me, my own
mouth, telling you all this. Tell my father all about the high position I hold
in
14-15 Then Joseph threw himself on his
brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. He then kissed
all his brothers and wept over them. Only then were his brothers able to talk
with him.
Now,
let me read one last quote before we close. From his sermon, 63-0714M Why Cry Speak Brother
Branham said, 161Faith sees what God wants done. Oh, I hope this goes in. Faith doesn't look at the present time. Faith
doesn't see this here.
Faith looks to see what God wants, and it works accordingly. That's
what faith does. It sees what God wants, and what God wants done, and
faith operates through that. 162 Faith is a long-range vision. It don't lower its
sights. It holds to the target. Amen! Any good shooter knows
that. See? That, it's long range. It's a telescope. It's
a binocular, that you don't look around here.
You don't use binoculars to look
to see what time it is; see, you don't use that. But you use binoculars to look a way off.163 And faith does that. Faith picks up
God's binoculars, both of them, both sides, the New and Old Testament, and sees every promise that He made.
And faith sees it out yonder, and faith
chooses that regardless of what the present tense says here. He looks at the end. He don't drop his sights down to
look this a way.
He looks out yonder. He keeps the crosshair dead center on the Word.
That's what faith does. That's the faith that's in a man that does
those things.
And
Joseph didn’t keep tabs on all the wrongs that his brothers had done against
him, he looked at the bigger picture, and when he did Christ took over in him, and
He became the savior to the whole human race because he saved them from having
died in those seven years of famine.
So Joseph had Faith like Abraham to see the end from
the beginning, and Joseph had grace like Jacob to be able to go through all he
did and still love his brothers, and Joseph had Love like Isaac because the
Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not
boastful or vainglorious, does
not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and
inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not
insist on its own rights or its
own way, for it is not self-seeking;
it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of
the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices
when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever
ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all
circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or
becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
THE MESSAGE Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best,
Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 8-10 Love never dies.
Let us pray…