Christ is the
Mystery no. 35
God’s Three fold purpose
October 28, 2012
Brian Kocourek
This morning let’s go right to brother
Branham sermon “Christ
is the Mystery of God Revealed” and focus on paragraphs 76 where brother Branham hones in on
what it really means to be a Christian. Let’s just read for ourselves what he
says here.
76
Notice, God has had a threefold purpose
in this great mystery secret. God,
in His great mystery secret that He had before the world began, He's got a threefold purpose in it. And
now, what we want to go upon this morning is: What is that threefold purpose? See? Now, I believe by the help of
God, Who's present, and He'll show it to us.
Now, before we even begin
to examine what this threefold purpose of God’s great mystery is, I would first
like to verify that God has a great Mystery Secret. Not that we would ever be
so foolish to doubt a vindicated prophet, but this prophet as all prophets are
Word prophets, and therefore what they tell us we must find in God’s Word or we
will never be certain as to what he is telling us by the Word. And let’s face
it, we are commanded to give everything the Word test, and even though we have
great confidence in his vindication, if we do not know it by the Word then we
could only surmise what he is telling us. An there is
far too much of that going on with those who claim to believe the Message.
What I mean is that you can take anything the wrong
way and we know for certain there are those in this Message who have come up
with false doctrines based on their own understanding of things brother Branham
said, which is no different than those who have false doctrines based on a
wrong division of the Word of God.
So in order to rest our minds from wondering and thus
wandering, we take everything back to the Word of God. As
Ok, so brother Branham is speaking here of God having
had a Great Mystery that he had kept secret. Now we find Paul speaking of this
Great Mystery Secret in
Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of
Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Colossians 1:26 Even the
mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: In
other words it is revealed or unveiled to His saints.
But as with all secrets they are meant to be
revealed at some time as we see Jesus tell us in Luke
8:17 For nothing
is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that
shall not be known and come abroad.
And again we hear Jesus tells us the same thing in Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be
manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come
abroad.
Now, the problem is that when He does reveal these
great deep mystery secrets, he promised that he would reveal them through
parables, so that they would still remain secret to all except for those who
they were meant to be revealed to.
That is what we hear Jesus tell us in Matthew 13:35 That it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will
utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
And we see that there are a certain people who were
meant to receive these great mystery secrets but they will remain sealed up to
those they were not meant to receive them.
Matthew 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Luke 8:10 And he
said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the
Mark 4:11 And he
said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the
Now, as with all revealing of truth God promised us
that he has one way in which he would do this revealing. If we turn in our Bibles to Amos 3:7 we find God’s way of revealing all mysrey secrets. Amos 3:7 Surely
the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his
secret unto his servants the prophets.
Again we see this same promise in Revelation 10:7 But in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the
prophets.
But
certainly it is God who does the revealing as Paul tells us in Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory:
And we see that this Great mystery as Paul spoke of
it has to do with Christ and the church, and that is exactly what brother
Branham is addressing in his sermon, Christ is
the Mystery of God Revealed. Notice what Paul says in Ephesians 5:32 This is
a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
And this great mystery is to do one thing for us and
that is to bring us into fellowship with God as Paul says in Ephesians 3: 9 And to
make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ:
Now, in paragraph 77 brother Branham begins to expound
on this three fold purpose of God in revealing this great mystery which had
been hid since the foundations of the world and was revealed in Christ.
Now, brother Branham says in paragraph 77 “Now,
if He had this threefold purpose... We want to find out what is this threefold
purpose.
Notice he tells us next the very first thing God
wanted to do concerning this three fold purpose. “The
first thing was that God wanted to reveal Himself to the people. He couldn't do it as a great Jehovah God Who covered all space, time, and eternity. He could not.
He's too great to ever be revealed to
people, because it would be too mysterious. How could that great
Being that never did begin, that after you went beyond the cycle of a hundreds
of billions and trillions and trillions of years of light space, and on out
into the infinite, into the eternity, and a great Creature that was all that,
and still is...
So we see here that
brother Branham has laid out for us the fact that God in his invisible immortal
stature was too infinite, too unexplainable, way too mysterious in that form.
So something had to happen for us to begin to understand Him and His nature.
Now, let’s continue to read from paragraph 78 But
what He wanted to do, He loved
Fatherhood, for He was a Father.
And the only way that He could express it was to become a Son of man. That's
the reason Jesus kept saying, "The Son of
man." See, they didn't know what He was
talking about, many of them. But now you get it? He wanted to express Himself. That
was His, one of His great threefold purposes, was to express Himself, identify
Himself with human beings, to reveal Hisself in
Christ.
Ok, so now, in order to
understand the nature and life and characteristics of this great invisible
immortal King that we call God, He had to do something to make Himself visible. Yet he is not visible, he is Spirit. So God
created a Son in whom he could shows His very nature in a visible
manifestation. Why? Because while yet every thing was still in spoken Word
state, He said, “let every seed bring forth after its kind or nature”.
Now, that is Genesis 1:11, let’s read it. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in
itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”
Now, this is what we call the law of reproduction or
the law of life. And you will notice that God had set up a certain atmosphere
for that life to be able to grow. And that is very important, the atmosphere.
We sometimes forget how important the atmosphere is for life to grow. Sometimes
we think, well if they are elect they will get it, and so we couldn’t care less
what atmosphere we have created because we have this twisted understanding of
election and predestination.
Now, let me explain that. I’ve seen parents give into
their kids and let them stay home from church because after all they say, “if
they are elect they will come”. And that to me shows no understanding at all
concerning election and predestination.
Could you image the farmer that says, “well I have my seeds and I know what kind of seed they are
so I don’t have to prepare the ground for them, all I have to do is get them
out there and everything else will work itself out.
Now, he has a stewardship to his seeds to make sure he
has tilled the ground to ensure that those seeds will not get scattered away by
the wind. So he tills and disks and rakes that ground, until the ground is no
longer hard and indifferent. He creates the right atmosphere for those seeds to
thrive in, and that is what we as parents have a stewardship over the seeds God
has given us to bring forth and raise up.
Then the farmed makes sure he gets enough watering of
those seeds to ensure they will grow up. But how many parents make sure there
children which are seeds of God are watered to ensure they will grow into what
they are ordained to become.
Didn’t God promise us in Isaiah 27 that he will
plant his garden and he will watch over it and water it day and night?
Well, the suburbanite will plant grass seed in his
yard and he will set that water sprinkler over it day and night just watering
it until he begins to see the life in that seed manifest itself, and yet that
same suburbanite will not watch over the seed in his children’s soul, and he
will not water it day and night. And sometimes you see the same careless
attitude in people who claim to believe this message.
Now, if God promised in
Isaiah 27 that he would plant a garden and watch over it day and night and
water it continuously, then what about the planting of the Lord God has given
us to be stewards over with our children and our churches.
I mean we should have the same Spirit as Christ if
we are born again, and if we do we will do what he does, and in Revelation 22:17 we read, “And
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him
that heareth say, Come. And let him that
is athirst come. And whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely.
So look at the attitude of the bride. She doesn’t
draw people out of her circle, she says whosoever will
let them come. She doesn’t say dog bit me once shame on dog, dog bite me twice
shame on me. That’s not God talk, that’s just human talk. Brother Branham never
used words like that. He said if they leave you, then don’t get even with them,
just make the circle that much bigger so you can draw them back in. It’s time
we become the mature sons and daughters of God that God called us to be.
Now, that don’t mean for one moment that you have to
subject yourself to that environment of theirs, but you certainly need to
create an environment where they will want to be with you.
Notice the nature of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 21:6 And he
said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the
fountain of the water of life freely.
He
doesn’t create an atmosphere where they got to pay for everything they get. He
creates an atmosphere where he willingly gives the water to any who would
thirst.
And Jesus said in John 4:4
But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but
the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
He’s
not saying, hay, you can’t have it, I got it, but rather he is saying when I
give it to you, you will never thirst again, because what I give you will keep
bubbling up continuously. He’s not charging you for it,
he paid the entire price so you can have it freely.
Did
not Paul tell us in Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us
all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?
You know, I just don’t get these ministers who send
out their stuff and say, if they want it they got to pay. Didn’t the Bible tell
us as we freely receive we freely give?
And did not Jesus tell his disciples as he sent them
out two by two in Matthew 10:8 Heal
the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Look,
we have never charged anyone for anything that we have sent out in this church.
and those who ask me for copies of my sermons in this
church I have never asked them to cough up a red cent for them. That’s not
right. If I can’t live by the means of the tithe, then I should get a job, but
I have never thought it right to charge for what God has given to me to say.
In
Proverbs 23:23 we are told to Buy
the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. So if we are to be willing to buy it, but we are not
supposed to sell it, and notice he said not just the truth, but instruction and
understanding. Then anyone who wishes to receive it we must be willing to share
it.
That
is why I put my sermons on the internet, so anyone who wishes to have them
could do so and it wouldn’t become a big drain to me financially.
Now, I didn’t mean to get away from our thoughts here
this morning, but look, the first purpose of God was to manifest to mankind
through His son Jesus, and we see in the next paragraph from Christ is the
Mystery of God Revealed, brother Branham tells us in paragraph
79 Secondly: to have the preeminence in His body of believers, that is, His
Bride, that He might live in
people. Now, He could do that in Adam and Eve, but sin separated them, so
now there had to be some way to get it back again. Oh, my. Oh, when I... This
is rich to me, just to even think of it. See? See what
God's purpose was?
Now, listen in
closing, because we don’t have time to fully get into this morning, so we will
take this up where we leave off here on Saturday night when we return for
communion, but let me leave you with this in closing.
We have seen the first of the three fold
purpose of God revealing his great mystery secret of his anointing, and that
was how That God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself. And now brother Branham tells us the second fold purpose is to
have the preeminence in his body of believers. That he might live in the
people.
Now, as long as the people are kept from the right
atmosphere they will never get what he’s talking about. As long as the
shepherds just feed you scraps they can keep you alive alright, but you remain
so weak that you have no energy to delve into the great mystery secret that
brother Branham is talking about.
I knew a pastor years ago who owned a cleaning company
and hired a bunch of people in church and worked them 70 plus hours a week, and
they had to just to make their bills, because he paid
them such poor wages. And they had no time to study the word to even know if
what he was telling them was truth or not. And that is what the shepherds that
feed themselves but dole out sparingly the spiritual food in due season. They
do so to keep you week, just like the Catholic church
did for years. They said the Bible could not be understood by the laity and so
they were the keepers of the holy flame of God and they would dole out only
what was necessary to keep the people in darkness and in superstition.
But God has a three fold plan people, and you are part
of that plan. You are the object of God’s Love and the object of His mercy and
the object of His great purpose and plan. And the second fold purpose of that
great plan is “to
have the preeminence in His body of believers,
that is, His Bride, that He might live in people.”
Now,
this word preeminence means: “the state
or position of outstanding power or importance: eminence,·
distinction, ·or glory”. And we all
know God’s glory is his values, his
opinions and his judgments. So what we see here is that Brother Branham believed
that the second-fold purpose of God’s plan was for god to have a people, His
own children, who would not only hold preeminently to His values, his opinions,
and His judgments, but those very opinions, values and judgments would be
reflected in their very lives as part of their nature.
And that was Jesus Prayer in John 17:11 And now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
And
how is it that we might be One even as which means in the same manner as Jesus
and His Father were One? Jesus said, John 17:14 I have given them thy
word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world.
Jesus
tells us we become One with God through the same Word
that He became One With God. John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word; 21
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as
we are one:
Therefore it is very apparent that we
become one with god by receiving the very same Word Jesus received and
reflected in his life and that brings us into the same Glory or the same mind
as the Father. And
the glory which thou gavest me (remember
glory is doxa and it is the opinion, values and
judgment, so "the opinion thou gavest me" ) I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
And the values
thou hast given me I have given them that they may be one, and the judgments
thou hast given me I have given them that they may be one even as or in the
same way I and you are one Father.
That is why Paul said in 2
Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord,(the doxa of the Lord) are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, (from opinion to opinion, from
values to values, and from judgment to judgment) even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Because after all what man can understand the things of God except the spirit
of God be in him. That’s 1 Corinthians 2.
And the apostle Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 1:10 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.
Notice here that the scripture tells us
that He comes to be Glorified IN His saints. Now this word glorified is a the
Greek word en-doxazo which comes from the root word doxa. Doxa is word which means Judgment, value or
assessment, specifically an opinion which does all three. And an opinion is the culmination of an
assessment, the value placed upon the assessment and your judgment of the
assessment. And it is interesting to note that the reference work which
lists this word also says that the word is used in the New Testament as a good opinion that always results in
Praise, Honor and finally Glory itself.
And Paul said that the Gospel is to produce this
glory in us. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are told also that is what the Appearing of
Christ is to produce in us as well. Colossians 3:4 When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. In His values, his opinions, and his
judgments.
You see, that is what the Great Mystery secret of
God is all about. 1 Corinthians 2:7 But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our
glory: It’s all about His
children having the same mind as the Father.
Romans 8:18 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.
In closing let’s turn to Colossians
1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Let us pray…