Christ is the Mystery no. 36
God’s Three fold purpose part 2
November 3, 2012
Brian Kocourek
This evening I would like to continue with the three
fold purpose of God as we continue to examine brother Branham’s sermon “Christ is the
Mystery of God Revealed”. Therefore let’s turn in our books
tonight to paragraph let’s go right to brother Branham sermon “Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed” and
focus on paragraphs 74 and 75 where brother Branham hones in on what it really
means to be a Christian. Let’s just read for ourselves what he says here.
In paragraph 76 for me which is 140 in your books, we read last Sunday where Br.
Branham said, “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.
Since we focused out thoughts and Scriptures on this “Great Mystery Secret” last Sunday, I thought tonight we would begin to
look more at what exactly this threefold purpose of God is that brother Branham
is talking about.
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.”
So let’s begin by look at what this three fold purpose
of God is, and then we will break down the list of three and review each point
he makes.
Brother Branham says in paragraph 77 “Now, if He had this threefold purpose... We want to find out what is this threefold 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 that brother
Branham lays out for us some facts that we must be able to understand if in
fact we are to be able to comprehend what God’s threefold plan is.
Fact
number one: God wants to be known. He
wants to express Himself. That is fact number one. But there are some
other facts that complicate this issue. Br. Branham said in 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. So the first fact we have to deal with is that God wants
to be known. He wants to express Himself. That is fact number one. But there
are some other facts that complicate this issue.
Fact
number 2: God is invisible. Therefore
in His invisible immortal form, He is way too infinite, and way too complicated
and mysterious in that form to be comprehended by mortal man.
Fact
number 3: God is too great to be
comprehended by the human mind.
Now, in the book of Isaiah 55:8 we
read, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
Therefore it is very evident that unless the Lord does something there is
just no way for man to understand the things of God, especially the great deep
hidden things. After all they have been kept hidden via the same factors we
have put forth as the two accompanying facts to God’s great purpose to be
expressed. 1) He is invisible, and 2) He is so great and complex in his
intrinsic nature that no mortal can understand Him. So we see then that God
Himself who can not change has made a way for us to change so that we can come
to an understanding of Him and His ways..
And brother Branham told us n paragraph 76 that God has done just that
through His Son Jesus who revealed him or expressed Him to us. In 1 John 5:20 we
read, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath (passed tense) given us an
understanding, that we may know him
that is true…”
And the Apostle Paul tells us that our understanding comes through Faith
which brother Branham told us that faith is a revelation, something that has
been revealed to us. Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand…
Now, in order to receive faith, we must first receive the one Who God
sends to us to bring that revelation. And Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding
in all things. So our considering and
taking to heart is what makes available to us the understanding which God wants
to give us as we see in Colossians 2:2 That their hearts
might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to
the acknowledgement of the mystery of
God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
In fact Paul tells us that is the purpose of His ministry in Colossians 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease
to pray for you, and to desire that ye
might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding;
And we know it is God’s will that we come o understanding as Paul tells
us in. Philippians 1:12 But
I would ye should understand,
brethren,…
And again in Ephesians 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And it comes via hearing or reading God’s Word. As we see in Ephesians 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my
knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
Notice that in Luke 24:45 we see that by
hearing the word their understanding opened up to them. Then opened he their understanding, that
they might understand the scriptures,
But it is not just hearing withour ears, but
rather Jesus wants us to focus on what is being said. Listen to his rebuke in Mark 7:18 And he
saith unto them, Are ye so without
understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without
entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Now, Paul wanted us to grow up and be not like children in our
understanding. 1 Corinthians 14:20 Brethren,
be not children in understanding:
howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
In fact the Apostle Paul tells us that is the
very reason the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation came down in this hour is that
we might come to understanding.
Ephesians
1:15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The
eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And Jesus wants us to understand as we see in Mark
7:14 And when he had called all the
people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken
unto me every one of you, and understand:
Matthew 15:10
And he called the multitude, and
said unto them, Hear, and understand:
Now, listen, before I show you how God makes known to you, His great
Mystery secret of Himself, I want to show you that unless you are ordained to
know you just will not in any way come to the knowledge of the truth and be
saved.
And the scripture tells us that at the end time, men will be ever
learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last
days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural
affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of
those that are good, 4 Traitors,
heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into
houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers
lusts,7 Ever learning,
and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
And we hear Jesus tells those unbelieving Pharisees that the reason they
can not come to the truth is because there is no room for truth in their heart.
John 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye
cannot hear my word. You can not understand my word.
John 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye
seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father:
and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our
father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the
works of Abraham. 40 But
now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard
of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye
do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We
be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father,
ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself,
but he sent me. 43 Why do
ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot
hear my word. 44 Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me
not. 46 Which of you
convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth
God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Paul says in Romans 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful:
Let me just read a few other verse speaking of this same theme here as
you will see in
Mark 8:17
And when Jesus knew it, he saith
unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive
ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
Ephesians
4:18 Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart:
Acts 28:27
For the heart of this people is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they
closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and
should be converted, and I should heal them.
John 12:40
He hath blinded their eyes,
and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be
converted, and I should heal them.
Luke 8:10
And he said, Unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the
Matthew 13:13
Therefore speak I to them in parables:
because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall
see, and shall not perceive:
Mark 4:12
That seeing they may see, and not perceive;
and hearing they may hear, and not
understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins
should be forgiven them.
Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge?
and whom shall
he make to understand doctrine? And
that I the real question tonight.
1 Timothy 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law;
understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
Daniel 12:10
none of the wicked shall
understand; but the
wise shall understand.
Hosea 4:14
…therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
Micah 4:12
But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his
counsel:
Now, as I have said, God wants his own to understand
His great deep mystery secret, but he keeps it secret to others as the
Scripture tells us lest they understand and then God would have to bless them
as well.
So we see then that fact number 1 God wants to express
Himself, to reveal Himself. But fact number 2, He is
omniscient, and omnipotent, and invisible. And his thoughts are way out of out
league and ability to comprehend. And since God can not change, and since our
thoughts are not his thoughts, then he has to do something for us in order for
Himself to be able to express Himself in a way that we could possibly know and
understand.
So in all three of these facts we have to deal with we
see first of all God wishes to do something that is beyond the pale and scope
of what He is in His intrinsicality and His essentiality. So God must step outside
the boundaries of His invisibility, and outside the boundaries of His intrinsicality
to bring to pass his purpose and intentions of being expressed. Because God can
not change, that’s an immovable factor that had to be considered. He can not
lie and He cannot change.
Malachi
3:6 I am God and I change not.
Hebrews
13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.
Therefore He must change man to be able to understand
Him. And in order to do that He must change the way in which we as mortal men
can understand and comprehend His immortality.
So first of all He chose the avenue of His expression through
His son Jesus Christ. Now, this sermon is called, “Christ
is” “the mystery of God” “that’s
been Revealed”.
In other words, not Christ is the mystery Himself, because
as we read in many Scriptures last week, God is the mystery,
He is the mysterious one, but God chose to reveal His mysterious self through
the channel or by the means of Christ.
Therefore, this title could be read, God being a mystery revealed that mystery through Christ.
Christ then is revealing of the mystery if God. And that is the first of God’s
purpose and plan in expressing Himself, it was through
His son Jesus Christ.
Now there is a three fold purpose of God in which He
chooses to reveal Himself to man, and the first way in which God chose to
reveal Himself to man was through Christ.
Jesus said in, Luke 10:22 “No man knoweth who the Father is, but the Son, and he to
whom the Son will reveal him.”
And in Matthew 11:27 Jesus said, “neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him.”
And we saw where no man could even understand that
revealing if God did not do something for them.
Now, in 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul said, But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew:
for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But
God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even
so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God
knows.
So Paul is telling us something very important here,
and that is this. There is no way we could ever begin to understand the things
of God unless we have the Holy Spirit. It’s the same as those who think by
eating certain foods or not eating certain foods will be able to keep
themselves clean from the diseases that the nations are breeding in their labs.
No, sir, no matter how good of food you eat, the air is polluted, and the
waters are also polluted.
So you are stuck with the toxic air and water and no
matter if you do not spray your crops, the government is doing it for you and
we see it criss-cross our skies every day. So unless
you are inoculated with the Holy Ghost you will perish from the end time
plagues. 80 percent of the foods that are processed in this country are GMO,
and
But I’ve hear men say, it won’t do you any good to pray over your
food if you knowingly eat that which the prophet of God warned us about.
And these brothers knowingly eat more hybrid corn and wheat than you can shake
a stick at. Well, what they say is contrary to what our vindicated prophet told
us to do. He said all you can do is pray.
So what we see is that although the warning was given
by the Holy Spirit that these diseases and hybridization processes would be
here in these last days, yet, it will be so wide scale that it will affect
everything you eat, and even the medicines you take. Yes, I said medicines you
take to make you better do more damage than the symptoms you have.
I’ve hear ads describe all the symptoms you will get
from the medications they sell, and the list is ten to twenty times the
symptoms you wanted to get rid of. They sound like an auctioneer, and speak so
fast that unless you are paying attention you will miss it, and yet they have a
list of symptoms their medicine will produce as long as your arm, like this
product could cause you stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, internal bleeding,
blindness and death.
And yet people buy that stuff. Well, who in their right mind would take
something that causes all that just to get over hay “achne”. Has this world gone insane? Absolutely it has.
And brother Branham said from his sermon, Questions and
answers COD 64-0830E 427 P:110, But here's where
you get it, my brother. I believe with all my heart that it's written in the
Scripture that “no food should be received without it be
received with thanksgiving, for it's sanctified by the Word of God and prayer”. See? If you eat it, say, "Lord Jesus, You prepared the food for me. Now, with faith I sanctify
this food to the strength of our bodies." Then eat it, for in all we
do is by faith.
Now, I want you to notice that he says we should eat
it, but just make sure that you pray over it. If we are to avoid everything he
mentions in these and many others quotes on the subjects, we could not eat
meat, eggs, fish, corn, wheat, and other vegetables due to the fall out, nor
should we drink milk, or even water because of all the stuff the put into it.
Wisdom verses faith 62-0401 P:77 The
earth itself is a womb. Where did God place His seeds? Where's seeds put? In a womb. God puts seeds... And what does man do? Like devils in a womb. He'll make a child deformed if he
can; that's what devils has done on the earth, hybreeding,
making creatures that's not so. I'd better leave off of that; I'll never get to
the rest of this here I got wrote down. You know what I mean. That's the reason
it is a deformed creation about to be cast; God's finished with it. The world's
all out of order; everything's wrong. The streams are polluted; the air's
polluted--filth, stink. So even the air
we breathe is causing people to suffer with cancer and emphysema and all these
other bronchial and respiratory conditions.
Now, in getting back to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Notice he tells us that we receive the Spirit of God
in order to know. That’s it. So unless you are born of the spirit of God there
is no way for you to understand God or His Word. And yet men will argue and
fuss over things they don’t even understand and have no way of understanding
because they are not born again.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches,
but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But
the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. 15 But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
judged of no man. 16 For
who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
So you see, in order for God to express Himself, He
had to overcome some obstacles, namely the fact that no man can know the things
of God unless the Spirit fo
God is in Him. That is why we have so many people in this Message who are so
messed up. They haven’t been born again. They have been grafted into this
Message but have not been born into it.
Unchangeable God 62-0120 P:65 "I am God and I change not."
He doesn't change. He can't change. If that's what He give those first
expectants back there, that's what He give the second expectants, that's what
He give the third, fourth. And every one He calls will be the same thing. He
said, "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." If a vine puts forth a
branch, and it brings up grapes, the next vine or, the next branch that that
vine puts forth will bear grapes. You can't make one bear pumpkins, and another
watermelons, and then grapes. You can't do it. See, it shows it's been cast.
It's a vine that's been grafted (that's right) or some vine that's been, or
some branch that's been grafted into the vine.
Church
Age Book Chapter
2 - The
Now the problem we have in this Message is that people
don’t know the difference between revelation and delusion. But they are two
different words and they mean two different things. And if you are being
deluded but call it revelation, then what have you got my friends? And I get
emails all the time from people that are so deluded they think they know more
than a vindicated prophet.
The word
Revelation means The act of revealing or disclosing.
b. Something revealed, something not previously known
or realized but is made know or realized. In Scripture it is a manifestation
of divine will or truth. So we see that Revelation is something that
God before hand hid but then uncovers or discloses so as to reveal or make that
truth known to men.
Now, contrast that to delusion, for
delusion comes from deception, the act of deceiving, and to deceive you must take a truth
and do something to it to hide it from men. So revelation takes that which is
hidden and reveals it while Deception takes that which is true and does
something to hide it from men. And the result is delusion.
So we can say revelation reveals or manifests
while deception hinders or covers up truth. In other words, then a
delusion is anti or the opposite of Revelation.
So we see the important of revelation to the believer.
Revelation is what seals us in. Revelation is what takes all the teaching by
the five fold ministry and anoints that mental faith with an ability to take on
Word upon word upon word, bringing it to a supernatural dynamic revelation that
seals us into Christ the word, and readies us for our adoption.
1 John 2:20 But ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye
know all things. 21 I have not written unto you because ye
know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the
truth. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist,
that denieth the Father and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. 24 Let
that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that
which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son, and in the Father. 25
And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 26 These things have I written unto you concerning
them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing
which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man
teach you: but as the same anointing
teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath
taught you, ye shall abide in him.
So we see
that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon
the believer is what allows you to know and understand the deep things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1 And
I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you
the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was
with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of
God.
And that is the problem that we have
right here in this Message, that men have received their learning from men but
not from God. Brother Branham taught us in his sermon Voice
of the Sign 64-0321E 33
The elected listens to the voice. But the unelected ignores and says,
"Nonsense. Go on. We'll take the same old school." That's the way
they did in the days of Luther.
So it comes back to your
motives and objectives. God said he would bless those who hearken to the voice
of the Lord God, and the word hearken means to pay close attention to it. But God
also promised to curse those who would not hearken to it, which are those who
ignore it or pay very little attention to God’s voice.
But as I mentioned earlier Paul said
if we are born from above, and if we have received His Holy Spirit, it is in order that
we might know and understand the things of God.
The Apostle John told us in 1
John 2:20 But ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 21 I
have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is
of the truth.
So in closing I want to review the three facts we need
to know concerning God’s three fold promise or expressing Himself to Mankind.
Fact number one: God
wants to be known. He wants to express Himself. In fact
he wants to be known to you more than you want Him to be known to you. That’s a
fact. But there are some other facts that complicate this issue. Br. Branham
said in 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. So the first fact we have to deal with is that God wants
to be known. He wants to express Himself. That is fact number one. But there
are some other facts that complicate this issue.
And so we see Fact
number 2: God is invisible. Therefore in His invisible immortal form, He
is way too infinite, and way too complicated and mysterious in that form to be
comprehended by mortal man.
And Fact
number 3: God is too great to be comprehended by the human mind.
Now, in the book of Isaiah 55:8 we
read, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
So we saw tonight how that God being
unchangeable could not change himself in a way that would become visible to us,
so he changed us to be able to see Him in all his essentiality and
intrinsicality by giving us new birth. And we found that it is the new birth
that opens to us the widows of heaven and gives us understanding, and as John
calls it, we have received that anointing “that we might know all things.”
Let us pray…