Christ is the Mystery no. 37
God’s Three fold
purpose part 3
Preeminence in the bride
November 4, 2012
Brian Kocourek
This morning 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 paragraph 79 or 144 in the books where brother Branham begins to show
us the second of the three fold purpose of God.
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, the word preeminence means superior or
outstanding, so he is talking about attitude here, God having the preeminence
or the superior position in your life.
80 Now,
why didn't He just keep Adam and Eve like that? Then He would have never been able to express His Fullness, His
full attribute, because... He could been a Father
there; that's true, but also He's a
Saviour. You say, "How do you know He was?" He is, 'cause I've
had the experience. See, see? He is a Saviour, and He had to express that, and
how could He do it? Only through Christ. How could He
be a Son? Only through Christ. How could He be a
Healer? Only through Christ. See, all things are wound
up in that one Person Jesus Christ. Oh, my.
Notice he is not just
talking about God being the preeminent one as far as being your God. But he is
talking about God being the preeminent Father, the preeminent Saviour, the
preeminent Lord, the preeminent healer, the preeminent provider. God wants to
be the “numero uno”, the
number one in your thinking, in your feelings, in your emotions, in your
finances, in your relationships to others. And when God has
the preeminent place in your entire life, on your job, in your home, in the
field and at the market place. When God has the preeminent place in your
thinking, in your heart, then all your thoughts will be God. Whether you are
doing a business transaction, or when you are working for someone. Your
thoughts, your words, your actions will all reflect the Preeminent
one in your life. In your home, in your
bed, at the breakfast table, at lunch, in the restaurant, in the school, at the
work place, in everywhere you live and breathe he is the number one thought on
your mind. When you buy clothes, sisters, when you stand before that mirror, He
is with you in your purchase. When you look in that mirror, do you see Him
standing behind you and is He pleased. When you shoot that deer, is He with you
and guiding your site? Do you ask Him? That is the example our prophet gave. He
said when he shot those squirrels that God created, h hardly even aimed. He
said I just lifted the rifle and didn’t take time to aim, but nevertheless the
bullet went plumb through the eye. Perfect shot at 75 yards and he was used to
shooting at 50. You see that is what he
says next in pp 81.
81
And when I think of it, I just see denominations pass off the scene, everything
else just going. See? When I see God's great purpose: revealing Himself, and
having... First, to reveal Himself in
Christ, the Fullness of the Godhead bodily, and then to bring that Fullness of Godhead bodily into a people that
He could have the pre-eminences, the
oversight, the leading...
Notice the oversight, the
leading, in everything you do, do all in the name of Jesus. Paul said, whatsoever you do in word or in deed do all in the
name of Jesus Christ. Giving praise to His name.
I want you to notice how brother Branham describes
this preeminence in the Bride. Listen to his words in paragraph 82 And the other night... If you didn't get the tape that I
preached here one night on "A
Prisoner of Jesus Christ--Paul, a
Prisoner..." See? When God gets
you to be His prisoner, then you can't do nothing but what the Spirit says
do. Paul, with all of his great intellects... He was taught by Gamaliel
to be a great priest or rabbi someday. And he had high
ambitions. He was intellectually a great man: great authority, great man in the
nation. But he had to sacrifice every
bit of it (See?) to become part of the Word, to express Jesus Christ. He
knew what it was to say... He had a notion to go to some place (some brethren
had called him), but he was forbidden
by the Spirit to do his own will. Oh, if people half spiritual can pick
that up... See? He was forbidden to
do his own will. He only could do... "The Spirit forbid me." See? He was a prisoner to Christ.
83
Then, this little fortuneteller one day, who he knowed...
Paul knowed he had power to cast that devil out, but he could only do it as God willed it.
Day after day she followed him, crying out after him, but one day the Spirit give him permission.
Then he rebuked her, the spirit that was in her. See? He knowed what it was to be a prisoner.
84 Moses: his intellectuals, he had to lose
them in order to find Christ, to be a prisoner. Then when God got all the world beat out of him and all the mighty man that he
was, and stand in the Presence of that Pillar of Fire that day, he was found just
speechless. He couldn't even talk, he said. God had a prisoner then. See? You won't try after your own searching.
Then God had to endue this man, endow him with power enough that he could go
down there. And he said, "Lord, I told Pharaoh what You
said, and he wouldn't do it." He said, "Then take this, thy rod (God
speaking; that's God's Word); go out there and point it toward the east and
call for flies." And flies come into creation, because He had a prisoner that Pharaoh couldn't pay
off with nothing. Nobody else could turn him no way. He was a complete prisoner in the chains of God's Word, bound up wholly
to THUS SAITH THE LORD. Oh, if
God can get His prisoners like that.
85
Now, that's when He can express the preeminences. You
see? He's got the man or the person so
that he knows nothing but Christ. You get what I mean? All
right. That's secondly. First, to
express Hisself completely: God in Christ.
Second, to have the preeminences by this in His
Church (which is His Body, Bride) to...
He could have the preeminence to express Himself through them. All right. And
thirdly, to restore the Kingdom to its rightly position that fell by sin by
the first Adam, back to where He walked
in the cool of the evening with His people, talked with them, fellowshipped
with them. And now sin and death had separated them from His Presence and
His entire expression. Do you read it? Before the foundation of the world to
express all of His attributes, what He was...
Now from brother Branham’s s4ermon “The Spoken Word is
the original Seed” he said, 96 When God and
His Word becomes one (Hallelujah.) that's when God's Spirit waters the Seed
of God, the Word of God, It produces
God; and it's not the individual;
it's God. For “you are dead”; you're not yourself no more. You reckon yourself dead,
hollowed out, waiting for the Seed germ.
Paul Said in, 2 Timothy 2:11-12 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with
him, we shall also live with him If we suffer, we shall also reign with
him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: So suffering and death
are essential components of God molding and shaping us into the very image of
His beloved first born son.
Now, brother Branham continues in paragraph 96…Then what is it? It isn't you no more; isn't the man; it's
God IN the man. It's a Seed germ like the beginning spoken Word. God's Word made manifest IN the man; then it isn't the man; it's the man
that's died.
Notice, that is exactly what the Apostle Paul told us
in Galatians
2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law:
for by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified. 17 But if, while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is
therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For
if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor. 19 For I through the law am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me.21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.:
Then brother Branham added in pp 96... Then let God plant
His Own Life in you, then it's not you no more; it's God's Life, because it's
God's Word, watered by the Holy Spirit will produce the same thing.
We see this in Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells
in you.”
You see, that is what Brother Branham is saying when
he says, let God plant His Own Life in you, then it's
not you no more; it's God's Life, And in Romans 8:12 Paul adds Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not
to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 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. 19 For the
earnest expectation of the creature waits for the
manifestation of the sons of God.
Now, we will move forward
to pp. 97 All right. Manifested, the works manifested the same by us, for It is
the same Word. Now, if you
want to do the works of Christ, do the same thing He done. "He that
believeth on Me shall have My works." What is
that? Believeth what? That He is the Original Seed germ that come. And remember, what were the
works of Christ? John 5:19, “the son can do nothing but
what the Father shows him to do, and whatsoever the father doeth, the son doeth
likewise.”
Then brother Branham says, Now, the Word that God spoke to multiply and
replenish the earth, It couldn't find a place to land. Finally this Word caught into the womb of a virgin. (We'll speak of
the two wombs this afternoon more...?...)
I would like to add here that when brother Branham
says there are two wombs, he is referring to the physical womb and the
spiritual womb of the mind where ideas are conceived and brought to life.
Back to The Spoken Word he continues, And what happened? From Him came forth the germ Life, the
thing that gives, the Water that gives
the kernel its chance to reproduce itself. The Spirit came out of Him and
went up.
98 Here we are. We come along. What happened? We believe It;
we believe It. Now, what did Jesus
say? "He that
believeth on Me (See?)... He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do, the manifestation that the Holy Spirit come in the form of a dove come upon
Me and done this (not through hybreeding, but through
virgin born...)" Not the course of life, like breeding a child, husband to
wife; no, not that, not a hybreed, but a
virgin born. "Now, through
this, I'm giving this Life that if you by faith will accept what Father, all
the prophets, all the Word of God, I will pour this Life down upon you, and you
can't do nothing else but produce the same thing that I am." There
you are.
99 "The
works that I do shall he do also." And what did He do? Just as the
Father led Him, what He saw. Saint
John 5:19, just... "I do
nothing till the Father shows Me." What was
He, made Himself a man. God was made flesh and dwelled among us. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
God's spoken Word, through a virgin,
brought forth a body, and in that body come the--the Water, the Spirit, and
washed by the water of the Word and then went in Him, dwelt in Him, and there
come the Life of God manifesting Himself through Christ. God
was in Christ, the anointed One.
I would like to take these wonderful thoughts we read
here and add some thoughts that some say brother Branham sent in a letter to
Br. Ernest Fantler,
and was made available to the public through brother Robert
Goff. Now, I do not know if Brother Branham was quoting this from GD Watson a
19th century minister or not, but regardless of the source the words
ring true.
“If God has called you to be like Jesus in all your
spirit, then He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put
on you such demands of obedience, that He will not allow you to follow other
Christians,…
Romans 8:17 And
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be
that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
1
Corinthians 9:12 If others be partakers of this power over
you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer
all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
“and in many ways He will
seem to let other good people do things which he will not let you do. Other
Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push
themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you
cannot do it; and if you attempt it, You will meet with such failure and rebuke
from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent. Others can brag on themselves, on
their success, on their writings, but the Holy spirit will not allow you to do
any such thing and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep
mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works .”
Now, this deep mortification means God will cause to
come upon your soul a deep feeling of shame, and humiliation, for what you have
attempted to do outside His Will for yourself.
It is not that God will slam
you to the earth for this, because he allows others to do it and get away with
it without feeling or remorse or grief. But you are different. You are His to
do with whatsoever he desires. And all you want to do is that which would be
pleasing to Him, and thus you are smitten in your soul, of your own volition.
That means by your own conscious choice and not because of fear of reprisal.
In the book of Philemon Paul called Himself a prisoner of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now a prisoner is one who is not in control of his own destiny, but is
totally captive to another. A Prisoner is a person held in custody, captivity, or
a condition of forcible restraint, especially while on trial or serving a
prison sentence. 2. One deprived
of freedom of expression or action:
You see it is God working in you to perform, it is not yourself. Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God Himself, His very Life in you working in you to
will what He wills and to do what He would have you to do.
“Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of
money, or having a legacy left to them or in having luxuries, but God may
supply you daily, because He wants you to have something far better than gold,
and that is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have privilege of
providing your needs day by day out the unseen treasury.
And God spoke this of His
Son to Isaiah, in Isaiah 42:19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who
is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant? The Lord may
let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hid away in obscurity,
because He wants to produce some choice, the fragrant fruit for His coming and
glory, which can only be produced in the shade.”
When we realize that we belong to Him, then we will lay aside our own
desires and look to His will to be done.
David who was a man after God’s own heart said in Psalms 100: 3 Know ye that the LORD he is
God: it is he that hath made us, and
not we ourselves; we are His
people, and the sheep of His
pasture.
And the Apostle Paul who acknowledged Himself to a prisoner of the Lord
Jesus Christ said in Ephesians 2:10 For
we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained (set in order and predetermined) that we should walk in them.
“God will let others be great, but keep you small. He will
make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to
make you still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work
which you have done, and this will make your reward ten times greater when
Jesus comes.”
“The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you with
a jealous love and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or wasting
your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your
mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases
with His own, and He will not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle
your reason in His dealings with you.”
Zechariah
8:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for
And Joshua speaking to the people said in Joshua
24:19 … The LORD: He is an
holy God; he is a jealous God;
And Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:15 For
the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you…
And again in Deuteronomy 4:24 For
the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
So make up your mind that God is an infinite
Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and He will not
explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings
with you.”
John 5:19 Then
answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,(truly, truly) I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what
he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 14:31
But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so
I do.
John 15:10
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love.
John 12:49
For I have not spoken of myself;
but the Father which sent me, he gave me
a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
John 12:50
And I know that his commandment
is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
“God will take you at Your word; and if you
absolutely sell yourself to be his slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous
love, and let other people say and do many things that you cannot do or say.
Jesus Himself said in John 5:30 I
can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent
me.
So if he could do nothing but what the Father showed him to do or say, he
was a total prisoner of the father. But not out of fear, no he was a bond slave
out of Love for his Father.
Matthew
12:50 For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
mother.
Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and
I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
“Settle it forever, that You
are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is have privilege of Tying
of your tongue, or chaining Your hand, or closing your eyes,
in ways that others are not to deal with. Now when you are so possessed with
the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over
this peculiar, personal private, jealous guardianship and management of the
Holy spirit over your life, you will have found vestibule of heaven.” That means you will have
found your place or entrance into heaven, for we are given access through
Christ into this glorious liberty of God, to walk in His Word and to become the
Living breathing Word of God incarnate among brothers and sisters in need of
hope and life.
1
Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the
Ephesians
4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all,
and in you all.
1
Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he
may exalt you in due time:
2 Thessalonians 1:12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may
be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
2
Corinthians 1: 21 Now he which stablisheth
us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;
Romans 15:
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be
perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love
and peace shall be with you.
2
Corinthians 11:7 Have I committed an offence in abasing
myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of
God freely?
Colossians 2:6-12 As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and established
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him (not in mere traditions of men or in their vain
philosophy, but IN HIM) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 IN whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Colossians 3:1-5 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Revelations 3:21 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.
Let us pray…