Christ is the Mystery no. 48
Expressed Life not Intellectual
Brian Kocourek
This morning we are going to continue with what
we were speaking on Wednesday evening, where brother Branham said in paragraph 128 of Christ is the
Mystery of God Revealed where he said, But
the only way that you're saved is by know Him by revelation.
Wednesday
night we showed that the definition of the word revelation in Theology: Revelation is a manifestation
of divine will or truth. And the word manifestation means: a visible expression.
So we are
looking at a visible expression of Divine Will or Truth. As we said last
Wednesday, knowledge is one thing, but How you get that knowledge is what we call revelation. Not
the knowledge itself is revelation, but how you get that knowledge is what is
so important for us to understand. Because we could say the knowledge is the
knowing, but the act of coming to that knowing is what we call revelation,
when something you do not know is made known to you. So the process of coming
to this knowledge and then knowing as you are known so to speak.
Because there is something about this knowledge that is not mental, it is
experiential. You know not because you know, but you know because you
have experienced the knowing, or the knowledge that you now possess.
And this
experiential knowing is what is so vital to our birth, because let's face it we
all known people who could talk the Word correctly, and who could quote the
prophet perfectly, but then as time passes by they somehow go off the deep end
and leave the Message altogether.
Now, why
would Paul warn us in Hebrews 6 if there were not going to be a
people who fit that warning.
Hebrews
6:4 For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have
tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8 But that which beareth
thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be
burned. 9 But,
beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. 10 For
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed
toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto
the end: 12 That
ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises.
So it is
not the knowing itself that is revelation, the
knowing is just knowing. But the act of coming to that knowledge, that's a
different story. How you got it? That's the real test. And Jesus said to Peter,
"flesh and blood never taught this to you, but My Father expressed it and
you caught the expression and you recognized the expression, and you acted upon
it. Hearing, Recognizing and Acting upon the
Word of God. And brother Branham even preached
a sermon by that name.
Brother
Branham continues to delineate the point when he says, "I
can take the Presbyterian doctrine and tie you Pentecostals till you won't
know... I can take the Baptist doctrine and show you Pentecostals a million
things that you know nothing of. That's right. But that's not it;
that's not His Church. That's not His Church. His
Church is Himself revealed (Amen. Do you see it?) and
expressed by the Word Itself that He is God.
So
what Brother Branham is telling us here is that God's church is God Himself,
His God-Life expressed in human vessels. That's his church. That's why John
Now, let me read this in the Amplified Version 13 to make it a bit more 21st
century to your understanding. If I can speak
in languages of men and even of angels, but have not an outward expression of
the revelation, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I
have the gift to preach and understand all the mysteries of the Bible and
possess all knowledge to tell you all about it, and if I have such great faith
so that I can remove mountains, but have not reflect God's expressed Revelation
of Himself in my life, I am nothing (a useless nobody).
And then
brother Branham says, 129
"How can you say, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" then and be
baptized in it? Heathens. Right.
How can you say you know Jesus Christ? He's the Word. When there's not a
Scripture in the Bible, there's not a place where anybody was ever baptized in
the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?
Now, the
sad thing is that this is not Catholics he's talking about here. We know they
believe in Trinitarian baptism, but this is so called believers he's talking
about. Pentecostals who should know better.
Listen as
he continues, "And you "Jesus Only"
people, just using the name "Jesus" for baptism, I'm personally acquainted
with four or five Jesus's myself. So, you see what
your denominations lead you into? That's the darkness, the expression of Cain,
who brought fruits in the stead of blood. But the revelation
come through the Blood, through Jesus Christ, Who is the Blood of God,
creative Blood in the womb of Mary.
130
And Paul knew Him by revelation. That's how we know Him today, is the
only way you could know Him. Not say, "I'm Methodist." That means
nothing. "I'm Baptist." That means nothing. "I'm Catholic."
That means nothing. But by the revelation that God has
revealed the Word to you. He is the Word, and the Word...
Now watch
how brother Branham gets right down to the main point of what he's driving at
here. He says, How
you know It's revealed? It lives Itself and expresses
Itself through you. Oh. Churches has
long forgotten that great revelation.
And that
is the greatest problem we face each one of us in this Message this morning.
How do you know that it's revealed to you?
Most
people would say, because they believe the Message, therefore they got it. But
then we have perhaps a thousand varieties of the Message today. I mean there
were already 17 varieties before brother Branham died. And there are perhaps as
many varieties of the Message as there are denominational varieties of
Christianity today, because people have done the same thing to this Message as
they did to the Bible from where this Message came from.
But notice
brother Branham asks the question, he says how do you know you got it? How do
you know it has been revealed to you? How you know It's revealed? It lives Itself and
expresses Itself through you. That's all there is to it friends. It lives
itself out, through you. What does? The revelation of Jesus Christ does, that's
what.
So does
that make you a prophet? Nope! Does that make you a teacher? Nope! Does that
make you somebody special! Nope. That just makes you alive to the Word for the
hour in which you live.
Now, back
to brother Branham, and he continues by saying, ...PP.
130...Revelation of the Truth, they have forgotten it. They went to... Now,
when Luther raised up, he was a great man. He had
the revelation of that day. But what happened? A bunch of "Rickies" got in, flattop haircuts (as we call them
today), and Rickettas, and all of them, they got
around there, and the first thing you know it's that...
131
That expression--if you only knew the numerology of
the Bible and knowed what "Elvis" or
"Rickey" means to the Scriptures. Just like... Why did Jesus... You
say, "There's nothing to that (your name)." There isn't? That name
could only come in this last days for this last days' people.
Why did Jesus change Abram's name to Abraham then? Sarai to Sarah? Why did He
change Saul to Paul? Why did He change Simon to Peter, and so
forth? You see? (notice the emphasis
brother Branham places here on God changing the persons name. These men didn't
change their names. God changed their name. Look, you can change your name brother to
anything you think of, but that don't change your nature. God didn't change
Abram's name until God changed Abram to be an Abraham first. And God didn't
change Jacob's name until God changed Jacob's nature to be a prince who has
power with God, thus he changed his name to
Then
brother Branham says, Certainly it
means something. That name could not be spoken till this day. That's the reason
we've got this hellish thing we got in the earth today, because of such things.
The whole human race is corrupted. It's gone. See? And that's why it is.
132
Notice now. He was all right; he was in his day: Luther. And he had the
revelation, but as soon as he left, look what they did. Wesley had a
message; look what it did. The old early Pentecostals had a... Look what
they did. They got a bunch of men together just like... Exactly the same thing
that God, by grace, sent Israel a Pillar of Fire, a prophet, a sacrifice and
showed Himself among them, and brought them out of Egypt across the Red Seas.
And they wanted a law so they could have great dignitaries, they could have
something to do into it. And what did they do? They was
left in the wilderness for forty years to wander, and not one of their
organization ever went over.
Notice his words here, he's talking about that
organizational spirit is what kills them off.
133
Caleb and Joshua, the only two that stood out and said, "We're able to
take it." Said, "Look at the Word of God." Every one of them
died in the wilderness. And Jesus said they were eternally gone. Right. After He'd had showed His blessings and
power in their ages, like Luther and Wesley and so forth... Did He? Said,
"Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness," And He said, "And they're
every one dead." That's eternal separated from God. Their carcasses
perished in the wilderness. See? They're dead. "I'm the Bread of Life that
come from God out of heaven." They couldn't
see it. They just couldn't see it.
134 All
right, church has long forgotten it. They accepted intellectual
message--intellectuals, membership, knowledge instead of the
revelation of the truth of the Word. Now, look here. They say today,
"Do you believe that God commissioned us to go
into all the world, heal the sick and preach the
Gospel and cast out devils?" "Oh, oh, yes, I suppose that's
right, but..." You see?
135 A lady talking to me the other day, she said,
"Well, all the churches are in harmony." I said, "There isn't
one of them in harmony with the other one." There's Catholic standing
there. I said, "How about you? You're a Methodist and that's a Catholic.
Are you in harmony with one another?" I said, "This pope come to
unite them together, that's a good thing for all that kind of people. But
the
136
They said, "We received the Holy Ghost when we believed." The
Bible said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
There's the difference. See? That's right. See? And they say, "We're the
Catholic church. We started early; we did this." The Methodist say, "We are based upon the Bible." Jesus said,
"These signs shall follow them that believe." Now, where's
it at? Uh-huh, see, right. "The works that I do shall you do also,"
every creature, every person that believes in Him. Now,
where's it at? That's His Words. "Heavens and earths will pass
away, but My Word shall never fail." Now, where's it at? See?
137
Oh, it just shows... What is it? It's a hybrid condition. Look here. You take a
big fine grain of corn that's hybrid; and you take that hybrid corn. It's a
pretty corn. But you plant it. What do you get? A little stalk comes up like
this and turns yellow and wilts down. That's the way every denomination is when
it's hybrid with man's words mixed with God's Word. It'll come up to the signs
and wonders and what Jesus said about believing the Word, and it turns yellow
and say, "We can't accept it," and go back.