Christ is the Mystery no. 50

The great falling away
December 23, 2012
Brian Kocourek


This morning I like to read from brother Branham's Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed and pick up at paragraph 138 and read through 139.

 

  138   Just like all them other spies did that went over and looked at Canaan. They come over there and said, "Oh, we look like grasshoppers the side of them. We can't take them. The Amalekites, and all these--what they're going to do." And they went back. And Caleb and Joshua, being thoroughbreds (Amen!) by the Word of God, knowed God said, "I give you that land." They said, "We're more than able to take it." It depends on where you're born from. If you're born of the Word of God, God's Word has the preeminence in His Church. That's what He died for. That's His purpose, that He might be able to achieve to have His preeminence working in His Church. Let the Word of God shine forth first, no matter what anything else looks like. I don't care if the intellectuals says this, that. That has nothing to do with it. God's Word said so, and we're more than able to take it. "If I preached that in my church," a minister told me, said, "I'd be preaching to four posts in the church." I said, "I'd preach to that." That's right. God's Word said so. We can do it. God said do it. Amen.

  139   Oh, here they excuse themselves by this. See? That's why they're blind to the Message of the end time, this last days when God is proving Himself. They try to class it as some kind of a spiritist, or some (Oh, what would I call it?), some mental, an illusion or something on that order. See, they try to make it something that it isn't, just like they did when He was here, when Jesus was here. They called Him Beelzebub, a fortuneteller. Now, they say it's kind of like a mental telepathy (See?), when they know that He could stand there and look upon the people and discern the very thoughts that's in their heart. The Bible said so. Well, does not Hebrews the 4th chapter says, "The Word of God is quicker and sharper than a two-edged sword and can discern the very thoughts of the mind"? And He was that Word. And when that Word is preeminence in the man, the same thing takes place again, for it is the Word. Amen... see how you can stumble over this from now on. There it's so perfectly plain. See? All right.

And I would like to ask the same question, "how can a true believer  have seen the vindication with infallible proofs of God's presence, God backing up what the Messenger says, and then find something to find fault with and stumble over it?" How can that be? This is not evidence of a true believer, it is evidence of the lost. those who the seed falls upon for a season but when the trials get hot they wither and die away.

 

Now, this morning I want to look at this scene of Moses and his people out there in the wilderness where brother Branham says Just like all them other spies did that went over and looked at Canaan. They come over there and said, "Oh, we look like grasshoppers the side of them. We can't take them.

The Amalekites, and all these--what they're going to do." And they went back. And Caleb and Joshua, being thoroughbreds (Amen!) by the Word of God, knew that God said, "I give you that land." They said, "We're more than able to take it." It depends on where you're born from. If you're born of the Word of God, God's Word has the preeminence in His Church.

 

And today we face the same doubters in the camp of this Message. We have men who are trying to prove that William Branham was a plagiarizer. They say he plagiarized Clarence Larkin.

 

Well, let me tell you something, William Branham may have used some thoughts that Clarence Larkin also used, but Larkin used those same thoughts that Darby used, and Darby used those same thoughts by Graves who taught him, and the progression goes all the way back to Ireneaus.

 

But they think that when Brother Branham spoke of the angel coming into the room and showing him the truth, they think in their mind that brother Branham was some dummy that had nothing in his mind, and the angel came and told him everything to say.

 

That is not even what William Branham said, First Seal The P:18  [63-0318] 18  And now, the Lamb is standing now tonight as we enter into this 6th chapter; He's got the Book in His hand and starting to reveal it. And, oh, I would've absolutely today... And I hope that people are spiritual. I would've had a horrible mistake on that if it hadn't been about twelve o'clock today when the Holy Spirit came in the room and corrected me on something that I was writing down to say. I was taking it from an old context. I had nothing on it. I don't know what the Second Seal is no more than nothing, but I'd got some old contexts of something that I'd spoke on several years ago and wrote it down, and I'd gathered this context. And Dr. Smith, many great outstanding teachers that I'd gathered, and all of them believed that, so I'd wrote it down. And I was fixing to say, "Well, now I'll study it from that standpoint." And there about twelve o'clock in the day the Holy Spirit just swept right down into the room, and the whole thing just opened up to me, and there it was, of this First Seal being opened.

 

Now, what is brother Branham saying to us here. He is saying, look, I am just a man and I am totally dependent upon the Father to show me what to say, because if He had not sent His Angel into that room to correct me I would have said what I was just preparing to say in my own mind.

 

In other words, he says, I've read all the old teachers, Dr. Smith, Clarence Larkin, John Nelson Darby, Alexander Hyslop, the Anti-Nicene Fathers and the Post-Nicene fathers, all of it,  and I would have made the same mistake they had all made had not God by His grace entered in the room and set me straight on the truth of it. 

 

From His sermon, Palmerworm locust caterpillar P:64  [59-0823] 64 I've read the Foxes "Book Of The Martyrs." I've read Josephus' early writings. I read Hislop's "Two Babylons." I've read the "Early Ages" by Pember. I... Oh, and the Nicene Fathers, and just before the Nicene Council, after Pentecost.

 

Now, I could give you a lot of places where he said that he read those books and more.  So brother Branham wasn't some empty minded hillbilly that most want to make him out to be. Someone who was illiterate and just waiting to have the Holy Spirit come in and tell him everything what to say. He was well read in all these great volumes of books and if you have ever seen it, the Nicene Father has 38 volumes in it, and there are 6,448 pages in there. And then look at all the other books he read, and you are talking about tens of thousands of pages of reading on doctrine and history and theological persuasions and arguments.

 

And I am so thankful that God thought enough of us to come down in this hour and straighten up the whole mess with "Thus Saith the Lord".

 

And so when he was going to preach on the Seals, he had nothing to go on except what he had read, and he went into the room to pray that God would help him, because there are so many different viewpoints, some better than others to draw from and he admitted that to us. And so when God came in and showed him what was the truth, it mattered not to me that some of those things were said by Clarence Larkin, and others. They all had some truths, but none of them had it all right. There were some like Larkin that had more right than most ministers, but he also had a lot that wassn't righ. Just his own intellectual theories. And so we had come to the end of the road where the whole thing had become just notions of man, an age where God's Word prophecied

 

We come to the age when God had promised, in Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

 

So God promised to restore, right? Now what does the word restore mean? Does it mean to bring something new? Does it mean to create out or nothing something? No! Restore means: to give back, return 2: to put or bring back into existence or use 3: to bring back to or put back into a former or original state : to renew.

 

Now, renew does not mean to make new. It means to return to something that had been there but is no longer there. In other words to restore as in to return something that had been there but lost. And that is what God promised in Joel chapter 2. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

 

And if those things had been eaten, then they were no longer around, right? And whose going to do it? God said He would do it. And that is what "Thus saith the Lord," is all about. The Lord said thus.

 

So we see brother Branham showing us what is taking place in our age which we call the Omega, because it is the last age, and he does so by showing us what took place in the first age which is the Alpha age.

 

 

And he goes back to the first Exodus to do so, which was during the time of Moses ministry and Message. There we see that in that day also we had one Prophet and the pillar of fire vindicating that prophet and yet there were men who balked at what they were told by that man who was vindicated by God.  

 

And so this morning we are going to address these scarecrows that are out there this morning and show you they are the same scare crows that the devil has always used to scare people away from the truth.

 

You know the devil is running this earth right now, but he knows his number is up and his days are few, so he is going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And it is no surprise to me that the ones taking the bite of the apple are those who have never understood the doctrine that was taught to us in this hour. They say, "Believe the sign" but they haven't even got a clue as to if there is a voice of the sign. They say believe the sign but have no understanding of what to believe, so now they do not believe the sign. In fact they are now going after the character of the sign because the prophet is always God's sign to the age.

 

And so they are striking against the integrity of the man that God himself vindicated. But then, they have no clue as to what vindication is all about anyway.

 

 Brother Branham made reference to this attitude that wanted to see the discernment but not hear his doctrine. From his sermon, WAY OF A True Prophet 62-0513M 29-4 He said, " 92  A man, so-called teacher (which I don't say but he isn't) made a remark the other day before some of my friends at a certain city I'd been into. You know the brother. And this brother come in; he said...Well, he said, "We had Brother Branham here once" (a certain city out west). And this man said, "Oh, Brother Branham's a good man (See? He knowed better than to throw anything on the character.)," said, "Brother Branham, but don't you listen to his tapes, because it'll get you confused." And there happened to be one of my friends standing there said, "Just a minute, sir. I was confused until I heard the tapes." And that's the difference. Said, "I couldn't understand how a holy God would put up with such things as that, as you all do." Same person, another one with him, stood at a certain place not long ago, said, "Brother Branham is a prophet; he can discern things and things like"; but said, "now, don't listen to his doctrine, 'cause he's not right."

 

And from his sermon, Fellowship P:9  [62-0519] brother Branham said, "9  Some time ago, a friend just wrote me a letter. There was a person standing there by this friend, said, "Brother Branham is a prophet when he's under the anointing." But said, "Don't listen to his teaching. It's wrong."Now, could you imagine a person say that? A prophet? Why, that's who the Word of the Lord come to. They was the only one that had the interpretation of the Word. I'm not a prophet. I don't claim to be any prophet. But I say... If any person that wouldn't admit that the Word of God is right, regardless of how we have to cut ourself. We got to cut ourself to match God's Word. We can't cut God's Word to match what we think. We got to keep in the Word. And someone come not long ago and said, "This doctrine, this thing that you believe," said, "if the Angel of the Lord told you that, we'll believe it." A group of ministers. I said, "The Angel of the Lord? If he said anything different, I wouldn't believe him."

 

Now, where do you stand. People who claim to believe this Message for 20 to 30 years said,  "we believed brother Branham because he said the angel came to him told him what to say, and now we find out he just paraphrased Larkin. Oh, my we got a dilemma now".

 

That's Hogwash. There's no dilemma. Maybe for you but not for me. Personally, I don't care what any angel told William Branham. No disrespect for the angel but Paul said if an angel from Heaven comes with anything that Paul had not brought let him be cursed.

 

When I read those two books, If they hadn't  lined up perfectly with the Word of God then I wouldn't have believed them. And you don't have to believe anything that doesn't line up with the Word of God.

 

I didn't come to this Message because I knew about an angel instructing brother Branham  what to say. And I didn't come because I knew God had vindicated him. Frankly from the seals and Church Age Book, you don't get that. And I didn't even know that until a few years later. I sat for two -three years studying everything in those books line upon line and found them to be perfect doctrinally and perfect historically.

 

But I was in college studying history because I always loved history. And when I read those books, I studied them, and I wrote down every scripture into a note book, and I wrote down every historical event mentioned in those two books, and I checked them for historical accuracy for my own sake. And when I finished, I remember very vividly saying, "I've never read a book so pure in Scripture and so accurate in it's historical evidence." I didn't know the man who wrote it was a prophet vindicated by God. All I knew is that what he said in that book lined up with the Apostle Paul like no other man I had ever read. 

 

So these guys who could think that William Branham never erred in his discernment but somehow his doctrine was wrong? That just shows me they have no business in the pulpit. How much sense does that make to say he copied so and so, he plagiarized so and so, when the Word of the Lord comes to the Prophet, and never to a theologian. Yes they call him a prophet but they deny what he taught. And they are still doing that right in this message. Claiming to be following the prophet and denying his teaching.

 

The Scripture is very emphatic when it tells us in Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

 

Now, what does that say? It says  God reveals his secrets to only one form of ministry, the prophets. Not pastors, not priests, not popes, not teachers, but prophets.

 

Listen, no man, no teacher, no pastor, no priest and no pope has a right to correct a vindicated prophet much less accuse him of plagiarizing someone else's material. And brother Branham said in his sermon,  Seed shall not be heir with the shuck 65-0429B P:36 The Word of the Lord always, never fails, comes to the prophet. There's no place, no time in the Bible, or since the Bible, that the correct interpretation of the Word come to a theologian. It's not in the Scriptures. Never did the Pharisees, never did the Sadducees, and never did God raise a prophet out of any of them, and never did He in this last day.

 

Now, listen to what brother Branham himself says about receiving any word that is wrong no matter who says it.

 

From his sermon, Trying to do God a service 65-1127B P:39   Here, when Brother Jack... I called him before preaching this and talked to him one time about "What was this white wig?"He said, "Well, Brother Branham, I declare it to be that it was after His resurrection in His glorified body." I was talking to Brother Jack. And there's... I don't know of anybody in the world that I'd rely on anymore of their teachings on theology and things as I would like Brother Jack Moore and Brother Vayle, and such men as that, real theologians, that's read all kinds of books and different angles from everything. Well, but (You see?), even with that, and my bosom friend, I just couldn't receive it; there was something there just wouldn't take it.

 

Now, in getting back to our thoughts today from his sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, brother Branham continues in PP. 138 by saying, "Just like all them other spies did that went over and looked at Canaan. They come over there and said, "Oh, we look like grasshoppers the side of them. We can't take them. The Amalekites, and all these--what they're going to do." And they went back.

 

So these were not men who walk by Faith but by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

 

"And Caleb and Joshua, being thoroughbreds (Amen!) by the Word of God, knew God said, "I give you that land." They said, "We're more than able to take it." It depends on where you're born from. If you're born of the Word of God, God's Word has the preeminence in His Church.

 

So brothers and sisters, it comes down to whether you have been born again or not. And I do not believe for one minute that these men who turned down the doctrine of Christ and refused the doctrine brother Branham brought to us, the same doctrine Paul taught, and yet they refuse it, I do not believe for one minute they could be born again.

 

For brother  Branham said in the CAB Chapter 9 - The Laodicean Church Age  P:78 The attitude of this age is exactly what it was then. People have it all. They know it all. They cannot be taught. If a point of truth from the Word comes up and a man tries to explain his view to one with an opposing view, the listener is not at all listening that he might learn, but is listening only to refute what is being said. Now I want to ask a fair question. Can Scripture fight Scripture? Does the Bible contradict the Bible? Can there be two doctrines of truth in the Word that say the opposite or oppose the other? No. it Cannot be so. Yet how many of God's people have their eyes open to that truth? Not even one percent, as far as I know, have learned that all Scripture is given by God and all is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, etc. If all Scripture is thusly given, then every verse will dovetail if given a chance.  

 

 

And in the Church Age Book  Chapter 2 - The Patmos Vision P:32 brother Branham writes, " But if the vine ever brings forth another branch of itself, that branch will be exactly like the vine itself. It will be the same kind of a branch that was brought forth at Pentecost. It will speak in tongues, prophesy, and have the power and signs of the resurrected Jesus Christ in it. Why? Because it's thriving on the natural resources of the vine itself. You see, it wasn't grafted into the vine; it was BORN in the vine. When those other branches were grafted in, all they could do was bear their own fruit for they were not born of that vine. They don't know about that original life and original fruit. They cannot know for they were not born of it. But if they had been born of it, that same life that was in the original stem (Jesus) would have come through them and manifested through them.

 

Now, that is exactly what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 2:  when he said, 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 if you are not born of the spirit of God it is impossible for you to know the things of God. Then you are just guessing at what is right and what is not.) 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. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; 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 indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So unless you are born again and filled with the Spirit of God, you haven't even got a clue.

 

But let's face it we are at the end-time and Paul wrote to warn us that at the end-time there shall be a great falling away from the faith.

 

Notice in 2 Timothy 4:1 Paul says,  "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;  2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2 Timothy 3:3 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. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was.

Now, what does this word folly mean? it was translated from thee Greek word anoia which is pronounced, an-oy-yah. That's right.  I think the Greek has some humor in it don't you? Because these guys are sure annoying yuh, isn't that right with the Greek pronunciation? But the word actually means "stupidity". And their stupidity is sure annoying yuh isn't it? Because  they are in your face with their stupidity.

 

But notice then what Paul says next...)10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose (which is my motives and objectives), my faith, my longsuffering, my charity, my patience, 11 my persecutions, my afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

 

Now, notice we are promised that these men's "folly", which is actually their stupidity will be known to all men, and how could it be known to all men except we have the world wide internet today so that all men can see just how stupid these men's claims are, and they put their folly on that world wide internet for all to see. And it speaks of those who resist the truth, and that word resists means they will oppose it, or stand against it.

 

Could you imagine anyone saying, well, I don't believe the eye witnesses reports of 80 years ago at the river, because I wasn't there to verify what they were saying is accurate. They said to me, those people were just hearsay evidence, and that would not be applicable in court. I told them then that they must strike out of their Bible the Gospel of Luke, because he wasn't there himself, he just wrote what others told him. And what about Paul's many references to the saints of old in the book of Hebrews? Is not that hearsay? But listen, the entire story of Adam through Joseph was not known first hand by Moses who wrote about it. It was handed down from generation to generation by hearsay evidence, the same thing these men throw out as un-trustworthy evidence.

 

But the whole reason they can not trust what they do not see is because they have never met the unseen one face to face. And Faith is a sixth sense we are told. Is is not what you can see, taste, feel smell or hear. And in fact it is the evidence of what is not seen.

 

So when the Scripture says they shall depart The Faith, that describes the Faithless. Those who have to read it and see it, and touch it and feel it, and smell it on Google if they can.

 

And the fact that they will be among those who fall away from "The Faith" and since there is only "one Faith, One Lord and One Baptism", it shows that they will be among those who hold to that One Faith which is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is This Message. But something will cause them to go out and oppose the Message just like Judas did. And yet they will think what they are doing is right, and the time will come Jesus said in John 16:2 that they will kill you thinking they are doing God a service. And here we are because you kill a man's influence you might as well have stabbed that man to death or used a bullet to kill them.

 

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,...

 

Notice he said they will fall away from "The Faith", not just faith but "The Faith", and how will they fall away? By giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

 

Isaiah 28: 8 - 13 tells us: "For all the pulpits are full of filthy vomit, spiritual food from another day, so that there is no place clean. To whom will He teach knowledge? And to whom will He make to understand the Message? "Those who are babies, just weaned from the milk of the Word  and taken from the nurturing breast's of the church?

 

Is that what we are in His thinking? It must seem to be so for It is His prophets repeating over and over,

 

"For precept must be upon Precept, principles upon principles; doctrine upon doctrine, Word upon Word, here a little and there a little. Indeed, He will speak to this people, but not as you think, for with a foreign tongue and strange grammar shall He speak to this people, to whom He said, This is my resting place, where My presence shall remain, the place I have come to rest in My Word, yet they will not listen. Therefore the Word of the Lord will become unto them merely monotonous repeating of stories and doctrinal precepts, precept upon precept, and rules upon rules, a little here and a little there until they drift off to sleep and fall backwards, and be broken, snared and become souls that are imprisoned now."

Is that where it's all headed for? Is that future for the Message followers? Is that not the result of so many substitutes for the Word of God. Did not brother Branham say that the Bride would find herself preaching to the totally lost? Is that not what God's prophet said the 3rd pull would be? Are we there and don't know it? Is it later than we think? May God Help us. Even Brother Branham, when he had thoughts of escaping His responsibility of preaching the Gospel, he had a vision of Himself as a bum along some dirty, grungy dump trying to warm himself in front of a smoldering, stinking, fire.

Have we so neglected our responsibilities in this hour that we've become so insensitive to the Light shining forth in this hour? Have we neglected to die to our selves and let God live our Life for us? Or is this a picture of the foolish virgin and the church in America? You remember the vision of the church going up and over the hill dressed with only newspapers covering her forefront and leaving her backside exposed? Is that the condition we see in this Message all around us? Or can we by the Grace of God see ourselves among that very small group of little girls dressed in the robes of the Word for this hour walking up to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers". Are we ready for battle or have we gotten so out of shape spiritually that we are only weekend warriors. May God grant us the Grace to be marked out and set apart for service by our King Himself who is here tonight in the form of the Pillar of Fire.

From his sermon entitled The Indictment 63-0707M 93. Brother Branham said, “If a man who comes to a knowledge, ... Remember, they never got it; they were borderline believers. After we have received the knowledge of the Word of God (You get it from a knowledge, from reading in It, seeing It.), and then reject It, then it's impossible for you to ever be saved. Did you read that now? See? Have received a knowledge of the Truth... Just you understand it; you never got it.”

 

And watch how the scriptures plainly tell us what will happen, what will come to the people, and why they will fall away, as we will see in the next few verses I will read to you.

 

2 Timothy 4: 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Notice they hear it but they turn their ears away from it.

 

Jesus told us what kind of nature they will have in John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

 

And in 2 Timothy 3: 6 Paul tells us how these men will enter into the church with their heresies to lead the people astray that were not ordained to enter into it.  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women (churches)laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

 

So Paul warns us of this falling away that is ordained for the unbelievers in 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

 

And again in Acts 20: 30 Paul warns us of these men who will arise among us right in the Message in order to lead those who are not ordained to it away. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

 

And not only did Paul warn us, but Peter also warned us in 2 Peter 1:1-21 (NIV) But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. 

 

And what makes a man a false teacher? Is it not what he teaches that is false?

 

They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, 

 

In other words, they have their own revelation. and so they will secretly bring in alongside of true doctrine destructive heresies, which even goes so far as to deny or refuse the very one who bought them. Sounds like Oneness to me. even denying (that means they are saying “not so” concerning) the Lord who bought them (and so we ask, who bought them that they are saying not so too?

The one that bought them is the Son of God by shedding his precious which is the purchase price. So they are saying “not so” to the son of God. In other words, they are denying him, that he was a person separate from the Father Who sent him. They deny the existence of the son of God, and make him just a carcass that the Father used and not a real human being. 

 

"and in doing this they will bring swift destruction on themselves. 

 

And so you watch for the destruction to take place. And notice though that not just on these but they will have a following, and not a small following but many will follow their shameful ways as we see in verse 2.

 

2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the Message into disrepute. 

 

So notice that their shameful ways will bring the way of truth into disrepute. Then by their actions and by their false doctrine they will say things against the real truth of the Message, and by their overwhelming masses they will come against the way of truth to bring the way of truth into disrepute. 

 

He continues in verse 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they've made up. 

 

So Paul warns us to stick with the same Gospel He brought to us. He warns us not to be so gullible as to believe everything you hear the preachers tell you. Check everything with the Word. Test everything by the Word. And prove whether what he preaches is true or false based on the Word, not based on some dream or some so-called vision.

 

Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

 

So you see they have worked themselves right into this message and have caused others to fall for their doctrines that deny the Lord that bought them. Now, as I noted earlier in scripture, the word depart was translated from a Greek word which also is translated in Luke 8: 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of testing they fall away.

 

So you see this falling away or departing is something that they do themselves.  The Greek word actually means to withdraw oneself. And that means that no one is responsible for their falling away but them who choose to depart. We live in a society today where no one wants to take the blame for their own actions.

 

Discerning body of Lord 59-08123 Paul promised that in the last day, by the Holy Spirit, that the church would fall away, millions of them. "There'll come a falling away, for men will be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good: not the right discernment. "Oh," you say, "that is the Communist." That is so-called Christians. Watch the next verse. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof," no spiritual discernment. When you got spiritual discernment and the Holy Ghost is upon you, you have spiritual discernment. It says, "Amen" to every promise of God.

 

In my 30  years as pastor, I've heard just about every excuse you could think of why people backslid and went their own way. In fact one man who attended church only a handful of times and then left and fell heavily into sin and darkness and adulteries and you name it, and when his family was totally destroyed, he blamed me for not chasing after him and making him come to church. I'm sorry brothers and sisters, but I can not save you. You must die to your own self to live with Christ.

 

The wise virgin did not chase after the foolish virgin to give them the oil. and the wise virgin did not  take from their own oil to give it to the foolish ones who

 

She had she only enough for herself alone and so she told the foolish virgin where to go get their own oil. And you know that is where I need to smarten up myself. I've tried to get this doctrine out to the world because it is suppose to smarten us up and mature us, so we understand our position in the family of God, but what I have seen in my own church over the years I see among the preachers around the world. People just don’t want to grow up and be responsible for their own life in Christ. They want others to do their religion for them, and they don't realize God is not coming for children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and cunning craftiness where by they lie in wait to deceive. We must get ready for he Bible tells us that the Bride hath made herself ready.

 

So what we are looking at here is a stern warning from a vindicated prophet to that  the scene of the first Exodus is to repeat in this hour, and if you are not blind and deaf yourself and your eyes are open all you have to do is to look around and you will see the great falling away is in progress all over the world and they are joining together, binding themselves into bundles getting the chaff ready for the burning.

 

Let us pray...