Christ
is the Mystery no. 75
The
Attributes of a Son of God no 8
They have the character of Christ
March 27, 2013
Brian Kocourek
The Eighth attribute of the Believer: They have the character of Christ and will stand when
all others have deserted them.
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience.4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing.5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him.6 But let him ask in
faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.7 For
let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.8 A
double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
From
brother Branham's sermon, Believe from the Heart 57-0623 E-46 He said, "Jesus was a witness of God. He become so
full of God, till him and God was One. God
dwelt in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself,
the very expression. A man's work declares his character. Christ was God's work. And Christ declared
God's character, His feeling for the sick, His longing for saving of
souls, till even He gave His own life. God's work... God's character was declared in Christ."
Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in
hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience; 4 And
patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And
hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Evening
Messenger 63-0116 260 Notice when the Message is rejected
and the messenger seems to be defeated, that's when God steps on the scene,
his Message is over. Noah (closing now), Noah preached in the door of his ark
for a hundred and twenty years, till, when finally they laughed him to scorn,
Noah stepped in the ark thinking that it would just be all right. God closed
the door. And the people hung around to see what was going to happen. Seven
days he set there and sweated it out, and on the seventh day the rain come.
Uh-huh
Friends, Is that where
we are at this evening? We know the Message has been rejected. We have seen
that with our very own eyes. We have heard it with our own ears. And we know
that God is on the scene. Now we've been standing in the door for 57 years
since this nation rejected the Message and we have arrived at 50 years since
the seals were opened and we were set free. But remember when the Deals were
opened and the freeing of the was given, those who
didn't take their freedom and chose rather to stay in bondage, there ear was
placed to the anvil, and an awl pierce it through. And they never could go free
after that. Is it already too late? Is this the year, 50 years since the Seals
were opened, and the people still refuse to come out of the bondage of that churchianity? 50 Years is jubilee, but the people stand
like dead logs, afraid to make their stand and come into this Word and manifest
that portion of the Word that was given them to manifest. Will this be the year
the awl comes down and pierces their hearing so they will never hear the Word
again? Is it later than we think?
From Testimony on the Sea 62-0720 "We know the revival's over. Everyone knows
that. I predicted that back in '56 when it would start ending. Billy Graham come back, and Tommy Osborn, and them. I said,
"This is it. America will receive it or reject it this year."
And they rejected it. We're nothing waiting but judgment. Now, you mark that
down and see if Brother Branham's right or not. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD.
We're headed for it, and we're going to pay for what we've done. We got too
much glamour in the church, and Hollywood and everything. God's sick and tired
of it. The last one will come in after while, and that'll be it."
Romans 8:2 For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Colossians 3:3
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God.
2 Timothy 1:10
But is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel:
2 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will
of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
Colossians 3:4
When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory.
Galatians 2:20
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.
Philippians 2:30
Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto
death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.
Church
choosing law for grace 61-0316 P:5 A man who ever amounts to anything is a man
that stands alone, him and God alone; that's the man. On
the Jericho Road there's room for just two, no more and no less, just Jesus
and you, that's all. And so that's the way we have to walk this narrow
way. Every man that ever did anything for God walked the same road.
That's right. Criticized, forsaken, cast out, through all ages,
all times, they've had to suffer the same thing. So we are just like
they are, same thing. We have to stand it alone. But never alone, He's
always there.
At thy
word 53-0608E P:23 The secret is, take Him at His Word, if you
believe it. Every man that's ever amounted to anything,
has been people who has took God at His Word. Do you believe that?
Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Three
kinds of believers 63-1124E P:82 Or would you have been with Daniel or with
the church that was down there at Nebuchadnezzar's party they was giving? See?
Would you been outside, or would you been down at the shindig, the big thing
they were having? Would you have been with Elijah, that man standing alone,
called an old crank, a man lost his mind, standing upon top of the hill, and
his head shining up there to the sun, with a crooked stick in his hand and the
birds feeding him, some crank? Or would you been with the priest and all of
them down there with Jezebel, and the rest of them modern dressed women, and Elijah
standing up there rebuking them as hard as he could? What part would you
took your wife to? Just think; just picture yourself tonight.
Gabriel's
instruct to Daniel 61-0730M P:57 Now, back to the lesson. Daniel had been
reading. Just think. Daniel read the same words that we are reading this
morning. Daniel read the same Bible, the same punctuation, the same sentences,
the same things that I'm, by the help of God, will read you in the next few
messages, the same thing to show you that we are at the end time. And Daniel
taken the word from Jeremiah,
goes down into Babylon, and he was the anointed prophet. and
wonders among them, yet standing alone by himself. Amen. He stood
alone.
Moses a man anointed of God to deliver God's children
from bondage. a man anointed of God and yet Moses had
to stand alone when it came to facing down Pharaoh and all the priests and magicians
of Egypt. One man and God, one man anointed by God to do God's word and will,
and yet he had to stand alone. Look at that character of Christ coming
through. No matter what anyone else said, it was obedience to God and His Word.
No other words could persuade him, yet he had to stand alone, and when he did
what God told him to do, the very people who he was sent to free from bondage
tried to stone him. So Moses had to stand alone with just him and God. What
character, what Christ-Life.
Samson a man anointed by God to deliver God's children
from the Philistines, one man anointed by God and he had to stand alone,
deserted by his people, the ones he was sent to deliver, the people he was
raised up with, yet he had to stand alone deserted by his people. One man and
God, one man anointed by God to deliver God's people, yet he had to stand
alone.
David just a young man, as brother Branham called him a
ruddy stoop shouldered youth, yet he stood there and something in him could not
stand to hear the blasphemous words coming from that uncircumcised Philistine,
and so he stepped forward. One man, anointed by God for a job, one man anointed by God to
deliver that uncircumcised Philistine a death blow. One man anointed by
God to defend God's Word among a bunch of backslidden Israelites, who feared
and trembled at the sight of that giant called Goliath, yet God anointed him to
do a work of God, and he stood out there all alone, just him and God against
the greatest warrior of that day. One young man anointed by God and yet he had
to stand alone.
Samuel a Prophet of God and yet as all prophet's he had to
stand alone. anointed by God to do the works of God
and yet he had to stand alone with God. You would have thought the people would
have rallied around this saint of God, this man proven to be God's man by the
supernatural things God did throughout his ministry, but he stood alone, just
Samuel and God.
Don't the people se what
is going on today? Shouldn't they see the alpha has become omega.
The scene back then has repeated in this hour? But are they willing to stand
alone, anointed with the Holy Ghost and willing to stand there when all have
forsaken them?
Paul did. we hear him in 2 Timothy 4:10 tell us, For Demas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto
Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Paul, a man anointed by God to do a work of God and the
brethren rejected his ministry, and the work of God he was doing. Paul had no help
with his mission work, they all forsook him. He went by the calling of God to
every country God sent him to, yet all those brothers together in Jerusalem,
all that support for each other, and yet none of them saw the vision God gave
to him, and so they stayed put in Jerusalem contending not for the faith, but
contending with who was in the Message and who was not. And so
none of them came to help out. And when one or two did, they too forsook
Paul. And when Peter came to see what was going on, and he saw the work of God
you would have thought he would have turned a corner with Paul and be willing
to walk alone with him, but when the legalists called the Pharisees who claimed
to be believers came, he too forsook Paul and got up to go sit with the false
brethren instead of standing with Paul.
Paul, servant of God forsaken and alone but not totally
alone, because God never forsook Paul. God was there and anointing his ministry and i manifesting the same power that was in Christ now
manifesting in Paul.
And
what about Jesus? When
he went to that cross he was forsaken by all. Peter denied him three times, and
when his hour was come to manifest why he had come into the world, all the
disciples forsook him. They all ran away and distanced themselves from him. and he stood there at the end, forsaken by all, but
manifesting the very purpose and character of why God had chosen Him to be our
propitiation. What about
Jesus Christ, anointed by God. His own Son, anointed to do a work of God, to
heal the sick to save the lost, but toward the end of His ministry they all
forsook him, ever those he had been with for so many years in the ministry.
Whatever
He Saith unto you do it 54-0722 P:4 Anyone
can go with you when the crowds going, but wait till you're standing alone.
That's when a real brother stands by you.
And what about brother
Branham, when the healing ministry was at it's peak, they all seemed to want
him, but when he began to show them where they were wrong in their doctrine,
they deserted him left and right until at the end of his ministry, he was
forsaken by all the big name ministers, and just a few loyal believers, loyal
tot he Word were there at the end.
Faith
cometh by hearing 54-0320 P:47 Easy was it for little Mary then, when the
Holy Spirit met her out there, overshadowed her. And the great
angel, Gabriel, stood in the way, and said, "Hail, Mary. Blessed
art thou among women. I'm going to tell you something that never did happen, that's going to happen now." Amen. Look what she had
to believe. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word of
God. He said, "You're going to have a child, knowing no man." She
said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy
Word." Amen. I begin to feel religious here tonight. Notice, when you
think of that, how that men and women, anybody that ever amounted to
anything in this life has been men and women who's took God at His Word and
believed it. That's it. No matter what the world says, what mama says, what
the pastor says, it's what God has said. I ain't got
faith in what mama said (It's my mother, I have); I got faith in the pastor as
a pastor. But I got faith in what THUS SAITH THE LORD. That settles
it. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word. I believe it.
John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
God
identifying Himself 64-0320 P:33 The pouring out of the Holy Ghost in the
last days upon the common people has identified God's characteristic with
the people. He promised it. It's the Word. He said He'd do it. Nobody can
take it back. He said He would do it. So all these things that He's promised,
that's what He does. It identifies His characteristic. Yes, sir. "Don't
believe it, don't believe My claims, if My
characteristic isn't that of God." Now, notice in John 14:12, "He that believeth on Me,"
He said, "has My identification, My characteristic. He that believeth on Me,
the works that I do shall he do also." That identifies that the character of Christ is in him,
displaying the characteristics of Him. Amen.
Life
58-0512 P:8 Now, the Christian church should have real character then. And if
the Life of Christ is in the church of Christ, then it's got to have the
character of Christ. It'll produce the Life of Christ. It's just a
no more than just what we call in the south, common sense. If the Life of
the Spirit of Christ is in the church, it has to produce that Life, because the
life that's in you, makes your character. And what
kind of characters ought we to be, who have solemnly promised that we would
serve the Lord Jesus as long as we live, and we have been baptized to His
death, burial, and resurrection, and have put our names upon the church rolls,
take out place in Sunday school, and then go out, and live something different.
Oh, it's more... It's more of an detriment to the
cause of Christ, than all the bootleg joints we have in America. God grant
the day, that when men will live just what they are. And you can
always tell hem by their nature, their make-up.
Identified
Christ of all ages 64-0401 P:11 And so Divine healing, the main thing is
Divine healing of the soul. The Body of Christ, it needs healing worse
than anything that I know of, is the Body of Christ. It's been so broken up
by man's theology and denominational differences until it's a sick body.
And I tell you, it needs healing, great healing. So I trust that the Lord will
do a great thing towards the healing of His part of the Body that's in here. We
believe that there is one church. And we never join it. Next Monday I'll be
fifty-five years old, and the Branham family never did ask me to join their
family; I was born a Branham, and that's how I am in Him. Now, that's how we're
Christians; we're born a Christian. And you don't join it; you're born into it.
Then you take the character of Christ.
Choosing
of a bride 65-0429E P:69 I remember one time a prophet went up to take a king, to make a
king out of Jesse's sons to take another king's place: Saul. And so Jesse
brought him out, and he was a great, big, fine boy and said, "The crown will look right on his head." And the prophet went to pour the oil
on him; he said, "God's
refused him." And
He refused every one of them till he come to a little old stoop-shouldered,
ruddy looking fellow, and he poured the oil upon him, and he said, "God
chose him." See, we choose by sight. God choose by character. Character,
there never was a Character like Jesus Christ. It lives in Him,
manifests in. We see it true. It's not worldly beauty of Him that
attracts His Bride; it is His character, the character of the
church that Jesus looks for; not whether it's big buildings; whether it's
great denominations; whether it's big membership. He promised to meet with
wherever two or three are gathered together. Truly.
That's where the true believer rests his hopes, is upon that Word of God being
vindicated in truth, what it is. Choose by His Word. Not a worldly loving
group, they hate that. No wonder she is divorced from Him, because she's
missed His revelation, and she don't have it. He
cares not for her, the way she acts and does, and how much of this worldly
stuff she has; He's looking for her character, the character of Christ.
in closing I would like to share the following quote because
it is the closest I have been able to come up with where brother Branham speaks
of the body and the hand. When the hand moves the body moves. But notice who is the hand. It is not William Branham that
is the hand, but The Lord Jesus Christ, For He is the vine, and we are the
branches. And when his hand moves in the spiritual body of
Christ, then the physical body of Christ moves. Listen closely to
brother Branham's words here.
Questions
and answers COD 54-0103M P:24 But oh, what a picture as the true Vine
there, and we are the branches in that Vine.
Now, notice br. Branham said "we",
and we does not speak of one, we speaks of others besides self, but it does
include self. Jesus said, "we are the branches", and "he is the vine". So he's
talking about the body of Christ.) See? Just as
the Vine moves, so does the branches move. Is that
right? So he is not referring to one member of the body moving and
thus the body moves, such as the hand moving and thus the body moves, but he's
talking as the Vine Lives so we live, as the Holy Spirit moves the hand in the
spiritual we move in the body. How beautiful then
of His great body, oh, His great bleeding arms and dropping tears, and His
bleeding sides, and His striped back a-hanging over the earth like this between
God the Father and the mortals of this earth, a-pleading and loving them just
as His body comes into motion and power, it's given into the church. Just
as He said, "I'll move my hands this a-way," and His
literal body moves. "Go here; preach the Gospel," you'll see that
church move right straight. 'Cause, my shadow has to move
with my hand. Amen. Is that right? Amen. Oh, my, when I think of
that... There He is, His body moving, "Go ye into all the world, demonstrate the power." No matter if
we let our theology and teachings and so forth like that, we bitterly fail.
But now the hand of God is a-moving; signs and wonders are appearing.
Let us pray...