Christ is the mystery no. 171
Manifested Life - Resurrected Life
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This
morning I would like to speak from brother Branham's sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, and I do
not know how many more sermons we shall find within this beautiful sermon of
His, but we have only 15 paragraphs left, so I am sure we have not more than 10
to 15 sermons left in this series which we have so much enjoyed, because in it
we have been taught more closely our relationship with our Father. We have
learned more clearly what it means to be a son of God coming forth in the image
of the first born son.
Therefore,
this morning being Easter I had prayed that we might find an Easter Message in
the next paragraph from his Sermon, which is paragraph 291 and God
blessed us with a beautiful Easter Message to bring His Children this morning.
With
that in mind let's read together paragraph 291. " Oh, the devil's howling about this. The
manifested truth of the promise of the Word in Her alone... They
don't have the answer. When Jesus come, why didn't those Pharisees...? He
said, "If I cast out devils by the finger
of God, who do you cast them out by?" He stood
alone, and His Church stands alone. She's not hooked with
nothing.
In
other words, she has not obligated herself to any church, any creed, any organization of man. She stands alone, God and her.
But He was identified by God, being the body that God
dwelled in, and the Church is identified by His Body
doing the same thing.
She
has John 14:12 reflecting in her life,
and she does the same things he did because the same Spirit that dwelt in Him
dwells now in her, and as Paul said in Romans 8:11
has quickened her mortal body. And as the Law of Life as seen in Genesis
She is His Body, the manifested Truth of His
promised Word for the last days. And She and She
alone stands by it. That's why the devil is howling, these great
organizations set up something to close her up. They'll never do it. She'll
be taken up, not closed up.
And so we
fight the good fight of faith, knowing that Satan would do everything in his
power and use every religious spirit who has yielded themselves to his mindset which
fights this truth that God has ordained to be manifested in His little bride,
allowing her to be conformed to the Image of the first born son, Jesus.
Brother Branham continues
by saying, 292 "She is now risen
and by the power of the vindicated Word promised to Her.
Amen. How a bride holds that promise. "He told me He'd return after me.
I believe it." See? Yes, sir. To meet Her Headship, Her Redeemer, Her
Husband, Her King, Her Lord, Her Lover, Her Saviour in the provided meeting
place... He's got a place to meet 'em. You know the Bridegroom don't
leave out nothing. He's got the ring, the identification.
He's got the robe that She wears, Her
clothing. See?"
And we know according to Scripture that she
will be dressed in the Word of God. We are told in the book of Revelation 21:2 that she has "prepared
herself as a bride adorned for her husband."
Then brother Branham says, "And
He's got the provided place to meet Her; that's
in the air. Everything has been all provided. He's got the
wedding supper already set, guests already invited, already
chosen."
In
paragraph 147 we read where brother Branham said, Notice, God
holds this key alone. God is known by simplicity and of revelation of Jesus Christ in the most
illiterate person. See? Not your
theology; it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. "Upon this rock, I'll build My Church." No other rock's accepted; no other thing's
accepted; no other Roman rock; no other Protestant rock; no other school; no
other nothing; but on exactly the
revelation of Jesus Christ in a new birth. He, born in there and injects His own Life,
and your life is gone, and the Life of Christ is projecting Itself through you with the preeminence's
to the people that they see the very Life, and works, and signs and wonders that He did is doing the same
thing through you. Outside of that, the rest of it's not even called to
at all.
Notice he says,
the revelation of Jesus Christ in a new birth.
Ok so we are looking at what
he's going to talk about here. He's talking about the Revelation of Jesus
Christ in the new birth. Then he says, He (He's talking about the life of Christ. And
notice what He says about Christ. He
Christ, born in there and injecting
His own Life, and when that happens, your life is gone,
Just think about that. Christ Jesus, His
very own Life has been injected into the believer and He, Christ is born into
your vessel. And on top of all that, he says and "your own life is gone."
And how does he say we
receive this injection of Christ -Life into our vessel?
He says God injects it by the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
So think in terms of the Revelation
of Jesus Christ as being an inoculation. God takes His Word which is sharper
than any two edged sword and injects into you
the very life of His own Son. And it
comes by receiving the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the word
"revelation" means "manifestation of Divine
truth". In other words revelation is not an intellectual affair,
but a Divine truth in manifestation or expression.
Therefore it must express itself in you order for it to be revealed to you and
in you.
And brother Branham says, He (Christ's
very own Life) born in there (in
where? in you) and injects His own Life (injects his own life where? In you) and your life is gone,
(it is not about you, it's now all about Christ, and Him alone.)
Paul said in Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God.
Now, when Paul tells us that
our life is hid with Christ the word "hid" was translated from
a Greek word that means to hide by covering, hidden as though
covered.
So Christ Jesus, His own Life
expressed through
your life, hides your own life that was born in sin,
shaped in iniquity and came to the world speaking lies. Then it is not about you and Jesus, it's all about Him. It actually means this union
with Christ takes you out of the way, and brings His life into the preeminent position and expression
in your being.
And after all, he said in Colossians 3:3 "For ye are dead" and if you are dead then what kind of an expression does a dead man
have? A dead man doesn't retaliate does he? Dead horses don't kick, and dead
men don't fight back. Then if you want to know if you are truly dead to self
and your life is covered over by Jesus Christ's life, give yourself the Word test.
(3) Ye are
dead, and your life is hid (covered) with Christ in God. And if your life
is covered with Christ it is because you have put on Christ. And who is Christ?
He is the Word.
Galatians 3:27 For as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Then he says in Colossians 3:4 "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear" (Shall phaneroo, which means
to manifest in ones true identity) then shall ye also
appear (phaneroo
to manifest in your true identity) with him in
glory. With
him in doxa, with him in the same opinion, with him in the same values, and
with the same judgments.
Then Paul adds, verse 5"Mortify
therefore your members" (See? That means 'kill', it means 'put
to death', it means 'crucify'. What?) fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which
is idolatry. 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the
children of disobedience: 7 In the which also you walked sometime, when you lived in
them. 8 But now you put off all these things: anger,
wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.
And
brother Vayle said "What is
that a sign of, brother, sister? It's a sign of when those things come against
us, we're dead to them…let them come. We don't get mad anymore…why? Just take
it and let it come. See? Get it out of the way. See?"
And
the Apostle Paul says, 9 Lie not to
one another, seeing that you put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him That created him.
Notice n these verses we
read where Paul shows us how to die to self. Now that we have died to self, and
our life is gone, as brother Branham said, Paul then teaches us what the Life
of Christ living in us will do... 13 Forbearing one another, forgiving one another.
If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do to them.
So what is that? That's the
cross of Christ! Where Paul said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I am
living. That's not a man saying, "Well, I'm going to get back at that guy, because he did
me..." no, no , no. You are dead and your life is hid with Christ, covered
over by the life of Christ, and the life you are now living in this body is not
your life, but Christ’s life projecting itself out from your vessel.
And that is what brother
Branham said next... “and the Life of Christ is projecting Itself through
you with the preeminence's to the people that they see the very Life, and
works, and signs and wonders that He did is doing the same thing through you.
Now, the word “project” that
brother Branham used here means “to reproduce
outwardly,” or “to display
outwardly”.
So what we are looking at
here is a life that covers over your very own life, and this new life projects
its own self out from your vessel like a projector projects what is on the film
outwardly for all to see, and the whole purpose of the projecting of what is on
the film is to make visible to all what is hidden within the projector.
That is why Jesus said in John 12:36 "we are the
children of the light and we are like a light on a hill projecting forth that
light that is in us for all to see."
In Matthew
Now, what are these good
works that men are to see that they may Glorify God in what they see? Well
Jesus said in verse 3.
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.You know I never understood how you
could be poor in spirit and be called blessed, until I found that the less I
have of me, the more room I have for Christ in me my hope of glory.
So what Jesus is
saying here is that "You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope and have nothing left
to offer, for With less of you there is more of God..
In other words, when you have finally died to
yourself, and your life is covered by Christ there is
nothing left for you to show the world of yourself, and the only thing you have
worth showing the world is Christ Himself who gives you the victory.
Notice
the second place to find ourselves blessed. Jesus says in verse 4 Blessed are they that mourn:
for they shall be comforted.
I'd like to read
it this way,... 4 “You’re blessed when you've finally come to the place where you’ve
lost what you thought was most dear to you, "yourself", Only to
find you now reflect the One most dear to you.
Did
not God promise to turn our mourning into joy? Well that's how He does it.
Our third blessing comes with these words, 5 Blessed are the meek (that's the
humble): for they shall inherit the earth.
In finding our
place in God's word, we find our true humility, for brother Branham said,
"true humilty is knowing your place in the Word", and if
the Word is God, then it is knowing your place in God. And when we knowingly embrace
our Sovereign God, it is then we realize how little we are, and when we enter
into this true humility, is when we die to self and let
Christ have the preeminence in our life. That is when we become truly
rich and as he said, those who enter into this condition are those who will
receive their inheritance.
The
next blessing comes as Jesus tells us 6 " Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." And that is the oppostite of the laodicean
condition who feel they are in need of nothing. No, brothers and sisters, when
we hunger and thirst it is because we long to have more of Him and acknowledge
that we do not have enough.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for
they shall obtain mercy. When you have come to the place where
you are more concerned for others than you are for yourself, then you have come
to the place when you have not only obtained mercy, but you are projecting
mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart:
for they shall see God. Pure in heart, pure as in nothing in
the way that would pollute what you see and what you hear. And when you look
with the eyes of God and hear with the ears of God, then you shall see God. For
you have become like God because you are projecting God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God.
You’re blessed when you can show people how
to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you
really are, and your place in God’s family. That is when you have come to
maturity as a Christ-Like person, a true Christian which means Christ-Like.
10 Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake: (right-wise-ness sake, for having a
correct understanding of the Word of God) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You’re blessed when your commitment to God
provokes persecution from others. Because God uses that persecution to drive you even deeper
into His will and his mind until all you reflect is Him.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you,
and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely, for my sake.
In other words, count yourselves blessed every time people
put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit the
reflection of Christ they see in you. What it means is that the truth is too
close for comfort and makes them uncomfortable. You can be glad when that
happens for though they don’t like it, It is Christ in
you they don't like! And all heaven is watching and applauding. And you must know
that when this happens you are in good company. God's prophets and witnesses
have always found themselves in this kind of opposition.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
In other words,
instead of looking at the opposition, your focus should be on the reward.
Then jesus says, 13 Ye are the salt of
the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under
foot of men.
You are here to be a salt-seasoning
to brings out the God-flavors in this earth, and if you lose your saltiness,
how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in
the garbage.
And then Jesus says, 14 " Ye are the light of the world."
You are here to be light, bringing out the
God-spectrum in the world. As public as "A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid,
so uyour lives are to be open and on display for all to see, for when they see
you and your life is hid in Christ, they will see Christ only and Him crucified. 15 And
if men do not light a candle, to put it under a bushel, why would you
think I would do so? No, I've made you a candlestick; and your candlestick
gives light unto all that are in the house to see. 16 Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and that they
through seeing your good works might glorify your Father which is in heaven,
because when they see you, they will only see me. 17 Think not that I have
come to destroy the law, or the prophets: No, I have not come to destroy, but
to fulfill the law, and my light in you and my Life working in you to will and
to do will bring to fulfilment the Law of God written not with ink but written
with my Spirit living and abiding in you.
Now, in paragraph 148
of Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, brother Branham says, "Watch
God's great revelation unfolding. By lack of
this revelation is why we have so many different divisions among us and so much
mockery, so much division among us, is because the people
lack that revelation. See, they lack
that revelation: the teachers. Paul, after his great revelation of Christ,
said in I Corinthians the 2nd chapter... Be sure to read that as you write it down. Watch. Oh,
he said, "I never come to
you with wisdom." Look at
that man who did have the wisdom. Look at that man who had the scholarship.
"I never come to you with them kind
of a word." (I Corinthians, the 2nd chapter of I
Corinthians.) Oh, I
wish... Well, let's just read it. Can you stand a minute, and let's read just a
verse or two? I'd just like to read it so you wouldn't be... It'd get even the
people on the tape to turn back to it anyhow, it'd give them a chance: I Corinthians the
2nd chapter. Listen to
this great apostle here, Paul, the
intellectual servant of God. Let's looky here. ...
I, Paul,... when
I come to you, came not with excellency of speech,... of wisdom, declaring to
you the testimony of God... (I never
said, "I'm Dr. So-and-so. See?) For I am determined not to know any thing among you, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. ... my speech and my beseeching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and... power--of
the power:
149 There, see there's
the Gospel. See? Jesus said, "Go
ye in all the world and preach the Gospel." Didn't say, "Go teach," He said, "Go preach." In other words,
demonstrate the power, and these signs shall follow them.
Just teaching doesn't do it. It takes the actual Spirit Itself
demonstrating these signs. Listen to this. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in
the power of God". Oh, my. See, to change the man... Not what I can explain away and say,
"He's
not the same," when He is the same. If I do
that, it shows to me. It, it... Surely a man tell me that, it would show me
he don't have the revelation, the threefold revelation of God. See? Now... And howbeit... in
weakness... among you that are perfect:
yet we're not with the wisdom of the
world, but of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the
wisdom of God in... mystery,... (See, the threefold mystery of God)... even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world
unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew:... (None of the priests,
rabbis, or anything knew anything about it)... for
had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory: You say, "You're wrong about rabbis and preachers
there." Who crucified Him? Oh,
on and on and on we could go; read it (See?) on... save time, 'cause we got
just... Not getting late yet, but we just got plenty here to say if the Lord
will help us.
150 Now, lack of
this, now... And Paul, this great intellectual man, never tried to express his great theological terms upon the people.
He humbly accepted the Word of the Lord, and he lived the Word so that it expressed It. He lived so, so
godly until they seen Jesus Christ in him so much, till they wanted his
handkerchief to take it and lay it upon the sick. There's the Life of Christ. Not what some... "Oh, you
see, Elijah done that a long time ago, laid his stick, but oh, that was the
days of Elijah." Now, the world thought that. The intellectual priest and things, and churches of that day thought
that, but to them believers, they knew different. They seen
the revelation of Christ that was in Elijah: same thing was in
Paul, expressed the same kind of Life,
'cause he was a prophet. See? He foretold things that happened exactly the way
it was, and they knew that was God's identification of a prophet. And they knew
that he was God's prophet. You couldn't shake them from it at all.
Now,
listen brothers and sisters, Elijah was a man filled with the Spirit of Christ
and when he laid his body upon the body of that dead boy, and placed his hands
on the boys hands and his lips upon the boys lips, and breathed into that little
body the breath of life, that boy came to life again.
And
when Elisha was so full of that quickening power in him, that when he finally
died himself they threw a man's body one day upon his bones and as that dead
man laid on top of those bones in that grave, and when his life was restored to
him, he scrambled up out of that pit because his lifeless body had come into
contact with the quickening power of the Spirit of Christ that was in the bones
of Elisha and made him alive again.
And
we have a promise from God himself in Romans 8:11 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 dwelleth in you.
And we know the body that is dead is a corpse not a
mortal body, so Paul is talking about this body that we live in now which is
capable of dying. He's not talking about the millennium, he's talking about the
body of this death, that God living in the body of this death, can so quicken
this body that it will change from mortal to immortal.
And why not, if the only immortal kind is living in
your body, do you think the body is greater than the life governing that body?
That's why he
continues, 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to self, to live after self. 13 For if ye live after self, ye shall die: but if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of self, ye shall live. And oh, what a life you 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 Therefore,
The Spirit itself will bear witness with your spirit, that you are the
children of God:
It is not you bearing witness with Him. It is His very
own Spirit in you living itself out in you that bears witness with your spirit
that you are indeed children of the same God that was the Father of Jesus
Christ the first born son in a vast family of brothers. So how does God's Spirit
bear witness with your spirit? He lives and abides in you and he uses your body
as his own body, for you are nothing less than the body of Christ.