Faith no 61
“Faith made perfect through Vindication”
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
January 24th,
2018
This morning I would like to show how our Faith is made perfect through God's
vindicationof His Word. We all know that the Apostle Paul laid down
a principle for us to understand and that we find in Romans 10:17
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God."
Notice therefore, it is not just by
hearing that we receive Faith, but by Hearing the Word of God. And we know that
is because God stands behind His Word, and he vindicates it to us that it is
His word and not the word of a man.
Understanding vindication
therefore is perhaps one of the most important things we can do as a Believer
in God and His Word. It seems today, among the Christian world that we are
living again in the days of the Judges where "every man did what he thought was right in his
own eyes". And why is this the predominant attitude
amongst the nations today?, Because the people have turned down a Vindicated Prophet
of God.
It does not matter whether
they are Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal.
It does not matter whether they claim to be followers of the Prophet of God to
our day. The proof of their belief is in their understanding of Vindication.
So then what is
Vindication. Why is it so important to us?
Brother Branham used the
term Vindication to explain: "God has a One man Message and He deals with
One man only". But men do not like this,
for they seem to want to have their own say as to how God is going to do things. Who Do You Say This Is?
64-1227 128 That one-man message, they didn't want it. No, they
didn't want It. And God never did deal but with one person at a time. It's
always a one-man message. When did ever He deal with the people,
outside of just one person? It's an individual. It ain't a group.
Vindication is the real issue concerning our faith. And if we understand that
faith is a Revelation, then you cannot have faith outside of having faith or
revelation in a Vindicated Word. And this vindication is not so much that God
backs up His prophets with his power, but rather more importantly the God that
sends His prophets goes with his prophets.
All Pentecostal people believe
that God works out of heaven and does fantastic things. They will even allow
for God to come down to do certain things, but the understanding that this Vindication
comes in the form of God's Personal Presence with His prophet, and that
this Presence was referred to by Brother Branham himself as the Appearing of
Christ has become the central doctrinal debate within the "Message clergy itself" because
it comes into direct conflict with their understanding of the Second coming of Christ
as they have always perceived it, and this is due to the fact that they do not
understand Godhead correctly.
A close study of this
principle of vindication will help us to understand better that
when it comes to the program of God, we have absolutely no say as to
what will happen. All God requires from you and me is to get ourselves out of
the way and allow God to work through his chosen channel, which according to Amos 3:7 is always a prophet.
Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city,
and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath
not done [it]? 7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD
hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Again we find in the book of
Deuteronomy God's Law concerning how he
will deal with His People. And since He is the same and changes not, then we
cannot say that prophets are relegated to the Old Testament only, for there are
references to prophets in the New Testament as well.
Deuteronomy 18:15 ¶ The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye
shall hearken; 16 According to all that thou desiredst
of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not
hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any
more, that I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well
[spoken that] which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from
among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all
that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet, which
shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to
speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall
die. 21 And if
thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath
not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaketh in the
name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that
is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously:
thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Now, God set forth an order
that has very strict consequences for those who will not adhere to it. He
said, I will require it from you. You will pay for your
unbelief. Notice the question came forth from God's own mouth. He
said, how will you know what is right and what is not
right? And then He tells us, the one that is not right will not be
vindicated. I will not bring his words to pass, because they are not my words.
And we know God is very protective
of His own Words. Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto
me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
In the book of John 10:23 We see a scene where Jesus
is debating with the religious and the Pharisees. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's
porch. 24 Then
came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to
doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. 25 Jesus answered
them, I told you, and ye believed not:
the works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me. (this bearing witness is God
vindicating that the words that His Son spoke were indeed from God. That is
what vindication is.) 26 But
ye believe not, because ye are not of
my sheep, as I said unto you. So Jesus is saying quite
plainly to the Pharisees that when God vindicates His word to be true and you
don't believe it, that shows you are an unbeliever. That your vindication of
your own unbelief, showing you to be an unbeliever. 27 My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My
Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and my Father
are one. 31 Then
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus
answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of
those works do ye stone me? 33 The
Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for
blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in
your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If
he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot
be broken; 36 Say
ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe
me not. 38 But
if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and
believe, that the Father [is] in me, and I in him. 39 ¶ Therefore they sought again to take him: but he
escaped out of their hand,
It
should be enough that God sends someone with his Word, and we watch the
character of that person, and then we see God back up that man's words with his
supernatural demonstrations, and we should in our hearts say, Ok, God said it,
and he interpreted what he said by bringing it to pass, therefore how could I
not believe what else he says.
You
could go through the entire Bible and see maybe only one time in a certain
prophet God step in and vindicate the word of the Lord that the prophet brought
to the people. Then we see men like Moses, Elijah and Elisha with multiple
times where God vindicates the message he sent through those prophets.
Ten
times Moses came with "Thus saith the Lord" And then God stepped on
the scene and backed up all ten times Moses Spoke in the name of the Lord.
With
Elijah there were 14 very supernatural miracles God performed through His
prophet, to back up "thus Saith the Lord" and with Elisha it
was double that, there were 28 times God
vindicated His Word of "Thus Saith the Lord" through his Prophet
Elisha..
From
his sermon, Proof of His Resurrection 136 brother Branham said, "There He stood, and made Himself known. He
said, "If you can't believe Me, believe the
works that I do. They testify the Father sent Me."
He said, "And My education..." In other words, like this, "If My
education doesn't satisfy your longings, if My degree, which, I have none, but
My degree, My diploma, is not from your seminaries. My diploma is the works that I do, that the Father sent Me. They are
My diploma." That's the best diploma I know of. God, give us more
of those diplomas. "The works that I do are a vindication that the
Father sent Me. If that isn't sufficient, believe them then instead of Me.
And
again from his sermon, E-15 Jesus
Christ the Same 55-0603 brother Branham said, "But Jesus come by not preaching so
forceful as John, but there were
signs and wonders accompanying Him. He said, "If you can't believe Me believe the works
that I do. If you can't believe Me believe the a
vindication that the Father has given of Me, for the works that I do, the same testify
that the Father has sent Me." What a statement. Think of it. "The works that I do testify that the Father has sent Me." Man can make any kind of a statement, but if God don't back that
statement up, you've got a right to say it's wrong. But when God comes
around and confirms that statement to be the truth then it's sin to disbelieve it. For what is sin? Sin is one thing: "unbelief."
That's right. You couldn't say how much of that is night. It's all night. And
in the daytime you couldn't say just this much is day. It's all day. Jesus
said, "He that
believeth not is condemned already." Faith in God and unbelief that's the two things. One is sin and the other one
is salvation.
Notice in John 5:19 Jesus tells us it i either God doing it or it doesn't get done. "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,
verily, 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. 20 For the Father
loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew
him greater works than these, that ye may marvel."
From brother Branham's sermon, The Spoken Word is the Original Seed pp. 192 brother said concerning the prophets of God "He
will be correctly dedicated to the Word as they have always been; indicated by God's Word and “a-vindicated”.
Now, these terms brother Branham uses here, indicated and a-vindicated are two
different words and they mean two different things altogether.
The first word “indicated”
means “pointed out or suggested”, so
brother Branham is speaking of how that person would have to be pointed out or
suggested in the Scriptures. In other words, you can see that person spoken of
in the Word of God either directly or indirectly. So we see that the ministry
he is talking about will be seen somewhere in Scripture, suggested by Scripture
or Pointed out in the Scripture.
The other term “a-vindicated”
is made up of two words, the first which is the letter “a”
used as a prefix and it means “something that is
ongoing” and then the word “vindicate”
which has to do with “backing up”,
or "in the defense of” and in the
usage here, it speaks of justification of the person or ministry.
Then he continues, "God will
vindicate what he
preaches to be the Truth as He did Elijah; for it is Elijah
coming, making ready for the
Oh, my!!, Did you hear that?
Where did the first fake news
come from? The Pulpits. He said, Because so much has
been called God's Truth by fakers, many true ministers will misunderstand that messenger.
Then from there into the world,
and today everything is fake news. In fact you have to verify and re-verify
almost everything you hear. Because there is only one source that can be
trusted and that is the source that God has vindicated to be true.
Now, there are two
things that we will examine in this paragraph of Brother Branham: “vindication”
and “the fact that this person will come straight with the Word
of God, and everything he tells us, you will be able to find right in the Bible”.
Now, what we are looking at in this statement is that
God vindicates His Servants with His Very Own Presence, and He vindicates His
Presence by the things which only He can do, something supernatural. And God's
supernatural actions are what shows He is Present.
I remember years ago, I believe it was at
the
The critics criticize William Branham on
his doctrine, but none of them have any vindication to back up what they claim
is truth. Therefore their truth is not The Truth, but only truth to them as they see it.
Just
because they think something, doesn’t make that something truth. But when God
Himself comes down and backs up a man's words, that came in the name of the
Lord, then you know one thing for certain, you are not dealing with just a man
any more, you are now dealing with God Himself.
Therefore
what good does it do to even listen to what these other men have to say. It's
simply their own opinion based on their own limited understanding. But when a
prophet comes with "Thus Saith the Lord"
it is not his own opinion, it’s God's
Opinion. And God’s prophets
will always come speaking God’s Word from the Scriptures, unless they
are a false prophet, then they will have no vindication either, because God is
not obligated to nay man, he is obligated to His Own Word.
Therefore it matters not what men may
think, for what men think means absolutely nothing to God. Now, just because you have an opinion,
doesn’t mean that opinion is the right opinion. And that is where
"vindication" comes into
play. Man has for the past 6,000 years diluted the Scripture so much that God
had to send a Prophet with "Thus saith the Lord"
to turn them back to that which is God’s truth. So it matters not what their
opinion is because the children of God are not interested in anyone's opinion
except God's opinion. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and another’s they will not follow”.
But
critics abound everywhere. They were right alongside Moses, they were right
along side Elijah, and Elisha, so what makes you think they won't be right
alongside God's prophet to this age, William Branham who was a vindicated prophet
of God.
And
the rule of criticism is “those that are criticized the most are those
who are helping the people the most”, while those who do the most
criticizing are those who do the least to help others.
Now, the
apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 "Prove all thing, and hold fast to that which is
good."
And so we see that even God comes to the
place where people won't take Him at His Own Word. Therefore, He’s willing to
go the extra step, and He does things to vindicate
His Word by bringing what he said to pass. "That's how God actually interprets His Own
word, is by bringing it to pass."
Look,
even Jesus Christ who had God indwelling him without measure, had trouble getting
the people to believe that God had sent Him, and that God was with Him, and in
Him and doing the great and mighty miracles they saw Jesus do.
John 14:10 Believe thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I
speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me,
he doeth the works. 11
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
In other words, he is
telling them, look, you all know that the things you see being done can't be
done by man, but by God only, then if you don't want to believe me, the man, at
least believe the God that is doing these things through me.
So
we find that even a man of Moses caliber had difficulties getting the people to believe His motives
were pure. We find in Numbers 14:2 And all the children
of
In
other words, the people will reap what they've sown, "but thou O God are mightier than their sin, and Thou alone can save,
and Thou alone can heal their soul of iniquity and transgressions, and Thou
alone are full of mercy and compassion for this people who are weak and needy." And so we see the same conditions in the
people today.
And that reminds me of a
question I received from
Now my question is this: Must
we make an effort for our adoption? Or, because we are sons,
we must remain in rest
and God Himself collects all things for our adoption? God make a
placement and we have nothing to do?
I
replied, our effort if you call it that, is that we must be aware of what
God is willing to do. The Scripture tells
us “it is not him that willeth, nor him that runneth, but God that
showeth mercy.” But it also says, “it is
God who is working in us to will and to do”. And it also says again, “He which began the
good work in you will perform it.” So it comes down to this, as
brother Branham said, “the right mental attitude toward any divine promise of God
will bring it to pass, and the right mental attitude is to say it is “Thus Saith the Lord.”
In
other words it's our Faith in God's
vindicated Word that brings us rest.
Presuming
62-0117 71 Yes, that's it. You're
not presuming then. You know where you stand. That's right. Oh, don't
presume about it. There's so many different ways. Just don't presume. But God has give an a-vindication of His
promise. See? We don't have to presume about it. God's vindicated it.
Junction of Time 56-0115 5
And I believe that the church is now
standing on the threshold of the greatest vindication of omnipotence that the
world has ever known.
Spiritual Inspiration 56-0128 56 And tonight the Holy Ghost is the vindication that He's
here, that His power is with the believer
The Token 64-0208 59 He
sent a prophet to them, Moses, with a message identifying God's Word. And to
identify Moses, He sent a Pillar of Fire that hung over him. Amen. Then to give him the perfect assurance, He
required a token. Amen. There's a messenger, the message, and the vindication, and the token, the perfect assurance that they
had nothing to worry about. No matter how many plagues strike, what everybody
else says they are sealed away.
Now
let’s continue reading from Numbers 14 and we will pick up at verse 19.
19
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the
greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from
Oh,
how I love that promise. even their seed with them shall inherit the promise.
Now,
I am going to read quite a bit here but follow with me, because I want you to see
that we are facing the same scene even today, for God is the same and changes
not.
25 Now
the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. Tomorrow turn you, and
get you into the wilderness by the way of the
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the
children of
Therefore if there is a
lesson to be learned from all this, it is that understanding vindication is
perhaps one of the most important things we can do as a Believer in God and a
believer in His Word.
Today,
in the Christian world, every man does what he thinks is right in his own eyes
just like they tried to do in the wilderness, and in the days of the judges. So
it doesn’t matter what denomination they are, or even if they claim to believe
this Message. The proof of whether they truly believe is in their understanding
of vindication.
So
then, what is vindication and why is it so important? Vindication is the Presence of
God on the scene backing up His Own Word. It’s just that simple. It is
God on the scene backing up the promise he gave through a vessel that he vindicated.
It is not the vessel he vindicates, but rather his own word through that vessel
he vindicates. And therefore The vindication is of the Word, the promise, and
yet that promise came through a man that spoke in the name of the Lord saying,
"Thus saith the Lord" which
means, listen, "the Lord has said
thus." and since God vindicates that Message he sent
through the lips of His prophet, then when people disbelieve the prophet they
are in fact disbelieving God who spoke his message through him.
Jesus said in John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
From his sermon Harvest Time 64-1212 177 brother
Branham said, "Watch now as we hurry up through. "When the Spirit of Truth is come, He will teach you all
things, whatever I taught you," oh, my,
"bearing all remembrance to you, what I've said
to you, bringing to you, all remembrance. And He will show you things to come.
He will vindicate every Word, confirming the Word with signs following." Everything that He promised, that God promised in
the Bible, if you'll turn loose from every creed and everything else, and hold
onto the Word, God is obligated to take care of
His Word. And so when they did this, the Word vindicates Itself.
Therefore,
God vindicates His Own Word, because he is not a man that
he could Lie. God could not lie even if He wanted to. For it is
impossible for Him to Lie. For He is truth.
Hebrews 6:17 "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an
oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was
impossible for God to lie, we
might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast, (why is
it both sure and steadfast? because it is vindicated) and which entereth into that within the veil;
From
his sermon,. This
Day This scripture 65-0219 31-5 brother Branham said, ..."if you
preach anything and it's the Gospel Truth, then God's obligated to vindicate that.
And from Events Made Clear By Prophecy 65-0801E 101 brother
Branham said, "when a man stands for what is Truth,
then God's obligated to vindicate
that man the truth."
Brother Branham used the
term Vindication to explain: "God has a One man Message and He deals with One man only".
But men do not like this, for they seem to want to have their own say as to how
God is going to do things.
From his sermon Who Do You Say This Is? 64-1227 128 Brother
Branham said, "That one-man message, they didn't want it. No, they didn't want
It. And God never did deal but with
one person at a time. It's
always a one-man message. When did ever He deal with the people,
outside of just one person? It's an individual. It ain't a group."
That is why I do not believe the
five-fold ministry should come and preach whatever they want to preach. They
should come and preach what has been already vindicated, because if they do
then God will vindicate what they are teaching is the truth. And I do not
believe for one second that God would have come down in those three rainbows if
I had been teaching contrary to what he taught us through his prophet William
Branham. That is why I take the spoken word to the written word every sermon.
and I challenge anyone to go online and find one place where I have not spoken
as the prophet and scriptures spoke. There are over 2,261 of my sermons on the
internet in English and every one of them can be searched all at once and
another 1,362 in other languages for a total of 3,623 so far and I know men
have tried to find wrong but they can't find it.
Oh,
they might say I didn't preach what some other preacher preached, but they will
not find where I misquoted the prophet and didn't line it up with the
scriptures. You just won't find it. Because just as the prophet, "I have no creed but Christ and no law but love."
Therefore,
Vindication is the real issue
concerning our faith and understanding
vindication comes in the form of God's Personal Presence with His
prophet, and that this Presence is the verification
of God's vindication. Vindication simply means that God is on the scene and He is in control
and he is backing up the one he sent with a Message.
And
when it comes to the program of God, we have absolutely no say in how God is
going to do it. Or what will happen. All God requires from you and I is to get
ourselves out of the way and allow for God to work through His Own
channel which according to Amos 3:7 is always a prophet.
Now, we have already read this morning how
God exacted punishment from those who doubted His Word through Moses. In the
Book of Deuteronomy
18 that we already read, we saw God set forth an
order that has very strict consequences for those who will not adhere to it. He
said, I will require it from you. You
will pay for your unbelief. Notice the question came forth from God's own
mouth. He said, how will you know what is right and what is not
right? And then He tells us, the one
that is not right will not be vindicated. I will
not bring his words to pass, because they are not my words.
From his sermon Proof Of His Resurrection 136 brother Branham
said, "There
He stood, and made Himself known. He said, "If you can't believe Me, believe the works that
I do. They testify the Father sent Me."
He said, "And My education..." In other words, like this, "If My education doesn't satisfy your
longings, if My degree, which, I have none, but My degree, My diploma, is not
from your seminaries. My diploma is the works that I do, that the Father sent
Me. They are My diploma." That's the best diploma I know of. God, give
us more of those diplomas. "The works that I do are a vindication that the
Father sent Me. If that isn't sufficient, believe them then instead of Me.
And from his sermon Jesus Christ the Same 55-0603 15 brother
Branham said in his sermon Blind Bartimaeus 60-0713 24 "And in Praying for the sick, tonight as
we pray for the sick, the Lord may come to us and give the visions. And if He
does, remember the vision does not heal people. The vision is
only a vindication that the Word is right. How many knows what
the word "prophet" means? Sure
you do. A "prophet" means
"a
one that foretells or forth tells."
And it is a Divine sign from God that
this person that's speaking has the right interpretation of the Divine Word,
because the
Word of the Lord came unto the prophets.
And the prophet foretold and done those signs, which is a
vindication that he had the interpretation of the divine Word.
Notice
Jesus 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.
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32 There is another
that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of
me is true."
This tells us there will be a showdown.
God speaks of this showdown in Deuteronomy 13.
In Deuteronomy 13:1 we read, "If
there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass,
whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let
us go after other gods,
which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of
that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you,
to know whether ye love the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after
the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep
his commandments, and obey
his voice, and ye shall serve
him, and cleave unto him.
5 And that prophet,
or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to
turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way
which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil
away from the midst of thee.
And in Hebrews 2:1
The Apostle Paul tells us "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts
of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
In his sermon Sign of His Coming 62-0407 36 brother
Branham said, "A vindication of God's Word being true, God
bears record of His Word by His signs. God's Word is a Seed, and that Seed has to bring
forth of Its kind (Genesis 1:11), every seed of its
kind. And Jesus said that the Word of God was
a Seed that a sower sowed. So then, every promise in the Bible has to
produce its kind. Amen. 37 Now, the signs are a vindication of
the true Word. God in all ages has said that. Now, some of you
might want to take down some of these Scriptures. If you do, put Hebrews 2:4 there. You see
that God has vindicated, vindicated His messengers.
"God
in sundry times and divers manners,"
Hebrews starts out, "spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, in this last days
through His Son, Christ Jesus." See?
And seeing that, them had the Gospel preached to them way back long ago, and
had signs and wonders to vindicate
that; then how much more should we hold on after God with divers signs
and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost? Oh, divers of signs, the signs that
Jesus Christ showed that He was here on earth, Who He was, and what He was, and
the purpose He was here from.
Hebrews 1:1 God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath
in these last days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his
glory, (doxa) and the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of
his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high;
From His Sermon A GUIDE 62-1014E 41brother Branham
said, "It
was a vindication there, that there was a living God inside of Him.
What He testified, "It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father that
dwelleth in Me. Verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing in Himself, but
what He sees the Father doing, that doeth the Son likewise. The Father worketh,
and I worketh hitherto." In other words, God showed Him
what to do, and He went and just acted it out; He didn't do
anything until God told Him to do it. Amen. That's the real frank facts of it. If we'd just move and wait till the
Spirit moved us to do it... That's it. And then be so completely lost in Christ that He don't have to shove you
around like He does me, but the first little nod of His head, you're
ready and nothing's going to stop you, because you know that it's the will of
God.
And from his sermon Why Cry Speak
63-0714M 23-5 brother Branham said, "Now, Moses' great eye, his eagle eye looked
beyond the glamour of Egypt. The real Christian believer
today, no matter what the church says, what anybody else says, when that Light
strikes it, they see the very vindication of God, that Pillar of Fire hanging
there, and the signs and wonders that promised, the Scripture being laid in it,
it comes to Life. No matter how little it is and how many in the
minority; God's group has always been the minority. See?"
From his sermon Desperation 63-0901E 23 brother
Branham said,
"The
Token, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
is among us. We should reverence that.
We can't humble ourselves enough. Taking off your shoes or getting on your
knees wouldn't expel it, it wouldn't satisfy; it wouldn't suffice us, but a
life that brings forth the fruit of the Spirit... Now, what is the fruit of the
Spirit? See? Love, joy, peace... Remember this morning? Preparation, sent
the messenger with the message. Next thing He
done after He sent the messenger with the message, He sent the
Pillar of Fire for a vindication. Next thing was after that, was
consolation. See? You knew
that it was right; you was at peace.
We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. See?
And that is where we
should be today, our faith should be so focused on the promise of the hour,
what God said in His Word and spoke to us concerning that promise through his
vindicated vessel until we are just as confident in the promise as God's
prophet was.
From
the 20th
century Prophet Book we read,
" There are
always two men or two groups who demonstrate power, but one has a wrong source
of power. The spirit of Antichrist is here as well as the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Antichrist in Satan's
prophets is so close to the real and true Spirit of God that only the VERY
ELECT will escape the deception. Matthew 24:22-24 "And
except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the
elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you,
Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." These true elect ones take the Word. When these true Elect Ones see the prophet and his acts of power,
and see that he is right with the Word and never deviates, they know that he is
of God and receive him. All that prophet says and does leads them
closer to Him Who is coming soon. They look for no other vindication. This is
the vindication".
Now, we are told in the New testament
that God will once again send forth another prophet and those who do not hear
him will be cut off. God does not play games with us. He says what He means and
He means what He says.
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of
refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he
shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things,
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began. 22 For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,
like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul,
which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Notice
the requirement at the hands of an angry God, destruction. Destroyed from amongst the people.
This is exactly what we see in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9. This speaks of those who
are cut off from the presence of the Lord, and they will be left for the
burning.
2 Thessalonians 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10 When he shall come to be glorified in his
saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among
you was believed) in that day.
Obey the Voice of the Angel
50-0713 16 He's sent His Spirit to vindicate that His Presence is with His Church.
Lord Just Once More 63-0628A
189 The denominations will not take the a-vindication of the
Word.
Expectations 50-0405 16 Gifts
and callings are without repentance. There is spirits that's in the Church.
That's true, such as gifts of prophecy, healing, and so forth. But they're in
the entire body. They may fall upon one person tonight, a prophecy, and It
might not never fall on that person again; It might be somewhere else in the
body. And those spirits are supposed to be judged. "Let one speak and two or three judge,"
said Paul. Now, those are the spirits of the gifts that's in the Church. But the only person that has a right to say,
THUS SAITH THE LORD, is an a vindicated prophet.
You never seen anybody judging Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or those people. They were prophets,
foreordained and born in the world to be prophets. And they foresaw the thing
by a vision, and then said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," for the Lord had already said it. So
what the Church needs today, is a good old fashion teaching of the Gospel.
That's right. To know where they... I don't mean just educated teaching; I mean
spiritual teaching. Some
people speaks about God, and knows nothing of Him.
Hour is Come 51-0415E 13 And I pray that Your Spirit,
the Angel of God, Whose servant I am, may come tonight and vindicate His great Presence to be here and make it an
outstanding time, that the people may never fear no more; but to know that the
supernatural great God of Heaven is here among people, and is now working among
His children, that they may...
Indictment The 63-0707 37-1 And the Holy Ghost today is
not no third person; It's God Himself manifested in human flesh by the Blood of
Jesus Christ to sanctify a life that He might reflect Himself through. And they
crucify that same Word made manifest. You understand? The crucifixion of Christ today is the people who will deny the
vindicated and manifested Son of God among the people by His things that He
said would take place in this day by His Word. See? Now, the same vindication would have to be
the same if He's the same Son of God, 'cause He said in St. John 14:12
now, that, "The
works that I do shall you do also." Hebrews 13:8:
"He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever." "If ye abide in Me... (John 15) If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you,
just ask what you will, and it'll be given to you."
Yes, sir.
FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO SAINTS 53-1129A 70 But
we're not judged by fund--being how fundamental we are, how orthodox we are to
our belief. We're judged by God's election and a vindication.
Contending for the Faith 55-0220E 44
The Pharisees, very fundamental and orthodox, but failed to understand the
spiritual things, so they said He was a spiritualist, or a devil; that is a
spiritualist. See? 'Cause they'd seen the phenomenal, and they failed to
recognize it; because they were just lettered altogether: fundamental in
doctrine, but nothing in a vindication. Amen. I hope you see it.
Separation from Unbelief 55-0228 8 Well now, if you have never
seen It, here's a greater vindication of
it being the truth, just to look
at the picture of It. And it's not my picture, brother, sister, His
picture, isn't mine. And He's with
the church, not just with me; He's with all of every Christian, everywhere.
He knows It's Christ, same Pillar of Fire led the children of
It Becometh us to fulfill 61-1001 207
We're at the end road, the Laodicean church age; a message; the rejecting of the message; the
vindication of the message; and the Presence of Christ proving He's the
same, yesterday in the days of Lot, as in the days of His flesh, and in the
days of today: yesterday, today, and forever.
You Must Be Born Again
61-1231M 187 When you're borned
again, God vindicates you. That's
how God vindicates all of His nature. What? By their fruits. That's
the way He vindicates His ministry. That's right. All of His servants are vindicated the same way He vindicates
nature. How do you know it's a peach tree? 'Cause it bring peaches. How
do you know it's an apple tree? Bearing apples. How do you know it's a Christian? Christian signs bear from it;
Christian life comes out of it. How
do you know he's a teacher? The Word comes from him. How do you know he's a prophet? The Word
comes through him, bears record, vindication. It proves itself. How
does it become that? When it dies and becomes one. That's right. When we die
and become a new creature in Christ Jesus, it
gets us with our calling; we stay with our calling. The fruits of the
Spirit follow us when we are His servants. When we are born again, the
fruits of Christ's Life follows us. That's right. How do you
know it's a peach tree? It's got peaches. How
do you know he's a Christian? He acts like Christ; he walks like Christ; he
talks like Christ; he lives like Christ, above sin, victorious. What
does he do, say, "See what I done"? Christ didn't do that. He gave all praise to the Father.
That's right. That's how you know it. By
their fruits you shall know them. What must... "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot even understand
the Kingdom of God.”
IF GOD BE WITH US 61-1231E 108 How
can He be the same yesterday, today, and forever, and still Divine healing
gone? How can the power, how can... The Bible set in order, "First apostles, prophets teachers,
evangelists, pastors, for
a vindication that the Gospel still lives."
And God sends them right among us, and we turn our back on it. God doesn't
fail, it's the people's failed. "Where
is the miracles then among us? Where are they at?"
All Things 1124E 64
It's a vindication that He's here.
Oh, can't we come in sincerity now, after His Word, after His Presence? That's the very God that'll judge you on the
judgment day.
Oneness 62-0211 204
Look what happened. Why? The same God that separated and come to Abraham and
showed him the vindication of his separation... Hm. O God. How I wish I could
just could do something to let you see it. God showed Abraham, being that he
had separated himself, He showed him the a-vindication of it, that He was with him and right in his midst.
And Jesus said the same thing will
take place in the last days. Not a nation was Abraham; he was in the minority;
but God was with him. He'd separated him then. We're supposed to separate
ourselves in this last days.
Let us pray...