God’s Only Provided Place of Worship # 58

Brian Kocourek, June 21, 1995

Nimrod the Renegade

Sunday we focused our attention on Paragraph 202 where brother Branham said, " nothing in the Bible types the denominations but Babylon. And Babylon was founded by Nimrod, and Nimrod was a renegade. and we found that according to Webster a renegade is a person who abandons his religion for another. In other words they are traitors and turn coats. And we are warned in the bible that in the last days there will be a spirit on the people that they also will be traitors.

Amplified But understand this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble - hard to deal with and hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self and utterly self centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate greedy desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters, "they will be abusive, blasphemious & scoffers, disobedient to parents and ungrateful, unholy and profane. They will be without natural human affection, callous and inhuman, relentless - admitting of no truce or appeasement. They will be slanderers - false accusers, trouble makers; intemperate and lose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and haters of good. They will be treacherous betrayers, rash and inflated with self conceit. They will be lovers of sensual pleasures and amusements more than and rather than lovers of God. For although they hold a form of piety, True religion, they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it, their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession. Avoid all such people - turn away from them. they will be more fond of pleasure than having an affection for God, and they will have a mere outward assemblance of piety toward God but deny the power of the same.

Now what I would like to again focus on is this thought that Brother Branham said about Nimrod. He said, Nimrod was a renegade. That means he was a traitor to what he knew to be right. And brother Branham also said that this is the condition of the church in the last days.

Now, that not only applies to the church nominal, but to churches who claim to be following brother Branham's Message as well. A few months back there was a convention in Vancouver, British Columbia where some of the so called big name ministers told the younger ministers that they should not focus on Doctirne as it is too devisive. Rather, they should speak on simpler subjects and develop other ministries such as music. That they needed to learn to be kinder and those sort of things. To me that is heresy.

Brother Branham said Christ is the Doctrine. And he also said, any church without doctrine is not a church at all.

So a church must have doctrine and that is what these men have turned away from.

2 Timothy 4: 1 - 4 They shall turn away from strong doctrine.

I ) So what then is Doctrine?

John 7: 14 - 18 It is instruction and teaching.

2 Timothy 3: 16

Titus 2: 1 - 15

Deut 3: 1- 2

Acts 2: 42 doctrine 1st.

II) What does doctrine do for you?

Brother Branham said in His message "ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH" Now we have to come to full doctrine.... Then he said, I like good old meetings where the people are shouting and having a good time and the power of God is moving , but wait until the showdown comes and you don't know where you are standing. That is why the doctrine is so important.

From ENTICING SPIRITS he said "We preach doctrine to keep the people lined up.'

From "3 KINDS OF BELIEVERS" he said, As long as he was healing the sick, everything was OK, but when he began to preach his doctrine, well...the doctrine is what separated the chaff from the wheat.

And finally he said, men who have the scriptures and know the teachings and doctrine but only know it by a mental conception rather than by revelation, that is the doctrine of Cain.

1 Timothy 4: 1 - 6 nourishes you

1 Timothy 4: 13 - 16 Saves you

Romans 6: 17 - 18 Sets you free

1 Corinthians 14: 6 it is to profit you

III ) Not just any doctrine will do. It must be God's own doctrine, His own teaching.

John 6: 44 - 45

2 John 9 - 10

Hebrews 13: 1- 9

Ephesians 4: 14

1 Timothy 1: 1 - 7

Romans 16: 17

Matthew 16: 6 - 12

2 Timothy 4: 1 - 4

IV) That is why it is so important to mark those who are preaching true doctrine and those who are not.

Martin Luther’s "BONDAGE OF THE WILL" PAGE 43 Erasmus vs Martin Luther's understanding of free will.

Erasmus was a humanist and contemporary of Martin Luther. He was considered the greatest intellect in Europe in his day. And yet listen to what he said in his article against Luther called "the Diatribe". "The churchman should be wise not to bother his head about problems of doctrinal definition, but to concern himself simply with guiding his life by the moral law of Christ." He sounds to me like so many of the ministers in this message. But that is only a humanist's thinking and not that of a Holy Ghost filled man.

On the other hand, Martin Luther's attitude was very different. To him, Christianity was a matter of doctrine first and foremost, because true religion was first and foremost a matter of faith ( which we know to be revelation); and Faith is correlative to Truth. In other words, it is dependent on Truth. Faith is trust in God through Jesus Christ as He stands revealed in the Gospel... Luther’s first concern as theologian and reformer was with doctrine. He said, " I am not concerned with the life, but with the doctrines. And he distinguished himself as different from the other reformers because they focused only on the evil of the pope's scandalous life while he focused on the evil of the popes doctrine. Luther felt Revelation is not a mere hit or miss rationalization but a definitive knowledge and understanding about the God we serve.

2 Timothy 3: 10

1 Timothy 5: 17

Titus 1: 6 - 11

Isaiah 28: 8 - 13

Matthew 7: 15 - 28

Luke 4: 31 - 32

Job 11: 1 =>.