God’s Only Provided Place of Worship # 93

Brian Kocourek, November 12, 1995

Every Jot and Tittle

Wednesday night we examined pp. 259 again where Brother Branham said, . Just don't put no leaven amongst It. Don't add any creed, any denomination, for it's polluted right there, your sacrifice is finished. And we focused our thoughts on what the last part of this sentence or thought where he said, for it's polluted right there, your sacrifice is finished. Now, I have to disagree with some of the punctuation that is used in the books of Brother Branham's sermons because I have found on a number of occasions when I am both listening to the Sermon and reading it, that Brother Branham will say things in such a way that the punctuation that he uses by an emphasis in his speaking is totally contrary to what is placed in the books. And as I listened to this Message I find Brother Brahman saying , Just don't put no leaven amongst It. Don't add any creed, any denomination, for it's polluted. ( Period) Then he says, Right there, your sacrifice is finished. And the reason I believe that the punctuation should have a period after polluted is because that finishes the thought of adding leaven and the next thing which he says is to add emphasis is where He says Right there your sacrifice is finished.

Now you may think that this is no big deal, and maybe in this case it isn't, but I have come across other places where the punctuation makes all the difference in how you read it and what thoughts you come away with after you have read it. That is why I believe so strongly in your listening to the tapes themselves and reading along with them. And that is why we have one of the best tape and book libraries in the Message, at least that I know of.

Remember that we found Jesus Himself warning us in [ Mark 4] to be careful How we hear, because with what Measure we use to meet it out, that is the measure that we will receive it back." In other words he warned us that we are all looking through some sort of filter and that we must be very careful of what filter we are looking through. We also found in [ John 8] Jesus arguing with the Pharisees about Godhead and telling them that His filter is God Himself because He only says what God has already told Him to say. And He tells the Pharisees that their filter is the Devil himself. He said, "I say what I have heard My Father say, and you do what you have seen with your father. This is why you seek to kill Me." Now we found the reason that punctuation is so important is because with wrong punctuation you can give a wrong impression or message. To punctuate the Word of God in a wrong fashion could give an opposite meaning. Let me explain...

All we have to do is turn to [ Malachi 4: 6 ] in order to make our point. " and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, (comma) and the hearts of the children to their fathers, (comma) lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now, in this verse of scripture we find that Malachi speaks of the coming of the Spirit of Elijah and with this coming he is to do something. If we read it without a comma then he does two things with one coming. But with the comma separating the two things here, we actually make a distinction between the two. At one coming he will turn the heats of the fathers to the children. Then at another coming of the spirit of Elijah, he turns the hearts of the children to the fathers. So we see that even a punctuation mark out of place ( a jot or a tittle) can place a whole different meaning from what the intent of the Message is to be. Those who would dispute this example from [Malachi 4] are those who do not understand the doctrine and therefore, to them it is no big deal. But to those who do understand the doctrine, the punctuation is and must be perfect because God says what He means and He means what He says.

We know that the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children was through John the Baptists ministry turning the Faith of the Fathers to Christ as newborn children being born again, and the turning of the hearts of the children to the fathers took place in this day through the ministry of the end-time Elijah Prophet; William Marrian Branham's Message. Two thousand years separated by a comma. Another illustration showing the importance of punctuation can be found in the fourth chapter of Luke.

[Luke 4:14 - 21] And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Now to again illustrate my point here, we see Jesus reading from the Book of Isaiah and he closes by reading, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord and then He closes the Book and sits down and says, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Now if we examine this scripture that He was reading from we find that Jesus did not read it all. He actually stopped short at a (comma). And He did not read further. And we ask ourselves why? In order to understand why, let's turn tot he book of Isaiah and read.

[Isaiah 61:1 - 2] The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; Now in the Book of Luke, why did Jesus stop reading at "the acceptable year of the Lord", and why did He not continue with reading "and the day of vengeance of our God? The answer is because He stopped at the acceptable year of our Lord and He then said, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears letting us know that there is a difference between the two events. The first coming was the acceptable year of our Lord, and the Parousia of Christ and His Second Coming is the day of Vengeance of our God as we see in ...

[II Thessalonians 1:7 - 12] And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, etc. So what we see here in [Luke chapter 4] is that a comma actually separated two thousand years and two major events.

So we see the importance of punctuation. Be careful how you hear. Because the filter you use to hear will also determine what you hear. Paul said in [ 2 Corinthians 11: 1 - 4] Would to God ye could bear with me a little in [my] folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, you put up with it easily enough. Notice Paul was worried about the people because they did not take seriously enough every Word of God. They got slack with it and they began to leave off from the Word and we see that when they became slack then men were able to enter in among them and actually turn them away from the Truth and toward fables as we see in

[2 Timothy 4: 4- 8] 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; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

So we see that even before the first Church age was completed, the people had already began to fall for ministers who were bringing to them another Jesus. A different Jesus than the One Paul had brought to them. And we find that this brings with it another Gospel and another Spirit. And we know this word another is a Greek word, Heteros which means, one of a different nature. And since we are told in [ 2 Peter 1: 3 - 4 ] that the Word of God gives us all that pertains to Life and we even receive God's own nature through His Word because He said, " My Words are Spirit and they are Life." And so we see that we receive the very Nature off God by receiving the Life of God that is released from His Word through Revelation of the Word. And then, if we hear and receive a Word which is different in nature from the One He has Truly given to us, then we will receive a different Nature than the One that is in His True Word. And what other nature could that be than one that is perverted.

Let me put it to you this way. We know by Genetics that a human will not mate with a dog, or a cat etc. So when man comes together with woman, He gives her his seed that quickens the seed germ already dormant in her. And through the bedding ground of Marriage comes forth children in the image of their parents. Like seed with like seed as we see in [Genesis 1: 11] where every seed is to bring forth after it's kind which means after it's own nature. Now, we also have heard from Brother Branham who spoke to us under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and God personally vindicated what He said to be "Thus Saith the Lord" and he said that "when Word is piled on top of Word it will take a hold of every fiber of our body." He said,

335 Trying to do God a Service -- SHP.LA -- V-7 N-2 -- 65-1127.1M

And if you were ordained from the beginning of the earth to that Word, every Word will come right on top of the Word. Like a human cell will not have one human cell, and the next the cell of a dog, and the next the cell of a cat; it'll be human cells. But it's got to have a cell first to start with. Is that right? say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Well, if it is the Word cell to start with, the other Word cells are ordained to make it a full body.

91 The Rapture -- YUMA.AZ -- V-5 N-14 -- 65-1204 When a germ comes into the womb of the female, it don't take on... You--you didn't become a human germ from your father, and then the next thing you become a germ from a dog, and the next thing from a cat, and the next thing from a chicken; it was all human germ. And the Body of Jesus Christ, the Bride, will be part of His Body which will... He was the Word, and the Bride will have to be the Word, Word added to Word added to Word. Luther's Justification, Wesley's Sanctification, Pentecostal's Baptism with the Holy Spirit, restoration of the gifts, and all the rest of it goes with it. It's got to be Word on top of Word, germ on top of germ, life on top of life, to bring out the full statue of the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.

78 Modern events made clear by Prophecy - SBD.CA - V-7 N-6 - 65-1206

When a baby is conceived in the womb of a mother, when that one cell goes in there, another cell builds on top of that. It's not one cell of a human, the next of a dog, and the next of a cat, and the next of something else; it's absolutely, straightly, human being. And when a man is borned of the Spirit of God, he don't inject anything into his life, It's unadulterated Word of God vindicated for that hour. He takes the full Word of God, he don't put no creeds, nothing else into It. It's purely unadulterated, God's Word made manifest among us.

55 Events made clear by Prophecy -- JEFF.IN -- V-12 N-3 -- 65-0801.2E

God does His Own choosing, by predestination, chose the prophets for every age. Notice it. He fixes the nature of that prophet to fit that age. See, He fits his style, whatever he does. He fits him whether he's educated or not educated. He fits the gifts, the manner that he will preach in, the gifts he will have. And the Message for that certain age, God's predestinated that certain thing to happen and there's not another thing can take its place. Don't care what it is, how many man-made achievements, nothing can take its place. He predestinated the man maybe an ignorant man, He might have predestinated Him another kind of a man. Whatever he is, He gives him his class, his--his gifts, give him his nature, his style, and whatever it is, how he expresses himself, and whatever he does. He makes the man of the hour to catch the people of the hour. Right. He does it.

[Galatians 1: 6 - 7] Paul said, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Notice Paul is telling them that the Message was changed or perverted and in this perversion, it became another or a different gospel in it's nature. The word pervert here is a Greek word, [ metastrepho] which means, to transform into something of an opposite character.

Now remember, Jesus said, "My Words are Spirit and they are Life"....and we also see in [2 Peter 1: 3-4] that every thing we need pertaining to Life comes forth from the Word and in fact the very Divine Nature or God Nature that we so long for comes forth as well from the Word which we know is the Seed that the Sower went forth sowing. So then, if in fact we receive a Word which has been altered by even something as seemingly insignificant as a wrong punctuation mark, then if the Word of God is a carrier of God's Spirit and His Life and Nature, then a wrong word will bring forth a wrong Spirit and therefore a wrong life and a wrong nature. So if we willingly receive a false word, then we are willingly receiving a wrong spirit, or a false spirit or shall we say a false anointing. Now, let me repeat this so you will understand more clearly. Correct Word, God's Word, contains God's Spirit, God-Life and God-Nature. Then altered word contains altered understanding which brings forth altered anointing, which is altered Spirit which is altered Life which brings forth altered Nature. Now there you have it in a nutshell. This is how people pick up a false spirit and they do not even know it.

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The Lutherans, under justification, the feet, raised it like that; Wesley, under sanctification. The Pentecostals under the arms, the works and deeds and so forth, had to be Calvinists... or had to be Armenian, had to be legalists. But now we come to the head, the capstone. "Grace! Grace!" the capstone cried. 263 The headstone crying what? "Grace! Grace!" Passed from death and creed, into a living Word of the living God. God's only provided plan for His age, His sons in the Word age quickened by the Spirit like a spark that's lit off of something to make it alive; Now what could be so great as to cause us to be lit off? What would you say is the greatest Revelation coming forth from the Word of God in this hour? From the Church age book, page 332 we find Brother Branham tell us, "The New Testament does not reveal another God, It is a further revelation of the One and same God. Christ did not come down to make Himself known. He did not come to reveal the Son. He came to reveal and make known the Father. He never talked about Two God's; He talked about One God. And now in this age, we have come back to the capstone Revelation, the most important revelation of the Godhead in the whole Bible." And so if the Revelation of the God-head is the capstone Revelation and is the most important revelation in the whole Bible, then as we have been saying all morning, in [2 Peter 1: 3 - 4] we are told that every thing we have need of pertaining to life and Divine nature comes forth from the Word, and not just the Word but the Knowledge of God which we receive from the Word. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power ( which according to Romans 1: 16 is the Word of God) hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:( Again Word) that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,"

In [John 17: 3] Jesus Himself tells us what the evidence of Eternal Life is. He says, [ Weymouth] "And this is Life Eternal, that they might know Thee the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent. And notice verse 8 "And now, Father, glorify Me in Thine Own Presence, with the Glory that I had in Thy Presence before the world existed. I have revealed Thy perfections to men whom Thou gavest to me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they obeyed Thy Message. Now they know that whatsoever Thou hast given Me is from Thee. For the Truths which Thou didst teach Me I have taught them, and have known for certain that I came out from Thy Presence, and have believed that You sent me.