God’s Only Provided Place of Worship # 99

Brian Kocourek, December 6, 1995

No Leaven Among You

Tonight, we will proceed with our study of God’s Only Provided Place of Worship, this is number 99 in our study and we will pick up at paragraph 264, and I want you to notice how very carefully brother Branham chooses his words.

In [PP. 264] He begins by saying, "No leaven among you, that brings the entire fullness of the Godhead bodily among you." (Now, I want you to carefully hear this again. He said ) "among you" not in you. "No leaven among you, that brings the entire fullness of the Godhead bodily among you. (Now I also want you to notice that he said, "That brings the entire Fullness of the Godhead BODILY among you). Notice, (BODILY among you!, then He qualifies that as we read on. "Couldn't do it in Luther's age, couldn't do it in Wesley's age, couldn't do it in the Pentecostal age; but in the day when the Son of man will be manifested, revealed, brought back the Church together with the entire Deity of God amongst His people, showing the same visible signs, manifesting Himself like He did at the beginning when He was manifested on earth (So then we must ask ourselves the question, How did He manifest Himself to us on earth?) And Brother Branham answers in his next breath... "in a form of a Prophet-God. Oh! Glory! Promised by Malachi 4, promised by the rest of the Scriptures. Where you worship at? The house of God, seated (in present tense"

Now what we have here is a tremendous statement from Brother Branham in reference to Godhead, and what God is doing in this hour. In other words, vindication which only comes in the form of His Presence among us. But what we have here also, is a statement that is being used by many who do not understand Godhead, and therefore they do not understand this (vindication or presence) which is what God is doing here in this hour.

Now notice, he said, "the Church together with the entire Deity of God amongst His people, showing the same visible signs, manifesting Himself like He did at the beginning when He was manifested on earth." I believe this is quite clear if we in any way or fashion understand the English Language. He does not say that God is manifesting Himself in the Bride, but that He is in her midst showing Himself or revealing Himself through manifestation. This is the same thing that Jesus said to the Pharisees in Luke chapter 17.

[Luke 17: 20 - 24] And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: ( You won't be able to visibly see it coming) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Now before we read any further I want to point out that this word within does not mean within as if the Kingdom of God could somehow be in those Christ rejecting Pharisees. But this word within is a Greek word entos which means "in the midst of ", Which also ties in beautifully to the rest of what Jesus says here as we continue to read through verse 24..) "And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see [it]. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there:( now notice the warning Jesus gives) go not after [them], nor follow [them].( and who is the them that he is speaking of? It is those who are looking for visible manifestation of the Kingdom!) For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one [part] under heaven, shineth unto the other [part] under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. ( and how is that? It is a universal thing that takes place. An illumination, that lightens up every thing. ) So be very careful about these sort of men that want some visible, physical evidence to cling to.

And so because of this misunderstanding of Godhead they misapply vindication and Presence of God and therefore they have to come up with their own ideas as to what Brother Branham is saying here. And for the next few sermons we shall examine just what it is that they have concocted in their own minds. And so, if these men concoct their own ideas, they then are deviating from the truth of the Scripture.

And so, to begin, we must first of all establish that the scriptures warns us that at the end-time these things will in reality happen, and that there will be those who deviate from the Truth. In fact it tells us that they will fall away, and actually separate themselves from the Truth and thus they will once again Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open and public shame and disgrace.

[ 1 Timothy 4: 1] Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from The Faith, ( and according to [Ephesians 4: 5] there is only One Lord and One Faith, and since Brother Branham taught us that Faith is Revelation, and since there is Only One Lord, then this One Revelation is the Revelation of that One Lord, which is the only Revelation spoken of in the Scripture, and that is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." And so [ 1 Timothy 4: 1 ] Continues by saying that those who will depart from this Revelation of Jesus Christ do so by "giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils: In fact we read in [Hebrews 6], that these people who fall away or deviate from the Truth were among those who were Once for all enlightened {Wuest} which we know there is no other age where this could happen except at the end-time according to [Revelation 10] , [Malachi 4], [Acts 3: 19- 23] , [2 Thessalonians 1: 10], [Joel 2:25] and as so many other scriptures that point out that this restoration of the Word or Once for all enlightenment will take place at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. .

So we se then the real deviation that will take place in the end-time comes from whose who will deviate from this "Revelation of Jesus Christ." In other words, they will deviate from the True understanding of the Godhead. Now, in order to understand by what means this will take place, we must understand the principle of Alpha and Omega. In other words, that which took place in the first age must repeat again in the last age. In fact, this is the first and most important principle we must know if we are to understand the scriptures. In fact, in [Colossians 2: 17], [Hebrews 8:5], and [Hebrews 10: 1] we read that the law was a shadow of things to come. And we know a shadow is not the object itself, but gives us an outline or basic understanding of what the real object is. In the Book of Revelations chapter 1, Jesus Said, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the First and the Last." He never said anything in between, just the beginning and the end, The first and the last, so we can then with confidence know that His ministry to the first age and His Ministry to the last Age must be identical. And it is with this in mind that we can look upon the first age and understand what happened and then we shall know what shall take place in the last days.

Now then we must ask, what happened to the first church age? We find our answer in [Revelations 2: 4] after Jesus had praised the people of that hour for their labor and Love, and patience and for their stand against those who were false Apostles, And all of this because of their Love for His Name sake, He then lands a rebuke to them for leaving their first love. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." So what we see here is the first Love that they began to leave is the Love for His namesake. And the name is used for to represent everything that the name covers. In other words, the Godhead. They began to leave the understanding of the Godhead which is what lit their fires to begin with. And with the understanding of Godhead being left aside other things began to creep in and take over in their lives. From the [Church Age Book pg. 88 - 89] we read, "The Fervent desire to please God, the passion to know His word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to fade and instead of that church being on fire with the Fire of God it has cooled off and has become formal. That is what was happening back there in Ephesus. That is the history of the church. When it thinks more of conforming to the world instead of conforming to God, it isn't long until you see them stop doing things they used to do, and start doing things they wouldn't initially do. They change their manner of dress, their attitudes, and their behavior. They get lax. Ephesus means relaxed and drifting."

In fact, if we go back to the first Exodus, (the first time the Pillar of Fire came down and dwelt in the midst of the people), we find that God gave the people ten commandments of which; if they would take heed, they would prosper in the land of Promise He was giving to them.. And we find in the first two of these commandments were the most important of all, for without these destruction was promised to come.

[ Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 15] Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do [them] in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do [it]; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: ( Now, I want to stop here and just emphasize this first commandment, Godhead, God is One Lord! And notice what the second most important commandment is? ) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good [things], which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; [Then] beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which [are] round about you; (For the LORD thy God [is] a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth

Sound like the time when Elijah is to come according to [Malachi 4: 5 ] Doesn't it? "Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord: And if I don't do this, then, I will have to destroy it and smite it with a curse." And again in [ Acts 3: 23] When we are reminded that God will send that prophet, we are told, " And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which shall not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Again, we see this same warning come through Paul's ministry on e this Prophet that will come and be backed up by God's very Presence with a Message, and yet the people will not listen. [Acts 13: 41] Behold, Ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I will work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it to you." And so we see that God Himself will indeed do a work among the people and there will be a man to declare it to them, which means to explain it to them, and they will not believe it anyway. In [Hebrews 12: 25] we also read, see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that Spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven."

And Who is this Elijah that will speak to the people through a man. Brother Branham said "the Elijah of this day is the Lord Jesus Christ but it will come through a Prophet." And Who is it that is to speak from Heaven? [ 1 Thessalonians 4: 16] Tells us, For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout..." Which by Vindication we know is a Message. And what is that Message? It is the same Message Elijah came with. Brother Branham said, "My ministry is to declare Him that He is here!" So we see the Message is the declaration of the One Who is Here. Not only that He is here, but the Declaration of that One that is here! Isn't this the very same thing Elijah declared to the prophets of Baal when they were declaring a multitude of gods, Elijah with stood them all and then he declared; "Behold o Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord? And the Presence of God stood there to vindicate His message was the right message.

I hope and trust by now you can see what is to take place again in this hour. The people are to receive a ministry of Elijah which is nothing other than the Spirit of God with a message declaring through a man the correct understanding of Godhead, or shall we say "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." And just as in the days of Elijah, the same as in the Alpha ministry of Jesus Christ, the people will reject it. In [ John 10: 30 - 33] we see Jesus declaring This Revelation of Godhead, That their is One God and He has a Son, and because of this the Jews wanted to do away with Him. " I and my Father are One. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works (Vindication) My Father showed you through me, for which act of vindication do you stone me, and the Jews answered Him, saying, for a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, maketh Thyself God. And if you follow this through you will find Jesus say, "Because I say I am the Son of God does this make me God in your eyes? There you have it. Alpha has repeated in Omega.

Now, what happened in the days of Elijah as you are all aware, the false priests took over and shoved out the true priests. Then they brought in with them their false system of worship. So too in Paul's day we see this happening as well. In {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. In order to know whom they were removed from ,we must know who it is that called them. And in [Galatians 1: 15] Paul said he was called by God. In fact when he was on his road to Damascus, he was struck off his horse by a great light. And then a voice spoke out from that light and when Paul answered the Voice, he said, "Who art Thou Lord.!" And remember, this is the man who said there is One Lord. And the reply that came to Him was, "I am Jesus Whom thou persecuteth." So we see right here, that Paul received a quick lesson in Godhead. Not that Jesus the Son is God, But God was talking to Paul out from the Pillar of Fire and Paul being a scholar of their law recognized this to be the same One Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and he rightfully addressed Him as Lord. But what came back to Paul was that this same God is not only the God of Jesus but is the Father of Jesus having the same name. And in fact had been in Jesus doing the mighty works of vindication.

Now, in [ Galatians 1] Paul let's us know that it is this One that the people have left. And he tells us how it is that they came to leave Him. Because of men preaching another Gospel which is not altogether another, but a Gospel whose nature has been changed and thus perverted. A perverted Gospel. And it was brought in by men who professed to be believers as we see in [ Galatians 2: 4 ] as well as [2 Peter 2].

In [ 2 Corinthians 11: 12-5] <read> we see Paul speak of these super fine Apostles who bring in a Doctrine declaring a different Jesus than the One Paul had been preaching, but in doing so they utilize the same scriptures but put their own twist to them in order to be able to make them say what they want said, and thus a spirit of a different sort of nature is brought forth as well.

Again in [2 Peter 2: 1 - 3] <read> We see it is these same type of men who come in to feast with you on the Living Word of God who are the same one's who bring in alongside of True doctrine, heresies that are called destructive. And what Doctrine taught wrong will bring forth destruction? Godhead, as we saw in Deuteronomy, Malachi and Acts as well as various other scriptures. Then in [2 Peter 2: 1] we are told that these men through their destructive doctrine even deny the Lord that bought them. And we know Jesus was the price paid, but He is not the One who bought us. The Father bought us using the blood of His Only Begotten Son as the Price for the payment of our sin. Jesus was the purchased Price, but God is the One Who paid the debt. And it is this One, The Lord Who is rejected, thus bringing on destruction as God has promised. Now, I hope by this you can see the importance of understanding and worshipping God correctly. Malachi said, the Purpose of Elijah coming was to prevent destruction for all. So there will be a group who will heed the message of One God and He had a Son. All others will take up other doctrine that will bring on destruction.