Follow Me #10
(The Bible is Jesus Life
in Letter Form)
Sunday Morning
Rev Brian Kocourek
II Timothy 3:16
All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: Let’s bow our heads in a word of Prayer.
This morning I would like to
continue with the message Follow Me which is also called Leadership, and I
would like to read from paragraph number 90. Follow me See what this handsome little
man said this afternoon? When you get out of school, when you get away from,
you need another leader, but let that be
Jesus. And Jesus is the Bible.
Do you believe that? This is Jesus' Life
and His commandments to us in letter form. So we have to look into This to see. This is
the blueprint. This is the map that
He told us to follow to begin Eternal Life.
Now, I would like to break this
thought down into three individual points that He is making here.
#1) He said, Jesus is the Bible.
#2) He said, This bible is Jesus' Life and His commandments to us in
letter form.
#3) He said, . This Bible is the blueprint. This
Bible is the map that He told us to follow to begin
Eternal Life.
Now to begin with let’s look at
point #1). #1) He said,
Jesus is the Bible. Now, what do you suppose brother Branham means when he says, Jesus
is the Bible. Do you think perhaps he is speaking of the paper and ink?
The physical elements that make this Bible? Now some
people might actually believe that. The Catholic church
teaches that when the priest blesses the communion a miracle takes place and
the wafer actually turns into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. This
is what they call transubstantiation. They take literally what Jesus said when
He took the bread and broke it and said this is my body which has been broken
for you, but they don’t continue to read on where He said, do this in
remembrance of me.
Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake
[it], and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this
do in remembrance of me. Now, these are the Words of Jesus Himself. But
let’s see what Paul says as well.
I Corinthians
Then if the shedding of Jesus Blood
was to bring in a New Covenant or New Testament, then what was the old
Covenant. We find our answer in the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very
image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by
year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 10:2 For then would they
not have ceased to be offered? because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 10:3 But in those [sacrifices there is] a remembrance again [made] of sins
every year. 10:4 For [it is] not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins. 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me: 10:6 In burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin
thou hast had no pleasure. 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of
me,) to do thy will, O God. 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and
[offering] for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure [therein]; which
are offered by the law; 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Follow Me #10 (The Bible is Jesus Life in Letter Form)
10:12 But
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the
right hand of God; 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
[Hebrews 10:14] For by one offering he hath perfected for
ever them that are sanctified. 10:15 [Whereof] the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had
said before, 10:16
This [is] the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 10:17 And their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more.
Therefore when we take the communion
bread which has been broken we are to think of the bread of Life which came
down and was broken for us. But they take literally part of the Word which when
placed by itself does not give you the complete understanding, and thereby they
continue to offer a sacrifice of the body of the Son of God each and every time
they have church service which they call a mass. Each time they meet together
they take communion and each and every mass that is performed they believe the
priest is able by some magical power that he received when he is ordained, to
take the bread and wine and to physically change it into the literal body and
blood of Jesus Christ. Now, that would be cannibalism if it were possible. But
it is nothing but superstition at best. There is no scripture for it. Martin
Luther was shocked when he saw a couple of mice carrying away the holy wafer
and it was then that He realized that that wafer could no more be the actual
body of Jesus Christ because God would not let a rodent eat the body of His
Son.
Now, I don’t mean to point out the
things that the Catholics believe which we do not hold to because they started
out right but just as every other denomination did, they began with a
Scriptural truth and when they put a period to what they believed, they stopped
right there and God continued to move right on. Today the Pentecostal church is
much further away from the Truth than the Catholic church
because they have had the most light and they turned it down.
Now, then in getting back to what
Brother Branham said, Jesus is the Bible, we have to ask ourselves what he meant
by that statement. I believe we find his clarification in the next few words he
said, This bible is
Jesus' Life and His commandments to us in letter form.
In other words, Jesus Himself said
in
Therefore the Life that is in the
Word comes forth from the Father and then into the Son. That is why Jesus said
in [John 5:19 & 5:30] the
following: John 5:18 Therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the
sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with
God. 19 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. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth [them]; even so the Son
quickeneth whom he will.
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
Now, here then we see
that the life and inspiration behind what Jesus said and did was from His
Father, God. therefore the Life was God Life that was
being expressed..
[John 1:1-4] Notice the Scripture speaks of Life being
with Him and in Him. It tells us that He is the Word. Therefore the Word is a
carrier of Life, God Life. Jesus also told us the Word of God is a seed which
the sower planted. In [Luke
Follow Me #10 (The Bible is Jesus Life in Letter Form)
We find this also in [1 Peter
Now, in getting back to what Brother
Branham was telling us here, he said, Jesus is the Bible. Do you believe that? This Bible is Jesus' Life and His commandments to us in letter form.
well, some would have you believe that the Bible
is just a history of the Church. That is completely erroneous. It may be a
history, but that only means that it is HIS STORY. And if it is HIS STORY, then it must tell us
everything we need to know about Him in order to know Him. After all, the Bible
tells us, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is He and out from the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh.” Then if this is so, then the Word of God
is the testimony of God and the expression of God as well. It’s HIS STORY after
all.
Now this brings us to the third
point that we will look at this morning, and that is this... #3) He said, . This
Bible is the blueprint. This Bible is the map that He told us to
follow to begin Eternal Life. Now,
we all know that a blueprint is a pattern, right? And just like in building a
house, we must have a foundation first, and after all a foundation is the blue
print of the shape of the building. You can not have a rectangle foundation if
the house is to be build in a square shape. The house
must sit squarely upon it’s foundation, and therefore
whatever shape the foundation is that is what the house shape will have to be.
Therefore a foundation is the basis for any building. And you must follow the
foundation in order to build.
Even Paul said, in I Corinthians
Therefore if Jesus Christ the Word
is our foundation, and our pattern, if Jesus Christ the Word is our blueprint,
and our Map, then every thing we live for and expect out of Life must come
forth from this Word. It then is our absolute.
Remember, in [2 Peter 2: 3]
we are told that everything we have need of in this life comes forth from the
Word of God, even the divine Nature we long to receive. His divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Now, before we close out this
thought I want to strike home a major point here. If God has told us that His
divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life.. then that means
everything. you can not have a close knit family
without having a Christ centered family. You can not have a truly lasting
marriage without having a Christ centered marriage. And what is a Christ
centered marriage? What is a Christ centered family? It is one that is Word of
God centered. For in the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In the Book of
Ecclesiastes we read, 4:9 Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.
Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them,
Have ye not read, that he which made [them] at the beginning made them male and
female, 19:5 And
said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to
his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And
this is the key right here. Did God put together the marriage or not. If God
put it together it will last, but if He did not then how can you expect it to
last. That is why I will not marry a believer to an unbeliever. God told us not
to yoke ourselves together with unbelief. He also said, how can two walk together unless
they agree..
Follow Me #10 (The Bible is Jesus Life in Letter Form)
Therefore, unless you marry a
believer your on your own. I’ve seen to
many marriages fall apart because God never put the couple together in the
first place. Then you ask, what put those couples together? The answer is
LUST. Too many kids just want to hop in
the sack and can’t wait for the right one to come along. One girl was asked why she was waiting so
long for Mr. Right to come along and she said, I would
rather be lonely then miserable.
A pastor one day was walking down
the street and he came upon a woman who was very irreligious but whose husband
was a true believer and who sought to have a peaceful and closer relationship
with his Lord. The Pastor addressed the woman and said, “Madam, I think your
husband is looking upwards
and he is making quite an effort to rise above the world towards
God and heaven. You must not let him try alone. When ever I see a husband
struggling alone in such efforts, I picture in my mind a dove that is endeavoring
to fly upwards while it has one broken wing. It leaps and flutters, and perhaps
it rises a little way; but then it becomes wearied, and drops back again to the
ground. But when both wings cooperate, it can easily find it’s
way upward towards the heavens.
Years ago the reverend Robert Newton
celebrated his golden anniversary with his wife and told the people assembled that he and his wife had never
had even an unkind word of an unkind look at each other in those 50 years. When
he was asked how they could accomplish such a wonderful thing, he replied, From the day we married, we would both retire twice each day
to pray for the other and we have kept up this practice for 5o years.
You’ve all heard,
I’m sure the old expression, “the family that prays together, stays
together.” Well,
this is true. Now, I don’t say that I have been the worlds best example but this is what I believe and I try to
practice in my own home. The scripture tells us as parents not to provoke our
children to anger. The scripture in my home is our absolute. As the head of my
home I have the final say. But, if I am wrong in what I say or do by the Word
of God, and my children or wife point this out to me, I quickly repent and ask
their forgiveness. If my wife is wrong or my children are wrong, I do not tell
them they are because it is my opinion. I tell them or try to show them by the
Word and if I can do this then it is not me but God’s Word that has the final
say. If we would do al as unto the Lord, then when any of us side steps God’s
Word, it is the Word which will correct the error.
If you want a very
close family then pray together and talk this word together, and use the
Word as your guide and your absolute in running your home. The last thing my
children want to hear is for me to tell them to do something and when they ask
me why, I tell them, because it’s my house that’s why, of because I want it
that way. We have got to get away from that type of thinking. We need to have
Christ centered thinking. Children obey your parents for this is the first commandment
with a promise.
Brother Branham said, This Bible is the blueprint. This
Bible is the map that He told us to follow to begin
Eternal Life. Notice, he said, This Bible is the map that He told us to
follow to begin Eternal Life. We
have within us the power right now, to begin Eternal Life. Just think of that. Eternal Life. That means a life that will live on forever.
This life that has made so many mistakes, this life that has known so much
unbelief and sin. This life that has had so many ups and
downs. To begin to walk aright, and to walk anew, into
immortality. What a privilege.
Finally in closing, Spurgeon once
said, “As sure as God is God, if you seek Him in right wiseness, Through
Christ The Word, the day shall come when the kiss of
full assurance shall be on your lips. You may have despised Him at One Time in
your life, But thou shalt know Him yet to be thy
Father and the friend. Yes, marvel not: thou mayest have plunged into the kennel
of sin, and made thy clothes black with iniquity: but thou shalt one day stand
before Hi throne white as the angels be; and that tongue tha once cursed Him
shall yet sing His praises. If thou be a real seeker, the hands that have been
starined with lust shall one day grasp theharp of gold, the head that has plotted against
the Most High shall yet be girt with gold. strange though
it seems, it shall be strangely true.
10:21- 26 And [having] an high priest over the house
of God; 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water.