The Masterpiece 111
That Controlling Religious spirit
February 18th, 2007
Brian Kocourek
THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 207 If you
don't know Him, please hurry, hurry. If you feel Life, get out of your sin, get
out of the thing that you're in, get to the Grain
right quick. You'll die in the stalk or in the husk. Pray, while we sing now. I love Him.
It's up to you now. We have no denomination, no nothing; we
only have Christ. You're welcome to
worship with us till He comes. We
can't put your name on a book; we have no books. We want your name in the Book of Life. You can only do that through birth. Won't you do it right now? Ask
Christ for new life, bring you in, put your name on
His Book if it's not. Then you can fellowship with us. We'd love to have you. I love Him...
Now, this paragraph 207 which is part of brother
Branham’s closing thoughts, speaks of not belonging to any denomination or
having any church roster or church membership book with your name on it. In
other words, he is saying that we have no official church roster or records of
membership. I know that may not sit well with many churches, especially those
that are organized, but let’s look at the Scriptures this morning to see just
why we are not to have an official membership list in our churches.
Too many times in the history of the church people
placed more value on their church membership than they placed on the Truth of
God’s Word.
We even find this same organizational spirit
controlled the people by fear back in the days when Jesus walked the
John 9:1 And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And
his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents,
that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the
works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. 6 When he had
thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he
anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by
interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. 8 The neighbors therefore, and they which before had
seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that
sat and begged? 9 Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but
he said, I am he. 10 Therefore
said they unto him, How were thine
eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, A man that is
called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the
pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I
know not. 13 They
brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14 And it
was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and
opened his eyes. 15 Then again the Pharisees also asked
him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine
eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16 Therefore said some of the
Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth
not the sabbath day. Others said, How
can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They
say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of
him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been
blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had
received his sight. 19 And they asked them,
saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how
then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them
and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21 But by what means he now seeth, we
know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he
shall speak for himself. 22 These words spake
his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already,
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore said
his parents, He is of age; ask him.
Now, let’s stop here for
a moment and look at what has just taken place. Here we see two parents that were
not even permitted to enjoy the miracle that God had just performed on their
son who had been blind his entire life, and suddenly can see for the first
time. What caused this fear that was placed upon these parents? Stupid Jealousy
by those religious leaders that were jealous of what Jesus was doing and
saying. And what did they do s a result of this jealousy? They used the power of
the pulpit to hold down the people, and keep them from seeking further light.
They held down the people
by causing them to fear being expelled from the church for seeking out greater
truth than what they wanted them to know and understanding.
And isn’t that same
devil still controlling the churches today? Claiming to believe the Prophet of
the hour and yet forbidding the people they shepherd to examine the Doctrine
that William Branham taught concerning the Presence of Christ and the
relationship between the Father and His Son because it isn’t endorsed in their
camp.
Now, I like the guts
that this young man showed to these Christ Rejecting Pharisees. He wasn’t going
to down play what had just taken place in his life for nothing. Let’s read it.
24. Then
again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this
man is a sinner. 25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no,
I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
26 Then said they to him again, What did he
to thee? how opened he thine
eyes? 27 He
answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye
hear it again? will ye
also be his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, and
said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. 29 We
know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we
know not from whence he is. 30 The man answered and said
unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye
know not from whence he is, and yet he hath
opened mine eyes. 31Now we know that God heareth
not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened
the eyes of one that was born blind. 33 If this man were
not of God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered and said unto
him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou
teach us? And they cast him out.
Oh, how that devil
doesn’t like to be given back scripture. He hates to be taught. He hates to be
shown up by he Word of God. But I love this man’s
attitude. He saw what had just happened to his parents and how they were coward
into avoiding talking about this great thing that had happened to their son. And
I will bet that his righteous indignation flared up at watching his parents
being put on the spot and watching them in a way deny this greatest thing that
had happened in their family since he was born. So he spoke up to these
religious leaders and let them know that he wasn’t going to be coward by their
sharp tongues like his parents had just been treated. And he took out the Sword
of the Word and let them have it to the point that they gnashed their teeth and
kicked him out of the church. They excommunicated him for disagreeing with the
pastor, so to speak.
Now, I would like to
know where in the Bible a man can be put out of the church for disagreeing with
the Pastor or the church elders. There is a certain thing called church order
and there is a way of dealing with someone that is sows doubt. But for a person
to say I disagree, then he ought to be given an opportunity via the Word of God
to show the pastor where he is wrong.
Even brother Branham
said, “You are obligated to come to me if you know where I am teaching
something that is not right according to the Word.”
Jesus Christ same
61-0516A P:73Remember, search the Scriptures. Bring your papers and take down
the Scriptures that I quote. If they're not right, you're solemnly obligated to
come to me and show... I don't want to be wrong. But I'm not wrong as long as
the Scripture says it's so and God confirms it. A man can say anything he wants
to; that's a man. But when God speaks, dare anybody to doubt it? It's eternal
separation from His Presence forever.
So if a man comes in a
right spirit to the pastor to talk to the pastor on something the pastor said,
and where he can show the pastor by the Word where he disagrees with the
pastor, or believes that the pastor may have said something not exactly right
according to the Scriptures, if that pastor has the Holy Spirit he will take
what is said to him, and check it out himself by the Word. Then if the Lord gives
him insight to where he was wrong, then God receives the Glory. Now, if the
Spirit of God can show the Pastor other Scriptures which show he had it right,
and where the man might be off, then if the pastor has the right spirit he will
in a spirit of meekness set the brother straight by the Word of God and then
God receives the Glory.
But if a man comes to
a pastor believing the pastor may have strayed from the Word, and can show him
so, and the pastor tries to use his title as a means of lording over that man,
that shows that pastor has slipped from Grace.
If a man comes humbly
to the pastor and the pastor gets all riled up and threatens to excommunicate
that person, then that shows the pastor is off the Word Himself and has fallen
from Grace.
And so, for all of you
believers out there that have been threatened with being excommunicated from
your church, don’t you worry, as soon as Jesus heard that this man was
excommunicated from the church for identifying with Him, he came to that man,
and He will come to you too, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and
forever.
Notice in verse 35 we
read, Jesus
heard that they had cast him out;
and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He
answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that
I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38 And he
said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. 39 And Jesus
said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they
which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And
some of the Pharisees which were with him heard
these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41 Jesus
said unto them, If
ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your
sin remaineth.
Jesus said in Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering
to go in.
In other words they stand in
the way of those entering to go in.
The Apostle Paul said
the same thin in Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all un-godlike-ness and un-right-wise-ness of men, who hold
down the truth in unrighteousness; Now that word hold down comes
from the Greek word katecho which means to hold down
or to with hold the truth from.
And let’s face it, the seed of the serpent do not want the truth to be
taught. Because in John 8:37 Jesus told the Christ Rejecting religious leaders,
“The reason you can not hear the truth of the Word is because there is no place
for the Word of God in them.” And then in verse 43 Jesus said, 43 Why
do ye not understand my speech? even
because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye
are of your father the devil,
and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And
because I tell you the truth, ye
believe me not. 46 Which
of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth,
why do ye not believe me? 47 He
that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear
them not, because ye are
not of God.
Now that reminds me of
a story I read in a book years ago. The story was in a book entitled, “THE DEVIL IN THE CHURCH AND HS SNARES LAID
TO DESTROY OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS copyright 1902. The article was called “Enough
Scripture to Poison a Parish”. And the story goes like this.
A little girl, being asked by a priest to attend his
religious instruction, refused, saying it was against her father’s wishes. The
priest said she should obey him, not her father. “Oh, sir, we are taught in the
Bible, ‘honor Thy Father and thy Mother.’” “You have no business to read the
Bible,” said the priest. “But sir, our Savior said, ‘Search the Scriptures’ ” (John 5:39) “That
was only to the Jews, and not to children, and you don’t understand it,” said
the priest in reply.
“But, sir, Paul said to Timothy, ‘From a child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures,’ ” (2
Tim 3:15) “Oh’” Said the priest, “Timothy was
being trained to be a bishop and taught by the authorities of the church.” “oh, no, sir,” said
the child, “he was taught by his mother and grandmother.” On this the priest
turned her away, saying she “knew enough of the Bible to poison a parish.”
And so we see where
that spirit comes from that would try to control the people through fear rather
than through teaching them the truth of the Scriptures,
and letting them make up their own minds concerning the Scriptures.
The Apostle Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 4:2 1 Therefore seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But
have renounced the hidden things of
dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God, and not of us.
I like the way the
And the Wuest
translation says, “we
have renounced the hidden things of shame, not ordering the manner of our lives
in the sphere of craftiness, nor even adulterating the Word of God [by an
admixture of error], but by means of an open declaration of the truth
commending ourselves to every variety of the conscience on men in the sight of
God.”
The problem we have
today, even among us in this Message, is that the people in the churches do
not judge others by what kind of Life they are living before God, but rather
they are judged by whether or not they are loyal to the “powers that be” in the
church. Even brother Branham said this.
From his sermon, “Thinking Man's Filter” 65-0822E P:32 Brother Branham said, “No, she isn't a
thinking woman. If she was thinking she'd know the church isn't going to judge
her at the last day. The church is
judging her now by her membership, her loyalty to the circles that she belongs
to and the societies. They're judging her now by that. But God's going to
judge her at the last day. So she isn't thinking.”
So stand firm with the
Word of God, and don’t worry about what the leadership in that church will say
to you. What you should worry about is what God is going to say to you if you
do not stand for what He has revealed to you.
Those poor parents that
were afraid to take a stand for what was right. I feel
sorry for those poor people who were coward by those religious leaders who held
down the people and kept them back from entering in. And I am sorry to say, but
if they did not have enough manhood to stand up against those religious leaders, that is their
problem.
From Proving His Word 64-0816 P:85 brother Branham
said, "Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." What? How does
he live? "By, well, if you'll just take some of God's Word, he'll
live?" Now, that wasn't what He said. Did you notice "e-v-e-r-y- every
Word"? How does he live? "Oh, he eats in there?" No, he's dying
fast, that's flesh. "Well, he, oh, he belongs to church; he believes
everything but That?" He's still dead. Do you get
it? "He can only live by every Word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the high priest? the bishop? the cardinal? the pastor?" God. Every Word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. How do we know it's God's Word? He says so, then He proves It. He proves His Word. Notice.
Then if that be so, your confession will not make you live. Your church
membership will not make you live. Notice, by His Word only, not just one Word
misplaced. No one shall... One word killed the human race. In the Bible in
Revelation 22, one word will still kill the whole thing; his name will be taken
from the Book of Life. "Whosoever shall add one word, or take one
Word." Not one word, not... No, I mean, not--not two words, just one word,
not one sentence; one word, one word. Oh, people, do you understand?
So when any religious
leader tells you that “you’ve got to
believe what they say just because they say so, and after all they are a five
fold minister so you’ve got to believe them.” Let me tell you that, that is so childish and shallow that it’s thinner than
the broth made out of a chicken that starved to death. You don’t have to
believe so just because your pastor tells you to believe something. You believe
it because God’s Word says so.
And so any ministry
that used fear to control you is not of God. We are promised by God Himself
that He has not given us a spirit of fear but a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1: 7 For God hath not
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Therefore if you fear man more than you fear
God, then you haven’t got what God said he would give to you.
In 1 John 4:18 we
read, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath a penalty. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. And the penalty of fear is that when you
fear, you begin to freeze, and you stop moving forward
with God, and what God is bringing you into.
Fear is a dangerous tool
of the devil, because it has a penalty. When a person is afraid they become
bound by those fears. We read in 1 John 4. That perfect or mature Love will cast out fear because fear has a penalty,
it has to do with your freezing and crystallizing in your thinking. You see, in
the Bible we read of where Joseph was engaged to marry Mary, but when he found
her to be pregnant, even though she told him how it happened, that God Himself
overshadowed her, yet his fear stopped him, and he was privately mindful to put
her away. In other words the penalty of fear caused him to stop the plans that
he had to marry her. Joseph feared that Mary had not been faithful, and because
of that fear he made plans to stop the marriage.
So God sent His Angel
to Joseph, and told him, “fear not” to take Mary as His Wife. What had fear done
to Joseph? It caused him to doubt that God wanted him to marry Mary. And it
caused him to stop moving forward with the plan of God for his life.
Luke 21: 25-27 25 And
there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon
the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26 Men's hearts failing
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the
earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27 And
then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory. 28 And
when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
Notice the Scriptures
tells us that men will see things that will bring on perplexity which is doubt and anxiety feeling they will have no way of
escape, and then what follows? Fear, then fear follows shortly thereafter.
In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah said to the people, how halt ye between two opinions? How
long will you be lame and stopped in your forward movement? AMPLIFIED VERSION: How
long will you be halt and limp between two opinions? NIV: How long will you
waver between two opinions? NAS How long will you hesitate between these two opinions?
So you see that fear will cause great
damage in your walk with God because it causes you to stop your moving forward
with him. And you know, according to 1 John 7: “if you walk in the Light and He is in the Light, you not only
have fellowship with one another but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you
from all your sin.
Therefore, as long
as you are walking your sins are covered and you are having fellowship with the
One Who is in the Light. But what if
you stop walking with Him. And you will if you let your fears take
control of you. Therefore, any ministry that puts the people into a state of
fear is not from God.
Did you know there are 62 times in the Bible we are
told “fear not”. And it seemed
every time the angel of the Lord comes on the scene he would say, “fear not”. So I say again, that any ministry that tries to
control you through fear, or through the fear of
excommunication is a spirit from hell.
From paragraph 233 Anointed Ones
at the End-Time 65-0725M "For it is impossible for
those which were once enlightened and didn't move on with the Word as it come to pass..." They're dead, gone. And
if fear causes you to stop, then it will also kill you spiritually.
Notice, that in Genesis
19: 26
In paragraph 82 Israel in the
Home Land 53-0329 brother Branham said, And now, the first
thing you know, the Pillar of Fire has begin to move again. But Pentecost is so
organized, it can't go. It was so organized, crystallized until it can't go.
That's right. That's true. But the Pillar of Fire is moving out, brother, and
there's people that's going with It. Hallelujah. We're bound for the promised land. Yes, sir.
In paragraph 63 of
his Message You
Must Be Born Again 61-1231 brother Branham
said, No life in the serpent, it was absolutely crystallized. That
was the penalty..
From Anointed Ones At the End-Time 65-0725M brother Branham said, Notice! Come up to the borderline and quit. Pp.195 Going to their home, and when they come up to the place to
cross over, they doubted the Word!........What
happened? They perished in the wilderness. They stayed right there and
organized themselves, and died, every one of them,........
pp.198 "Where the carcass is there will the
eagles be gathered...... Where the fresh meat
is, the Word of the Season, there the eagles will gather." But
after it's rotten, then the vultures will swarm to it. See, see? See what I
mean? When a kill 's made here comes the eagles, but
after it lays there and rotten, then here come the vultures. The eagles won't
have nothing to do with it. Jesus said, "Where the carcass is, where the manna fell, the night
the manna falls fresh, there the eagles will gather for it." That's
the manna for the day. See? Pp.214 Notice! But after it gets rotten, maggots
get in it, then here comes the vultures. They can't
smell it till it gets rotten. Pp.215 Said, "I AM
sent me." I AM, not I was, or will be, I AM, present tense, the
Word now. Not the Word that was or Word that will come, the Word that's now.
pp. 219 Now, you go back and try to live again --go back after that old shuck's dried up, ever go back and live in it again? It
never does. "For it is impossible for those which
were once enlightened and didn't move on with the Word as it come
to pass..." They're dead, gone
The apostle Paul said
in Romans 8: 15 For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
And in
2 Tim 1: 7 Paul said, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power,
and of love, and of a sound mind.
True
sign that's overlooked 61-1112 P:130
What
good does your membership do you? If you haven't got an inheritance in heaven,
forget about it.
Thinking
man's filter 65-0822E P: 36 The
church filter gets the membership and things like that when they let them get
through with anything and still belong to the church, they get more members.
What if we went to the churches tonight and filtered everybody out besides
those who was genuine Word born Christians. There'd be a many a blank sermon up
against a wall tonight. True. 'Cause it went through the
Filter. And if I've got one desire in my heart, and I hope that everybody
listening to me has the same thing: God, take me through Your Filter. And as
David said, "Try me, and prove me, and see if there be any evil in me,
then take it out, Lord." See? I want God's Filter. Don't care what the
world does, what the church has, I want to be a thinking man, to think Who I'm
going to be standing by one of these days for judgment.
What
is the attraction? 65-0725E P:14 The
people of that day, what they called that day, "a better religious class
of people," hated Him. The churches of that day hated Him and denounced
Him, and denounced all that listened to Him. And if they went and attended His
campaigns, they were immediately excommunicated from the fellowship of the
church. No wonder the Scripture said, "He came unto His Own, and His Own
received Him not." The ones who ought to have loved Him, the ones who
ought to have been for Him, was His bitterest enemy.
This
day this scripture 65-0219 P:16 Now, how could those people ever fail to see
Who He was? How did they ever miss it? How could it be when it was so plainly
made known and showed? How could they ever miss seeing when He... What a Word.
Think of it. "This day is this Scripture fulfilled before your eyes."
Who said it? God Himself, Who is the Interpreter of His own Word. "This
day is this Scripture fulfilled." The
Messiah, Himself, standing in the presence of the congregation and reading a
word out of the Bible pertaining to Himself, and then saying, "Today this
Scripture is fulfilled," and they still failed to see It. What a
tragedy that that would be, but it's happened. It's happened many times. How
could it happen? Of course, like it did in other times, by believing man's
interpretation of the Word. That's what caused it. Those
believers in them days (so-called believers) was taking the
interpretation of what the priest had said about the Scripture. Therefore
Jesus, not belonging to any of their ranks or their societies, He was
excommunicated from their company. And therefore, they could not identify Him
with them, because He was different from them. The Person of Jesus Christ was
so unique that no one should've missed seeing that that was the Son of God,
because He was a perfect identification of the Scripture that was wrote of Him.
That's the way any Christian is known: when his life identifies the very things
that the Christian's supposed to do.
Recognizing
your day 64-0726M P:61
So did Nathanael, a great Hebrew. When he saw that
sign of the Messiah that was promised there, no matter how many priests, how
many anything else... What did it do? It disturbed the priests to see them
people leaving the churches and going. He said, "If any of you attend his meeting, you'll be excommunicated. We'll
put you right out of the denomination." So is it today. "We'll
put you out of our organization if you attend his meeting." Remember
the blind man? The father and mother couldn't even answer. They was afraid
because they said anybody that went to see Jesus or attended His meetings, they
would be excommunicated. But that blind man could speak for himself. He that
was once blind could then see. I who was once blind can now see. I who didn't
know these things, it's been made known to me by the Holy Spirit. Turn loose
denominations, because they're coming anyhow.