MASTERPIECE No. 12
From
the Negative to the Positive
Sunday, July 3, 2005
Rev. Brian Kocourek
Let’s
bow our heads and our hearts in a word of prayer.
Dear
Father we have assembled here this morning in the name that you gave your son
as inheritance. And we know that we have the same name your apostle Paul told
us For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named, Therefore
Father we come in that Name of Jesus and ask you to be with us and to help us
better understand how it is that we have also that name by inheritance. Be with
us in the study of Your Word this morning and help us to gain the knowledge and
understanding of Yourself and our position in your family that we must have as
sons. Guide us by Thy Great spirit through Thy Word for we ask it in Jesus
name.
This
morning for our text I would like for you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians
13:9 For
we know in part and we prophecy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I
was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even
as also I am known.
Now, our study this morning
will follow this thought that the Apostle Paul has given us as well as the same
thought expressed in quite different words that William Branham spoke in his
sermon called The Masterpiece. This
morning we will pick up at paragraph 11 in our study in this series and this
will be number 12. in our series from The
Masterpiece.
From THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 paragraph 11 we
read, “So we
realize that we're here in a negative form. And as long as there is a negative,
there has to be a positive. There
cannot be a negative without a positive (See?), because it's the positive that
makes the negative. Like you had a negative picture of some object. There has to be an object somewhere to strike
that lens or there wouldn't be any negative. So when we see that our life here is in the negative and
knowing that we're in the image of some life somewhere, then we know that
there is a positive somewhere that the light has struck, and it's reflected
something here on earth. And we are only
that reflection. The genuine object
is somewhere. If that isn't, I'm the worst deceived man in the world; I've
spent my life in vain. But I know beyond a shadow of doubt that it's there.
That's why we're here.
Now, this morning I would
like to focus our thoughts on this statement that Brother Branham is making
here concerning the negative and positive. He is talking about an image that is
in the positive that is also identifiable by what can be seen in the negative.
Notice he said, we realize that we're here in a negative form.
And as long as
there is a negative, there has to be a positive. There cannot
be a negative without a positive (See?), because it's the positive that makes
the negative. Like you had a negative picture of some object. There has to
be an object somewhere to strike that lens or there wouldn't be any negative
Now, this is important to
understand because it has to do with whom we are and why we act as we do, and
why we have an inner drawing to do what is right and good and just. The Apostle
John told us about this negative being drawn to the positive in 1 John 3.
1 John 3: 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
(So John is telling us that we are sons right now, but
what we see is not clear to us, and yet we know according to the law of
reproduction that every seed must bring forth after its own kind or nature. Notice
this is like a shadow. A shadow shows you the shape of the object that it is
reflecting, but it is not very clear. But the closer the positive object comes
to the shadow, the clearer the shadow becomes and the more definitive the
shadow shows the detail of the positive. Let’s say you look at your hand and its
shadow for an example. As the hand comes closer and closer to the shadow, the
more like the shadow it will appear to be. And John said, Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be. So you see, he is talking in a
type here, and he is saying that although we are now sons, yet it will take the
glorious light of Christ’s Appearing to truly make known what we already are.
Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 23
“fill up the measure
of their fathers”, which means to complete the portion or pedigree
of their fathers. And then he told them, their father was a murderer to and
liar to begin with. So in fact he said they must bring forth the nature that
was in the seed for every seed must bring forth after its kind.
And in 1 John 3 we are told that we will
manifest the nature of sons of God because that is what we already are. And we
are told that will not happen until we know who he is. And so we are told that
when Christ Appears or Phaneroo’s
which means: to manifest in one’s true
character. For when Christ will manifest to us in His true character, then
we shall also manifest in our true character as well, and that is a promise. So
I hope you can see the importance of the Promise of the Appearing of Christ to
us. Because the Appearing is to do something to us that will change the way we
look at ourselves, because we will change the way we look at Christ.) but we know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Now if you are a Oneness or a
Trinitarian you are not seeing Him as He really is. So this tells us that the
understanding of the Godhead is essential to seeing Him as He truly is because
if you do not see Him as He truly is you will never know who you truly are. And
I ask the question, how can you understand your relationship to God as Your
Father if you do not understand that the Son of God is your older brother. If
you believe that Jesus was His own Father, then you’ve got a screwy
understanding of family, because I do not know nor can I even perceive how a
father could be his own son and visa versa. And if you can not understand the
relationship that Jesus had with His Father, then how are you ever going to
understand your own relationship to the Father.
3 And every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Now
this tells you that when you see the Revelation of Christ and you come to
understand Who He is and why he is here, then you will come to fully understand
who you are and you will begin to act different and talk different and live
different and think different when you know who you really are. Like brother
Branham told us the story of the slave who acted so different from all the
other slaves. So they thought, perhaps they treat him different from the
others, and they were told, no that’s not it. And so they thought perhaps they
feed the man better food, and they were told, no that’s not it. And as it
turned out he acted different because he knew who his father was.
He was the son of the king back
home and so he acted like the son of a king. He acted different and held his
head up high and did not act like a slave because he knew who His Father was. And
that is what Paul was telling us in our opening text.
1 Corinthians 13:9 for
we know in part and we prophecy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I
was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even
as also I am known.
From his
sermon, Explaining healing and Jairus 54-0216 P:37 William
Branham said, “The devil's just trying to scare you out of something. He's trying
to put something off somewhere else, say, "Some of these days you'll be this." You are now. Now, we're sons
of God. Now, we're seated together in heavenly places. Now, we have all powers in heavens and the earth. See? Now, we have it. Not in the millennium, we
won't need it then. We got it now.
We're... Right now we are the sons of God. "It does
not appear what we shall be, but we know we'll be like Him." What you are here is a reflection of what
you are somewhere else. "Those who He called, He justifies." Is
that right? "Those who He justified, He has glorified." Already
in the Presence of the Father, we have a glorified body. Whew! Wasn't that
deep? All right. We'll find out whether it's right or not. "If this
earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting."
Is that right? That's right. So right now, and what we are there, is a
reflection. Here, what we are here, is a
reflection of what we are somewhere else. So if your deeds are evil, you
know where it comes from. You know where your other body's a waiting.
And the
Apostle Paul told us in Romans 12: 1 I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now, the NIV says “which is your
spiritual act of worship.” And why is that? Because your sacrifice is what you
offer back to God what He has revealed to you. Therefore, if he has revealed to
you that you are sons, and you will
receive your transformation by the renewing of your mind, then you begin to act
in accordance with the change of your mind. If you say your mind has changed but
your actions have not, then you are only fooling yourself because you are not
fooling anyone else. Paul goes on to say, 2 And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. So you see when the mind is renewed,
it brings with it an outward conformance as well as an inner change of the
desires.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 54-0103E
143-191 What you are
here... Get this in your mind now.
I'm going to close. But what you are
here is a sign that you are something else somewhere. You've always wanted
to be in perfection, you Christians. There is a perfection, and that perfection is not in this life.
But every man and woman here that is a Christian, every person that is a
Christian here now is already glorified in the Presence of Jesus Christ. And
you've got another body. You won't have some other time; you have right now. Right
now there's another body waiting for you if this one should perish. Could
you think of that. Study that just a minute.
In the Book of Ezekiel 36: 26 we
read, “A new heart also will I give you, (Now,
if he promised “A” new heart then there is only one New Heart we all shall
receive.) and a
new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put
my spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
In Ezekiel 11: 19 we read, And I will give
them one heart, (Notice
here God is being more specific in this verse, he says One Heart) and I will put a new
spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will
give them an heart of flesh: 20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep
mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their
God.
So we need to know what this “One heart”
is because, He said He would give us “One
heart” and then a new Spirit. And we find William Branham taught us what
this new heart and new spirit are.
From His sermon
Impersonation of Christianity 57-0120M P:42
Br. Branham said, So God had to give you a new heart, not a patched up one, a new
heart. That's your intellects that you
think with, a new way of thinking.
That is why
Paul told us “let the mind that was in Christ be in You, we must receive the
mind of Christ if we are to receive just one heart or one way of thinking.
And again from Impersonation of Christianity 57-0120M P:43a
So you see if you receive the mind of
Christ you can’t help but to have right desires.
Again from Impersonation of Christianity 57-0120M P:43b He said, Then notice the order of the Scripture. After
you get a new heart and a new spirit, He said, "Then I'll put My Spirit..."
See? Oh, what? That's the what the Scripture says here. That's the order, the
numatics and numerical order of the Scripture: a new heart, a new spirit, and
then My Spirit.
So you
see, if God promised to give us One heart or One mind, it has to be the mind of
Christ for he said in, Isaiah 55: 8 For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
So we see that it is necessary to have
the mind of Christ if we are to understand the thoughts of the Father. Now, in getting back to this thought of the negative
to the positive, and actually that is what we have been talking about because
the more we see Him the more we become like Him, the hand, His hand coming closer
to our shadowy existence makes us more like Him.
From His
sermon There
is a man here that can Turn on the light 64-0125 P:43 Br.
Branham said, “Like my hand here in a shadow. It's a
shadow, only it's darker as my hand becomes more... It's a negative here, a
positive here. As a negative and
positive, it gets denser, and darker, darker, darker, and finally it claps
together, and negative and positive becomes one. That's when Church and Christ
unites together as a Bride, with the same Spirit that was in Him will be upon
Her, when that Church comes from justification, sanctification, baptism of the
Holy Ghost, into the last days, and honing her down now for the coming of the
Lord. Oh, don't be the rough part on It, Pentecostal brother. Shine up with
the Word and believe every bit of It.
Don't get out into these ism's and things, as we see going on
today. Don't be astonished at that, because the Headstone's coming, crying,
"Abba, Father," pretty soon, "My God. My God." Yes, I
believe that with all my heart. Do you see it? You know what I mean? It's
Christ now taking the rags of yesterday, the Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian,
and so forth, and He's putting it
through a process. What kind of a process? A process of the Holy Spirit: what
they had plus, making it till He is pressing His Own image, when the
Church and Christ becomes one in union. God, grant it. I trust that you see
it. If you do see it...
Notice Paul
tells us the same thing in Colossians 2: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the
body is of Christ.
And we also see a glimpse of this
in Matthew 4:
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; (darkness is
their shadow) and
to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
And in Romans 8: 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. And in Philippians 3: 21 Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself.
And
again in 2 Corinthians 3: 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord.
God's chosen place
worship 65-0220 P:21 Now, when a shadow comes across the floor, you can tell whether
it's man, woman, or beast, or whatever it might be, because it casts a shadow
upon the floor. And as that shadow gets shorter, the shadow being the
negative... And there cannot be a
negative without a positive; therefore, when the positive becomes closer to the negative, the negative is
swallowed up in the positive. The shadow and the positive comes together,
and that's what makes it then a positive. And if all the old things the Bible
said in the Old Testament was shadows of the things to come, then therefore, Christ was the shadow of things to come.
So we can see by the Old Testament types where He chose to put His Name and to where
now. Now, as the shadow crosses the floor, I said, is the negative, being a
type, so we, the worshippers also can see the shadows of the Old Testament
fading into the positive of the New. Now, all the feasts, the holidays, all the
tabernacle, all the wood, everything in the tabernacle, everything typed
Christ. All the offerings, all the laws, everything was in type of Christ.
We've been through it time after time here at the Tabernacle. Then we see by
these that every creed, church, and denomination is left far behind. It's not
even in the race at all. Every creed, every church, every denomination is
completely left out. There's no place for them at all.
Hebrews 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.
Sign of His coming 62-0407 P:121 This
stump's grown from Luther, to Wesley, to Pentecost; and now is honing out those
Pentecostals, and those that's got the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And shall
come someday the headstone, Christ Jesus, in these last days... And we'll have to have a ministry just
exactly like His whole Spirit as it gets closer, closer, closer, closer. The negative becomes so positive that after
while the negative and positive blends together, 106Church and Christ to make
one: for we're flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Amen. You believe
it? "It shall be Light in the evening time." Amen. We're here today.
You believe it?
Brother Branham told
1 Corinthians Chapter 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions
among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment.
In
closing we will read from paragraph 11 again from The Masterpiece, where
brother Branham said, From
THE MASTERPIECE
64-0705 paragraph 11 “So we realize that
we're here in a negative form. And as long as there is a negative, there has to
be a positive. There cannot be a
negative without a positive (See?), because it's the positive that makes the
negative. Like you had a negative picture of some object. There has to be an object somewhere to
strike that lens or there wouldn't be any negative. So when we see that our life here is in the negative and
knowing that we're in the image of some life somewhere, then we know that
there is a positive somewhere that the light has struck, and it's reflected
something here on earth. And we are only
that reflection. The genuine object
is somewhere. If that isn't, I'm the worst deceived man in the world; I've
spent my life in vain. But I know beyond a shadow of doubt that it's there.
That's why we're here.
So what I believe brother Branham
is telling us in this paragraph is that The Great Appearing of Christ to Us in
this hour is for the purpose of bringing us into conformity with the Mind of
God and the image of His Son. Just as the shadow shows the image of the real
object, so too the close we come to Christ, the more glory shall be revealed in
us, for we have the mind of Christ and we know what to do with His Word.
From The Spoken Word is the Original Seed 62-0318E P:175 Br. Branham said, Notice, what harmony. Jesus never did anything
until seen of the Father or the Father showed Him first: (Harmony between God
and Christ. See? John 5:19) So will the Bride, and He shows Her His
Word of Life (He shows Her), and she
receives It. She never doubts it. Nothing can harm her, not even death; for if
the Seed be planted, the water will raise it up again. Amen. (Now, I got a
great big "Hallelujah.") Here
is the secret: the Word is in the Bride and the mind of Christ to know what He
wants done with the Word, and She does it in His Name. She has THUS SAITH
THE LORD. Then it is germitized; so the Holy Spirit waters it until it is grown
and serves its purpose. They do only His
will. (Amen. I'll believe that.) No
one can persuade them different. They
have THUS SAITH THE LORD, or they keep still. Then they will do the works
of God. For it is Himself in them,
continuing His Word to fulfill as He did complete in His day. All things
when He was here--He did not complete all when He was here, for it was not time
yet.
Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Dear
Father, we our so grateful for your
Divine Presence here this morning, and for the promise that you will not leave
us nor forsake us, but that your Pillar of fire is here to lead us into the
millennium, even though your prophet is no longer with us. We are not made up
like he was to be able to see you in Spirit form, but we have your word, and
that is enough, for we have confidence that if you said it, then you are here
to ensure it comes to pass.