MASTERPIECE No. 17
A Part of God no.1
What it means to be born again
Sunday morning, August 7,
2005
Rev. Brian Kocourek
This morning I would like to continue with our Study
of Br. Branham’s sermon on THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 and we will begin reading at paragraph 16.
THE MASTERPIECE 64-070516 Last night I visited a friend that's sick,
Brother Bill Dauch. I don't see him here this morning. Somehow I... Oh, here he
is. Yeah. And I was thinking, "An old man of ninety-one years old and
still storming across the--the country, through the deserts, and over the snowy
mountains, and the slick roads. He don't have to do that. God has been good to
him; he don't have to do that. He could set home and have servants a-fanning
him if he wanted to." But something happened to Bill Dauch. He was born again. And when it was,
something come into his heart, that all he lives for is to attend these
services. And then, if I'm to be the mouthpiece of God, would I deceive a
friend? I'd rather die. Then let me tell him exactly what's the Truth out of
this Bible. Then that's God's Word. I'm just repeating what He said.
Now, this
morning I would like to examine what it means to be born again, and how we are
born again and what being born again will produce in us. First of all I want
you to notice that brother Branham associates the change of the mind with the
new birth.
Brother Branham
taught us that the new birth happens in a series of events. Just like the
natural birth there is an insemination of the egg by the sperm, so in the
spiritual new birth there must first be a quickening take place to our soul. And
Brother Branham taught us from Ezekiel that there must be a series of three
events take place in the process of receiving the new birth.
In the Book of
Ezekiel we read,
EZEKIEL 11:19 And I will give them 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.
And again we
read in EZEKIEL 36:26 A new heart also
will I give you, 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. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that
I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Now, in
speaking of this brother Branham says, IMPERSONATION
OF CHRISTIANITY 57-0120M E-69 And you're on
the basis of free moral agency. You can turn this down or you can accept it. To
turn it down is to be lost and remain potash, and calcium, and petroleum. But
to accept it, and to have a new heart, a new spirit, and His Spirit, part of
the Logos in you controlling your emotions...
Now, remember
when he says we are to have god’s Spirit in us, we know that is to be in a
measure. And that is why he says “a new heart, a new spirit, and His Spirit, part of the
Logos in you controlling your emotions... So it is the word in
us that controls the emotions, I like that.
Now, Jesus
prayed that we would be one even as he and the Father were one, so we must know
how it is that he and the father were one if we are to know how we and the
Father are one.
In
JOHN 17:11 we read, ¶ And now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one, as we are. And how is it that we might be One even as which
means in the same manner as Jesus and His Father were One? Jesus said, JOHN 17:14 I have given
them thy Word; and the world hath
hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Jesus
tells us we become One with God through the same Word that He became One With
God. JOHN 17:20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Therefore
it is very apparent that we are one by receiving the same Word which brings us
into the same Glory or same mind as the Father. And the
glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we
are one:
Now, brother Branham makes this very clear in the
sermon HARVEST TIME 641212 87 034 Jesus said, "That they might be one, Father, as You and I are one." Not for some man to be over something, it never will work;
one denomination wants to take over the other, and one man over the other. But
that you might be one with God, like Christ and God was one; that's
what the prayer is. That... He was the Word, and Jesus prayed that we
might be the Word, reflecting Him. That's His prayer to be answered.
See how Satan scruples it up in the carnal mind? But that wasn't Jesus' prayer,
at all, that we might all congregate together and all have a certain creed and
so forth. Every time they do it, they go further and further from God.
He wants us to be one with God, and God is
the Word. Each individual in his heart must
be that one with God.
So the way God
goes about bringing forth this Oneness in us is by first changing our way of
thinking, and then that changes our desire4s, and then when our thoughts are
His thoughts and our desires are His desires, then he places His Spirit within
us, and quickens it to Life.
From the
sermon, IMPERSONATION OF CHRISTIANITY E-42 But God
had to give you a new spirit. Why, the spirit you had, you couldn't even get
along with yourself. So how are you going to get along with God? 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.
Then when He give you a new way of thinking, "Yes, that's right…....
And then
brother Branham goes on to say in the same paragraph, E-43 “Then He said after that, "Then I'll give you a new
spirit." What's that? A new desire, "I want to do right.."… But
now, that's the new spirit. 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 what the Scripture says here. That's the order, the
pneumatics and numerical order of the Scripture: a new heart, a new spirit, and
then My Spirit. E-44 Then God's Holy Spirit... God's new heart that He put in
you, sets right in the center of you. That's your impulse, where your emotions
goes out. And the new Spirit sets right in the center of the new heart. And
God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, sets right in the center of your new Spirit, and
there It controls your emotions. It's just like the mainspring in a famous
watch, and it's self-winding. You don't have to wind it everyday. God's wound
it once for all. And it sets right in the middle of your new life. And as the
mainspring, as it relieves and ticks away the watch, it controls every little
organism of that watch to perfect time.
But the problem
is that most people just get some mental conception and they don’t go on with
Christ the Word. They just get enough
religion to make themselves miserable but they don’t wait on God to receive His
word, they just won’t come all the way with the word. They just get some little idea and then they
run with that.
Brother Branham
said,
And he also
said the reason they need their brains baptized is because they just won’t go
all the way with the Word.
DEMONOLOGY 2 RELIGIOUS 53-0609A 178 I said, "Instead of
baptizing your body, you need your brains baptized." That's right. You
don't stop to think of things. You don't try to consider it." That's the same way they did in the other
days. They seen Jesus; they knew that He knew the secrets of their heart. He
knew what they was doing like that. And they said, "He's the chief of the
devils; he's a Beelzebub, the best fortuneteller in the world." They
didn't stop to try to figure it out to see that was the Son of God. They
wasn't spiritual enough to know it. That's it. They read over the thing.
Sure, Jesus was supposed to come in
So you see,
there is an order to the new birth. And
the Apostle Peter told us that the new birth or being born again takes place by
the Word of God coming into us and quickening our soul by that Word, to that Word.
In other words, when the Spirit of God quickens your soul by the revelation of
His Own word for the day in which you live, something comes alive in you to
that word, and that Word becomes alive to you and you become alive to the word.
Peter said in I PETER 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. So it is
not just the Word of God, but it is the Word of God that is Alive. The Living
Word, He tells us our new birth comes by an incorruptible seed which
is the Word of God that lives and abides or dwells in you forever. Then in
order for us to understand that it has nothing to do with this body, he adds, 24 ¶ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory
of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word
which by the gospel is preached unto you.
So he is
letting us know that this new birth has nothing to do with our flesh, or our
physical body, but it has all to do with the Life of God that is in that Word
coming alive in your soul.
The Apostle
Paul tells us the same thing in I CORINTHIANS 15:36 Now, when we are reading
this I want you to focus your attention on how Paul rightly divides the flesh
from the Soul Life. He says, Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it
die: 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be,
but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God
giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
Now, let’s just
stop here for just a minute. I know some of you do not like the body you have,
but Paul says that God gives you a body that pleases Him. It’s really too bad
that we have let
Yes,
But Paul said, But God giveth
every seed a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
So take care of your bodies for God has chosen them to indwell
with his own spirit. He wants to place his own Life in your body, and that is
how much God is pleased with the design of your vessel. So cleanse it and
sanctify it and make it fit for His Holy Presence to inhabit.
Now let’s
continue with what the Apostle Paul was saying. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there
is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and
another of birds. So why would people want their bodies to look like
some beast of serpent or lizard? 40 There are also
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is
one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the
sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one
star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the
dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in
dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There
is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written,
The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit.
Now, Paul goes
on to say that we come first in a natural body but then are given a spirit
body. And that is what the new birth is all about. 46 Howbeit
that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and
afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy:
the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also
that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly.
Now, then you
might ask, how is it that the glorified body is already waiting. How does it
come, and by what means is it shaped or formed? And why do we need a glorified
body? Paul answers these questions in the next few verses.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the
51
¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. Now, what is
the incorruption that this body must put on? Did not Peter tell us the Word of
God is incorruptible? So this Body must put on the Word, in order for it to
become glorified.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of
sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 ¶ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
Now, let’s look
at this body change because that is what the new birth guarantees for us, a
change of the body.
TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE
65-1127B 335 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." Well, if it is the Word cell to start with, the
other Word cells are ordained to make it a full body.
THE RAPTURE 65-1204 91 When a germ comes into the womb of the female,
it don't take on... 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 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.
THINGS THAT ARE TO BE 65-1205
83 You must grow into It. Ask God to pile
Word on top of Word like that until you become the full statue of a son of God
or a daughter of God.
Therefore we
find that in order to receive the glorified body, we must have one seed of God
life to start with. That is al it takes is one little germ, and Jesus said if
we have faith which is revelation the size of a mustard seed we could say to
this mountain be moved and plucked up and cast into the sea and it would be so.
So you see the
whole body change begins with a soul change. Not another soul, but the Soul
that was a part of God to begin with being quickened to Life by His Word. That
is what the stimulation of revelation is all about. Then once that happens you
get a new hart which is a new way of thinking, and you start piling Word upon
Word upon Word, and your desires change, and you only want what God wants, and
pretty soon you find that His very mind is coming into you because he has
placed His own Spirit, His Own Life in you. And then you are on your way to the
body change.
Paul told us in
Romans 12 that our transformation comes by the renewing of the mind.
Fellowship by redemption 55-0403 P:27 A animal doesn't have a soul. But a man has a
soul. And therefore, that soul is a part of God. And even in its fallen state,
yet it's the most greatest specie of all the species of the earth, is the man.
And then get him in connection with his Maker, he becomes a superman almost,
because he's a son of God. He becomes acquainted with his Maker, with the
Creator of all things. And then when that man there, acquainted with his Maker,
becomes a part of his Maker, becomes back into fellowship with his Maker, every
Divine Word becomes a living reality to him, and he believes it. No wonder
people can't believe Divine healing today. They
haven't got nothing to believe with. Until God comes into the human heart,
a man is not much better than a brute. His reason, he will think it all out,
"How can this be?" And explain it all away. But when God ever takes
His position in the human heart all the reasoning’s fade away, and God becomes
first. Amen.
Notice brother
Branham said our soul is a part of God, because there is only one form or
eternal life and that is God’s very own life. And then he said no wonder people
can’t receive and believe the Word as it comes to pass, because they have no
place for the word and that is exactly what Jesus told the Pharisees in John
chapter 8.
JOHN 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my
word hath no place in you. 38 ¶ I speak
that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with
your father. 39 They answered and said
unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's
children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a
man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not
Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your
father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father,
even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me:
for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent
me.
JOHN 8:43 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.
Faith once delivered to the saints 57-0610 P:49 They never
have, they never will be able to make a bomb that can touch that soul. It's
immortal; it's a part of God.
Great commission 57-0804A P:24 The soul is the immortal part, and Jesus said,
"He that heareth My words, believeth on Him that sent Me, hath, that's
present tense, Everlasting Life and it shall never come to the judgment, but is
passed from death unto life." That settles it. Then when we are borne
again, we're a new creature. And that soul is a part of God. The Eternal Life
there comes from the Greek word, "Zoe," which means "God's own
Life." That makes us sons and daughters of God. We can no more perish than
God can perish, 'cause you're a part of Him.
FUTURE HOME 64-0802 49-1 You are part of the
earth, your body. Your soul is part of God, a attribute of God, displayed
here on earth in a body. The body's to be redeemed. Now the soul's
redeemed, because it was in sin. So God come down by process of
justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and redeemed your soul.
And you, being part of the earth, it's redeemed by it. You're in the process
now, it's growing on.
Let us pray,
Dear Father, we
are so thrilled to know your plan of redemption and how that we were a part of
you even before you created the worlds, and we were chosen in you before the
foundations of the world. And we are so
privileged to know that you ordained for us to be hear this great truth of your
redemptive plan in this hour and to hear this blessed truth which you brought
down with a Shout. You did not ordain for us to hear Luther’s message or Wesley’s
message, because you knew that it would not have been enough to satisfy that
blessed longing that you have placed in our hearts by election and the process
of the new birth. But we know that they without
us can not be made perfect, so perfect us Lord and we will be perfect. Bless us
Lord and we shall be blessed. Fill us Lord and we will be filled, and change us
Lord and we will be changed. Grant to us Father to come into the image of your
eldest son as you have ordained for us according to your own word. For we ask
it in the name you gave your son by inheritance, that of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen!