Masterpiece 38

The Flaw Produced a Bride

December 18^th, 2005

Pastor, Brian Kocourek

1. This morning we are going to again speak from brother Branham’s sermon called the masterpiece. But before we begin, I would like to read from Genesis chapters 1 and 2 to get a back ground for the things that brother Branham will tell us in paragraphs 39 through 49.

2. GENESIS 1:20 ¶ And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. 26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

3. And again we will read from Chapter 2 and verse 20 through verse 24. GENESIS 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

4. This morning we will look at several paragraphs from brother Branham’ s sermon The Masterpiece. To begin let’s turn to paragraph number 43 and begin reading through paragraph 49.

5. THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 43 I stood there and looked at the monument. I thought of the hours that the man must have put in making that. And they said how many years it was. But it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his great art, his great work of what he was doing. And when he finally was able to achieve it, it was so great.

6. 44 Now, let us turn the page of Michelangelo and close the book. And let's open another Book and read of the Great Sculptor, the Almighty, Who before there was a world and before the foundations was laid, He had in His mind what He wanted. And He wanted to make man in His own image. He wanted to make something in reality of what was a vision to Him, what was in His thinking.

7. 45 Now, to Michelangelo that was an attribute of his thought. And God wanted to make a man after His image, (the Great Sculptor), and He went to work on him. And we notice as He brought up from the materials, the first perhaps was fishes, and then the birds, and--and then the creeping things upon the earth, and the many things that He brought. But finally as He brood, being Creator, He wasn't like a man now, a sculptor that'd have to take something that's been created to hew an image. He was the Sculptor of eternal things. He was a Sculptor that could create and bring into existence that which He has in His mind to do; or otherwise, He can make material what His attributes desired.

8. 46 And as He begin to work upon creeping things, like upon the--the--the little animals upon the earth... And then He began to bring it from that into something else higher. Then finally He brought it into the larger animals such as the lion, tiger, bear. Then He brought it into the life of maybe of monkeys, and apes, and so forth. Now, not an evolution, as we think that one came from a any... That was a complete creation, God working in a pattern.

9. 47 But finally there came forth upon the earth a perfection, and that was a man. And then He could see in that man, that it looked like Him. So now, when He looked upon him, he was a reflection of what his Creator was. God had now been able to achieve the thing that He wanted: a man in His own image.

10. 48 And then I might say to this: that when He made this man there was something about him yet that didn't look just right, because that he was by himself. And that's how God had been, by Himself. He was the Eternal. And the man now in the image of God also existed on the earth by himself. So He must've struck a little blow over on his left side, and from there He took the piece that struck off of it and made him a helpmate, a wife. Then he wasn't by himself; he had somebody with him. And that's His great work.

11. 49 And He, as any great sculptor would take his masterpiece... Now, first, He had a masterpiece of Himself. But now, He seen that the masterpiece was lonesome like He was, so He divided the masterpiece by striking it in the side and brought forth a helpmate.

12. Now, we see here, where brother Branham is speaking of the creation of man as a reflection of the vision that God had within Himself. That is a nice thought. But he also speaks of the flaw that the statue of Moses took in the knee and said that is what made the statue a Masterpiece, is because of that flaw. And then in this reading this morning we can see where God did the same thing to Adam. He stuck his side and from that wound in his side came forth a Bride for him.

13. Now, on the cross we see another picture of this wound in the side, but this time it took place in the side of the Second Adam called Jesus.

14. JOHN 19:29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put [it] upon hyssop, and put [it] to his mouth. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31 ¶ The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away. 32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35 And he that saw [it] bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

15. Now, what I am showing you this morning is that in the beginning God put Adam into a deep coma-like sleep. And while he was in this condition, God wounded him in his side and took from that wound a part of Adam and from that part He brought forth a Bride for Adam.

16. Several Thousand years later, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, we see the story unfold where He finally could take no more and He gave up His Spirit, and died. Then they took a spear and struck his side to make sure he was dead. The others on the cross had their legs broken to speed up the death process because without the legs to stand up, the body would just hang in that awful position making it impossible to breath. And once the legs were broken, the lungs would not be able to breath in and thus the person would suffocate.

17. But since they knew that Jesus had already died, they took a spear to his side, to make sure that he was dead, and out came water mixed with blood showing he was truly dead on the cross. And thus there was no need to break his legs. So while He was in this state of temporary death, (Temporary because we know that God raised Him up again) but in that state God took from his side the blood that had flowed through His veins, and from that Blood God brought forth a Bride for the Second Adam.

18. When the first Adam came awake after the surgery that God had performed on Him and brought forth a wife for Adam, He responded by saying in, Genesis 2:23 This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

19. Now, I want you to notice that he looked to this one as being a part of Himself, and identified so much with her that he said she was bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. In other words, as God said, “By One spirit we are all baptized into One body.” And thus we are so kin to Jesus that we are bone of his Bones and flesh of His flesh.

20. Now, you say, how then did the blood of Jesus Christ do this for us. Well, first we must understand that these bodies we have are only a housing for the two thirds spirit being that we are. And that is a big problem that we have because we spend more time fussing over the one third which is earthy anyways, and not eternal, and yet while doing so we neglect the other two thirds which is the eternal part.

21. But anyway, in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1, God is said to have placed every seed that will ever bring forth, God placed them in the earth.

22. GENESIS 2:4 ¶ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and [there was] not a man to till the ground. 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

23. So we see that in verse 4 we are told that every seed was in the mind of God before it was in the earth, and then God placed them in the earth, and then watered them. So if you have a body in the flesh that is made up of the elements, it was a part of the earth in the beginning, and then when the waters of Noah washed the earth your body was baptized in those waters, and when the blood of the Lamb of God sprinkled the earth when that spear plunged into His side, your body elements we sanctified by that atoning blood.

24. Now, in the old Testament, when the person would take the sacrificial lamb before the altar and it was cut the blood was sprinkled on the person. Now, not ever single cell was touched by that blood, just like when the blood of Jesus spilt to the ground, yet the earth was sprinkled by that blood just as the body was sprinkled by the lambs blood and just like when Moses had the people take the blood from the lamb, a lamb for every house, and they sprinkled that blood on the lintel and on the doorposts, making the cross as a symbol of what was to come. And the angel of death seeing that blood on each home, was commanded to pass on by and do no harm to that home.

25. So we see a beautiful picture of the blood sprinkling the earth, the same earth from where we received these mortals bodies and the elements that make up our bodies, giving expression to our two thirds being that is the eternal part of who we are.

26. And so we see in the statue of Moses the flaw, or the chip taken out of the knee is what makes that entire statue a masterpiece. Just as we see the flaw, that wound in the side of Jesus which spilt his blood to the earth is what makes perfect the imperfect, that blood is what makes the sinner a saint. That same blood coming forth from that wound in His Side is what makes and the sick whole, for by his stripes we are healed. And it is by this same blood that we are redeemed, which means that which was in part is done away with because that which is perfect is come. That same blood flowing from that wound is that which brought forth our salvation, and our sanctification, as it cleansed the earth from where our body elements would one day come. And it brought forth healing for healing is in the atonement. And so by this wound, we see the Great masterpiece of God, the Son of God become the perfect reflection of the divine attributes of the Loving Father, and all the divine attributes of Savior, Healer, redeemer, etc were brought forth in that one act in which the side of the Second Adam was struck and out from it the very blood that once flowed through his veins, the very blood of God, came down to the earth to sanctify our vessels.

27. Oh, How Adam could say, Bone of My bones, and flesh of my Flesh. And Oh, how the second Adam could show Himself to be the Kinsman Redeemer because we are bone of His bone and flesh of his flesh. The apostle Paul tells us this same thing when he speaks of the relationship a man ought to have with his wife for it is a symbol of how that Christ Himself so loved the church Paul says, as His own flesh and blood.

28. EPHESIANS 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

29. So we see in this simple story that brother Branham is bringing to our attention concerning this masterpiece, this statue of Moses, and how it became a masterpiece by the flaw taken from the side of the knee, just as the Great masterpiece of God would not have been complete had it not been for the wound in the side of the prince of Life, and bringing from it His Life Blood which had flowed so freely through His veins, a then when it left Him it brought Life to us. Let us pray….