Masterpiece 46
God reflecting
Himself out from His Masterpiece
February 4th, 2006
Pastor, Brian Kocourek
1. The evening we will take
a short study of paragraph 68 of the Masterpiece where brother Branham says, THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 69 And then, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was hewed out and
reflected what the Word was at the beginning: Him, the Word, reflected in the Masterpiece in His own likeness, God
back again in His own likeness, the Word form being reflected in the image
of a man: the Masterpiece. All the prophets had flaws.
All the ones was a portion. But here at last coming up through that finally
comes the Masterpiece, the perfect One, no fault in Him at all, so perfect,
reflected of the Builder Himself. His own image was reflected in His Work. God and Christ were One, insomuch until He
put His own Spirit into Him; and then even the Image and the Builder became
One: God and His sculpture Work, His Masterpiece... Where Moses was in the work
of Michelangelo, a sculpture work that was dead because it'd been made out of
stone. But here the Master Builder, when He got His Handiwork perfected, He stepped into It.
2. Notice that He begins by quoting from St.
John 1:1 in the Beginning was the word and the Word was God, and then he lets
us know that God who is the Word was reflected in the Masterpiece in His Own
Likeness, God back again in His Own Likeness. Now, he is not talking about God
touching someone heart or God being on the thoughts of someone, but He is
speaking of the very person of God coming into the Masterpiece, the Body of His
Son Jesus.
3. Then he says God and
Christ were One, insomuch until He put His own Spirit into Him. And
then another thought he lays out in this paragraph is “here the Master
Builder, when He got His Handiwork perfected, He stepped into It.”
4. So in this paragraph we are seeing a very different
teaching on the Godhead than what the Oneness or Unitarians believe. Br.
Branham was not saying that God was His Own Masterpiece, but that Christ the
Son of God was the Masterpiece of God, and that when God got His Handiwork, in
other words he is saying. When God got His
Masterpiece perfected, He stepped into It. So he is not saying
that God was His own Masterpiece, but rather that Christ, or rather Jesus, the
Son of God, when he became perfect God stepped into that Masterpiece.
5. No0w, let’s
take these three thought here and take them to the scripture to see where
Brother Branham is coming from concerning what He is saying here.
6. Now, in reading from paragraph 69 of THE MASTERPIECE
64-0705 he says, And then, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God; Now, this he takes directly from
7. Now, notice carefully to
the wording that Br. Branham chose here. He said, and the Word was hewed out and reflected what
the Word was at the beginning. Now, if the word Itself was hewed out
then, then why would he say, and it reflected the Word that was at the
beginning. So He is talking about the Word Hewing out the Masterpiece until it
reflected the Word which is God Himself as He was at the beginning.
8. Now, that is what we read in Hebrews Chapter 1: and
verses 1-4
9. Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets,(and that is what Brother
Branham was telling us, that in the past God spoke to man through the prophets,
although the prophets were not perfect men themselves. then we read on) Hath in these
last days spoken unto us through His Son, whom he (God) hath appointed (the
son of God) to be
heir of all things, by whom (or
shall we say “while in whom”) also He (God) made the worlds; So we see here that God made the
worlds by and through the agency of His Son Jesus.
10. Now, this is no
different than brother Branham speaking and the squirrels coming into
manifestation. Brother Branham no more created squirrels of his own power than
did Jesus Christ make the worlds by his own power. Jesus Himself said, “The Son can of
Himself do nothing, whatsoever He seeth the Father do, that doeth the Son
likewise. Therefore, it was the Father doing the creating and the
Son of God was the agency by which and for which He did create all things. And
the Father created the squirrels through the agency of another son, William Branham.
11. Now in getting back to Hebrews 1:3 Who (
That’s the Son of God) being the brightness of his (The father’s) glory, and the
express image of his (the Father’s) person, and upholding all things by the word
of his(the Father’s) power, when he(The Son of God) had by himself
purged our sins, (He, the Son of God) sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high; (That’s God)
12. Now, in HEBREWS 1: 3 It calls Jesus the Son of God The expressed
image... EIKON the word
involves the two ideas of representation
and manifestation.
13. WUEST: HEB 1: 3 ...”In these last days spoke to us in One Who by
nature is His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He
constituted the ages; Who being the out-raying
(the very effulgence) of His Glory and the
exact reproduction of His Essence...”
14. DIAGLOTT : “Who being an effulgence of His Glory and an
exact Impress of His substance...”
15. NIV: “The son is the radiance of God’s Glory, and
the exact representation of His Being...”
16. AMPLIFIED: “He
is the sole expression of the Glory
of God - the light being the out-raying
of the Divine - and He is the perfect imprint
and very Image of God’s nature...”
17. Other Translations say “He
is the radiance of the Father’s Glory and the exact representation of His Nature...”
18. So we see here that Jesus is the very imprint of the Father, the very marked out One in Whom God set
forth as His Mark or representation
and actually the very manifestation of the Father. And yet this scripture speaks of Two,
not One.
19. John tells us the same thing in 1JOHN 1: 1 - 3 The Life was
manifested, and we have seen and we know because of what we see.
Life itself is not visible. It is Spirit. Yet the very essence and nature of
Life is that it has many qualities and characteristics, which brother Branham
called attributes, and these attributes by their very nature are to become
expressed.
20. A rose without it’s beauty and fragrance would not
be a rose. So therefore every Life has attributes that are visibly and
materially displayed to our senses in order that we might better understand
what the nature of the Life is.
21. And so God had to by this very law of expression, He had
to materialize in order to express Himself. You can not remain hidden and
be expressive at the same time. You can not become or fulfill yourself and
remain invisible either.
22. So to
express oneself, you must show or make visible that expression. The
invisible and intrinsic qualities becoming openly displayed. A coming out. A bringing
forth into manifestation.
23. COLOSSIANS 1: 15 - 19
The very image of the Father in whom all the Godhead dwells. Paul says here, “For It pleased the Father that in Him should
all fullness dwell. “ Where did he
get that from?
24. MATTHEW 3: 16 - 17 “In
Whom I am well pleased.” “In
Whom”
25. E-56 GODHEAD.EXPLAINED -- BEAUMONT.TX -- 61-0119.1A The Spirit of God, like a dove,
descended and a voice from heaven (which was above Him) saying, "This is
My beloved Son, in Whom I am pleased to dwell." (Really, the right
translation... They got the verb before the adverb, like all the foreigner
is... "This is My beloved Son, in
whom I am pleased to dwell in." Or, "Whom I am pleased to
dwell." "In Whom I am pleased to dwell." ) That was God coming
into Jesus, and in Him was the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. And there's your Father, Son and Holy Ghost: in the name of
Jesus Christ.
26. 2 CORINTHIANS 3: 18 -
4: 6 Christ Who is the Image of God. The
very representation and manifestation. He
is the outraying or etching of God.
27. II 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. 4:1 ¶ 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.
28. Now, in getting back to the Masterpiece Brother
Branham said, Him, the Word, reflected in the
Masterpiece in His own likeness, God back again in His own likeness, the Word form
being reflected in the image of a man: the Masterpiece. All the prophets
had flaws. All the ones was a portion. But here at last coming up through that
finally comes the Masterpiece, the perfect One, no fault in Him at all, so
perfect, reflected of the Builder Himself. His own image was reflected in His
Work. God and Christ were One, insomuch
until He put His own Spirit into Him; and then even the Image and the
Builder became One: God and His sculpture Work, His Masterpiece... Where Moses
was in the work of Michelangelo, a sculpture work that was dead because it'd
been made out of stone. But here the Master Builder, when He got His Handiwork
perfected, He stepped into It.
29. Notice then that He was in such perfect harmony
with God that God stepped into Him, and reflected Himself out from the Body of
the Son of God.