Masterpiece 81
The Token and
God’s family back in Eden Again
Pastor, Brian Kocourek
This week I would like to continue with paragraph 157
where Brother Branham speaks of God’s plan to bring his family back to the Garden
of Eden again. Now, I do not know whether he is speaking of a literal Garden of
Eden or if he is talking about the same setting in the New Jerusalem as there
was in the original Garden of Eden. But he often talked about a return to
THE MASTERPIECE 64-0705 157
…He's going to bring this little Bride that's smitten right back to the side of
the original Word. And there It is; there's the Masterpiece, the family back again in garden of Eden.
So we are looking at a full and complete restoration
here. Now, in the Book of Isaiah we see a return to
Isaiah
11:1 And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow
out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And
shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he
shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his
lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid; and the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And
the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together:
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice' den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my
holy mountain: for the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.10 And in that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
So we see God’s promise of a Redeemer (God Himself, working through His
Son) and He came forth to bring full and complete redemption and restoration of
His family back to the same condition that his first children, Adam and Eve, shared
together in the Garden of Eden. So you see we have a promise of restoration to
the Garden of Eden.
But this time it will be in the Holy Mountain of God, the New Jerusalem
we so long for, and it will come when God has placed all things under the Feet
of His Son Jesus, with the exception of He Himself.
1
Corinthians
And from the Message Leadership 65-1207 P:119
Brother Branham said, O
God, take us back to Eden again, Lord,
where there's no death, where there's no sorrow. Grant it, Lord. We stand
humbly, waiting for the Second Adam to come for His Bride. Make us part of Him,
Father. We pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
We also see in Isaiah 65 this atmosphere that God will once again restore
unto us.
Isaiah 65: 17 For,
behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18 But be ye glad
and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy.19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard
in her, nor the voice of crying.
Now, let’s skip up to verse 21 And
they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and
eat the fruit of them. 22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and
another eat (nobodies
going to take it from you there. no Government, no local, state or federal tax
system, no corporations, nobody will take it from you.)
for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the
LORD, and their offspring
with them.24 (Now, that is a promise
that you should keep before God in your prayers every time you pray. What good
is it to marry and have children only to lose them to the world. No, we have a
promise that they will be with us for all eternity.) And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while
they are yet speaking, I will hear. 25 The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the
bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and
the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where
is the place of my rest? 2 For
all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the
LORD: but to this man will I look, even
to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
What a great promise we have from God. That not only we will be there
with Him and we will enjoy the fruits of our labor because there will be no
government bodies to tax it away from you. No local school district that needs
another 60 million dollar school. So you got to pay for it even though you didn’t
send your children to their government schools. No, there will be no one to
steal what you work for over there.
Could you imagine how little time it would take you to store up wealth if
you never were taxed, or never had to pay for health insurance, or car
insurance, or home insurance and any of
the other many insurance bills people have to pay for today. You’d live like
kings. And we will be king’s and priests over there.
In the sermon Power of Restoration brother Branham said, we’re on our
road back to the original relationship we had with God, to where we could walk
and talk with Him.
Power of
transformation 65-1031M P:44 Only thing that that is, is just the
restoration, where we are now; we're on
our road back to that original beginning of the creation of God, back to the
garden of Eden again: husband and wife, without any sin or anything to live eternally.
And that is why I want to speak to you this evening on applying the
Token. Now, the token in all ages has been the Blood of the innocent one. In the days of Moses, when the death angel
swept over the land, God commanded Moses to tell the people to apply the token
to each house. That token was the Blood of an innocent lamb. One without
blemish. It signified the way back into fellowship with God and the protection
of God as they had in the Garden.
1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For
the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and
bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father,
and was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us:
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things write
we unto you, that your joy may be full. 5 This then
is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say
that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not
sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
So you see our walking in the Light brings us into
fellowship and applies the blood over our sin. Now, back in the garden of Eden,
man left off walking with God when the woman listened to the lies of the devil
instead of listening to her husband. She wanted knowledge rather than
revelation. But it’s by Revelation that God will restore it back.
Genesis 3:22 And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he
was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the
And since they were cast out man has regretted it, and man has since desired
to get back to that condition where Adam walked in the cool of the evening with
God and talked to Him and fellowshipped with Him. And we can have that by
walking in the light, but man wants more of a reality than what Revelation can
give him. He wants to see it, feel it, touch and taste it and smell it before
he can believe it and receive it. But when man took knowledge over revelation,
he was cast out and God set two Cherubims to keep man out.
Man thirsts for the reality of the Living God so satan gives booze. If
you are sincere in your heart and you are hungering for the reality of God
he’ll give it to you.
We sing that song, from Matthew
And that is what we are going to talk about this evening. We have not, because
we ask not. James said, James 4:2 Ye
lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight
and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive
not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your lusts.
Only one way provided by God 63-0731 P:40 His Word is always the Truth, always the
Truth. His believing children believe for it, and cry for it, until His Word is
vindicated. And His Word is always His
Will. If you want to know what the
will of God is, find it in the Bible. It's God's Word. Anything contrary to
It, is perverted. And don't get into that hybrid condition. What God said,
that's the Truth.
And to think the Very
presence of God in this hour is to release that desires that we have back to him. That is what brother Branham told us in the
message, Presence
of God unrecognized 64-0618 P:31 If we could only realize that He's appearing to us in these meetings for
one purpose, that's to release our desires that we have in Him, to us. But
we've got to recognize His Presence. And now, how you recognize His
Presence, is when the promised Word for this age is made manifest, not the
promised Word of Moses' age or any other ages, the promise of the Word for this
age.
Jesus even promised us in John
Elijah
and Elisha 54-0304 P:32 Now, when they got down to the
God
commissioning Moses the prophet 53-0508 P:37 When they crossed over, got
over on the other side, he said, "Now, you've asked. Ask what you will,
and I will give it to you." Perfect type of the Church. "All
right," he said, "I want a
double portion of your spirit." Amen. Don't be scared to ask. Ask
abundantly. "You have not, because you ask not. You ask not, because
you believe not." That's right. Ask, ask a whole lot. God will give you a
whole lot. Have a lot of faith. A fellow told me the other day; he said,
"He was riding an old model-T Ford, yet." Said, "One day he
happened to get some good faith and God give him a Buick." Said, "I
got a Buick faith, I'm--I'm praying for Cadillac faith." All right. That's
good. That's right. Keep on. What you believe, hold on to it. God will give it.
He's got Ford faith, so just stay with the Ford then, that's all right. And
so... Let's get a little more faith. All right.
What it takes to overcome all unbelief
60-0729 P:55 Now, how are we planted? We're planted in
Christ Jesus. Now, I believe, just in my estimation of Him. He's the
inexhaustible fountain of Life, that you cannot exhaust His goodness. Some
people think, "Oh, I hate to call on God so much." That's what He
wants you to do. "You have not because you ask not. You ask not because
you believe not. Ask abundantly that your joys might be full." That's what
God wants: Ask big things. I'm asking
for hundreds of souls in this meeting. I'm asking that every sick person enters
that door will go out of here well. I'm believing it. I'm believing that
till we go, that this won't be another gathering together, but it'll be a
revival in
Greater than Solomon 63-0628E P:65 He's
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever, the same Jehovah God that
was made manifest in Him. "At
that day you'll know that I was in the
Father, and the Father in Me, I
in you, and you in Me." God condescending from a Pillar of Fire to a Man,
and from that Man's sacrificed Life, the Blood that cleansed us and come down into us to fellowship again to
pull out a church for an Eden again. Why? Now, quiet just a minute. What
did this to that woman? She was a professed religionist, but her heart was
hungering to see something real. She wanted something real. And if you're hungering to see something real,
God will show it to you. You'll always find what you're looking for.
Now, God would not have guarded the entrance with Cherubims if it had
been ok for man to enter back in anytime he felt like it. But notice, God never
destroyed the entrance, He only kept it guarded so man could not get back in. So
there is still an entrance back into this fellowship with God and that is what
we are going to talk about this evening.
Revelation
chapter 4 pt 3 throne mercy 61-0108 P:125 You notice, these Cherubims
that John saw here must've been interested in keeping the Tree of Life, so they
must be interested in human beings. Or read Genesis, getting back to Genesis
again; They kept the Tree of Life, guarded it, the Way of Life. How is the Way?
Jesus said, "I am that Way. I
am that Bread that come from God out of heaven. If a man eats this Bread, he'll
live forever." Now, there is a way
back to that Tree of Life. You get it? Now, at this, I want to show now and
make this sure, it's an altar. Now,
this must've been an altar at the garden of Eden. I tell you why. Do you
remember both Cain and Abel come up here to worship? So that showed that God's
altar was moved and set here at the garden of Eden, and the only way back to
So we see that Faith is both a substance and it is an
evidence. The word substance was translated from the Greek word “Hupotstasis”
and is translated as “substance”, “confidence” and “person”. So Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, it is
the confidence of things hoped for, it is the person of things hoped
for. Hebrews 1: 3 says,
Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of his person,(that’s the same word
“hupostasis”) and
upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
And since Faith is a Revelation, and there is only One
Lord and one Faith, then Faith is that Person that we hope for, and that is God
Himself. So Faith is the person of God that we hope for. And it is the evidence
or conviction of things that we now presently do not see. Therefore Faith is a
reality.
Why do you think God can show a man what is to come
whether it be by dreams or by visions, and the man will see it exactly the way
it will come to pass.
Because it has already come to pass in the mind of God
and if we could just understand that we would not have any problem with holding
fast our Faith.
In the book of Ecclesiastes written by Solomon under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we read.
Ecclesiastes
1: 9 The thing that hath been, it
is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and
there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecclesiastes
3: 15 That which hath been is now;
and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is
past.
So you see, faith is simply seeing what God sees. And then when you can
see as God sees, and think as He thinks then you know that what He has revealed
to you by Faith will be just as certain as you are sitting in your seat this
evening.
Hebrews 11:2 For by it (by Faith) the elders obtained
a good report.3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear. (Now, if the worlds could be created by
Faith, then it is apparent that Faith is a substance, because you can’t take
nothing and make something out of it without that something being there to
begin with. And it was there to begin with just as certain as it is there now.
That substance was in God’s thinking.) 4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God
testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
God's
provided way of dealing with sin 54-0305 P:30 What a beautiful picture we pick up in Eden
again, quickly. When I see Abel trying to find out how he could find favor
before God...Cain a great man, a religious man. He came down and built a
church, just as good as your church. He built an altar; he offered a sacrifice;
he paid tribute to God. If God only requires you to have faith in Him... Cain
was not an infidel. Cain was a believer. Certainly he was. Cain was not only
that, but he was a worshipper. And Cain was a genuine church member. And he
built an altar to the Lord, knelt before the Lord and prayed. If God is just,
which we know He is, and a altar, a church, a sacrifice, a faith in God, is all
that God requires, He was unrighteous to condemn Cain.
So you see, Abel knew the way back into fellowship
with God because it was revealed to him that the entrance back into fellowship
with God was through the blood of the innocent one, The Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. Now, he then knowing that there would come an innocent
one, that he by revelation knew had been slain since before the foundations of
the world, and knowing this he offered the blood of an innocent lamb as a token
of that which was to come. His bleeding dying lamb signified that which was to
come. And he knew that if the blood of
one who was not innocent was mingled with the blood of an innocent woman, then
blood would have to be shed to open the way into fellowship with God again.
Genesis 4:3 And
in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the
ground an offering unto the LORD. 4 And Abel, he
also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the
LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not
respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.6 And
the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule
over him. 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came
to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his
brother, and slew him.
Glorified
Jesus 55-0225 P:25 Now, Cain, I don't believe that Cain
willfully walked out there and got the fruits of the field, works of his hands,
and brought it over, because he just
absolutely wanted to do it to be a smart aleck. I believe Cain come with a full heart, thinking he was doing right.
Why was he trying to find favor with
God? He was trying to find life
again. He was trying to get back to the garden of Eden again, where the
Cherubims was. I imagine they went to the east side where the Cherubim was
guarding the Tree of Life. They were trying to get back. And a man with the destination of his soul
hanging in the balance, he ain't going up there to play church; he's going up
there to worship. And with all of his heart, Cain said, "I believe
there is a God. And I'm coming to find favor with Him." So he goes and get
the fruits of the field that he had raised, brought them up and laid them down,
perhaps put the big calla lilies and beautiful flowers, around and stepped
back... Oh, we could have something to say here of that nature like that. But
he stepped back, knelt down, and raised up his hands, and confessed his wrong
and worshipped Jehovah. But Jehovah shook his head, no.
Why? Because Hebrews 11: 6 But without faith it
is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And today we know that if we walk
in the light we have fellowship with the Father and the blood of His Son opens
the way for forgiveness of our sins.
That’s 1 John
1:7
Satan's