WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC #9

Deadly Sincere

July 30, 2000

Brian Kocourek

 

This morning we will continue again from Brother Branham's Message, WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC.  This will be number 9 in our series, and I would like to title this message, "Deadly sincere". To begin we will again pick up where we left off reading today from paragraph #4.

 

WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC  65-0221E  4b   I am very grateful for the great attendance this week, and for all you people that's hooked up tonight again with the--the wires of the telephone. And we're grateful to each and every one of you.

 

6 Billy said to me this morning; he said, "Daddy, if you would've come with me this morning, early, right after daylight, and stand out here around in these places and watch mothers feeding their babies in the car, them poor people setting in that rain, waiting for the doors to open..." You see what a hypocrite I'd be if I told you anything but the truth? I'd really be a foul person. Sometimes I have to hurt, but it's not because that I want to, it's because... It's--it's not me that's hurting; it's truth that hurts. And I--I... But I believe that's the reason you come, because I'm deadly sincere with you and do all that I can to help you. The Lord help each and every one of you.

 

HEBREWS 12:25   See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven:

26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27    And this [word], Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For our God [is] a consuming fire.

 

I THESSALONIANS 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17    Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

 

Deadly Sincere, let us pray…

 

What is sincerity? And Why does brother Branham tells us that what he has brought to us, he has done so with deadly sincerity?

 

WEBSTER tells us the word SINCERITY means the following. The quality or state of being sincere, honesty, genuineness, good faith. It comes from the root word, Sincere which means, Without deceit, pretense or hypocrisy; Truthful, straight forward; honest. Being the same in actual character as in outward appearance; genuine and real.

 

Paul prayed that we would be found in a condition of sincerity at the day of Christ.

PHILIPPIANS 1:9 ¶  And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and [in] all judgment;

  10    That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

 

Paul used the Greek word,   heilikrines    {i-lik-ree-nace'}    which means :

1)      pure, sincere, unsullied, found pure when unfolded and examined by the sun's light

 

Peter tells us that we should desire the Word in a sincere state.

 

I PETER 2:1 ¶  Wheefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

2    As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.

 

Now, what does Peter mean by this? He is telling us that we can not grow unless we have the word in it's purest form, undiluted. The word peter used is different from the word Paul used to be sincere. It is a Greek word,   adolos    {ad'-ol-os} and it means -- sincere (1) 1) in liquids: unmixed, unadulterated, pure  2) in persons: without dishonest intent, guileless

 

The admonition is first given by Joshua as the people are about to cross over the Jordan into the Land of Promise, therefore, I believe it is very important for in this hour before we are raptured to come into this same purity on mind concerning our worship of God in Spirit and Truth.

 

JOSHUA 24:14

  14    Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

  15     ¶  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

  16    And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;

 

TESTIMONY 63-1128M    33    Oh, if there ever was a time that the church ought to be in deep sincerity, it should be right now. Now.

 

I CORINTHIANS 5:7     ¶  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

  8    Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.

  9     ¶  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

  10    Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

  11    But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

  12    For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

  13    But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

 

COMMUNION  65-1212   40    You don't take the Lord's supper by a tradition. You take it because it's the love of God in your heart, in keeping the commandments of God. See? That's what you take it for. So if you don't take it in sincerity, just it's a tradition, "Well, our church observes communion once every Sunday, or once every month, or twice a year," and you go up, say, "Well, it's my time," and--and then take the communion, why, it's a stink to God. See? That's just a tradition. Even like anything else, you--you've got to be sincere. God wants the depths of your heart. You remember, the very God that brought you here on earth is the One you're serving. See? You're doing this because He said so, because it's His order. Then we want to come up with deepness and sincerity, knowing that by God's grace that we have been saved. And we--we love Him and we feel His Presence, and we--we see It change our lives. Our--our whole being is changed. We--we--we're different people. We don't live like we used to; we don't think like we used to.

 

II CORINTHIANS 1:12 ¶  For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

 

II CORINTHIANS 2:14  Now thanks [be] unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

  15    For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

  16    To the one [we are] the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?

  17    For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

II CORINTHIANS 8:1   ¶  Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

  2    How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

  3    For to [their] power, I bear record, yea, and beyond [their] power [they were] willing of themselves;

  4    Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and [take upon us] the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

  5    And [this they did], not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

  6    Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

  7     ¶  Therefore, as ye abound in every [thing, in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also.

  8    I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

  9    For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

  10    And herein I give [my] advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

  11    Now therefore perform the doing [of it]; that as [there was] a readiness to will, so [there may be] a performance also out of that which ye have.

  12    For if there be first a willing mind, [it is] accepted according to that a man hath, [and] not according to that he hath not.

  13    For [I mean] not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

14      But by an equality, [that] now at this time your abundance [may be a supply] for their want, that their abundance also may be [a supply] for your want: that there may be equality:

15    15s it is written, He that [had gathered] much had nothing over; and he that [had gathered] little had no lack.

 

EPHESIANS 6:23   Peace [be] to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  24    Grace [be] with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

 

 

TITUS 2:7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine [shewing] uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,  8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

 

This si the condition that Paul wanted to present the Bride to Christ, but it did not fall upon Paul to do this. This is the Ministry for the 7^th angel, to present the Bride to Christ. But he must do so according to what Paul taught. Therefore we find ths same word used in refernece to the Bride being a chaste Virgin.     hagnos    {hag-noce'}    aJgnw'ß    adverb from 53; TDNT -- omitted,omitted; adv

 

 AV  -- sincerely (1)

1)      chaste, clean, pure, with sincerity

 

II CORINTHIANS 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ.

  3    But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

  4    For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

 

EVENING MESSENGER 63-0116   119    Back there in Noah's time, if they would lived after His ordinances, offered the sacrifices... They got away from it. When He come, He found this--that thing operating wrong. The same thing He did when He come on earth, He found the people and the Pharisees, and so forth, after the law. What was they doing? Just no sincerity in it at all, just go ahead and slop it through any old way, and just as long as they joined the church, and that's all they needed. And that's what He found. And that's what He's found again. He finds the same thing. People doesn't change. So if He sent His program and the people disbelieved it there and they perished, they believed it and lived, now, on those two, it's got to be the same on this time. It's got to be the same. No...It's always been a fight for the messenger to separate the old from the new. It's always been that fight for--for the messenger coming in to separate old from new, though always the message must be Scriptural, now, for each has foretold of the other to come.

 

WHAT HEAREST THOU ELIJAH  59-0412E   E-16    Today we can shout; we can scream; we can speak with tongues, have signs and things, but where is that sincerity of so sincere about the Word of God and the--the Church of God until it grieves our heart to see sin going on. And Elijah had come into all of this. Then when he called all of Israel together, and he made a challenge to them, "Let the God that is supernatural, let Him that can show Himself alive, let Him be God. If all of your theologies," he was speaking to them, "if Balaam is a god, if he can answer, let him answer. Let the God that answers, let the God that keeps His Word be God. If that isn't a challenge tonight to the world again, "Let the God that keeps His Word be God."

 

HEAR.YE.HIM_  PHEONIX.AZ  SUNDAY_  60-0313   E-30    And then if that child (that son) did not obey and was not obedient child, it never was no more than a son; it remained a son, but yet it had no inheritance. Now, we don't want to stay in that place. The church ought to be a thousand miles up the road farther than it is tonight. The Pentecostal blessings has been falling on the people here in America for fifty years; and if anything, we're dwindling instead of going on. "What are you preaching such as this for, Brother Branham?" I want to see the church of God in deep sincerity; I want to see the old fashioned prayer meetings. I want to see them times when they can't leave church; they just stay all night, and pray, and fast, and call out till God answers. Instead of that, it seem like love has dwindled away from us. The love of God... just love... Why, a real Christian can hardly wait: when the bell rings, he's got the front seat, and there ready with the song book in his hand. But now, we say, "Oh, my, I don't know."

 Oh, blest be the tie that binds  Our hearts in Christian love;  The fellowship of kindred minds

 Is like to that above.  When we asunder part,  It gives us inward pain;  But we shall still be joined in heart,  And hope to meet again. That's the way real Christianity is a living experience. Pentecost is not a denomination; Pentecost is an experience that anybody can have if they'll wish to have it. It's something that you experience, the Holy Spirit.

 

JUST.ONE.MORE.TIME.LORD_  PHOENIX.AZ  V-9 N-8  SUNDAY_  63-0120E

  44    Samson, while standing there, the power of God come upon him, and the lion made a jump for him; he just caught him by the mouth and ripped him open with his hand. And could that man that would do a thing like that... Here stands the same man, defeated, helpless, and blind. And I can almost point you to a church like that: helpless, defeated, and blind, rejecting the promises, rejecting the Word, a church that Christ promised that would have power over sickness. "In My Name they shall cast out devils," taking up a devil and casting him away, and the blessings that He promised His church. And because the church has turned from prayer meetings, and from sincerity, and made the religion of Christ a tradition, and has took all the strength out of it... Glamor come into our churches, and she stands just about defeated. Oh, my.

  46    There he stood, all stripped of power by a woman, just because his eyes went wanting, because some immoral Jezebel set up a system to conquer the servant of God. May I say this with reverence, there has been formed a system of Jezebel that's conquering, bringing them all into a federation, all the denominations, Pentecostals and all, into the World Council of Churches, which is no more than a trap of the Devil to take away from you what you got. Then she'll laugh at you: stripped of power by that woman.

 

ALL THINGS 62-1124E   E-33    Oh, church, do you see what makes a minister's heart break? When the Pentecost that He gave us, we've made a tradition out of it. The sincerity has faded from the church. Oh, I don't say all of it, thank God. Wasn't all of it gone then; but the majority... The sincerity is gone. People can't listen to it no more. They don't want to hear it. They'd rather get somebody that's got more polish. They don't want it. Well, just as it was then, so is it now.

But God sent them Isaiah, and he pulled no punches. And he told them what they had done. Read Isaiah 1, when you go home. Listen at that prophet preach that. He told them that it was a stink. In other words, God didn't want their stinking sacrifice, a sacrifice that... They... What had they done? They had polluted their sacrifice. They had polluted it, because they entered with it without sincerity. They wasn't getting any results. He said, "Your traditions..." Coming with their traditions had taken the power out of His commandments.

 

  E-39    Oh, you said that "You're taking under the Old Testament, Brother Branham." All right. Let's take the New Testament, II Timothy 3. The Holy Spirit warned us that in the last days that the church would get away from the sincerity and the faith. They'd have a form of godliness, but would deny the power that went with the right thing, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Yes, sir. God hates a powerless religion. And any religion today that hasn't got Christ in it, is powerless. But any religion that Christ in is under His own Blood, and it's got power in it. You say God hates a religion without power? He said, "Your solemn feasts is a stink." I guess He does hate it. He said, "It--it makes Me sick." And remember, He told this rich Laodicean church that "Because you're lukewarm (in other words, you make Me sick), I'll spew you out of My mouth." And we've come to that age. God, send us an Isaiah to chop the thing to pieces, lay it out before the people: cry out; spare not. You think he'd be accepted? Certainly not. He'd cry just the same. Solemn feasts, they're a stink. God hates powerless religion. It's got to have power in it. It's got to have sincerity. Sincerity brings power. Sincerity brings real worship, not forms, but genuine power worship to know that you've passed from death unto Life.

 

SIR WE WOULD SEE JESUS  63-1112  52    How different it was from Saint Paul, when he said, "I never come to you with the excellency of speech or with wisdom of the world, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men and his culture, but in the--the power of the Holy Spirit."

Yes, we have another group we kinda, many people look to, is a fellow that we call the good fellow. He stands up on the platform; he is a good jokester. He can tell a few jokes and get all the people laughing, and people will crowd out everywhere to hear those jokes. And maybe they're not bad jokes, they're just jokes told from the platform, but I--I don't think that's right. Now, I--I... This is no place for joking. This is the place for the deepest of sincerity. That's what's the matter with the church today; we get away from that deep sincerity. We got to be right down to the bottom, sincere with this. You see? And then, God loves sincerity, and we don't get sincere enough with it.

  55    But we find out, this person can get everybody laughing and going on, and we kinda look for that man. But to me, he is called, to me, maybe a entertainer, or maybe just simply a pulpit clown, that's all (See?) to stand up there and--and just get the people laughing. When there should be, in--in the coming of the Lord, in the deepness of sincerity, watching every moment for His appearing, for we don't know just what time He might appear. So we don't need lecturers; we don't need entertainers, and so forth.

Then there's another class of people that looks for God, if they was looking for Him in the dress of a person. Many people see a man coming down the street with some great--some kind of a religious hat on, and--and religious clothes hanging down, and--and they--they think that that's very religious, that's Christ-like. And I don't think so. If that would be so, then... Christ didn't dress like that, so it isn't in dress. "The Kingdom of God is not in meat and dress, but it's in long-suffering in the Holy Ghost."

  57    They look for the people, many of them look for the people... People look for Christ, rather, among their relatives. You say, "My mother, she's been a certain-certain member of a certain-certain church for so many years. Or, my father come up." And they look for Christ amongst their people like that. "My family raised me up to be such-and-such." But we don't see Christ (See?); we don't see It.You know, Mary and Joseph made that mistake one time. They were good people. But they went up to Jerusalem to the feast, and on their road back they missed Jesus among them. And so they sought Him among their people, but He wasn't found. I think that's a whole lot, today. And they went trying to find where He was at. Did you know where they found Him? Right where they left Him. That's right.

  59    Well, that's where we'll find Him. That's where the church will find Him. We won't find Him in lectures. We won't find Him in entertainers. We won't find Him in the way we dress, or the denomination we belong to. We'll go back to the day of Pentecost, where He came into the church, and there's where we'll find Him. Because that's where the early church left Him, and at the Nicaea Council, and there's where He has been left ever since. So it's... We have to go back to that time to get Him. Go back where we left Him, to where we can take His Word; and not add nothing to It, take anything from It. Just believe It the way It is. That--that's the way It's written, that's what It is. God's watched over It, to keep It this way, and that's the standard that we'll be judged by.

 

HEBREWS 12:14  Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

¹⁵ See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

¹⁶ See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

¹⁷ Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

¹⁸ You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;

¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them,

²⁰ because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned."

²¹ The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."

²² But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,

²³ to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,

²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."

²⁷ The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

²⁹ for our "God is a consuming fire."

¹ Keep on loving each other as brothers.

² Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

³ Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

⁶ So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

⁷ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.