ONENESS # 20
Vindication
Rev Brian Kocourek
ISAIAH
2: 10-12, 17-19 <read>
PRAYER ( The lofty shall be made
low & the Lord alone shall be exalted).
Again this week, I would
like to continue with brother Branham's message of ONENESS. This will be
number 20 in our series. We left off last week at paragraph number 112,
but while reviewing last weeks message I saw something that
struck me in paragraph 108 that I feel is important enough that we
should examine it closer than we did last week. So I would like to
examine paragraph 108 in more detail before we move further ahead in this
message.
Now before we turn to
pp. 108, I would just like to bring you up to
what brother Branham is illustrating here. He is talking about Cain and Abel's
sacrifice and he tells us that Cain's revelation is the same as most of
the people today who say it was an apple. But then he tells us more
specifically that Abel's sacrifice was more excellent because it was
given directly from God Himself and thus vindicated. Now this is where so many
have gone off in this word.
They don't seem to
be able to hold to the vindicated Word as it was given. They've got to
have something of their own that makes them somebody too. But
God don't want your input. His is good enough.
Let's face it, our faith
is no good. God is not looking for us to increase our faith.
What good would it do to take "0"
and multiply it by a thousand times. It would still be "0".
Right? He
doesn't want our faith, He is looking for us to
receive His Faith.
GALATIANS 2: 16,
20 <read>
( The faith "of") Not "in". Notice again, in EPH 3: 12.
EPHESIANS
PHILIPPIANS
3:7-9[1]...<read
You'll notice he said not of my own righteousness, because
we have none.
ISAIAH 64:1-8 <read>
PHILIPPIANS
3:10-15
<read>
ROMANS 9:14-16 <read>
So we see that it is
impossible to please God by our own efforts, or our own righteousness. He
will never accept what we have to offer Him. All
our sacrifices throughout the history of our forefathers
have always been rejected because we have always
tried to offer Him what we ourselves think we should and to
be honest and quite candid, most of our efforts
have been half hearted and sometimes half baked, if you know
what I mean. Let's turn to Malachi to see what I mean.
MALACHI
1:6-2:17
<read>
It is very
apparent that God is not and has not been happy with our sacrifice.
In fact He does not want our sacrifice. You know why? Because you always
try to use it with Him to show Him what a great people you are, and He won't
accept it from you or any man.
E-113 INFLUENCE 64-0315
Look at back in history, when you're
reading this when you go home. What had happened to
1 SAMUEL
15:22-23
<read>
1 JOHN 1: 9-10<read> If we say
we have no sin we lie and His word is not in us. He isn't looking for you to
be righteous by your own efforts. Yes He wants you to be righteous,
but not of your own accord.
Now that
brings us up to what brother Branham is getting into here
in PP. 108. Now remember in pp. 103 he said,
"Watch her firstborn, Cain, a murderer, a lie, a deceiver,
jealous, jealous of his brother. Notice how he was describing the
attributes of Cain, and yet Cain was very religious and he
sacrificed unto God. So it isn't your sacrifice or what you can do for
God, but what He has done for you that counts.
Let's face it, what can
you or I or anyone do for the Creator of all things. You want to produce
something for Him? What? What can you give Him that He can't
give Himself. As they say in the commercial world.
What can you give the person who
has everything.
You can only give Him one thing that would please Him.
Your heart. Your mind. Your love. That's all he ever wanted in the first
place. And why is it so hard to do?
PP. 105-109 <read>
May we only see it the
way he is seeing it. Why? Because then you will be seeing it
through God's filter. Then you will have a vindicated
revelation of it. That's why.
Did you know, or are you
aware, that brother Branham spent almost 80% of His time
pointing to VINDICATION. The Word had to be VINDICATED. And
He let us know that God couldn't just leave it up to some angel or a messenger,
but He had to come down Himself to Vindicate His Promise.
So if he spent 80% of his messages pointing
to the vindication of God's personal presence actively involved in the fulfillment of His promise,
then what ought we to be preaching. The same thing.
Look, Who came down when
Adam needed it most. Did God send a angel? NO! Did he send just a messenger?
NO! He came down Himself
When Abraham
wanted a son who could he turn to. No one but God Himself,
right? And so who came down to fulfill that promise to him?
Was it an angel? NO! The two angels went down to