ONENESS
# 70
Satan’s
Distraction
Brian
Kocourek
Wednesday night we spoke on how one Word off will
break your
fellowship with God as it did to Adam and Eve in the Garden. We
saw how that we as human beings tend to associate with others of
like mind. Christian people are not the only ones who associate
with others of like mind. Every person in this world of nearly 5
billion people, feel more comfort around others who
think as they
think. We see from Brother Branham's Message of
"Oneness" that
Satan, knowing this, will try to do anything to distract you from
believing all that God has said.
Human beings no
matter what race, gender, or ethnic background
find fellowship with those who have the same
purpose or beliefs
that they do. We as human beings, find comfort
in having others
around us who believe the same things we do. It doesn't matter
whether you are a conservative or a liberal. When you are around
others who think like you and talk like you
there is a certain
comfort level we receive from that.
And as
I pointed out Wednesday night, God is no different. He
said in John 15, " If you love
me you'll receive Me and My
Words." That's fellowship.
FELLOWSHIP: Webster...companionship,
friendly association, a
mutual sharing. A group of people
with the same interests. So we
see that the word here has to do with
a togetherness, a
commonality of sorts. And believe it or not most fellowship is
involved around principles.
We mentioned the Right to Lifers. They gather together around a
certain principle, and so do abortion rights people.
Wars are not
fought over real estate as much as over
principles. Principles
are what control us whether we believe in God or not.
And without
principles there can be no control. Complete anarchy
is all that
would result.
And
this leads us to our subject for this morning which we
began
to touch upon Wednesday night.
I. Satan will offer anything to distract.
Anything contrary to
God's vindicated Word is Satan's kingdom.
pp. 55 - 57
DISTRACT: WEBSTER..To draw
apart...to draw the mind or
attention away in another direction,
to divert...To draw in
conflicting directions...to create conflict or
confusion...
To
divert is to turn aside from a course or direction...
James 1: 5 - 8 & 13 - 15 Drawn away from what? That is the
question. What brings death when drawn from it?
The Word of God
of Course. Jesus said, "My Word are Spirit and
they are Life."
So
to be drawn or pulled away or distracted from the Word of
God
can only produce one thing and that is death.
That only makes sense. John 1: 4 says, "In Him was Life and
the
Life was the Light of men." So to leave the
Light which is the
illumination of His Word can only bring upon
darkness. It is a
scientific fact that if we lived in total
darkness, life would
cease to exist upon this planet. No light, no
life. Then if in
the natural, we see a law that affects life, how much
more so in
the spiritual, since the natural types the spiritual.
Now as
we said before that Satan's goal is to break our
with God and therefore break our fellowship with Him as
well. The
Bible tells us in Proverbs "A
whisperer separateth very friends."
So Satan will attempt to draw you
away and as Jesus said to
Peter, "Satan will attempt to sift
you," That is to say, he will
try every trick in the book until he has achieved his own
purpose
and that is to destroy your relationship with Jesus
Christ.
In Revelation 12, we find that satan
is the accuser of the
brethren. Now all humankind comes to this world the same way.
we
are born in sin, shaped in iniquity and we all come to
this world
speaking lies. Have you ever watched even little kids at play
and
if two kids are close friends and another
kid comes along and
wants into the fellowship, what generally happens? One of them
invariably says something untrue or very personal about another
one with the intention of separating them from their old
friend
ship so they can cut in and have a friend
for themselves. And
Satan is no different.
But
the stakes are a little higher in this game, because "if
you
walk in the light as Christ is in the light, you have
fellowship
with one another." Now 1JOHN 1: 7 doesn't stop
there. It goes on
to say, "and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses you from
all sin."
So
we see that this separation of very friends has a death penal
ty to it and Satan already knows his days
are numbered. His
stinger was pulled out on the cross, and his time is
limited. So
beware my friends of his tactics. As Peter
said, "Satan goes
about as
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."
Now with this in mind lets's turn to the Scripture
this morning
and examine just what the condition of man is in this
hour.
2
THES 1: 2 - 2: 17 <read>
This
scripture fills us in on the condition of the entire
church
world at the time of the Glorious Appearing of
our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ.
Let's focus first on verse 10 <read> With all deceivableness of
unrighteousness.
DECEIVABLENESS: Comes from the root word deceive which means to
make a person believe what is not true, to delude or
mislead. To
be false, to betray.
Now delude
is to fool someone so completely that they accept
what is false as being true.
Now notice that this deception that is being spoken of in the
scripture says, that the deceivableness has it's
source in the
unrighteousness. Now this word unrighteousness is not speaking of
a sin so stooped in immoral and filth that
these people are
completely possessed like someone heavy on drugs and not in
their
complete mind. On the contrary, the scripture speaks
of a people
who are religious but are completely led into false
worship in a
false system.
Look, satan hasn't changed
his ways. Can a leopard change his
spots? Can a Zebra lick off his spots? Neither
can satan
change
his nature. And neither can you. Your nature is the characteris
tics that speak out what you are. They are the outward represen
tation of the life that is yours. Who was it that
killed Jesus
Christ? It was the most religious people of that time. Who was it
that killed all of the Prophets that God sent to His people
to
call them to repent and change their thinking? It was the most
religious people that's who.
So then what is this deceivableness of unrighteousness? It is
something that makes the people believe in what is not true.
2 THES
2: 3 <read> There has to be a falling away from what? To
fall away let's you know that a certain height has been
attained
first, then a falling from that height.
In the
Wuest translation it calls this deceivableness in 2
THES
perishing.
JOHN 8:
44 Lusts .... pleasures...It was a religious system in
those men that the devil got into and used.
1 COR
tells us in JOHN 6: 63 <read> and we see Peter tell us
the same
thing in 1 PETER 1: 23 <read>.
ROMANS
8: 9 <read>
Unless we are born again we are none of His.
EPHESIANS 1 : 22 - 23 <read> The church then is the only
soul
saving institution there is. So then satan's attack will and must
come to and through
the church in order to fully propagate his
deception.
1
TIM 4: 1 - 3 <read>
2
Tim 3; 1 - 9 <read> Pleasures
JOHN 8:
44 The pleasures is a spiritual form of worship. These
people seek a religious form to reach God.
But notice how they resist the truth. These
men rise up who just
take over the leadership.
Now, these are not those men who have been called
by God as a
five fold ministry.
EPHESIANS
4: 7 - 8, so what are these gifts, 11 - 16.
But these that Peter is speaking of that come on as Jannes
and
Jambres
are not God sent but satan sent. Paul
tells us that the
true gifts of God to the church will bring you to a place
where
you are not tossed to and fro by every windy doctrine.
1COR
So
then who are these that come in. ACTS 20 : 28 - 30. From among
yourselves. These are not God's gifts to the church, neither are
they novices in the Word,
but they are elders in the congrega
tion apt to teach. Men who are not in the original plan for the
church as Eve was not in the original creation
and thereby she
fell.
1 JOHN
2: 19 - 20 They went out from us. From What?
from the
reality of the Word to their own conception of the Word.
They did not have a revelation or they would not have left the
fellowship of the saints who are fellowshipping around the
reve
lation of Jesus Christ.
2
COR 11: 1- 4 A
chaste virgin who's minds become corrupted by a
Jesus of another Nature, a Gospel of
Another nature and certainly
they take on therefore another nature and not Christ'
own nature.
This corruption is a process that comes by a spiritual learning
that is other than what Christ has taught. It is a spiritual
learning apart from the illumination of the Word which our
minds
are to receive. By Faith are we saved.
Revelation then saves
you. But it must be correct revelation.
MATT
ited by birds. That means it is polluted by this time.
REVELATION 18: 1 -2 notice in this fallen, not annihilated,
but
in this fallen condition she is inhabited by birds. Just
anything
filling up her pews.
MATT
13: 33 Leaven...until it was completely leavened. The
whole
kingdom, the entire church is a mess.
MAL
4: 5 - 6 unless Elijah sent all to be burned.
The problem is that in every religious order, and system
the
people do not know that they are in this fallen condition.
JER
3 : 1 - 2
8.
Union, oneness, fellowship broken when one Word off. Word =
life= nature.
Break nature break fellowship, harmony, oneness
pp. 103
10.
False union will always bring on judgment. pp. 117 Therefore
false union only
stumbling block to keep you away from the
real. pp. 121 -
123
Gal 1 : 6 - 9
Deut 28 cursings
esp. 15 - 19 etc.
14.
Satan's teaching (alternative) is so close yet can not
produce Eternal
Life in you. pp. 220 - 228
2 Thes 2
Rev 13: 1 - 8