The Parables of Christ no. 29
A
Humble Attitude
Sunday
4, 2004
Rev. Brian Kocourek
LUKE
18:1 ¶ And he spake a
parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to
faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither
regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him,
saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but
afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet
because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual
coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
7 And shall not God avenge his own
elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I
tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Luke
18:9 ¶ And he spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
despised others:
Now, before we continue with this parable I want you
to notice that we are told that the reason behind Jesus telling this parable is
that He wanted to make a statement concerning those who thought too much about
themselves. And
he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves…
Now, you probably think, “who in the world trusts in
themselves? And the answer is most everyone. There’s an old expression which is
off the word, but it goes like this, “God helps them that help themselves.” I
believe Benjamin Franklin said it, and that could be no further from the truth.
God helps those who can’t help themselves. Why would you need God to help you
if you can do it. And so we see here Jesus telling a parable concerning those
people who have placed their trust in their own selves.
And this Scripture tells us how they trusted in
themselves. It says they trusted in themselves because … Because why?
Because that they were righteous, and despised others: Now,
we know the word righteous means to be rightly wise, and the Apostle John told
us in , I JOHN 3:7 “he that
doeth righteousness is righteous”. So we see these men not only knew
what was right to do, but they also did according to what they knew to be
right. But there was something wrong here with these men. Not in their actions,
but in their minds. You see, what Jesus is going to show us here in this
parable is that it is not enough to know what is right, but you must keep yourself
humble about concerning what you know to be right, or your right-wise-ness. But
these guys got puffed up with the knowledge they had and began to despise
others. Notice they were righteous, They had a
right understanding, but there was something wrong… and we are told they despised others.
Now, the word despise means 1. to
regard with contempt or scorn: 2. To dislike intensely; and it means to loathe:
3. To regard as unworthy of one's
interest or concern: So we see
this condition in the hearts of the Pharisees showed a certain hardness of
heart towards people who were less fortunate than they were.
You know if there is one attitude I do not like it is
when people shove their nose in the air and if it rained they would drown.
Sometimes I wish it would rain, right over their head, so they might choke on
their own arrogance. I know that sounds rough, but I hate arrogance, and I hate
haughtiness. To me, people that are haughty and arrogant are only showing their
ignorance. And the trouble of it is, the people that are usually the most
arrogant are the most ignorant as well. Now, I am not talking about those
without an education. I am talking about willful ignorance. The know it alls
who willfully turn away from “Thus Saith
the Lord”.
Now, you might ask, why would they turn down “Thus
saith the Lord”? The answer is because they only listen to “thus saith me, or
thus saith myself”. And they are willfully ignorant. But these are men that Jesus said are
despisers. They have no respect for any but themselves. They look down on all
but those they have deemed to be on par with themselves. They scoff at the
righteous, and make light of the Truth. And it was prophesied of these that
they would play a prominent role at the end time, when the Lord would come on the
scene.
II
PETER 3:3 ¶
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days
scoffers,(notice he said knowing
this first, in other words, this is the first thing you will notice, there will
come forth scoffers, people who despise the Lord.
ACTS
13:40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of
in the prophets; 41 Behold, ye despisers,
and wonder, and perish: for I work a
work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man
declare it unto you. And so we
see it prophecied that God will do a work in our day, a work which no man will
believe thought a man William Branham declare it unto us.
And notice the main characteristic given to us to
identify them when they come on the scene, The Apostle Peter tells us is that
they will be )
walking after their own lusts, And
that is exactly what the Apostle Paul warned us they would be as well. II TIMOTHY 4:3 For the time will
come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; (that means there is coming a time when they will no
longer put up with safe and sound doctrine) but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, (the people) having itching ears (the
people having itching ears for what? To hear the things they want to
hear.); 4 And
they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables. And so they turn down the doctrine in favor of fables or
stories. They want to hear the stories about the supernatural occurrences in
the meetings, but they could care less to understand what it is all about. No, they
don’t want that. It doesn’t fit with their lustful desires.
And so in getting back to what the Apostle Peter was
Telling us, we hear what these people will be saying…verse 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? (that’s Parousia, see? They will be saying, where is the
promise of his Parousia, where is the promise of his presence? And why do they
say that? Peter tells us the reason is their attitude…) for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. All things continue the same? They do?
It seems to me that God is still on the scene doing great and mighty things and
is opening the eyes and giving sight to the blind. But they do not see what God
is doing, and so Peter tells us… 5 For this they willingly are ignorant, …Notice
he said they are “willingly ignorant”. Why? Because it doesn’t fit with what they want. And
what are they willingly ignorant of? That God has come, and His Parousia
Presence is doing mighty works, and that God is on the scene, and yet they are
willingly ignorant of this. And what makes them willingly ignorant? Because it
didn’t come the way they thought it should come.
ISAIAH
56:10 tells us His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping,
lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never
have enough, and they are shepherds that
cannot understand (notice they can not understand. They couldn’t
understand it if they wanted to. And why is that? Because) they
all look to their own way, every one
for his gain, from his quarter. In other words, they can not in
any way understand because they are not interested in the Truth, they are only
interested in what they can do for themselves…
HEBREWS
10:26 For if we sin (and
sin is unbelief, so if we disbelieve) willfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
And how many ministers have willfully turned down the
doctrine of Christ, even among us in this message.
REMEMBERING
THE LORD 62-1209 70 A man said to me once,
"I believe that's the Truth. But if I preached that, I'd be begging there
in the street." Do you remember the rich man and Lazarus, what
their last and their eternal stage stood at? Though one was a beggar, and the
other was a rich man, but the picture changed one day and both of them could
remember. So people tonight holler about Judas that sold Him for personal gain,
and so many do the same thing today, sell Him for personal gain. The priest of
them days will also remember they sold their chance of Him, their chance to
become His servant, to become His disciple, to become a convert to Him. They sold it for green poisoned jealousy.
They were jealous of His doctrine.
ROMANS
10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge. 3 For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
And if that isn’t the way of man. Always ignorant of
God’s ways, and so they try to establish their own ways. And the trouble is
they don’t see anything wrong with that.
JUDE
1:17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before
of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 How that they told you there
should be mockers in the last time, who
should walk after their own ungodly lusts. Notice every time we hear of mockers,
it is followed with who walk after their own ungodly lusts …19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But
ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the
love of God, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of
the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 24 Now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour,
[be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Notice that scripture after scripture tells us that
those who would mock or despise the Doctrine of God which is the teaching of
God, they all do so because they are not focused on what God wants, but their
focus is on self, and self importance. II TIMOTHY 3:1 ¶ This know also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come. 2 For men
shall be lovers of their own selves,(and notice the other
character traits of these lovers of self…they are also ) covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4
Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having
a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof: from such turn away. (and what is the power of
God? Romans 1:16 tells us the Word of God is the Power of God unto
salvation…) 6 For of this sort are they which creep into
houses, and lead captive silly women (and remember women represents
churches) laden
with sins (laden or loaded or overloaded with unbelief), led away with
divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Never able, that
means they couldn’t even if they wanted to.
Now, Brother Branham said “the guy that can hardly
rub to nickels together is the guy that acts like he owns the world”, and yet
he said, when he met Kings, and dignitaries from around the world, they made
him feel like he was the important one.
GOD'S
PROVIDED WAY 59-0415A E-34
I was preaching sometime ago, and
a fellow come that would--belonged to a certain denomination. He said,
"Billy, I was enjoying your message. But" said, "that woman back
there that kept saying, 'Amen,' and crying," said, "she just like to
froze me to death." Said, "I'm telling you, shivers run up my
back." And I said, "If she wasn't doing it, shivers would be running up
my back." I wouldn't know where I was. Oh, I love to feel the Spirit of
God moving among the people, saturating them with the Holy Ghost. He
said, "Oh, that nearly froze me." I said, "Brother, if you'd
ever get to heaven, you really would freeze to death. Because there's going to
be shouting, and praising God, and rejoicing, and thousands times thousands
rejoicing, and singing, and praising God when they come into the Presence. You
might as well get customized here before you get started that way."
E-35 Now, the Oriental type was for the son to
stand there receive invitation. Now, Paul's group... I mean John's group had to
receive the invitation, but Paul said, "Have you been robed since you have
got your invitation. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you have
believed?" They said, "We do not know whether there be any Holy
Ghost." He said, "Then, unto what was you baptized?" They said,
"Unto John." He said, "Then, John baptized unto repentance,
saying on them, they should believe on Him that is come, that is, on
Jesus." And when they heard this, they were baptized in the Name of Jesus
Christ. And Paul laid his hands on them, and the Holy Ghost came on them. You
see the difference? Invitation's just come, you're invited.
E-36
But then when the son met them with the invitation at the door, then he
fit them in a robe (Amen. Now I feel religious.), fit them in a robe. Had one
there for their size, and he put the
robe on them so that everybody would look the same. You see, there's no
"big guys." Oh, when people begin to say this, "Oh, if Brother
Branham's a coming to pray for the sick..." That don't have nothing to do
with it. I couldn't heal no one. There's
no "big shots" with God. We're all His children, every one of us.
There's no difference in us. We
don't have to have the biggest campaign, or the biggest this, or the biggest
that. That's carnal. And God will
never bless. I doubt, sometimes, the robe being on a person, act like that. I
tell you, brother, God makes us all the
same from the... All of us are of One when we got the robe on. No matter whether they can't talk, and
don't even know their ABC's, or whatever it is, we're all the same in Christ
Jesus. That's why I made that remark, what I did awhile ago. We all want to
be the same.
Notice the attitude of these men. They had the right
understanding, and they had the right actions, but they allowed their own
attitude to become puffed up and by becoming puffed up it destroyed their
ability to be effectual to others.
PSALMS
51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Now, attitude is the number one destroyer of any
ministry. If you can not love the people you are trying to help, then you
should get out of the ministry.
Brother Branham said the reason his ministry was so
effective, is because of his great love for people.
DO
YOU NOW BELIEVE 55-0610 E-28 If you want to be a real
outstanding person in your church, wherever church you go to, you just fall in love with God with all
your heart; and when you do that, you will fall in love with every member of
your church, and every member of everybody else's church with all your
heart. Now, you can't bluff that. Now, there's
something about it that people know. If
there's anything I can contribute the success of my meetings to, earthly
speaking, is to know that people have a conscious to know that I truly love
people. I just love people. And they know that. And you can't fool them on
that. If you are making out, or pretending... Just like Christianity, if you're
pretending to be a Christian, you will
never make a go of it. No, sir. It's absolutely got to be there. That's all.
Love will do it. I have been a great lover of wild life. You know that. And
I've noticed in animal life, if you love animals, if you love them, you can do
anything with them you want to. And if you don't love them, they know it. And
if you're afraid of them, like a biting dog, if somebody said, "The dog
will bite," if you're afraid of him, you're sure going to get bit. See? Now,
you're not going to fool him. You might say, "I'm not afraid of him,"
but you... That better come from somewhere besides your lips, 'cause he knows
better. See? Now, if you're not afraid of him, it's different.
And I would like to add, if you can’t fool a dumb
animal, how do you think you will fool the church of the living God? But
notice, and the thing I want to emphasize from this quote is that brother
Branham attributed the success of his meetings to one thing in particular
outside from the supernatural presence of God, and that is his love for the
people. He said, “If there's anything I can contribute the
success of my meetings to, earthly speaking, is to know that people have a conscious
to know that I truly love people. I just love people. And they know that.”
Now, let’s look at this parable that Jesus tells us
here, because we know that the reason for this parable was to deal with that
self righteous spirit that comes upon people who know that they are believing
the right things, and they know that they are walking according to what they believe,
but someone, they juts have gotten puffed up in their own thinking, and that is
when the Spirit of God leaves them. Because
God can not use a people that are puffed up. When you get puffed up, that is
when God will take his flight.
10
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee,
that I am not as other men are,(oh, no not me, I am special…but other men they are
nothing but a bunch of) extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this
publican. 12 But I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess.
And notice how he goes on and on about I, I
this and I that , it sounds to me
like he has some kind of eye disease.
UNWELCOMED
CHRIST 55-0911 152 "I, I, I, I, I, I," you know,
that's a disease, so many people get it. "I will do. I did. I will."
Get "I" out of the way. Where does Jesus belong in this thing?
"I will do." See? "I will do," and "I will have,"
and "I will say." And, "I, I, I, I," that's all they think
about.
From the sermon PRIDE 55-0807A E-29 Brother Branham said, I, I, I, I, I, I," that's all you can
hear.
"I
did this; I will be better off; I will do this." I, I, I and no place for
Christ.
But notice the other guy. The one that was despised and
rejected like our Saviour Jesus was. 13 And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful
to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other: for every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted.
And if God can ever get a hold of a man that will
willfully humble himself, or a group of people that will do the same, you watch
what God will do with that man or that church. The way up is down. That’s
right. Oh, how smug people get within themselves. You’re no going to tell me
nothing. I already know everything I’m supposed to know. Well, that may be true
but you don’t know what the elect are supposed to know, not with an attitude
like that, anyway.
God wants a people with a humble spirit. Then he will
use them. Look what He did with his own Son. He came to heal the sick, the
palsy, then leper, the people who were reproached by society. That is who he
came for. The stupid fisherman that couldn’t even spell his own name. Peter and
John, dumb and unlearned, and yet the people knew they had been with Jesus.
THREE
WITNESSES 51-0728 E-55 Be humble; let yourself be the lowest of
all. Don't ever exalt yourself; if you do, you're going to become abased.
Humble yourself, and God will lift you up. Don't figure that God owes you
anything; remember, you owe Him all. And we're not under obligation, or God's
not under obligation to us; we are under obligation to God. And love Him with
all your heart; believe on Him and God will bless you, I'm sure.
REV
CHAP 5 PT1 BRUISED SERPENT 61-0611 145 John was expecting to see a Lion come forth,
but he saw a Lamb. There you are, brothers. Through meekness, through
sweetness, through the Holy Spirit that we conquer, not some great mighty
intellectual giant, but he that can humble himself is the man who conquers. The
man who can be kicked around and still be a servant of Christ, that's the
conqueror.
15
¶ And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when
his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them unto him, and
said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such
is the
In closing let me say this. It makes no difference
with God how many gifts of the spirit he has given you, and how much knowledge
He has allowed you to have, if you can not humble yourself God will never use
you.
Now, you may ask why are I am preaching this sermon today. And I will tell
you that It has bothered me to see many of my brothers in Christ who know and
love the doctrtine of Christ so much and who have taken such a good stand for
it, and then to see them become so hard in their stand that they have become
hard of heart to the things of God. If it doesn’t come by their church or by
their pastor or by their person of choice, then it doesn’t come at all. And we
must be careful to never get that denominational spirit on us that says, “If you are not looking through my glasses
you are not lookingat all.”
Brother Branham said from his sermon, GREATER THAN SOLOMON
63-0628E 94 We try to bring it over in one little bunch,
and say, "We got it, and you ain't got nothing else to do with it, because
you don't see through my glasses." We mustn't do that. It's not right. As
long as the devil can make you fight one another, he don't have to fight. But when you see that uniting of the powers of
God, gathering His church together from the four winds of the earth, then
you're going to see something take place.
And that is exactly what God is
doing right now. He is gathering together in one His seed from the four corners
of the earth, and we are in great anticipation to see God’s presence Glorifies
among His people.
In closing I would like to share
with you a quote from Brother Branham concerning the attitude we must have if
God is going to contiinue to use us to spread the light of His glorious Appearing to
others.
PALMERWORM LOCUST CATERPILLAR 59-0823 19 And if it so
happens that you, your church doesn't believe, or you do not believe just the
things that we speak of as our church
Doctrine, we trust that it will by no means bring an offense. Because the very first step to successful
Christianity, and to show that man has received the Holy Spirit, is humility,
real God-given humility, that It must be given humbly. But, yet, a church without a doctrine is just like a
jellyfish; it has no backbone. So, we've got to have backbone in it. And
not also backbone, but teeth also, because the
And so we must have a boackbone, but
we also must know our place in Christ. For true humility is knowing your place
in the Gospel. Anyone can fuss and stew
over what they think is right or not, but Jesus didn’t act that way. He knew what was right and He stood his
ground, and yet He could have called ten thousand angels, but he didn’t. He
went to the cross totally rejected by all, even those closest to him denied him
several times. And yet when he returned
to them, he did not lash out at them, he forgave them, and loved them.
Let’s bow our hearts in prayer. Dear
gracious Father, we have come here this morning to draw closer to Thee. We know
Father, that we can take no credit for the things you are doing, for you are
the author and You also are the finisher of our faith. So we come with but one
request, Dear Father and that is to get ourselves out of the way, that you
might use us in a way which will help others to know you better, for we ask it
in the name of Your firstborn Son, for it was He that showed us how to get ourselves
out of the way when He let go of His own will to honor your will.