Preparation #22 (The Doctrine of Apousia)
Brian Kocourek
II
JOHN 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth,( goes
beyond the limits) and abideth (remains) not in the
true doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth (remains) in the true
doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
PHILIPPIANS
2:12 ¶ Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling.
II
CORINTHIANS
Preparation
019 A few minutes
ago I seen some woman... I was coming in; everybody was praying at one time.
And I seen a man shake his head and ... I said, "All right, that's
Scripture." It's a whole lot better than one of these old cold formal
moth-eaten something or another standing around. I said, taking the Bible,
"They prayed with one accord until the building was shook where they was
assembled together." I said, "They got out on the street and
staggered like a bunch of drunk men, till even they said they was
drunk." E-20 020
And now listen friends, and to you women, the blessed virgin Mary was
with that bunch of drunk people on the Spirit. And if God wouldn't let the mother of God come into heaven without
receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost and acting like that, do you think
you'll get there anything short of that? Now, let's lay it down flat. Don't try to say
virgin Mary wasn't up there; she was. And she acted just like the rest of them.
And don't you think because your name's on a book, and you can drive an
automobile and run around with a nice hat on, and a lot of clothes, and dress
your children nice, that means, or belong to the church that you're going in. You're going to get the same thing or
you're out. That's right. Now, I don't know nobody, and I only know Jesus
Christ. And I'm responsible and have to answer at the day of judgment for what
I speak and say.
E-21
021 Now, God, in the beginning
when Adam and Eve... Man has always
tried to prepare himself. Oh, yes, sir, he tries to prepare himself. When
he first sinned in the beginning, the first thing you know, he went out and
prepared himself an apron: fig leaves, wrapped it around him. He's making
himself... Now, the word "religion" means "covering." And
Adam and Eve made them self a religion, a covering. But when God called them
and they had to stand face to face with God, they realized that their manmade religion
wasn't no good. And if you're anything
short of the Holy Spirit and death strikes your body, you'll find out that
manmade religion won't stand in the time of death. Oh, don't tell me, I've stood to the
hospitals and seen the doctors shoot hypos in the arm when there was deacons
and everything else. That's right. Hear them scream and say... call to their
pastor, "You deceiver of man. Why didn't you tell the truth?" It'll
tell when you get down at the end of the road. So the best thing to do is make preparation for it right now. Get the
thing straightened up. Get right with God.
E-22
022 Now, I notice that Eve
wrapped herself up in some fig leaves, and Adam. But when it come time to face
God they were condemned. They realized that that manmade religion wouldn't
work. So when God called them... Now, how true it is today. When God first had
prepared Himself to speak to Adam, and Adam, in a manmade way, was trying to
prepare himself to speak to God. But God
had to prepare Adam to speak to Him. So in order to do that, they begin to
pass the buck one to the other, in the old street expression. And then what
happened? God went out and got some
skins and made them aprons. I want to give you who I think God is, just in
a minute.
This morning I would like to examine these thoughts
that brother Branham has expressed here.
Let me just present them in an orderly fashion if you will so that we
might break them down into a simple form for you this morning.
#1) He said, ... Man has always tried to prepare
himself.
#2) He said, … if you're anything short of the Holy
Spirit and death strikes your body, you'll find out that manmade religion won't
stand in the time of death.
#3) He said, … the
best thing to do is make preparation for it right now.
#4) he said, … God had to prepare Adam to speak to
Him…
Now, in this example of Adam that Brother Branham laid
out for us to see, he said, God wanted to come down and talk to Adam. We know
that God had seen His Son Adam fall from Grace. We know that God could not have
sent an angel , He had to come Himself. Therefore, God knew that in this fallen
state, Adam could not come into His Holy Presence. Now, Adam also knew he had
sinned and had fallen short of the Glory of God. And Adam knew he was naked,
and completely exposed for what he had done.
He knew also he had disobeyed the Word of the Lord and
could not stand in God's Holy Presence in his fallen condition. So what did he
do? Did he try to go to God and repent for his sin? No, He got himself some
religion. He got himself a covering, a fig leaf religion. But did it work with
God? Did it bring Him into the presence of God? Absolutely not! He did just the
opposite, and he tried to hide from God, or the Voice of God, which indicated
where God's Presence was.
The next scene we see take place is God's voice
calling out to Adam, and Adam knows his condition. Adam knows he is naked, he
knows he is luke-warm, and he's afraid to come into God's Presence without
somehow trying to cover over his sin.
Therefore the fruits of his
man-made religion takes him away from the Presence of God. And this set the
pattern that will hold true throughout the history of man-kind. Man made
religion can not bring you into the
Presence of God. Then if this is true, Man-Made religion must take you from the
Presence of God. Then if True religion,
brings you into God's Presence, it must be a Presence religion, or a Parousia
religion. But, man-made religion is an Apousia religion, and that is what we
will examine this morning.
Let's turn to the Book of Genesis now, and let's run
through this scene for ourselves.
GENESIS 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye
shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. 6 ¶
And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it
[was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they [were] naked;
Notice, they knew their condition… They knew what
their sin had been, they knew where they had broken the Word of the Lord. And what did they do about it? And
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Why Aprons? Because they wanted to hide their
nakedness. They knew what sin they had done, and they wanted to hide it from
God. They were afraid to come into the Presence of a Holy God, and so they got
busy and thought up a way which they could cover over their sin….
8
And they heard the voice of the
LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day: Now, what time of the day is the cool of the day? It is in the Evening time. That is when God
came down to talk with his son Adam, in the evening time. And notice what Adam did? and
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
They hid themselves from what? the presence of the LORD God. Then what was their new religion? Apousia, Absence! They thought perhaps that they could keep far
enough away from God's voice that He would not be able to see their naked
condition.
We find this same attitude and man-made religion was
preached after the flood when Nimrod began to rise up among the people as a
great hunter. It was he that persuaded the people to erect the
GENESIS 10:8
And
GENESIS 11:1 ¶ And
the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a
plain in the
They said, let
us make us a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face
of the whole earth. 5 ¶
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children
of men built ( or established for themselves) . 6
And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one
language; and this they begin to do:
and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to
do. ( Now, why would God say, that in building this tower, the peoples
attitude will be such that they will no longer have restraint?, that would tell
us that this thing which they did, was to put off restraint. Now, why would
they have restraint in the first place? Because they were still aware of God's
Presence among them at this time, and this thing which they did was to do away
with that Presence which so restrained the people).
7
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may
not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build
the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called
From Hislops
Two Babylons, page 53-55, we read, Now, what
could more graphically describe the position of mankind soon after the flood,
and the proceedings of Nimrod as "The
Emancipator,". While the awful
catastrophe by which God had showed His avenging justice on the sinners of the
old world was yet fresh in the minds of men,
and so long as Noah, and the upright among his descendants, sought with
all earnestness to impress upon all under their control the lessons which that
solemn event was so well fitted to teach, "heaven,"
that is, God, must have seemed very near to earth. To maintain the union between
heaven and earth, and to keep it as close as possible, must have been the grand
aim of all who loved God and the best interests of the human race. But this implied the restraining and
discountenancing of all vice and all those "pleasures of sin,"
after which the natural mind, un-renewed and unsanctified, continually pants.
This must
have been secretly felt by every unholy mind as a state of insufferable
bondage. "The carnal mind is enmity against God," is "not
subject to His law," neither indeed is "able to be" so. It says
to the Almighty, "Depart from us,
for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways."
In the book of job we read, JOB 21:7
¶ Wherefore do the wicked live,
become old, yea, are mighty in power?
8 Their seed is established in
their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. 9
Their houses [are] safe from fear, neither [is] the rod of God upon
them. 10 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11 They send forth their little ones like a
flock, and their children dance.
12 They take the timbrel and
harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13 They spend their days in
wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
14 Therefore they say unto God,
Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 15
What [is] the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should
we have, if we pray unto him?
In Hislops
Two Babylons, Page 7 we read, We know, from the statements in Job, that
among patriarchal tribes that had
nothing whatever to do with Mosaic institutions, but which adhered to the pure
faith of the patriarchs, idolatry in any shape was held to be a crime, to be
visited with signal and summary punishment on the heads of those who practised
it. "If I beheld the sun," said Job, "when it shined, or the
moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, and * my
mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the
judge; for I should have denied the God that is above" (Job xxxi. 26-28)
In Hislops
Two Babylons, page 54, we continue, So long as the influence of the
great father of the new world was in the ascendant, (which means the dominating or controlling opinion),
while his maxims ( a concisely expressed principle or rule
of conduct , or statement of truth) were regarded, and a holy atmosphere
surrounded the world, no wonder that those
who were alienated from God and godliness, felt heaven and its influence and
authority to be intolerably near, and that in such circumstances they
"could not walk," but only "crawl,"--that is, that they had
no freedom to "walk after the sight of their own eyes and the imaginations
of their own hearts." From this
bondage Nimrod emancipated them. By the apostasy he introduced, by the free
life he developed among those who rallied around him, and by separating them from the holy influences that had previously less
or more controlled them, he helped them to put God and the strict spirituality
of His law at a distance, and thus
he became the "Elevator of the heavens," making men feel and act as if heaven were afar off from earth, and as if either the God of heaven "could
not see through the dark cloud," or did not regard with displeasure the
breakers of His laws.
Then all such
would feel that they could breathe freely, and that now they could walk at
liberty. For this, such men could not but regard Nimrod as a high benefactor.
We see the same story in mythology, as with the story of Atlas,, bearing the heavens on
his shoulders, who blessed the world by heaving up the superincumbent heavens
that pressed so heavily upon it. Who
does not see that the one story bears a relation to the other? * Thus, then, it
appears that Atlas, with the heavens resting on his broad shoulders, refers to that great apostacy in which the
Giants rebelled against Heaven, * and in which apostacy Nimrod, "the
mighty one," * as the acknowledged ringleader, occupied a pre-eminent
place. *
According to the system which Nimrod was the grand
instrument in introducing, men were led to believe that a real spiritual change
of heart was unnecessary, and that so far as change was needful, they could be
regenerated by mere external means. Looking at the subject in the light of the
Bacchanalian orgies, which, as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of
Nimrod, it is evident that he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual
enjoyment, and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without
any fear of the wrath of a holy God. In his various expeditions he was always
accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games and revelries,
and everything that could please the natural heart, he commended himself to the
good graces of mankind.
Sounds like Laodicea to me, because we have the same
thing today. People trying to get as
much pleasure as they can while they still have a breath to breathe, and in
doing so they have forsaken the One and True God. The God of Holiness.
Now, I hope
thus far we can see the fruits of an
Apousia Message. It must lead to worldly
pleasure and a forsaking of Holiness. And in the book of HEBREWS 12:11, we read Now
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang
down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest
that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. 14
Follow peace with all [men], and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any
man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble
[you], and thereby many be defiled;
Let's go back to the book of Genesis and again view
this Apousia Doctrine.
GENESIS
4:4-7, & 17 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.
¶ And
Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod,
on the east of
II
THESSALONIANS 1:7 And to you
who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his
power; 10 When he shall come to be glorified in his
saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among
you was believed ) in that day.
PSALMS 14:1 ¶ To
the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. The fool hath said in his heart, [There
is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none
that doeth good. 2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the
children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek
God. 3
They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there
is] none that doeth good, no, not one.
4 ¶ Have all the workers of iniquity no
knowledge? who eat up my people [as] they eat bread, and call not upon the
LORD. 5 There were they in great fear: for God [is]
in the generation of the righteous.
ISAIAH 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and
my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand
that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after
me. 11
I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside
me [there is] no savior..
Now, I want you to compare this doctrine of Apousia
with the Doctrine of the Parousia.
Brother Branham said in this Message Preparation,
#1) He said, ... Man has always tried to prepare
himself. #2) He said, … if you're
anything short of the Holy Spirit and death strikes your body, you'll find out
that manmade religion won't stand in the time of death. #3) He said, … the best thing to do is make
preparation for it right now. But notice we have already established
you can't make your own preparations, therefore, #4) he said, … God had to prepare Adam to
speak to Him…
And this is the same thing today? God has to prepare
us Himself. He could not leave it up to a messenger. He could not leave it up
to an angel. He had to come Himself, because he is God. If he had to do so for
Adam, then He must do the same for us in this hour, for He is the Same, and He
changes not.
CONFERENCE
60-1125 When God came
down to redeem man, He never trusted to a prophet. He came Himself, for He was the only One that could do it. 020
And when this great conference in Eden, God came down and... Look at the nature of man. It shows it today
in man. Instead of man trying to come out and saying, "Lord, I have
sinned." He hides himself somewhere, and many times like Adam did, makes
hisself a fig leaf religion, something he made up himself, some kind of a creed
that he would say and hide himself. But just like it was with Adam so will it
be with every man who's trusted in creeds. There'll be a time when you stand by
that, that your creed and fig leaf religion won't hide your sins. God's made a
way, a prepared way. Before He could
talk to Adam, He could not talk to him naked, and He killed something.
Something has to die, and something did die to make a covering that we could
hold this conference with God. God must've selected a certain tree in the
garden of Eden, and He called Adam and Eve, and throwed those old bloody
sheepskins in there, and said, "Wear these out here." What a
conference.
E-21
021 And when conference is made,
there's decisions made. Then that we that receive our decision have to act
accordingly. God had the conference with Adam and Eve and made a decision, that
it was God, that was God's remedy, and it never can change. There's no church,
no creed, no man, no angel, no devil. Nothing else can change that. God made
His provided way for a sinner to stand in His Presence, that was through the
shed Blood of the innocent One. And we're all borned in sin, shaped in
iniquity, come to the world speaking lies. We could no more save ourselves by
our creeds and so forth, than we could hold our bootstraps and jump over the
moon. We are lost, and there's none of us can save one another, no man, no
prophet, no priest. Takes Jesus Christ Who was God in flesh to save us. And He
has made the Sacrifice.
And today the Lord Himself has descended with a Shout,
a Message, an instruction, a military command, and as we enter into that Shout,
we receive the Atonement for our sin. I
JOHN 1:5 ¶ 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.
#4) he said, … God had to prepare Adam to speak to
Him… And if He had to prepare
Adam, who was not born in sin, then what about us? How much more do we need for God to prepare
us for entering into His presence. How much more do we need for God to prepare
us for talking with Him.
MALACHI 3:16 Then
they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened,
and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 17
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make
up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth
him. 18 Then shall ye return, and discern between
the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth
him not.
Malachi three comes before Malachi four. Then Malachi
three prepares us for Malachi four. And what do we see in Malachi four? MALACHI
4:1-6 Read & close.