Rising of the Son no 39
Organize and you die
February 5, 2017
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
Last night we ended our study at paragraph 74 and we really did not the
time to get into it, therefore this morning I would like to take a short
message concerning what brother Branham said in the first part of that paragraph
number 74. from his sermon, Rising of the Sun (SON). He said, "That's
what's the matter today. They try to give them waters from the
denominational fountain, and it stunts the growth." See?
This morning I would like to look at this thought on how the nature
of denominationalism and organization not
only stunts the growth of a Christian, but brings but it ultimately brings spiritual
death as well.
From his Book The Seven Church Ages, brother Branham said in
chapter that deals with the Ephesian Church Age - Chapter
3 page
89-1 That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to do is
recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed
like Christians, went to church, prayed all night,
took to street corners and weren't ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit.
They left their old dead churches and worshipped in homes or old store
buildings. They had
reality. But it wasn't too long a time until they began to get enough
money to build fine new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto
God for themselves. They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man.
They soon began to read books that weren't fit to read. They let down the bars
and goats came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom
of the Spirit was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the
blackness of ashes is about all that is left.
He continues, 89-2 A few moments ago I mentioned that John
understood what it was to love God. That great apostle of love would certainly
see it when the church began to lose that first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, "For this
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word)." One little deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ.
People say they love God, they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and
sing and have a
great emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and
see if they are in that WORD, walking in it, living in it. If they go through all the other and
then don't walk in that Word, they can say they love God but their lives tell
another story. I wonder if John didn't see a lot of that before he died; people
saying they loved God but not obeying His Word. Oh, Ephesian Church,
something is happening to you. Someone is trying to either add to that Word or
take from it. But they are doing it so subtly that you can't see it.
They haven't made a move so big you can see it out there in the open. It is
under cover, and they are bringing it by way of reason and human
understanding and it will take over unless you refuse it. Go back to
Pentecost before it is too late! 89-3 But as usual people don't heed God's
warning. That revival fire built upon the sacred Word is so wonderful,
and the manifestation of the Spirit so blessed, that a little fear
creeps in and a whisper in the heart says, "How can we protect this truth we
have? What can we do to see this revival goes on?" That is
when the "antichrist spirit" comes in and whispers, "Look, you have the truth now,
see that it doesn't get lost. Organize and set up your creed of what you
believe. Put it all in a church manual." And they do it. They organize. They
add to the Word. And they die just like Eve did for taking
One wrong word. It's God's Word that brings life. And it's not what
we say about the Word that counts, but it's what God said.
Notice he told us it is fear that motivates people
to organize what they know as truth, and when they do that they die spiritually
right there. And notice further that the
revival brought not only a Word that was so heavenly but manifestations of the
Spirit as well, and then when that ministry goes off the scene, fear sets in
and they organize what was a God move, and once you do, God leaves, and with it
the manifestation of the Spirit, and the fresh Word is lost.
From his
sermon, Anointed ones at end time 65-0725M P:153 Brother Branham said, "Where the Carcase is there the eagles will be gathered. Where the
Carcase, where the killing is, there the eagles will be gathered. Where the fresh Meat is, the
Word of the season, there the eagles will gather." But after
it's rottened, then the vultures will swarm to it. See? See what I
mean? When a kill's made, here comes the eagles, but after it lays there and
rotten, then here comes the vultures. The eagle won't have nothing to do
with it. See? Jesus said, "Where the Carcase is, where the Manna fell, the night the Manna falls fresh, there the eagles will gather for It." That's the Manna for
the day. See? 154 Notice. But after it gets rotten, maggots get in it, then here comes
the vultures. They
can't smell it till it gets rotten. No wonder Jesus stood up
there and said, "Jerusalem, you that
stoned every prophet... Notice that personal pronoun. See? "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I (Who was He?)--how oft would I have gathered you as a hen would her brood,
you that stoned every prophet I ever sent to you..."
So we see that God sends
a Message to restore a people, but once that Messenger leaves, the people begin
to fear that they will lose what they had, and so in order to keep what they
had, they organize it and make systematize it trying to create something that
will keep what the Messenger brought going. And when they do that that they
move it from being a work of God to becoming a work of man.
From his sermon, Church choosing law for grace 61-0316 P:51 brother
Branham said, "Watch just a minute. They stayed
there; they married wives; they raised children; they had good crops; they were
blessed, yeah. And they had a great time. They was in there... They stayed
there how long? The Bible said, "Until all the old fighters was dead." That's right. All those
said, "Glory to God; we are the Assemblies." "Well, glory to
God, we are the so and so." "God, we are the Oneness, hallelujah, the
rest of them is wrong." "Bless God, we're the Church of God of
Prophecy." "Hallelujah, we're so and so." All right, go ahead.
What'd they do? They
kept arguing their doctrine till they stayed there till they died.
And that's what's happened right now. They're dead. Dead with their organization. I'll bring any
theologian to call this. A historian, I know of two good ones setting right
here now, as good as there is in the nation. I ask any historian to tell me
that any time that God ever moved in a revival, supernatural signs followed.
When did He ever move
that supernatural didn't follow? And when did they ever organize that to an
organization but what it died and never did raise again? Show me one
time that a organization ever raised to its beginning again. It died as soon as
it organized. So did the Pentecostals. You old fighters out there, that wants
to say, "Hallelujah, we have nothing to do with that old new issue. Glory
to God, it's give to us by prophecy. Hallelujah, we'll have nothing to do with
the Assemblies or the Oneness, either one. Hallelujah, we're different."
They're dead. That's not pulling any punch. And they're dead, marked out: X. He
stayed there and let them die until they were all the way dead.
Again he said in the Church Age Book
Chapter 7 - The Sardisean Church Age P:51 "these people ORGANIZED ON A
DOCTRINE and bound themselves right back as did the organization
ahead of them, proving that instead of being the real seed, they were the chaff
or protecting cover for the wheat seed which should come. This chaff stage was
the danger period that Jesus spoke of in Matthew
24:24, "deceiving the very elect if it were
possible."
Now, tell me we haven't
that same thing happening in the message today? We've had Two souls, and Seven
Thunders, and Return Ministry, and Bride Age and Parousia, and even Godhead
whether it be the oneness groups, the Two Lords Groups or whatever. They have organized
on a doctrine and the minute they do they die right there and the Holy Spirit
keeps moving right on.
Again he said in the Church Age Book
Chapter 6 - The Thyatirean Church Age P:68 The minute the first church of Rome
organized, it died. The minute that the
Lutherans organized, death came in and they died. The Pentecostals came along
last and they organized. The Spirit left, though they don't believe it.
But He did. That marriage brought death. Then the light of Oneness of the
Godhead came. They organized and they died too.
And again he said in the Church Age Book
Chapter 7 - The Sardisean Church Age P:31 Not one of these messengers
was organized. Either they were put out or got out because they were convicted of the
sin of organization. How can the Holy Spirit possibly be in organization
when it is organization that takes the place of the Spirit and denominations
take the place of the Word? Remember, "Organization" is
"DEATH". It just can't be any other way. If the world takes
over, the Spirit departs.
And again brother Branham
said in the Church Age Book Chapter 6 - The Thyatirean Church Age P:66 Show me one church that ever came
out of organization that didn't go right back into it. There isn't one. Not
one.
And in another place in the
Church Age Book
Chapter 10 - Resume of the Ages P:22 This is a good place to make an
illuminating observation. Look. The deeds and doctrines of the Nicolaitanes,
the doctrine of Balaam, and the teaching of the false prophetess, Jezebel, do not
constitute three spirits or make three spiritual principles. These three are
but the various manifestations of the same spirit as it goes from depth to
depth. What it all is, is the antichrist spirit of organization in its three
various stages. Once the clergy separated themselves and organized
themselves they oppressed the people by leading them into, and binding them to
organization also. This organization was based upon the creeds and dogma
which they taught the people instead of the pure Word of God. Ritual and
ceremony was given an increasing part in worship, and soon this whole system
was a militant and diabolical power that did its best to control all through
the persuasion of discourse or literal force. It received its energy from its
own false prophecies and not the Word of God. It was now absolutely antichrist
though it came in Christ's Name.
In fact I have many more quotes
from the Church Age Book so I will just read
them as they come, Chapter 6 - The Thyatirean
Church Age P:69 So you see, "Death"
or "Organization" came, and the church died, or to make it
plainer death became a resident wherein shortly before only LIFE reigned. As
the original Eve brought death to mankind so now organization
has brought death, for organization is the product of the
double corrupters, Nicolaitanism and Balaamism, propagated by the
prophetess Jezebel.
Church Age Book Chapter 5 - The Pergamean Church Age P:150 So Balaam got Israel to commit
fornication. Do you know that physical fornication is the very same spirit that lies in organized
religion? I said that the spirit of fornication is the spirit of organization. And all fornicators
will have their place in the lake of fire. That is what God thinks of
organization. Yes sir, the whore and her daughters will be in the lake of fire.
Church Age Book Chapter 10 - Resume of the Ages P:20 For the
clergy to organize themselves with one rank over another until they are finally
headed up by a president is a manifestation of the antichrist spirit, regardless of how wonderful and
necessary it may seem. It is nothing but human reasoning
taking the place of the Word. And any person who is in the organized
denominations is right in the midst of an antichrist system. Now let me say
this and make it very plain. I AM NOT
AGAINST THE PEOPLE. I AM AGAINST THE SYSTEM.
Church Age Book Chapter 9 - The Laodicean Church Age P:118 Brother Branham said, "when
you subscribe to a doctrine that cannot be substantiated by Scripture, your
doctrine is false and when you organize around that doctrine, that is when
death sets in."
"The falsity of the doctrine can not only be seen
by a lack of Scripture to
substantiate it, but those who subscribed to the doctrine immediately
organized on the basis of the doctrine, proving that they were not in
the truth as they would have people believe. Oh, it looked good. It looked like
the return of Pentecost. But it proved it wasn't. It could not be, for it organized. That is death, not life.
It looked so close to the real that multitudes were deceived."
Church Age Book Chapter 7 - The Sardisean Church Age P:43 Now I just said that this era
gave tremendous growth to the denominational spirit. If the Corinthian attitude
of "I am of
Paul, I of Cephas"
was ever exhibited, it was now. There were Lutherans, Hussites, Zwingli's
party, etc. Such fragmentation of the Body was deplorable. They were living a
name but were dead. Certainly
they were dead. They died the minute they organized.
Church Age Book Chapter 6 - The Thyatirean Church Age P:54 Can any man living tell me what
church or what move of God ever had revival and came back after she went into
organization and became a denomination? Read your histories. You can't find
one--not even one.
Church Age Book Chapter 5 - The Pergamean Church Age P:151 Denominations are not of God.
They never have been and never will be. It's a wrong spirit that separates the people of God into
hierarchy and laity; and it's, therefore, a wrong spirit
that separates the people from the people. That's what
organization and denominations do. In organizing they separate themselves from the Word of
God, and bring themselves into spiritual adultery.
Church Age Book Chapter 5 - The Pergamean Church Age P:149 That is what has happened in
every age since. God delivers the people. They come out by the blood,
sanctified by the Word, walk through the waters of baptism and get filled with
the Spirit; but after awhile the first love cools off and someone gets the idea
that they ought to organize in order to preserve themselves and make
a name for themselves, and they organize themselves right back in the second generation
and sometimes even before then. They no longer have the Spirit of God, just a form of worship. They are
dead. They have hybridized themselves with creed and form and there
is no life in them.
Church Age Book Chapter 4 - The Smyrnaean Church Age P:47 the horse is a type of the true
believer and the ass a picture of the unrighteous one. Mix them and you have a
sterile, formal religion. It hasn't the seed of life. It is dead. It can talk about truth but
it can't produce it. It doesn't have God in its midst,
yet it gathers together and talks about God, and all the while systematically
denies the power. They will deny the Word in the very Name of the Lord. And
there is never any hope for them. Do you realize that no organized religion ever had a revival?
Never! Once they
organized they died. They can't ever come back. No sir.
Church Age Book Chapter 4 - The Smyrnaean Church Age P:4 With Irenaeus this was not so. He was militant against any form of organization. Also, his
life history, wherein he served the Lord, was one of much manifestation in the Holy Spirit;
and the Word was taught
with unusual clarity and conformity to its original precepts. His churches in France
were known to have the gifts of the Spirit among them, for the saints spoke in
tongues, prophesied,
raised the dead, and healed the sick by the prayer of faith. He saw the
danger of any kind of organized brotherhood among the elders, pastors,
etc. He stood solidly for a
unified, Spirit-filled, gift-manifesting local church. And God honored
him for the power of God manifested among the saints.
Church Age Book Chapter 10 - Resume of the Ages P:34 these people (even before a
second generation had appeared) organized, and wrote their unscriptural
doctrines and built their own fences as every other group ahead of them did.
Church Age Book Chapter 10 - Resume of the Ages P:19 Now watch this doctrine of Balaam
most carefully. Notice above all, that it is the deliberate maneuver of a corrupt clergy to bind
the people to them, by leading the people deliberately into the sin
of unbelief. The
Nicolaitane doctrine was the corruption of the clergy as they sought political
power amongst themselves, while Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system
of creed and worship in order to hold them. Now watch this
carefully. What was it that bound the people to the nominal church and thereby
destroyed them? It was the creeds and dogmas formed into church tenets. It was the doctrine of
the Roman Catholic Church. They were not given the true food, the Word.
They were given the food that came from idol worship, Babylonian paganism
wrapped up in Christian terminology. And that very same spirit and doctrine is
right amongst all Protestants and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is organization,
humanizing the leadership
of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit. Balaamism is denominationalism
which takes the church manual instead of the Bible. And right to this hour,
many of God's people are caught in the snare of denominationalism and God is
crying to them, "Come out of her My people, lest ye be
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues." You see they are
ignorant. But if the rapture should take place at this moment, ignorance would
be no court of appeal from the judgment of God for being in the wrong ranks.
Church Age Book Chapter 10 - Resume of the Ages P:7 The false church organized,
humanized the government and the Word, and fought the true Christian.
Church Age Book
Chapter 9 - The Laodicean Church Age P:96 What is it that all these denominations are based
upon? The claim to originality,
and that of God, the claim that they are right. Now they ALL cannot be right.
In fact NOT ONE of them is right. They are whited sepulchres, full of dead
men's bones. They have no life. They have no vindication. God has never made
Himself known in any organization. They say they are right because they are the ones that
are saying it,
but saying it does not make it so. They need the
vindicated "Thus saith the Lord" of God, and they don't have it.
Jehovah Jireh 61-0209 P:49 Never one time did an
organization ever rise up that didn't die and never come back again. I
challenge any historian. I'm looking in the face there of one of the best there
is in the nation. That's right. A historian of the historians is setting right
with us. And I'll ask that man, or any other man, to ever show me one time
that a church ever organized, but it didn't die and stay dead. It never did
rise again in the history of the churches of the world: never did. God don't
want that. God wants us to be free in Him. He wants us to a place where we can
accept all of God.
Influence 64-0315 P:62 We've seen the Pentecostals do
the same thing, and you see it. When they organize, they die. There's no way back. There never
has been, and there never will be. God is against the thing. That's the reason
He said in the last days He'd say, "Come out from among them, My people,
that you touch not their unclean things, and I'll receive you."
Trying to do God a service 65-1127B
P:122 And any man that builds anything, any
organization, or anything outside of upon the Word of God, it's shaking sands
and will fall. It'll die as sure as anything,
because the Word of God is a growing Body of the Bride. You can't have it all
foot, all arm, all thigh. These things come in their season. And Pentecost, you
made it all one thing; therefore you can't accept new revelation.
Mark of the beast 61-0217 P:59 But
the people, when you get organization they hang to the organization instead of
the cross and Christ. See? Therefore they... If you
got a organization, and you draw it up, and if you end it with a comma, "We
believe all of this plus as much as the Lord will reveal to us," that's
good. But when
you end it with a period, you die right there. And show me one's not ended with a period.
Sure, it is. See?
Trying to do God a service 65-0718M P:64
Many sincere
persons go join an organization, or a group, or a cult of some sort, and there
they die spiritually. You can't tell them nothing. They get that stuff drilled into
them:
"Why, these bishops said this, and this said this; this said this." You show them right here in the Word of God
where it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, "But our pastor..."I don't
care what your pastor says, don't care what I say, or anybody else says. If it's contrary
to God's vindicated Word, the hour, the time, the Message, and so forth, forget
it. Stay away from it. And I've got to stand before every one of you
in the day of judgment, and you know that. And little would I say that, knowing
I'm an old man now. I'll... It ain't that I know something, but He knows. I
just follow what He says.
Influence 63-0112 P:74 Up come the Pentecostals, and
what did you do? The General Assembly, known as the Assemblies of God, oh, you
organized yourself. What did you do? Begin to corrode. Then along come the
Oneness, called the New Issue. What'd you do? Went out and organized yourself. God
added a little something to the church, and you, "Oh, we've got it, and
you all are out of it." Oh, my, brother, that's not God. Don't you
see? What did you do? Died
right in the tracks. God raised up the Christian Business Men here
in the last day. And if they start the same thing, they'll die right there.
That's exactly right. Don't you never do that.
Masterpiece
the 64-0705 P:82 Notice here. The life that was in the husk, in the
stalk, and in the tassel, in the husk, all gathers in the seed. And the life
that was in the stalk, one went to make the other. Justification made a way for
sanctification. Sanctification made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
The baptism of the Holy Ghost made a way for the Holy Ghost Itself to come
right down in perfection, back to the Word again to manifest Itself.
Notice how Brother Branham
differentiates between the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost
Himself. Now, this is the one thing that the Oneness in this Message do not
understand. Christ in you the Hope of Glory is not the Presence that Brother Branham
spoke of more than 4,400 times over his 1200 sermons. And the reason they do
not understand this difference is because they do not understand God Life. The Holy Ghost is God. And God is the
fountain of Life. There is only one source of eternal Life and that is God, the
author of that Life. Eternal Life is God Life. And they do not understand the difference between a person having God
Life in them and God Himself in them.
The Fullness of
God dwelt in His Son, not in you and I. We have God Life in a portion, Jesus
had it without Measure, because God indwelt Him. So when he says, "Justification made a way for sanctification.
Sanctification made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the
Holy Ghost made a way for the Holy Ghost Itself to come right down in
perfection, back to the Word again to manifest Itself," we see the difference between the
Appearing and Coming right there. We see the Parousia of Christ in perfection,
back to the Word again.
Now, listen what brother Branham
says next. Masterpiece the
64-0705 P:82 "But what denominated, dies. Like Life in Luther
went to make Wesley. And from the Wesley It went to Pentecost, and from
Pentecost to make the original seed. On to... Pentecost comes out of the Wesley
until that time. The reason that Pentecost come out of Wesley, because it was
no denomination, Pentecost was. Then Pentecost went to denominate. And what did
it do? It turned to the husk. It looked like the real thing."
Notice how he
is showing us the Life coming up in a sort of resurrection like the sap
that comes up in the spring time, is a sort of resurrection, and the tree comes
back to life again after remaining dormant throughout the winter burial. He
says this life begin to come up in Luther, then on into Wesley's Message and
then on into Pentecost's Message and now it comes back to Seed again, Word
again at the end-time. But then he contrasts the cycle of Life with death
showing that when the life leaves anything it must die. And he tells us the
clue that it is dead is that it denominates or organizes.
Again we find
him carrying this thought of God Life as it comes up through the different
stages of the church. And each stage of this planting of the Lord is identified
with a Message that swept the world. That was the Life of God sweeping up all
the predestinated seeds of God laying out there.
Now in this
next paragraph I do not know how you could make it any more plain than what
brother Branham is telling us here.
Masterpiece 140 Living, they produced in their
early revival a holder of a certain portion of the seed Life; but when they organized, the Life
moved out of it. That's proved by all history. Never an organization ever done
a thing after it organized. It was dead.
That's right. Watch, the life's traveling on now. It's moving on. Notice. What
they have done, all these have done, is proved by history just exactly the way
the church has come, never to be useful to Him again. Organization is
laid on the shelf. There never has been in all the history of church after it
organized, but what it died. And the organization died and never did raise
again. Can't you see it? Men who are blind, open your eyes. Nature and the Word
coordinating together and proving it right here that this is the Truth, that it
is the Truth: That Life leaves the stalk to make the tassel; from the tassel it
makes the husk; and from the husk it goes into the original again. Notice,
never again to be useful to Him.
Now, I don't
know how much more clear any person could say it than what Brother Branham is
telling us right here. Once
a move of God organizes it is never again useful to God again!!! Every
denomination began with some truth, but when they begin to organize that truth
that is the minute the life went out of it. He said, they produced in their
early revival a holder of a certain portion of the seed Life; but when they
organized, the Life moved out of it.
I hope that you people who hear
this sermon or read it on the internet catch what brother Branham is saying
here. Do not try to
organize this Message. The minute you do, the Life of God will
move out of what you are trying to organize.
Now, what does it mean to
organize the Message? Because that is really what we do not want to do. I do
not believe there is anyone who wishes to organize themselves right out of the
Life of the Word. But they do it anyhow, not really understanding what they are
doing.
In order to
better understand what it means to organize let's read what the dictionary
tells us:
Organize: 1. To put together into an orderly,
functional, structured whole.
Now, there is nothing wrong with
structure or with order, or with making things functional. Therefore, so far
what we read concerning to organize does not sound like anything that would be
too awful that God would be displeased with it. But let's read on, because the
definitions become a little more definitive.
2.a. To arrange in a coherent form;
systematize: organized their thoughts before speaking.
Now, again there is nothing
wrong with presenting the doctrine of the Message in a coherent fashion. And to
do that you must systematize or place it together in an orderly fashion in
order to make the presentation of it more easily understood.
b. To arrange in a desired pattern or structure: again there is nothing here that would cause
the life of God to take flight, because even Jesus own Life was ordered a
right, and set the pattern for all other sons to follow. But this next
definition begins to give some clarity on the danger of organizing.
3. To arrange systematically for harmonious or united action: then it
gives some examples of this organizing to form a union: organize a strike.
4. a. To establish as an organization: organize a club. b. To induce
(employees) to form or join a labor union. c. To induce the employees of (a
business or an industry) to form or join a union: organize a factory. To
develop into or assume an organic structure.
So what we see here is an
evolution from a harmless attempt to present the Message in an orderly fashion
so that people can better understand it, to a place that where it actually
organizes the people into an harmonious union that it binds the people to
a core value of beliefs and excludes others who do not hold to those beliefs.
That is what
every false doctrine has done that has crept up in any move of God. And that is
what has even happened in this message with movements like the Thunders group,
and the Two Souls Group, the Tapes only group, etc. And notice when they do
that the Life of the word leaves them and they begin to establish among
themselves a hierarchy of men in which if you do not listen to them you are
considered out of it altogether. And when the people reach that state they are
on their way into organization.
That is why brother Vayle said,
"you do not have to hear this from me, but you've got to stand with this
Truth". It does not matter who you hear the doctrine from, but you
had better hear it, and say it the same way it was said. For "He that echoes not the doctrine of
Christ echoes not God."
You do not have
to hear it from brother Vayle, nor do you have to hear it from me or any other
person, but you had better hear it and believe it if you wish to echo God?
So you see there is a real
danger anytime when you try to improve on what God has given by inspiration.
The danger comes when people try to organize any move of God. And the reason
they organize a move of God is because they are not satisfied with the way God
presented it to begin with? And they try to then fashion it into what they feel
is a better way of presenting it. They end up taking a Life altering word, and
make it into a works oriented Word.
Just look at
any place where God has had a truly anointed pastor or teacher, and when that
man leaves the scene, the people try to hold to what He brought them, and
pretty soon they begin to organize it into a set of rules taught by men. And
then the Word becomes to them rule on rule, rule on rule, precept on precept, precept on precept,
a little here and a little there and then they fall backwards into what they came out of which was works.
Isaiah
28:8 NIV All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a
spot without filth. Now, what is vomit but food from another day that has
become mixed up in man, and then regurgitated. 9
"Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his Message? To
children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?
The Apostle Paul said when you should be
teachers you have need of milk. No, those on milk see things a little
differently. Paul said "when I was a child I thought as a Child therefore I spoke as a child
and acted in a childish manner, but when I became a man I must put away
childish thinking"
which results in childish talk and childish actions. So the word of the Lord to
them becomes,
10 "For it is:
Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little
there."
Notice their perception of the
Word reverts to legalism, do's and don'ts.
11 "Very
well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people,
So if God will speak to this people, then what they will hear will be
"Thus Saith the Lord", and this is the rest that God has for His
Elect. The elect rests on "Thus Saith the Lord". 12 to whom he said,
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest"; and, "This is
the place of repose", but they would not listen. "
Ah, so we have a prophet that knocked on the
pulpit while He was preaching on the Seventh Seal and He said while knocking on
that pulpit, "It's
relaxation time under The Seventh Seal 83-84
seventh Seal. And notice
what we are told here in Isaiah. This
Foreign tongue will bring rest but the people will not listen, and thus if they
do not listen they will not enter into this rest but will revert to works. And
that is what we read in the next verse of Isaiah.
13 "So then,
the word of the LORD to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule,
rule on rule; a little here, a little there, so that they will go and fall
backward, be injured and snared and captured."
The wording
could not be more clear and perfect here. We are told that because they will not listen to the
Voice of the Lord, they then will refuse the rest and will enter into works. Do
and do, and rule on top of rule. And so we
see a very clear indication of a people who leave the Life of the word that
sets a man free from works, and enters Him into rest, but when they leave
that Word, they always revert back to works.
Now, it does not say that they knowingly
leave the word of God for works. No one does that. But it says, 13 "So then, the word of the
LORD to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a
little here, a little there, so that they will go and fall backward, be injured
and snared and captured."
You see the Word of the Lord to them becomes
works. In other words, they
begin to try to do it for themselves because the Life of the Word is gone from
them when they refuse the rest that God has given us by entering into Jesus
Christ the same yesterday today and forever.
And the works it speaks of is just the doing
of the Word itself. As we mentioned last night that Martin Luther said, because
they do not do from the bottom of their heart, they end up doing out of fear or
some other motive.
In other words, going to church can be a work
of man, and yet it can be a work of God in a person's heart as well. But who is
leading you to go and your motive for going will determine if it is a work of
God in your life or a work based on fear or some other wrong motive.
Martin Luther said, "for even though you keep the law outwardly,
with works, from fear of punishment or love of reward, nevertheless, you do all
this without willingness or pleasure, and without love for the law, but rather
with unwillingness, under compulsion; and you would rather do otherwise, if the
law were not there. The conclusion is that at the bottom of your heart you
hate the law. What matter then, that you teach others not to steal, if you are
a thief at heart, and would gladly be one outwardly, if you dared? Though to be
sure, the outward work is not far behind such hypocrites! Thus you teach
others but not yourself; and you yourself know not what you teach, and have
never yet rightly understood the law. Nay, the law increases sin, as he
says in chapter 5, for the reason that the more the law demands what men
cannot do, the more they hate the law.
Therefore just
watch any move of God and when the ministry God was using goes off the
scene many of those who followed that ministry will begin to try to hold onto
what was taught but in doing so they will organizes it and when the Life goes
out, and the rest is gone, the works will always follow.
Instead of preaching the Life
that is in the Word, the sermons will become focused on dress, and conduct and
clothesline theology, what you should eat and what you shouldn't eat, and
pretty soon the people begin to eye one another looking for fault in one
another and then they begin to separate into clicks and clans, and once that
happens that work is about gone spiritually. Oh, they may end up with more
people than the ministry that stays with the Word, but that is no surprise
because the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 4:27 "many more are the children of the desolate than she
which has a husband". And
she which has a husband is a Bride.
You know I
can't read this verse of Scripture enough in warning you about what is
happening in this Message even today.
9 "Who is it
he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his Message? His Doctrine? To children weaned from their milk, to those
just taken from the breast? I don't think so!!!
10 For to them it has become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule
on rule; a little here, a little there."
11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak
to this people, 12 to whom he said,
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest"; and, "This is
the place of repose", but they would not listen. So then, the word of the
LORD to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a
little here, a little there, so that they will go and fall backward, be injured
and snared and captured.
Brother Branham
said in The Masterpiece in 143 Don't you see why He never used an organization? He
can't get back in it again. It's dead. But the
Life passes on from one to the other. See? They put creeds and inject...
"Whosoever
shall add one word or take one word out..." See? He's blocked off from it. It must be the Life seed traveling on.
And in every
age after every revival, once the people move away from the Light God sent to
them, and move backwards into works programs, the Life leaves them and God
moves on with His Light. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:18 when they lose what understanding they have of the Word the Life of
God leaves them as well.
Ephesians 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, they become alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of
the blindness of their heart:
So
because their hearts are blind, and they are willfully ignorant as they move
away from what understanding they did have they actually shut off the Life of
God from themselves. In essence they are walking away from the fountain of
Life. There is never any reason to quit preaching the doctrine to revert to
works, for Christ is the doctrine. If you preach Christ, the hearts of the
people will be filled with Life and there will be no need to preach a
clothesline religion. Fill a person with God life and God will live through
them.
And it does not
matter what you do to clean up your life, if you are not born again it is not
even acceptable to God any way. All that kind of righteousness is as filthy
rags. That is what He said.
Now,
in the Masterpiece, and pp. 144 brother Branham said, 144 He'll have a Church without spot or wrinkle. It'll not
be connected any way with any kind of an organization or a denomination (the
cursed thing). It's passed through those such things, but it'll never be there.
147 Oh,
and notice. Then the husk when it comes forth looks just like the grain. But
when the grain Life begins to leave the husk to go in to make the Grain (the
Bride), the husk opens up and excommunicates the Grain. Is that right in
nature? That's exactly what she did. In Revelations 3 we find out the Laodicea church age put Him out.
Now, see, it didn't back in the other ages, because there was something else
yet to be made. It just passed through and went on to another. I told you all
along, there's no more denominations coming. We're at the end. And they put Him
out, because why? He's the Word again. He's like the one that fell down there.
He's the same doctrine that come forth from the beginning. And when the seed
Word begins to grow forth, the husk puts It from itself. The Life leaves all the others to follow it;
that's the true believers; they follow the Life, wherever the Life goes.
Now, notice
once again that Brother Branham says that the
true believers will never organize but they will follow that Life wherever it
goes.
And
John said, he that echoes the son echoes life.
and "He that echoes the doctrine of Christ
echoes God Himself". So as the Life moves on the doctrine
of Christ will continue to be taught by those that have been faithfully taught
themselves.
And When a church stops teaching the
doctrine and begins to focus on rules and order and do and do, then it has lost
its first love and has left the doctrine of Christ and when they do that they
no longer echo or reflect Life, nor do they echo or reflect God, and God is
Life. So as long as they are echoing the doctrine they are echoing the life.
The Apostle
Paul said in Colossians 3:4 "When Christ who is our Life shall phaneroo, (to
manifest Himself in His True character), so shall
we phaneroo (manifest in our true character) with him in glory (and we know this doxa is
the opinion, judgment and assessment of God.) Therefore, "when Christ who is our Life appears, our life shall manifest
in it's true character as well, which we know was ordained to
have the very mind of Christ in us.
From
Anointed One at the End Time 65-0725M 168
Brother Branham said, "Now, you go back and
try to live again... What if that life took back down... You think that Life
would ever go back after that old shuck's dried up, ever go back and live in it
again? It never does. "For it is impossible
for those which were once enlightened and didn't move on with the Word as it
come to pass..." They're dead, gone.
"And the thorns and thistles which is nigh unto rejection, whose end is to
be burned..." Is that right? Now, hurrying just as quick as I can."
1 John 1: 2 For the life was
manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that
eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;
Dead men don't
grow. They don't manifest life either. And they certainly can not change
either. and dead men certainly don't know they are dead.
The
Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.
Now
the apostle Paul told us here that when we look into the mirror of the Word we
are changed into the Image that we see in the Word which is Christ, and He is
our light. And then he tells us we are changed from
image to image and from glory to glory, from doxa to doxa, which
is the opinion, assessment and Judgment of God. So he tells us that we are
changed into the image of Christ who is our light and we are changed from one
opinion to another and to another and to another until we come into the mind of
God.
Therefore
the Life moves on and those walking in the light continue to walk in the Light
as He is in the light. They don't look back, because anyone driving while
looking through a rear view mirror will crack up eventually.
Let's bow our
heads and our hearts in a word of prayer.