Romans * 92
Reputation
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
ROMANS 12:3 For I say, through the
grace given unto me, to every man that is among you For I say, through the
grace given unto me, to every man that is at rest with you in Christ, not to think of himself] more highly than
he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man The Measure of Faith.
Now, this morning I
want to take our thoughts again from what Paul has said in this 3rd
verse of Chapter 12.
Last night in
examining this Verse, it led us to our study on Scriptural Humility where we found it does not
speak of mannerisms or actions, but
rather a condition of the mind. For Scriptural humility is simply knowing your
place in the Gospel, or knowing your position in Christ. Now, in our study we
came across a strange verse in the book of Colossians.
COLOSSIANS 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, (Now, as I mentioned last night the King James version does not translate this right, as it appears to be saying, “let no man rob you of your reward of worshipping the angels or messengers.” Now, since we know that would be Anti-Christ, Therefore, that cannot be the correct translation of what the Apostle Paul was saying here.
ASV: Let no man rob you
of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.
KNOX: You must not allow anyone to cheat you by insisting on a false humility which addresses its worship to angels…
The right
translation, then would read, “Stop letting men influence you away you’re your
reward by using their false humility and messenger worship, for these intrude into those
things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind, 19 And these do not even
give preeminence to the Head, ..
You see, it is the
wrong spirit that intrudes into things they know nothing about, and speak as
though they do. These are those men in this message who come on with a false
humility and such false sweetness until you ask them about the Parousia of
Christ or ask them about the difference between the Father and the Son and they
will snarl and try to keep you from your reward, using their worship of the
messenger and their false humility to do so.
Brother Branham said,
“You cannot be a big shot and be a Christian.
I PETER 5:4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
5 ¶ Likewise,
ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Peter is telling us
here the way up is down, and the way down is up. If you want God to exalt you,
then you had better approach Him in Humility. Then Peter says, 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time:
PRAYER LINE 53-1121 E-23
That's the way God does: just takes the nothing to make something. And when you
can become nothing in your own sight, you're becoming something in God's sight
then. And always remember this, friends, the way up is down. "He that exalts himself shall be abased, but he that humbled
himself shall be exalted." So just love
Him with all your heart and forget all you ever knowed
about all other things but Jesus Christ. Just go ahead and love Him and work
for Him; serve Him. If He wants you to be the doormat, well, you just be the
doormat and that... It's whatever He wants you to do, you do it. God bless you
now.
INFLUENCE OF ANOTHER 62-1013 123 Always
notice, a big man humbles himself. The way up is down always. Make yourself
little, and God will bring you up. "He that exalts himself,
shall be abased, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted." Oh, my, I
like that. Make yourself little; always be little. Don't be the big
shot; be the little fellow. See? God's the only One among us that's big anyhow.
That's right.
MATTHEW 6:1 ¶ Take heed that ye do not your alms
before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father
which is in heaven. 2 Therefore when
thou doest [thine] alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what
thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
GOD IN SIMPLICITY
63-0317M 36-2 {222}
The way up is down, always. Humble yourself. Don't never say,
"Well, I've got this and that." You ain't
got nothing. Just remember,
if you've got the grace of God, just be thankful for it and be humble...?...
Just keep humbling yourself.
LOOK 63-0428 E-65 The
way to know God is get simple. The way up is down. Which way is the north or south pole? You're standing in space. See? The way up is
down. "He that humbles himself shall be exalted; he that exalts himself
shall be abased." See? We must humble ourselves, not try to know too much.
Just know one thing. Focus everything else out of the way and look unto Christ.
If you don't know how to write your name, that don't have one thing to do with
it. Just focus your heart to Christ and His will, and watch what happens. Yes,
certainly.
MATTHEW
HUMBLE THYSELF 63-0714E 77 You
know, people are--want power, and really they don't know what power is. See?
They--they don't really know what--what--what goes with it. The--the way up is
down always. If you want power, see how humble you can get. Just get away from
all your worldly thinking, and humble yourself before God, and then you've got
more power than the man that runs all over the building and makes a big lot of
noise (See?); because you have been able to conquer yourself and commit
yourself to Christ (You see?) to humble yourself before Him. That's really power. You show me a church that's humble, real humble, not a--a arrogant church, just a sweet, humble church, I'll show
you a church that has the favor and power of God in it. That's right. That's
the thing it takes, humility, humbling ourselves before God, and letting God
just work through us. Don't have to make a lot of noise. You...
Have you ever noticed
how a big dump truck that is full and weighted down makes very little noise when it hits a
bump in the road, and have you ever noticed, that the same truck when it is
empty, you can hear it coming for blocks away when it hits a bump it sounds
like it has a mega phone on it, it makes so much noise. Now, why is that?
Because when it is empty it is like a hollow room that can just echo and echo. You ever notice how noise can travel further
and louder in an empty room than a room filled with furniture? The emptier the
room, the louder it becomes. And that is the same way with people.
The hollow ones make
all the noise, the emptier they are, the louder they become.
I will never forget
back in 1999, a brother invited me to come to
Look, I have been very cognizant of what brother Branham said about Billy Graham. He said he would come to as town and get 30,000 converts and the next year come back and there wouldn’t be 30. Then Brother Branham said the Apostle Paul would go into a town and work with perhaps 3 and stay there until those men understood and then he would leave. The next year he would go back and there would be 30, and that is exactly the way I have conducted my meetings. I don’t want crowds. Crowds allow mixed multitudes to be there. And where you have mixed multitudes it hinders the working of the Holy Spirit.
But Jesus was not any
different. The Bible tells us in many places he came and went without no man knowing it. The Bible says,
He made Himself of no reputation.
PHILIPPIANS 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: 7 But made himself of no
reputation, (Now the root word here is kenos, He emptied Himself
out to appear top be nothing, and then after emptying himself out, he) took upon him the form of a servant, (now
a servant is one who is devoted to another with little regard to self) and was made in the
likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and
[things] in earth, and [things] under the earth; 11 And [that] every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 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. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good
pleasure. 14 ¶ Do
all things without murmurings and disputings:
Now, it is an interesting observation upon our civilization in this 21st century that men are more worried about their legacy than they are about being right with God. They will cheat and steal in hopes of building a great reputation, all the while hiding their motives from the public eye.
Now, the word reputation means 1. the general estimation in which a person is held by the public. 2. The state or situation of being held in high esteem. So you can see how that if the word reputation speaks of an estimation, then I want you to notice how it comes into direct conflict with our worshipping of God. For the word worship comes from 2 words, worth which speaks of an estimation, and ship which is the suffix meaning, the quality or state of being. Therefore, we can see that worship is the state of high estimation, and yet that is also what reputation is all about.
WHY LITTLE
Therefore if we seek
out a reputation, we are seeking out praise and importance, and a high
estimation from the people. Then if we are doing that, who are we serving? God or self. You cannot be looking to build a reputation and
be a servant of God. That is an oxymoron. Those are two opposites. A servant is
not concerned with self, but with the interest of the one he is serving. Then
you can’t even please God if you are seeking a reputation. And that is why
Jesus was so pleasing to God. Because He made Himself of NO
reputation, but became a servant.
If you forsake your
reputation, God will give you a greater reputation than you could have ever
accomplished here in life. He said to David, I have taken thee from among the
sheepfold, and have given thee a name among the great men. Who did it? God did
it.
INFLUENCE 63-0112 E-58 Now,
they had two wings over their feet. What was that? Humility
in His Presence. Moses took off his shoes in the Presence of God. Paul fell down to the ground, to kiss the ground, as it was.
He was in the Presence of God. John the Baptist said, "I'm not even worthy
to loose the shoes on His feet." Wings over their feet, humility, watching
where they walk, what they do, realizing they're on holy ground. Oh, if we
would do that, we'd never walk in the--these places that's
wrong. We'd never do these things that's--that's wrong. Now, notice. Always... Listen. Be
conscious of your littleness. Who are you? Stick your finger in a bucket of
water and pull it out, and find the hole you put your finger in. Then say,
"That was me." You're nothing. You'll not be missed after, a
little while after you're gone. They'll have a funeral possession out here, and
that's all. But your influence will live on, and on, and on.
MATTHEW 5:11 Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you,
and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great [is] your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you. 13 ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but if
the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be
cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light of the
world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.15 Neither do men light a
candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
In other words, give
God the preeminence in your life, and He will reward thee openly.
EXPECTATION 61-0205M
E-32 Don't make any
difference about reputation. That's what... too much is getting to our churches
today, even to our Pentecostal churches. Too much fashions,
too much reputation stuff, like we have
great reputations, you know, in the society, and things. What we need is an
old fashioned, back woods, sky blue, sin killing religion. What we need is
gun-barrel straight, something that'll preach the gospel without compromise,
and let the chips fall wherever they wish to, and chop into it. We need men of
God, stand with power, get the church back into the
place where it ought to be. Something's wrong. We realize that. We all know it. We're
aware of it. Our churches
is falling away, getting weak. What we need is not a new
organization to spring up, what we need is not another latter rain; what we
need is back to faith in God's Word and God's Bible. A soul-shaking experience
back in the church, that's what we need.
LUKE 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their
company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the
Son of man's sake. 23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy:
for, behold, your reward [is] great in heaven: for in the like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets.
Look, if you are talked
of with high regard in the mainstream of this message then you are a
compromiser on the truth. I like what Brother Joseph Isaac from
You see, Jesus was
ridiculed, Paul was ridiculed, Peter was ridiculed, and so was John. Luther was
ridiculed, and Wesley was ridiculed. These men were kicked out of almost every
church they went to preach in. Read the biographies. You’ll understand what I
mean. Even Jesus said, LUKE
That is exactly what
we need to do. If they walk out on you and trash you, don’t return trash for
trash. No, rather, show them love anyhow, and if you can’t say something good
about them, then just don’t say anything. No one wins in a food fight. No one
wins in a mud slinging contest. Everyone gets soiled. So just leave it alone,
and walk away from it.
Jesus also said, MATTHEW
MARK
COLOSSIANS 3:23 And whatsoever ye do,
do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he that doeth wrong shall
receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
LUKE 6:31 And as ye would that
men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32 For if ye love them which love you,
what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that
love them. 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have
ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34 And if ye
lend [to them] of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again;
and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest:
for he is kind unto the unthankful and [to] the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37 ¶ Judge
not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give
into your bosom. For with the
same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
I CORINTHIANS
I CORINTHIANS 3:1 ¶ And I, brethren, could not speak unto
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. 2 I
have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to
bear it], neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas
[there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and
walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and
another, I [am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 ¶ Who then is Paul, and who [is] Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the
Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos
watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So
then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither
he that watereth; but God that giveth
the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own
reward according to his own labour. 9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, [ye
are] God's building. 10 According to the grace of God
which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I
have laid the foundation, and another buildeth
thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth
thereupon. 11 ¶ For
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble; 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work abide
which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself
shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 16 ¶ Know ye not that ye are the
And that pretty well says it all. If you have nothing in yourself but what God has shown you, then how can you honestly take credit for it. How can you honestly make yourself some big name when you have nothing to begin with? Look, I don’t take credit for the doctrine. It’s not my doctrine, but the Father’s doctrine. It was not William Branham’s Message. He is not the One who descended with a Shout. God descended with the Shout. It’s God’s Message. And we should just be thankful that he has allowed us to see it. I hate it when people get arrogant and puffed up as though they are better than the next guy. Brother Branham said you are no better than the drunk that got saved an hour ago. All these men claiming to believe the Message and making a great name for themselves, robbing the credit from the ones who really did all the work, and claiming it for their own, as if they were the ones who did it. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. And we should never look on man as anything more than he is my brother, and she is my sister. That’s all. Love and be loved. Serve and be served. Console and be consoled. Give friendship and receive friendship in return, for whatsoever you sow you shall surely reap.
Then if you want friends, you must show yourself friendly. If you want to be loved, you must be willing to love. If you want forgiveness you must be willing to forgive. Bless and you shall be blessed. Let’s bow our heads and our hearts now in a word of prayer.