Spoken Word no. 140
Revelation
Redemption
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
January
17, 2010
Ephesians
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Notice now), 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him (or in his presence). 5 Then in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Now, let’s turn in our Bibles to Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
And to set the record straight let’s also open to John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me
not; for I am not yet ascended to my
Father: but go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascend unto my
Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Hebrews
2: 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one: (are all out from one, in other words seed) for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, Why, because if he was the
original seed or original son, then we are brothers. Then why would he be
afraid to call us what we are?
Let us pray,
Dear father we have read from Thy Holy Bible Thy words which are true for you
are the only True God, and Jesus Christ is Your first born son, and this is the
record which You came down to declare, when Your Spirit came down at the river
Jordan to declare This is my beloved son IN whom I am pleased to dwell in. This
is your record, and it is true, and we are witnesses to this truth because we
also have received of your Seed Life and Your Spirit has born record with our
Spirit that we are sons. Now, we know
that it would do us no good for our spirit to bear witness to Your Spirit since
the whole world, Muslims, Jews and Christians which make up perhaps 5 billion
of the 7 billion people on earth and they all claim you as their God and
Father. But we know that you have come down to an elect seed, a royal seed in
this hour to redeem us back to the state and status that was in you before the
foundations of the world. We know that
you ordained and predestined us to the adoption of children before the
foundations of the world at the same time you ordained and predestined our
eldest brother Jesus to become the lamb that was slain before the foundation of
the world. And so we realize that we are predestinated and elect, chosen in you
and that is our destiny. So we thank you Father for your purpose and plan in the
lovely name of Jesus Christ, we pray, amen.
Now, this morning I would like to pick up where we
left off last Sunday at paragraph 144 of Brother Branham’s sermon, the Spoken
Word is the original Seed. In this paragraph brother Branham says, 144 “In our mistakes... Don't
say, "Well, I made a failure." No, that don't make a,…Abraham
made failures too. See? But He couldn't take the church. He can't kill the Elect. He
can't take your life, because you're part of Him. You're the Word. The Word is in you. It's manifested Itself, proven Itself:
love, joy, peace, long-suffering. All
the Words of God, you believe every one of them: working, God working
through you. See, you're part of the
Word which is Christ. And we are taught that He is the Word, and we are
flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. There you are. Now, we're coming down
to something.”
Now, we read God’s promise and plan for us in Ephesians 1: 3-4 that we are predestinated
unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to Himself, and in Romans 8 we read God’s own Words which said we
are ordained to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn son in a vast
family of brothers. So we know our promise is to be like Him, and we know we
have a promise of a change of this body, so we should be the happiest people on
earth, especially at this late hour when every day looks like the end of
redemption is drawing closer than ever before.
Though our outer man is perishing, yet our
inner man is being renewed daily.
And we know that all things are working
together for our Good, so why worry about what is coming? Was not our eldest
brother raised from the dead for our justification? You say, I thought He died
for our justification. NO! He died that your sins might be covered under his
Precious blood, and that your sinful life might be atoned for. But He rose that
you might have justification because to be justified means as though you never
did do it, and when He rose again for our justification it brought back His
Spirit upon the believer and quickened us by the same spirit that was in Him,
and has made us new creations in Christ.
From his sermon, The Countdown 62-1125EE-24 brother Branham said, Now, remember, God by Luther with the Holy Spirit power, He was able to achieve by Luther to the church, justification. And when the church got justification--out of the Roman creeds--it begin to get life and begin to move, through justification. God was able to do it through His achievement to get one man to stand still long enough that He could project Himself to it, and get His message out to the people.
Romans
4: 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the
end the promise might be sure to all
the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which
is of the faith of Abraham; who is the
father of us all,
Philippians
3: 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith
Romans 3: 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference:
Now, think of what Paul said here. Our justification
does not come via what we do, but by Faith. Then it is not our faith but His
faith that justifies us. Then justification is a work of Grace, something that
is totally out of your hands, and is a gift from God. For that is what Faith
is. It is something revealed.
Thus as brother Branham said,
Justification is what began the life process in the seed coming forth into it’s
manifestation of what it is. So you see, justification made a way for
sanctification, which is the life being manifested in the flesh, and sanctification
made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost to come down and indwell the
flesh, and take over the flesh, and the baptism of the Holy ghost made a way
for the Holy Ghost to come down in perfection, to dwell with us to be our God
and we to be His people, His family.
Luther’s Message broke into Justification, releasing
the Life to come back into the church, so Justification brought life to the
church, and Wesley’s Message dealt with man cleaning up his life so that God
would fill it, and when men began to teach this they began to seek the filling
of the spirit. Had they not understood justification, that the just shall live
by faith, they would not have known how to present their bodies as a living
sacrifice as Paul told us in Romans 12. They would have preached a legalistic
message and it would not have done them any good.
In ROMANS 5:15 we read, But not as the offence, so also is The free
gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of
God, and The gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded
unto many. 16 And not as it was by one
that sinned, so is The gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but
The free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man's
offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of The gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 18
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20 Moreover
the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound: 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, before we go on this morning I want to make sure
that we have our understanding nailed down on what Justification and
sanctification are. Justification is by Faith, therefore it is by revelation.
And since there is only One Lord and One Faith, then justification comes by our
receiving the revelation of that One Lord. Therefore, justification comes by
the revelation of Jesus Christ. And then if revelation is a gift, something
that has been revealed to you, then sanctification is also a gift, and if it is
a gift, then it is not what you can do for God in terms of conduct, but it is
simply a pulling away from every influence that would distract you from His
Word. Because brother Branham said the greatest Gift is to get yourself out of
the way. Therefore, sanctification which came out of and sprang forth
justification is a greater gift to us than justification, because it is a
letting go of the flesh, so that God may come in and dwell in your flesh by the
baptism of the Holy Ghost. Sanctification
then is a taking heed to the Word, and as we know that Justification made a way
for sanctification, and sanctification made a way for the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes a way for the Holy Ghost
Himself to come right down in our midst. Now, if justification made a way for
sanctification, then sanctification would be impossible outside of the revealed
Word. For justification comes by faith (which is a revelation.)
That’s what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:20 Therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law
is the knowledge of sin.
And again in Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith (by
revelation) into
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (That’s
receiving the mindset of God) 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing
that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, Character; and character,
hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
In Romans 2: 25-29 Paul told us that your
circumcision in your heart is your separating yourself from the world, and it doesn't
account for anything if you are a breaker of the Message. He said these things that
you do for God will have some profit to you, if you keep the Message: but if you
become a breaker of the Message, then your circumcision is made un-circumcision
(or your separation from the things of the world is counted as no separation at
all). In verse 28 he went on to say, For he is not a
Believer in the Message, which is one outwardly; neither is that considered
being separate from the world, which is separated outwardly in the flesh: 29
But he is a True Believer in the Message, which is one inwardly; and separation
from the world is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter;
whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Therefore what
we are looking at here is that no matter what you do in word or deed, if it is
not from the heart then it is not real and therefore not acceptable to God. And
in fact will actually be held against you as though you did the opposite.
Well, then you might say, what's the use
then? What does it profit to work so hard at being a God fearing Christian if
it has no merit in itself? And if this comes to your mind, it is because you are
human. If we would open our Bibles to the next chapter in the Book of Romans we
will see that Paul addresses that same sort of thinking.
Notice his words as he continues looking
at this thought in ROMANS 3:1 What advantage then is there in being a Believer? or what
profit [is there] or what value or benefit is there for separating ourselves
from the cares of the world? And he begins to answer this question
in verse 2, Much
every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of
God.
In other words, Paul begins by saying, hey! There is a
great value involved here, because after all, you as a Believer were entrusted
with the Word of God. And God doesn't just do that for no reason at all. And he
doesn’t just do that for anyone. Only His elect does He openly reveal Himself
and His plan to. And in thinking these thoughts, Paul is telling us that there
is something special about this relationship between God and His Elect, because
He doesn't just show or reveal His Word to just anyone.
Now, notice how
Paul has so far taken it all out of your hands and He places it all in the hands
of God. Paul continues with this line of questioning here and he asks the
question... 3
well, what if some did not believe and were without Faith, or could not
exercise faith? Shall their lack of faith and their faith-less-ness nullify or
make void the faith of God so that it becomes of no effect? Can what
someone else does, change the way God is faithful? Can what you do change God's
fidelity to His own Word? Or Does anything you do have one thing to do with God
keeping His Own Word? Then he answers, 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as
it is written, that thou might be justified in thy sayings, and might come out
the victor when your Word is placed on trial. 5 But if our unrighteousness or
shall we say our un-right-wise-ness which is our wrong understanding, or wrong
way of thinking, if it could ever establish the
righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous for punishing us
for our un-righteousness? Then Paul
says, I speak as
a carnal man would think 6 and again I say, God forbid: for then how shall God
judge the world? Or in other words, if God's supreme justice would
depend on anything we would do, then how could we ever expect a righteous
judgment of all men. God is not like other judges, He does not depend upon a
previous court ruling, nor do His judgments change from time to time, for He is
the same and changes not. Can you imagine a righteous judge who judges one man
by one set of standards and another man by yet a different set of standards?
That’s like this present administration, and congress.
They want to make into law a national health care bill that makes exceptions
for the certain groups, showing preference in their dealing with all men.
So, like Paul said, God forbid that God would be unrighteous in his
righteousness. If God were like that then how could you ever know by
what set of standards you will be judged? Then Paul goes on to say in verse, 7 But if you say, if
through my falsehood God's integrity is manifested and advertised and abounds
to His glory, why then am I still being judged as a sinner? 8 and why should we
then not do evil that good may come? As some so slanderously charge us with
teaching. and if this were true then such false teaching would be justly
condemned by them.
9
Well then? Are we more superior and better off than they? No, in no way: for we
have already proven both believers and unbelievers are all under sin, held down
by and subject to it's power and control.
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way and turned
aside from God, together they have all gone wrong and become unprofitable and
worthless, there is none that doeth good, no, not even one. 13 Their throat is
an open grave; with their tongues they deceive; the venom of a snake is under
their lips: 14 Whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
O, my!! What a condition man is in. Not
just the unbeliever, but every man is shaped in iniquity and comes to the world
speaking lies. In verse 16 Paul tells us that Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17
And the way of peace have they not known: They have no experience
with peace and therefore haven't got a clue. 18 There is no fear of God before their
eyes. 19 Now we know that what things so
ever the Precepts and principles of God saith, it saith to them who are under
the principles of God: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. 20 For no person will be justified or be made
righteous, acquitted and judged acceptable in His sight by simply
observing the works prescribed in the principles of Conduct, order, and
doctrine. For
the real function of these principles, is to make men recognize and be
conscious of God's Holy Presence, not just a mere perception, but a true
acquaintance with His Divine Nature, which will bring man to a true repentance
and holy character.
OK, now let’s read from 21 But now the
righteousness of God has been revealed and manifested independently and
altogether apart from the principles of Conduct, and is witnessed by the Word
of God and the prophets; 22 namely that
the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ is given unto
all and is meant for all who believe: And you could not believe
unless you were ordained to believe.
That’s what we find in Acts 13: 48 “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed.”
Now in Romans 3:23 Paul tells us that “all have sinned,” and all have “come short of the
glory of God,” Now, remember this word “Glory” was translated from
the Greek word Doxa which is the very essence of God's own thinking; His
opinions, his values and his judgments, and Paul tells us that no man had it
figured out, no man thought God’s thoughts, nor did they have his values or his
opinions right. So
in verse 24 Paul
tells us Then the only way we could be justified is by
the free exercise of his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus: and in verse 25 Paul
tells us that it was God who had set forth His son to be a propitiation for our
sins through faith in his blood, (in other words, He has become our mercy
seat for us, and our faith in the blood of His Son, is what takes away our own
stain.) And God
set Him forth and commanded that we should come by faith alone (and
we know that faith is a revelation, something that has been revealed to us, and
we must come this way) in order to declare his righteousness because in his divine
forbearance, He passed over and even ignored and has completely remitted our
former sins without punishment. (that
is exactly what brother Branham was saying in paragraph 144, he said, Don't say, "Well, I made a failure).
How can you be a failure when you are ordained to Glory,
predestined to the adoption of Jesus Christ and ordained to be conformed to the
image of the first born son? Now, in
verse 26 Paul
continues saying, This was done in order to declare
and demonstrate, in this present time his righteousness: that he justifies and
accepts him who has True faith (true revelation) in Jesus.
27 Then, what becomes of our
pride and our boasting? It is
excluded, banished, ruled out entirely. On what principle? On the
principle of works and doing good deeds in obeying the commandments of God? No:
but on the principle of faith alone.
In other words, if it were based on what you do, then you might well
be able to boast, but since God has taken away all possible avenues for
boasting, He bases our justification upon Faith which is a gift, one that He
has given us.
28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified and made upright and considered righteous by faith alone independent
from and without
any assistance from good deeds in following the commandments of God, therefore the observance of the
commandments of God has nothing to do with justification. 29 Is he the God
of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30
Since it is one and the same God, which shall justify the circumcision by
faith, and un-circumcision through faith, and that Faith is the
Faith of the Son of God, His Faith.. 31 Do we then, by receiving this faith, make the
Commandments of God of no effect, do we over throw them, or make
them void? God
forbid: But on the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the
commandments of God.
Why? Because it is life to us…It is our Life. When Christ who is
our Life shall Appear, then shall we appear also with him in Glory,
in Doxa, in the same values, in the same opinions, and in the same judgments.
Then let the mind
that was in Christ be in you.
What is Paul
teaching us in this 3rd chapter of Romans is that he is telling us that God has
set forth principles that we must
observe, (1) principles of conduct
and (2) principles of order and (3) principles of doctrine. But He also
tells us that these principles and our observing of these principles has
nothing to do with our salvation and neither do they have to do with our being
freely justified and accepted as innocent, vindicated to be righteous. In other
words, what Paul is telling us is that our righteousness comes only by one
avenue and that is a free Gift of God to us, and it comes through Faith, and
Faith alone is the only access to this free gift.
Now, we know that Faith is a Revelation,
and therefore He tells us that it must be the same revelation that Jesus had,
for in Galatians
2:20 He says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Now, how can a man be both crucified and live, because
He actually says, I have been crucified with Christ, and brother Branham makes
that very plain to us when He says, that “when Jesus was crucified we were in Him, and we went to the
cross with Him, for we were in Him, and we raised with him on the third day….”
Now, most believers understand that the Life is in the
blood? And even science proves that the Life is in the blood? Then if you and I
were to have the same life that was in Jesus, It had to come forth from the
same blood that moved through his veins, right?
Then how did we
receive that blood? In his sermon The Future Home brother Branham said that when
Jesus died upon the cross, when they pierced His side, His blood flowed forth
from that open wound and poured out upon the earth.
Now, our seed life was in the earth to begin with, God
placed it there. That’s Genesis 1: 11-12, Genesis 2:5 and Psalms 1:3 and
when that blood was spilled upon the earth it not only redeemed the earth, but
the seed life that was in the earth as well. And His blood not only paid the
price and redeemed back what was rightfully His, but it also quickened that
seed which was in the earth mingling His own blood with that seed and giving it
Life, the very same life that was in Him that came from the Father.
JOHN 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Then if we received His Life, the same
life that was in the Father, if we
received this Life through the blood of His Son, then in one way we would be
cloned images of His son?
FUTURE HOME
64-0802 18-3 Now, the world, to be redeemed for this
redeemed person, He uses His same method. He baptized it in water after the
antediluvian destruction, shed His Blood upon it to sanctify it and claim it.
It's His. Satan tried to say, "I'll give it to you." He said,
"No, sir, I'll buy it." Let it be a witness. He was lifted up for an
ensign--that He bought it; He purchased it. But now it has to go through a
baptism of fire, holy fire from God which cleanses the earth and the heavens
around it. Then it's purchased so that the redeemed can live on it--live in it
in peace.
40-2 See, and look, you are part of that ground. Is that right? And
when He redeems you, He redeemed the earth with the same thing, and you are
together again. Oh, how much plainer can it be. See? You have to be redeemed,
'cause you're part of it. And if the Blood didn't drop on you, you ain't
redeemed yet, you're not called. Then He cleanses it; that's the same thing He
does in the fire. Even the Blood dropped; it's yet got to be cleansed by fire
(That's right.) for a dwelling place for God. God already took up His abode.
Potentially the
41-5 God and His creation and His creatures of this creation is
redeemed by His own Blood, cleansed by His own cleansing process, His
germ-killing, sin-killing process, like if anything is sterilized. The best
sterilization we've ever had has been fire. You can take anything and wash it
with soapsuds and all these chemicals that they talk about; it still ain't
free, but you burn it once. And when the holy fire of God sterilizes the
earth... when the chemicals... He's lifted His Bride, which can come into
heaven with Him while this is going on, and comes back upon the earth again--a
new heavens and a new earth.
44-4 John said,
"I saw the holy City, the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven, as a
bride adorned for her husband." And where did it settle on? Just exactly
like it did on there, upon the earth. Jesus was part of that earth that the
Holy Ghost descended upon (Is that right?) and remained upon Him forever. It
never can leave Him, It's always there (He and God are one.), always has to
remain. And so John saw the holy City, the
New Jerusalem descending like a comet or a dove, coming down out of heaven and settling upon a redeemed entire earth. To
do what? To claim every attribute that He made the earth for; every man that
was represented in the eternity and every woman is redeemed then. She's been
scoured and burned by fire; Jesus in His fiery temptations in the wilderness
for forty days... After that, notice, it was ready for His ministry then. Think
of it, the Holy Ghost descending upon earth, Jesus, and that holy Blood. Now
watch. I hope I don't go too deep for you. See?
49-1 Look, them hands designed this for His Beloved and Bride:
designed in tenderly love for His Bride. Remember that the Holy Ghost descended
on Jesus, which Jesus was a part of the earth. Why? The germ of God, the Life
of God was designed in the womb of a woman (That right?), which was the earth.
All right. And then the Life of God came in, so He was the beginning of the
creation of God. See? And then that Blood of God, that was there by that germ,
when it was shed at
So if we are talking of redemption then that means to
bring back, or redeem means to buy back, to its rightful owner. And we know our
lineage runs back to God.
That’s why John said in 1 John 3: 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
And again from Galatians 4: 6
we read, And
because ye are already sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father. Notice because you are sons. That means you already are, and
because you are what you are, God does something, and that is that He promises
to send to every son the same spirit that He placed in His son, in order that
it might bring out of us the same thing it brought out of His Son.
We should be so
thankful to know that not only are we sons, but that we can trace our ancestry
back to God in the beginning as well. For we know that this ability to know our
lineage goes back to before the foundations of the world, when we were in Him.
Not by means of a physical historical record as they did in the days of Jesus
the Son of God, which records back could trace his lineage all the way back to
Adam. But we know that we are sons because He has sent the Spirit to his own son
into our hearts, whereby we cry Abba Father.
We know according to Genesis 1:11 that every seed will
bring forth after its kind, and we know who we are because we have
responded to the light and have manifested his characteristics of Faith in
God’s Word just as Jesus Christ did before us. As Paul said, “I am crucified with
Christ nevertheless I am living, yet it is not I that is living, but Christ is
living in me, and the Life I now live in this flesh, I live by His Faith…The
Faith of the Son of God, who emptied out His Life so that I might live.”
Now, it is
crucial that we know our lineage goes back God. We are given an ability to
trace our lineage back to God Himself. And this has to do with Seed, and in fact
Seed is one of the most important doctrinal teachings that William Branham
taught to us. Because after all, outside of Godhead, the most important thing
is Seed, for if you did not come from God then you have no representation in
Him.
And therefore, if you were not in Him before the world
began then you will not be a part of Him when it ends. As Bro. Branham said,
"If there is no representation up there, you'll not have representation
down here." And we read in both Ephesians 1:3-5 and Romans 8.
Now, God has
given us an ability to trace our lineage back to the Father. Notice that in Genesis 1: 11
And God said, Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it
was so.
So we see here that there is a law of
reproduction that God placed to govern the nature of every form of life, and He
said, "every
seed must bring forth after its kind or nature." Therefore we
see this law of reproduction can not be altered, and if we want to know what
lineage we are then we must look to the original seed and see what attributes
we display and then seek out the original seed to see what attributes it
displays, and then we will know what lineage we belong to. Because all Life
comes from a seed of one sort or another, and all life is known by its nature.