Spoken Word no. 193

The Spirit and the Bride say “Come”

Brian Kocourek, Pastor

October 10^th, 2010

Before we begin our message this morning, let’s open our Bibles to the Book of Revelations and we will read from chapters 21 and 22..

NIV translation Revelation 21The New Jerusalem ¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."  ⁶He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."  ⁹One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." ¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  ¹⁵The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia^[a]in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits^[b] thick,^[c] by man's measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.^{[d] 21}The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.  ²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Revelation 22 The River of Life ¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. ⁶The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place." Jesus Is Coming ⁷"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book."  ⁸I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. ⁹But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"  ¹⁰Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. ¹¹Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."  ¹²"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  ¹⁴"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.  ¹⁶"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you^[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."  ¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.  ¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.  ²⁰He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  ²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.

Now, this morning we will continue with our study of the Message of Br. Branham’s called, “The Spoken Word is the Original Seed”. We will read from paragraph 57 through 60 for our text this morning. 57   Now, I just got so much to say, and I just got to hurry over these. Each one of them I want to preach on. See?

  58   Now, watch, the true Bride... Hallelujah, there's going to be one. Why? She's predestinated. She won't be denominated, because She's predestinated. She don't have to worry about some denomination; She's already predestinated to take the place. Look, like Mary... I want you to get this now and don't fail. Are you ready? Say, "Amen." [Congregation replies, "Amen."--Ed.] When Christ comes to His Bride, She will be a virgin like Mary was, for God will not bring Christ through a womb of a whore, and neither will He bring the Bride. He can't bring His Word through a whore of His Word. Those are horrible words, but that's what the Bible said. I'm saying what It says 'cause it's, this has got to be understood.

Now Paul taught us the same thing, he said in 2 Corinthians 11: 1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Now, I want you to notice that Paul said he had espoused the Bride of His day to Christ as a chaste virgin. Not just a virgin, but one who is chaste. Now, the Greek word Paul used that was translated as chaste was the word “hagnos” which means properly, clean, i.e. (figuratively) innocent, modest, perfect:--chaste, clean, pure. And in the spiritual sense it means: sacred, physically pure, morally blameless, consecrated: holy. So not only was she clean but she was in her mind, her spirit and her soul she was modest, innocent, pure, clean and perfect.

Now, there are many virgins in this world who are vulgar and impure in many ways. So just because they have not given themselves over to a man, does not mean they have that innocence and purity and modesty and cleanness about them that Paul is describing here. And just because you might have come out of denominationalism and come into this message because you heard the midnight cry, doesn’t mean that you are pure and clean in your mind. He said “be ye therefore perfect even as my father in heaven is perfect.” And we know that this is impossible without the cleansing blood of the lamb of God. But it also speaks of a mindset that wants to be like Him.

I know men and woman in this message who can cuss like sailors and that is so unbefitting their claims to be bride. And yet they think they are bride material because they believe God sent a prophet, and they believe the message of the hour. And they claim to be born again but what life is living in them if they cuss and carry on like that? Now, let me tell you something. There is a life that God has called us to, and we are to be as a Bride adorned for her husband. Our focus should be on Him, as his focus is on His Bride.

The bride doesn’t come to the wedding wearing just whatever she would like. She comes dressed in white without spot or wrinkle. She comes adorned for her husband.

That is why we see in the book of Revelations when John saw the New Jerusalem come down from heaven, he said: Revelations 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So you see there is a certain way she is to prepare herself and adorn herself for her husband. In fact the scripture tells us that the bride hath made herself ready. That’s Revelations 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Now, are you getting this? What was her linen made of that made it appear to be so clean and white? He said it is the righteousness of the saints. Righteousness which is right-wise-ness, she had a correct understanding of the word and the condition she was to present herself as. And it called it the righteousness of the saints, not the ain’ts. The saints which are the sanctified ones who are set aside for service. 9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Now, no man likes to see his wife old and frumpy looking. In fact show me a husband that doesn’t mind his wife looking like a hag, and I will show you a man that is either blind, or who is so obese and disheveled himself that her looking like a hag is a step up to what he looks like. NO, every man wants his bride to always look like a million bucks. He didn’t marry an old witch, he married the girl of his dreams. So listen ladies, you can look your best for your man, and it isn’t going to kill you to do it. And listen guys, you can try to keep your youthful trim and it isn’t going to kill you to do it either. In fact it may kill you not to do it.

So brother Branham says in paragraph 59 The true Bride, like Mary, will have a virgin womb for the Bride of the Word, which is Christ. When Christ, the Word, comes to the Bride, She'll be the same as He is: a virgin by the Word. I hope it's going over, Brother Neville. I... See, see? I hope you understand. What was He? Word, the Word of God. Upon His vesture He had a Name written, "The Word of God." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word... made flesh, and dwelt among us." He is God, and God is the Word. And when His Bride comes, She'll be the same product that He is: virgin.

Virgin what? Virgin to the word of God. That is where God placed His DNA and the body that he prepared for his Son in. An untouched womb, and that is where God wants to place His Word in you? In the untouched womb of your mind.

That is why Peter told us in 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Now, Peter is speaking of girding up the loins of your mind, and that is where the womb of the spirit is, in the loins of your mind.

From Spoken word original seed 62-0318E P:88 Brother Branham said, And the only way that we can ever be born again is first in the womb of the mind receive the Word, and then the Spirit comes on top of that and brings it. There you are. That's what does it. That's the real Gospel teaching, brother. I believe if Saint Paul was standing today he'd teach the same thing (Amen.) in this hour. All right.

So we are looking at a condition of the mind that is virgin, not polluted and full of man’s reasoning. As he said in paragraph 55  So the sperm of Eve never happened. Hybrid to Satan's lie, his lovely bride become polluted.

The Message translation Genesis 3:9 God called to the Man: "Where are you?"  ¹⁰ He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."  ¹¹ God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"  ¹² The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it."   God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"  ¹³ "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate." ^14-15 God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed,  cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly  and eat dirt all your life.  I'm declaring war between you and the Woman,  between your offspring and hers.  He'll wound your head,   you'll wound his heel."  ¹⁶ He told the Woman:  "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth;  you'll give birth to your babies in pain.  You'll want to please your husband,  but he'll lord it over you." ^17-19 He told the Man:  "Because you listened to your wife  and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from,  'Don't eat from this tree,'   The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;   you'll be working in pain all your life long.  The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,  you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting,  sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;  you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt." ²⁰ The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

And so has Christ's Bride. The bride, what made her become polluted (Adam's bride now)? Because she never stayed with God's Word. That right? I ask... Now, if it's not so, don't say it; but if it is so, say it. The reason that God's--the reason that Adam's bride--there's the three: Adam, Christ, God. The reason that Adam's bride never did bear right the life child is because she disbelieved God's Word. If that's right, say "Amen." The reason that Jehovah's wife was put away, or His bride, was because that she rejected God's Word, the Prophet. Is that right? The reason that Christ's bride is put away in divorcement is because that she has rejected the Word of God, like Eve did, like the rest of them did; exactly, all whores, all polluted. Their husband couldn't get to them. They was already pregnated before their husband got to them. Oh, God, if that ain't a pitiful sight. Think of a young man coming to a woman and find her with seed of some other man in her. What a thing. That's what God's done. That's what Adam done. That's what Christ has done. Oh.

So we are looking at a condition in your mind that is either pure and clean and undefiled, or it is dirty, vulgar and polluted with the thoughts of man. And how do you know what is in their? By your fruits you shall know them. Jesus said, out of the heart speaketh the mouth.

Matthew 15: 7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8  This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 10  And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11  Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

So listen to your own words carefully, for we read in Matthew 12: 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

The Spoken Word is the original Seed pp. 60   Did Christ belong to a denomination? Did Jehovah? Neither does His Bride. She's part of Him. She needs no dogma; She won't have any. She'll be absolutely virgin. How? By the Word. Amen. She'll punctuate every Word God says with an "Amen. Amen. Oh, be it unto me according to Thy Word. Amen." Oh, my. There you are. Punctuate God's Word...Have a virgin womb. What will she come out of? A virgin womb, the Word. What did Jesus come out of? A virgin womb. See?

Notice in the Book of Revelation 22: 17 And the Spirit and the bride say,… and what does the Spirit and the Bride say? Now listen? They are both saying the same thing here. And what are they both saying? “Come”. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

So then why do we have such an attitude among Message churches that are so closed off from anyone who Is not in their camp?

We just had to deal with that in Poland. I found out there was a church there that wanted to come to the meetings last year and they were not allowed to come. And when I was in Peru in 2006, the morning meeting was so small we had only 8 ministers and then the evening we had more than 30, and I asked why and was told that they were not allowed to come because certain ones there wanted to have the meeting only with those who already believed the doctrine.

I was so troubled in my spirit after that, that I became ill, seriously ill. My immune system shut down, and I came down with double pneumonia, and both lungs filled up and I could barely breathe. Every breath was a struggle after that and then we had to go to LaPaz Bolivia after that which is nearly three miles high, and it is hard enough to breath when you are that high, but try doing it with two lungs full of fluid. O Lord, how that upset me so. And to top it off, when I got back I had to pick up and go again this time to Colombia to speak before 6,000 people. But how great is our God. I was even able to sing Holy Ground, and if you didn’t know that I had double pneumonia then, you would know by hearing that song. And it blessed many thousands of people that night who lifted their hands in worship to God and you could really feel the presence of God. In fact it blessed the brethren so much they put it on “Youtube”.

Now, Brothers and sisters, that spirit hat wants to control who comes and who does not is not of God. That isn’t the spirit of Christ? Could you imagine if brother Branham was exclusive like that? What if he acted like the brethren out their and said, I will only go to the churches who believe Like me. I will only pray for those sick people who believe the doctrine as I do? He would not have had a ministry. And that is what is becoming of those people who think that way. Hey are shutting themselves off from a greater ministry than what they have by being exclusive. That is like the little fish that says, “I had better ration what I drink or I might drink the ocean dry.”

The Bible says, The Spirit and the Bride say come!!! Can I read that again? The Spirit and there is only one “The Spirit” and that is The Spirit of God. So God’s Spirit and the Bride say the same thing, and that is “Come”. And The spirit and the Bride say to him that that heareth we say, Come. Look, that is anyone who hears let them come for more. It doesn’t even say they have to believe, it says if they are willing to hear then let them come.

And him that is athirst we say, “come”. And whosoever will, we say “let him take the water of life freely”. Yes, freeeeeeeeeeely. Not for gain, freeeely. The Bride is not in this to make money. She is in this to say the same thing that The Spirit, God’s Spirit says, and that is “Come”.

Let us pray…