Spoken Word no. 261
“Are you Adding unto or taking
away?”
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
June 3rd, 2011 a.m.
Revelation
22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the
book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from
the things which are written in this book.
Let us pray, Dear
Gracious and heavenly Father we come to Thee this morning in that most precious
name you gave your Son Jesus, and we hear these austere words from your Holy
Word that if any should add to what this word says, they will get tribulation,
and if they take away they will have no mention in the Book of Life nor in the
Holy City which is to come, so help us
Father to always say what is in Thy Word and as br. Branham said, to say what
is on the tapes, all that is on the tapes. Help us to never hold back a quote
or Scripture that does not meet our idea of what the doctrine means for to do
so would only skew Thy Word to our understanding, instead of our emptying out
to receive all that you would have for us in Your Word. For we ask this in
Jesus Christ’s name, amen.
Now, I would like to teach on the subject this morning
of believing all the Word not just a part of it, because it seems that no
matter what side of the fence you are leaning today, the people either are
taking away from what Scripture teaches or they are adding to what it teaches,
and the same goes with the tapes. He commanded us to say only what are on those
tapes, and all that is on those tapes, and yet many choose to twist what he
said to fit their own theology, instead of setting back and saying, now this is
what I see by the best of my ability, but I could be wrong because he also said
this. I mean, even a vindicated prophet said, “Now, I could be wrong on that” so
why can’t we be humble enough to admit the same. None of us have all the
answers, so why pretend as though we do. That doesn’t get you nowhere except
for a showdown one day at the white throne.
Now, I could show you 16 places where brother Branham
said, “Now, I
could be wrong” concerning certain things”, and this man was a
vindicated prophet sent by God with Thus Saith the Lord, So if he is humble
enough to say that, then who are we to come along and say we are always correct.
We are human and thus very capable of mis-communicating our thoughts or even of
not understanding fully certain things that come along. But what we should
never do is throw out Scripture or quotes because they don’t fit our
understanding. That is where Pentecost went wrong, and they took experience or
gifts over the Word.
From paragraph 190 of The Spoken Word is the Original Seed brother
Branham said, 190 God never placed signs ahead of His Word.
(Amen. That's a scorcher.) God never
placed signs ahead of His Word. They
were added for proof of the Word, but the
Word is first. To prove it, Elijah said to the woman, "Bake me a
cake first." Then watch the miracle happen. Come to the Word first and then watch the miracle. The Seed Word Itself is what the Holy
Spirit energizes. How can a
messenger sent from God just believe some of the Scriptures and not all the
Word? deny part of It...
So there you have it, how can a Messenger of God only
believe part of the Word and not all of it, and yet the people have no problem
taking what they want and chucking out the rest and yet still cry out we believe
the prophet and yet deny what he taught.
Now, a few weeks ago in sermon 255 in our series I
tried to clear up our understanding of John 14:12 because as I said there are two camps
in this Message concerning that. Now, I talked to brother Vayle about what I
preached the same I preached that sermon, and he told me he was in agreement
with what I said of works vs the greater works. But Apparently I didn’t do such
a good job in convincing my brothers our there overseas because some brothers
have misunderstood and criticized what I said. But I reconfirmed last night
this with brother Vayle and he said preach it.
You see what is happening in this Message is one camp
mainly consisting of return ministry believers and such have placed everything
in William Branham, so that there is nothing in any other ministry, and all you
have to do is look at the fruits of that teaching. Many are backslid and their
lives are not right with God, TV’s in the home and no time for prayer or
reading the Word of God. Why? Because what’s the use of trying when you’re
taught that it is all placed in one man. And the fruits of that teaching has
brought shipwreck to them and their children.
Then there is the other group who outnumbers the first
group, and they lean to a latter rain theology in which they teach that the
Bride will manifest John 14:12.
Now, as I mentioned in that sermon, I lean more on the
thought of placing John 14:12 in One man than I do in the each bride member
for sure. But we must be careful to look at everything William Branham taught
concerning the subject such as in paragraph 89 of the Spoken Word is the Original Seed
where he said, “The works that Jesus did, if a man has the Seed of God in him with the Spirit of God watering that Seed, the same works that Jesus, was manifested
in Jesus, Him being the original Seed of God, His death brings you back to
the original Seed of God, and if the
same Spirit that was within Him is in you, then the same works will be
manifested. You don't believe that? All right, let's turn over to
Now, if you are honest you
can not read this any other way than to say what he is saying here is that if
you have the same spirit that was in Jesus that same life in you will produce
the same works as it did in the original seed. And he is not teaching here that
this is for only one man. Now, I realize there are a few quotes where brother
Branham taught that John 14:12 was identified with his ministry,
because he said the “he that believeth” is singular and a personal pronoun.
I also see this and see that the he in Revelations 3
is the end time prophet. But that doesn’t throw out all the other things he
said about John
14:12 so there must be a middle of the road somewhere and if we are
honest we will find it in taking all the quotes, not just the ones to fit our
theology.
Let me give you one that the brothers use. The
brothers who use this say this is evidence that John
14:12 the works Jesus is talking about is discernment. But catch the
wording very carefully as we read what brother Branham says.
God keeps His Word 2 57-0307 P:58 Now, there is true Bible signs (I would like to add that signs is plural, not just
one sign but plural or more than one kind of sign or work) Now, there is true Bible signs to follow the believers.
(again I want to iterate that he says believers plural, not just one
believer.) Jesus
said one like this: (in
other words, brother Branham is saying one of those many signs in the church
will be the following.) "He that heareth My Words and believeth Me, and the
works that I do, shall he do also." Saint John, the 14th chapter, and 7th
verse, I believe it is. "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, shall
he do also." What kind of works did
He do? He would stand in the
audience; people would come to Him. He'd know the very secrets of their hearts.
Is that right?
And when a Jew come to Him
one time, a Jewish man, and stood off by the congregation (His name was
Philip.), he got saved. He went around behind the mountain (I'm told it's about
a day's journey.), and he found his friend--a good sign he got saved. He
believed on the Lord. He said, "If thou believeth that I am, if thou
believeth that I am. "Philip said to the eunuch, "If thou believeth
with all thou heart, with all thou soul, with all thou mind." He never
said, "If you could show something." He said, "If you believe
something.
So it looks like brother Branham is taking it from
one aspect of discernment and bringing it to another aspect of believing.
Because after all, Jesus was the greatest believer, because he said “not my will but Thy
will be done.” That shows he believed all that the Father showed him
to do and he did everything asked of him by His Father because of He believed
His Father.
From the beginning it wasn't so 59-1125 P:3 Jesus
said at the beginning, "The works that I do, shall you do also."
That's the way it was at the beginning. What
kind of a works did He do at the beginning? The same works that He's doing now. What kind of a church
did He have at the beginning? A church that was filled with the Spirit, that healed
the sick, and prophesied, and great signs and wonders. And it wasn't ashamed of the religion.
They shouted and danced under the Spirit like drunk men, and had cloven tongues
like fire set upon them. And they done
signs and wonders, and exploits followed them. That's the kind it was at the beginning. That's the kind it'll be in
the middle. That'll be the kind it'll be at the last. You say, "My
church don't teach that." Well, it wasn't so from the beginning. You say,
"I'm a Methodist." It wasn't so from the beginning. "I'm a
Baptist." It wasn't so from the beginning." I'm a Lutheran." It
wasn't so from the beginning. They were baptized saints of God with the Holy
Ghost. That's what the beginning was:
signs and wonders. You say "My church don't believe in it." It wasn't
so from the beginning. "My church don't believe in seeing visions."
It wasn't so from the beginning. "My church says the days of miracles is
past." It wasn't so from the beginning. "My church don't believe in
the baptism of the Holy Ghost." It wasn't so from the beginning.
Now, I know that there are many who are paranoid
about me using quotes like this because they see the fanaticism of those out
there who claim the Message and all they seek after are signs and gifts but who
have no time for the doctrine, so they avoid these quotes, but we must never do
that. We must embrace all the Word and not the part that fits our belief
system.
Let me tell you something, just because others may
be sign seekers doesn’t mean that we should fear that God might do something in
our midst. God help us when we get that attitude that we are afraid to call on
Him to help us in time of need.
In Acts 2:41 we read about the early church, “Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were
added unto them about three thousand souls. 42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles'
doctrine (Notice doctrine was
number 1) and
fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And
fear came upon every soul: and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
It didn’t say that many signs and wonders were done
by the individuals, but by the apostles. Therefore
the atmosphere had to be right, for the supernatural to take place, and it
could not be right without the doctrine first, then fellowship and prayers of
the saints.
Now, let me read a wonderful quote I have used for
almost 30 years where brother Branham lays out St.
John 14:12 for us and the order it follows. From Super sign 63-1129 P: 69 he said, “Many people wanted to accept Jesus. They thought they'd do
it, "in some other convenient time,"
one said. They want to accept Christ, but they put it off too long. Some of
them tried to get Him off their hands, and tried to wash it off with water,
pass the buck on to somebody else, but it backfired. It's on your hands
tonight, thrown right back in your lap.
Hebrews
13:8,
regardless of how many Council of Churches we have, still remains as “Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever.” "The works that I do..." (Now, I am going to interject here that
he is quoting
It is not speaking of every individual, but it is
among a certain group of elect people, and God has never left his people without
a witness. As I said in sermon 255 in
this series, “I know that some in this
Message teach that the works and greater works will be manifested in the bride
or church and that is NOT
totally correct. Well I is not correct at all. Then we also have those who
teach that
From his sermon, Questions and answers COD 64-0830M P:167 373. brother
Branham reads the question, “And will every true believer do the works that
Jesus said, as stated in
“And will every true believer do the works that Jesus said, as stated in
Now,
notice he said just because I am saying that it is not everyone that will do
this does not mean that there will only be one that will do that. So that
question and that answer shoots down the notion that there is only one who
qualifies for the works because that is what he is talking about here, the
works, he did not say the greater works, he said the works will not be done by
all but it will be done by ones in the group, and that fits Acts 2:43 and many wonders and signs were done by the
apostles.
Now here is the thin I am trying to get across. I know
there are those who believe the Bride is going to be some super duper church,
and they are looking for signs and wonders, and they have on them that Latter Rain
spirit. They are looking for the manifestation of the sons of God, but they do
not realize that what manifested Jesus Christ as The Son of God was not the
signs and wonders, because Balaam had signs and so did Jannes and Jembres have
signs. But what manifested Jesus as The Son of God was his obedience to the
Father in all things. That is the works I believe we are to be seeking. To empty
out ourselves, and become nothing so that God can have his way in our lives. And to take my words and try to persuade
others that I am seeking gifts and manifestation is totally dishonest. You
don’t go out looking to produce signs and wonders because with that mindset God
could never work with a mind like that. But to come to the place of a full
surrender, and emptying out, then God can use that and He will because he
promised he would.
From His sermon, Remembering
the Lord 63-0122 P:76 brother Branham said, “How
wonderful to think that He promised this. "Yet a little while, and the
world won't see Me no more. The world won't see Me; but yet you'll see Me."
Oh. "Wherever two or three are assembled
together, I'll be in their midst." I remember that. You remember that,
brethren? Yeah. See? "And the works that I do, they'll do it also."
Notice
here that brother Branham places a plural “they”
and not “he”
to John 14:12. Then
he says, )
What kind of works did He do? There you are. See? "Oh,
well, of course now, Brother Branham, that was for another day. It's not that. "I
remember that's what He said. I don't remember what you said. That's all gone
(See?) but I remember what He said. See? "He that will come after Me will deny himself," deny his own
thoughts, deny his own thinking….
So you see he is pointing to the works as that of
getting yourself out of the way. And in fact if you listen to me on a regular
basis you know that is what I am referring to, but those who pop in to try to
find some fault will see something and grab it and away they go, and they will
not change, nor will they get themselves out of the way so that Christ might
have the preeminence in their life, and I believe they are missing a whole lot
that could help them if they could just get into the spirit of the composer.
The whole argument boils down to what your
perception of the works that Jesus is talking about here in
From his sermon , Faith 56-0815 P:77 Brother
Branham said, “Now, I want to ask you something. When
Jesus Christ, God's Son, was here on earth, what kind of a works did He do? Let's see what He did. He said, "I
do nothing, till the Father shows Me first by vision."
Is that right?
So you see, the works are obedience to the father, a
vessel, a son who is emptied out, ready to be used by His Father. In Fact
brother Branham said the greatest gift of all is to get yourself out of the
way, so God can use you.
Again
we see the same thing in Jesus Christ the same
55-0116E P:20 Now, Jesus, when He was here on earth, the works and signs
and wonders that He did then, now He will do it again tonight. He will do it every time that His Word is
put to a showdown, He will do it, for He has to in order to be the
resurrected Jesus. Now, if He doesn't do it, then He never raised from the
dead. That's right. He's still dead. But we don't worship a dead God. We
worship a living God Who's raised from the dead, and lives here among us
tonight, and doing the same things tonight that He did back there. Now, for the
newcomers we might ask this: "What did He do back there? What kind of a
Man was He? What kind of works did He
do? "Well, He didn't entertain too big of crowds. He'd have up
sometimes five thousand in a crowd. The Sanhedrin could've called two million
in a crowd. So He didn't say that He just drawed the biggest crowds in the
country. That doesn't mean that He was right. 21 He didn't dress
any different from anybody else. He was no great, big man and a high statue
like Saul. The Bible said, "There was no beauty we should desire Him. And
when we seen Him, we hid our face from Him." See? He was just nothing much
to look at. But what He was, what makes us love Him. He was the Son of God.
That's what makes us love Him. Someone might say, "Well, was He a yellow
man, black man, white man, brown man?" I don't care what He was, what He
looked like. He's my Saviour. I love Him. Don't make any difference whether He
was little, big or--or what He was. I love Him. For when we are born into Him,
we become a part of Him. We love Him, and He is ours, and we are His. 22 But when He was here on earth, He didn't claim that He was a great healer.
Frankly, He claimed just the vice-versa. He said He wasn't no healer. He said, "I can do nothing in Myself. Just what I see the Father doing, that's what I do."
Hear ye Him 57-0519A P:40 Now,
watch. God never did anything 'less He asked man to do, but what He did Himself.
His Son, when He was born here on earth, He
was an obedient Son. Every step was
for the Father. Everything He done
was to glorify God. And we seen God
in Christ. Is that right? "No man has seen the Father at
any time, but the only begotten of the Son has declared Him."
The very move, the very action, everything
that Christ did was God working in Him. You get it now?
Now, I can show you quotes that go both ways on this
issue of John 14:12 so if you quote
brother Branham one way, then why is it you are called false because you quote
it another way. And yet they are both quoting a vindicated prophet. Let’s take
a look at a few.
New ministry 59-1115 P:85 When
he was here on earth, He told Peter, "On the revelation of the Word of
God," He said, "upon this rock, I will build My Church, and the gates
of hell cannot prevail against It." Isn't that right? All right. When He
was... 'Fore He left, in Mark 16, He said, "These
signs shall follow them that believe." Did He say it?
"In My Name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up
serpents, drink deadly things." He also said, "The
works that I do, shall you do also." Is that right? That's the signs that's to follow His
Church. It's not a denomination. It's a set up organization, ordained of
God, Holy Ghost filled, heaven born Church that comes out of all denominations, a real believing bunch of people.
Be not afraid 63-0607 P:42 And
Jesus said, "Who can accuse Me of unbelief?" And, "If
I don't do the works of My Father, then don't believe Me. But if I do the
works, and yet you can't believe Me, believe the works that I do."
So, you see, here He was doing the same
thing that God did. Now, I want to ask you brethren, if the life of Jesus
Christ is in the church, then surely the
church would do the same thing He did, because the same life is in it. If
here stands a peach tree, and I take all the peach life out of it, and put
apple life in it, what kind of a fruit will it bear? Apples. That's the kind of
life that's in it. Well then, if the life that was in Christ is in us, it'll bear the fruits that He bore.
It's got to.
And in closing let me show you what brother Branham
explained as to what the greater works were. Because I know there are quotes
where he says in one place that the word greater means more and that is true,
and there was no one who had more of the works of Jesus in His ministry as
William Branham had in his. In fact he even said that the Holy Spirit did more
in his ministry than he did in the Son of God’s earthly ministry. So I have no
problem with that at all. I agree with that but now I am going to give you a
quote that will stumble you if you are not careful. Listen to what brother
Branham tells us the greater works are and he’s quoting John 14:12.
That day on
Now,
listen to what brother Branham just said…He said the greater works and he’s
quoting St, John 14:12, the greater works is to impart Eternal Life to believers.
My My, what are you brothers going to do with that? Huh? Are you so stiff necked
in your doctrine that you will say brother Brian is teaching contrary to us?
Well what do you have to say my brothers, are you going to say all that the
prophets said? O
fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said.
You’ve made your traditions in such a way that anyone who speaks contrary to your
stiff-necked beliefs you want to crucify, well let me tell you one thing my
brother, A vindicated prophet said it, and he said say all that are on those
tapes so what are you going to do with that? Huh? Why can’t you brother say all
he said and be comfortable with that? I’ll tell you why, because you don’t
believe it all.
And
while I’m at it I might just say this, why do you take only parts of quotes to
make your case for your doctrine when if you were honest in your heart and
believed in vindication you would take everything that prophet said and lay it
out to give balance to your doctrine.
I
have tried to do that and when I didn’t the Holy Ghost made me do it anyway. He
said, “if in
anything you are other wise minded, God will reveal it unto you.” So
take it all my brothers who are reading my notes here or you will have to
answer to God for your lying spirit that would twist quotes to make them say
what you want people to hear. Say it all or don’t say nothing, Because you’d be
better off saying, “I just don’t understand it”, than to say I do
understand it and then takes partial quotes and partial scriptures to make your
little pet doctrine. But alas we see the same scene played out again in this
hour as was in …
John
9:39 And
Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And
some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him,
Are we blind also?41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin:
but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
Brother
Branham said, 54 Now, notice, the greater works was to have the power in the church, not only
to heal the sick by prayer, cast out devils by prayer, but to impart Eternal
Life to believers. The Holy Ghost was coming and given into the hands of the church to impart life. Oh, that's what
Now,
listen very carefully to what he says next. You think I’m tough, you thought
brother Vayle was tough, just listen to what this vindicated prophet of God is
telling you bunch on make believers who fuss and fight with every thing God
tries to open your eyes to. He says, "Poor, blind,
wretched people, how do you miss that? Don't
you see what the greater thing is? That's
the greatest thing that could ever happen was to impart Eternal Life to people.
56 What is Eternal Life? The
Life that He lived, the Life that was in Him: impart that to others. Can a man do that? A Son of God
can. Jesus said, "Whosoever sins
you remit to them they are remitted. Whosoever sins you retain, to them they
are retained." Now, here's where the
Catholic church and many of the others made their big mistake. They go out and
say, "I forgive your sins." That wasn't it. How
did they get sins forgiven in the Bible? Peter answered that question on the
day of Pentecost. They said, "What can we do to be saved? How can we get this
that you all got?" He laid down the prescription. He told them what to do.
He said, "Repent, every one of you towards God, and be
baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ." What for? "The
remission of your sins." There's
the greater works.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
In closing, that is why brother Branham said, in
this same sermon, The Spoken word is the Original
Seed 62-0318M P: 89 The works that Jesus did--if a man has the Seed of God in him with
the Spirit of God watering that Seed,
the same works that was manifested in Jesus, Him being the original Seed of God, His death brings you back to
the original Seed of God, and if the
same Spirit that was within Him is in you, then the same works will be
manifested. You don't believe that? All right, let's turn over to
Let us bow our heads in prayer. Dear father, I don’t like to be so strong with your Word, but I see
death entering into this message with camps being set up and vying for position
against one another, and because we might not in their circle they just don’t
criticize but they try to destroy. And then all this fussing that goes on
around the world, and what has it produced? Sons and Daughters of God ready for a rapture? I hardly think so.
It seemed to me Lord the people were far better off in the early 70’s when they
didn’t hardly know anything but their hearts wanted to know truth. And they longed
for the Truth, and they cried out for the resurrection to take them from here. But as Israel was bound by their kings, that they could not
follow the real King, and the real King, when He came, they didn't recognize
Him, so is it today, O Lord, the King of glory has appeared in the form of the
Holy Ghost, and, Lord, they don't know it. They don't recognize it. They're so organized so tight, that they do
not understand it, because it's not
in their organization. Lord, this is a work of the Devil that's done this
to the people. May the Samson of God, may the true in heart, those who are
longing and crying, and pleading and holding on, may they stay with it, Lord, until this new crop grows out, until
there comes forth again a joy in Zion, and there comes forth a group that can
recognize and understand, that can see the Messiah and the hidden power that's
hid from the world, that they will not understand now. Grant, Lord, that
they'll see this. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen. Deceived church by
the world 59-0628M P:50