Spoken
Word no. 51
O Fools
and slow of heart to believe all
Brian Kocourek
Last
week we spoke from brother Branham’s
sermon The
Spoken Word is the Original Seed, and in paragraph 35 where he said. “Jesus
said the Scriptures must be
fulfilled. That is, that all that's
written in the Scriptures... Now bear this in mind, 'cause you who are
getting the tape now; at the end of these tapes you'll find I come back to that
again, that all that's in the Scriptures
must be fulfilled. Now, let that
soak just a minute, class. See? All
that's in the Scriptures has got to be fulfilled. Then if God said anything, there you are; It's got to be fulfilled. Or if it isn't, that's not the Word of
God. Then if that isn't the Word of God, then where are we at? Let's get something
that looks like God or anything we want to do: as the Bible said, "Eat,
drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." See?
This evening I would like to continue reading before
we focus in our thoughts.
36
Now, if that is not the Word of God, then we're all lost; and if it is the Word
of God, God is absolutely honor-bound. The God Who is the fountain of all
honor, Who is the beginning of all honor, Who is the source of all honor, Who's
the source of all Truth, has got to stand by what He said. And if this isn't
God's Word, then who is God? Where is God? or is there a God?
37 "Oh,"
you say, "Brother Branham, I feel it." Oh, the heathen can tell you
the same thing on his idol. Traveling does something to you, when you see it
yourself.
"So I believe I could look and see this." Yes. "I believe, if I
believe because I was changed like this, because..." I do that too, but
remember heathens do the same thing. Why, the morals of
38 Now, let's take the
Lutheran claims. They fail. Let's take the Catholic claims. They fail. Let's
take the Baptist claims, Pentecostals. They fail. So you can't put no
confidence in them. But there's not one thing written in this Bible but what
God has proved by somebody that it's the Truth. It's the Truth. As I've often
said, "Maybe my faith won't climb where Enoch climbed, but I certainly
wouldn't stand in anybody's way that could climb there." Great faith...
39 Now, getting this
background that the reasons why I believe the Bible, and that's where I take my
text. Now, next thing I want to say, that I do not believe the Bible
contradicts Itself, and I have offered a challenge world around for any persons
who claims such to come, prove it to me. Come, prove it. The Bible doesn't
contradict Itself; it's you contradicting the Bible. God cannot contradict
Himself. If He does, then He isn't God. And if this Word is God then, and It's
contradictory, then you make God contradicting Himself; then where is your God
then? Kind of gets thick, doesn't it, complicated?
40 If God contradicts Himself,
He's not no more than I am or no more than you are, for He can contradict
Himself. The Word's there, but It's hid from the eyes of the wise and prudent. That's
why someone says that Matthew 28:19, where: "Go ye, teach all nations,
baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost"; Acts 2:38
said, "Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus."...?... they're
contradictory... It isn't a contradictory.
Luke 24:25 "Then He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken."
We hear these words by Jesus to the believers that were walking home to
Emmaus. These were not unbelievers, they were Christian Believers. Now, some
who might read this might take
offense to calling these believers fools, or using the title Christian Fools,
but I did not come up with that title on my own. Jesus called them that
himself.
He called them fools because they were
slow of heart to believe all the Scriptures concerning Messiah. These were not
worldly Jews he was talking to. These were believers in the Message of that
hour.
But these disciples that he was speaking
too were not balanced in their understanding of the Scriptures. theology: They
believed certain parts of God's Word but refused to believe other parts of the Scripture
that didn’t suit there thinking.
As Jesus declared in his statement, they
believed some Scriptures but they “did
not believe ALL that the prophets had spoken”, and the reason they did not was because
they were unable to balance the two different parts of God's Word concerning
messiah. And in this message today we have the same thing. When it comes to the
doctrine of Christ; they walk by reason and logic rather than by faith.
In the Old Testament there were many
prophecies concerning the coming Messiah that spoke of His glory. If there was
one thing the Old Testament prediction made plain, it was that the Messiah would
come with power, honor, and majesty. He would triumphantly come to
Yet on the other hand, there were also many
prophecies that spoke of a Suffering Messiah, that showed his humiliation,
degradation, rejection, and even His death at the hands of evil men.
But the disciples that Jesus met on the
road to Emmaus believed the scriptures concerning the King who would reign, but
they couldn’t balance that with the other Scriptures that spoke of his
suffering and death, so they chose not to retain those thoughts in their mind.
After all, If
Messiah was to be King, with all power and majesty and His kingdom was to rule
and reign over all the earth, then how could He, at the same time, he would
come suffering, and be despised, humiliated and rejected of men? And because
the disciples could not balance these two sets of prophecies concerning the
first coming of Christ, they were unable to balance their doctrine concerning
the first coming of Christ, and therefore, they refused to believe both, and
Christ told them to their faces that they were fools. He says, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe ALL
that the prophets have spoken."
I suppose some of us have wondered how it
was possible for these disciples, these followers of Christ, who had been
privileged to be with Him during His public ministry and those who had been so
intimate with Him, had been instructed by Him, had witnessed His wonderful
miracles; how it was possible for such men to err so grievously and to act so
foolishly. And yet we need not be surprised; the same thing is happening all
around us today. The message tonight is full of men and women who believe only portions
of the Scriptures and portions of the Message , all the while claiming to
believe all that is on those tapes. Yet the evidence of their unbelief of all
that the prophets have spoken, is in what they do with the Scriptures they
do not understand, or that doesnot fit into their Churches theology.
In other words, If Jesus Christ, the Son o
God were on the scene tonight, he would have to say the same thing to many who
claim to believe the Message that he said to those on their road to Emmaus, and
he called them "fools" because of their slowness of heart to believe
all that the Bible teaches.
Now some who hear this sermon tonight, may
become angry: but most likely if you are one who does, then you are the one who
needs this rebuke from our Lord yourself.
When we are given the Sword of the Spirit,
we are expected to use it. Brother Vayle used to quote so often the Scripture,
that declares, “Cursed is he whose sword does not draw
blood.” But is the
Soldier of the cross uses his sword of the word faithfully & effectively,
then some are bound to get cut and wounded by it.
God always wounds before He heals. Jesus
never used the Word to cut without their being a necessity to cut. Jesus, The
True and Faithful Witness never hesitated to preach the whole truth of God,
whether men would receive it or whether they would reject it. We all know it is
not nice to call someone a fool, especially if we want to be liked and loved by
others. And the one who is called a fool, feels his pride wounded by such
words. But we need to be wounded, all of us. We need to be humbled; we need to
be rebuked; we need to recognize that the Word of God is a two edged sword, and
it must cut away all the unbelief we have in our hearts if we are to be made
ready for the rapture.
Jesus Christ did not rebuke these
disciples because they didn’t understand, but because they lacked faith. The
trouble with them is that they reasoned among themselves too much, and they
tried to use logic rather than faith to believe what God had said would take
place. I am sure they were proud in their hearts concerning their abilities to logically
figure out the Scriptures, like so many I see in this Message that are so high
minded and proud of themselves because they can logically tie together some
quotes.
They probably thought in their minds, surely
we are not asked to believe impossibilities and absurdities: both of these
cannot be true; if one is true then the other cannot be true. Either the Christ
is to be glorious and triumphant or else He’s going to be a rejected and humiliated: they cannot both be true. And
that is why Christ said to them "O fools, and slow of heart to
believe ALL that the prophets have spoken." Slow of heart to believe. He did not rebuke them for
a lack of understanding, but for a lack of faith.
I’m afraid we have the same sickness in
the Message today. There are many who only believe what they can understand,
and if there is something else that they cannot understand, they do not believe
it. We see that all over the world
concerning the teaching of William Branham concerning the Godhead, or as I like
to call it, the Doctrine of Christ.
For you see, you can show them hundreds of
quotes that the prophet said, and show them how that those hundreds of quotes
will line up perfectly with the Scriptures, and yet they will look for a quote
somewhere that will justify their Unitarian belief and reject all that the
prophets have spoken.
Since they have subjected themselves to
their own Unitarian theology (or rather they have adopted themselves to someone
else's Unitarian theology), when they hear a sermon (no matter how much
Scripture and quotes there are in it that would refute their belief) Since they cannot fit it into their theology,
they won't have it. They place a higher value on tradition than they do
on be true to the Scriptures. And That is what was the matter with these disciples:
they could not see the consistency of the two things and therefore they were
only prepared to believe the one.
The same thing is true today with many
preachers. There are multitudes of preachers in the Message tonight whose
theology is narrower than the teachings of this Bible. What I mean by that is
that they will not teach from all the Bible or all the message. I know of
preachers in other countries who have instructed other preachers to not use
certain quotes from William Branham and the Scriptures when teaching the
godheads to their people. They say it only confuses the people.
Then we have those who will not preach the
Gospel to anyone outside their circle or camp because they are so Calvinistic
that they do not believe the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation. So they
say, I have tried to share with others and no one seems willing to hear,
therefore no one is willing to hear, and therefore why try.
For example, right in this Message there
are people that are so Arminian that they refuse to teach on Predestination.
And yet there are others who are so Calvinistic that they do not believe that
you have a choice to believe or not believe.
Right in this Message, there are preachers
who read God's Word, and they see that the gospel is to be preached to every
creature, and that God commands all who hear that gospel to believe in Christ;
then they come across some texts on election, predestination:—"Many are called but few are chosen," and they say, Well, I cannot
balance this out, I cannot see how it is
possible to preach, unhampered, a gospel to every creature, and yet for
election to be true. And because they cannot balance the two things, they
neither believe the two nor will they preach both. They cannot harmonize
election with a gospel that is to be preached to every creature, and so the Arminians
preach the gospel but they leave out election.
And there are many Calvinists in this
Message who equally come under the rebuke for the same. They believe in the
sovereignty of God, but they refuse to believe in the responsibility of man.
They cannot understand how that it is possible for God to fix the smallest and greatest
events, and yet not to infringe upon man's accountability—men themselves
choosing the evil and rejecting the good—and therefore because they cannot see
both they will only believe in one.
Listen! Roman 9 tells us that God is in
charge, and before either Jacob and Esau were born God loved one and hated the
other, but that does not say that that man hasn’t been endowed with understanding;
and that man hasn’t been given a will to make his own decisions. If man were
nothing more than a block clay, it would be easy to understand how that God
could fix the place that he was to occupy and the purpose that he was to fulfill;
but, it is very far from easy to understand how that God can shape and direct
all history and yet leave man fully responsible and not infringe upon his
accountability.
Now to get around having to deal with both
sides of the spectrum, some just deny its existence. They teach younger
ministers to not teach doctrine, that way the people don’t have to think and
that way they won’t get confused. The Arminians
present the "free-will" of man in such a way as to virtually dethrone
God, but on the other hand, some Calvinists present a kind of fatalism reducing man to nothing more than a block of clay,
exonerating him of all blame and excusing him for his unbelief and his sinful
nature, and saying, If I am elect then I can do what I want to do.
But they’re both equally wrong. When the
Calvinist says, All things happen according to the predestination of God. I
heartily say Amen, but if the Arminian says that when a man sins the sin is his
own, and that if he continues sinning he will surely perish, and that if he
perishes his blood is on his own head, then I can say amen to that as well.
Now listen a little more closely still.
When the Calvinist says that faith is the gift of God and that no sinner ever
does or can believe until God gives him that faith, I heartily say Amen; but
when the Arminian says that the gospel commands all who hear it to believe, and
that it is the duty of every sinner to believe, I also say Amen. What? you say,
You are going to stand up and preach faith and duty, duty and faith? I know
that may be jolting to some of you, but listen, whose Gospel is it? Yours or
God’s!
It’s God's. Whose voice is it that spoke
to us the Message? Man’s voice or god’s voice? It’s God's. To whom has God
commanded the gospel to be preached? To every creature. What does the gospel
say to every creature? It says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ." It says,
"Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life." It says,
"The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth."
God Word commands us, It does not invite
us. God commands every man, woman and child that hears that gospel to believe
it, for the gospel is true; therefore it is the duty of every man to believe
what God has said. Let me give you the alternative. If it is not the duty of
every sinner to believe the gospel, then it is his duty not to believe it—one
or the other. Do you mean to tell me it is the duty of an unconverted sinner to
reject the gospel? I am not talking now about his ability to believe it.
Brother Branham said, If I were not for
this Word I would be against it. God hates that Laodicean luke warmness. He
said, be either hot or cold, but because you are luke warm I will spew thee out
of my mouth. And what is the Mouth of God? It is his Word.
Some of you say, Well how can it be his duty
to believe it, when he cannot do so? Is it his duty to do an
impossibility? Well, listen! Is my responsibility measured by my ability, by my
power to perform? If you buy something and then when the bill comes to pay it
and you don’t have the money to pay, you don’t have the power to pay, but does
that take away your responsibility to pay? No way!
A woman once said to brother Vayle, I
don’t understand therefore I am not responsible. And he said, Look, lady,… YOU
are responsible therefore you had better understand.
INABILITY DOES NOT MEASURE OUR
RESPONSIBILITY. Man is responsible to do many things that he is not able to do.
You that are Christians are responsible to live a sinless life, for God says to
you, "Awake to righteousness and sin not," and He said, “he
that is born of God doth not sin.”
John said in 1 John "These
things write I unto you, that ye sin not." So God sets before you a standard of holy perfection.
There is not one of us that is capable of measuring up to it, but that is our
responsibility, and that is what we are going to be measured by when we stand
before the judgment-seat of Christ.
Now then there are many Arminian preachers
who are afraid to preach sermons on certain texts of the Bible. They would be
afraid to stand up and preach from John 6:44—"No man can come to Me, except the Father
which hath sent Me draw him." They would be afraid to stand up and preach from Romans
9:18—"Therefore
hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." Yes, and it is also true that
there are many Calvinist preachers who are equally afraid to preach from
certain texts of the Scriptures lest their orthodoxy be challenged and lest
they be called Free-willers. They are afraid to stand up and preach, for
example, on the words of the Lord Jesus:—"How often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not!"
Or on such a verse as this:—"The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force;" or "Strive (agonize) to enter in at the Strait
Gate." And to show
you that I am not imagining things, I am just going to read you three lines.
Listen! "
The
thing I am trying to get across to you tonight is to be consistent with the
Holy Spirit, and to teach as the Holy Spirit shall enable, the whole
counsel of God; to leave out nothing, to withhold nothing, and to give a
proportionate presentation of God's truth. Do you know, that most of the doctrinal
errors I have seen in this Message are because men are afraid to show all the
scriptures and quotes on a subject.
I just did battle with a brother in
But you see they will not show all the
Scriptures because they can not balance the truth. So what they present is a
twisted version of the Message for their listeners to receive. And what does
that do then to those who receive their presentation? It brings them down to
hell with them. “O fools and
and slow of heart to believe ALL that the prophets have said.”
But sometimes it is not so much a denial
of God's truth, as this man does, but with others it is more a disproportionate
emphasis of it. Let me give you a simple illustration. The most comely
countenance with the most beautiful features would soon become ugly if one
feature were to grow while the others remained undeveloped. You can take the
most beautiful baby there is in the world tonight and if that baby's nose were
to grow while its eyes and its cheeks and its mouth and its ears remained
undeveloped, it would soon become unsightly. The same is true with every other
member of its face.
Beauty is mainly a matter of proportion
and this is true of God's Word. It is only as truth is presented in its
proper proportions that the beauty and blessedness to it are maintained in the
hearts and lives of God's people. The sad thing is that almost everywhere today
there is just one feature of truth being disproportionately emphasized.
And listen again! If God's truth is to be
presented proportionately and effectively then each truth of God's Word must be
presented separately. If I am speaking upon the humanity of Christ, if I
am seeking to emphasize the reality of His manhood, how that He was made like
unto His brethren in all things, how that He was tempted in all points as they
were--sin excepted --I would not bring into my sermon a reference to His
Godhood; and if you were to hear me preach the next twelve Sunday nights on the
manhood of Christ and never refer to His Deity in those sermons, I hope none of
you brethren would be so foolish as to draw the conclusion, Oh dear me, Brother
Pink no longer believes in the Godhood of our Saviour.
Again, if I am preaching on the wrath of
God, the holy hatred of God for sin and His vengeance upon it, I would be
weakening my sermon to bring in at the close a reference to His tenderness,
mercy and love, for in my judgment that would be to blunt the point of the
special truth I was seeking to press on the unconverted. And, in the same way,
if I am pressing on the unconverted their need, their duty and importance of
seeking the Lord, calling upon, coming to and believing on Him for themselves,
I would not bring in or explain the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion.
Each truth needs to be presented separately
that it may have its clear outline presented to the heart and to the mind.
And after all, my friends, we are not saved by believing in the Spirit, we are
saved by believing in Christ. We are not saved by believing in the work of the
Spirit within us (no man was ever saved by believing that); we are saved by
trusting in the work of Christ outside of us. O may God help us to maintain the
BALANCE OF TRUTH. There is something more in this Book, brethren
and sisters, beside election, particular redemption and the new birth. They are
there, and I would not say one word to weaken or to repudiate them, but that is
not all that is in this Book. There is a human side. There is man's
responsibility. There is the sinner's repentance. There is the sinner's
believing in Christ. There is the pressing of the gospel upon the unsaved; and
I WANT TO TELL YOU FRANKLY THAT IF A CHURCH DOES NOT EVANGELIZE IT WILL
FOSSILIZE: and, if I am not much mistaken, that is what happened to some of the
Strict Baptist Churches in
Christ said to them, Ye
are fools because ye are slow of heart to believe ALL.
O sinner, Christ is saying to you tonight,
"O fools and slow of heart to believe all." You do believe much as you sit
there. There are some of you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There
are some of you who believe that He is the only Saviour who can save any
sinner. You believe that, then why not believe all? Why not
believe in Him for yourself?
God’s prophet said Jesus
could not be his own Father,
can you say it?
God’s prophet said Jesus
and his Father were not one like you finger is one, Can you say it?
God’s prophet said God
indwelt Jesus at the river
God’s prophet said God
left Jesus in
God’s prophet said I
am not a Oneness, can you
say it?
God’s prophet said Jesus
was a dual being, can you
say it?
Let’s bow our heads in prayer…