Spoken
word no 75
This
Treasure in Earthen Vessels
Brian Kocourek
This morning I would like to
speak from The Spoken Word is the Original Seed, but before we do, I have one
more comment on the subject we spoke on last week concerning Communism and the
Church, or Communism in
Now, we know that according to
scripture what is happening in
From his sermon The Former and
latter rain 60-0303 P:19Brother Branham said, “Then when they was all in
there, dancing and going on like a modern Pearl Harbor, when they were dancing
and stripping young ladies of their clothes, and running them through the
streets, and so forth, all of a sudden there was an attack. The enemy watches
for nighttime to come. He likes to come in the night. The great raids in our armies today is at nighttime. And that's
what...You talk of communism. Communism's
laying for one thing. We hear so much about it
today. Communism's wanting one thing,
the nation's honeycombed with it, but it's waiting for what little spiritual we
have got to die out, till it gets darkness in the church. That's the only
way it can strike. Let the Americans who claim to be Christians rise to their
feet in the Name of the Lord, call out, communism
would have no place. But we weave right into it, and our
churches is even full of it, sure, everywhere. The whole thing's polluted; the whole body's polluted. There's only
one sound thing and only one Foundation, that's Jesus Christ. On Jesus Christ
is the only Rock of salvation that I know of. The only way of escape is through Jesus Christ. He is the One.
So you see there is a way
out, but
You know that is a sign of
insanity when you do the same thing over and over again thinking it will change
somehow if you do. She got herself into trouble spending money she doesn’t have
and now she thinks she will get out of trouble by spending even more money that
she doesn’t have. That is incredibly stupid. But we are forewarned that at the
end-time the only people with a sane mind are those that have the mind of
Christ. And we are there. And the only way of escape is through Jesus Christ,
that’s it. So come into Christ while you still have time. And repent of all
your wicked ways, and acknowledge that without Christ you are lost.
Now, in picking up at paragraph
53 of The
Spoken Word is the original Seed, brother Branham said, Now, that's
why we believe it, that It is the Word of God; therefore God's spoken Word is original. And everything that God created
(spoke into existence) is original. And you
can hybreed some of His creation secondarily.
That's the reason Eve could do what she did with her own seed, because she
wasn't in the original creation. She's a byproduct of the man, not in the
creation of God. God created the whole things, and then He took a part of His
creation and made a helpmate. That's the reason you can hybreed
a donkey and a horse, but it won't last.
It's death. But the original has got
life. It comes back again. I
hope you can see it now. The original has the life; so that's the reason I think that cults and denominations and
organizations die. History proves they're every one dead. They never did
rise no more; they never will. They can't breed
themselves back. Got nothing to breed with; they're sterile. That's why Eve's
children dies.
Now, before we go on to the
next paragraph let’s ask ourselves this question. Why do organizations, and
denominations all die spiritually? Because they have gone away from the Word of
God which is the Original Seed, and they have hybrid the Word of God with their
own thoughts and words, to form their creeds, and it won’t work. It can’t work.
Now, brother Branham
continues by saying, 54
Now, I'm taking my time, so the tapes, give people time to study. I don't want
to be in any hurry. I want to just take my time. I don't know what'll happen
from here on, but I want this to the people that even though someday God take
me from the world, if I don't live to
see His coming, the message will still live on. True. Stay
with the Word.
55
Now, remember, every spoken Word of God is the
original Seed. God planted everything in the earth by His Word, and as long as
you stay with the original seed, it will breed itself right back and reproduce itself again. Hybreed it, it dies. And Eve, the woman, was
the first hybrid thing there ever was. Now, I hope you don't turn tapes off till
we get down and prove that after while (See?), show you just why.
56
She was a hybreeder, a bride. Notice, through that
brought death, through trying to take
the Word of God and mix some wisdom with It. See? You're not supposed to do that. Whether
you believe it's got wisdom to explain it, just say, "God said it, and that settles it" And God said so, and that's
all there is to it. If you can't explain
it, leave it alone, but just say it's so because God said so. See, just
say, "God said it."
57
Now, notice. Now, it will not mix. It must not be tampered with; God will punish the one that does it;
and It will not hybreed
to nothing else. It's God's Word
alone. God don't
need your word with His. We're not
supposed to speak our own word; we're supposed to preach His Word, God's
Word.
Now, let’s go to the
Scriptures to prove this point here. Let’s turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 4:1 Now, notice
what Paul says here. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we faint not; In other words, Paul is saying, Since
God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw
up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard
times.
So Paul says, We don’t handle the Word of God deceitfully,
nor do we maneuver behind the scenes with ulterior motives, nor do we twist
god’s word to suite ourselves.
Rather, what Paul is saying is, we keep everything we do and say out in the
open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge
for themselves in the presence of God. Then
in verse 3 Paul says, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In other words, Paul says, If our Message is obscure to anyone, it's not because we're holding back
in any way. No, it's because these other people are looking or going the wrong
way and refuse to give it serious attention, and they have been blinded by the
god of this evil age, and not unwillingly, but they are willfully ignorant and
as such they will pay the price for it.
In verse 4 Paul says, In
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them.
All they have eyes for is the fashion god of darkness.
They think he can give them what they want, and they won't have to bother
believing a Truth which they can not see. But they are completely blind to the
shining forth of the Message for God Himself came down as a Pillar of Fire shining
light on the Shout or Message he came with and the pictures have gone around
the world, and the doctrine has gone into 187 countries and so they think
because there are more who believe their way, that makes them right. And they
will find out one day how wrong that decision was for them. And so we find Paul warning us all
in verse 5 that the Message is not supposed to be about ourselves, but about
what Christ has done for us. Paul said, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the
Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
Remember, brethren, our Message is not about
ourselves; our job is to proclaim Jesus Christ. He’s the one who made healing,
and salvation, and redemption and inheritance available to us. And what the
ministry forgets is that all we are is just little messengers. We are nothing
but little errand boys from Jesus for you. And a messenger doesn’t carry his
own message, he carries the message of another. Paul continues in verse 6 For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Therefore it began for us when God said, "I
will come down as the Pillar of Fire to catch their attention to bring the
Light of My Presence to them in order to bring down the Spirit of Wisdom and
Revelation in the Knowledge of Myself, and our lives became filled up with
light as we saw and understood God in the face of the parousia presence of
Christ.
And then Paul says, But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us. Now, that’s where the
problem begins. Because the treasure of the revelation of Christ comes into the
vessels that are supposed to reflect it out to others, and we allow our earthen
vessel to get in the way. And so If you only look
at us, you might just miss the brightness of the Shekinah
presence that came down in this hour.
You see, that is where Balaam missed it with God. He
saw the sin of the people but he failed to see the Pillar of Fire in their
midst. And that is where peter made his near fatal mistake. As long as he had
his eyes on Christ he could walk on water with Christ. As long as he was
walking in the light he was having fellowship with Christ, and the blood of
Jesus Christ was cleansing from all his sin. But when Peter took his eyes off
of Christ that is when he sank. And when you begin to get your eyes on the
vessel that God is using, then you have gotten your eyes off of Christ, and
that is when you will sink into fault finding.
Paul said, we carry this precious Message around in the
unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. And why is that? God allows that
in order to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power and glory
with mere mortal men. Look, the greatest critic of me is myself, and that is
true of all God’s children, So stop with the fault
finding, and just keep your eyes on the author and finisher of your faith. You
know for yourselves that we're not much to look at, but neither are you.
In verse 8 Paul says, We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken;
cast down, but not destroyed;
We've been surrounded and battered by troubles it
seems from so many directions, but some how we are not yet demoralized; in many
cases we are not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've
been spiritually terrorized by some, but God hasn't left our side; we've been
thrown down by some, but we haven't broken a bone in the process. So why fret?
There is nothing that we have suffered that others before us have not gone
through. And Christ went through much more than what we have to show us how to
go through the firry trials.
10 Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we
which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.12 So then death worketh
in us, but life in you.
We have a promise that what they did to Jesus, they
will do to us too, so we receive trials and even torture, mockery and even
character assassination perhaps instead of physical death. But what Jesus did
among them, he can do in us too, if we let Him live our trials in us, for us.
For we have been
crucified with Christ, nevertheless, we are still living, and yet it is no
longer we ourselves who are living, but Christ is living our lives for us in
these bodies of flesh, if we can just let go and let God. Our lives
are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more
evident in us. While we're going through the worst, just let Him live out his
life in you and you will see his very nature and character develop in you until
it comes upon you and overtakes you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith,
according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also
believe, and therefore speak;14 Knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and
shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your
sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound
to the glory of God.
Notice he is saying, We're not
going to keep this quiet, not for one minute. As it was written, I believe it,
therefore I say it," therefore we say what we believe. And what
we believe is that the One who raised up our Eldest
brother Jesus from the grave will just as certainly raise us up with him, to be
with him alive for all eternity. Therefore, every detail is working to your
advantage and to God's glory.
In Conclusion Paul says, For which cause we
faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on
the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside,
where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
These hard times are small in comparison to the wonderful times that are coming
for us, and the wonderful time of adoption that lays
just ahead of us if we are found to be the right kind of children. While we can
not yet see those things which are not yet manifested to us, yet God’s word of
promise is a sure as though those things already exist in our present state of
being. The things we see now which are here today, and
gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.
Now, in getting back to
paragraph 58 Brother
Branham said,
“Now, therefore, true life can only come
or reproduce itself by its original breeding. See, life... Now, keep... Now, study that, now, when you're
studying the tapes and study it now. Life--L-I-F-E--can
only be reproduced by its original breeding, the way it started at the beginning; then it reproduces itself.
See? If it doesn't, it's a hybrid; it runs out. Some of them run out in the
first generation (See?) it's gone right then. It'll soon find itself back. It
can't bring correct life because it's hybrid.
So by what life are we trying
to live in these bodies. And when you come into
trials, by what life are you trying to get out of them? By lying, and hiding
the truth, or by confession and fearing what no man can do to you, but what God
alone can do. In others, what I am trying to say is this. We are coming into
more trial down the road and it could be very soon. And if we are struggling to
let Christ live through us with these simple trials which have nothing to do
with life or death, but which most of our trials have to deal with our pride.
Then how are we going to be able to endure the squeeze when it comes when both
physical life and spiritual life and emotional life will all be under a
pressure greater than you have ever experienced. If you are
failing now, what then?
From his sermon Seal of God P:111,
brother Branham said, When the great Book is opened, what then? When the ones that's rejected the Saviour
today, Will be asked to give a reason--What then? Your job stood in your way. Your parents
stood in your way. Your boy friend stood in your way. Your girl friend stood in
the way. Your church stood in the way. What
then? What then? When the great Book is opened, what then? When the ones that's
rejecting this Message tonight, You're going to be
asked to give a reason, What then? What are you going to do about it? You
know what the mark of the beast is. You know what the Seal of the God is. It's
up to you. May the Lord bless you, while we stand.
Your going to stand there, just
as certain as this Book is written. You'll going to stand there and be asked
for a reason. Oh, it pays us, my brother, sister; it behooves us as sons and
daughters of God to check up on ourselves every hour of the day. Paul said,
"I die daily. Yet I live, not I, but Christ
lives in me." See? Be checked up, because you don't know
what hour you're going to be summoned to answer on high. Brother, sister, no
matter how long you profess Christianity, if you're not inside that blood Cell
with Christ this morning don't let today pass. Come in today. It's yours. You
don't have to come to the altar. The only thing you have to do is accept it.
Believe it. And God, in return, if your faith is direct like Abraham’s was,
then God will give you the Holy Ghost to seal you into His Kingdom, and you're
sealed until the day of your redemption. The Scripture said, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed
until the day of your redemption."
Have you got that experience
this morning, brothers and sisters? You didn't come to hear me. No, I hope not
any way. But I believe you come to hear the Word. Listen, my friends, if you
don’t have that Rest, you can find It right now. You
don't have to come up here at the altar; but just set right where you are. Be
sincere, and say, "Christ, just speak to my heart. I
know I haven’t allowed you to live you life out through me, but will you
forgive me and come into my heart right now, and abide in me, so I can abide in
you. You said Lord, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, then you will
come in and make your abode in us. Will you do it right now Lord?
Will you come into my heart and take over this vessel? I’m offering it to you,
and I’m asking you to do it. So grant this petition of mine, Lord, that I am
asking in the name of your obedient Son Jesus Christ, I pray, amen!
God bless you till we meet again.