Token no 5
Identification
Brian Kocourek,
Let's remain standing as we open God's Word to the
Book of Exodus for our text. I would like to speak on the subject of
Identification, and how the Token Identifies us in
Christ.
Exodus 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip
it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike
the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his
house until the morning. 23 For the
LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood
upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass
over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your
houses to smite you.
Exodus 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it
on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the
LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
Notice the blood was an identifiable characteristic that
marked the house of the believers and when the Lord saw it, that house was given
Life and spared the wrath of God.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and
for ever.
Let us pray...
Gracious Father, we come to Thee tonight having read from your
Word that the blood of the Lamb was a sign, it was an identifiable
characteristic that you were looking for at the first Exodus when you sent
forth your death Angel to bring forth the last plague. And all those who had
that identifiable characteristic upon their home were spared Your
wrath in that hour when you sent forth your death angel.
Father we recognize that we
are now in the last Church Age, and this is the last Exodus, The Third Exodus,
where your Presence has been made know by Your Pillar of Fire among your
people, and you sent to us a prophet like unto Moses, and You have vindicated
the Message that Your prophet spoke to us. And we recognize also Father
that you are the same and change not, and so we
have also applied the identifiable Characteristic of the Life that was in the
Blood of Your Son Jesus, Your Holy Spirit. We have
applied Your Spirit and the Life of Your Word to our homes and we believe that
you see it and know that we've applied it, and therefore we ask that you pass
over our homes when your wrath strikes the earth in this hour, and take us out
of here before the burning, for we ask it in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now, this evening we will
continue our study of brother Branham's sermon on the Token, and we will pick
up at paragraph 29 where brother Branham begins to speak on the Token as the
identifiable Characteristic of God's Presence and Life in this hour.
The Token
And I want you to notice that under the Law men were
taught that if they did not have a lamb to offer for their sin, then they were
to take two doves to bring for sacrifice unto the Lord.
Leviticus 5:7 And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then
he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or
two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a
burnt offering. 8 And
he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that
which is for the sin offering first, and wring
off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it
asunder: 9 And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the
sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be
wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin
offering.10 And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the
priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it
shall be forgiven him.
Now, notice the parallels between the Old testament Law and the New Testament Living Word. Paul taught
us that the Old testament was a type and a shadow of
things to come.
Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
In other words, Paul
tells us here that the Law was a sort of type or shadow, and as a type or
shadow it was not the Thing itself but a similitude of the thing. In other
words, an image is not the original, it is only a copy
of the original. so he is telling us what we saw in the Old testament was only
a shadow of what was to come, but not the thing that we are to look for or
focus on. And he tells us that it had to be done every single year, because the
life of the lamb or turtledove was only the innocent life of an animal, and
that Life could not come back upon the believer to change the believer.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be
offered? because that the worshippers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do
thy will, O God. 8 Above
when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein;
which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. 10 By
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
Ok, now we are
getting down to the point of what the Apostle Paul is telling us here. he says, these bodies of the lamb and turtledove were only a
shadow of the body of Jesus Christ God's Lamb. And remember, the Son of God was
represented as a Lamb, but God Himself when he came down to indwell His Son
came in the form of a Dove. Now, keep that in mind as we read concerning the
sacrifice of the lamb slain and the turtledove blood offering.
11 And every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which
can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by
one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
You see, last Sunday
we spoke on how that "forgiveness"
of sin is not "remittance" of
sin. And in the old testament the sinner would bring the dove or the Lamb for
forgiveness of their sin, but the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, by
the shedding of His Blood, that very Blood which was the Blood of God, contained
the very Life of God, and that blood or life could come back upon the believer
like the blood of the turtledove upon it's mate, and change the Life forever,
because he is a new creation in Christ Jesus. All things are new, old things
are passed away.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to
us: for after that he had said before, 16 This
is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
So you have a duel
promise in the atonement, here. The Life of Christ coming into the heart of the
believer and the total remittance of their sinful nature.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Why? because there is
no need to make an offering for sin, because their is no more sin. The nature
has been changed from a sinful nature to a God-Life nature.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By
a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21 And having
an high priest over the house of God; 22 Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with
pure water. (There's your old testament turtledove offering in type.) 23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful
that promised;) 24 And let us consider one
another to provoke unto love and to good works:
from his sermon, Resurrection
of Lazarus 53-1122 P:21 Brother Branham said, "Now, first we want to get the background of it and find
out... And I want you to pray with me now, and give me your undivided attention
just for a few moments. I believe in the resurrection. I believe in a
bodily physical resurrection. I believe in the physical bodily return of
Jesus Christ. I believe that His Church is His representative on the
earth now. I
believe that the Church is washed with the Blood of Jesus Christ.
And the Church is a Holy Ghost filled Church, preaches holiness to the very
extremes. Don't you think so? I think of in the Bible when there was a sin
offering, they taken two turtledoves, or a cleansing for leprosy...
Leprosy in the Bible was a type of sin. They used to take two doves, and one of them,
they took and pulled its head off, and turned it up like this and bled the
blood... let the blood
come on the other live mate, take it to the window and turn the dove
loose, the live one, and as it fluttered its little wings, why, the blood
fell down to the ground off of its dead mate, and that blood hitting and
splattering on the ground from the dead mate, cried to the Lord, "Holy, holy, holy, unto the Lord."
From that time 60-0716 P:55
Now, the turtledove
was always, represented or was an atonement for sickness. See, the doves
was not separated; the others was separated, because the
covenant with the Gospel was changed from law to grace, but Divine
healing has always remained the same. For leprosy cured, they took a pigeon
or a dove, and cut its head off, and poured the blood over on
the other one, and it went forth for the cleansing of leprosy, sprinkling,
crying "Holy". Now, notice in this, the doves
wasn't separated. Now, notice the symbol Oh, my. I hope you get this.
In other words, when the Dove, when His head was
removed, which represented Christ Jesus the son of God going from Gethsemane to
the Cross without His Headship, without the fullness of the Holy Ghost in him because
God left Him in Gethsemane, then that Headless body was made our sacrifice, and
the blood of that body, was Sprinkled on the living mate for cleansing.
Oh, listen, Jesus the man was identified by the Lamb,
but the Dove identified God the Father. And it was the head that was pulled off
Signifying Jesus had to go to the cross without the Father, that is why He was
wounded in His head right after Gethsemane, and he walked with that wounded
Head, a crown of thorns spilling His blood, the very Blood of God, and By His
Stripes we are healed, and the blood that was shed by the headless body of the
turtledove, was in type the very blood of God that was in His Son. And where
was it sprinkled on? The living mate. wheeew!!
What Identification.
And "when I see the blood I will pass
over Thee." and in this hour, it is no longer the physical chemical of
blood but the very Life that was in the Blood has been sprinkled upon the
living mate, you and me. And it is no longer you
that is living but Christ is living in you, and the Life we now live in this
flesh, we live by the same Faith that Jesus had in Gethsemane when
he said, "I have come to do thy will o God".
That is why the Life that was in the blood, the very
nature that was in that blood before it was spilled and sprinkled over the
living mate, is the same Life that in the blood after it was sprinkled over
that living mate. And it changes that mate, because now when that mate flops
it's wings it too is shedding the very blood of the original seed.
Listen to what Brother Branham says here and you will
understand why John
So the eagle which is Christ
flying like the Dove, Sprinkles the same blood upon others, like the blood was
sprinkled onto the living mate, and then sprinkled by the living mate to the
world. There's your imparting Life. From Jesus, to the prophet, to the Believers, to others. But
it's all by the same blood, the same Life.
30 So, you see, when Jesus was baptized
by John, and the Bible said, "And he saw the Spirit of God like a dove coming down upon Him." Therefore, if it had been a wolf,
or if it had been any other animal, the nature of the dove could not have blended with
the nature of the wolf. Neither
could the nature of the dove blend with any other animal but the lamb.
And those two natures
came together. Then they could agree with each other.
This evening I would like to
look at this thought of Identification with the nature of the Token. As you
see, brother Branham is showing us here that the nature of the Worshipper must
be identified with the nature of the Token.
He says, if you have a wrong
nature, ie: the nature of a wolf, then the nature of
God, represented as a Dove would never even come close to you much less come
into you.
So this evening, I would like
to take a short Message on this identification between the Two
natures, yours and God's. Because he let's us know
that Those two natures must come together for the Token to be completely
applied. And this we know is the hour that the Token must be applied. And your
nature won't do, so you must die to self, and let His nature come in, because
only His nature can identify with the Token, because it is the token.
God identifying Himself 64-0320 P:33 The
pouring out of the Holy Ghost in the last days upon the common people has
identified God's characteristic with the people. He promised it. It's
the Word. He said He'd do it. Nobody can take it back. He said He would do it.
So all these things that He's promised, that's what He does. It identifies
His characteristic. Yes, sir. "Don't believe it,
don't believe My claims, if My characteristic isn't that of God."
Now, notice in John
14:12, "He that believeth on Me," He said, "has My identification, My characteristic. He that believeth on Me,
the works that I do shall he do also." That
identifies that the character of Christ is in him, displaying the
characteristics of Him. Amen.
Oh, Hallelujah, I could shut up and sit down now, and
we could go home full.
But in his sermon, Proving
His Word 65-0426 P:100 brother Branham
let's us know that the church has long ago lost it's identification with God
and His Word. He types the church with the Hawk, and he said in paragraph 100 "But
this hawk has long lost its identification, because it doesn't no more sail through the air and hunt its meat like it's
supposed to. But it sets on the telephone wires and acts like a scavenger.
He hunts for dead rabbits that the cars has killed,
and him and the vultures get out there and eat together. He hops like a
vulture, instead of walking like he should walk. He's lost his identification.
And I say this with all godly love and respect, the church has long lost her identification as a
sister eagle. She sets around instead of digging into the
Word and find where these things are right, she waits for a bunch of
Sunday school literature that's been made up by a bunch of intellectuals
somewhere, some dead rabbit that's been killed somewhere else, hops like a
vulture. God, help us to fly away from that. These promises are true.
Not what somebody said about It, but what God said
about them.
Notice the church looks like an eagle and can fly high
but not as high as an eagle, but chooses rather to set on tree tops, and barn
fence posts and telephone posts looking for easy food. They don't dig in and
find the food for themselves, they would rather let the preacher dig for the food
and feed it to them. They are lazy, they are Laodicean and they are lukewarm.
And their ministers don't encourage them to find out for themselves, they say,
"listen to me, don't go sharing quotes and don't even go looking for them,
because you will not understand them, because you must come to me, I am your
shepherd, I am your leader, I will feed you. And then
they wait for some road kill that's easy food to get too.
But Jesus said, John
And brother Branham said in God identified by characteristics 64-0311 P:23 Today, Luther said, (that's the Lutherans, they
say) "When you believe, you've got It."
The Methodist say, "When you shout, you got It."
The Pentecostal said, "When you spoke in tongues, you had It." We find all that wrong. Some of them said,
"The fruit of the Spirit's got It." And it's wrong. The only evidence is,
is when the a-vindication, when God Himself identifies Himself in the promised Word
of the hour. There it is. Who had any more fruits of the Spirit
than them kind old priests, circumcised the children, and blessed them, and
everything else? And here this guy Jesus was, come around, kicked over their
sacrifice blocks, looked upon them with anger, beat them, run them out, no
identification of nothing. The Scripture is His identification. He had no fellowship
card; He belonged to no organization. But God spoke of Him; that was His identification.
That's the genuine
identification of God in any hour, is His identification. That's
what it is, the Scriptures that's promised made
identified by the characteristic of the promise which is God, and God is the
Word. And the characteristic of that promise being identified, that
makes the believer. Jesus said so, and that settles it. Amen. Notice, now we find out, the characteristics identify
Him. As He said, "If it doesn't do it,
then don't believe Me." Now, Jesus
spoke that it would identify Him.
But the church is afraid of the identifiable
characteristics of God's Word, because they don't see those identifiable
characteristics in their churches any longer.
God identifying Himself 64-0320 P:4 Now,
a characteristic of anything identifies what it is. Now, like in all
nature, flowers are identified many times by their characteristic. If they're
close together, of one specie to another, the
characteristic of that flower will identify what flower it is.
In His sermon, God
identifying Himself by His Characteristics 64-0320 P:5
Brother Branham said, I'm a hunter. And you
have to know the characteristic of the animal that you're hunting, or
sometimes you can be certainly deceived. For instance, like the stone sheep way
up in
God identified by characteristics 64-0311 P:22 John
In Br. Branham's sermon, Spiritual Amnesia-64-0411 he
said, "You can't forget it and be a Christian. You
must be identified with it. You must be identified with St. John the 14th
chapter, the 12th verse, "He that believeth with Me, the works that
I do shall he do also." Don't forget it. If you do, then you've got
spiritual amnesia. You've forgotten who you are. You've forgotten what your testimony
means.
Now,
he said you must be identified
with it
or you have spiritual amnesia. The word "Identified" means to
cause to be, or become identical . b: to conceive as united in spirit,
outlook, or principle): to be or become the
same. Therefore it means more than to just agree with John14:12, it means you must become John
Again let me read from God
identifying Himself 64-0320 P:33 The pouring out of
the Holy Ghost in the last days upon the common people has identified God's
characteristic with the people. He
promised it. It's the Word. He said He'd do it. Nobody can take it back. He said
He would do it. So all these things that He's promised, that's what He does.
It identifies His characteristic. Yes, sir. "Don't believe it, don't believe My
claims, if My characteristic isn't that of God."
Now, notice in John 14:12, "He that believeth
on Me," He
said, "has My identification, My
characteristic. He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." That identifies that the character of Christ is in
him, displaying the characteristics of Him. Amen.
P:34 See, there's no mistake about it. His life...
"He that believeth on Me, the works that I do
shall he do also." See, that identifies the characteristics, same thing He
said. "If My
character doesn't identify Myself, God in Him," then he don't
believe Him. Now, He also said that He would be identified in that. Then that, if it doesn't identify Him, then He isn't what He
says. And today if Christ doesn't identify Hisself,
the characteristic of Christ identify us as being of Christ, believing the
Word... Jesus was the Word, so He had to believe the Word. And how can
we say that we are of Christ and deny any Word in that Bible? The Holy Spirit of Christ is God
in you. And it'll punctuate every promise with a
"Amen." The Bible said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." The Spirit of God said, "Amen." See? One of them said, "No, that was for another age. That was
for disciples only."
"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He (anywhere, all the world) that believeth, these signs shall follow
him," same thing, same yesterday, today, and
forever, the
characteristic being identified. That makes Hebrews 1:1, "God of sundry times, speaking to the fathers
by the prophets," identifying
Christ resurrected today by the same characteristic that He did in sundry times.
Identified Christ of all ages 64-0401 P:90 God's
characteristics identifying Hisself, do you believe He's here? How many believers? Lay your hands on one another
then. Put your hands over on one another. Put your hands on each
other then. Our heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ, may the devil
leave this audience, and may he be cast out into outer darkness.
God identifying Himself 64-0320 P:21 But
always the appearing according to the promised Word for the age, all
this unusualness... Now, there's some people might go around and say,
"Well, this is unusual. That's God. This is unusual." But, you see, it
has to be identified by the Word, and the Word is God. See? And then the
characteristic of this identification identifies who it is, 'cause God
said this would happen, and it happens. See? The characteristic of it is
God's Word being identified, by the characteristic of what's going on. He said
in the last days he'd pour out the Holy Ghost. He did it. The
characteristics of it identified that it was God, His Word promised. See,
it always identifies itself. Now, it always, every time, corrects the word
when the word is said wrong. Did you ever notice? It was in the days of
Noah that corrected that scientific age, that God was
going to bring water down out of the heavens. It was Moses (See?) that
corrected, when they was all settled down in
Notice he said the
appearing according to the promised Word for the Age. And then he
said, it has to be identified by the Word, and
the Word is God. See? And then
the characteristic of this identification identifies who it is, 'cause
God said this would happen...
So then what should we be looking for? What is the promise
of God for the age, and how will it be identified by it's
characteristics?
God is identified by His Characteristics 64-0311
P:13 Another thing, the one, the prophet Balaam, was fundamental, but the
prophet Moses was identified by the characteristics of God. There was
the Pillar of Fire, supernatural Light hanging over them. And there was great
healings in their camp, supernatural God showing supernatural signs. And they
were staying exactly with the Word of promise that God gave Abraham back in
the time that both nations started. But now, Moses had Abraham's promise,
going to the promised land. Balaam, also a prophet
of the Lord, standing down there... And the only way that you
could identify, not
from their fundamental teaching, but by the characteristic of God.
There was the sound of a shout of the voice of the King down here with
Christ is identified the same 64-0415 P:42 Now,
we see, He... God, then, identifying Himself in all ages,
how? How did He identify Himself now? What characteristic did He use? His same characteristic from the
beginning: manifesting
His Word, making His Word to live. That's the identification: the
promised Word of that age. See now, when Moses come,
he couldn't said, "Now, we're going to build an ark and float out of
here." That was Noah's message. That's the trouble. When Jesus came on the
scene, He found those Hebrews living in the glare of another light. And that's
what it is today; that's what it is in every age. They live in the
glare of another light. That's the reason that you Methodists, when you come on
the scene... Luther was, He was living in the glare of a Lutheran age. They
couldn't accept John Wesley. When Pentecostal come on,
the Methodists couldn't accept Pentecost, because it was living in the glare of
Methodist. And now, I wonder what kind of glare the Pentecostals are living in.
See? What you want to
do is search the Scriptures and find out the hour that we're living in, and
then what's supposed to be here at that time, and see if God makes that live and
manifests it. Then that's the thing we got the right interpretation
to the age.
But what else does the Scripture show for this hour?
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, This hasn't happened yet. But
it will because said so.
Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ: This hasn't happened yet. But it will,
because God said so.
14 That we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But
speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is
the head, even Christ: This hasn't happened yet, but it will because God said
so.
Romans 8:15-23 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. Has this happened yet? If so, God identifies it by
bringing it to pass.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. "Glorified together", Is this happening? If
so, God identifies it by bringing it to pass.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. Is this happening? If so, God identifies it by
bringing it to pass.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same
in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. 23 And
not only they, but ourselves also, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit,
the redemption of our body. Is this
happening? If so, God identifies it by bringing it to pass.
Romans 8:29-30 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. Is this happening?
If so, God identifies it by bringing it to pass.
Galatians 4:1-7 Now I say, That
the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and
governors until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even
so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when
the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Is this happening to you? If so, God will identify it
by His own Characteristics.
Let's bow our heads in prayer