Unveiling of God no 102
Revelation or Delusion
June 23,
2019
Brian Kocourek
But the False Vine do not love the True Word, but hold to
the word for another age, and because they loved not the Word they are turned
over to a delusion.
2
Thessalonians 2:10-12 And
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie:12 That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
From his sermon Christ is the Mystery pp. 120 Brother
Branham said, "Look, Christ in you makes Him the center
of Life of the revelation. See? Christ's
Life in you makes Him the center
of the revelation. Christ in the Bible, makes the Bible a
complete revelation of Christ. Christ in you makes you the
complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's trying
to do? What is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham, what
is the new birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ personally to you. Amen. See? Not you joined a church,
you shook a hand; you done something different; you said a creed; you promised
to live by a code of rules; but Christ, the Bible... He is the Word that was
revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what takes place, it's
Christ. Pastor, priest, whatever it might be... It's Christ in you. That is
a--the revelation that the Church was built upon.
121 You
say, "Well, I'm a Lutheran"; "I'm a Baptist"; "I'm
Presbyterian." That don't don't mean [Brother Branham snaps his
fingers--Ed.] that to God, not a thing, not a snap of your finger. What is it? It's Christ being revealed, and He is the Word.
And when the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself.
See? That's God's purpose for Jesus
Christ, was to express Himself, to take His own laws and live by His laws,
and fulfill His law by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin
in the flesh that He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe only in the Word of God
and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual conceptions of men. You see
it?
Notice now what he just
said here. "When the Word is revealed it expresses itself."
You can't get away from the definition of what Revelation is. It is not a
mental thing, it is a manifestation of Divine Truth, therefore it has to be an
expression in you.
122
That's Christ's idea. That's God's idea. The
new birth reveals this. And if a man
says he's born again and try to place these promises of Christ in this
last day to some other age, making Him Christ yesterday, but not today, then that man or that person has been in a
delusion by Satan. And if that man
says that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself through him... Jesus said in Mark 16, "These
signs shall follow them that believe... into all the world and to every age."
Casting out devils, and speaking with tongues, and all of these great
manifestations of gifts that would follow, that they shall--not that they
maybe, they ought to; they will. And
heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't.
So what you are looking at here is this. Revelation manifests while delusion does not manifest.
There are two things
that brother Branham speaks of here in this paragraph, and that is Revelation and Delusion. These are two opposing things.
Now, according to
Webster's Dictionary, Revelation is a manifestation of divine will or truth. Notice revelation is
not words, revelation is not mental knowledge or understanding as though
someone tells you something, or your mind understands something. The definition
of Revelation is "a manifestation of Divine will
or truth." Therefore it is a Manifestation as in "expression".
So the invisible becomes visible. If a person claims revelation, then there must
be manifestation and expression, or what they have it is not a Revelation but only a Delusion.
Notice the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:3 How
that by revelation he made known
unto me the mystery; So revelation is
a making known by using something to manifest it.
This is very important for us to understand because many people think
they have a revelation but in fact are only under a delusion.
62-0218 - Perseverance 26 Now, the devil is not like some
people think, “he’s mean and everything,” but he’s deceitful. The devil
makes you think that you’re right. But when you disagree with the Word,
that shows that it isn’t the Spirit of God, ’cause the Holy Spirit wrote
the Bible. And then it’s got to be agreeable with the Word.
Now listen to me, most people are living in a
delusion. If they do not have Revelation they have delusion, and that is
dangerous because they think they are right.
The difference between revelation and delusion
is that Revelation is based on Bible truth that is manifested, rather than
Bible truth the is mentally believed.
Revelation is a Bible truth that you see
coming to pass. That is what Revelation means. Revelation is not as many think,
just some mental understanding you have that you did not have before. That is only
a delusion if it has only come as far as a mental understanding.
Because a delusion is a false belief or opinion: That
is something that is mental. Delusion has to do with the mind. Thinking
something that is not. It comes from the word delude which means to mislead the mind or judgment of; deceive: And then the dictionary
gives an example of how the word is used. "His conceit deluded him into believing
he was important.".
Notice the mind or judgment was misled or
deceived. And in the case of this young man, it was what he claims to have seen
a vision, (which many people call dreams visions when they are not a vision,
but just a dream). And I do not doubt that he had a vision or dream, but his
problem is that he did not check his dream or vision by the Word. We must check
everything by the Word. And in the case of this person he said, it is not the
Word that is important, it is the voice that speaks to Him.
Now I do not deny that he may hear voices, but Whose voice i he hearing.
Remember satan can impersonate anything the Holy Spirit does. And most mental
patients hear voices, and many claim those voices are God. But if that voice is
not Scriptural then it is not the voice of God but a demon. And that is where
so many people open themselves up to a delusion.
Why? Because they do not love the Word, which is the Truth
Let's read what the apostle Paul
said again from 2
Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved. 11 And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie: 12 That they all might
be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Notice the reaction, just like Cain who when he was wrong
got angry instead of talking to his brother to find out about Abel's
Revelation, Cain got angry and wanted to destroy his brother. If the brother
had listened he would have heard me quote the Apostle Paul that God was IN Christ reconciling the world to himself.
He would have heard me quote a vindicated prophet of God that said the
body was not deity but deity dwelt in the body. He would have heard me quote the
Vindicated prophet who said, "Jesus and God are not one
like your finger is one."
He would have heard me quote God's prophet as saying, Questions and answers COD 64-0830M P:62 Jesus was not God, but He was God. He was a Man, yet
He was God. He could cry, and yet He could raise the dead. He could cry for a
man being dead and raise him back up again. He was Jehovah-jireh,
Jehovah-rapha, Jehovah Manasses; He was Jehovah, all completely. He was
Jehovah, and yet He was a Man."
But usually when they hear us quote the prophet they do not
believe we are quoting him because they do not believe what is being quoted,
and that is their problem and not mine.
Now,
a lot of people call the Parousia - "a
false doctrine", but just because they say it, doesn't make it so.
If Jesus preached it first, which he was the first to preach of His coming
Parousia, and then the apostle Paul preached it and he said if you do not
preach what I preach you are cursed with a curse. Then we find the apostle Peter
preaching it, and we also found that the apostle John preached it, and so did the
apostle James preach it as well.
Therefore
if all the apostles who wrote the New testament all preached it, as well as Our Lord Jesus Christ who was the
first to preach it, and then you call it a false doctrine, I would have to
doubt your having the same Holy Spirit who wrote the Word and placed the
doctrine of the Parousia in the word. Because it shows the Word is not revealed
to you, and therefore your understanding is false and you are living in a delusion,
and not by Revelation.
Remember,
"just one word off is Satan's kingdom". And when you turn down the truth
God will give you over to a reprobate mind which is a delusion.
I hope and trust that I will follow brother Vayle to where he is now
because I am positive sure he is saved and in fellowship with God's prophet
beyond the curtain of time even as we speak. And the prophet told him, "Lee,
you will be in that tent when I get it, and you will teach doctrine to the
ministers and faith to the people."
Now, listen carefully to what brother Branham said in his sermon Word become flesh India trip 54-1003M P:80 Now,
you can express it by mental conception, but
if it becomes a real revelation of God, that you see it before it happened, and express it in word form, that word takes a hold and becomes material:
a thought expressed. Oh, my,
how God could... See? If your heart and
your mind is so, and in-filled with God's Spirit, until your thoughts become
His thoughts... Amen. There you are. When
your mind, and your leading, and your guiding, becomes a direct place, or a
direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit that's moving your mortal being...
Oh, my. What kind of people should we be? If
the very Holy Spirit has you so embodied or empowered, that you don't use your
own thoughts, you don't use your own mind, you don't use your own opinion; but
the Holy Spirit has you so built, until your thoughts and your being is God's
Spirit expressing Itself through you, what kind of a church would we
be? What kind of a people would it be, this morning, if this Branham
Tabernacle, this morning, was so filled with the Presence of God, why, when you
didn't even use your own mind, didn't even use your own thoughts, didn't even
have no alternative of your own, but just to be led by the Spirit...?
Hallelujah!! So filled with God’s Words, His thoughts,
that our bodies begin to express the God-Life contained in that Word within us.
That is when God-Word becomes manifested Word, and manifested Word is
Manifested-Life. For Jesus said in John 6:63, "The Words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are Life."
Now, the opposite of
this Revelation is delusion. A Delusion is when you think you
know but you really don't know. You are only deluded. And Deluded meaning: To deceive the mind or judgment of:
Therefore a delusion is an act or process of deluding or being
deceived. b. The state of being deluded or deceived.
2. A delusion is A false belief
or opinion:
We find then two
conditions at the end time. First we have a great promise of an end-time Revelation and then there is also the promise
that this end time will be the time of great deception and
delusion.
Now which of these conditions
you will find yourself in will depend on your own heart, your election, and your love for the truth.
The promise of the great end-time Revelation we find in 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of
your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ;
And again in Ephesians 1:17 That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of him:
Notice we see that the
revelation of Jesus Christ is the great end time revelation, and that is
because as the Lord descends from heaven with a Shout which is the Message,
that Message is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. But at the same time there is
also promised a great deception or delusion that will come on the scene at the
end time as well.
2
Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
And
of course going back to our text for this morning we see in 2 Thessalonians
2:10 And with all deceivableness (which means to mislead by
a false appearance or statement; delude: They deceived the enemy by disguising the destroyer as
a freighter. to be unfaithful to (one's
spouse or lover). and as a verb it means to to mislead or falsely persuade others; practice
deceit.
And with all deceivableness
(by a deluding) of un-right-wise-ness
in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved. So you see the delusion comes via un-right-wise-ness, which is a wrong understanding.
People will be deluded by their own lack of understanding.
11 And for this cause (what cause? The fact
they did not love the truth) God shall send them strong
delusion, (a
false opinion or belief) that they should
believe the lie:
So they will be so
caught up into their own creeds and dogma that they will be unable to see the
truth when it is shown openly to them. They will refuse it because they would
rather believe a lie than the truth. And for this purpose 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness.
So you see the true
Vine love the truth but the false vine love un-right-wise-ness, and they will
be damned because they love not the truth. Then in the next verse he speaks of
the true Vine and he says, ...
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief
of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our
gospel, to the obtaining of the glory
(doxa,
the opinion, values, and judgments) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, there are two words that are very important here for us to review.
he said, "with
all deceivableness of un-righteousness in them that
perish. So the
un-right-wise-ness they possess is the delusion they hold onto and are damned
by it.
1) He says "with all deceivableness":
now, there is not an English word deceivableness, in the dictionary, but
there is a word deceivable which means To cause to believe what is not true; to mislead and
there is the suffix -ness which denotes the quality or state of being.
2) he adds "Of un-righteousness": un right wise-ness or
not wise which means incorrectness.
Notice that the attributes of these people is that they are deceived by
an incorrect word,, belief or opinion. The word un-right-wise-ness speaks of incorrectness
in their doctrine. That is how they are deceived. And remember, the Bible says,
they are deceived and they deceive. "evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving, and
being deceived."
From The First Seal 63-0318 P:44 brother Branham quotes the
scripture and then explains it, "And
with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness... (deceiving
people by un-righteousness)... in
them that perish;... (not this Bride, in them that's
looking for such a thing)... because
they received not the love of the truth...
(And Christ is the Truth, and Christ is
the Word, but they'd rather have a creed.),...
that they might be saved. And for this cause God has sent them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie:... (It should be translated there, as I
looked in the Lexicon, "the
lie," not "a lie"; "the lie,"
same one he told Eve.)That they... might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
And from his sermon, God of this evil age
65-0801M P:33 brother
Branham said, Making
a strong delusion, as the Bible said it
would (II Thessalonians),
how this man of sin would come into existence and set in the temple of God,
showing himself he was God and caused
the people to go into strong
delusion to believe a lie; and believe
it will be damned by it. That's the same thing he did to Eve,
give her... Never told her the Word
wasn't right, but give her a strong delusion that she believed a lie. The spirit of delusion is of the devil,
devils now working in the children of disobedient. Disobedient to what? What's the
children of this day disobedient to? Like Eve was at the beginning: the true Word of God.
Now,
we know by our studies that this Glory
that we are called to is the Greek word Doxa which
means the opinion, values and judgment. In other words, it speaks of the very mindset
that was in Christ.
Paul
said, Philippians
2:5“Let
this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” But her also said, in Philippians 3: 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
So what gives us the ability to be Thus Minded is the Revelation we
receive from God.
Any child who
follows the ministry of William Branham should be able to quote from Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (of revelation) I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, as I said,
just about anyone who follows William Branham’s Message has heard him say this
enough that they should be able to quote it and even talk intelligently about revelation, what it is, and how
necessary revelation is to the
believer. But why do the majority of the ministers who claim to believe His
Message refuse to believe what Peter said that brought such praise from Jesus.
In verse 13 Jesus had asked the disciples the question, Whom do men say that I
the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say
that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or
one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I
am? 16 And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God.
Not thou art
God, but thou art the Son of God. Then
Jesus called Peter blessed and said those notable
words, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. and upon this rock (the rock of revelation), I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it."
But Peter had
just called Jesus the Son of God, and the majority of the ministers (so called)
who claim to be following the ministry of William Branham do not have that same
revelation as Peter had, that was
given to Peter by God the Father as Jesus pointed out.
So, this morning
we are going to examine the difference between Revelation and Delusion, because both are very
powerful influences in the world today, and not only in the World but amongst
those who claim to believe the End-time Message of Malachi Four as well. And
let’s face it, I am not interested in the world. It is a lost cause. But what I
am interested in are the Sons and daughters of God who are sitting under false
shepherds who have not more revelation
from God, than the Oneness Pentecostals do.
Now to
understand the difference between Revelation
and Delusion, we must know what
the two words mean. Because as brother Branham said about the
difference between the Appearing and Coming, he said they are two different words and they mean two different
things. And the words Revelation and Delusion are also two different words and therefore they mean two
different things.
Now the word Revelation
means: The act of revealing or disclosing. b. Something revealed,
something not previously known or realized but is made know or realized. In Scripture it is a manifestation of divine will or truth.
So we see that Revelation
is a knowledge that God had alone, but had not yet revealed it, then He
uncovers or discloses that truth so as to reveal, manifest or make that truth
known to men. It may have been hidden in the Word for ages, but until God makes
it manifest, it is still hidden. But when God reveals it through manifestation,
that then becomes the interpretation of the Word. And thus when He does that we
call that revelation.
And as we mentioned earlier that revelation has to do with manifestation.
As we read the definition of Revelation
earlier tonight as being “a Manifestation of Divine will or truth.”
And we noticed, that the word Manifestation
is an expression and that expression or manifestation is used by God
to clarify the revelation and what it consists of.
In other words, “that which is invisible becoming
visible.”
Then if revelation
has to do with a manifesting, then the opposite would be a delusion
which would have to be an absence of manifestation or an absence of expression.
As the Apostle
James said in James
1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own
selves.
Therefore, James suggests here that if we are not expressing our belief in an outward expression
or manifestation we are deceiving ourselves into thinking we believe when we in
fact do not believe. So the absence of expression shows delusion.
Now, notice the
word delusion comes from deception, the act of deceiving, and
to
deceive you must take a truth
and do something to it to hide it from men. So revelation takes that which is hidden and reveals or expresses,
while Deception takes that which is
true and covers it over or hides it from men, and the result is delusion. believing something there is
no reality for.
So we can say revelation reveals or revelation manifests while deception hinders or delusion hides or covers up truth. In other words, then a delusion is anti or the opposite of Revelation, because Revelation
expresses while delusion suppresses expression.
And in fact
Jesus said in John
6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh
unto me.
You
see, he that expresses comes to God while he that expresses not, comes
not to God.
In paragraph 121 that
we read tonight notice brother Branham said, And when
the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself. See? That's God's purpose for Jesus Christ, was to
express Himself, to take His own laws and live by His laws, and
fulfill His law by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin in
the flesh that He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe only in the Word of God
and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual conceptions of men. You see
it?
Notice how he
mentions in paragraph 121 when the Word is
revealed, It expresses Itself, but then notice in the next
paragraph 122,
brother Branham lets us know that if a man says he
believes but doesn’t express it or manifest it in his life, he is just living
in a delusion.
122 …The new birth reveals this. And
if a man says he's born again and try to place these promises of Christ in this
last day to some other age, making Him Christ yesterday, but not today, then that man or that person
has been in a delusion by Satan. And if that man says that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself
through him.
Woe woe woe,
listen to what he just said, "And if that man says
that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself through him."
There's your John 14:12.
and notice brother Branham goes on to point out Mark 16 and listen to what he
says about it.
“Jesus said in Mark 16, "These signs shall
follow them that believe... into all the world and to every age." Casting out devils, and
speaking with tongues, and all of these great manifestations of gifts that
would follow, that they
shall, not that they maybe, they ought
to; they will! And heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't.
So you see the importance of the manifestation of the Word of Life in
your life, the expression of the God-Life? For without it you are
only deluding yourself. Without manifestation
in your life that it is actually God-Life living in you, you are living in a
deception brothers, sisters, a delusion.
Notice brother Branham is telling us here that when a person is genuinely
born again there will be a manifestation of that Life living itself out in you.
And if there is no expression or manifestation in your life then you are
still dead in your sins, and you only think you are a believer when you are
not.
So
we see the important of revelation
to the believer. Revelation is what
seals us in and gives us the assurance that we really do believe, because you
see the evidence of belief in our life. When your body begins to believe your
confession is when "His Spirit bears
witness with your spirit that you are a son of God." You
can say all day long that you believe this Message correctly but saying it and
expressing it are two different things.
Remember, it is all about dying out to self, and letting God work in you both
to will and to do.
That is what brother Branham is telling us here in Show us the Father 59-0419E P:71 The thing to do is know
that you're coming to fulfill a promise that God made you. There's going to
be thousands of people praying for you. And when you come by this line, when we
pray, lay hands on you, just as soon as hands is laid upon you, you've just
like rising them up out of the water of being baptized. You have done something
that God give you a promise what would happen. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You go right out of this building testifying that you're
saved. What if you go out of the building saying that, "Well, I don't
know." Then you're not saved. But God will make your body obey
your confession. See? And He's
the High Priest of our confession. Before
you can be healed, you have to confess it first. You have to believe that
you are healed. And then
when you believe you're healed, God makes your body obey your confession.
So now when you come by here, just let it be settled; say, "God, this
is Your command. I believe I'm healed," walked off the platform ...
And from his sermon Attitude and who is God?
50-0815 P:35 And when the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is here to
inspire you, remember, God will make your body come into your confession.
If you say you're a drunkard, and want a drink. Don't worry, you'll soon be
one. If you say you're a sinner, and want to sin, you'll be right into it. If
you say you're a Christian and believe it all along, God will bring... Your
testimony will bring you right into it. If you believe in healing, and
believe that God has healed you, confess it, and God will make your body
obey your confession, for He's the
High Priest of your confession; setting at
the right-hand of the Father now with His own Blood to make intercessions for any confession upon anything that He died for. And He died to rid sin. And
sickness is the result of sin. "He was
wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we are healed." Remember that. Have faith. Don't waiver. Stand on
it.
And
let me tell you this, You will know
when you have it from God, and that is when it takes a hold of your life and
brings with it an expression and a manifestation of that truth in your life.
Until then you are only professing it.
Brother
Branham said in his sermon Voice Of The Sign 64-0321E E-33 The elected listens to the
voice. But the unelected
ignores and says, "Nonsense. Go on. We'll take the same old school."
There' our two vines again. The true Vine, the Elect, they listens
to it and enters into it, while the false Vine, they ignore it and pass right
on by it.
The
Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that
are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this
world, that come to nought: 7 But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained
before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world
knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
So
you see because they could not see or understand the glory, the doxa of God,
they crucified the Lord of Glory. Your actions or lack of actions will give you
away every time.
9 But as
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God knoweth. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of
the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the
words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual.
You
see there is an action right there. You will compare, you will search, you will
keep looking and God will let you know you’ve got it when you begin to see His
life living your life for you, when you hunger and thirst and he begins to
fill.
14 But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all
things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ.
And if you hear but do not learn it is because you
might have heard but you did not believe. Or else what you heard you really did
not hear or understand, and what you saw, you did not see nor
did you perceive nor understand lest God would have to heal them as
Jesus quoted in Matthew
13.
So by hearing
and not hearing and seeing and not seeing it shows they had preconceived ideas
already of what it was they were hearing and seeing, but their preconceived
notions were wrong. And they become a delusion. That is why they heard and did
not hear, and saw but did not see, nor did they understand. They were deluded
by a misunderstanding.
Now, I've seen
this first hand in my minister meetings overseas. As I’ve told you before I
have taught more than 3,500
ministers overseas, and I'm getting ready to teach many more in Gabon in a
couple weeks. And having met thousands of ministers overseas, and talked to
many of them, and received questions from a whole lot of them, I think I can
say that there is not a person I’ve met who claims to believe William Branham’s
Message that cannot quote you Malachi 4, Luke 17:30 and Revelations chapter 10.
And all these
individuals also know by heart the emphasis that brother Branham spoke concerning
how Peter by Revelation
spoke those most notable word. And yet if you ask them to speak those most
notable words, I have my doubts that they could all quote them, or at least
they might quote them, but they do not believe them. Why, because they do not
believe what Peter said that won praise from Jesus. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”
So if the Word
of God is shown to them, like it is shown to the real believer who believes it,
but nothing happens to the others, then what happens to them? They open
themselves up for the great delusion.
Listen, the true
Believer, the True Vine they hear and understand what they hear, and they see
and perceive what they see. And what they see is the manifestation of the revelation.
But the false
Vine hear and do not understand, and they see and do not perceive, and
therefore they are content in their deluded state, thinking they are, what they
are not.
Again let's go
back to what the Apostle Paul told us in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie:
12 That
they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
In other words
they took pleasure in a wrong understanding.
Now, a delusion is A false belief strongly held in spite of in-validating
evidence.
And no matter
how many hundreds of Scriptures you give them, and no matter how many hundreds
of quotes from Brother Branham you give them, they still refuse to believe what
the Prophet of God and the Word of God say concerning One God and Him having a
son.
And that is one strong delusion, brother. I’ve talked to these
men and they tell me they believe every word brother Branham said, but they deny
and disagree with what he said.
So instead of Revelation that feeds upon Word upon
Word upon Word, they receive a strong delusion that feeds upon what other men have said,
and thus they would rather believe the Lie than The
Truth vindicated by Scripture and Prophetic utterance of Thus Saith the Lord.
Well, if revelation anoints us to bring forth expression, and creates in us a
supernatural understanding that
readies us for adoption, then deception
will do the opposite. It will cause to fall away from The
Faith which is The Revelation, and
there is only One Lord and one Faith and that Faith is the revelation of that One
Lord.
As brother Branham said from Anointed ones at
end time 65-0725M P:186 the faith, not
a faith, the Faith. One faith, one
Lord,
one... You can't have one faith without believing in one Lord.
Therefore, you
can’t tell me that these men who deny the Truth of the Word and have no
expression of God-Life in themselves, are not intentionally holding to error
rather than the Truth.
Jesus said in John 3:19 And this
is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, (why?) because their deeds were evil.
Notice as
Jesus said in Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men: for ye neither
go in yourselves, neither will you allow them that are entering to go in.
You see, they
themselves will not enter, they will not
express and they will hold
others back from that expression or manifestation
as well.
And again we
hear Paul say the same thing in, Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth down in unrighteousness; Now, that word
hold was translated from the Greek word Katecho and it means to hold down, to withhold
or to hold
back. In other words they suppress the Truth.
Notice that they hold down the
Truth in un-right-wise-ness, which means they hold down the Truth
using an incorrect understanding to do it, that’s how they hold down the
truth.
So you see by
teaching error instead of Truth they hold the Truth back from the people. By
telling the people there is no expression, the manifestation is for the
millennium, they are in fact keeping sons and daughters of God from becoming
the manifested Word they were ordained to become. That is why understanding John 14:12 is so important. Because if you are a
true believer then you will truly manifest the same life Jesus did. And that
is the manifestation of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So in order to
withhold the Truth from the people, they cause the people to stay away from the
Truth. Now to do this they must lie about the truth, and so they will say teach
God’s children lies and say, you have
no need for that fiery experience of new birth, all you have to do is say you
believe and you got it. And thus they suppress the expression of
God-Life from the people, because the people become afraid to check it with the
Word.
Now, in order
to teach a lie they do not come right out and deny the Scriptures. No, instead
they will just not quote it, or when you quote from the Scriptures and William
Branham they will say you are not teaching it like our church teaches it and
therefore you are false.
False by teaching
from the prophet and Scriptures? And you are right in teaching from your
traditions and church dogma? I don't get it.
But they say
they believe God’s prophet, and yet they deny what he taught.
So what they
do, is they tell the people the Scripture does not mean what is says. They
teach the people that evidence is your experience, when they are two different
words and they mean two completely different Words altogether.
They say the
Parousia of Christ is a false doctrine because brother Branham never used the
word Parousia. Yet the word Parousia means presence and he most certainly
taught that well over 8-9,000 times in only 12 hundred sermons. And he even
said, "my ministry is to declare Him that He is here." And brother Branham did not have to use the word Parousia to teach
the doctrine of Parousia. He used rthe equivalent English word presence.
In brother
Branham’s message The Indictment 63-0707M P:116 what he said is
just as alive today as when he preached it. And in that sermon he said, “You poor intellectual, spiritual deprived, rejected upon your
own grounds, you read the same Bible that any other man can
read; but you've turned down the Spirit
of God, till the Bible said you'd
be given over to a strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned by it. You
actually believe that you're right, and the Bible says that you'd
believe it and be damned by the same lie that you believe to be the
truth.
Therefore, I indict you by the Word of God. You are teaching the people a error
and crucifying the principles of Christ,
of holiness, and Life above as a person might walk out on the street and be a
different person.
So what is the
best way to hide a real diamond? Put it in a room with a thousand counterfeits.
And what is the best way to hide the Truth? Put it in a Message with a thousand
counterfeits. Look, the counterfeit religion isn’t out there somewhere, it’s
right in our midst trying to keep you from the Truth of the Message as Brother
Branham said,
And how can
you worship God outside of Truth. You can’t.
So they try to change the truth. So the error
of the wicked is to take the word of God and twist it in such a way as to
distort it, so it does not say what it actually says. It means they will lie
about the Truth in order to cause the people to stay away from it. That’s how
they suppress the truth.
2 Peter 2:1 But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious
ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And Jesus said in John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues:
yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
So notice
their expression is not in expressing the Word but in trying to kill the
influence of the Word, thinking in doing so they are doing God a favor.
And again
Jesus said in, John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you,
The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will
also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin: but now they have
no cloke for their sin.
Now, brother
Branham warned us in his sermon Christ revealed in his own Word that people would
lose their minds in the end time. He said, “In the Laodicean age the people were what? Naked (Are they?), blind. What good does light
do to a blind man? If the blind leads the blind, don't they all fall in the
ditch? Naked, blind, and don't know it. Even their mental
faculties are gone, their spiritual faculties of mental--spiritual understanding.
See? Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers
of those that are good, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, The power of
revelation, they don't even believe in
it. See?”) They don't believe in such things as prophets, and so... They don't
believe in it.
Way of a true prophet
62-0513M P:118 The Bible said if they wouldn't believe the Word, He'd
give them strong delusions to believe a lie and
would be damned by it.
That's exactly what these organizations and people of this nation's doing
today: believing a lie to be damned by it.
God's wrapped gift 60-1225
P:53 God said He'd give
them over to strong delusions to believe a lie and be damned by it. God said He would do it. You refuse right, you have to take wrong.
There's no other way. You refuse to go right, you have to go left, go some
other way beside right; so you can't go right and wrong at the same time. When they refused the Holy Ghost, they
refused Christ, they refused God's program, they refused the messenger,
they refused everything; so therefore, they're left in their sin. There's
nothing left then but judgment.
And let me
add, "when they refuse the Word
they refuse the Holy Ghost", For He is the Word.
The Indictment 63-0707M P:72 If a man accepts "Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit," a creed in the stead of the Word, titles instead of the
Name, what does he do to the people? He
crucifies the effects
of the Word to the people. When he says that Mark
16 was just for that generation, and God said Himself right there, Jesus talking to them, said,
"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be
damned. And these signs shall follow them..." How far? Every nation, every creed, every tongue, every
race, every people, the same Gospel. "And these signs shall follow
them that believe."
And when a man tries to cut that out of
the Bible, he crucifies the
effects of the Gospel to that congregation. So I indict you in the Name
of Jesus Christ: You're guilty of murdering the Lord.
Let us pray…