Unveiling
of God no 13
Looking
Beyond the veil to God
April 18, 2018
Brian
Kocourek, Pastor
Joel 2:23-32 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God:
for He hath given you the
former rain moderately, and He
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain
in the first month. 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 And I
will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye
shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD
your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am
in the midst of Israel, and that I am
the LORD your God, and none else: and my
people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will
pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will
I pour out My Spirit. 30 And I
will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars
of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD
come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever
shall call on the name
of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD
shall call.
Now, as much as
I would love to go through these verses thought by thought, we just don't have
time tonight because we are taking our study from brother Branham's sermon The Unveiling
of God, and I want to be faithful to sticking with our series and
our study from his sermon, since he is the One God used to bring forth the Shout
which is the message that God came down with in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
So let's read
from the next paragraph in br. Branham's Sermon The Unveiling of God and we will
pick up at paragraph 39 God, in man, has emptied Himself. Joel 2:28, we find out He said, "I will pour out
in the last days My Spirit." Now, if you notice the word there, Greek word... I
may have this wrong, but the one I could find... You have to watch the words. The English sometime means double meanings.
Just like the word, we say, "God."
God created the heavens and earth, Genesis 1. But now, in the Bible It said, "In the beginning
Elohim." Now, Elohim, the English
calls "God," but it
really wasn't,... Elohim. Anything could
be god, the word "god"; you could make an idol a god; you could make that piano a god; you could make anything a god. But it
isn't so in the word "Elohim"; It
means "the self-existing One."
See? That piano cannot be self-existent;
nothing else can be self-existent. So the Word "Elohim" means "He that always existed." "God"
can mean anything. See the difference in the word?
Now,
I want to stop here for a moment and show you that br. Branham is talking about
the words, "pour out" here and it was translated in the verse from
the Hebrew word "shaphak"
which literally means to pour out or spill out, and this word is used 115 times
in the scriptures, of which I will give you a few to help you see its usage.
Notice in the
book of Job 30:16: we read, "And now my
soul is poured out upon
me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon"
Notice
how this word "shaphak" is used in this
verse referring to his soul, his very life.
Then we see
David in Psalms 22:14: say, " I am poured
out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like
wax;" Notice here David is speaking of His very life, his
person, who he is.
Again
in Psalms 42:4: we hear David say "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the
multitude," Again David uses this word in association with the
pouring out of Himself, who he is.
And
again we see in Psalms 62:8: David speaking to us and says, "in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge" Again notice that he is
referring to the very person who you are, that you should pour out yourself to
God.
And again in the
Book of Ezekiel 39:29: we
hear God speaking to Ezekiel the prophet saying, "For I
have poured out my spirit upon the house" To
get a better understanding of what he is telling them here, let's go back to
verse 25 and read on.
Ezekiel 39:25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now
will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house
of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; 26 After that they have borne their shame,
and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they
dwelt safely in their land, and none made them
afraid. 27 When I have brought them again from the
people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in
them in the sight of many nations; 28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into
captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and
have left none of them anymore there. 29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon
the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
Now, let's
listen to brother Branham go into this for ourselves in the very next paragraph 40 Now,
when It said here that "He emptied
Himself" or "poured out", now,
we'd think like this, that He "vomit
up," the English word of "emptied or poured out from
Him (See?), something went out of
Him that was different from Him." But
the word "Kenos," in
the Greek, does not mean that He "vomit up," or some, His arm went
off, or His eye went out another person. That is, "He changed
Himself"; He "poured Himself into," (Amen!), into
"another mask", into "another
form"; not another
person went out of Him called the Holy Spirit, but It was "He Himself". You get it? He Himself poured Himself into the
people: Christ in you.
How beautiful, how wonderful to think, God
pouring Himself into the human being, into the believer: pour
out. It was a part of His drama to do so. God, all the Fullness, all the Godhead bodily was in this
Person Jesus Christ. He was God and God alone, not a third person, or a
second person, or a first person; but the
Person, God veiled in human flesh.
41 I Timothy 3:16: "Without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness; for G-o-d, Elohim..." Capital G-o-d in the Bible
referred it back, anybody, it refers to in the original, It said, "Elohim. In the beginning Elohim... (See?) And Elohim... Without controversy great is
the mystery of Elohim; for
Elohim was made flesh, and we handled Him." Elohim veiled in human flesh, the great Jehovah that covered all
space, time, and everywhere, was made man. We handled Him: Elohim. "In the beginning Elohim... And Elohim was made flesh, dwelled
among us."
And that is
exactly what the Apostle Paul said as well.
2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that
was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect.
2 Corinthians 12:19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves
unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved,
for your edifying.
As brother
Branham said, the body was not deity, but Deity
(God) dwelt in the body.
God's gifts always find place
63-1222 P:50 Now, notice. And after then the wise men identifying
Him what He would be, and we find through the Scripture that's exactly what it
was: Deity in service for death. What for? Deity in service to God for death. Jesus
was Deity in service for death to redeem the world. But what did the world
do to it? They refused it. They rejected it. Why? Some of them, a big part of
them, did that because this: because He did die. They said, "He
couldn't be Deity and die." The man, the body was not Deity,
but Deity was in the body. This body has to perish. The very Christ
that's in you is the only thing that can raise you up. That's Deity,
God in you.
So we see
brother Branham is talking about God pouring Himself, not a part of Himself, but
pouring all of himself, emptying out Himself into Jesus the body, the flesh,
the vessel, the veil.
God's Gifts Always Find Their Place 63-1222
93 The man, the body was not Deity, but Deity was in
the body.
Identified Christ of All Ages 64-0617 36 Now,
notice now, God... Jesus said that those who the Word came to was called gods;
that was prophets. Now, not the man himself
was God, no more than the body of Jesus Christ was God. He was a Man, and God was veiled behind
Him.
Blasphemous Names 62-1104M .”… Now, they was looking at that little body that was
borned of Mary. See? That wasn't God; that was the Son of God, but God was in that body. It was God…”
Therefore you must ask yourself the question, How then was God in that body.
E-37 Fundamental
Foundation For Faith
55-0113 Now,
when He was here on earth, He was a perfect example of everything of the
godhead. He was the fullness of the godhead bodily. In Christ dwelt God.
The body of Jesus was only the tabernacle of God. It's where Almighty God Himself
lived and dwelt in a human being. You believe that, don't you?
You have to, to be saved. You have to believe that.
Show us the father and It'll Satisfy 56-0422 E-36 Now, it's many times it's been said that
no man can see God at anytime, the Bible said so. But the only begotten of the Father has declared
Him. Philip, here was
very inquisitive; he wanted to see the Father. Says here He said, "I've been so long with you, Philip, and you
don't know Me?"
Said, "When you see
Me you see My Father."
In other words,
you see the Father express
Himself through the Son. Him and the Father were one in the sense that His
Father was dwelling in Him, not Him doing the works; He was a Son, Himself,
the immortal, virgin born, Son of God. And then in Him was dwelling the God, the Father, expressing Himself to the world, His
attitude towards the people. See? Well, that's
how Christ and God were one. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself.
Now, He said, "When you see Me, you see the Father, and why
do you say, 'Show us the Father?'
And from his sermon, Jehovah Jireh 56-0429
053 brother Branham said, "That's the reason people couldn't understand Him.
Sometime it was Christ speaking... or was the Son speaking.
Other times it was the Father
speaking. He was a dual Person. He was one Man, the Son. God was in, which was
tabernacling in
Him. But what did He do? Did He go around saying, "I'm the
Healer." Very contrary, He said, "I'm
not the Healer." He said, "It isn't Me that
doth the works; it's My Father that dwelleth in Me."
And in Saint John the 19th chapter when He was questioned for passing a whole bunch
of crippled, lame, withered, halt, blind people, healed one man laying on a
pallet, the Father showed Him to go there and heal. Walked away and left the
rest of them laying there, they questioned Him. A man packing his bed on the
sabbath. Listen to what He said. Saint John 5:19:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you: The Son
can do nothing in Himself, but what he sees the Father doing, that doeth the
Son likewise." Is that what He said?
"I do nothing till the Father shows Me a vision first what to do."
Let Us See God 131 59-1129 …I said, "He was more than... God was in Him. He was a man, but He was a dual Person. One, He was a man; the Spirit in Him was God." I said, "God was in Christ." She said, "Aw, no." I said, "Look,
lady, I'll take your own Scripture. He was a man, but He was a God-man. When He
went down to the grave of Lazarus, He did weep like a man. That's true. But
when He stood there, straightened His little stooped shoulders up, and said, 'Lazarus, come
forth,' and a dead man, that'd been dead
four days come to life again, that was more than a man. Man couldn't do that. That was God in His Son."
Notice that brother Branham points out that we are not
talking about two physical beings like a man and wife are two physical beings.
And He says "They are not two in that way". But he explains that there
is only one that was a man, and we know to be a man you must have body, soul
and spirit.
But in that man that
was fully man, "indwelt the God, the
Father, who is Spirit."
Thus making them one by the
indwelling. But notice in this next quote how brother Branham is more
specific and shows that the oneness of God and His Son is not like Husband and
wife and He is more clear as to why it is different.
From his sermon Baptism Of the Holy Spirit 58-0928M 94 brother
Branham said, "Jesus,
He said, "I and My
Father are One. My Father dwelleth in Me." No one could read that any plainer. They said,
"Why don't You show
us the Father, and it'll satisfy us." John
14:8. He said, "I've been so long with you and you don't
know Me?" He said,
"When you see Me, you
see My Father." As
a lady once jumped up, she said, "Why, Brother Branham," she said,
"the Father and the Son are one, just like you and your wife are
one." I said, "Oh, no they're not." I said, "Do you see
me?" She said, "Yes." I said, "You see my wife?" Said,
"No." I said, "Then they're not the same kind of one.
Jesus said, "When
you've see Me, you have seen the Father. The Father dwelleth in Me.' My wife
don't dwell in me." See? They are One; in every way they are One.
Now, that is the key to understand what Brother
Branham meant when he uses this story about the confrontation with this woman.
He said, "Then they're not the same kind of
one. Jesus said, 'When you've see Me, you have seen the Father. The
Father dwelleth in Me.' My wife don't dwell in me."
And from his sermon Palmerworm Locust Caterpillar 59-0823 140 brother
Branham said, "God
Almighty, the Father, dwelt in Him. At the
day of the baptism, when He received the
Holy Ghost on the day when John baptized Him, John said, "I beheld and saw the Spirit of God like a
Dove descending from heaven, and a Voice saying, 'This is My beloved Son in
Whom I'm pleased to dwell in.” Jesus said that God was with Him, "I and My Father are One. My Father dwells in Me.” Not
Jesus, and being one with God; but "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." 143 And you Oneness brethren, many of you get off
the wrong track when you try to think that God is one like your finger is one.
He can't be His Own Father.
He can't be.
Now, remember we are speaking from The Unveiling of
God where brother Branham was speaking from the Book of Joel where God said
"I will pour
out My Spirit upon all flesh."
39 God,
in man, has emptied Himself. Joel
2:28, we find out He said, "I
will pour out in the last
days My Spirit.
And then he went
into the word Kenos to explain that is is not another part or thing that came
out of God, like for instance he mentions vomit can come out of you but it is
not a part of you, but it still comes out. But what brother Branham is getting
us to understand here is that what came out of God "is God", or the
very Life of God, His God-Life. His very essence of being.
40 Now, when It said here that "He
emptied Himself" or
"poured out", now,
we'd think like this, that He "vomit
up," the English word of "emptied or poured out from
Him (See?), something went out of
Him that was different from Him." But
the word "Kenos," in the Greek, does not mean
that He "vomit up," or some, His arm went off, or His eye went out
another person. That is, "He changed Himself"; He "poured
Himself into,"
(Amen!), into
"another mask", into "another form"; not
another person went out of Him called the Holy Spirit, but It was "He Himself".
You get it? He Himself poured Himself
into the people: Christ in
you. How beautiful, how wonderful to think, God pouring Himself into the human being, into the believer: pour out. It was a part of His
drama to do so. God, all the Fullness, all
the Godhead bodily was in this Person Jesus Christ. He was God and God
alone, not a third person, or a second person, or a first person; but the Person, God veiled in human flesh.
You see, this is where people just do not understand
that to be one with God is not for you to receive something from God but it for
you to receive the very nature, the very essence of Who God is, and that would
be His Spirit and His mind.
Therefore, I want to show you how Joel was to be
answered in the very prayer of Jesus Himself.
In John 17:11 we see
Jesus in prayer to God and in this verse we actually hear him praying that we
might be one in the same way He and the father were one. ¶ And now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one, as we are.
And how is it that we might be One even as which means
in the same manner as Jesus and His Father were One?
Jesus said in John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Jesus tells us we become One with God through the same
Word that He became One With God. And never forget he said "my words are spirit
and they are life."
Therefore we are not looking at the word as a mental,
or intellectual thing, but the Word which are the very thoughts of the Spirit
Itself.
The Bible says, "As a man thinketh
in his heart so is he". And, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God because the Word was God."
Therefore, the Word is the
very essence of God and Who He is.
That's why Jesus prayed in John 17:20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as (in
the same way or manner as) thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Therefore it is very apparent that we are one by
receiving the same Word which brings us the same Spirit and the same Glory or
the same mind as the Father.
"And the glory which thou gavest me
I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:"
From his sermon, Harvest Time 641212
87 034 brother Branham said, "Jesus said, "That they might be one, Father, as You and I are one." Not for some man to be over something, it never will
work; one denomination wants to take over the other, and one man over the
other. But that you might be one with God, like
Christ and God was one;
that's what the prayer is. That... He was the Word, and Jesus prayed that we might be
the Word, reflecting Him. That's His prayer to be answered. See
how Satan scruples it up in the carnal mind? But that wasn't Jesus' prayer, at
all, that we might all congregate together and all have a certain creed and so
forth. Every time they do it, they go further and further from God. He wants us to be one with God, and God is the Word.
Each individual in his heart must be that one with God.
Now you might ask, How can brother Branham say Jesus
was a dual person when Jesus Himself said “I and My
Father are One”, and “when you see me you see
the Father”?
Most people do
not read the entire encounter between Jesus and Philip. If you read the entire
scripture reference that Jesus explains how He is one with His Father, he
doesn't stop with the words, "when you see me you have seen the father". .
But most people will only read to there and stop, but if you read what else he
says, you will see that he is explaining to Philip how that when you see him
you see the father as well.
In John 14:8 we read, Philip
saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Shew us the Father? 10 Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works. 11 Believe
me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me
for the very works' sake.
When reading the
entire conversation between Jesus and Philip, it is very apparent that Jesus is
telling him and the others that were listening, that when you
see Him, you see the Father, because the Father was in Him, doing the works and
telling him what to say.
Therefore what
you saw Jesus do, the Father also was doing, thus manifesting Himself to the
World through the speech and actions of His Son, who was 100% yielded to the
Father in all things.
And that is what
we see in John 5:17 where Jesus is being accused by the
Jews for working on the Sabbath because He healed on the Sabbath. And his
answer to them is found in verse 17. ¶ But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work.
Now, if you
think about what Jesus was saying to the
Pharisees, it was this, "You people are looking only at this vessel, this veil, but
what you are failing to see is that no man can do these things except God were
to do it. Therefore, get your eyes off the vessel and get them on the God who
is using this vessel.
But because he
did not break down what he was saying to them like I am doing for you, they
didn't get it, and so what he said went over their heads, and was not a
satisfactory answer to them, and it only made them much more angry, because
instead of cow-towing to their Oneness understanding, Jesus was letting them
know that it was the Father that was doing the works.
18 Therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the
sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself
equal with God. 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth
the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise.
So what we are
looking at in this sermon of brother Branham's is not different than the
message that Jesus gave to the Pharisees, that God uses a veil to unveil Himself
with. And you must never look at that veil or you will not see God. You must
look beyond the veil to see God. Because it is not the veil that can do the
things supernatural.
God is not a
gift to play with and use, He is a Sovereign self existent being. And when he
chooses to veil himself to man through whatever the veil He may choose, it is
still the Self Existent one that is doing those things which plain mortal man
can not do.
God was in the
burning bush but the burning bush was not God.
God was in the
Cloud by day but he Cloud by day was not God.
God was in the
Pillar of Fire but the Pillar of Fire was not God.
God was in the
Brazen Serpent but the Brazen Serpent was not God.
God was in the Rock
that followed the Children of Israel in the wilderness but the Rock was not
God.
There is only
One God, and when God entered into his son, that did not make two Gods. It made
one God who was IN Christ reconciling the world.
The Bible is
very adamant all the way through that there is only One Lord and One God.
Moses taught
the people that there is only one God who is the only one Lord
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one
LORD:
And Zechariah
the prophet also taught there is only one Lord. Zechariah
14:9 And
the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD,
and his name one.
And Jesus
referred back to what Moses taught concerning how there is only One God who is
the One Lord.
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is,
Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
And the
Apostle Paul taught us that the One true God is the only Lord.
1 Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we in him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
And Paul was
not speaking of the Son of God here but the God of the son, because he says
in Ephesians
4:5 One
Lord, one faith, one baptism,
And God's end time prophet also taught
the same thing.
Jesus Christ the same 55-0806
P:15 Now, sometimes today it's been said amongst many believers, they say
about certain things, "Oh, that's against my faith. Our faith don't teach
that." There's only really one faith; the Bible said so. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God,
and there's one faith and that is the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Anointed ones at end time
65-0725M P:186 Now, notice. That was Jesus speaking. Here come Paul
right behind Him and said, "Now, in the last days there will come religious people
(See?), having
a form of godliness, and lead silly women, led away with all kinds of worldly
lust (Then they wonder, say, "Why do you pick on
them women?" Oh, for goodness... They just don't even see it.)--lead silly
women, laden with divers lust (away from things like--that's of the...?...
See?)... And as Jannes and Jambres (Matthew
24:24, false christs, false anointed, doing signs and
wonders to deceive the elected)--now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so will
these reprobates..." Reprobate mind concerning the faith, not a faith, the Faith. One faith, one Lord, one...?... You can't have one faith without
believing in one Lord. You can't have two baptisms, not one for the
Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. There's one baptism, Jesus Christ. That's
right. See?
Therefore, when
the One Lord entered into His Son that did not make the son Lord, it only meant
that this veil, this vessel was not tabernacling Deity where the One Lord was
dwelling.
Therefore when
we read in the book of Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye
have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now, this
scripture is not teaching Two Lords no more than it is teaching there are Two
Christ's. What it is telling you is that God who is the Only Lord, and the Only
Christ (Anointer) came into His Son and When God was in Christ, Jesus the man
became the reconciliation between God and man. For God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself.
So what we are
looking at this evening is that we have to look beyond the veil to see God, and
God alone.
Let us
pray....