Unveiling
of God no 36
Understanding
the Message by the Bible
July 15, 2018
Brian Kocourek, pastor
Notice that brother Branham is telling us that the
same conditions exist today as did when Jesus was hanging there on the cross,
and as he hung there, God ripped the veil in the temple in two showing what was
hiding behind that veil was the Holiest of Holies that was being hidden from
the people, and by ripping the veil in two he was showing that Christ was God
in plain view that they rejected God's very Presence that was hidden behind the
veil of His son. And he tells us the same condition exists today, where the
people are just too blind to see God's presence in full view.
We see this condition of blindness in the church
prophesied to come in the book of Revelations 3:14 And
unto the angel (the messenger) of the church of the Laodiceans write; These
things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Now, I would like to stop here for just a moment and examine
these last few words we just read, where the one who is speaking to John on the
isle of Patmos said "These things saith the
Amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;"
Now, many have written about this and many say it was
an angel, others say it was God, but what did a vindicated prophet of God tell
us this one speaking is?
From hi sermon Future home 64-0802 P:150 Br. Branham said, "The holy
Blood that was created by God, the Blood, the Life, the
Creation of God: Jesus was
the beginning of the creation of God. Oh, my.
You see it? God made in creation... He was Spirit. The Bible said He's the beginning of the creation of God. How did He begin? In the wombs of a woman, which is what?
The woman is... not like...How them blind people can't see the
serpent's seed right here. See? Eve was put here on the earth, and before Satan
ever touched her or anything else, God said to them, "Multiply and replenish the earth." It's right. But Satan comes in here, and if that was
Adam's son, then where Adam was a direct descent from God, and you only take
the nature of your parent. And when you are born again you take the nature
of your Parent of heaven. And your Parent of heaven is the attribute of
the Word, or the Word is the attribute of your Parent. And
how can you deny It for denominations?
Now, that ought to let you know right
there that when you are born again all you see is the Word of God. Many have
heard the Message of the Hour but because they are not born again they cannot take
it to the Word. But if you are born again you must take it to the Word for that
is all you can see.
The Apostle Paul made that very plain in
1 Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the
hidden wisdom, (notice it is 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. (The Lord of the doxa) 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: (ok, so
he says God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit and then he says how this
takes place...) for
the Spirit (notice that the word Spirit is capitalized so
this means The Spirit of God) 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 (or in the same way)
the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God knows. 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. (So you see he tells us that the very reason we
receive the Spirit of God by a new birth is that we might be able to know...
the things 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. 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, (Therefore Paul
says it is impossible for the natural man, the man who has not been born again
to be able to understand the things of God. He said it is impossible. Why?) because they are spiritually discerned. (in other words it
takes being spiritual which means spirit filled ie: full of the Spirit, to be
able to discern the things of God.) 15 But he that is spiritual (he that is
spirit filled) 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.
Now, again in his sermon Future home 64-0802 P:158 brother Branham says,
"Now,
notice. But Jesus was the
beginning of the creation of God. And then in P:163 he
said, "Remember that the Holy Ghost descended on
Jesus, which Jesus was a part of the earth. Why? The germ of God, the
Life of God was designed in the womb of a woman (That right?), which was
the earth. All right. And then the Life of God came in, so He was the beginning of the creation of God. See? And then that Blood of God, that was
there by that germ, when it was shed at Calvary, dropped back upon the earth.
What for? To redeem the earth. Now, it's been justified; it's been
sanctified, called and claimed; and now it's to receive its baptism of fire,
and be cleansed for Jesus and His Bride. And you are these other parts that's
drawed out of this earth. You are part of the earth, your body. Your
soul is part of God, a attribute of God, displayed
here on earth in a body. The body's to be redeemed. Now
the soul's redeemed, because it was in sin. So God come down by process of
justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and redeemed your
soul. And you, being part of the earth, it's redeemed by it. You're
in the process now, it's growing on.
Now, if your soul come from God, because
it had to if you were in Him before the
foundations of the world Right? Well, does that make you God? No, but it makes
you a son of God, right?
Then what about your spirit? Well the
spirit is the nature of your life. And when you were born from the sexual union
of your two parents you were "born in sin, shaped
in iniquity and come to the world speaking lies." Right? That's
what the Bible says...
But when you were born again you had a
new birth. And that Spirit life came from God. "By one Spirit you were baptized into one body",
right? Again that is what the Bible says.
But just because your soul and your
spirit come from God, that doesn't make you God. That just makes you a son of
God. Just Like Jesus was born with the Holy Spirit and His Soul came from God,
yet he was the son of God, and not God the son.
So brother Branham said in his sermon Proving His Word 64-0816 P:78 Now, we find that God
came into this little cell (See?), and He begin to develop cells,
drew from His mother's vitamins and things, as she. Then when He become old
enough to eat Himself, He begin to eat. And what is that? It's the dust of the
earth, which you come up and plant life and animal life and so forth, and as He
begin to eat the fish and the bread and the so forth, it begin to develop
cells. And then when it's fully matured at thirty years old, He was
baptized in obedience to John down here, or to God, in the water, and
went out. And what happened? The Dove, which was God,
descending from heaven, with a voice saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I'm pleased to dwell in." What did He come to do? To redeem that part of
the earth. He was the beginning of
the creation of God. Because God
is not a creation; only in Christ He is a creation,
because God is eternal and a Spirit, and a Spirit is not created.
He was the beginning of the creation of God, and God redeemed that body. See, when He
come down, "This is My beloved Son; I'm
well pleased in Him."
P:81 This Son of the
virgin was the Word made manifest. Now, St. John 1, if you want to read that, St. John 1. This prophet, this prophet too...
But this Son of the virgin was the Word made
manifest, the beginning of the creation of God. Now, the whole earth is God's
creation, but it's lost. See? Then He redeems this earth. And you're a part
of the earth, and He redeems you by the same way He redeems the whole
earth. See? Now, this Son of the virgin was the Word made manifest,
"In the beginning was the Word, the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us."Satan
tried every scheme to make Him discredit this. Satan tried everything that he
could to make Him discredit it, tried to get Him to take the kingdom without
suffering, tried to get Him to take it without redemption (When it was God's
plan in the Garden of Eden when He killed the lamb, that only by blood would He
take it.), even promised Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would take it.
Just think of what a promise.
P:93 What would He do? He
was proving His Word, proving His position, proving what He was. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And God is the Word. All right. He calmed the
winds and the waves, to prove Isaiah's prophecy, "He shall be called The mighty God, the everlasting
Father." See? He also multiplied bread and fishes, this virgin-born
Son. What was it? To prove the Word. All Scripture has to
be fulfilled. He proved the Word, by saying He was Jehovah made manifest.
He was
the beginning of the creation of God. God in creation, God with a little part of
the creation here that God was living in Himself; He was the beginning of that
creation of God, "From Him begets many sons." Note, He also
multiplied the fishes. He is
the Word and the proof of the Word.
P:122 We think of this Solomon in
that great millennium of the Jews, that when no nations dared to touch them,
and that great gift of God was in the prophet till he made known to the queen
all of her secrets of her hearts, nothing was withheld. The great age, showing
and typing that there was a great age coming...And now, Father, that was
You, not
Solomon. That was You in Jesus, for He said, "God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to Himself. He was the beginning of the creation." His body was
the redeemed creation.
Seed of discrepancy 65-0118 P:17 in Jesus Christ. For He was
the Seed of God; He was the beginning of
the creation of God, He was nothing less than God. And Judas Iscariot was born the son of
perdition, come from hell, returned to hell. Jesus Christ was the Son of
God, the Word of God made manifest.
Why it had to be shepherds 64-1221 P:53 He had started a new
creation. What was it? A creation of Himself. God was made flesh and
dwelt among us. That's... The Bible said, "In the beginning of the
creation of God..." God
was created in human form; in Jesus Christ, His Son, God dwelt. He
built His tabernacle of flesh and bones, and lived in that tabernacle: God, Emmanuel, "God with us." He built Himself a house to live in it,
so He could reflect His Word to His subjects through that. You know what
God is when you see Christ.
Now, before we move on let's just say this, Jesus
received his soul from God and his spirit from God alone. But the body was not
spirit, it was a created vessel. And as brother Vayle said, "That body was
the body of God but he loaned it to his son. He said God came into the three
room house of his son, the Body Spirit and soul of his son. So Jesus was a
total man, but the God that came into him at the river Jordan took over that
body and that body was totally subject to the God that inhabited him.
Now where the oneness go wrong is they try to say that
body was deity, but brother Branham taught us that the body was not deity but
deity dwelt in that body. But Deity also dwells in your body if you are a son
of God filled with his Spirit. And that does not make you God any more than God
in His Son makes Jesus God the son.
So the One who said he is the beginning of the
creation of God, Jesus continues with John by saying to the church of the
Laodicean's, 15 I
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or
hot. 16 So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have
need of nothing; and knowest not that
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me
gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear; and anoint
thine eyes with eyesalve, that
thou mayest see. 19 As
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door,
and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father
in his throne. 22 He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
So the
church of the Laodicean's in Blind, and don't even know it. And so they are
commanded to come get the oil that can make them see which is the Holy Spirit
upon the Word.
From
brother Branham's sermon called Message to the
Laodicean church 58-0609 P:37 I tell you, brother, there's been a cold spell in the
church. And the Pentecostal church has caught a bad cold somewhere. And it'll
take more than coon grease to open their eyes to the...?... "I'll give you some eyesalve." And that
eyesalve will open your eyes. And if the preaching of the Word don't do it, I
don't know any other eye salve. The Holy Spirit warms up the
Word, and tonight across the church... And the church loves that Word.
Certainly. And It
opens the eye. Then you can see we've had a little draft come
across the church somewhere. I think we got to breaking up and making, "I'm
this and I'm that." I wonder what we are after all. Oh, if you only
knew it, friend: you're sons and daughters of God that God's trying to
get... You just got your eyes mattered. That's all. God spreading
some salve is what we want in this revival here to get the eyes opened up.
And from
his sermon Door in a door 63-0223 P:81 he
said, "Jesus said, "I counsel you to buy eye-salve," the Holy Spirit. You're becoming so blind, the church
is, until it can't
see God.
It only sees its organization. It only sees that what it can see
in front of it. It never looks out yonder to the soon coming of the Lord. Coon
grease will never do that any good, but the salve of the Holy Spirit will open your eyes,
and you can realize that the presence of Jesus Christ... And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He
is God, and He can salve your eyes with His Holy Spirit.
Now, we read in Timothy 2:15 where the Apostle Paul said " Study to shew thyself approved
unto God, but I would like to ask you, how much study of the Word of
God are you doing? I know many of you from your own testimony that when you
came to this Message you couldn't get enough of it and you studied day and
night.
So my question is "You did
run well, what has hindered you?" and that is what the
apostle Paul said. And the word hindered means something cut in on you and
stopped your all out run for the finish line. You did study the word when you
came to the message, but why don't you study the word anymore? Do you think God
expected you to stop studying His word because you are in a church that
believes the full Word?
You know I talk to a lot of people and get emails from
even more, and I find that men just do not study the Word like they used to.
Most of the emails I get ask me questions concerning the message and I do the
study and get back to them with the answer, but I think it should not be that
way. I think if you want an answer you ought to study it out yourself and by
doing so you will grow faster than you could by just getting the answers from
me.
I'm not saying that I mind the questions, because when
I get the question, I dig for the answer and I grow that much more, not from my
need but from yours. You have a question, God has an answer, and when I go to
God and His Word for to answer your question, I grow as well.
But the way it is supposed to work is that you are
supposed to " Study to shew thyself approved
unto God," It doesn't say that the whole responsibility is on
the shoulders of the pastor. It's on you. I as your pastor am just here to help
you when you get stuck.
Then he says when you Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, you become "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, because
you find yourself "rightly dividing the word of truth."
So your study should be of the Word of God. And you should not just be
listening to the sermons for the
pleasure of it, but you should be listening to learn. With your Bibles open and
your notepad handy or today in the 21st century with your Ipad's handy you then
have all the Bible helps at your finger tips to rightly divide the Word of God.
The problem we have in Laodicea is that people are blind and naked, that
means they actually don't know how Biblically illiterate they really are. They
can tell you all about the Messenger but they cannot tell you that His ministry
was to declare the presence of God to us. Therefore, I believe that without
being able to take the Message to the Bible you really do not know or
understand the Message.
And that is why people call the Parousia of Christ a false doctrine. They
say, "well brother Branham never said the word Parousia, so it must be
false. And so they speak evil of what they know not as the Bible said they
would do. Instead of listening to the prophet of God and then finding what he
is talking about in the bible, they do not do anything with what the prophet
said, and so they turn their ears away from the Doctrine of this Message. and
that is a pitiful condition.
In 2 Peter 2: 1 we read, But
as there were false prophets among the
people, so shall there be false teachers
among you, who will be of such a nature as to bring in alongside of true
doctrine destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon themselves swift
destruction. That's what the Wuest
translation tells us.
And that is exactly
what the King James version says if you read it correctly. It says these false teachers will
bring in, So then f we are studying our Bibles we would have to ask
ourselves the question, "bring in to where?" And then again we should think, "if it is brought in, then it
really wasn't meant to be there in the first place".
So if we are talking
about the Word of God which are the thoughts of God, and then if they are
bringing in something else, then what they bring in is not "God's
thoughts" but their own thinking which is death in the pot.
And look what it says
these destructive heresies will produce, "even denying the Lord that bought them", and
who is the Lord that Bought them? There is only One Lord, which is One Jehovah.
and he paid his own creative blood and bought us with his own blood.
The Blood of God. So
these deniers must deny the blood of God, which is the son of God, and in doing
so they will deny that God is "the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ". as brother Branham said, "How could Jesus be his own Father?"yet
they deny the son and make him his own father.
So these will not
understand the Godhead, and thus the relationship that God had with this
firstborn son, and thus they will not understand the relationship God wants
with all his sons.
So Peter tell us
"they will deceive using fabricated words, or shall we say their own
version of Godhead, such as saying the fullness of the Godhead bodily is in the
church or in the Bride as so many teach in error.
In brother Branham’s sermon, The Spoken Word is the Original Seed pp 192 he said, "He will be
correctly dedicated to the Word as they have always been; indicated by God's Word and
“a-vindicated”.
Now, these two terms that brother Branham uses here, "indicated" and "a-vindicated" mean two different things
altogether. The first word “indicated”
means “pointed out or suggested”.
So brother Branham is speaking of how that person
would have to be pointed out or suggested in the Scriptures. In other words,
you can see that person spoken of in the Word of God either directly or
indirectly. So we see that the ministry he is talking about will be seen
somewhere in Scripture, suggested by Scripture or Pointed out in the Scripture.
The other term “a-vindicated”
is made up of two words, the first which is the letter “a”
used as a prefix and it means “something that is ongoing” and then
the word “vindicate” which has to do with
“backing
up”, "proving" or in “defense of” and in the usage here,
speaks of "justification of the person or ministry".
Then he continues, God will
vindicate what he preaches to be the Truth as He did Elijah; for it is Elijah
coming, making ready for the Mount Zion rapture. Jesus said in the last days it
would be like Lot's time. His preaching will be with the Spirit and straight
line of God's Word. Because so much has been called God's Truth, many will
misunderstand this true messenger. (I've got wrote here p-r-o-p-h-e-c-y,
prophecy.) Because so much has been called
God's Truth by fakers, many
true ministers will misunderstand that
messenger.
Now, there are two things I would like to point out
here that Brother Branham is speaking of:
First is “vindication” and “the
fact that this person will come straight with the Word of God, and everything
he tells us, you will be able to find right in the Bible”.
And if you cannot find what Brother Branham is telling
you in the Bible it is because you do not understand what he is saying. And
that is the stand I've taken over the years and have taken a lot of criticism
over it because the way my ministry works is that, "I take what the Prophet of God told us and take it right back to the
Scripture", and if you analyze my sermons and break them down you will
see about 85-90 percent of what I say is either a quote from God’s prophet or from
the Scriptures.
When I put together my sermons, I use royal blue
for Brother Branham’s Words. I use blood red for the Scripture. And then I use black for my own
comments, because that is normal type-face print, and that is just to tie
together the Message with Scriptures. That is how I have chosen to preach and
teach because at the white throne when asked why I said what I said, I can
point to the Scriptures and to where the end time Vindicated prophet said the
same thing. That's my safety net.
Now, br. Branham said in his sermon, We Would See Jesus 62-0727 E-18 … If God doesn't speak back
through His Word when we see something, then just leave it alone.
But as long as It's the Word,
then I know that heavens and earth will pass away but His Word will never fail. Therefore, I believe the Bible to be the absolute
truth of God, and it isn't to be added to or taken away from, but just
lived, preached in Its simplicity, lived the way It's wrote, and God is... If
He ever was God, He's still God. And if This is His Word, and He made a promise
that He cannot back up, then He isn't God.
And from Church Order
63-1226 …he said, "you get two
men, you got two opinions. It's got to come to one final absolute, and my absolute is the Word, the
Bible.
From his sermon, Jesus Christ Same
Yesterday Today 58-0312 E-8 he said, "In the time of the meeting, if I
ever say anything or any of my co-workers does or says anything towards
teaching that's not found
in this Bible, you let me know about it.
And from Explaining The Ministry 62-0129 E-9 he said, "And let's just search back. If that isn't Scriptural, then leave it alone.
If I ever say anything in your presence, as a doctrine or a teaching, that's not in the Bible, forget
it, because it's not right. And any angel (I don't care how real
he looks, and how inspired he is), if he speaks contrary to the Word of God, leave him alone. He's not of God. Galatians 1:8 said,
"An angel from heaven preach any other
doctrine than this is, what already taught, let him be accursed." We don't take nothing but just what God...
Let’s just read that for
ourselves.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: That word another is
the Greek word heteros, which means "of
anther nature". So he says I marvel that you are so soon removed
from the One who called you by listening to a gospel of a different nature.
And then he says, 7 Which is not another; (and the Greek word there is not heteros,
but allos which means different. So he says I see
that by listening to a gospel that has a different nature you are being turned
away from the True Gospel, even though they are not teaching a totally different
Gospel, yet because it has a different nature it brings with it a different
spirit. But then he explain what it that different nature is and says,) but there be some
that trouble you, and would pervert
the gospel of Christ.
Now, we all know what it means to pervert something.
It means that you twist it or make it say what it really is not saying, thus
your pervert the conclusion. and then Paul gives the warning as we see in verse
8 But
though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any gospel unto you other than that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed.
And then Paul repeats the warning o f the Spirit. 9 As
we said before, so say I now again, If
any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed.
Now, when he said any man or any messenger from
heaven, that includes any man who claims to be a prophet of God or any man who
claims to be a five-fold minister, or just any laity as well. Any man is any
man. And that is in the generic. It includes women as well.
So the apostle Paul says if you teach or preach and do
not teach or preach what I have taught, and you alter it to say contrary to
what I have taught you are cursed with a curse.
So some say, "well brother Branham never used the
word Parousia, so it must be false." And my answer is to you, "Paul
taught the Parousia of Christ and if William Branham didn't teach it he would
have to be cursed. But I know he taught it because the word Parousia simply
means presence, and brother Branham taught the Presence of Christ over 8,700
times in only 1,200 sermons on record.
Then Paul adds to the warning, 10 For
do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I
should not be the servant of Christ.
And I think that is the first lesson anyone who
desires to preach should understand. You do not preach the Word of God to
please men, you preach it to please God, and only God. And if your motive and
objective is to only please God then you will never ever allow to enter your
mind thoughts that would be pleasing to men's ears. And that is the marking of
a true servant of God. His sermons are
not men pleasers. They are God pleasers. And if any man gears his sermons to
please his wife he isn't fit for the ministry. God could never use such a man.
Then Paul says, 11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.12 For
I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And that is how you learn to
take this message back to the Word, not by what someone teaches you, but by
what the Holy Ghost teaches you comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual.
And if you recall that is
exactly what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
2:13 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. And what is that? Comparing the Spoken word with the written
Word.
From his sermon, Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word 65-0822m brother
Branham said, "All other words, I don't care how well they're placed, … who they come from, what
denomination they come from, or how
smart the man is, … it’s to
be absolutely ignored, anything contrary to the Word.
…If a bright shining angel come up there, and stand, and say things that
was contrary to the Word,
you'd say, "Satan, get away from me." That's right. If he's a
bishop, if he's a whatever he is, don't you never believe him if
he doesn't speak exactly with that Bible, word by word. Watch him, he will carry you with the
Bible now. He will carry you to a
certain place and then
hook it right there. When you see the Bible saying one
thing and he bypasses that,
watch him right there. See, that's the way he done Eve.
Now, listen. Doesn't matter who he is, or what
ministry he claims to have. He said watch him. If he doesn't stay right with
this word, forget it. He says, they will use the
word of God to a point then they will come in with a curve ball, they will hook it and since the greatest lie
is about 99% truth, then that 1% off is what brings the whole thing they are
telling you into a lie.
Look what Paul warned us of in 2 Thessalonians
2:10 "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness (un-right-wiseness) in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And 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 (un-right-wiseness)."
And so brother Branham also warned us in his sermon 54-0401 God's
Preparation E-22 "Now,
friends, there's many things that people do and say, perhaps maybe... I'm not
the judge of people. But I think any ministry or any demonstration of the
Spirit of God that can't be backed up in this Bible, I'd leave it alone.
If anything that anyone says that
isn't backed up by the Scripture, then I couldn't go with it;
although I wouldn't say it wasn't God till
I seen the fruits of it. Then I wouldn't say nothing about it; I'd just
let it go like that. I don't believe in talking about people. I don't believe
that. I believe in rebuking sin and
so forth; but talking about, "Well, this church is not right, and
they are nothing but hypocrites, and this pastor's nothing." That's wrong.
And that is what I also try to do. Now some of you
might try to put a name to the sin I blast out against, but you are the one
guilty of associating that sin to a person, not me. I hit against what I see as
sin and if you choose to say, he was speaking about this one or that one, then
you are the one who is guilty of that, not me.
Now, listen to God's prophet here. He said if they say anything, that means if they
teach anything that cannot be brought from Scripture rightly divided, then just
leave it alone. And God will deal with them, you don't have to .
Always remember and never forget, the Book of Revelations 22:16 Jesus warns us
Himself not to
add to or take from what the Scripture teaches…, I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I
am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and
out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so,
come, Lord Jesus.
Now, from brother Branham’s sermon, 56-0429 Jehovah
Jireh E-59 he
said, "And
the Bible said that Jambres and Jannes would raise up in the last days and
almost deceive the very elect. Be careful, brother, and keep it right on the Word of God.
Don't leave there. A
whole lot of things today that's going on that's not coming from that Word. And
you leave it alone. Stay with the Bible. 'Cause the Bible said it would deceive the very elect if possible. But when
your name's wrote on the Lamb's Book of Life from
the foundation of the world, you'll know His Voice. A stranger you'll not
follow. I don't care if oils pouring out of hands, feet, and everything else.
You'll know that don't come from the Bible, and you'll stay with God. Now, just
watch. All kinds of wonders.
Now here is the other thing we must be careful about. The Word of God
must be in its season, And there are an awful lot of things being taught from Pulpits
today that have nothing to do with the age we live in. And if it is not
concerning the age we live then just forget it, it’s not for you.
Now, listen friends, I’m not saying these things to be hard or mean
spirited, but there’s just too many things out there that will get your eyes
off the promise for the season. There is far too much speculation going on
about this that and the other.
And even when it comes to flat earth or politics. Stay away from that
stuff. I'm not saying you will get list by it, but it's not important. Nothing
is important that doesn't secure your place with Christ. Those are just
distractions Satan has to get your mind studying everything but the word of God
for this hour.
Brother Branham said in his sermon, Reproach
for the word 62-1223 P:68 Man
are always the same as ever. Now, I'm going to say something again, and I want
you... And I don't know whether it's being taped or not, but if it is on tape,
I want you to listen at me, you on the tape. Don't you miss it. But study it. Men now is like he's always been. He's praising
God for what He's done, looking forward to what He will do, and ignoring what He has done and is doing. He praises God for what He has
done; He looks forward to what He will do; but he ignores what God's a-doing,
and there he misses the whole thing. Hope they
get it. See? Ignoring what He's doing... He knows what He has done, and he knows the
promise what He will do, but he
fails to see what He's doing. Oh, you Pentecostals, if you're not
example of that. You're looking forward for something to happen; it's already happened right under you, and
you don't know it. "How oft would He have hovered you, as a hen
does her brood; but you would not." You thought more of
your traditions and denominations than you did of His Word and His Spirit. Yes.
So we need to be
careful in this hour because there are so many distraction out there. And let
me say this while I am at it. We can get distracted even by things that God’s
prophet and the Bible speak about for this hour. Namely, we know that both
William Branham and the Scriptures spoke to us of the conditions and judgments
that would encompass this earth.
We know of the end-time judgments to come, and we see them unfolding
right here in this very hour. But now, let’s look at what Brother Branham
warned us about. He said Ignoring
what He's doing...
He knows what He has done, and he knows
the promise what He will do, but he fails to see what He's doing.
Because Brother
Branham also taught from his sermon, Jehovah Jireh
1 64-0402 P:82 If it wasn't written in the Word for this age, I'd walk
away from it. Anything that's not in that
Word, I don't believe it. Now, I wouldn't accept it. I don't say I
wouldn't believe it, but I don't accept it. I don't understand it. But when it's in this Word, and a promise for
this age, I understand it. Do you?
And why is that so
important? Because God interprets His Word by bringing it to pass. So if it is
for this hour, then watch it come to pass, and if it is not for this hour, then
you are only speculating,
Your mining the Word for something that's not there. And here is why we must be
careful as well. Because if the thing coming is not for you and you spend all
your time focused on that then it is your expectation, and brother Branham
taught us you get what you are expecting.
So our focus should be
"what is God supposed to be doing
right now", and "what does
the Scriptures promise for the elect of this hour", and the only thing
I know of where we should be keeping our focus on is concerning the adoption of
sons. And to be an adoptable son brother Branham said you have to be the right
kind of a son, one who is always about
his father's business, conformed to the first born son, and then manifest as a
true son of God.
So if you see things approaching and you'd have to have your head in the
sand not to see the judgments in the earth, then I ask you, what is your
promise for this hour? Is your promise to go through those judgments, or is
it to ride above them?
We’ve seen the floods, earthquakes, and all the destruction that's coming
on the earth, and the scientists are predicting all forms of mayhem, and
judgments, but Jesus promised us in John 5:24 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into the judgment; but is passed from death unto life.
And in The Spoken word is the original seed
62-0318E P:89 Brother Branham quotes Jesus in John 5:24 and says, "He that heareth My Word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Eternal Life, and shall never come to the
judgment, (or through
the tribulation period), but has passed from death unto Life." That's
it.
Listen, the Lord promised to curse those who do not hearken to his voice,
but He also promised to bless those who did hearken to his voice.
Now, that is not to say that you won’t be put to the test, because God puts all
his children to the test. But you certainly are not ordained to go through the judgments.
But do you think for one moment I'm worried about the effects of a global
shift or a polar shift? Or even global warming? Not for one minute. Does that
mean that I won’t be careful what I do and where I go? You better believe I am always
careful. But if God tells me to go some place then I just rest knowing that he that
sent me will take care of me.
In fact Irenaeus tells
a story he had heard from Polycarp about John's utter loathing and contempt for
these false brethren. He says, "There are also those who heard from Polycarp that John, the
disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus
within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us
fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the
truth, is within." And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who
met him on one occasion, and said, "Dost thou know me?" And Polycarp replied,
"I do know
thee, the first-born of Satan." Such was the horror which the
apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with
any corrupters of the truth; as Paul also says, "A man that is an heretic, after the first and
second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and
sinneth, being condemned of himself."
So I am careful to go
only where My God wants me to go and to speak only to those who are wanting to
know the Truth. I do not go to places just to go. I go to where God wishes for
me to teach the truth only. Otherwise it is a total waste of time and money to
go and just sit and listen to someone who doesn’t even know what they are
talking about.
From his sermon, Hidden life in Christ
55-1110 P:9 Brother Branham said, I'm
a fundamentalist. Everything must come from the
Scripture. I wouldn't say I wouldn't believe it, but I wouldn't
understand it just right if it wasn't from the Scripture. And if any time,
during the time of the phenomenal part of the healing services, if any person,
whatever you belong to, what church, if you ever see anything that's
questioned, that we do here, and that's
not in the Scripture, well, then you
come to me, because I certainly want to stay right in this Book. 'Cause
This is the Foundation. And all Scripture and all operations
of the Holy Spirit must come from the Bible, then I believe it.
Now, He could do something that wasn't in the Bible. It'd still be God. But
I'll understand it better if it comes right from the Bible. I kind of like it
that way, 'cause I know that it's right then.
And again from his sermon, 64-0823E Questions and Answers Brother
Branham said, 8 "Isn't
that what He said? "Many shall come to Me
in that day and say, 'Lord have not I...'"
See? Now, can't you see that you can't put your trust in healing campaigns? You
can't put your trust in any kind of a sign like that. The only thing you can put your
trust in is THUS SAITH THE LORD from the Bible. Now, Church,
that is exactly where I have tried to keep you, my children. And if something happens to me
and God takes me out of this earth, don't you never fail. Remember this with all your
heart: stay with that Word. Don't you leave that Word. Anything contrary to It,
leave it alone, no matter what it is. Then you know It's right.
See?
And from his sermon, Calling Jesus on the
scene 63-0804E P:6 Brother Branham said, "I'm a prisoner to this Word.
See? I must stay right with It. I
don't speak hard things to make people feel bad. I speak things sharp,
sometimes, to make people look (See?) an exclamatory, "Oh, look."
See, to make them look at it, to see. Then if you get them, maybe sometimes it
provokes them. And about nine times out of ten, if they get a little bit
provoked, they'll go to searching the Scriptures, and God does the rest of it
then. You see? Just only look at the Scriptures. If I ever say
anything that's contrary to the Scriptures, you're duty bound to come tell me
about it, write me, or some way to let me know. And that's the
reason I feel duty bound to you to explain the Scriptures. Just not try to
explain them; just say the way They are. That's what They say. And believe it,
believe it like that.
So you see, brother Branham was of the mind that his absolute is this word of God, and
that we must take everything back to the Scriptures.
Now remember, Brother Branham said, 192 He
will be correctly dedicated to the
Word as they have always been;
indicated by God's Word and “a-vindicated”. … and Because so much has
been called God's Truth by fakers, many
true ministers will misunderstand that
messenger.
So whether they are true of not, it shows they don’t
know what they are talking about if they cannot take this Message back to the Word
of God and prove it by that.
And in closing,
br. Branham said in his sermon God's only provided
place of worship 65-1128M P:20 I believe the church is beginning to hear the message, and
beginning to understand it. But, friends, listen, we've got to lay in the
Presence of the Son; we've got to be ripened. Our faith isn't ripe.
Intellectually we're hearing the message that God has give us, and seeing the
signs that He showed us, and proving it by the Bible as that;
but, oh, how the church needs to lay in His Presence till it
tenders up, you know, and gets sweet in the Spirit so that it can bathe down.
Sometimes in speaking the message, you get harsh, have to break it in like
that, because you've got to clinch a nail to make it hold. But when the
church once gets it, the Elected is called out and separated
then in the Presence
of God, I know it'll be something like the people was there when
it takes its rapture.
Let us pray...