What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 11
An Oath of Confirmation
Brian Kocourek, pastor
Numbers 23:19 God
is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or
hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Let us pray,...
This morning we'll examine just
one thought from these next two paragraphs and that's what brother Branham says
in paragraph 15, that "God has set up laws
for man", and "God must
follow his own laws". He can not give you one set of laws
and then do another Himself.
14 And just as sure as you're hungering
tonight for the Holy Spirit, it's something in you pulling you, that a purpose of God
in your life has got to be fulfilled just like it was with Ruth. The
story's so beautiful; I just can't leave it for a moment. You know, the law
of redemption, that when Boaz... You know the story of how Ruth gleaned in
the field and found favor with Boaz. And before he could marry her, he
had to redeem all that Naomi had lost. And the only one that could
redeem Naomi's fallen estate, in the law of redemption, was a near kinsman;
had to be kinfolks
before he could redeem. And that was her closest kinfolks. And
he had to make a public ensign outside of the gate, or a public confession that
he had redeemed all that Naomi had lost. And Boaz did it by kicking off his
shoe before the elders and said, "If there's anybody here that's
got anything that belongs to Naomi, I this day have redeemed it."
15 And that's the way God did:
followed His own laws. God cannot follow--give you one law to follow and Him
follow another. He
follows His own laws. Then God, in order to redeem the lost church,
the lost world, the lost creation... God, Who is infinite in
Spirit, to redeem the lost human race, God Himself become kinfolks, a
Man, a Son that He created in the womb of Mary. And then He made an ensign
or a testimony. Outside the gates of
realize that your sun is setting.
Now, this morning I would like to take our subject on
this thought where brother Branham said, "that's
the way God did: followed
His own laws. God cannot follow--give
you one law to follow and Him follow another. He follows His own laws."
Now, for our scripture let's go to Hebrews 6:13 where we read, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he
could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will
bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15 And so, after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise. 16 For
men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Now, notice he says,
"an oath for confirmation is to
them an end of all strife."
Now, I do not wish for
strife. I love peace, and I love when brethren can look at what I am preaching,
and see the blue is what brother Branham
is saying, and he's vindicated by God Himself, and when they see the Red, which are words of the prophets (Plural) right
from this Bible, and then conclude, that I am not saying what I teach to be
different or controversial. I say what I hear God saying through His Word and
prophet. And that to me is an end of all strife. Yes, God Spoke His Words of
Promise through this Bible, and confirmed it in the ministry of William Branham
vindicated by God Himself. That should be our end of all strife, brethren, but
is it?
No, we still get
people who say they hate what I teach. Why? Because they do
not agree with the Word of God nor what God confirmed through His prophet.
17 Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability (unchangeableness) of
his counsel, (So what does God do? He) confirmed it by an oath:
In other words, God
says, "ok, I have given you My Word for what I
am going to do, but I will do even greater than that. I will confirm it by
an oath". I will
confirm it. That means I will make sure it comes to pass.
18 That
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible
for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we
have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil; 20 Whither the
forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an
high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. That by two immutable things, (two unchangeable
things) in which it was
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Now, I have often thought on this Scripture, because
it is somewhat hard to understand what those two things are that are immutable
and unchangeable. You can speculate all
day long, and most surely you will be wrong. But we have a vindicated prophet
that said what those two things are, and he said so in his sermon where he was
preaching on very Scripture from Hebrews in the following statement.
Hebrews Chapter 6 and 7 57-0915M P:40 Now,
listen as we read on down. That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to
lie,... (impossible, an impossibility and immutability
is practically the same word: can't change, can't move.
It has to stay the same
forever, can't be changed: the immutability and the impossibility)
And two... by two
immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie,..."We have two things?" Yes.
First, His Word
said He would do it. The second was His sworn oath on it, He'd do it. Oh,
my. What type of people should we be? Why should we be tossed about and run
about, and taking the things of the world and acting like this 1957
streamlined, model Christianity? We want to be the old fashion type that
takes God at His Word, and calls those things which were not as though they were, "If God said so, that settles it."
Now,
most men when they make an agreement, you could say they make a covenant. In
other words, they give you their word, and that's one thing. But when they take
an oath on that Word that was given, that actually ratifies the covenant
that was made, and makes it unbinding, unchanging.
So
we need to understand what this word "ratify" means or
"ratification", because the ratification ends the strife and
wondering. To me, it looks like we are seeing here that the Word given is the
contract, but there is something that etches that contract into manifestation
or reality, actuality.
2 Peter
Hebrews Chapter 6 and 7 57-0915M P:38 Now....
not willing... God, more willing abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise...God, more willing to show the heirs... Who is the heirs?
"We, being dead in Christ take on Abraham's Seed and are heirs. Oh,
does that soak in? We are heirs of the
Confirmation and evidence 62-0621E P:17 Now,
let us be real sincere, as we read and study and pray now. In the 6th chapter the 13th verse we read. For when God made promises
to Abraham, because he... (Let me start that again, I turned two pages at
once.)... because he... swear by no greater, he sware by
himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will
multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men verily swear by the greater: and the oath of confirmation is to
the--them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew
unto the heirs of... promises the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by
an oath:That by two
immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have...
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us: May the Lord
bless His Word, as we speak about ten or fifteen minutes on it, and see
what--when He leads us, what to do. I was thinking on "Confirmation and Evidence." It seems like that man always
requires a confirmation, or some sort of an evidence; and
so much more as this time of, this age of skeptics that we're living. (Notice here that William Branham is telling us that a
confirmation is some for of evidence.) Everything
must be confirmed; it must be an evidence to it. And the evidence of the
confirmation gives us the assurety of what we are
looking for.
Oh, listen to those beautiful words. the evidence of the confirmation gives us the assurety of what we are looking for.
In
other words, God interprets His Word by bringing it to pass. Therefore when you
see the manifestation of the Revelation, it now becomes a more
sure Word of Promise.
Hebrews Chapter 6 and 7 57-0915M P:84 God
hath sworn by an oath, and there's two immutable things of the immutability
of God, that is, that it's impossible for Him to lie; that the heirs
of this salvation might have this strong hope, steadfast and sure, a anchor in
the soul: to know this, that God has promised us by a sworn oath. One,
that He cannot lie; the other one, His sworn oath on top of that, that He'll
raise us up at the last day and give us Eternal Life. Knowing
that after we have been called, that He said that He knew us before the
foundation of the world, and predestinated us unto the adoption of children
through Jesus Christ. And He foreknew us; He called us. And when He called us, He
justified us. We
cannot justify ourself, so He justified us by the death of His own Son. Those who He has justified, He has already
glorified. The Word's already spoke, and we're
just on our road, going along, rejoicing on our way to glory.
Hebrews Chapter 6 and 7 57-0915M P:28 Then, we go on to read then just a little
further now, God making an oath. Now, the 17th verse of the 6th chapter...Wherein God, willing more abundantly... God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it with an oath: Oh, let's just rest now a few minutes. God more
willing, not that He had to, but to make this a sure thing...Now, we've already found that
God became flesh, dwelt among us, how that He manifested Hisself
towards the world... When He found the woman in adultery, He said, "I
don't condemn you; go, sin no more." When He found the sick, He acted just
the way He'd have to act, for He was God, and He healed the sick. He raised the
dead. He forgave the sins, no matter how they was and how many, and how
backslidden; He forgive them anyhow, if they were willing to come and ask.
Melchisedec the great prince 55-0109M P:26 And
today, to see the same Holy Spirit that was upon Jesus Christ, working in
the church, confirming everything that God said, what a marvelous hope it
builds up in us to think that we are His children, and blessed of His
Presence, and now He's here with us as a infallible proof that He is the
Lord God Who made the promise to Abraham. Now, listen to the 17th verse: Wherein God willing, more abundantly to shew
unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:That by the immutable thing... which is impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us.
And
we read in Malachi 3:6 "I am
the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed."
And we find as brother Branham said, God has not only Given us His Word, but He has "ratified His word with an Oath", a
promise. and that ratification comes to us as Peter
said, making it a more sure Word. How? By manifesting what he said. Because God interprets his own Word by bringing it to pass.
Hebrews 6 and 7 57-0915M P:39 God cannot change, He has to remain the same. And if
God healed one sick person, He can never change His attitude. If God forgive
one sinner, one prostitute, He can never change His attitude. The immutability, the unchanging of God's
Word... God said in
one place, "I'm the
Lord Who heals all thy diseases." He has to stay with It, for He's infinite. He knowed to the
end from the beginning. Now, I can say, "I'll do this." And
the Bible said, we ought to say, "If the Lord is willing." Because I'm a mortal; I don't know.
Sometimes I have to take my word back, but God can't take His back; He's God.
And He only requested one thing: "If thou canst believe..." Oh, my. "If you can believe, all things are possible.
If thou canst believe..."
That's all you... If you can, there's the question. But not the question is on
God's Word, because His immutability, He cannot change. How wonderful.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the Same yesterday, today and
forever.
Lee Vayle
Godhead Godhead
Q and A #5 P:57 Now in
my own thinking about an oath or a covenant, I think an oath is a written or
oral declaration of intent that affirms and confirms the article, or articles,
of intent, and not only so but may contain provisions that ratify or annul the
proffering proposition, and furthermore may be binding only upon one person
as to its favorable disposition, and not upon the other, similar to a bequest
left in a will, where one person makes a binding testament upon himself, and
the recipient is advantaged apart from himself or his conduct and is only to
present himself as the benefactor and receive the gift. Now that's not
language of a lawyer, that's my own language, what I feel is correct when
you deal with a covenant God. Now Bro. Branham used the term 'Covenant-keeping
God'. I thought that was actually Scripture, but I can't find any
Scripture. And other people have used it also, I'm positive. But He is the
covenant-keeping God because He's the God of the covenant, the
Strong One Bound by an Oath, the Strong One Bound by a Covenant. So now you
could use an oath in this respect: God would say, "Look, I am
determined to do so and so. I will do so and so. I swear it. It'll be done. And
it's done."
Now, when you ratify an agreement you are making
that agreement official. And when God manifests His promise to us,
his doing so is the interpretation of the Revelation, and in
essence we can say by His manifestation of the revelation, (the promise), He is
thus ratifying that Revelation or in effect He is
fulfilling that revelation or which is his promised Word to us.
Now, the word
"oath" is defined as, "a solemn usually, formal
calling upon God to witness to the truth of what one says or to
witness that one sincerely intends to do what one says (2) : a solemn attestation
of the truth or inviolability of one's words.
Notice an
"oath" is defined as "the solemn attestation
of the truth" and the word "attestation"
is defined as "a manifestation or a testimony that affirms the truth".
And what can that be but the
manifestation of the Word, for God is not a man that He can lie nor the son of man that he can repent. In other words,
God says it, we believe it, and God manifests it to be the truth.
Just Like "it is God who works in you, both to will
that's the promise, and to do His Good pleasure," that's the
manifestation of the Revelation.
Hallelujah!!! God says it,
because He wills it, and then God does what he wills in you.
Therefore the oath is a
confirmation, The oath is the ratification,. And the
oath is the manifestation of His Word made visible. The Oath or ratification then is when God interprets
of His Word when He manifests it. That is the verification
that what He said He has already done.
I don't know how to make this
any plainer.
Lee Vayle said in his sermon, Faith
And Confession P:3 Our message tonight follows last night’s message, and it has
to do with “Faith And Confession.” It has to do with our “talking,” and
the Word of God says just as much about our “talking” as It says about our
“thinking,” and maybe more so. I never took a text last night but tonight I
will, and we’ll read It and you’ll miss It, but don’t feel bad, I’ll explain
It; because If God doesn’t show It to you, you’ll never get It... it’s just that simple. Hebrews 6:16-18. Hebrews 6 “Faith And Confession,” or the positive confession of the Word
of God as having to do with the out-working of your Faith. “For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for Confirmation
is to them an end of all strife.” Now, let’s
just talk a minute about that. Did you ever stop to think about the implication
of that little verse where It says here that “Men...swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is
to them an end of all strife”? Now, if you just
walked up and gave your word to somebody, do you think he’d take it? Why, he’d
laugh in your face. You can’t even trust a contract because of the fine print,
and then with the fine print you still can’t trust the contract, because the
law can break the law and defeat the law, But It says here that all men used to
do was give their word and that was it. Now can you feature the 20th century
accepting that? Now listern all God did was give His Word. But men don’t accept each other’s word, Well,
first of all, why should they? You’ve got the Hebrews. Let’s look at these Jews, If you did not know it, you know it now. At least once
a year they have an “oath revocation day.” In other words, they revoke their
oath. So they know that today, the next 24 hours, they can revoke every single
oath they made. So they can skin you and skin you good, and rejoice, because
they are very litigious in doing it, “Hallelujah! Glory to
God!’
Lee Vayle
Who Is This Melchisedec #21
Eagles Renewed P:31 In other words, we have the confirmation and when you realize
this Message is the greatest confirming message of all time, the closing
out Message. We have a confirmation that has not been through the ages.
And we look back and we say, “Well look how great those men acted. Look how
those men were. Look at their faith.” Now I’m going to tell you something
brother/sister, they never had the faith to put them in a
Rapture--but they got it now.
And then brother Vayle quoting
brother Branham says, [89] ...”If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved...” If you’re an attribute of God expressed here on earth,
you’ve got a body waiting after leave this world. Notice.
If you’re an attribute of God expressed--it’s true.
So what is the confirmation of
the Oath? It is when the promised Word manifests itself, because then and only
then do you have the correct interpretation of the promise. God's Oath are not some idle words he says on top of His Word. God's
oath is His manifestation of the Covenant.
And we are told in Philippians
1:6 Being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ:
And how does he do that? Let's break down this word here.
He which hath begun the good work in you, that's God working in you
both to will. He that hath begun the good work in you is God in
you willing.
Then he says, he which
hath begun a good work in you (That's He that is in you willing, the beginning of any good work is
you must first will to do it, and then the confirmation that you have willed is
the actual doing of it). He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it. So the second part is
the confirmation. That is the actually doing.
That's the actual verification or confirmation.
Any contract is binding
when what was agreed to in the contract is acted upon. You promise to
pay if the work is done, so when the man completes the work, the payment must
be paid. God promised a certain thing in His Word, he
said we would be conformed to the Image of His first born Son.
Then God goes to work in you first to
will it, to will that you be conformed to be like His Son and then God works in
you to confirm what He has already willed. Then your willing matches His will, and your doing
matches His Good pleasure and it is God that is using your body to confirm His Good
pleasure.
This is so beautiful, I can hardly wait to see it's completion in me,
and in you.
As I've said so many times, he
promised there would be a bride without spot and without wrinkle. And brother
Branham said, "he who made the promise is here to confirm it."
Now, let me share with you some quotes that William
Branham spoke concerning how God confirms His promises. Because the oath
is the confirmation, and the confirmation is the
manifestation of the revelation.
Expectation the 58-0508 P:12
It was He who made the promise, "The
works that I do, shall you do also." He promised His church, that He would work in His
church, among His members, His mystic Body, spiritually speaking, until He came
again, that the same things that He did, would be confirmed in His church by
the believers. The last Words that our Lord said as He left the earth, "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 those that believe."... We could not add to that or take
from that. We must believe that which God has said.
And notice how William Branham uses this principle
when he prays for the sick, the Lord who gives the promise, is here to conform
it.
What hearest thou Elijah 59-0412E P:69 The Lord Jesus Christ Who made the promise, give this woman her healing as I lay
hands on her in the Name of Jesus. Amen. The Lord God Who
made the promise, give the healing to this woman as He promised,
"They lay hands on the sick; they shall recover." Amen. God
bless you, sister. The Lord God Who made the promise, may He confirm
His promise, as I lay hands upon my brother, in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. May the healing power that was given to the church at the day of
Pentecost come upon our brother as I lay hands on him in the confirmation
that I believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Amen.
Mary's belief 59-0409 P:14
It's not me to try to
figure it out. It's take the Word of the Holy Spirit. He was the One Who made the promise. He's the One Who
confirms that promise. He's
obligated to keep that promise.
From that time 62-0713 P:2
The main thing that we
try to do is to let people see that Christ is not dead, that He is alive. And if
we can just see, the One Who made us all these
grand promises is here to confirm those promises.... Sometimes, as it was,
as I said last night... coming from Emmaus... He walks with us daily, and
helps us. And yet, maybe we don't recognize it till just at times.
Melchisedec the great prince 55-0109M P:26 And today, to see the same Holy Spirit that was upon Jesus
Christ, working in the
church, confirming everything that God said, what a marvelous hope
it builds up in us to think that we are His children, and blessed of His
Presence, and now He's here with us as a infallible proof that He is the
Lord God Who made the promise to Abraham.
Influence 63-0803E P:83
He said, "I made you a promise, and now I'm here to
confirm it." And
now,... Just before the fire fell, Abraham and
Sarah was waiting for a promised son. God appeared in
human flesh and done signs before them, that Jesus referred to would be
the same thing at His coming, that He the Son promised. And we've noticed
that now for going on fifteen years. And still the church gets worse. No wonder
we can actually see we're in the
Faithful Abraham 59-0424A P:41 If God made the promise, God keeps the promise.
Patriarch Abraham the 64-0207 P:36 Heavenly Father, as we stand here tonight in the Presence of the
Holy Ghost, that great Person of Jesus Christ in Spirit form, Who was promised
to come upon the seed of Abraham, the royal seed... We pray, O God, if
there's a man or woman, boy or girl, in here that doesn't know You, they got
doubt and frustrations in their mind about the Word of God, whether It is the
truth or not, O great God, Who made the promise, come tonight. If there's
one great promise You made, Lord. You can keep that
promise. You said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do shall he also. Greater than this will he do, for I go to the Father." Father God, we pray that You'll confirm Your Word.
God's provided way 64-0206E P:2 Now,
there's been all kinds of ministries. God in this last days, I believe, has give us everything He's got in His Book. Everything
that He's promised, we've seen. And still, it seems like that people can't
grasp it. Those who are ordained to grasp it, will
grasp it: only those. It blinds one, opens the eyes of another. Remember,
we believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is
not dead, but alive forevermore. And He's here tonight. We are in His Presence
tonight. And He's here
to confirm and make good any promise that He made for this day. And
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So anything that He was, He is
tonight.
Let us pray...