What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 13
The readiness of the bride
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This
morning I would like to take a subject that stems from our next few paragraphs
of reading from br. Branham's sermon, What the Holy Ghost was Given for, but I would actually like to take my text first
from the book of Philippians. Now, the Apostle Paul gives us much to think
about in chapter 3 as we begin reading at verse 7. here
he has just spoken of his many accomplishments as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a
Pharisee of pharisee's, and yet all he had ever
accomplished in pedigree and in Judaism, he said he counted all loss that he
might win Christ.
Philippians 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I
counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be
found in him, not
having mine own right-wise-ness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the right-wise-ness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death;
Notice he tells us, "Gaining then loosing what he
gained", "gaining and then loosing all for Christ". Think about
those words as we bow our heads in prayer.
You may be seated:
I would like for you to consider what the apostle Paul
is telling us here.
Therefore, let me
read this Scripture also from the transliteration called The Message 7-9 The very credentials these
people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out
with the trash, along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all
the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared
to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had
going for me is insignificant, dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the
trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t
want some petty, inferior brand of right-wise-ness
that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that
comes from trusting Christ, God’s right-wise-ness.
11 If by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead.
Notice Paul is saying I am willing to let go of
everything that used to be important to me, in order to come up in the
resurrection of the just. In other words, Paul was dead to everything except
Christ and the Power of His resurrection. And then in the next verse, he let's
you know that he has not yet arrived at where he wants to be, but he is on his
way there, and will not stop along the way to look back at where he has come
from and come to.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren,
I count not myself to
have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, (mature) be thus minded:
and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Notice that the Apostle Paul is telling us that our
journey is in a progression. we start at point A and
move on to point B in our growth. Then we pick up at point B and move on to
point C. Always moving forward and never stopping for
too long and finding comfort where we are presently at along this journey.
And then he tells us in verse 16. That whatever level
we have arrived at we should walk at that level, and never look back. 16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by
the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18 (For
many walk, (many are in this
journey with us) of whom I have told you often, and
now tell you even weeping, that they are
the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 Whose end is
destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame, who mind earthly things.) 20 For our
conversation (our life) is in heaven;
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21 Who shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the
working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Notice,
he concludes, I press toward, that means I am not content to stop, but I move
forward towards that mark of the high calling of God that I saw in Christ
Jesus.
Recently I received I've received contact from some
brothers who were putting down other minister friends of mine, telling me those
ministers do not teach the doctrine in their churches. Now, I know first hand
that both the ministers mentioned do teach it, but they have progressed in the
doctrine to a point this other brother has not yet come. And I thought about
what this particular brothers version of the Message Doctrine is all about, and
it came to me that if you are preaching the "Parousia of Christ", or
as brother Branham called it the "Appearing before the Coming", this
brother thought, "that is the Doctrine".
And then I thought, you know, that is where so many
people get hung up on these things.
It is true, that you must have a knowledge of what God
is doing in this hour, and therefore, it is essential to understand the
Parousia Presence of Christ, which was taught by William Branham as "the
Appearing before the Coming", but
that is not all of what the Message Doctrine is all about.
And So I thought today I would break things down a
little bit so you can understand how all the doctrine William Branham taught us
tie together so that we might have a full comprehension of what God is in the
process of doing in this hour.
Ok,
so let's start with the Parousia. Now, brother Branham taught the Parousia of
Christ as the Appearing which comes before the actual Second Coming.
From
his sermon, Jesus Christ the same 62-0718 P:82 Heavenly Father, we are grateful to know that we are living
in this last day, just before the coming of that just One, that wonderful,
glorious, loving Son of Yours, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who we love.
And we know the Bible speaks of an appearing before the coming, and
there's a great difference in the word "appearing," and then
"coming." Now, Father, we realize that the church has come through
the stage of justification, come through the stage of sanctification,
come through the stage of receiving the Holy Spirit. Now, the stones are
being honed down for the fitting of the ministry of Jesus Christ, to blend
right in to take the church.
What I want you to notice is that brother Branham
speaks of stages that the church must pass through. And that is where I think
so many get hung up in this hour.
And as I mentioned, we have brothers thinking "this
brother doesn't preach the doctrine in his church and neither does this brother,
because they are not preaching what I am preaching as the doctrine."
And they think teaching the doctrine is all about the Parousia and the Godhead.
Brother Branham said we should never criticize another preacher or another church
for what they are teaching. I know I've made that error in the past, and I
try not do that, but sometimes, in defense of what we
do believe and teach, I have to hit what others are saying in opposition to
what we believe, so we can systematically take apart those arguments and show
where the truth actually lays.
But
because of this kind of under current discord, I told the brothers in my email,
I think we need to establish what the Message Doctrine is all about.
The Message Doctrine is the doctrine that William
Branham taught, period. The Appearing and Coming is only a part of that
doctrine. And the Godhead, although it is the greatest of all revelations,
understanding the Supreme deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet it is only a part
of the Message Doctrine. The relationship between Father and Son, between
Father and sons, is only a part of that
doctrine. and yet all these doctrines work together hand
in hand and each is just a stage in our
growing up into Christ.
The problem as I see it, is as we just read,
Justification was only a stage of understanding that the church had to come up
to on its way towards the rapture, and yet justification made a way for
sanctification to come into the church. And Sanctification was just another
stage that the church had to go through on its way to the rapture readiness,
and yet Sanctification
made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
So you
can see how that each stage leads to another stage, or a higher calling in
Christ Jesus. But no one stage is the all of it. And yet too many people say,
you don't believe parousia,
your not in it. And then they preach Parousia and they say, but you don't know
who came down, you do not understand Godhead, so you're not in it.
And
what I see happening is this: men look at the current stage they are in and say
if you are not in this stage with me, you are not in the picture at all. And
that is where we show our immaturity as Christian Believers.
The
Parousia-Presence (which is The Appearing) can be seen in Matthew 25.
In
Matthew 25 we hear the
Notice,
when they both heard it, they both all came out to meet the One Who was outside.
The
Message of the one crying was "come out to meet
HIM", and they came out to meet this one that the
Both wise and foolish heard this same Message. They both
heard the Shout, they both heard the Message, and they both came out to
investigate who this one is that they were to come out to meet.
And to come out to meet Him, meant coming into His
presence. Thus Matthew 25 the
Therefore,
if you believe and preach the Parousia-Presence, that only gets you into the
group of virgins, wise or foolish.
Now, during this investigation they find out who truly
came down. (That is why brother Vayle went from teaching the Parousia from 1977
until 1984 showing the appearing before the coming. And then when he found that
people did not understand who it was that came down (because many were teaching
the lamb came down,) then he began to teach on the Godhead so they could
understand Who came down.
To then understand the Godhead, you had to understand the
difference between Father and Son, and that it was the Father of Glory who came
down.
It does not say the foolish did not understand who
came down, (That's Godhead) but rather we are told they just were not ready to
meet Him.
Therefore the five foolish realizing they were not
ready went to buy oil, (they realized they didn't have the Holy Ghost) and they
realized they were not ready to actually meet the One Spoken of in the Shout.
The wise went in because they were ready. Now, these
are three stages of the condition of the Wise virgin of Matthew 25. They hear
the Shout, that is one stage, they investigate the presence of the one the
Shout speaks of, that's another stage, they understand who it is that has come
down, (Godhead), that is another stage of the Wise virgins, but that is not the
end of the story.
They have made themselves ready to meet this one
spoken of in the
This is where the picture stands today. We have turned
a corner, and those who teach only appearing and
coming without showing who came down are only saying as the foolish virgin and
Wise virgins together said, "Someone is here,
let us go and find out who it is"?
That's where most people are at that have come that far. They are in discovery mode of who came
down. Who was the Shout speaking of that is outside waiting.
The Godhead is essential to understanding who came down. This is not being taught by many. However,
Godhead is essential to know who is standing outside the door knocking, it is
the Supreme Judge of James 5, and yet they still
want to live any old way, knowing that the Judge is here and that white throne
has already begun.
From
his sermon, Perfect faith 63-0825E P:82 brother Branham said, "I'm your brother, standing as your brother, an intercessor,
trying my best to hold you before God. And I'm standing here right before
the white throne now, and is pointing my finger at that bloody Sacrifice
there, and speaking through His Name that it's done. It has to happen, and it
has to happen. You know it's happened. I know it's happened, so do you know
it's happened, and it's so. That's right.
Therefore, the Judge being present here now, he can
bring on the judgments. And as Jesus
said in John
So we see that it is the Father who is the Word that
will come as Judge in the last days. So it is God "the Word" the
Father of Gory who is standing at the door knocking, and he has come down as
the judge.
James 5:9
Grudge not one against
another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
And in the book of
Revelations at the time of the
Those who have only come as far as "the
appearing", or the "Parousia" are preaching an understanding
brother Vayle preached way back from 1977 through 1984. That's more than 30
years ago. They are just now at that stage.
In 1984
he began to teach who it is that came down because many were teaching that the
lamb had come down. But brother Branham taught it different.
William Branham taught us the Lamb is not seen from
revelations chapter 5 when he opens the seals, until revelations 19 when he returns
back with his saints. Therefore, the lamb has not yet come, and it is the
Father of Glory who has stepped off his throne, and who has come down with the book open.
The lamb had climbed back onto the throne when that happened.
But some are preaching Parousia only, and without understanding
the Godhead they do not have the entire picture. And some are preaching the
Godhead correctly but they are not readying themselves to meet Him.
So you can be at any stage along the way, and still
not be ready to go into the wedding supper my brothers and sisters.
Some have come up to Godhead and teach it but stop
there. They are not readying themselves by their understanding of the doctrine
they have. You must have the same Spirit that was in Jesus to be quickened and
made ready. doctrine alone will not produce this
readiness of the bride.
The
entire Revelation of Jesus Christ is to bring the elect to completion in their
character, to make them rapture ready.
That is what Ephesians 4 is all about. That is why the
whole purpose of the five fold ministry Paul says, is to bring the people
together in a unity of The Faith, and
Paul also tells us in Ephesians 4 that there is only
One Faith because their is only one Lord, and we know that Faith is a Revelation. So
if you teach Two Lords, you do not understand Godhead. and
if you do not know Him you are not ready to meet Him.
Ephesians
4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For
the perfecting of the saints, (that's
the finishing off or maturing of the saints) for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ: 13 Till we
all come in the unity of the faith, (not just faith, but The
faith and in verse 8 he said, there's only One Lord,
and one faith, which is the revelation of
jesus Christ, How God was IN Christ reconciling
Himself to the world and then Paul adds) and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (fully
mature) man, unto the measure (the
metron, the portion) of the stature (character) of the fulfilling of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow
up INTO him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Therefore, brother Vayle taught the Godhead from 1984
until 2000 which was his last series was on Godhead, because the people just
did not understand who came down.
But Matthew 25 does not end with the wise and foolish
coming out into His Presence, and knowing who it is that came down. It ends
with the wise have made themselves ready to meet him, while the foolish did not
make ready.
God has taken us beyond the stage of understanding Appearing and coming, Understanding Godhead and knowing who
has come down. He has taken us into the actual revelation of
Jesus Christ to where we become Him because we are flesh of his flesh
and bone of his bone. We are sons, and we are conformed to the image of the
first born son. And that makes us rapture ready. Outside of that we can not be rapture
ready.
We just
read where the Apostle Paul said we must grow up
into Him, not unto Him.
Therefore our focus should be on getting the bride to
the place where she echos, or reflects the Son of God
in every detail even as God's prophet was a kind of first fruit to this age.
And if you are preaching only Parousia, or Parousia
and Godhead, and you are not ready to meet the one Who
has come down, then you have not turned the last corner. You will not be a people
who have made themselves ready.
From his sermon, Knoweth it not 65-0815 P:15 brother
Branham said, "As far as I know, I don't see anything to hinder at this
time the coming of the Lord Jesus, outside of the readiness of His church."
And why could he make such a statement?
Because the
And in order to be ready, we
must be conformed to the image of the firstborn son, and we must be the right
kind of a son in order to be adopted as sons.
In closing I want to read from What the Holy Ghost was
Given for so that you can see how clear this is that
we are progressing from one stage to another.
17 God poured Himself into Christ. Correct. Christ
poured Himself into the church; therefore... Now, watch. "At that
day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in Me,
and I am in you." At that day you'll know it, for it's, the
whole thing is one plan of redemption coming down, that God coming back to
live in, and dwell with, and commune to His people as He did at the beginning.
Now, then as soon as He
gets His church in speaking conditions, gets His church to a place that He
can flow Himself through, and love, and persuade, and fellowship,
then there'll come a Eden. He'll take His church back to where it left Him
at back to an
18 The church has been in the world for
some time. And the church, really, after the reformation of 1500 years of dark
ages... Luther was the first reformer to come forth after the round of the
apostles. And then, when Luther come forth, God
tipped up a little bit of the Spirit and poured It out upon the church in
justification. And then in the days of Wesley He poured out a little more of Himself into
sanctification. And as the age has grown on to the end time, God has been filling His church.
Just look around and find out if that's truth or not. Look at the Lutheran age,
you who read history. Look at their revival and what they did. Look how much greater the Wesley
revival was, how
much more power they had, but in the minority. Watch in
the days of Pentecost, what a revival they had then, what a great wide
sweeping through...
19 "Our Sunday Visitor," the Catholic paper,
give confession that the Pentecostals produced 1,500,000 conversions in one
year, outdone all the rest the churches together. The Catholic only changed, claimed
a million. In their own "Sunday Visitor," the paper called the
"Sunday Visitor" gave statement that the Pentecostals outrun them.
And remember, Pentecostal conversions is
Holy Ghost filled conversions. In the minority to start
with, on the side of the alley out there with an old guitar... And women
couldn't even afford a pair of stockings. Laying out on the railroad tracks,
and picking up corn and mashing it, and making bread for their children. But
what's it come to? The most powerful standing church in the world today, not in
the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God, because He proves it by what
He's doing for them; He's pouring Hisself into
them, pouring It in.
20 Notice now what taken place. God pouring Himself
into them... Now, the church has got to a place, from Luther,
Wesley... And the revival's on with the Pentecost. And now into
this age that we're coming now by the same Holy Spirit, just more of It... Now, when them Lutherans
back there got saved, they got a portion of the Holy Spirit. When the Methodists
got sanctified, that was a work of the Holy Spirit. See? It was a part of
the Holy Spirit. "They
without us are not made perfect," says the Scriptures. See? Now,
God... As the Light has begin to shine in the last days, He's expecting us, a
great thing from us, because where there's much given, there's much required. So
He's going to require much more of us than He did of the Lutherans or the
Methodists, because we walk in a greater Light, with a greater power, with a
greater witness than they had. Now, we have a greater witness of the
resurrection. We have things more firmer, more sure than they had.
22 Now, then the Methodists, they were tassels.
They looked back to the Lutherans, said, "We got sanctification; you
haven't got nothing in it." By and by, from that pollen, from the
Methodist come forth a grain, a ear of corn; that was
Pentecost. There you are: justification, one stage of it; sanctification,
another stage of it; the Holy Spirit, another stage of it. Pentecost--Luther, Wesley, Pentecost. Now, what does
Pentecost... I liken it, because in Pentecost it
brought back, not a green leaf, not a tassel... But the corn cannot say to
the tassel, "I don't have no use of you."
Or the tassel can't say to the leaf, "I have no use of you,"
because the same life that was in the leaf made the tassel. The same
life was in the tassel made the ear. And it was a Lutheran church that
made the Wesley church. It was the Wesley church that made Pentecost.
But Pentecost, what is it? It's a restoration of the same kind of a grain that
went into the ground at the beginning, bringing back all the fullness of the
power of Pentecost by the baptism of the Holy Ghost (See?) in the last day. Oh,
it's a great thing to look, to believe and to look at.
23 Now, in this age that we're now
living, this age, it's beyond Pentecost. Pentecost has settled
itself into organizations and started faking whole lot about organizations.
"We are this, and we are that." That's just nature; you just can't
help it. It's nature; they'll do that. It's the plan for them to do that. But the
church has moved on. It's gone into greater, more powerful... It's the
restoration of gifts. And many Pentecostal people does
not believe in Divine healing, ministry of Angels, and powers of God. Many
Pentecostals calls these visions that I see, the
devil. Many organizations won't even have nothing to
do with it in Pentecost. See, we've moved beyond that. Just as
Methodists called Pentecostal crazy for speaking in tongues, just as
Lutheran called Methodists crazy for shouting... See? But it's all a
coming forth of the Holy Spirit till the great church is being filled up and
chugged full (Hallelujah.) of the great powers of Almighty God, until
It's got to a place until the very works that Jesus done has manifest itself
right in the church now. We're close, friends.
let us
pray...