What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 14
Organized against the Word
Brian Kocourek, pastor
What the Holy
Ghost was Given for pp. 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.
And I hope I am not being to
forthright when I say, that I think that many churches who claim to believe
this message have also settled for organization instead of the living Word of
God. I think now, more than ever we must understand and focus on the importance
of having a vindicated Word and what it means to us in contradistinction to a
non-vindicated Word that the church world professes.
If we examine the times and conditions
of these last days we can see very clearly this is the time of the falling away
from THE FAITH.
In 2
Tim 4 we read that men are ordained
to come to the place where they will not endure sound Doctrine anymore. And
since the word "doctrine" means "teaching",
and the word "sound" means "free of admixture",
therefore the Scripture tells us that men will not endure sound teaching,
teaching which is pure with the Word of God, and if they will not endure sound
teaching which is free of the admixture, then they most certainly will not
endure the teachers who are teaching sound doctrine. So we find they will no
longer put up with or endure, or even tolerate the sound teachers. So then what sort of teachers will they have for themselves? Men who
are reprobate concerning the Faith.
Then what will they do if they
will not endure sound teachers? We are also told that they will heap to themselves
other teachers that will say what their itching ears want to hear. Let's read
it for ourselves.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 Amplified "For
the time is coming when people will no longer tolerate sound and wholesome
instruction, but having ears itching for something that is pleasing and
gratifying, they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a
considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the
errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the Truth and they shall
wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
We find then these self
proclaimed teachers are in fact a bunch of politicians who will not teach the
Truth, but will teach what they think the people want to hear. They will not be
guided by the Holy Ghost but by money, women or popularity.
And so we find then that
through these men, many will be led astray from the
Truth and they will be turned unto man-made fictions. These men will
turn the people away from what is real to that which is
make-believe. Thus we actually see the prophetic utterance of God that tells us
that their will arise ministries that are especially ordained for the purpose
of alluring away from the Truth those who are only make believers themselves.
Now this is important to understand, because we know that the Elect will not be
deceived. But here we find certain men who are ordained to teach the make
believers make-belief.
In other words, they will teach
people how to just play church.
2 Thessalonians
2:10-13 Wuest
Translation: Here we find they are able
to do so because the people are just gullible, that's all.
The Wuest Translation says that
"this deception is geared to the gullibility of
those who are perishing and that this gullibility is caused by the fact that
they did not have a love for the Truth".
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 "Of every kind of
wicked deception geared to the gullibility of those who are perishing.
This gullibility being caused by the fact that they did not accept
the love for the Truth to the end that they might
be saved. And because of this God sends them a deluding influence
resulting in their believing the lie, in order that they all might be judged
who did not believe the truth but took delight in wickedness."
Notice it is a deluding
influence that causes them to believe the Lie and perish in it. And the
word delude is defined as: to cause (someone) to believe something that
is not true. to mislead the mind or judgment of : deceive, trick.
But notice also that in order
to do this the people have to open themselves up for the deception. And the
Bible says, This gullibility being caused by the fact that they did not accept the love for the
Truth to the end that they might be saved.
So they get what they actually
are looking for. Deception, because they just refuse to take
God at His Word.
In 1
Timothy 4: 1-2 we read from the Amplified Version: But the Holy
Spirit distinctly and expressly declares that in the latter times
some will turn away from THE FAITH, by giving heed to deluding
and seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach.
And so we see that there must
be a falling away, and this falling away we are told is from THE Faith.
And their is only One Faith...One Lord...according to Ephesians 4: 5 And since we were instructed by God's
Vindicated Prophet that Faith is a Revelation, and since there is only one
revelation spoken of in the Scripture and that Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ according to Galatians 1:12, 1 Peter 1:13, Revelations 1:1
therefore we see that any other revelation besides the Revelation of Jesus
Christ, (Who He is and what He's doing), is pure and simply a false precept of
man. And so we see that the falling away will be from this Message.
Galatians
1 Peter
Revelations 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and
he sent and signified it by his angel unto his
servant John:
In Luke
18: 8 Jesus asks the
question, "When the Son of Man cometh, Shall
He find Faith on the earth?" And that is what we are
looking at this evening. Shall He find Faith?
Shall He find Revelation? But what we see in the end time is a picture of men
rising up who proclaim to be ministers of The Faith but as we see them manifesting
themselves, we find they are actually impostors.
And now this brings us to the
next point. These men who are called impostors are actually ordained to their
roles of condemnation. In [Jude] we read
that these men
crept in unaware. The NIV says "for certain men who were of old ordained to this
condemnation secretly slipped in among you".
In 2
Timothy 3:13 we read, But wicked men and impostors will go on from bad to worse,
deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led astray
themselves.
And finally we find that this group
of make believers who have heaped to themselves teachers to tell them what
their itching ears want to hear. We find also in Hosea 4:6-9 the
people and ministers will both be like. "Like people like priests. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast
forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7 As
they were increased, so they sinned against me: (the larger the group became the more they went into
sin or unbelief against God) therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8 They eat
up (they just gulp down) the sin (the
unbelief) of my people, and they set their heart on
their iniquity.
Now with this in mind, I want
to show you the difference this evening between the make-believer and the
foolish virgin.
27-4 Three
Kinds of believers 63-1124E "Now, the
make-believer hangs around and acts just as pious as he can, but down in
his heart he's trying to find what, ... see how you do it. Oh, if
the country isn't full of that part of the hypocrite. That's a Judas. That's
exactly. Hangs around, becomes part of the group, he was the treasurer.
See? He stands around; he's always got his hand out for money. You can
tell that one thing; he's always fishing for money, and got his hand out for
this, and he is a make-believer. He acts like a believer, but down in
his heart... You remember, he wasn't fooling Jesus.
28-2 Three
kinds of Believers 63-1124E "There's that make-believer that's
just waiting. He'll sing like that, "Oh, I believe this, and I believe
this, and I believe this, but oh, you know I heard somebody say so-and-so
times..." See? Just long with ears... A real believer don't hear
nothing but the Word. That's all. He watches the Word. He
ain't looking for no loopholes; he ain't looking for
no gimmicks. He believes God, and that settles it, and he just keeps going
on. See? There's the believer.
The unbeliever fills up in a minute, and he can't stay to listen to ten
minutes to the message; he's got to get up and walk out. It's against his
creed, and he just won't have no more to do with it,
so he goes out. Then the make-believer hangs right on, that Judas.
See? That's the deceiver. That's a rascal (if I have to say such a
word). Judas, he hangs around.
THREE KINDS OF
BELIEVERS 63-1124E
28-4 "This is
the time... Sometime these make-believers are very popular with the people
(That's right.), these make-believers. See? Some of them are mighty men,
educated, doctor's degree, big pay, everything; some of them are great men,
shrewd, just like sons of Satan would be. Look how Satan come
right up there and agree with every bit of that Word. He's just waiting to find
that weak spot in Eve to where he could show his power to deceive her, to
betray her. That was--that was Satan, and here Satan is in a form of Judas in
that age. That was Satan in the first age. What was he? Agreeing with the Word till just one
little thing... He was just trying to find a place where he could get a
weakness, and that's exactly what the Judas finds right now. He'll come
right along with the meeting, and watch right around until he can find that
little spot that he... "Oh, there it is; that's it. (See?) Oh, that's
the way it's done." See? That's just exactly."
156 Ten Virgins 60-1211M "Now,
watch, they, both of them were virgins. Now, let me get this. Here, let's take
these two right here. This is a virgin and this is a
virgin. This was a foolish virgin and this was a wise virgin, but both of them
are virgins. Now, if you'll take that
name "virgin" and run it down, it means--it means "holy, clean, sanctified." The word "sanctify" comes from
the word "sainted," which means "clean." Like the Hebrew
word... Now, that's a Greek word; "sanctify" means "clean."
E-35 Sudden
Secret Going Away of the Church 58-1012 "How many of you, all perhaps, have
read of the virgins? Some were wise and some were foolish. "Virgin"
means "purity." They were all good people, everyone
of them virgin, sanctified vessels of God. But those who had oil in their
lamps went in. And the others was left out. They were
all virgins, everyone people that you couldn't put your finger on for anything
wrong. They everyone believed in the coming of the Lord. They were ready to
go meet Him, but some of them let their oil go out. Don't let that be your
case. Keep oil in your lamp."
"Oil is the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Never let it drain from you. When you feel your
love dying away, your sincerity to Christ, and to the cause, quickly go
to Him Who has the Fountain of Oil and buy for yourself a filling of the Holy
Spirit."
Now how then do we go to Him
and refill these lamps? Psalm 119:105 Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. In fact brother Branham tells us the same
thing in explaining the lamp the Wise Virgin had that was lit.
73 Conflict
Between God and Satan 62-0531"Fire is the confirmation of the Light coming from the
Word. The smart virgin, the wise virgin, had oil in her lamp, and
she trimmed her lamp and lit it. Now, what is it? Now, God is the Word;
the Oil is the Spirit; and the Fire is the Gospel Light on that Oil. Amen. God said so.
See? That's the vessel. All right. The Oil is in the
vessel, and the Fire
burning it, shows that it's reflecting the Light of what the Word said.
See? That's the reflection. Now, that wise virgin could do that; but that
other, foolish virgin, was on the outside, had no Oil. And they couldn't
reflect nothing but just their church and their denomination. See? Now,
"You say the Word... You said the Word was Spirit?" Yes, sir. God
said, "My word is Spirit." That's right. The true Bride must be unified by the Word.
Now, remember, if she is a part of Christ, she has to be the Word of Christ.
In order to be the Word of Christ, you have to be baptized into Christ. And when you're in Christ, you
believe Christ and Christ is the Word.
The Masterpiece
159 Now, closing in a
few minutes. I want you to notice real close of something that just happened. Malachi 4 is to bring back, back to the original.
She is smitten from the church, from the church body, smitten with her
Master for the same purpose (She's the Word.), the same as Joseph was smitten
from his brethren, because he was the Word. And Jesus was smitten from His
brethren, because He was the Word. The church is smitten,
the Bride is smitten from the church, because She is the Word. There's your stages again: one, two, three. See? Just exactly.
Notice brother Branham is letting us know
that if we are the Word made manifest even as Jesus was the Word made manifest,
then the same destiny that he came to is awaiting you and I as well. And that
is a two fold destiny which consists of
1. Acceptance by God
2. Rejection by the world.
Now, the acceptance by God will result in
our glorification. Now, remember the word glory or glorify means the "opinion, assessment
and judgment". And since we are
talking about God doing the glorifying, we are talking about His Opinion, His assessment or the value
system he has, and the judgments
by which He judges will become in you and your judgments and your values will
be God's values, because You will have His mind in you when he comes to be
Glorified in His Saints.
That's 2 Thessalonians
But the world will hate you even as it
hated Christ, and that is what we are talking about this evening. And in Jesus
prayer to the Father he said in John
So you see,
it is the Word that they hate and thus they reject. Jesus was not despised and rejected a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief until after God entered Him at His Baptism in the River
Jordan. Up to that point all we know is that people were amazed by his ability
to talk the Word with even the best teachers in
And there are two other things which I
would like to bring out here.
1. The people fail to recognize the
manifested Word for their hour.
2. As a result, they crucify to
themselves the Lord afresh.
1. They fail to recognize the
Manifested Word for their hour.
A. Because they are always looking
forwards, and backwards.
B. Because God never fulfills His Word in
the way they think it should be fulfilled.
C. Because they are not ordained to
understand what it is and what it is all about.
2. Therefore they crucify the Word of God Afresh and put it to an open
shame.
Now, we've heard Jesus in his prayer to
the Father tell us that we would be hated after He gave us God's Word, because
He was hated after receiving God's Word. And the people that hated Him the most
were not the sinner, but the most religious people of that day in which he
lived. I'm talking specifically about the Pharisees who were the most advanced
and dedicated Jews of His time. And today they would have to be Message
believers, because there are no group in Christianity that even come close to
living the Life like we find in the Message people and amongst the Holiness
people.
And what was Jesus rebuke to the
Pharisees? He said, you guys are always talking about what God did in the past
and what God is going to do, and yet when God comes and does it you are the
first to reject it. Let's just turn to the scriptures for a moment, and let's
read for ourselves what he's referring to here in this statement.
In Matthew
34 ¶ Wherefore,
behold, I send unto you prophets,(Notice
I send you, this is in the future, I will send to you Prophets… A prophet is a
revealer of the Word.) and wise men,(These
are teachers, and not just someone who claims to be a teacher, but there is a
special trait about these men, they are thoughtful, and sagacious which means
they show a keen sense of discernment and possess sound judgment,
farsightedness and are discreet (implying a cautious character.) and scribes: (Men, with a gift to write) and some of them ye
shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues,
and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew
between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things
shall come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Now the killing does not only
mean in a physical way. I have a letter from brother Branham at home that was
written to my father in law, and in it brother Branham said there are more ways to kill a man than with a gun or a
knife. He said you can kill a man's influence and you might as well have shot
him with a bullet.
From Testimony
of a True Witness brother Branham said, "You
can kill a man more ways than just sticking him with a knife; speak against his
character, many ways you can do it."
Hebrews Chapter 7part 2 pp
55, 57-0922 And you people
with these saw-blade tempers, that's always spouting off in the mouth at
somebody, can't put up, and things like that. Be careful. You're guilty if you
speak a word against your brother that's not right, not just. Go around and
tear down... You don't have to stick a knife in a man's back to kill him;
you can break his character and kill him, kill his influence. Speak
against your pastor here, say something bad about him, you just might as well
have shot him; told something that wasn't right about him, well, it'll kill his
influence with the people and things like that, and you're guilty of it.
You see, God promised to send us men, Prophets, Teachers, Scribes and the people would crucify the Word afresh by killing the
influence and maligning the character and all sorts of things like that of the
ones that God sends. Yes, because the Word in this Hour is the Manifested Word.
And Brother Branham said the Word would be in the Bride and she would have the
Mind to know what to do with the Word. So to crucify the Word you will have to
crucify those who are manifesting it and teaching the right understanding of it
in this hour.
Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you,
and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Harvest Time 64-1212 320 You know, Jesus said, "It'll
come to pass that they'll even kill you, thinking they're doing God a service." Wait till this new book of mine comes out. They shot
at some people the other night, for saying that it was wrong to unite the Roman
Catholic church with the Protestant. Three shots went
through a building of a friend of mine, just barely missed them. Wait till this
book gets in circulation. Don't think they are sinning; they think they're
doing the right thing. They think they're doing that for a cause for God, not
knowing it. The Jews killed Jesus, thinking they were doing the right thing,
because their church doctrine said He was wrong. Oh, said for them He...
They crucified the very Bread that they were supposed to live by.
You see it's always the DOCTRINE that
declares the difference and separates between the two.
Luke 11:47 Woe unto you! for
ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 Truly
ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed
them, and ye build their sepulchres. 49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God,
I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and
persecute: 50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the
foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51 From the blood
of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the
temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 52 Woe
unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of
knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye
hindered. 53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the
Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many
things: 54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch
something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
Souls in Prison
Now 63-1110M 39-3 He
predicted He would send them prophets with the Word of the Lord, and what would
they do? The same thing their fathers did because that's what you are. See?
Spirits don't die. Men that's possessed of them die,
but spirits don't die. He said, "You're the children; you're the
ones." Just notice how these things are. 39-4 How that
Notice…he said "you claim that if you had live in the days of Paul you would
have sided with him, then he said, you are hypocrites, because if you would have
sided with him back then you would be siding with him on his doctrine now".
And so there we have it. If you have not the right doctrine, it shows
that you have not the right spirit. Let us pray