What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 15
God's Laws - God's Rules
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
This
morning for our text let's open our Bibles first to Ephesians chapter one,
because we are going to take three Scriptural texts this morning on adoption because
Br. Branham in His sermon What the Holy Ghost was Given for mentions the
adoption as one of the main reasons for our receiving the Holy Ghost.
Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to
the good pleasure of his will,
Galatians 4:5 Even
so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. 6 And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Romans 8:22-23 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Let us pray,...
This morning we will pick up at paragraph number 24,
and read from brother Branham's sermon What the Holy Ghost was Given for.
24 Let me stop here just for a
minute to get what God
put the Holy Ghost in the church for, give you another type so that
you'll know. Back in the Old Testament when a child... A man made himself a
home; he got his bride; that's the first thing. Then he become
a great man, like an organization. That was good. The next thing happened,
there come a birth into that home. That's when the Holy Spirit
(See?)--another spirit came in, which was a son. That son, he was not in full
charge, neither was he a heir until he got a
certain age; and he had to be proved first. Yes. And then, they had the law of adoption.
(To you ministers, the
placing of a son is what I'm speaking of now. See?) Then when he come to a place to where he was adopted...Jesus gave a beautiful
illustration of it on
25 If you've got a sick man laying here,
or a sinner laying here, or a man that wants to be right (can't give up
drinking, can't give up smoking, can't give up lust and things); if you'll
just work according to the laws of God, let the Holy Spirit come in
there, then he's no more
his own.
He will stop that thing, because the Holy Spirit takes him over. But you've
got to work according to the laws of God, the rules of God. Now, in the Old
Testament when this baby was born, they watched it to see how it was
behaved, behavior.
Then the father, being a great businessman by this time, maybe in his forties
or fifties, he didn't have time to teach this baby himself, so he got... In
them days they didn't have public schools as they have now, so they got what
they call a tutor or a raiser: schoolteacher. And this schoolteacher was the
best he could find, so that he'd be truthful and tell the father the truth
about it.
26 And then, when this boy got to a
certain age (say he was matured), if that boy was just a renegade, no good,
didn't care for the father's business, all he thought about was flirting and
running with the women's, or drinking, or gambling, or horse racing, that boy would
always be a son, but he was never placed in position to have heir to all
his father had. But if he was a good boy, and he was about the father's
business, and he proved to be the right child, then they had a
ceremony. They took the boy out into the street and put a white robe on him.
And they set him up on a scaffold so all the city could see. They made a
feast and a jubilee. And the father then had the ceremony of
adoption. He adopted his own son into his own business, and then
the son was coequal with his father. In other
words, if it'd been today, the son's name on the check was just as good as
the daddy's.
Now, what brother
Branham is telling you here, and about to get into in this sermon, is what Jesus told the Apostles in John 14:12, because he said "I must go away, I must return to my Father, but I am going to
leave with you something. If you are truly a believer, filled with the same
Spirit that is in me now, then you will do what I do. You will say what I say,
you will teach what I teach, you will act like I act, and you will do the works
that I do, for as I have told you, the son can do nothing of Himself, but
whatsoever the son sees the father doing, that the son will do likewise. It
will be your Father's Spirit in you doing, and teaching, and speaking, and acting in you the
same as it acted in me."
And I want you to see here how brother Branham is
tying in the Spirit of Adoption with the Holy Ghost being in you, and having
preeminence in your life. Always about your Fathers business.
Is not that the same thing the Apostle Paul taught us
in Romans 8?
Romans 8:5-13 For they that are
after the flesh (they that live for
self) do mind the things of the flesh; (self) but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the
Spirit. 6 For
to be carnally minded (carnally minded means to be self centered) is death; but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. 7 Because
the carnal mind (self centered mind) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be.
In other words, how can you be mindful of the things
of God when you are always thinking about yourself.
You can't, because you are not even thinking God thoughts, you are thinking
self thoughts. Thoughts about self. But the son that
was adopted was as brother Branham said, "he was a good
boy, and he was always about the father's business, and he proved to
be the right kind of son."
8 So
then they that are in the flesh (they that are into self) cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh,
(You are not into self) but into the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you.
In other words, if you are into self it shows God has
not placed His Spirit in
you yet. And in fact until you die to self, God never will place
His Spirit into your vessel. God must conduct Himself according to the same
Laws He laid down for you. That is what brother Branham told us in paragraph 23
and 24 of this sermon we are studying.
He said, in pp. 24 As I
have said, God will never go outside of His laws to do anything. And
then in pp. 25 he said, if you'll just work
according to the laws of God, let
the Holy Spirit come in there, then he's no more his own. He will stop that thing, because the Holy
Spirit takes him over. But you've got to work according to the laws of God,
the rules of God.
And
God put down a rule for us in 2 Corinthians that He himself must go by as well.
2 Corinthians
And
again in Romans
So the jest of understanding the Spirit of Adoption is
that God would never place his Spirit in an unholy Vessel. In fact last wee we
read you a quote where brother Branham was actually quoting a sermon brother
Vayle preached in his Tabernacle on which brother Vayle was teaching that the
reason we do not see much of Mark 16 in the churches is because the people are
not living righteous consecrated lives before God.
Brother
Branham said in his sermon, Humble thyself 63-0714E P:30 I truly believe that what Brother Vayle said is the truth,
that "God will
never put His Spirit in an unholy, unrighteous, disobedient temple".
No, It's got to come in the way of the cleansing of our hearts from all guile
and iniquity, that we might be pure before God, that He might work His pure
Holy Spirit through us to bring these things to pass."
And how could God command us not be unequally yoked
with unbelief, and then yoke himself up with an unbeliever. That just tells me
that no unbeliever has the Holy Spirit, and could ever have the Holy Spirit as
long as he lives to himself. You've got to die for the Life of Christ to come
in, brothers and sisters. And until that happens you will not have any place in
the rapture because you are none of His. That's what he said.
Romans 8:9 Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
It's just that simple. And no man can even call Jesus
the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. so for starters, the
believers that Jesus refers to in John
And then the Apostle Paul tells u in
verse 10 "And if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Let me read that from the new translation called The Voice. 10 "If
the Anointed One lives within you, even though the body is as good as dead because
of the effects
of sin, The Spirit is infusing you with life now that you are right with
God."
11 But if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you.
Now, let me put this
together for you as we read verse 9-11 from the translation called The Message. 9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you
can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who
has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ,
won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he
dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you
yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it,
that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into
your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you
alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does,
as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his
Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
Now, show me where this is any different than what
Jesus said in John 14:12? You can't.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to (self) to live after (self). 13 For if ye live after (self), ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Notice Paul is describing the Spirit of Adoption here,
and it is God's Spirit in you, leading you, and you have died to self, and are
led by only His Spirit. Then notice what he tells us.
16 The Spirit
Itself will bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Now, what does that mean? The
Spirit will bear witness with our spirit?
There's only one The Spirit and that is God's Spirit.
Therefore Paul is telling us here that God will bear witness with our Spirit.
Bible readers always read that wrong. They read it as
"your spirit will bear witness with God's
Spirit", and that's exactly the opposite of what it tells
us. The catholic church calls God their Father, and so
does the Muslim, and we know the Jews do also, and yet Jesus called those pharisees he said, "you are
of your father the devil".
John
Notice
they claimed to have God as their father. Now, just because you say it doesn't
make it so.
42 Jesus said unto them, If
God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and
came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
The word hear means to understand, and he is telling
them the reason they could not even understand His Word, is because their ears
were not tuned to God's Word, they were tuned to what had been drilled into
their little noggins since they were children. That is why brother Vayle told
me that Catholics coming into this Message make far better Christians because
they never learned anything in their Catholic churches but a few stories, and
some superstitions, and they have a whole lot less to filter than the Baptist
of Pentecostal.
In other words, they're willing to forget everything
they ever learned and when they begin to read the Bible they see it for what it
actually is saying, rather than what some theologians told them that it says.)
So Jesus tells them, 44 "Ye are of your father the devil,
and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye
believe me not. 46 Which of
you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why
do ye not believe me?
And
then he tells them the attributes of them who truly are born of the Father.
47 He that is of God
hears God's Words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye
are not of God. 48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say
we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49 Jesus
answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father,
and ye do dishonour me. 50 And
I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh
and judgeth. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it.
Notice he just said the same thing two times. Once in
this last verse 50, and the other in verse 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do.
Therefore he is telling them that whatever life is in
your father you will reflect that life in what you do. Then tell me when Jesus
said "the works I do you shall do also",
he's not saying the same thing. That's one of the first laws God set in His
universe, "every seed after it's
kind or nature". And that is the law of reproduction which is
the law of life.
But notice in getting back to Romans
And this does not say that we
will bear witness with His Spirit, but "His Spirit will bear witness with our Spirit that we are His
children". Now, the devil believes and he trembles.
So how does God's Spirit
bear witness with your spirit that you are His child? By your fruits
you are known.
From his sermon, Works that
I do bear witness of me 51-0413 P:27 Brother Branham said, "Now, watch closely. Jesus said, "The works that I do bear record of Me." The works
that you do bear record of you."
So
what if you have no works? Then as James said, James
Therefore the man who brags that he has no works, and
he is counting on the works that brother Branham had, and he is going to ride
in on that, that man that professes that has no faith either in what Brother
Branham taught, and therefore is an unbeliever, because brother Branham
preached exactly what James taught and even had a sermon entitled, "Works is Faith expressed." And since he
also taught us that Faith is a revelation, something that has been revealed,
then we can say, your works is the expression of your revelation.
Again from his sermon, Works
that I do bear witness of me 51-0413 P:16 brother
Branham said, "And
now, I want to speak just a moment, or just bring your attention to a few words
here that Jesus said, "The works that I
do bear witness of Me." The things that I do, what I say, is
what bears record of me. And that's what bears record of
every person. Do you know, I'd rather
you'd live me a sermon than preach me one? It'll be a better evidence that you're a
Christian. Isn't that right? A live a sermon. And what we are is what we live, what we do.
Our actions shows what we are. And if we say we have faith, and then afraid to step out and claim our
faith and put it to work, then our faith doesn't do us much good, does
it? The Bible said that faith without works is dead, just as the
body without the spirit is dead..
No, back to Romans 8 and we'll pick up at verse 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be also glorified together.
Brother
Branham said in his sermon, Hear ye Him 62-0711
P:68 "That's the reason
He could smile here. Jesus had carried out every Word of it. That's it. He'd carried out just exactly to the Word,
now, because He was that perfect Son. And He is the same, and He died to
become the Vine, that we might become the branch, that He can energize us
with His Life to make the same Life that He had, living in us. Then
we'll do the same thing. Jesus said in Saint John 14:12,
"He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." Now, we watch what He done. See, we haven't time
tonight, but we'll take it up later, and see
what His works was: maybe tomorrow night. Then, see if He will perform that same works. If He does, He remains the
same. Now, then God would be pleased with that."
Now, back to brother Branham sermon, "What the Holy Ghost was Given
for and we will pick up again at pp. 27 And we will see him explain how that God was
subject to the same law of adoption with his own son Jesus, and sons.
What the Holy Ghost was Given for 27 "Now, watch what
God did. When His Son was born, He let Him go for thirty years, testing
Him, trying Him, then He give Him three years of hard trial. And then at
the end of the hard trial when
He seen that His Son was about the Father's business (Mount
Transfiguration, Book of Luke), He took Peter, James, and
John (three witnesses) and went up on top of the mountain; and there God performed the laws of adoption. They
looked up, and they seen Jesus, and His clothes shined as white as the
lightning. And as a cloud overshadowed Him, and
a Voice come out of the cloud and said, "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him.
I'll set down now and have no more to say. What He says is Law and Truth."
28 Now, the church has come through
those schools. She married back yonder a long time ago and become a
denomination, an organization. But you notice, the
birth produced something else. And now, it's got to a place to where the
Pentecostal church with the new birth has been tested and tried. And
now, it's coming to a place... God doesn't deal with the church as just an
organization. He doesn't deal with the church as a group of people. He deals
with the church as an individuals, each individual in the church.
And now it's got to a time... And it's no secret; we all see it. When a man
proves, and God loves him, He takes him out somewhere to himself. There in
the front of Angels He does something for him. He lifts him up there in the
Presence of God, and gifts him, and fills him, and sets him out. That's the age that we're living
in.
29 Same
Holy Spirit that saved the Lutherans, that sanctified the Methodists, that
baptized the Pentecostals, is now setting in order the coming of the Lord
Jesus. When it'll be so powerful, that Body will come
into this group of church that'll draw the rest of them from the grave.
There'll be a resurrection. That's what the Holy Ghost is for. What
is the Holy Ghost? Without us they cannot be made perfect. They lived in
one day under that; we live in another day. "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the
Spirit of God will raise a standard against it." See?
30 We're in a day now... Back
there, they wasn't half as smart as today. They
couldn't make an atomic bomb or an automobile. They didn't have science and
things as we have now, but, and things of mysterious things. To try to say man
blown together by some dust and so forth, and take some analysis, and try to
prove it to make infidels out of people... But now, when we need it, the
Spirit of God raises a standard. What is it? He's pouring in His Spirit. Then those who are
resting out yonder in the grave, or under the altar of God as the Scripture
says, are crying, "How
long, Lord? How long? How much longer?" God's waiting on me and you. The church is
waiting on me and you: adoption
time, when God can pour into us His Fullness, His power, His
Resurrection, that when the church and Christ become so close together till Christ becomes visible
among us, and raises the dead, and we go into the rapture. Now,
we're going to show after while that just those who are filled with the Holy
Ghost goes in that rapture, "For the rest of the dead live not for the space of a thousand
years." That's right.
Just Holy Spirit filled people was all that
went in the rapture.
And that can not be
emphasized enough in this late hour. Make sure you are saved and filled with
the Holy Ghost. And how do you know whether you are filled with the Holy Ghost?
Well, everyone thinks today they are filled with the Holy Ghost because they
claim to believe the Message. But Brother Branham taught us you can not truly
be a believer until God has sealed you with His Spirit. That's His seal of
approval. And Paul said that God's Spirit would bear witness to that.
Until then you are only believing
unto, and he shows us this in the next few paragraphs, if we get time today to
read them.
31 Now, God gave the Holy Spirit. I got another Scripture
here in John
14:12. That's a
very familiar Scripture with all the people here at the tabernacle. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on Me..." Now, don't let that word
"believeth" kinda set you back. In a nominal church, they say,
"Yes, I believe. Sure, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
The devil believes the same thing. That's exactly. The Bible said he
does. But the Scripture says in John that no man can call Jesus the Christ, only by
the Holy Ghost.
You've actually, by the Scripture... (Let me stop here just a minute 'fore I
finish reading.)
32 You are not converted until you've received the
Holy Ghost. That's right. You are believing
unto... The Holy Spirit has spoke to you, and you've
publicly confessed Him. The devil has the same thing. "I believe Him to
be the Son of God." So does the devil. But you're walking on towards Him. When
Peter had been called and justified by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ...
And in John
Now, listen, too many people say "I believe, therefore I've got it", and
they haven't got anything but a little bit of intellectual conception.
He said "My Spirit
will bear witness with your spirit, that you arte my children.". And in order to bear witness to anything, it means
there must be a confirmation of something that you have witnessed. But what if
there is nothing to witness? If there are no fruits, what is there to witness?
He said, "by their fruits you shall know them". and God has to abide by His own laws.
Well, I've got the right doctrine so that is my proof?
Well, God's prophet said you could have the wrong doctrine and a right heart.
In fact he said,
Getting in the spirit 61-0428 P:47 I don't care if the man's wrong. If he's
wrong and sincere in his heart and you're right in your belief and you're wrong
in the way you're acting. I'd rather be in his place than be in yours.
That's right. I'd rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart. God
will respect it more. So if a man is wrong, what of it? Help him. He needs
help. Love him. If you can't love your enemy the same as you love those who
love you, you're no better off than the publicans. That's right. That's what
the Church has failed to get. I hope you get it tonight. I hope you see what
I'm talking about.
Godhead explained 61-0425B P:40 Now, ..."To answer your
question," I said, "now, I do not take either sides with you
brethren, and I know, as long as you fuss, you're both wrong (See?),
because I would rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart, than
to be right in my doctrine and wrong in my heart." See? I said, "After all, it's your heart's
condition." And I made that a practice to know this, that if a man, no matter what he
does and how much he differs, and what he says about me, if in my heart, not
from just a duty, but from my heart I can't love that man as well as I love
anyone else, then I know there's something wrong in here. See?
And again brother Branham said in
his sermon, Shalom 64-0119 P:34 Your
life proves whether Jesus is with you or not. Your life shows whether He's occupied here, or whether He's still in His heavens or not, whatever
you are. "The
works that I do shall you do also." How could you have Christ in you, and then the very Spirit
in you deny His Word, take up a creed instead? It can't do it. He would
defeat Himself by denying His Own Word. Just because somebody put a wrong
interpretation to It? You got a Bible,
you can read like anybody else.
So it all boils down to this brothers and sisters, get
your hearts right with God. Don't worry if you make mistakes, you're
still in the body of this death, and there will be no perfection this side of
the resurrection.
In fact brother Branham said in his sermon, As I was with
Moses 60-0911M P:14 One time it was said
that the Ballard and Ballard Flour Company hired a man, and he was going to
sign his name, and the man had no eraser on the end of his pencil. And Mr.
Ballard said to him, said, "Why haven't you got an eraser?" He said,
"I don't make mistakes." He said, "Then I can't use
you. Because if you don't make mistakes, you won't do nothing."
That's true. God don't hold you responsible for your mistakes. He holds you
responsible for your willful sin. "He
that sins willfully, after he has received the knowledge of the truth..." But a man that's going to do something is going to
blunder; he's going to fall. He's going to make mistakes. But if he's really Divinely called, and God in his heart, he'll rise again.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.