What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 29
The Holy Ghost our Assurance of Resurrection
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
John 3: 1-8 There was a man of the Pharisees, named
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to
Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
1 Peter 1:22-23 Seeing ye have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the
brethren, see that ye love one another with a
pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever. 24 For all flesh is
as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But
the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you.
Let's us bow our heads in
prayer…
This evening I would like to speak concerning what
brother Branham said in paragraph 83 of What the holy
Ghost was Given for. 83 There can be two
men, one of them just exactly, both of them just alike. One
of them can be a good man; he could do good works; he could do so forth; but except
that man has Eternal Life in him, he'll never rise in the resurrection. He
can't do it; there's nothing there to raise.
There's nothing to bring him up; there's no life. So you see, my dear
brother, my dear sister, except a man be borned again, he can in no wise
come back into this Kingdom. He can't. "Except this Corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies..." He's talking of Himself. But He had, not perpetual
life; He had Eternal Life. And the Life He gave to you, that you might have the
same kind of Life...Now, if you've just got human life, enough to move you
around, lust... "She that liveth in
pleasure is dead while she is alive." You
can't rise. You might be the most popular girl in school. You might be the most
popular girl at the card game of your society. You might be the best dressed
woman in the country. You might be the prettiest. You might be the best built.
You might be a idol to your husband. You might be all
these things, which that's wonderful. But, sister, unless you have the Holy
Ghost in you, which is Eternal Life, at the end of
this road you are finished. And I don't care what you look like, or
how these things are, or how unpopular, or popular you are, how pretty, or how
ugly; if you've got Eternal Life, there, you'll live forever and
forever.
Now, there are a couple other Scriptures I would like
to read to you because we hear brother Branham speak to us about having eternal
Life and without it we will not go in the Rapture, and
yet there are so many who think they are born again when they are just good
church members and nothing more.
Romans
Now concerning Romans
In John 8 Jesus
had an argument with the Pharisees concerning whose children they are. They
claim God as their Father, but Jesus tells them "just because you claim
it, doesn't
make it so". He told them, "if they were God's
children, God would bear witness to their son-ship by manifesting His own Life
in them, and through them". He said, "If God were your Father, your life would bear witness of His
Spirit in you doing
the deeds He would do, and Saying the things he would say".
Remember, Jesus could do nothing until the Father
showed Him first. His Words were not his Own, His actions or works were not
his own, nor did He speak His own doctrine, and neither did he exercise His
own will. He said, "It is written in the book,
I have come to do thy Will of God". Therefore, Jesus told the Pharisees, they
could not be from God because if they had been God's
Seed, then God would have born witness with them and through them for they
would have manifested God in their lives, as being their Father. And
yet he said, they were not without a witness as to who their real father was.
For he said they did the deeds of their real father, the devil.
John 8:44 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? 47 He that is of God heareth
God's words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
Now, we were speaking of God's Spirit bearing witness
to our own spirit, that we are His sons. It is God's Spirit that we are
concerned with. We find John also speaking of this witness of THE Spirit.
He says, in I John 5:6b And it is The Spirit that beareth witness, because
The Spirit is truth. 7 For there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and
these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in
earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in
one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, The
witness of God is greater: for this is The witness of God which he
hath testified of his Son. 10
¶ He that believeth on the
Son of God hath The Witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath
made him a liar; because he believeth not The Record (Witness) that God
gave of his Son. 11 And this is The Record (Witness), that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath The
Son hath
life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath
not life.
The
word translated as “hath” that is used several times in this verse was translated
from the Greek word “echo”. Now, if the translators had
left that word un-translated as they left the word baptisma un-translated,
where we get our English equivalent baptism from, then our
understanding of this verse of Scripture and thus this particular benefit that
we receive as a result of our understanding the role of the Son of God, would
be completely different than what most men will have when they read this using
the word hath instead of echo.
Now,
in reading this verse with the word un-translated we read it as: He that echoes the Son echoes life; and he that echoes
not the Son of God echoes not life
Now,
that means that since God is the fountain of Life, then in John 5:26 we
hear Jesus say, For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to
the Son to have life in himself; So we see that the life comes from
the Father and then into the son. And in reading this scripture also with the
word echo left un-translated it reads, John
And as the heart pumps the blood over and over again
to echo forth the life in the body, so too the Father’s Word echoed over and
over and over again in His mind as thoughts and then when it begin to come
forth from the Father this same echo of life moved forward into manifestation
as Word, first into His Son and then into Sons.
Now,
we can see that 1
John
Now, for any who might think that this talk on echoing
the son echoes life is just my own little thoughts, let me show you that
William Branham spoke of the same thing.
Come let us reason together 55-1004 P:90 And
now, not knowing nothing about you, and this is our first time meeting in life,
if Jesus will tell me, what you come up here to ask Him about... You come up,
not to see Brother Branham; you come up to see the Lord Jesus. And now, you
believe that I'm just like this microphone. See? This microphone can't speak
'less something speaks through it. See? It's just a piece of metal. It's got to have a sound here to hit it
first, before it will echo
(See?), 'fore it'll carry out. Now,
that's the way I am. I'm just like
the microphone. See? Now, there has to be some real intelligence behind
here, Something that knows you, and knows all about you, knows what you're here
for, to speak through these lips to say
that. Isn't that right? Now, the audience believes that, don't you audience?
See? 'Cause we don't know each other, but He can tell me.
Then you believe Him.
Now,
let’s look at what Jesus said about himself. Notice in the next 4 verses of
Scripture Jesus tells us exactly what Brother Branham said here.
John 12:49 For I
have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a
commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
John 12:50 And I
know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
John 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the
Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go
hence.
John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his
love.
Therefore we are talking about the Witness in us
bearing witness Himself.
You Must Be Born Again 61-1231M 28 I want to take the subject this morning of
Jesus' first doctrine. The first doctrine of Jesus was, "You Must Be Born Again." That was His first doctrine…
29 And we find out that there is so many different meanings that people
put to it. Nearly all churches say that you must be born again, but
each one has their different interpretations to that, what it means to be
born again. I might go to the Methodist church this morning; they say, "We
believe that you must be born again." How do you interpret it? I go to the
Baptist church, "And we believe you must be born again." How do you
interpret it? And I would go to each church, and we'd find, if we went to all
the nine hundred different denomination of churches,
there'd be nine hundred different interpretations. So seeing that there is so
many different interpretations, and yet a Bible doctrine, there must be, and
is, a truth somewhere.
64 Now, there is
approach to this birth. And to approach this birth, you have to go
through a process, just like anything that lives. Anything that lives
again has got to die first.
And you cannot keep your same spirit. You cannot keep your same
habits. You cannot keep your same thoughts. You got to die. You've got to die like He
died. You got to die on His altar, like Abel did with his
lamb. You got to die with your Lamb. You got to die, die to your own thinking to be born to His
thinking. Let
the mind that was in Christ be in you. You got to think His thoughts. And now, brother,
sister, let me say this as intelligent as I know how to say it. How can you think His thoughts
and deny His Word, and yet claim you're born again? Just ask
yourself that question. How can you do it? You can't. If you're born again,
you got His thoughts. If the mind of Christ is in you, then you are a new creature. The Bible teaches that. And
if any brother would like to, where you find that creature, look that word
"creature" up in the Lexicon, and you'll find
out that the word "creature" there is interpreted or translated,
"a new creation," because you are a one creation, a human being born
in sexual desire here on earth, and now you're a new creation born by Spirit. Your
own thoughts are dead. They're so dead until they're crystal like the brass
serpent, or like He died when the heavens and earth and everything witnessed He
was dead.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he
power (The ability to make a right decision) to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on
his name: 13 Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.
Revelation
Chapter 4 PT 2 24 Elders 61-0101 244 And when He said, "Repent, and be
baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ," He didn't mean Father, Son, Holy
Ghost. He meant just what He said. When He said, "You must be born
again," He didn't say, "You ought to be." He said,
"These signs shall follow them that believe." He never said,
"Maybe they will." He says what He means. And He's God and
He can't take it back. He knows what's perfect, so He makes it that way, and
that's the way He intends it to be, and
you have to come up to that, not Him come down to your idea, you got to come up
to His idea. That's the difference.
Now, we're speaking of "God's Spirit bearing witness to our own spirit",
that we are His sons. And John tells us that we will have This Witness in us, because it is God's Own
Spirit-Life living and abiding in us, even as this witness, this God-Life lived
and abode in God's Only begotten Son. Remember, The word witness breaks down into two parts. The first part
deals with observation and presence. You observe by seeing; you observe by
hearing; or you observe by feeling. But regardless of what sense is involved,
you have got to be there in order to be a true witness.
And we see this in the first Psalm. Psalms 1:6
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the
way of the ungodly shall perish. Now, let's break this down to show you how it
is that the Spirit of God beareth Witness with our own Spirit that we are sons.
We shall look at the first part of this Psalm in
dealing with sons. The Lord (knoweth) the way of the
righteous: This word knoweth is the Hebrew Word yada', meaning to know or make oneself
known in a personal way. To watch over.
Therefore we can see that the Lord actively watches
over the way or (the course of life) of the righteous and
makes himself known to them, and thus knows them in an experiential way.
But let's see now the way the Lord deals with the
ungodly. Psalm continues by saying, but the way (the
course of life) of the ungodly shall perish. The ungodly speaks of a people who are
destined for judgment. They are called ungodly, which means they are not
God-like. The word perish used here is
the Hebrew word 'abad, and
it means to be given up as lost, to be left to themselves and thus to
stray. Therefore we can see that God takes a personal interest in His
own Children, but He leaves the ungodly to themselves,
knowing that they will stray and be lost.
I John
Now, we were speaking of the first part of being a
true witness, is that you must be present to observe. And we saw in the case of
God's Spirit bearing Witness to our Spirit,
if He is to be a True witness, then He must be present to observe, and we saw
that He is not only their to observe, but actually takes an active
participation in our lives.
Now, the second part to being a true witness is the
telling or testimony part. This can be done using three different methods. You
can testify by spoken word; you can testify by the written word; or you
can testify by acting it out, or bringing into manifestation. God
uses all three when His Spirit beareth Witness to our spirit that we are His
sons.
1) His Spirit bears witness to our spirit through His
Spoken Word;
2) His Spirit bears Witness to our spirit through His
Written Word;
or 3) His Spirit bears witness to our spirit by manifesting
in our very lives, the things He has Spoken or Written in His Word. Thus we become a
written Epistle known and read of all men.
Therefore, the scripture does not speak of our spirit
bearing witness to His Spirit at all, because if it did, then in order for this
to be so, we would have to look upon our outward fruits of our own life and
say, look what I have done for my Lord. Look what I have said for my Lord. Look
at the works I have done in Thy name.
But we find this does not assure us of anything with
God, for Jesus said in Matthew
And the Apostle Paul said in Romans
Therefore, it is not your will, nor whether you will
it, but it is whether He wills it. Therefore it is His Will that counts. It is
not whether you run, but whether he runs. What He acts out is what counts.
Your spirit could feel good about yourself, and that
only makes you a deceived charismatic. You can agree with every word the Bible
says, and that will only make you a Fundamentalist, and you're still lost. You
can even believe every word brother Branham said, and that only means you are
able to read. He said so himself.
The Token 63-0901M 32-3 Don't just come this far, say, "I
believe the message." You obey the message. Come into Christ. You say,
"Oh, I believe every word you said, Brother Branham." That's good. but that is just being able to read. Take the
Message; take it into your heart, that you must have the Token, the very
Life that was in Christ, be in you. "When I see that, I will pass over
you."
Notice then, it is not the works we do. It is not the words we speak.
But it's what he
says, and what He does through you. And if He says, I never knew
you, then it doesn't matter what you do or what you say that counts. Therefore
it's not your spirit bearing witness to His spirit that counts, but his Spirit
that bears witness to your spirit is what really matters.
It's not our words, and it's not
our works, and it's not our doctrine, and it's not
even our will. In fact it's not our Glory, for Jesus
said, It's not my words, but my Fathers which I speak. It's not my works, but
I do only what the Father shows me to do. It's not even my doctrine, but it is the Doctrine of my
Father, which I am pleased to teach, and it's not even my will,
but the will of my Father.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I
hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will,
but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 31 ¶ If I bear witness of myself, my
witness is not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know
that the witness which he witnesseth of me is
true.
John 5:36 But I have greater witness than that of John:
for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that
I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the
Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye
have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have
not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent,
him ye believe not.
And then He said in, Matthew
And again in II Peter
Because in John 17:5 He said, And now,
O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was.
Now, in pp. 71 of Who is This Melchisedec, brother
Branham said, "But look, when this body
receives the Spirit of God, the Immortal Life inside of you, It throws this body in subjection
to God. Hallelujah. (1 John
3:9)"He that's born of God doth not
commit sin; he cannot sin." (Romans
8:1) "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; they walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." There you are. See,
that throws your body
subject. You don't have to say, "Oh, if I could just quit
drinking, if I could just..." Just get in Christ; it's all gone.
See, see? Because your
body is subject to the Spirit, it's no more subject to the things of
the world; they're dead. They are dead; your sins are buried in baptism; and
you are a new creation in Christ. And your body becoming subject to the
Spirit, try to live a right kind of life... 72 Like you women claiming you
got Holy Ghost and going out here and wearing shorts and things, how could you
do it? How could the Spirit of God in
you ever let you do such a thing as that? It just can't be so. Certainly it
can't be. He's not a filthy spirit; He's a holy Spirit. And then when you become subject to that
Spirit, it throws your whole being subject to that Spirit. And that
Spirit is nothing in the world but this Seed Word made manifest, or quickened.
(Hallelujah.), made alive. And when the Bible said, "Don't do this,"
that body quickly turns to it; there's no question. And what is it? It's the earnest of the
resurrection. This body will be raised up again, because it's
already started. It was once subject to sin, and mire, and corruption, but
now it's got the earnest; it's turned heavenly. Now, that's the earnest that
you're going in the rapture. It's the earnest.
I John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is
born of God. 10 In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
Psalms 11:7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness;
his countenance (His Face His Presence)
Therefore His Presence doth behold (provides for) the upright.
II Timothy 4:8 Notice God's Presence provides for His Righteous seed. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
I John3:1 ¶ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He (God) is pure. 4 ¶ Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Now, remember, sin is unbelief
for we read in John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
In the sermon Jesus Christ the Same 52-0810E E-58 Now, the
Bible said, "Go and sin no more, or
a worse thing would come upon you." Is
that right? That means, "Go and disbelieve
no more." Sin is unbelief. See?
That's the first thing. That's all there is to it, is unbelief, is sin. 'Cause when you believe... Jesus said, "He that believeth shall not be condemned. He that heareth My
Words and believeth on Him that sent Me, has
Everlasting Life, and shall not come into condemnation." It's all in faith, if you believe it.
Ministry
Explained 50-0711 E-48 What is
sin? Not drinking, not smoking, not gambling, not
rejecting church. Sin is unbelief. Is that right? He that believeth not is
condemned already. See? You're not destroyed or separated from God because
you're a sinner. You're separated from God because you refuse to walk with
Him, to walk in His provided way.
1 John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to
take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not: whosoever (disbelieves) has not seen him, neither has known him. 7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth
righteousness is righteous (he that does what is right, is
right), even as He (God) is righteous (even
as God is right).
8 He that (disbelieves) is of the
devil; for the devil (disbelieved) from
the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not (disbelieve); for his (God's) seed remaineth in him: and he cannot (disbelieve), because he is born of God. 10 In
this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever
doeth not righteousness (whosoever doeth not that which is
right) is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 ¶ For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, [who] was of that wicked one,
and slew his brother.(Now,
this tells us there is a way to love and a way not to love) And wherefore slew he him? Because his
own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
Look, Jesus said I do not speak my own words, but the father's which sent me.
Therefore, I do not my own works, but the Father's
shows me what to do and that is what I do. I do not have my own doctrine, but only that which the Father
gave me, and I do not my own will, but the
Father's will. Therefore, what Glory I have is given to me because I
seek not my own will. This is the essentiality of our sonship. If we could just come to the place where we take God at His Word.
That's our beginning. He promised to give us a new
heart, which brother Branham said is a
new understanding. Then that new heart or new understanding will
produce in us a new desire. And when all our desires have changed, then He
promised to give us His Spirit, which is His Life through His Word.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him. 24 He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and
the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Therefore, our actions must
come forth out of our love for His Word. And let's face it, if we really knew
His Word, and if we really believed His promises were real, then why would we
ever consider holding onto our own will. He said all things will work together
for our good. Then what are we afraid of. I'll tell you why you are afraid. Because you don't believe God.
To See Jesus
54-0718E And the Bible
said in Hebrews, the 10th chapter, "He that sins willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." Hebrews 10:47, I believe it is. "he that sins willfully." What is sin? Sin is unbelief.
There's no other answer for sin.
E-41 Drinking, smoking,
gambling, doing evil things, that isn't sin; that's the attributes of unbelief.
You do that because you're an unbeliever. If you was
a believer, you would not do those things. It bears the fruits of joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, patience, holiness. That's the fruits of the Spirit. But the fruits of the evil spirit is doubt. "He that believeth not is condemned already." Then if the truth comes to you in such a way, that you
have a knowledge of it, and then refuse to receive it,
there remains no more sacrifice for your sin, but a fearful looking
towards the judgment. God have mercy, that there'll not be one person like that
in this audience tonight, or nowhere else in the world, would be my prayer.
Seal Of The Anti
Christ 55-0311 E-44 Now, Paul picks it up in the 5th chapter of
Hebrews. He said, "If we sin willfully..." Sin is unbelief, then if we disbelieve willfully, after the truth has been presented to us,
there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for the judgment." Then if the Gospel truth has
been presented to people and they turn their head and reject it, then Satan
takes them to the post. They're willing to serve their creeds and so forth,
stick their ear out, and bore it in there, and you'll never be able to
understand the truth no more. That's the type, and there's the antitype.
Paul said the same thing, "If we disbelieve willfully--willfully after we've received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking
for the judgment, fiery judgment shall devour the adversary." There you are: To reject the
Holy Spirit of God, after you've received it, and believe and know, you
hold back with prejudice… 45 Sinner will come into the audience, he will look
around and say, "Aw, I tell you; there's nothing to that." Walk out
just as stiff as he can be. Brother, one of these times you'll walk out for
the last time. And some people will walk into a meeting where they're
seeing the Holy Spirit move, and say, "That's the devil's work." Do
you realize the danger line that you're on.
Law 55-0115 E-29 Now, look.
"For it is
impossible (See?) for those who were once enlightened, made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, to fall away again. For if we sin (disbelieve) willfully..." Let it soak. "If we disbelieve willfully after we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." If the truth of the Gospel has
been presented to you in such a way that you have to see it, and because of
popularity, or something else, that you turn your back to it and walk away and
don't want to see it, there's where you cross the line. "For he that
disbelieves willfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."
I would like to say like
brother Branham, "what's the matter with you". "What's the matter with the people today". I'll tell you what's the matter,
they don't believe there is judgment for the sinner. They don’t believe there
is a hell for the unbeliever. And we need to preach more hell, fire and
Brimstone to shake you up.
Inter Veil
56-0121 And if you sin, disbelieve willfully, after the
Gospel's been presented to you, that soul nature of yours will gradually move away from you,
and you'll feel it no more, just drawn away. You won't know it. E-47 You say, "Well, I know, I believe
I'm right."… That's what's the matter with
What shall we do
with Jesus 64-0126 pp 144 Listen, Hebrews
10 says this,
"If we sin
willfully (disbelieve
willfully) after we
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." If you sin willfully after It's
has been identified to you, and then you turn It down, you are absolutely no
chance of ever repenting.
The Token 64-0208 62 If we disbelieve willfully after we have a
knowledge of the truth, there is no more sacrifice for sin. Think of it. No matter what you're
thinking in your heart, the Token can never be applied. If you reject it
the last time, then it cannot be applied, for he that sins or disbelieves
willfully.
God's Power to
transform 65-0911 191
That's Thus Saith Gods
Holy Word. If we
disbelieve willfully after we have seen It and heard
It, then we're across the line. There'll never be no
more forgiveness for it; you've crossed the line. "Oh," you say, "God
still blesses me." Oh, yeah.
Abraham's Grace Covenant "For if we disbelieve willfully, any Scriptural thing or whatever it might be, if we disbelieve willfully,
say, " What did they say? "We can't
take it. They're too big for us. We can't..."
"If I have to step out my
organization... If I accept that, they'll turn me out. I won't have any place
to go. Nobody will back me up." Who wrote
the Bible, your organization? Who's responsible for the Word, your
organization? God's responsible for His Word. God will take care of His own. God will back you up. Any man that ever amounted
to very much in this life, were man who stood alone with God. That's the
way, if you ever stand, you'll have to stand.
The Token 64-0208 64 Don't sin willfully, don't
disbelieve willfully. If there's something in you, that'll say,
"Well, now, I
don't see where I need the Holy Ghost. I might not need it. I believe when I
believed I got it."
Paul said to the people that asked that question; he said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you
have believed?"
The Holy Ghost is a Token. A man believes God; that is true enough, but the
Holy Ghost is a gift of God. It's something different than your faith. Your
faith applies it; that's exactly right. But The Holy Ghost is the Witness. We'll see just
in a few minutes how it works, and what takes place, where we can be sure where
we know whether we're right or not. It warns us that the time is at hand. 67 We should love one another during this time.
The church and the
believers should be unseparable. Believers should separate themselves
from all the things of the world. Everything that's ungodly, the believer
should separate himself from it. Notice. They were not just to come together to
talk about it, and say "We believe it." They were come together to apply the blood, not
come say, "Oh, sure I believe that," walk home. They had to come
and apply the blood, that the Token might be seen. Get beneath it.
That's... Today, we set and hear the message preached. We read it out of the
Bible. We say "Oh, yes, I believe that." That ain't what God
requires. No matter how
much you believe it, you've got to have it. Church, wake up.
1 John
In other words our life in Christ becomes
an echo of the Father’s Words for everyone to hear. For the Son of God echoes
forth the Words of the Father and when we echo His Words we are echoing the
Words of Life.
Now, in closing. It's not enough to echo what
God says, but the real assurance is to know that you are echoing Him. To know
that you are a reflection of His own Life expressed in your. Then noting can
separate you from the Love of God.
If we know we echo His Life then our whole nature
changes, and our relationship with God changes, and we enter into such a peace
that no man could ever rob you of your confidence in your relationship to God
and thus God’s word.
So in closing, let's read the next verse from 1 John
5, and that will be verse 13.
1 John
So
here is not the fact that you echo
but the fact that you know that you are echoing. Because then
the echo is not just something being done out of rote learning or just repetition, as
though you are able to simply repeat what you hear. Because to just repeat does
not mean that you truly know and understand what you are repeating. But to know
that you are echoing back the same words and the same Life as the Son means
that you also understand what those words are that you are saying.
How
many people can quote the scriptures verbatim and not even know what it is that
they are saying. The denominational world is full of such people. And Jesus
faced those kind of people all the time.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God; that ye may know that ye “Echo Eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God.
Knowing
that we echo brings a certain peace and rest from our own works, and enter into an assurance of Faith that brings us into a peace
that surpasses all understanding.
We
find ourselves saying the same thing as the prophet said,
when we are confronted by the same unbelief he was confronted with. I do not know how many times this has
happened to me when men will bring up a question, or will challenge our
understanding of the doctrine of Christ, and I find words coming our of my
mouth that I had not even thought about, but when I check them out later, I
find brother Branham had said those very same words and so it brings comfort.
Remember,
Jesus said, “He
that will confess me before men, I will confess before My Father which is in
Heaven.” And knowing the word confess was taken from the Greek word Homo-logeo
which means the same words, I find it quite comforting to find myself saying
the same words as the Son of God said, because those are the Words of Life that
came forth from the Father. For Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life.”
I
John
This
statement alone ensures us of tremendous blessings and confidence or absence of
fear. How could God deny any part of Himself. He can't.
Then how could He deny His Seed? He can't. Then what have we to fear? He is
here to ensure that we do not fall this time.
In
Ephesians