What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 8
Great is the Mystery of Godlikeness
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
Last Sunday we spoke from paragraph no 8 from What was
the holy Ghost Given for and examined the difference between the Comforter
which is the Holy Ghost that is Given to us, and the Spirit of Truth which is
the Spirit of God in a prophetic ministry that is to lead us into all truth. To
do so we examined Scriptures from John 14 through John 16.
This morning I would like to continue with the next
paragraph which is number 9 of Brother Branham's sermon, What the Holy Ghost was Given for, and we will read
what brother Branham had to say.
9 Jesus said that, "At that day you'll know that I am in the
Father, and the Father is in Me, and you're--I'm in
you, and you're in Me."
Now, if we were going to say this... Now, remember, this is going to be on
tape. A Christian businessman out of Louisville called me awhile ago, and he
said, "It's a shame, Billy, that these messages like you said last night,
doesn't get to forty thousand here instead of a hundred and fifty, or two
hundred, three hundred people at your little tabernacle." I said,
"Sir, in six months from now, if Jesus tarries, the whole world around
will hear this." See? Them tapes go all over the
world (See?), all around. And therefore, we are teaching here now just what we
believe to be truth and what we have found out that God has confirmed it to us
to be truth.
10 Now, the
purpose... What was God's purpose in sending the Holy Spirit? (Now,
mark that down, John
14, beginning at
the 14th verse and reading through the chapter
for the basis.) God's purpose we find here in sending the Holy
Spirit, was one purpose:
that God Himself might dwell in His church and continue His plans through
the church, that God was in Christ continuing His plans through Christ, out of
Christ into the church, continuing His work through the church. Now, we
know what the Holy Spirit is. We found out last night that It's God. Now, when we
think of God the Father (as Jesus spoke of here), His Father, God the
Son as Jesus, God the Holy Spirit, as what we call It today, now, that does not mean that there is three
individual, distinct gods. It means that there is one God in three
offices. May we say it like this: All that God was, He poured into
Christ, because He emptied Himself and poured it into Christ. And Christ was the Fullness of the Godhead
bodily. All that
Jehovah was, He poured into Christ. And all that Christ was, He poured
into the church, not
into one individual, but into the entire Body. There where we come
together in unity, we have power. All that God was, was in Christ, and
all that Christ was, is in you. "For
God was made flesh and dwelled among us." (I Timothy
Now, let's go ahead
and read it for ourselves. 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God
was manifest in
the flesh, justified in
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into
glory.
Now, I would like to examine this Scripture here along
with brother Branham's words concerning it to better understand what God's
prophet is telling us here.
And let me say this, that this Scripture is one that
the Oneness believers have a great difficulty understanding because of the way
the words are spoken. And as we had to break down Isaiah
9:6 one thought at a time in order to understand it, we must also
break down this scripture one thought at a time to understand it. Because if
you read Isaiah 9:6 like you read a book,
you will skip over many find points of distinction and you will come out with a
Son of God who is born and yet that son is the everlasting father and the
mighty God. But that is not what it says at all.
Therefore, let me read first from Isaiah 9:6 one thought at a time, and then we can
do the same for 1 Timothy
Now, I remember very vividly 13 years ago in 2001, I
was holding a ministers meeting in
And to be very honest, I did not have a clue because I
had never heard brother Vayle address this nor brother Branham. I had no
answer, but just as I began to say so, the Holy Spirit spoke to me within and
said, read it one thought at a time. So I said the same thing to the brother
who asked the question. I said, let's just read Isaiah 9:6, not as a book, but
let's read it one thought at a time, because God's Word are the thoughts of God, and if we read them all
through like we race to read through a book, we will not understand His
thoughts.
So I said let's open our Bibles and read the full
statement and then break it down one thought at a time. Isaiah 9:6 "For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace.
Then I said, "now, let's
go back and read it over one thought at a time to get an understanding of what
it is telling us".
Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born," Now,
that is the first thought here. And notice that thought tells us a child is
born, Now if a child is born then someone had to give
birth to that child. So number 1)
we see there was someone who existed before the child existed.
Number 2) If a child is born, then someone greater than him had to
carry him.
Number 3) If that child is born, then it has a beginning so it can not
be the everlasting Father.
For the fact that he is born negates his being the
everlasting Father. You can not have something that is born which means it has
a beginning be the Father of itself. That is not
possible. So we must consider these words as we read the rest of the words if
we are to understand what this Scripture is telling us.
Next we read, "unto us a son is given": Now, we also have
several facts here that must be considered.
1) This one
that is born is a son.
2) All sons
have beginnings.
3) This son is given, therefore
4) There
is someone who gave him. And if we can find out who gave this son, we will
find out His relationship to the Everlasting Father and the mighty God.
Therefore we must know who gave this son as a gift,
and we are told in John
Thus we find out that God, the mighty God gave this
son, so this son could not be the mighty God himself.
5) In fact
this one who gave him is greater than the gift that he gave, because the giver
is always greater than the gift.
And
in John
Next we read concerning
this child that is born and this son that is given, it says, "and the government shall be upon his shoulder:"
Now,
concerning this statement brother Branham said in his sermon,
Sign of His coming 62-0407
P:118 Some of the Pentecostal people today don't even count Martin Luther
and them, because they
say he didn't have the Holy Ghost. He did. He might not have had it in the depths
that we get it in now, but it wasn't for that time. Don't holler. We may get to
something right sticky in a few minutes. See? So you see, Wesley and those
brethren... Sure they was. What was it? It was a body,
growing from the feet, coming up, comes up more important parts of the body
from the feet, on into the lungs, and the heart, on into the Head. Who is the
Head? Who is the Head? Christ. That's the
intelligence. How's the body move? By the head.
Amen. And the government shall be upon what? His... [Audience replies, "Shoulders."--Ed.] What is His
shoulders? His body.
Amen. There's where the real true church speaks in His power. There's where
the apostolic power returns to the church, when the government shall be upon
His shoulders; judgment. There's coming a real church, I believe,
trying to do my part to present it, have it ready the best I know how, to
present my part in my age to Christ when He comes.
So you see the scriptural thought we read from Isaiah
doesn't even pertain to one person, this son that was born as you would think
if you just read it as a book. It pertains to the body of Christ.
And then we read the next thought, and his name shall be called and then we read
off a list of titles and not names. 1. Wonderful, Is
wonderful a name? NO! Counsellor,
Is counsellor a name? NO! The mighty God, Is
mighty God a name? NO! The everlasting Father, Is
everlasting father a name? NO! The
Prince of Peace. Is
prince of peace a name? NO!
Then we must ask ourselves, if these titles are just
titles and not actually a name, then what does it mean
when it says his name shall be called. So what does this
word called mean?
And we find the Hebrew word translated into the
English word "called"
was translated from the Hebrew word "qara"
which actually means "to call out or proclaim".
So really the verse should have been translated,
"and his name shall call out or proclaim"
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
And
Jesus told us in John
Therefore if Jesus came in the name of His
father, then his name, "Jesus" shall proclaim the "Mighty God", the name Jesus shall
proclaim the Everlasting Father, the name
Jesus shall proclaim the Wonderful Counsellor etc. And the word
proclaim means "to declare".
And
that is exactly what Jesus said he came to do. John
1:18 No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Hebrews 2:12 Saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I
sing praise unto thee.
Acts 13:41 Behold,
ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man
declare it unto you.
Now,
let's take what we just learned from Isaiah 9:6
how important it is to read every thought from God's Word, and apply it to 1 Timothy 3:16, because that is the Scripture
brother Branham is bringing our here this morning in paragraph no 10 of "What the Holy Ghost was Given for".
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the
mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Now,
let's look at this scripture and break it down also one thought at a time.
1 Timothy
But this Scripture says without
controversy, so what this means is basically this: There can be no
argument, and then it tells us what there can be no argument concerning.
It says, great is the
mystery of godliness: Therefore, what this scripture tells us
so far is that there can be no argument that the Mystery of Godliness is great.
Now, this kind of a round about way of saying, you can't argue the fact that
the mystery of Godliness is great. And I do not think anyone will tell you the
mystery of Godliness is not great. For this is what has kept men in the dark
for 2000 years is how that God could be manifested in the flesh. You see the word Godliness comes from the
words God Likeness. And what paul
is saying is that you will get no argument concerning how great the mystery of
Godlikeness is. everyone agrees that it is a great
mystery.
The word mystery comes from the Greek word musterion,
which means to shut the mouth, and it implies the idea of silence. In other
words, there isn't much that can be said about it, because it is not very well
understood.
So "great is the
mystery of Godlikeness: for God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Now,
this the great mystery of God-likeness, and there's no
disagreement when it comes to seeing this God-likeness, and what a great
mystery it is. How that God could be manifested in the flesh when God is a spirit.
Now
the word Godliness as I said comes
from the old English for God-Likeness.
In other words when we say this person or that person is Godly, we are saying they are God-like. therefore, Godliness is God-Likeness.
Just
as the Scripture speaks of a righteous
person is known for their righteous
works, we also see that the wicked
are known for doing wickedly as we
see in the Book of Daniel.
Daniel 12:10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and
tried; but the wicked
shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand;
but the wise shall understand.
Therefore
the Godly are God-like because of what they do is like God, what he would do.
1 John 3:7 Little
children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as
He (God)
is righteous. Now, the word righteous in English comes from the old
English rightly wise. YOU are righteous because you are rightly wise, and by
showing in your works what is rightly wise you are expressing what is called
righteousness. Therefore, you righteousness comes from doing what is rightly
wise, not just talking about it.
1 John
Matthew 10:41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a
prophet's reward; and he
that receiveth a righteous man (that is receiving a man that does what is right) in the name of a
righteous man shall receive a righteous man's
reward. So when you receive a man that does what is right in
the name of a man that does what is right, you will receive the reward of a man
that is right, because you are doing what is right. So then what happens to
those who walk away from and will not receive a man that is doing what is
right? They won't receive a righteous mans reward will they?
Romans
Now,
in the next scripture we will read you will see how important it is to God that
you do what is right to do, because there will be many who enter into eternal
Life at the white throne who come in based on what they do, their works. So
those who think they need to do no works they haven't got a clue as to what
righteousness actually is.
Matthew 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty,
and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a
stranger, and took thee in? or
naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when
saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And
the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto
them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I
was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked,
and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then
shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or
in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.
Now, in getting back to what Paul was teaching in 1 Timothy
Now, this Scripture does not say God was flesh, for
God is Spirit, Jesus Himself said that.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit:
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
But Paul says, for God
was manifest in
the flesh, and so we must understand how that God was manifest
in the flesh. And whose flesh did he manifest Himself in.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
Now, you can't get any
more definitive than this. It says here that God is the Word, the Logos, or rather the Word,
the Logos was God, period.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Now,
this is not speaking of another who was with God but rather it speaks of the
nature of God and what he was and is. he is the Word,
and therefore His Word was always with Him because it is Who he is. "As a man thinketh in his
heart so is he." And man was
created in the image of God. Therefore God is the sum of His thinking, His
Word.
3 All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made.
Now, this is not
speaking of the Son of God because the Son could do nothing but what he saw the
father do. Jesus the son of God is not a creator, nor is he a healer. The son
himself said in John
Now, this is the same
John who wrote chapter 5 where he says in verse 26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he
given to the Son to have life in himself;
Therefore this one he
speaks of in verse 4 where he says, 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
he is not speaking of the son of God but
God Himself.
And then John says, 5 And the light shineth
in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Now, we could take a
whole series on this one statement, but that is not our point today, but we
have a principle here, only those who have God-Life in them will understand the
things of God. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. And we could say the
same for this hour, There was a man sent from God,
whose name was William Branham 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness
of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He
(John or William) was not that Light,
but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true
Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into
the world. 10 He
was in the world, (when did he come into the world? John will
let us know in a few more verses) and the world
was made by him, (he's still speaking of God) and the world knew him not. 11 He came
unto his own, (the Jews were his chosen people) and his own received him not. 12 But as
many as received him, (as many as who acted
as a receptacle or tabernacle for) to them
gave he power (exousia, the ability
to make a right decision) to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which (he's
still talking about sons here) Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, (not your
will) nor of the will of man, (not your ability to will) but of God. (in other words, it is God
working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.) Now,
whose he talking about here. Sons right? Then
why would he deviate and go back to talking about God. Notice then says,
14 And the Word was made flesh, (in other words, he was talking about how sons of God
are born ones, not by any power they have nor of any will of their own, but by
God working in them both to will and to do. And the Word (God) was made flesh. In who? In son and then sons) and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his (God's) glory, (God's doxa, God's opinions, God's
values, God's judgments) the glory (doxa)
as of the only begotten of the Father,) (and
didn't Jesus tells us in John 17, the same John that wrote this verse as well.
did not this John say of Jesus in John 17:22 And the glory (the doxa, the values,
opinions, and judgments) which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even
as we are one:)
14 And the
Word was made flesh, (How deity tabernacled Himself in His son) and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his (God's) glory, the glory (doxa) as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace
and truth. 15 John
bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for
he was before me.
Now, when did John bare witness of The Light, and of
Him in whom the Light entered? At the river
Now, let's continue with 1
Timothy
Well this word justify was translated from the Greek
word dikaioo, which means to render innocent or
righteous, and render means to show forth. So God showed through the
manifestation of Himself in the body of His son when His son declared Him, that he was the innocent one, the righteous one because
what he did was righteous.
Then Paul says that God which manifested Himself in
the body of His son was seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into
glory.
Notice then that this Scripture does not speak of God himself
becoming flesh, but rather how that God manifested Himself in flesh, so we need
to know whose flesh this was and we have already proven this by knowing the
things Jesus said concerning the Father that dwelled in Him, and how he
declared the father through the things he did, the life he lived, the things he
spoke.
In closing let's look at the dialogue
between Philip and Jesus in John 14
Now, I want you to
read this all the way through because this is how the oneness missed the
understanding of how God was in Christ, and this is how people right in this
message miss the significance of John 14:12
because they read it as an isolated thought instead of how Jesus was explaining
to Philip how God manifested Himself in Himself and then in sons, beginning
with Himself as the eldest son and then in his vast family of brothers..
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I
am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known (an experiential relationship
with) me, ye should have known (experienced) my Father also: and from henceforth ye know (experience) him, and have seen (understood) him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father,
and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen (understood) me hath seen (understood) the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the
Father?
Now, most oneness stop
here but we must read on because Jesus explains to us how we see and thus
understand God in and through Him.
10 Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? the words
that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
Now, our Message
brethren will stop here, but notice he is talking about how God can be seen in
Him by the very things he does and speaks. Then he tells us how that God will
be manifested in and through other sons (believers, as brother Branham defined
as those who have been born again by the spirit of God) in the very next verse.
12 Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He (whoever, anybody, everybody, every believer, they, whosoever)
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto
my Father. 13 And whatsoever ye shall
ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. 14 If ye shall ask any
thing in my name, I will do it. 15 If ye love me, keep
my commandments. 16 And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you
for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth (understandeth) him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you.
There's your mystery of Godlikeness, for God was and is today manifested in flesh
through the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit, and the same Spirit
that was in Jesus if it be in you will quicken also your mortal body by that
same Spirit that dwelt in him.
Let us pray.