The Perfecting of the Saints Pt.2
EPHESIANS 4:11-16
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Notice “He gave” – these are gifts, and so God sends these different ministering gifts into the body for the purpose of advancing the clarity of the revelation of the word for the age in the hearts of the elect for the age – because the word released for the age produces the faith that is required to accomplish the purpose of God for that age. Because in each church age, God had an achievement that was prophesied for that age)
12 For the perfecting of the saints (this means to fully equip, or to "complete" what is unfinished), for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Because in this last age, Malachi 4’s ministry wasn’t all these gifts somehow wrapped up in this one man so that we don’t need the 5-fold ministry any more after he’s gone. Because the bible didn’t end at Revelation 10:7, but it continued on into a bride age of the bride’s relationship and marriage with Christ – and this is why you won’t find anywhere in the message where Brother Branham preached on Revelation 10:8-11, because that was to be the bride’s part to preach and to fulfil that part after the seventh angel had finished his work and left the scene in December 1965)
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Fullness is to be completed. And this completeness is to do with having a mature understanding of the word revealed for your day, and how your life is to look like in relation to the fulfilment of what has been prophesied for this end time hour)
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: (The head represents the thoughts)
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Every person in the body of Christ has a part of which to edify the rest of the body.
ISAIAH 64:8
8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
God is a potter that is molding and shaping us by all the trials and struggles that we go through in this life, and He is creating us into vessels that will be fit for an eternal use and purpose. And so that is why life can seem a little rough and dizzying at times – it’s because we are all on a potter’s wheel, and each day is like one revolution of the wheel, and God is the great potter who is individually shaping our characters for an eternal purpose that He has for each one of us in that great eternal kingdom of God that is soon to come.
The Perfecting of the Saints Pt.2
EPHESIANS 4:11-12
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
There are some (that for various reasons) think that in this last age we can somehow be perfected by the single ministry of the messenger that God sent to this last age without these other gifts of the 5-fold ministry of what the scripture speaks of in Ephesians 4, in that all we have to do is press play and obey. I also press play and obey, but I also believe in Ephesians 4.
We read this quote last week...
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.THE.SEALS_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0324M
494-4 {232} 22. Would the Bride of Christ have... Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the rapture?
Sure. That's what's going on right now. See? The Bride of Christ... Certainly. It is the Message of the hour (See?), the Bride of Christ. Sure, She's consist of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Is that right? That's the Bride of Christ. Sure, She's got a ministry, great ministry; it's the ministry of the hour; it'll be so humble...
In the Church Age Book, he says…
231-4 THYATIREAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.6
…Now God kept raising up not only the messengers to each age but He raised up some wonderful helpers for those messengers. He gave every age some wonderful men of God and they did everything they could to bring the church back to God.
Nowhere does the Prophet of God teach us that there is to be no more 5 fold ministry after this last 7th age messenger.
I want to read a quote that I mentioned last week but didn’t read – and it was concerning this subject of showmanship, of how that Jesus wasn’t a showman.
And this is important, because if we are looking for him in this hour, we won’t find him by looking for Him in some kind of showman type performance.
And we are saying this because the true 5 fold ministry will be a humble group like Christ was – “it’ll be so humble”
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17 Many times, people misunderstands. And when they say, "Brother Branham, you're--you're... You don't go to the places like you used to, and like these other ministers do, and have all the..." I--I learned one thing, that learning a lesson from our Bible and from our Lord, that Jesus was not a showman. He--He lacked that; He didn't have showmanship. See, He--He wasn't a showman at all. And I don't believe that His disciples are showmen. Never did they ever make themselves showmen.
That's where I think we miss the boat a lot today (maybe it's just my own idea), that when we have to make a big blow about everything, you know, why, I think it looks like it's more of a show than it is the sacredness.
19 Did you notice in the coming of the Lord, those who really received Him was Simeon, nobody never heard nothing about him, but he was looking for the Lord; blind Anna in the temple, John the Baptist in the wilderness. And those...
John went in the wilderness at nine years old, never appeared again till he was thirty: in the wilderness. And men like that who secretly believed, and kept humble, they was looking for the coming of the Lord. And they never did blow their meetings up and have to put it on great signs (the hour, the time) and--and telecasts and everything. That's all right to those who want to do it that way, but, to me, that doesn't seem Christlike.
*Last week we pressed pause this subject by showing that there are 3 areas of “saved” that we as believers are all to experience of a past, present, and future “saved” or deliverances of God’s grace.
II CORINTHIANS 1:10
10 Who delivered us from so great a death (this is past tense – because the wages of sin is death, but He took our place so that we would not have to pay this penalty of death for our own sin – and so our first deliverance by God was from the judgment and penalty of our own sinfulness), and doth deliver (present tense – referring to the struggles of this life, and how that “many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all” Psalms 34.19): in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (this is future tense – a future deliverance from our carnal natures of our fleshly existence of which has been in continual conflict with the nature of God that lays within us)
Notice – 3 stages of our journey that involve 3 separate deliverances by God. **And so this is why we will find different places in the bible of where the scriptures teach us of each of these three “salvations” categories.
The last one of what we just read “in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;” - we find that this final deliverance is also taught all over the scriptures:
I CORINTHIANS 15:47-54
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 ¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
**And so when we get to the end of Roman’s 7, we find that Paul begins to open up and put into words about this problem of all humanity of what we all (as human beings that have come birthed into this world into fallen human bodies) have to struggle with in this life.
ROMANS 7:19-21
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Paul is describing here the problem that as believers we all have, because if we are truly believers of the word of God, then we will naturally desire from our hearts to serve the Lord because of the spirit of Christ that dwells within us, and so that part is not our problem. But our problem is that we are still living in a body that has a carnal and sinful nature interwoven all through it because of the fact that we were conceived wrong because of the original sin, and so we all came birthed into the world by a permissive way of the permissive will of God – but what we need to realize, is that this problem of our spirits (that are in constant conflict with our fallen flesh bodies) is only allowed for by God only for the duration of this lifetime, because we are promised a new body that will not even have one speck of a carnal or sinful nature dwelling in it.
ROMANS 7:24-25
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
*When Brother Branham went beyond the curtain of time and experienced the feeling of being in that new body for the first time, he said that the pressure of what we feel by living in this carnal body on earth was completely gone.
But for now, and for this season of our earthly journey, God has a reason for leaving us here in this condition of (as the apostle Paul puts it) “wretchedness”, because He wants to use this condition as a tool in His hand in order to shape you as a vessel of soft clay on his great potter’s wheel.
II CORINTHIANS 5:1-2
1 ¶ For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
*Notice again – this is speaking of a future “salvation” that is to take place.
But right now, God is dealing with us as a potter would with the clay on his potter’s wheel.
ISAIAH 64:8 opening scripture…
8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
So this scripture is dealing with our everyday lives (“our boots on the ground” – as we could say) of what we are living out right now at this time. And how that we are being shaped by the Lord for an eternal purpose of use in the great economy of the kingdom of heaven which is soon to come upon the earth.
And so in the scope of all eternity, this season of mortal life is such a short time in comparison.
Paul writes…
ROMANS 8:18
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
*And so God by His great wisdom has allotted for each of us a set period of time on earth of which we get to struggle by the sheer fact of our occupation of this “mortal coil” under which we are to endure for a short season of what Paul terms this “wretched” condition of this contrast between our two struggling natures that are trying to live together with each other yet while at total odds and in total disagreement - like the bad marriage of a married couple who are always fighting and disagreeing. And so we are all effectively stuck in a bad marriage by this bad union of the marriage of our spirit to our flesh.
**It’s like Abigail being married to Nabal. All Nabal thought of was to act foolishly, and to do evil, but Abigail was all about wisdom and doing good, and so the only thing that fixed her problem in the end was the death of Nabal, and her new marriage to her new husband David (we have preached on this subject before about the two husbands of Abigail, Ruth, and Bathsheba).
*The term we sometimes use “this mortal coil”. The word “coil” is the old English word of what we would now use the word “turmoil”, and so it refers to all the troubles that come with human existence.
The phrase “this mortal coil” was apparently made famous in Shakespeare's Hamlet in the line "to shuffle off this mortal coil," meaning to leave behind the difficulties and struggles of human life by dyeing.
**And so all who have ever come and have had the privilege to live on this earth know full well about the toils and struggles of life.
*But God has designed a great purpose in allowing these “earthly troubles” for a season, because all this conflict that we all struggle through in life is only a school of learning that we go through so that we will learn not just by head knowledge only, but by the experience of the grace and mercy of God in the personal things of everyday life.
My heart was distressed ‘neath Jehovah’s dread frown,
And low in the pit where my sins dragged me down;
I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay,
Who tenderly brought me out to golden day.
Life here on earth is so that you can not just learn about things because someone told you something – but that you can actually experience it for yourself, of which is a far deeper and lasting level of learning.
He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!
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E-6 And that's the way it is with Jesus Christ. As a sinner, I found Him to be a Saviour. And I know that He saves from sin. I experienced it. And I know that He heals sickness, because I have experienced it.