The Parables of Christ 2

If The Light of the Eye be Single

October 19, 2003

Rev. Brian Kocourek

This morning we will continue looking at the parables and symbols Jesus Used in the New Testaments and applying these to the Day and hour in which we live.

Last week we began this series by reading the symbols that Jesus used in Matthew 5, where he said, MATTHEW 5:13 ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Notice, He told them that they are the salt of the earth, and then told them, “however, if the salt looses is savour, what good will it be? We found the Greek word that savour was translated from a word which means insipid, Lacking flavor or zest or in other words, Lacking excitement, stimulation, or interest; they had become dull, and the light they were to reflect had become dull in them. Because He went on to say in the next verse, 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We went on to show that the symbol of the basket that Jesus referred to that was hiding the light was the very life and blessings that God had given the people.

We examined the Scriptures and found 35 times that the word basket was used and in all of them we found that it referred to the benefits or blessings from God, and also referred to their life.

We found that Paul’s life was saved when he escaped from Jerusalem being let down over the walls in a basket. Moses was saved from death at the hands of pharaoh’s soldiers when he was floated to safety in a basket. Jesus showed forth the power of God and the blessings from God when he took a little fish and several loaves from a basket and blessed them, and multiplied them, and after everyone had enough to eat there were 12 baskets left over. In the Book of Two Laws, Deuteronomy God told the children of Israel that when they entered into the land of promise, they were to take from the blessings of the land and place them in a basket and offer them up to the Lord. In the blessings and cursing God promised the people that they would be either blessed or cursed in their basket depending on their attitude towards His Word.

So we saw the importance of what Jesus was telling the people in this symbol. He said you are the Light of the world, you are the lamps to the world to show them the way, but if you get so involved in your life and the blessings that I have given you, you will become of no use to me, nor to the world that you are to be reflecting my light to.

Look how brother Branham turned down wealth in order to keep his focus on Christ. Yet we find so many today building kingdoms for themselves at the expense of other churches that were little to begin with. So many little churches that have struggled have just folded their tents because the big churches went after their sheep. That is exactly what David had done and God cursed him for it, and he reaped very difficult times for what he did. And so we must take into consideration the basket of plenty that represents us before God and make sure our lamps are trimmed and burning, lest we end up as the rest of Laodicea who look to their riches and their increases and because they were blessed with so much they soon forgot where it come from and thus the very blessings from God turned out to be their curse. Why? Because they looked to the gifts instead of the Giver of Gifts.

I do not know why men strive to have big groups when He is not coming for a big group anyway. Br. Branham said, from DOES GOD CHANGE HIS MIND ABOUT HIS WORD 65-0418E 7 Now, being a little group... Remember, it's not a big group that He comes for: "Fear not, little flock; it's your Father's good will to give you the Kingdom..." See?

GOD KEEPS HIS WORD 57-0120E E-44 Ahab’s motives were wrong. He was trying to make a big showoff to trap Jehoshaphat. And that's the same thing the devil's trying to do today. "Why, we're in the majority." Sure, the Church of God has always been the minority, until Jesus comes. "Fear not, little flock; it's your Father's good will to give you the Kingdom." That's right. We are in the minority. But that's all right. As long as God is there, it's still majority to me, and I know it is to you. For if God is with you, who can be against you.

LIFE IS THE HEALER 57-0611 E-67 Two-thirds of the world heathens, and what one-third... What does a heathen mean? An unbeliever. Two-thirds of the world together make up that group and saying we don't need signs again. And look at the Christians, so-called. Look at the differences with them, unbelief. They're just a small percent of the Christians believe in Divine healing. Very few of them believe it. How much more we need the Lord Jesus in His resurrection tonight? No, wonder He said, "Fear not, little flock. And straight is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there'll be that'll find life.

TOTAL DELIVERANCE 59-0712 26 I want this Tabernacle, now that you're on your feet, I want you to keep pressing towards the mark of the high calling. Whatever you do, cling together, be as clannish as you can be, but always with a arm out to reach and get someone else to bring them in. But in this faith that we're now preaching and earnestly contending for, don't you move one inch from it. For if you believe me to be His servant, this is the program of God. It'll never be in the majority. It'll always be in the minority, always has and always will be. But remember, it is written, "Fear not, little flock; it's your Father's good will to give to you the Kingdom."

And now I would like to read a prophecy of Br. Branham’s which he has taken from the Scriptures. From the Message BE NOT AFRAID preached on June 6, 1960 He said, Lord, God of heaven and earth, the hours are creeping along. The night is growing dim; the light of the earth is going out. Soon You'll be here; it's darkness soon and no man can work. There'll be a controlling powers in this country that'll shut up such meetings as this. Soon we won't be able to have this kind of a meeting; it'll finally grow out. You spoke in Your Bible that they'd confederate themselves together; You said they would do it, and they will. And there'll come a great shaking amongst the people. And just only those who are recognized in this great federation will be able to hold meetings. And it'll be an intellectual group; the Spirit will be pushed off in the minority. But You said, "Fear not little flock. It's Your Father's good will to give you the kingdom." So I pray, Father, that while it's Light and we're walking, and have this wonderful nation that we're living in, freedom of religion, can still pray, and still have healing services, and serve You, let the people step into the Light while the Light is here. I pray that You'll anoint me tonight; help me, O Lord. I pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.

And speaking of the Light while we are still able to walk in it, I would like to continue this morning to search the Scriptures for symbols and parables that Jesus used, and we will examine their application to us in this hour. For Brother Branham said in the message Shalom, “all the new Testament speaks of this hour.” Therefore as we examine these parables and symbols in Scripture we want to find their application for us in this hour.

MATTHEW 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Now the word single was translated from a Greek word meaning literally to be un-braided, or un-twined with others. In other words, He is telling us if thy eye is singularly focused, then your light will be great, and then he says… 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. And the Greek word for evil is poneros which means full of labors and annoyances. In other words, so full of distractions, that there is no focus. Your focus can become blurred by a lot of distractions just like a lot of noise can muffle out what you may need to hear. When there are a lot of voices, it is hard to hear clearly the one you need to hear. Have you ever been in a room filled with people talking and you can hardly hear yourself speak when you are trying to tell someone something? And if you can’t hardly hear yourself talk, how much worse is it to hear the one you are talking to. You’ve all ear the expression, it’s so noisy in hear I can’t even hear myself think.

And if your life is so full of activities, and you are running here and running there, how can you even hear that still small voice of God trying to talk to you and have fellowship with you? If a trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who can prepare for the battle? And if you can’t even hear yourself think, then how are you going to hear the voce of God in the midst of all those distractions in your life? So many want to be like brother Branham and have the relationship he had with God, but how many do what he did? How many of you get up early in the morning and go out from the house just to get alone with God? How long are you willing to sit in quietness just to wait on an answer from God? Listen to this quote from the message Hear His Voice.

Brother Branham said HEAR HIS VOICE 58-1005M But there's so many voices today that takes the voice of the Lord away from us. There's the voice of pleasure. So many people are listening to that, where they can go and have a good time. And many of them are professing to be Christians. Some kind of an old rock-and-roll coming up, they just can't listen to what God... They say, "Well, I'm a Christian, I read a verse in the Bible today. Yeah, 'Jesus wept.'" That's it, go ahead. But then, to really get down and pray, they got to many other things to do. There's so many voices in the world, so many things to attract our attention from God.

I believe that our biggest problem we have in this church and in the Message in general is that the economy has been too good, and we need to pray that God would take away those distractions that have pulled us in every which way. What the church needs is a great depression. You say, why would you say that brother Brian? I say that because we know from a vindicated Prophet of God that the way up is down. And the way up is a Rapture and we know that it will come in a time that is very down economically speaking. Laodicea is rich and increased with good but decreased with God. They are blind to Him. But when the great depression comes, we will be caught up to be with him, so the way up is down. You see it?

VOICE OF GOD 63-0120M 25 And today, one reason that the church is in the condition that it's in, is because there is so many voices, so many other voices to attract the church from the Voice of God, till it's very doubtful that many would hear the Voice of God though It spoke right in their midst. They perhaps wouldn't even understand it, because it would be a foreign thing to them. They have got themselves so much centered on the voices of the day. 27 And if we notice in our Scripture reading, that the Voice of God was foreign to them. And it's become that way again today, that the Voice of God... There is so many other voices. And then if God promised He would give us that, and if other voices are contrary to the Voice of God, then it must be the voice of our enemy to confuse us, that we would not understand the Voice of God when it spoke.

Have you ever seen those pictures that are so full of colors and lines and curves and there is so much details that you can’t really see the picture. But if you begin to just focus down on that picture, and keep focusing in until your focus be single, eventually you will see that hidden picture. And that is what Jesus is telling us here. If we are clearly focused down on the Word then our light is great, but if we have so many distractions, then what light we do have becomes darkened by the distractions.

Jesus continues by saying, If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Now, this is very symbolic what He is saying here. If thy light be darkness then how great is thy darkness. Imagine that you who have light, and the light is a lamp unto your feet, but what if that light or that lamp becomes so darkened by the soot from the wick that you can’t even see any light coming out of that lamp. That is the same as all the distractions that we have around us today pulling our attention away from God’s voice to us. Then what light we do have actually becomes that which actually blinds us, because they all say, we have a prophet so we are ok, and yet they are not listening to the voice of that prophet and they are not taking heed to his message.

And the Apostle Paul told us the same thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. II CORINTHIANS 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Notice it is the devil that is using the gospel to blind the people. There are more complete sets of the voice of God out there than at any other time in the history of mankind, and yet there is more perversion and more distractions that at any other time as well. And thus we are becoming a people blinded by the very Gospel we proclaim to believe, because we have watered it down so much by shear volume that it no longer means so much to the people to have it. There was a time when we would listen to the prophet of God for hours every day. I could call one of the believers, and in the background you would hear the tape going. Someone would drive up in their car and we would hear the voice of God from their speakers. And that is when we could only gat a handful of tapes. And we would have gladly spent everything we had to get a tape or two of the prophet back then, but now that it has become so inexpensive, and we only have to pay $10 for an entire library of every sermon that was ever recorded of God’s prophet, and now that the people have full sets in just about every home, you will be hard pressed to hear anyone listening to a sermon. Now, I’m not saying that you aren’t. But You will be hard pressed to find people listening when they drive up, or when you call them. So I ask what voices are we listening too? What has our minds attention so much that we are not focused in on God’s Voice to us in this hour?

VOICE OF GOD 63-0120M 31 There is so many voices in the earth today, that it is absolutely a hard thing, because it deadens the Voice of the supernatural. There is so many intellectual voices, great voices of mighty man who are intellectual, that in their intellectual conditions, even shake the nations. They're just not overnight people, but they shake nations, bringing great organizations together, great campaigns, floweredly. And a person would be a bit confused. It's enough to confuse them, of how that these things go on and prosper. And there's voices that raise up and do these things, and it causes the Voice of God to be placed way back somewhere, the True Voice of God.

32 "And the Voice of God," they say, "how will we know it's the Voice of God?" Because for today... Then it was an a-vindicated prophet. Now, today, how we know it's the Voice of God, because it's the manifestation of the prophet's Word. This is God's Prophet. And a true Voice of God only brings back that real, living, supernatural God with His supernatural Word, with the supernatural manifestation of the true Word. Then we know that It's the Voice of God. Because and that super... There's so much other in the other realms, that just almost deaden That out. But, remember, It will glisten; It'll come forth. It'll do it.

33 Now, there is a voice today in the world of politics. That's a great voice. And people, absolutely, in this great day of politics, they'll... It's all mixed up in their churches and everything. And many times, that we have just seen recently, that the voice of politics is actually stronger than the Voice of God in the churches, or the American people would've never did what they just done. See? They'd have never done it. If the Voice of God would been kept alive in the church, they'd have never made that mistakes. But the voice of politics is so much stronger in the earth today than the Voice of God, until people sold their Christian birthright for a mess of popularity, education, and political power. It's such a shame to see it.

And so we see that the many voices has so cluttered p our minds that the people have become blinded and deaf to the voice of God in this hour.

Now, Paul told us that the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the people, and God’s prophet William Branham said in the sermon, PUTTING ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD 62-0607 E-104 To disbelieve the Word, you are blind. The preaching of the Gospel blinds the unbeliever.

And again in the sermon IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD 60-0328 E-20 How we ought to think today, that the preaching of the gospel blinds the unbeliever. No wonder they can't see: they're blinded. God says they have eyes, but can't see, ears but can't hear. God, if anything, I want Him to do for me, is open my spiritual eyes that I might recognize Him and look around and see Him, for He's everywhere. I want to see Him and be so acquainted with Him that I'll know Him on the very first sight. I'll recognize that It's God. That's my heart's desire, be as Abraham was.

I believe that we should pray for revelation more than anything else. Because if God does not open our eyes, then we will never see the kingdom of God. And if we can not see the kingdom of God how will we expect to enter into it? Then if we do not see the Kingdom of God, we are lost in our sins, and are on our road to hell. That’s how serious this Gospel should be taken. The people that say, what matter does it make whether we know it or understand it or not. The only ones who could say that are those who do not understand it, otherwise they would never make a statement like that. It does matter what you know and what you do not. How can you worship God in Spirit and Truth if you have not His Spirit and His Truth. Then your worship is in vain.

JOHN 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. Can’t you see that this applies today! He is talking about the Light, that Pillar of Fire is here and we should walk as though we truly believe He is here. He said, The light is only here for another short while so you had better walk with that Light while He is still here to walk with Him. And then He said for he that walketh in darkness does not even know where he is going. And how many are walking in darkness today having rejected the Pillar of Fire, and yet they are preaching heaven and believing they are going to heaven, while cursing the very God that is here to lead us into the millennium. He said, they don’t even know where they are going. Then Jesus says, 36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. Now the only way you can believe IN the Light is to believe while you are in it. If you walk IN the Light as He is IN the light then your sins are washed clean by the blood of the lamb, and you have fellowship one with another. But you’ve got to be IN the light in order to believe IN the light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

Look, Alpha has become Omega, and in John 12:37 we read ¶ But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: Notice it was the volume of miracles that ended up blinding the people. Why is that? Because it become so common to them. And that is the same thing that has happened in this hour.

As we reads these closing words this morning I want you to see how that the single Light that we are to focus upon is Christ. He is the Anointed One because He received His Anointing from the Great Anointer Himself, the Father of Glory. And while you are reading JOHN 12: 38-50 with me, I want you to notice that Jesus Speaks of this light and waling in it, and of duality with the Father. That is the Light in which we are to walk, to understand the relationship between the Father and His Son that we also might enter into relationship in a duality with the Father, for Christ, the Anointing in you is you hope of Glory. And we Know that God is th Father of Glory and He has come to give you The Spirit which is His Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Himself according to Paul in Ephesians 1:17-18.

JOHN 12: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42 ¶ Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 44 ¶ Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. 47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 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. 50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Let’s just bow our hearts in prayer