The Back Part of God’s Mind Pt.2
GENESIS 1:1
1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
JOHN 1:1
1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We studied in our last service how that John1:1 was a beginning that was before the beginning of Genesis 1:1, but in this age we’ve had a prophet take us back to before there was even a beginning at all – right into the back part of God’s mind, and he began to unfold to us the mystery behind all things that exist.
This is what science is still trying to find out today – what is the purpose behind everything that exists? – it was the seventh seal that held that mystery, and God sealed it up until this age.
EPHESIANS 1:4-11
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
REVELATION 13:8
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Notice – two groups, those who will live eternally and share God’s eternal life with him for eternity, and those who will not share His eternal life, and the way they are known is by their worship.
The Back Part of God’s Mind Pt.2
We know from our study in part 1 of this subject that the things that God is dealing with you right now in your life (by putting you through the trials and tests and allowing difficulties to come across your pathway), itis all necessary for the mystery of Himself to be written into the story of your life just like He has done with all of the characters down through the bible. God doesn’t deal with them one way and then deal with you different because he is no respect of person.
So (mostly unconsciously to yourself), God has been writing the mystery of His own character into your life (over your entire life time) by allowing all the circumstances of what he has planned for your life’s journey to come to pass in your life – nothing in your life has been a surprise to God.
*He planned certain events for Joseph’s life, King David’s life, Jonah’s life, Sampson’s life, Abraham and Sarah’s life, and each of their lives told a portion of the great mystery of the life and character of Christ.
***All the trials and difficulties of your life were foreordained and settled in God’s great mind before the first atom was ever created – nothing is by chance, and every one of your trials has been design by God for your good and not for your harm.
LETTING.OFF.THE.PRESSURE_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-11 SUNDAY_ 62-0513E
145 …Nothing happens by chance; everything is ordained of God. No matter what happens, all things are going to work together for good.
Just knowing this should help us to let off some of the pressure – all things are in God’s full control.
THINGS.THAT.ARE.TO.BE_ RIALTO.CA V-4 N-6 SUNDAY_ 65-1205
31 You were all pre-planned by God. Nothing happens by chance, with God. He knows all about it. It's all pre-planned, planned for many generations back, so that you could be here tonight. Did you know that?
WE.HAVE.SEEN.HIS.STAR.AND.HAVE.COME.TO.WORSHIP.HIM_ TUCSON.AZ V-13 N-8 MONDAY_ 63-1216
42 And sometimes we think that, our burdens. I might inject this right here, that, we think our burdens are so heavy sometimes, that there's nothing like it in the world. Do you know all those things are good for you? They are all to mold you, make you.
This is why the bible shows us how God deals with man under different conditions of different trials so we can also know how He will also deal with us under the same conditions.
How did Jesus deal with the woman found in adultery when they wanted to stone her? How did he deal with the repentant thief on the cross? How did God deal with Jonah his backsliding prophet? How did he deal with King David after his sin?
**God’s purpose was never to destroy the person, but to use the trial to reveal Himself in a greater way to them.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.SIX.3_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0915M
552 Now notice. If God acted any one time on a certain circumstance, and if that same circumstance arise again, He's got to act the second time like He did the first time or He's unjust. See? No matter how bad you are in sin, how stooped you may become, He's got to act to you like He did that fallen woman or He acted wrong then. God's behavior is His Person, and what He is in His behavior declares His Person.
*So we want to look a little deeper into this subject of the “Back Part of God’s Mind” of the mystery that He has kept secret until this age when He promised that this great mystery of God would be revealed at this time of the sounding of the seventh angel’s voice, and at that time there would be a people to receive that mystery.
CHRIST.IS.THE.MYSTERY.OF.GOD.REVEALED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0728
102 Now, God's secret mystery, He had before the world began. Now, back in the back part of God's mind, there was something that He was trying and was going to achieve, and He had a motive in doing it, in order to let Himself be expressed.
**We learned from our last service how that Moses shows us in Genesis 1:1 the beginning of the creation of the material things of the stars and planets and the earth, but then in St John 1:1, John takes us back to a beginning that was before that beginning of the material things of creation to when there was the word, but then in this last age a prophet of God takes us back even further than both Genesis 1:1 and St John 1:1, and take us all the way back to what was in the back parts of Gods mind of His thoughts before His thoughts were even expressed as words.
*In His mind was a great plan of redemption of how He was going to express Himself and to be made known, and how he was going to have fellowship and to share His eternal life with His family.
*God was a Father – so he needed children in order to express that fatherhood.
*God was a Saviour, so He needed someone to be lost in order to reveal Himself as a Saviour.
***God was healer, a comforter, a provider, a great creator – all these things was what God was, but no one could ever know this about God without this great plan of God slowly unfolding and showing itself out in the lives and the laws and the types and the shadows of the bible and right down through history until this time that we are living in now.
**This is why there had to be a fall in Eden – it was necessary for the plan of redemption to be expressed. And this is why God set it up so that man could sin and fall, He didn’t make man sin, but His permissive will made a way for man to have his own choice knowing that man would fall by his own freedom of choice – but then after man fell, then God could save the man and by this reveal Himself to this man as a saviour of what He was.
102-2 EPHESIAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.3
Now that we have come this far, let me try to crystallize your thinking on this subject so you can see the necessity of our going into the 'serpent seed doctrine' as I have. (The serpent seed is critical to understanding the plan of redemption, because God was the one who set it all up in Eden so that man could fall by his own choice.
He had to give man a choice knowing that he would fall – and that may not sound fair to everyone, but God is sovereign and His ways are higher, and His ways are just, and so the fall of man was necessary in God’s great plan in order for Himself to be expressed, and that expression was going to be for man’s good – it was all going to work out for the good of man in the end for the purpose of God to share His eternal life with man.
*So here is the Prophet going into the subject of the serpent’s seed and showing us how that it was necessary for the fall of man to occur in this way in order for God to unfold Himself and reveal Himself to man of what His true character was of His true nature and purpose – and His purpose was to share His eternal life with man in fellowship with Himself, but he could not have fellowship with us as an unknown God of what he was)
We start with the fact that there were TWO trees in the midst of the garden. The Tree of Life was Jesus. The other tree is definitely Satan because of what came forth of the fruit of that tree. Now then, we know that both of those trees had a relationship to man or they would never have been placed there. They must have had a part in the sovereign plan and purpose of God in their relationship to mankind and to Himself or we could never impute omniscience unto God. This is all true so far, is it not? Now the Word most definitely sets forth that from BEFORE the foundation of the earth the purpose of God was to share His Eternal Life with man.
(Notice, God’s nature was a nature that was not selfish but a sharing nature, and because of this sharing nature of what was in Him, He wanted to share His eternal life with you and I)
…But that Life could not, and would not, be shared in any other way than through the way of "God manifest in the flesh." This was a part of His eternal and predestinated purpose. This plan was to be to the praise of the glory of His grace. It was the plan of Redemption. It was the plan of Salvation. Now listen closely. "God being a Saviour, it was necessary that He predestinate a man who would require salvation in order to give Himself reason and purpose of being." That is one hundred percent correct and multitudes of Scripture bear it out as does the very pointed verse of Romans 11:36,
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are ALL THINGS: to Whom be GLORY for ever. Amen."
Man could not directly come and partake of that Tree of Life in the midst of the garden. That Eternal Life of the Tree had to become flesh first. But before God could raise and save a sinner, He had to have a sinner to raise and save. Man had to fall. The fall which would be caused by Satan, had to have flesh to make fall. Satan had to come through flesh also. But Satan could not come through human flesh to make the fall as would Christ come in human flesh to restore the fallen.
But there was an animal, the serpent, so close to man that Satan could get to that beast and through that beast he could get to human flesh and cause the fall, and inject himself thereby into the human race, even as Jesus would one day come and inject Himself into the human race, into human bodies, even to the extent of a resurrection wherein we would have bodies like unto His glorified one. Thus what God worked out here in the garden was His predestinated plan. And when Satan had brought about that which was necessary to the purpose of God, then man could not get to the Tree Of Life in the garden. Certainly not. It wasn't time. But an animal (animal had caused the fall had it not? let animal life be shed) was taken and his blood shed and then God had communion with man again.
Then there was to come a day when God would appear in flesh, and by means of His humiliation He would restore fallen man and make him a partaker of that Life Eternal. Once you see this, you can understand the serpent seed and know that it was no apple Eve ate. No, it was the degradation of humanity by intermingling the seed.
***So from reading this we can see that the purpose of God from the beginning was to make Himself known to us, to reveal Himself to us by this plan that was in the back part of His mind so that we could come to know the real character of His Person of who He really is, and then that is what will cause us to have true worship and true fellowship with God, is when the character and purpose of God is revealed to you.
***And so this is the great mystery that God had kept secret until this age of when the seventh angel would come on the scene, and then though the message of that angel, the mystery of what was in the back part of God’s mind would be fully made known to a people of His elected bride at that time.
CHRIST.IS.THE.MYSTERY.OF.GOD.REVEALED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0728
105 Now, God had a purpose and a hidden mystery. And that's what I want to speak on to the Church this morning, the hidden mystery of God that He had in His mind before the world ever began, and how that it's unfolded itself right down to this present hour that we're living. See? Then you will understand clearly then, you see, on, I believe, what is being done.
106 God's great mystery of how, it's a secret. He kept it a secret. Nobody knowed nothing about it. Even the Angels didn't understand it. See, He didn't reveal it. That's the reason, under our seventh mystery, when the seventh seal was opened, there was silence. Jesus, when He was on earth, they wanted to know when He would come. He said, "It's not... Even the Son Himself don't know when it's going to happen." See, God has this all to Himself. It's a secret. And that's the reason there was silence in Heaven for a space of a half hour, and seven thunders utter their voices, and John was even forbidden to write it, see, the Coming of the Lord. That's one thing He hasn't revealed yet, of how He will come, and when He will come. It's a good thing that He doesn't. No.
107 He has showed or revealed it in every type that's in the Bible.
**In all the lives of the people of the Bible, God was showing and unfolding this great mystery.
And that mystery was to make Himself known so that he could be appreciated and understood for the character of what He was – and then that revelation in the people is what produces a true worship within them toward this great character of God of a worship that is in spirit and in truth that comes from the heart.
JOHN 4:23-24
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (God is seeking people who have a true revelation of His character, because you cannot have true worship without a true understanding of God’s nature and purpose)
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (Not a mechanical and a forced worship, but a worship that comes from the heart by a revelation that is within the heart of the true and mighty God that has been unveiled before us in this hour)
**So God desired to be understood and appreciated for what he really was, and this is the true worship that he wanted to receive, a worship by a people who know Him by knowing His true character, a people who would understand Him of what his true character really was.
***God purpose was to be understood, because in God there was love, in God there was humility and mercy, in God there was sincerity, in God there was loyalty, in God there was longsuffering and faithfulness. In God was Fatherhood, in God was a redeemer, a healer, a saviour, a provider, a creator, all these things were in God, and in God it was impossible for Him to lie. That’s why we can trust Him with our life of what he has promised us by His word, because He cannot lie - He has all power and ability to keep His word.
**And so if God had just let us know Him as the great Creator of Genesis 1:1, then man would just worship God as a Creator and say, “how great thou art, and how great are thy works oh God, thou art mighty in all thy great works of thy creation” - “then sings my soul, my Saviour God to thee, how great thou art, how great thou art” because by His works we can see that God has knowledge, God has power, God can create things of great wonder.
We look at all the species of the earth, we look at this beautiful world of His great design, but can this same God forgive? Does He have mercy? Does He have humility or is he proud and unmerciful?
***We have many rich people in the world today, they have nice houses, nice cars, nice bank accounts. But that doesn’t reveal their character – are they merciful, are they faithful, are they forgiving, do they have compassion, or are they proud and self-centred? In other words, what kind of person are they? What is their true character?
You could admire a man’s property, a man’s possessions, a man’s clothing, a man’s education, but what kind of man is he in His heart? Is he loyal to his family? Is he humble, is he faithful, does he speak truth and keep His promises? **You can’t know that just by looking at his nice house and his nice car and his net worth.
***So God (as a Creator), it was a great work that he did by his creation of Genesis 1:1, He was clearly a great man of wealth and power and knowledge. But to reveal the true nature of Himself, of his personal character, He had to have a situation where He would have to come down and leave all of His glory, and leave all of His power, and leave all of his wealth and comfort, and come down and become poor, and wash the feet of His disciples in order to show that he was a servant to man and of what kind of a person He really was.
*He was the creator of every tree, He was the designer of every fruit – yet when he came to earth he was hungry.
*He was the God of all glory, yet He came down to be born in a stable into such poverty so that they had to unwrap the cloth from an ox yolk to clothe Him as a new born babe.
And remember, before there was even an atom or a molecule, God had planned all of this in the back part of His mind in order to reveal himself to man so that he could share His eternal life with man and have fellowship with man throughout eternity of what his true nature was.
**And so God brought Himself down to this low degree so we could see the kind of person that He really was of His great character.
To Be Continued - the Lord willing...