Christ is the Mystery no 186
The Purpose and plan of God
Brian Kocourek, pastor
This morning we will review several sermons where we
spoke on God's purpose and plan as we see our title in Christ is the mystery no 64 God's Purpose and plan
The next four sermons in our series, were a sort of mini series where we examined the purpose and plan of God, I would like to read from the following Scripture for our text.
Ephesians 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed
in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Let us pray, Dear father we have
read for our text this morning where you spoke of your having an eternal
purpose, and knowing this we reverently ask you to help us to better understand
your eternal purpose and plan that we might not work against it, but rather
that we might yield ourselves to your eternal purpose, for we ask this in Jesus
Christ's name in whom you have rested your eternal purpose in him, and knowing
that it also has to do with us as many other Scriptures declare. Be with us now
as we open Thy word to study thy eternal purpose in Jesus Christ'a
name we pray. amen.
Brother Branham spoke of this
eternal purpose and plan of God in paragraph 160 of his sermon, Christ is the Mystery of
God Revealed, where he said,
"That's
the only way you'll know Him today, only way you'll get the threefold
revelation of God is for the Holy Ghost... And the only way it can ever be,
is you're predestinated to see it. If it don't,
you'll never see it. If you're not predestinated to see it, you'll never see
it, 'cause that Light can flash and you'll go away and make fun of it
and explain it away by some intellectual conception when the very God Himself
manifesting Himself and proving it. See? But if it ain't upon you to see
it, you won't see it.
Now, what he is talking about here
is a belief in Predestination that places the responsibility for whether you
will ever see or not see the purpose and plan of God solely with God.
According to Webster's dictionary, the
word Purpose means: "something that one intends to do",
in other words, the word purpose speaks of the intent or intention, resolution or
determination, the
object for which something exists or is done, in other words that which exists or is done "with the
end in view", or with
a specific end in view, not something done accidentally, but something done by
design.
In other words purpose
speaks of doing something or planning something with a
specific result in mind." And so we see that when God purposes
anything, we must keep in mind His end product, or His specific
outcome that He has in mind. His end view.
we can see an example of this word
purpose as it speaks to future ordained outcome that was planned by God in Romans 9:17 where the Apostle Paul speaks of
Pharaoh, as we read, For the
Scripture saith unto Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth.
And as concerning the elect of God
we see in Ephesians chapter one where Paul addresses our election and
predestination as purposed by God.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: In other words he is saying, the God
who is all blessings has taken some of His blessing and has shared it, He has
blessed us with what blessings He had in himself. Now, this begins to show us the nature of God
and the nature of His purpose and plan, as to how to share Himself with his
elect children.
"4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
Notice that God has already made up
His mind that he is going to do this, he is going to
share the blessings that are in Him as the great fountain of all blessings. and he is bound and determined to share them with his
children. And He did this before the very foundations of the earth. So before
there was even one dust molecule brought into existence He had already
determined in His mind that His entirte purpose and
plan would be to share Himself. And bring us to a condition that would
appreciate this receiving of His blessings.
"that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love":
Notice that before the foundations
of the earth God determined, purpose, planned that we would be Holy and without
blame in His presence. So he had to create a way, He had to plan a way for this
to happen. Then he tells us in the next
verse how it is all laid out in the mind of God.
"5 Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will,"
Now, we could go on for days about
this predestinating us unto the adoption of children, and talk about what it
is, and how a child comes to the place of adoption, and I have already preached
these messages years ago on this subject, and I think all of you have the books
on that, and we know that brother Branham spoke on this subject many times, in
fact something like 28 sermons. But to place it all in a nutshell, we must
understand what this adoption of children is all about, because it is part of
the great purpose and plan of God. And we must know what this purpose and plan
is in order to enter into this purpose and plan of God. For it is all about us
and our relationship with Him as our Father, and how he plans to bestow all His
blessings upon us once we reach this state in our predestined path.
"6 To
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved."
Now, we can not go any further in
our reading without commenting on this. Notice the plan is all God's, and His
plan includes giving
us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, which means He must impart His own
blessings to us, and the plan depends on our being holy and without blame in His
presence. And
His purpose and plan include our coming to the place of the adoption of children and let's face it, His purpose and plan also means our
meeting the qualifications to receive the adoption of children, because we know
according to the law of adoption, we must be the right kind of son, one who is
always about our fathers business. And so we read in verse, "6 To
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved." This tells us that the only way
we will get there is by the grace of God. He purposed it, he planned it, and he
makes a way for us to receive what he purposed and planned. That takes our will
out of the picture, and that takes our initiative out of the picture, and this let's us know that all we have to do is just let go and let
God. As brother Branham said, "the greatest gift
is to just get out of the way and let God have His way".
Then in verse 7 the Apostle Paul
begins to unravel this purpose and plan of God and he tells us how it will all
come about.
7 In
whom we have redemption (redemption as in being bought back with a price and
he tells us what that price is) through his blood, (and with that purchase comes) the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
So it is all about the grace of God
because grace means unmerited favor. God so loved the world he gave his Only begotten son, that is grace. Before you and I were even
created, before this world was created, God had it all laid out in His purpose
and then He planned how it would unfold. He would do it all.
8 Wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Notice, he hath abounded toward us" it's all about what He does for his
children, abound, which means to super-abound, it speaks of His abundance, His
great wealth, His abundance He gives to us. His Wisdom and His prudence. and this word prudence means the mental
insight to be able to understand the wisdom.
and the Apostle John tells us the
same thing in John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he
power 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.
Notice even the new birth is of God, and man has nothing to do with it but receive God and
what he wishes to do for us. And notice John says He (God) hath given to us power to become sons. This word power was translated from the Greek word exousia and it means an
ability, a capacity, a competency to accept what God has for us, an
ability to make a right decision. And that is what Paul speaks of when he says
God gives us wisdom and prudence. Prudence being the mental acuity or insight
to understand and accept what God is doing. In-sigh, inner sight, that sixth
sense of faith to believe in what we do not yet see manifested.
Then Paul begins to tell us how this
wisdom and prudence are given to us in order for us to understand this purpose
and plan of God. 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his
will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Notice God makes know to us this
hidden mystery of His will, because if it was not hidden it would not be a
mystery, and he
adds, according to his good pleasure which he hath
purposed in himself: So we see the purpose is what God planned within Himself, so it is all
about him, and we are but His recipients.
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:
And it all has to do with our being
gathered together in Him, because that is where it all began, in Him. and he tells us when this gathering will begin to take
place. In the dispensation of the fullness of time. In other words at the end time.
As brother Vayle told us in our
message last week, that since the day of Pentecost all who have received a
genuine New birth had received the spirit of adoption,
which is the potential for adoption, but only at the fullness of time, at this
hour is the manifestation of that potential going to take place. And I am looking forward to when it begins.
Now, God has been gracious enough to us that we have seen glimpses of that
manifestation throughout the ages in men like Paul, and John, and Irenaeus, and
Polycarp, and martin, and Columba, and St. Patrick, and even William Branham,
where God changes nature at the bequest of one of his sons, or alters the
course of storms, or weather, or even when they tried to kill Martin and tied
him to the bottom side of a tree that was on a steep him, and began cutting the
tree so it would fall upon him, that the tree actually fell up hill and killed
those who were cutting it down. And Irenaeus, who when burned at the stake, the
fire leaped away from his body so that it could not be burned. And that is what
all creation is waiting for, the sons of God plural to manifest as sons of God.
Not just one man here and one incident there, but sons
plural, living in such harmony with God that all creation responds to that son.
Then Paul get's down to the point in
verse 11 In whom (he is talking about God) in Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after
the counsel of his own will:
Notice,
we are predestined, pedetermined,
ordained according to God who is the one
How willed it, and Who also is working to make sure that all things he purposed
and planned will work together according to His own counsel and will.
Again
we see in the book of Romans
Again
we see another re-assurance that he who began the
work shall complete it. According to his
purpose.
Then the Apostle Paul tells us in verse 9 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover
whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
And he sums it all up by saying in verse 31 "What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can
be against us?"
Romans
Now, we are talking about purpose
this morning, but man in his own religious nature wants to feel that he is
doing something for God. Let men tell you something, there is nothing that you
can do for God that is of any good unless it is something that God has asked
you to do.
Jesus the Son of God, said, The Son can of Himself do nothing but what
he seeth the Father do, that doeth the Son likewise. John
There is a book called "The Purpose driven life", but it does not speak of
God's purpose. It speaks of you having a purpose. Yet what good is it for you
to be purpose driven if it is not God's purpose that is driving you. That might
sound real good, and that kind of talk can take an ordinary salesman into an extraordinary salesmen, but God has not called us to
be salesmen. He has called us to be obedient sons.
The Bible teaches us that "it is God working in you to will and to do". Do what? Do His great purpose.
Brother Branham said in his sermon,
Divine
healing 54-1219M 49 Listen. It's not him that wants to get
saved, that's saved. It's him that's saved by God's choice. Esau wanted
to get saved too. He wept bitterly, and couldn't find no
place to repent. He wanted to get saved. It ain't 'cause you want to get saved.
God said, "I've
hardened who I will harden. I have mercy on whom I
want to have mercy."
That's right. He said, "Before Esau or Jacob, either was born, not knowing right and wrong," God said, "I love Jacob and hate Esau.'" And Esau tried to get right with
God and couldn't. Pharaoh tried to get right with God and couldn't do it. So
it's not you, not what you want. It's what God has ordained for you to do.
That's right. Paul said in the 9th
chapter of Romans there, "Hasn't the potter got power over the clay to make an honored
vessel or a dishonored vessel, to show His glory to those who He has honored?"
You didn't know that, did you? That's what the Scripture says. Pharaoh tried
his best to repent. He was kindhearted. He said, "Sure, I'll let you go. Go on." God said, "No, you ain't. I'm going to harden his heart
so you can't do it."
'Cause God's Word has to be fulfilled. And if we're
living in this day when formalities and things has broken the church down,
broke away; why, it's God's Word being fulfilled. As sure as God said, "These signs would follow them that believe," as sure as God said these churches
would be like they are now, God also said this opposition would meet it. So
the same God that ordained signs and wonders, ordained that these should be
persecuting against It.
Now, this led us to Christ is the Mystery no 65 The
second-fold purpose of God no 1
Therefore as we began this review
we noticed where brother Branham said, "If you're not predestinated to see it,
you'll never see it, 'cause that Light can flash and you'll go away and make fun of
it and explain it away by some intellectual conception when the very God
Himself manifesting Himself and proving it. See? But if it ain't upon
you to see it, you won't see it.
Notice that brother Branham is telling us that either you are
ordained to see the Threefold
Purpose of God or you are not. It is just that plain. And we know
that the first fold
purpose was that God wished to manifest Himself in and through His Son, the eldest son in a vast family of
brothers. That's purpose number 1. And remember we are talking about family
here.
Now, many who claim to believe the Message have never even came to
this because they
do not believe God had a son, they believe God is His Son.
They get hung up on the body, and do not know what to do with it. But "the Body was not deity, but deity dwelt in
the body". And "God and Jesus were not one like your finger
is one". They do
not see Father and son, That is the first fold purpose
of God. They do not see it. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
And that is why we see so many
falling away from this message, because no matter if they were brought into it
by their parents, if God did not bring them in they will never see it, because
God doesn't have grand children, only children.
I am sure if Brother Branham were here
today, he would be very disappointed in many of the people who claim to follow
His ministry. Because most people who claim to believe the Message are frankly
not being taught even the simplest knowledge concerning salvation and
redemption let alone what this great Message is all about.
As brother Branham said, "if they don't even know their
Now, in the following factual
statements, I will lay out what 99% of the people who claim to believe the
message actually believe and stand for.
1) They believe that there is One God.
2) They believe there are
certain conduct, order and doctrines that are essential for us to
conduct our lives in.
3) They believe women should not cut their
hair.
4) They believe women should dress modestly
5) They believe women should be submissive
and the man is the ruler of the house.
6) They believe God sent a prophet, and
only those who believe this prophet will be saved.
Now would you concur that is what most
people in the Message believe?
You know what I just described to you? I
just described to you a devout Muslim.
So the average believer in this Message
is basically no different than the average Muslim, except for the name they
call their god.
Now, I could do this another way, I
could read to you the tenets of faith and conduct for the "United
Pentecostal" church from their own website and it would fit 99% of
followers in this message. It used to teach the first five of those tenets
above plus not having television in the house, but today their website no
longer covers that tenet of their faith.
Then have the people following this
Message come no further than the Muslims or
Therefore, if you do not understand why
Jesus died, and how his death, burial and resurrection directly affects you, you
are in no better shape than the Muslim, and you are not even saved although you
may attend a Message church.
Therefore unless God has revealed
Himself personally to you, you have not even come to a true understanding of
justification.
Martin Luther said, "Faith is not that human notion and
dream that some hold for faith. The reason people can not accept Faith alone is
because they see faith as something which it is not. Because they see that no
betterment of life and no good works follow it, and they can hear and say much
about faith, they fall into error, and say, "Faith isn't enough; one must
do works in order to be righteous and be saved,"
He then said, "This is the reason that when they
hear the Gospel, they fall into the same old trap and make for themselves, by
their own powers, an idea in their hearts, which says, "I believe".
This they hold for true faith. But it is only a human imagination and
idea that never reaches the depths of the heart, and so nothing comes of it and
no betterment follows it".
Notice he said, "Faith, however is a
divine work in us. God places it there.
Faith then is not a belief, It is His Revelation that He has in Himself and by Grace He
gives it to us.
Ephesians 2: 8 tells us, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:"
Notice, it is His Gift that He gives
to you. as paul also said, "it is God working in you to will and to do".
Therefore if it is God working in
you, it is not you doing works, but rather you yielding yourself and becoming
obedient to your heavenly Father. That is why Paul continues in verse 9 " Not of works, lest any man
should boast. 10 For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them."
Martin Luther said, "Faith,
however is a divine work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born
anew of God; it kills the old Adam and makes altogether different men, in heart
and spirit and mind and powers, and it brings with it the Holy Ghost."
Have we died out.
Have we really come to a place where we can just let go and let God? If we have
not then how can we walk by Faith which is a revelation? And if we do not walk
by Faith then we are not yet justified, because the just shall live by faith,
those justified live by revelation.
Now that leads us to this: If you have
not truly been justified by Faith, then how can you truly live a sanctified
life? Therefore if your Justification is a human notion which is just a figment
of your own imagination wherein you say I believe therefore I have faith, then
what sanctification you have also is just a human effort at trying to appease
an angry God. And
an evidence of not being justified is that you will not be sanctified.
The your idea or human notion of justification
is "if he forgave me for adultery once before he will forgive me of it
again, and again, because is he not the same yesterday today and forever?"
And therefore your justification is based on your own human notion and belief
system and not upon the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Luther continued, "Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty
thing, this faith; and so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly.
It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question
rises; it has already done them, and is always at the doing of them. He
who does not these works is a faithless man. He gropes and looks about
after faith and good works, and knows neither what faith is nor what good
works are, though he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good
works."
And if you have not come to a true
understanding of Justification, then what sanctification you have is humanly
done, and therefore not even acceptable to God. In other words, it is no
sanctification at all in God's eyes. Therefore if they have not truly been
justified, and know why they have been justified, then they have neither been
sanctified, and if no justification or sanctification, then no true baptism of
the Holy Spirit has taken place either.
Be not
afraid 60-0717 P:86 If you live the life, I believe you got
it. You say, "I got it speaking in tongues." Amen. If you live the
life, I believe you got it. If you don't live the life, you didn't get it.
That's all. See? You've got to have that Life behind there. "By their fruit, you shall know them." That's right.
And if no true baptism of the Holy
Spirit then how can they see the second fold purpose of God wherein God want to
manifest Himself in his Seed.
This brought us to Christ is the Mystery no 66, 67 the Second fold Purpose of God 2 and 3 which can be summed up in one Scripture.
Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; For we are his
offspring.
And remember brother Branham taught us
in this sermon, Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, in paragraph 77 Now, if He
had this threefold purpose... We want to find out what is this threefold
purpose. The first thing was that God wanted to reveal Himself to the people.
He couldn't do it as a great Jehovah God Who covered
all space, time, and eternity. He could not. He's too great to ever be revealed
to people, because it would be too mysterious. How could that great Being that
never did begin, that after you went beyond the cycle of a hundreds of billions
and trillions and trillions of years of light space, and on out into the
infinite, into the eternity, and a great Creature that was all that, and still
is... 78 But what He wanted to do, He loved Fatherhood, for He was
a Father. And the only way that He could express it was to become a Son of
man. That's the reason Jesus kept saying, "The Son of man." See, they didn't know what He was
talking about, many of them. But now you get it? He wanted to express Himself.
That was His, one of His great threefold purposes,
was to express Himself, identify Himself with human beings, to reveal Himself
in Christ.
And as I have already stated that if that is the first fold purpose of
God and you do not believe he had a son, then you could never understand how
that God could reveal or manifest Himself through his son if in fact you do not
believe he had a son. And so that takes out a great part of those who claim to
follow William Branham because they do not believe what he taught concerning
the Son of God and the relationship between the father and His Son.
In paragraph 79 brother Branham said, Secondly: to have the preeminence in His body of
believers, that is, His Bride, that He might live in people. Now, He
could do that in Adam and Eve, but sin separated them, so now there had to be
some way to get it back again. Oh, my. Oh, when I... This is rich to me, just to even think of it. See? See what God's purpose was?
Notice this second fold
purpose of God he said is to have the preeminence in His Body of Believers. Now, remember the word preeminence
means He has the preeminent position in you and brother Branham
defines that by saying, that He might live in people. And he said he couldn't do it in Adam
and Eve, because turning down one word brought on Satan's kingdom.
And how could
he have the preeminence in you unless you are willing to die out to self so
that He can live your life for you. That is the only way and many baulk at this
teaching thinking we are trying to become some great thing. Now, how in the
world is dying to self, self promotion? How is being an obedient son trying to
be something you are not.
You see, these people judge you by what
is in their own heart, not by what is in yours. They see the sin in their own
life and want to dish it off to you, as though you are no different than they
are, but that is a lie. You are different, because God made you different. Men
judge others based on their own sinful nature, not based on the sinless nature
of the son of God.
And we already covered that in 1 Corinthians
Therefore the second fold purpose of God is to Reveal or manifest Himself to and
through His sons can not be received unless you were made thus to receive it.
You see, with God it is not enough for
you to talk about him giving him the pre-eminence in your speech alone. But God
wants it in your life as well. He wants to express it. it
is not enough to have the potential as brother Vayle said, but God wants to
express it in you.
85 Now,
that's when He can express the pre-eminences. You see? He's got the man or the person so that he knows nothing but Christ.
You get what I mean? All right. That's secondly. First,
to express Himself completely: God in Christ. Second, to have the
pre-eminences by this in His Church (which is His Body, Bride) to... He could have the preeminence to
express Himself through them. All right. And
thirdly, to restore the Kingdom to its rightly position that fell by sin by the
first Adam, back to where He walked in the cool of the evening with His people,
talked with them, fellowshipped with them. And now sin and death had separated
them from His Presence and His entire expression. Do you read it? Before the
foundation of the world to express all of His attributes, what He was...
Let us bow our heads in prayer.