The Plan of God and Our Part In It

Well, good afternoon to everyone. It is really encouraging to be here at the General Conference of Elders again. And the thing that's so encouraging about it is meeting so many dear friends again, people that you've known in the ministry, as well as the local congregations here. And you see their faithfulness, you see that they're here, they're supporting the work of God, and it's just a delight to be able to be here. God has blessed us as a church so much this past year. And this weekend we'll have an opportunity to discuss a lot of those blessings. It's a wonderful opportunity to share services also with so many around the world and across the United States. I'd like to give special greetings to Chad and Nuga and Rome. Hopefully they are connected at this point. Brethren, at one time God existed and nothing else existed. At one time only the family of God existed. And they have existed for all eternity. The two beings, the one that we know as the Father and the Son, or the Word, the two beings had fellowship with one another. They talked to each other. They planned with each other. They laughed with each other. They discussed things with each other. And that very nature was one of giving service, one of outgoing concern. Now, at some point in time, what we call time, but at some point in eternity, the idea, the thought came to them to develop or to create life. And not only just life, but life of their own kind, to be a part of their family. And the question came up, how do we do this? I'm sure that they had to think that through. It wasn't just, well, let's do this, and bingo. They knew automatically how to go about doing it. They created a plan. They designed a plan to carry this out. We call it the plan of salvation. And it is a plan that God has revealed to us. They thought out, planned, what you know, what you see, and everything that you can't see. The spirit world, the laws, the forces, everything. Let's go over to the book of Colossians, chapter 1. Beginning in verse 16, we'll read verses 16 and 17 in Colossians. Notice what God reveals to us.

So everything in this universe you find that God holds together. Now, it's one thing to plan, but it's another to design something and have the power to create it, have the power to bring it about. When you consider the earth, how do you make a blade of grass? How do you design the earth itself? How do you create soil, water, a tree, animals, human beings, an eye, an ear? You design all of the complexity that you see about us. How do you create an atom and then create a cell? Create an organ? Create a system such as a central nervous system and a human being? A brain with the capacity to think, reason, to be creative, have emotions, feelings, thoughts? All of this has to harmonize. And so the two beings in the family of God worked on this, planned it out. How long did it take them? Well, we don't know. Because they had to think out everything. If we do it this way, will it contradict something over here? So they had to think it out. They had to create the forces and the laws, such as gravity and all the forces, to keep the universe functioning. Christ sustains all of this. Where does all this energy and this power come from when you stop and think about it? Where did the power come from to create all of this, the energy? What kind of a God do we worship? The Bible says He is the Almighty God, the all-powerful God. And so we worship a being who is supreme above all. We find that God created in stages. We have no knowledge of how the two beings lived before the creation of angels and the physical realm. They obviously dwelt in the spiritual realm. They had a dwelling. What was it like? Well, we don't know. Now, we know today that they dwell in a throne room. They have a throne. They have a sea of glass. They have power. They have rainbow colors about them. There are millions and tens of millions of angels coming and going and carrying out the will of God. So, obviously, we can know that, but we don't know much more. I am sure that there's a lot more to what they're doing than the Bible itself reveals. The indication is that, first of all, God created the angels. And then He created the physical creation, as we know. Back in the book of Job, in Job 38, verses 4 through 7, I'll just refer to that, Job 38, beginning in verse 4, the angels were present when God created the earth. So, He created the spirit beings, the angelic hosts first, and Genesis 1.1 indicates that the earth and the heavens were created around the same time. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so, they apparently were created, and they saw the power of God being manifest, to be able to roll out the universe, to roll out the solar system, to roll out a galaxy, and to create millions and millions of stars. We will read Hebrews 11, in verse 3. Hebrews 11.3, now read from the net translation, It says, By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God's command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible. So, the visible, the things that we can see, know what we would call the physical dimension, has its origin from the invisible. God created another dimension, other than what He dwelled in. We know it as a physical dimension. Spirit dimension dwells parallel to the physical. Spirit beings can freely move from one dimension to the other. We human beings cannot do so.

We cannot move between the two dimensions. Now, once God set the plan in motion, His plan of salvation, there was no force in the universe, no power that could prevent Him from carrying it out. Who was going to stop God from carrying out His plan and to complete it? We read back in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 1, verse 8. I'll read this out of the ESV translation. Beginning in verse 8, it says, Which He lavaged upon us in all wisdom and in sight, making known to us the mystery of His will. So one of the things that God has done in establishing His church is that He has revealed to us His will, His purpose. It says, According to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ. As a plan for the fullness of time, so God has a plan that encompasses the fullness of time. What is God going to do ultimately? Well, to unite all things in Him. Things in heaven and things on the earth. God wants to bring everything together in unity and in harmony. And then verse 11 says, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will. In the great the word purpose here means a purpose or a plan, just as it's stated. It is a setting forth, a presentation, an exposition, a determination, a plan that involves purpose, resolve, and design. So God has a purpose. He has resolved to carry this plan out. And there is a design behind it. And God has revealed to us the overall elements of it, but certainly not all of the details. In fact, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 9, 2 Timothy 1.9, we read this. It says, Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling? Not according to our works. You see, we're called for God's good pleasure. We're not called because of our own righteousness or because of the fact that we deserve it. As it says here, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose. So God has a purpose. He's working out. And grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. So God has revealed to us that ultimately He wants to give us eternal life. He wants to give to us immortality, which is a degree of life even beyond just eternal life. It's immortality to live forever. God wants to build a kingdom, and He is building that kingdom around the firstfruits, around those that He calls in this age. We know He chooses people. Originally, Christ chose the apostles. The prophets were chosen of old, and they formed part of the foundation of the kingdom and of the church. Jesus Christ, Himself being the chief cornerstone.

Now today, God could have called millions of people. He could have called millions to be a part of that foundation or to help in the white throne judgment, the millennium, and yet He hasn't done that. He's called us. And I think we wake up every morning, maybe, thinking, why did God call me? There are so many other people out there with more talent and more ability, but God has called us. He has tapped us to be a part of the advanced guards, so to speak, to be helpers, to be servants in the kingdom of God.

This is why the apostle Paul, when you read his writings and you read some of the scriptures that he wrote, he had such a fervor about Him, such a desire about Him to be in God's kingdom. He understood what the kingdom of God was going to be about. Let's notice in Philippians 3 and verse 8. Notice what he says here. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8. He said, So anything that he had accumulated, he looked on that just as rubbish. In verse 10, why? Why did he have this perspective? He said that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.

That's why. And the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. If by any means I may obtain to the resurrection of the dead, he wanted to be in that resurrection. And brethren, that is our goal, our purpose. We have been called to be a part of that calling. As we face the future, as we strive for the kingdom of God, do we have the same burning desire that Paul did to change, to grow, to mature, to go on to perfection?

Do we want to be in the resurrection in the family of God forever, to live with God? You see, there can be no greater goal. And this is something that must be our daily goal that we see and we look up to. As the plan of God marches on in fulfillment, stop and think. God planned this out. He had a sequence in which events were going to unfold. God called Israel. That was part of his plan. And there came a time when the Word was going to come to the earth, the Son of God. He would come. Christ came, lived 33 and a half years, set a perfect example. He showed how God would live in the flesh.

He died for his sins. And he was the first to be resurrected into the kingdom of God. There is no doubt. None of us should doubt the fact that there will be a resurrection in the future because God has already proven it can happen. Christ has been glorified and he's in the family of God again. It has already happened. Now as time marches on, we're now on the threshold of the resurrection of the first roots. That's right around the corner.

This is our resurrection. This is the event that we will be seeing shortly. Are we living like we believe that that resurrection is going to take place? Do we believe that the plan of God and the resurrection is one of the next major events that God is going to work out?

You see, nothing can stop God's plan from being fulfilled. The resurrection is around the corner. It will take place. The eternal life in the kingdom of God is staring us in the face. None of us know how long it's going to be, but it can't be too far off. For God's purpose to be carried out, He has decreed that He has to develop helpers and servants to assist His Son in the kingdom to bring about the Millennium and the White Throne judgment.

We're referred to in the Scriptures as we know it as first-roots, also as the bride of Christ. We've been called to be that bride. God is developing us to be a helper, to be an assistant to Jesus Christ, to help fulfill the plan of God. He has called us to live forever in the kingdom. You and I are to become one in mind and one in approach.

Ephesians 5 is a very interesting Scripture beginning in verse 30. Ephesians 5, 30. About becoming one flesh in marriage and what it means, what it pictures. Why God ordained that. One flesh in marriage is a type of Christ and the Church. In verse 30 we read, For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

But He said, this is a great mystery. What we're talking about on the physical level is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. So what goes on in a marriage and becoming one flesh is a type of Christ in the Church. We become one Spirit with Christ. It takes the Spirit of God to make the bride, just as God took a rib in flesh out of Adam's side and made Eve. Everyone else was made of the dust of the ground.

He took the rib and flesh and He made Eve. And you and I are being made through God living in us. God did not make multiple wives for Adam. He didn't say, well here's Eve and here's Susie and here's Sarah and whoever it might be.

No, He created Eve. This is why marriage is so sacred. You cannot have several wives at the same time and be one in the flesh with one wife. We are to become one flesh with Him. Remember back here in Genesis 2.24 when God created Adam and Eve? In a marriage, a couple become one flesh. We become joined together. In verse 24, Genesis 2, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Now the word joined in the Hebrew means to cleave to, to cling to, to stick, to stay close, to keep close, to follow closely, to join to. It is talking about a relationship that there cannot be any separation. Just like epoxy glue. You take the glue from one side and the other and you stick it together and it's stuck.

It becomes one. We see that a couple is to stay close or to cling to one another. And so on a physical level, a couple is close in their intimate relationships. To be close in their desires, their plans, their working together. There should be no one else that you desire, that you would rather be with, than your mate.

Your mate comes before everybody else, even your parents. Now we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, this turn over there, 1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 13, that our bodies were made for the Lord. Eve was made for Adam. God showed him all the animals and there wasn't anybody comparable to him. Anybody looked like him. And so God made him a mate. In verse 13, it says, food for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them.

Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. God created our bodies for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. In verse 15, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?

Well, certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he said, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord, if you've been baptized and received the Holy Spirit, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. We become one spirit. We are to have in the spiritual realm what you see a couple in the physical realm.

The Greek word joined here, again, means to glue, to glue together, see men, fasten together. We are to be glued to Jesus Christ. Nothing should separate us from Christ. We should be joined together, and that should be stronger than any joining together in the physical realm. There is a unique purpose for our being called. We are being shaped and formed and made comparable to Jesus Christ.

We are to literally begin to develop his character, the character of God, take on his outlook, his mind. We are to become comparable. Back in Genesis 2, in verse 18, let's notice here quickly, Genesis 2, 18, It says, the Lord God said, it's not good that a man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him. Now, literally, this word means a helper corresponding to him, or a corresponding helper. Adam saw cows and chickens and dogs and cats and monkeys, but there was no one comparable to him, so God made Eve.

As the theological workbook of the Old Testament states, this about the word helper, while this word designates assistance, it is more frequently used in concrete sense to designate an assistant. Helper is not a demeaning term. It is often used in the Scriptures to describe Almighty God, that God is our helper. You go through the book of Psalms, you'll find that David cried out to God and that God was his helper. He helped him. He strengthened him.

We're learning today how to help one another, how to serve one another, how to give, how to sacrifice. We must demonstrate to God our love for mankind. And how do we learn to do that? Well, it starts with our love for our mate, our children, for those that God has called for every human being. We must have a love for them. Why? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God loved all of humanity, and he's called us to share in that plan. Why did God institute marriage? Well, back here in verse 28, chapter 1 of the book of Genesis, God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply.

So one reason was to be fruitful and multiply. Have children. You'll find that God expects that we bring up our children to be holy and have righteous children. They were to bring children up in God's way. Back in the book of Malachi, chapter 2, you read in verse 14, where God states this as one of the purposes of marriage, Malachi 2.14. He's indicting them here, and he says he hates divorce. And he talks about how they had not been faithful to the wife of their youth.

It says, Yet you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did he not make them one? The Bible says, Having a remnant of the Spirit. Why one? Because God seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. In marriage, God seeks godly seed. And in the spiritual marriage dimension, God is seeking godly beings for his family. And he has called us, he is training us to help.

In the white throne judgment and in the millennium, we will help to bring billions into the family of God. We will assist Jesus Christ. In Genesis 3.20, Eve is mentioned there as being the mother of all living. Everyone is praying from Adam and Eve. The word Eve means living. We are going to help bring all the human beings into the family of God in the world tomorrow. Revelation 22.17, we read a summary statement here of where this is going to take place.

Revelation 22.17, notice the summary says, The Spirit and the Brides say, Come, and let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirsts, comes, whoever desires let him take of the water of life freely. So God has called us as the bride to help people to partake of the water of life freely, to show the way, to explain the way. And the fact that we have lived that way, we've been called, we will be able to relate to them.

Because we will say, look, we lived in human dimension. We know what it's like to be tempted, what it's like to struggle, to overcome. We're here to help you, and we'll be able to help. Brethren, the plan of God is sure. It is going to happen. God has been working on it throughout eternity. You and I have a special part in that plan, the bride of his dear son. We've been called and prepared to serve and help all humanity who have ever lived. We're being changed by the spirit of God into a family that is motivated by love, that is motivated by the desire to serve, to help.

We are striving to become comparable or compatible to Jesus Christ. He's going to marry a bride. He has to marry someone of his own kind. And so he is looking to develop us. We are being made a corresponding helper for God's Son. We're close to the resurrection. So we don't want to give up now. We want to remain strong as God has promised. Let's read one final scripture back here in Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12. Because it is so easy for us to become weary and to maybe slack off or to give up. And, brethren, we're right at the point where the resurrection is staring us in the face, where Christ is about to intervene at the end time. And we read here in Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 3, Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul. You see, the writer of Hebrews was encouraging them not to become weary. The word weary means to gradually lose one's motivation to accomplish a goal, to become discouraged, to become tired of it. The word discouraged is very close. It means to lose one's motivation to accomplish some valid goal, to become discouraged, to lose heart, to give up. We can't give up. We're too close. Let's notice in chapter 13 in verse 5 we read this. Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For he has said, this is what God has said to us, and here's God's promise to us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. In the Greek, this is a double negative and a triple negative.

According to Westward's study, it would be translated, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you, making it a positive. And then, I will not let you down, leave you in the lurch, leave you destitute, leave you in a strait, helpless, or abandon you. God has promised to do his part. You think that God sat down, planned all of this out, and created everything, and has been calling human beings to see his plan fail. God said, I will be with you always, as verse 6 says. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. So God is our helper, and brethren, he has called us to help his son, and eventually, extending salvation to all mankind.