Hidden wisdom

Dear Brethren,

Do we realize just how privileged we are to have received God's grace, calling, Spirit, and the knowledge of the things of God.  We are the recipients of the wonderful things the people in the world have never even imagined.  Before the world ever existed, God had prepared his Kingdom for us.  "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."  (Matthew 25:34)

Let’s understand something.  God completed the conception of His plan before the earth existed, but it has remained unknown to the great majority of mankind.  God's plan is to reproduce Himself through mankind by bringing many sons and daughters to glory.  Mankind has been cut off from God, because this is now Satan’s world.  We understand that, but the people of the world do not.  No one knows about the plan of God, except for a very few who have been called to be separate from this world.

The plan of God is not a figment of someone’s imagination.  It is more real than the vast physical universe, itself.  The plan of God is coming to fruition exactly as God planned it before the creation of time.  "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."  (Ephesians 1:4)

We can first see the plan of God being described beginning in the book of Genesis:  "God said, Let us make man in our image [that is the image of God the Father and Jesus Christ], after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." (Genesis 1:26).  We are not yet in the image of God completely.  We have only been given a token of His Life, Mind and Spirit at this time.

Hidden knowledge was revealed by Jesus to His disciples.  "Another parable spake [Jesus] unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.  All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."  (Matthew 13:33-35)

There it is!!!  Jesus says it plainly!!!  "I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."   It is right there in everyone’s Bible – and yet it remains as hidden wisdom to the people of the world.

"Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revealing of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is [the hidden wisdom is] made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."  (Romans 16:25-26) 

The hidden wisdom is revealed to all who are obedient to the faith.  It is the hidden wisdom that God is reproducing Himself through men.  "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."  (1Corinthians 2:7-8)

This hidden wisdom is revealed to those who are being called and receiving God’s Holy Spirit.  All through the ages, man has not been able to understand the plan of God.  Only those converted brethren of the Church of God are able to understand it.  "Even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."  (Colossians 1:26-27)

There is the mystery – right there – out in the open for all to see – it is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."  If Jesus Christ is living in us – His mind, His heart, His principles, His codes and standards, then we will be in the eternal Family of God – that is the hope of Glory.

It is possible to prove that God exists – there are many ways of proving it – but those people of the world will not do it – so they cannot know God.  "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  (1Corinthians 2:14)  And the spiritual discernment that unlocks the hidden wisdom of God comes only with surrender to God and His rule over our lives.

Natural man cannot and will not submit to what God says.  He will not obey God.  He will never be on the same wavelength as God -  to know the hidden things of God.  "The carnal mind [of fleshly man] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."  (Romans 8:7-8) 

How long ago did God the Father and Jesus Christ plan that the Father would give up His Son, and that Jesus would redeem fallen mankind?  Jesus’ dying for us was a major part of God’s plan from before the creation of the physical universe.  "We were redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God."  (1Peter 1:19-21)

The plan of God is this: We are to be like God – in the image of God.  We can first see the plan of God being described beginning in the book of Genesis:  "God said, Let us make man in our image [that is the image of God the Father and Jesus Christ], after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth."  (Genesis 1:26)  

“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”  (1John 3:2)  We are not yet completely in the image of God.  We have only been given a token of His Life, Mind and Spirit at this time.  God put man on the earth for His own ultimate purpose of reproducing Himself.

God’s plan from the foundation of the world is to recreate Himself, as it were, creating righteous divine character in spiritual children who shall also become God beings, members of the very Family of God.  Herbert Armstrong called it our Incredible Human Potential –  being Born into the divine Family of God at the resurrection.

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Sermon:

"Hidden wisdom"