Christ Revealed in His Own Word #80

“Maturing of the Bride #4, “Hidden Wisdom” #2

Sunday, February 23, 1997

Brian Kocourek, Pastor Grace Fellowship

 

 

 

[Isaiah 28:9] Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the Message? [them that are babies?] just weaned from the milk, [and] drawn from the breasts? I don’t think so. He’s coming for a mature Bride. Our God is  not a cradle robber.  So let’s bow our heads and pray.

 

[1 Cor 2:6-16] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:  But 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 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 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. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

Last night we spoke about this “hidden wisdom of God” which God ordained to bring us unto Glory, even before He created the worlds. Now, this word Glory as you well know by now is the Greek word Doxa which means “opinion, assessement, or judgment” and we know that it speaks of God’s own “opinion, judgment or assessment,” or literally the very mind of God.  So, just think. God, even before He created the world, already determined before hand what it would take to bring us, His chosen Elect Seed unto the same Mindset that he has, which is His Glory. Paul said, the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory.  And we know this word unto means up to and into. So there is a mystery which has been kept hidden that will take us unto the Glory of God. And that Mystery is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And as we brought out last night this wisdom belongs only to those who are perfect or mature.

 

[The Weymouth translation] gives us a better understanding of what Paul is telling us here. “Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom; a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away. But in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret we speak of God’s wisdom - that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God pre-destined, so that it should result in Glory to us; a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses, for if they possessed it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory. But to use the words of Scripture- we speak of things which eye has not seen no ear heard, and which have never entered the heart of man: all that God has in readiness for them that love Him (Isa 64:4).  For us however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the Divine Nature. For among human beings, who knows a man’s inner thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? In the same way, also only God’s Spirit is acquainted with God’s inner thoughts. But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God. Of these we speak - not  in languages which man’s wisdom teaches us, but in that which the Spirit teaches - adapting as we do, spiritual words to spiritual truths. The unspiritual man rejects the things of the spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged. But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is himself judged by no one. For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will instruct Him? ( Isa 40:13). But we have the mind of Christ.”

 

Again, we find the [Amplified version]helps us to place this Glory with the presence of God as we read: “But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden from the human understanding and now revealed to us  by God; that wisdom which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification that is, to lift us into the Glory of His Presence. None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this; for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.

 

Now, what we hear brother Branham tell us in [PP. 91] is very much the same as we read from the Weymouth Translation.  " The human mind is not capable to interpret the mind of God. How can the little,  finite mind, interpret the infinite Mind, when we can't even interpret one another's mind.   And you notice, He is the only One can interpret It, and He interprets It to whom He will.  

 

And this brings us to the place where we finished off last night. If the finite mind can not interpret the infinite mind, then to even try to do so will be an impossible task. We hear brother Branham tell us this in the next paragraph. [93] And notice. To whom He will reveal It... And He so designed that He could hide Himself in the Scriptures to the smartest theologian there is. Oh, my. He can just hide Himself, set right there in the Scripture, and you look all day long and never see it, look a lifetime and never see it. He can just hide Himself setting there.  Now, please, everywhere, let that soak in, that God in the Word can hide Himself so in the Word, that there isn't a theologian or a school in the world could ever find Him. And yet He's setting right there. You say, "Is that right, Brother Branham?" How about the Pharisees and Sadducees? How about in every age? He's done it. Sure. He's done so in every age. Now, we could check that. Let's think about the days of Noah, smart, intellectual age, how He hid Hisself in His promised word; in the days of Moses how He hid Hisself; in the days of Elijah how He hid Hisself; in the days of Jesus how He hid Hisself. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came to His own; His own received Him not." See? He hides Himself from the smartest, intellectual man there is on the earth.

 

And so, we find then, as we read last night, Jesus telling us in Matthew 13 that the Word is presented in such a way as to purposely be hidden from those who are not ordained to receive the Glory of God. [Matthew 13:10-16] And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which Saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

 

[Mark 4:11] And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all [these] things are done in parables:

[Matthew 11:25]  and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

 

Now, the problem we see is this. We should know by now, in our study, that we are to receive our Glorification through the Hidden Wisdom of God. In fact we saw in Ephesians 1:17, that this is the reason why God sends down the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Himself. But where the real problem lies is in the fact, that God created Jesus Christ for an earthly kingdom and Lucifer has tried to destroy this kingdom. We know that Lucifer, according to brother Branham tried to build a bigger and better kingdom in the north which I would think simply means above. God had set Christ as Michael and Lucifer as the two covering Cherubs to lead the angels and spirit beings in worship. Then, as we have read, even before God fashioned the world, He had planned an earthly family that Christ would be the head of. But Lucifer got jealous and tried to build a bigger and better kingdom and got other spirit being to follow him by listening to the lie that he told.

 

Now, we all know that only a fool will not acknowledge God. In [Psalm 14:1] We read, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”  So we are not dealing with a fool in Satan. He knows of God, and so to draw away worship to himself, he teaches the a greater knowledge, so called.

 

We also know  that God has ordained a certain Wisdom which He has kept hidden, to be the thing that will bring us into our Glorification. Now, this is the point I want to bring across this morning. If God has ordained a certain Wisdom to bring us into the Glorification, and into His Presence, and if Lucifer wants to have a bigger and better kingdom that Christ, then don’t you think that he will try to twist this wisdom wherever possible to keep the Sons of God from glorification? You see, he started off that way in heaven by telling the tale that drew nearly a third of the stars of heaven. That’s sons. Fallen spirit beings. And so in order to prevent the establishment of the Kingdom of our Christ, he has used this great wisdom that he was sealed with, the fullness of wisdom, to change the course of worship away from the Almighty and deflect it to himself. That is why he is called the god of this evil age. And so he has injected man in his attempt to destroy the earthly kingdom of Michael, which is Christ, and to draw away disciples to his own kingdom, which is a very spiritual one.

 

A perverted wisdom. And the real showdown takes place at the end-time when God comes down with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself. [Isaiah 53:11] by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. God knows that the world is in a very unstable time, and that His Hidden Wisdom is our only hope.  [Isaiah 33:6] And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, [and] strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD [is] his treasure. And why is the fear of the Lord our Treasure? Because [Proverbs  9:10] tells us, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. and the knowledge of the Holy one IS  understanding. Therefore God must come with His Spirit of Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, and he promised to always bring forth any revelation to us through a prophet. Then He sends men into the church to feed that which the prophet brings to the people. [Ephesians 4:11]  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:  And in [Jeremiah 3:15] we read,  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. The true shepherd wants the flock to rest in His Presence and to lay in the presence of the SON to ripen and mature.

 

And since Satan knows this, then how do you think he will combat this? He will attack God’s way with every lying scheme that he has, to destroy the effects of the Parousia of Christ, and the kingdom of our God among man. [Proverbs 11:9] An hypocrite with [his] mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. And how does a hypocrite destroy. Well, the very essence of a hypocrite is that he knows better, but he goes against what he knows. Therefore it is really iniquity. And so we see that if God sends us a wisdom through a prophet, to make ready a prepared people. Then to counter this, Satan sends in his own disciples to take ahold of the true wisdom of God and pervert it and twist it, so that by the time the people lay in it long enough, it is no longer the true - unadulterated - pure Wisdom of God. If God uses a true five-fold ministry to get the people to lay in the Presence of the SON, then Satan will use a false five-fold to get the people stirred up and itching for action, and unable to rest in God’s Presence. And we are warned that in the end-time this battle will take place.

 

[2 Timothy 3:1- ]  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.  But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all [men], as theirs also was.

 

[Daniel 12:4] But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

 

Now we saw last nights that Lucifer was created in the Image of Christ. He was a twin of Michael.

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In [Ephesians 3:9]we read,  And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: “  Here we see that this hidden mystery has been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Then in...

 

 [Colossians 1:26] we read,  [Even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: So we see here that this mystery has been hidden from the ages, and from generations.  Now, this word generations is a Greek word, Genea  which we get our root word, genealogy. It means, men of the same stock, a certain race of men. And so we see that there is a certain stock or lineage that or race of men which this mystery has been hidden from. God did not hide it from all men, but only a certain race of men.  Because after all, we know that it is revealed unto a certain Elect people to bring them into Glory, and to bring forth their Glorified bodies.

 

And so we see God using  a way of speech to actually hide the Mysteries from those who are without. This word without, actually means on the out side. These are not insiders, but outsiders and strangers. Therefore, being strangers, they are not known, literally. That is why He says to them, depart from me, I never knew you. They are complete strangers.

 

[Revelations 2:17] To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it].

 

[Matthew 16:17]  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

 

Now that we have thoroughly established this thought that God hides Himself, or the Revelation of Himself, in His Word, and He only reveals Himself to those whom He has ordained to receive this Hidden Mystery. I would like to take this one step further and show what lineage or genealogy of people it is whom the Lord will not allow to understand His Word.

 

[John 8:38-47]  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus Saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God.  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell [you] the truth, ye believe me not.  Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?  He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.

 

[John 3:20-21] For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.  I want you to notice further, what Jesus says in [John 8] when he says, . “Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear, ( you can not understand)  my word.(Therefore) Ye are of [your] father the devil,” ( it is his thinking and his desires that you will do).

 

Now this gets us back to what brother Branham said, . “The human mind is not capable to interpret the mind of God,”  And so therefore, when they try, they will always fail, just by the nature of being different from God.  And that is why Lucifer in the beginning could not be equal with God even though in every detail he was the same. Because Jesus was the only begotten, while Lucifer was a created being. Jesus was the Son of God while Lucifer was the son of the morning. Now Jesus is the bright and Morning star, is that not right? And when God brought forth His Word, it went forth as His Son in the form of a light, as Brother Branham said, that little light that stood before the great door of God’s Eternity.