All right, let’s just go ahead and begin with a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, we do come to You now and just want to thank You, Lord, for Your goodness—for bringing us to this place and for making Your heart known. We thank You, Lord, for the things You have revealed.
But, Lord, our desire is Your desire: that these things would be brought fully to light.
Lord, we pray even in this time now, we just look to You—all of us together. Not just those of us here, but all of us together, we just look to You, that as we fellowship around these questions, together we would find Your mind; together, we would see You; that we would know You.
We do lean on You, Lord. We recognize how much we need You. Apart from You, Lord, we can do nothing. Apart from You, Lord, we can give some words, but we have no answers.
So we just look to You. We ask that You would breathe upon this time. Lord, You know the needs, even beyond the questions asked. You know the real questions of the hearts—the things that need to be clarified.
Those things that would open up, those things that would unlock, that would give enlightenment, that would give revelation.
We pray that You would lead us in this time, Lord—all of us here together, even in the questions, the answers, the responses, and the fellowship. Lead us in this time. We all lean upon You now.
Grant us that sensitivity to Your Spirit. We ask that You bless this time.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Lord, we also ask for wisdom. In Your name, amen.
So I think most know, but the intent of this time is just question and answer—to fellowship around some of these questions. We had some questions placed in the box over the last two days, so we will probably kick things off with some of those questions.
There is also an opportunity to ask questions. At various points, if you feel like you have a question, just put your hand up, and we will have someone run a microphone out to you. We want people to be able to hear the questions as well.
Well, we will go ahead and begin.
Some of us wanted Stephen to take five or ten more minutes because right at the end of his sharing, it seemed like he was unlocking something. He got down from the pulpit and started sharing some things with a few of us, and we were like, “What?” So anyway, that was exciting.
I just wanted to share something I felt like the Lord was opening up to me. Obviously, I talked about wisdom—the wisdom of God, the manifold wisdom of God being made known. But I also feel like the Lord is showing me that much of His church is suffering from a lack of wisdom.
Not even so much a lack of revelation, but wisdom.
I saw it last night when I was considering Solomon and how Solomon wanted wisdom. God said, “I was pleased with that. I was pleased because you asked for wisdom, but you did not ask for long life. You did not ask for riches. You did not ask for these things. Therefore, I am going to give you riches, and I am going to give you long life. I am going to give you these things.”
I feel like even in the church, the Lord is saying, “So it is in My church, where people want knowledge and they want the riches of Christ, but they do not want My wisdom.” They do not want the wisdom of what it takes to actually have a sustained manifestation of the wisdom of God or these things of God.
I do not know the Scripture reference, but we have it on our wall at home. It is in Proverbs:
By wisdom a house is built;
And by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge are the chambers filled
With all precious and pleasant riches.
I feel like the Lord put a word on my heart for the churches: if My church got wisdom, then you would see My church filled with the riches of Christ.
The lack of wisdom may be why we do not trade in and live in these riches of Christ. They are not filling the rooms. The church is what God intended to have these riches in it. But by wisdom, God’s house is built.
If you think about Paul when he prayed in Ephesians, he did not pray that we would just get revelation. He prayed that we would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
If you have a spirit of wisdom without revelation, it does not go well. But if you have revelation of the eternal purpose and do not have the spirit of wisdom to go with it, the house of God will not be filled with the riches of Christ like we are talking about.
I believe this is a word for the church in our day: we need to receive that wisdom.
Someone shared Proverbs 11:2 with me:
When pride cometh, then cometh shame;
But with the lowly is wisdom.
That is a way into it. Perhaps one reason we do not have the riches flowing freely is that we need to humble ourselves and allow that spirit of wisdom and revelation to come.
This is not just for a good teaching. This is a way God is revealing to us something that is lacking and that He desires for us to have: the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
One connection with this wisdom piece, especially from places such as 1 Corinthians, is that the cross is the ultimate picture of the wisdom of God. It really is the wisdom of God.
Satan thought, in all of his worldly wisdom, that he was killing the Son of God—that he was finishing everything. But what looked like the foolishness of God, allowing this to happen at the cross, turned into the wisest thing in the universe. Through the cross, He was able to redeem all creation.
Paul makes that wonderful comment in Ephesians 3: he is sharing these things so that believers would not be troubled by what they saw happening to him while he was in prison. In the wisdom of God, whatever suffering he was going through was actually turning into something glorious.
This is the way of the cross. What the world, the enemy, or mankind means for death or harm, God, in His heavenly wisdom, turns into resurrection and into something that accomplishes His purpose.
Everything that seems like we are becoming fools in this age—God is actually making it the wisest thing. As death works in us, resurrection comes.
Even if your life seems to be wasted away with death, with no ability to do anything impressive, the wisdom of God is still at work. I was talking to a mother earlier who has little children, and to a father as well. It can seem like inability after inability. But what shows up is the fragrance of Christ from the family—resurrection and blessing to all who see the heavenly wisdom of God.
As the children are filled with joy, and as you see the love of God in a family, you see God’s wisdom. What appears to the world as inability, death, hardship, or foolishness becomes an expression of the life of Christ.
The word of the cross, for example, in 1 Corinthians 1, is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Greeks were seeking wisdom; the Jews were seeking power. Both are embedded in the cross.
The manifold wisdom displayed in the church overcomes what the gates of Hades are trying to do in attacking the church and stopping the Lord from building it. God takes all that death, twists it around, and turns it into resurrection.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 1, Christ Himself is described as the wisdom of God:
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
That, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
What is the wisdom of God? It is Christ. Christ Himself is our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He is the whole package of salvation.
Here is a question that came in: What was the connection between the fall of Lucifer and the rest of the message?
We talked about Lucifer, and Stephen brought up the verse today from Ezekiel 28:
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
Lucifer corrupted wisdom for his own splendor, for his own self, for his own glory. He corrupted the wisdom of God, which was the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus is the One who is to inherit all things. The Lord Jesus is to have first place in all things. This has been God’s purpose from eternity past.
Lucifer stepped in to try to usurp that position—to try to take the position of the Lord Jesus. In doing that, he was judged and cast down to the earth.
God could have destroyed Lucifer in that moment, but He did not do it that way. His plan was to use man, who is a little lower than the angels—less power, less wisdom. Man’s natural wisdom is foolishness.
God used man, a little lower than the angels, to overcome. The point is that God is educating the principalities and powers—all that is unseen—that it is not about the vessel, but about the One to whom the vessel is joined.
It is all about Him. He is the center of all things.
When Lucifer was judged, he was cast down to earth. It seems that sometime between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, Satan rebelled against God, was cast down to earth, and destruction followed.
God was hovering over the deep, over the waters, and He was burdened with this situation. He wanted to restore the earth and bring everything back into His purpose and His plan.
He began to restore the earth, and He put man in the garden. Man was there to be the ally of God, the companion of God, to be fruitful and multiply, and as he multiplied, to subdue the whole earth.
Man was to bring the whole earth back under God’s dominion. Satan was not alone; there were principalities, powers, wicked spirits, and demons. Revelation 12 seems to allude to the fact that when Lucifer rebelled, some of the angels rebelled with him. They became fallen angels.
God desired to use man as His companion to bring order back on the earth, to restore the earth, and to bring about His purpose—to bring all things under the feet of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is to have preeminence. All things are to be summed up in Him. He is to have first place in everything.
But in the garden, Adam did not take of the tree of life. We do not know why. God mentioned it, and Adam seemed to delay in taking of that tree—the tree that speaks of the life of the Lord Jesus, the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Because Adam did not take of that life, he was not able to overcome. Because he did not join himself with God in that way, he was not able to overcome the evil one.
Instead of being the ally of God, he became the enemy of God. He rebelled against God and did the same thing Lucifer did: he grasped at being like God. He stepped outside the boundaries of what he was created to be.
He was created to be a bondservant. We were created to serve God, not to be God. We have a glorious purpose in our creation: to be spirit, soul, and body, that we could receive God’s life.
Man was fearfully and wonderfully made. But because he did not receive God’s life and rebelled against God, he became His enemy.
God had a plan even before the foundation of the world: the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus would come to redeem us, but He would also show us who man was supposed to be.
He is the perfect example of who we are destined to be. That should bring us encouragement and joy. This is who God has always seen us to be.
That is why God so loved the world. He saw, and He sees, exactly who we are meant to be.
The Lord Jesus came to show us what that was like: God and man joined. As God and man joined, He was able to overcome all things. He was able to overcome the evil one. He was the ally of God the Father.
He did the will of the Father all the way to death, even death on the cross. In that, He was able to bring all things back under the authority of God in the redemption of man.
Now, in that redemption, we have in a sense been placed back in the garden. We now have access to the tree of life. It is there for us to freely take.
I do not know why, especially for myself, we sometimes do not richly partake of the Lord Jesus and His unsearchable riches. But if we partake of that life—if we by faith receive the Lord Jesus—we are able to overcome.
We have all the resources of heaven. We have been given every spiritual blessing. We have all the resources of heaven to step in and do the impossible.
I personally believe even a gathering like this is an impossible thing. But somehow, as we join ourselves with God, grace is given to do impossible things.
That is the connection: we have the opportunity to join ourselves with the Lord and complete this work as the ally of God, not as enemies. We are no longer enemies; we are now His companions.
First, all things must come under His feet. Then, as we come under His feet in our own lives, we do the work of God. The work of God is to bring all things under His feet.
That is not just with unbelievers or believers, but everything we see in this world. In Port Charlotte and Charlotte County, there are things going on that are not the will of God.
It is our responsibility, as His companions and allies, to travail and join ourselves with the Lord so that all things in Charlotte County, and throughout the earth, would come under the feet and authority of the Lord Jesus.
This is the work we have been called to as God’s people in this time. But it is joined with Him, because apart from Him we can do nothing.
There were several questions on the matter of the kingdom. They relate to what was just said about our participation with the Lord in His purpose.
God wants to sum up all things in His Son, the Lord Jesus. He wants all things under His authority, and we have a responsibility to join together with Him in that.
The questions were these:
When we think about God’s purpose to sum up all things in His Son, we recognize that He wants all things under the feet of the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 2 says that we do not yet see all things subjected to Him.
You can look around Charlotte County and see much that is not under the Lord’s authority. There is much that is not God’s will. So what is God’s plan for bringing those things under His authority?
There are two aspects of what we call the kingdom, or the kingdom of heaven—heaven ruling over earth. One is spiritual; the other is both spiritual and physical.
In our present day, when we speak about seeking the kingdom of God, we mean bringing ourselves—our lives and decisions—out from under our own authority and under the authority of the Lord.
Our relationships, our families, and everything that we do come under this prayer: “Not my will, but Thy will, be done.” We bring these things, in a spiritual sense, under the authority of the Lord.
Every time you preach the gospel to someone, you are bringing them under the authority of the Lord Jesus. They may have little understanding at first; we simply know their sins are forgiven. But when they receive Christ, they receive all the riches of the universe.
Then begins the process of bringing their life, their family, and their relationships under the authority of the Lord Jesus. That spiritual kingdom continues to advance, but it has opposition.
There is another kingdom at work today. The kingdom of darkness is still very much in place. But there is a future day coming when the Lord Jesus Himself returns and, in a more literal sense, all things are brought under the subjection of His feet.
The reward is participation in that process—both today and then.
Jesus said:
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
The reward is participation with the Lord Jesus. When He returns, it will be much more obvious that serving Him was the right thing.
Today, the world is in the hands of the evil one, and the wisdom of the world says, “Get things for yourself. Get yours while you can. You only live once. Get what you can now.”
But you may think you are serving yourself and getting yours now, while in reality the whole world lies in the evil one. Satan wanted worship. That is what he was after.
When you serve things that are not under the authority of the Lord, whose authority are they under? There are no neutral things.
When you submit yourself to the Lord now, you are bringing His authority into reality in time. But when the Lord comes back, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
Satan himself will be bound. He will no longer deceive the nations. The world, which is his domain, will be removed. Then it will be obvious: “I should have given all that I had to the Lord.”
The privilege of serving Him today is that we labor by faith. We say, “Yes, He is who He says He is, and I am going to serve Him, even though the world looks like He is of no value.”
The world thinks He deserves a cross. But we know He deserves the throne of God, and we give Him that throne.
When He comes back, it will be as though He says, “You were faithful in this little bit during the seventy years that I gave you. Therefore, when that kingdom materializes in real life, I need someone to rule over Charlotte County.”
The reward is participation in the rulership of Jesus, as opposed to the rulership of His enemy.
To seek the kingdom of God is to seek His authority now. If you are looking ahead and wanting to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” then you will ask, “What can I bring from my own life under the Lord’s authority?”
Or, if you begin with the present, you ask, “Lord, what can I bring under Your authority right now?” That will be rewarded in the future.
In both cases, seeking His kingdom refers to right now and to looking ahead. The faithful servant whom the Master puts over His household when He comes is the one serving His household today.
How does that work out practically? I remember Brother Kong saying during question-and-answer times, “I do not have any answers for you guys. All I can do is maybe clear up a little mental block that might be between you and the Lord. Your questions have to go to the Lord Himself.”
In your prayer closet, the Lord will show you: “This little thing on your conscience needs to be brought under My authority.” In daily life, every morning, we can pray, “Lord, not my will, but Yours be done.”
A question was raised: was the reward being described as existing only in the millennial reign?
We generally think of a future reward because at the judgment seat of Christ all of us will appear before Him, and it has to do with what we have done now. This judgment concerns Christians; it is not a question of heaven or hell. It concerns His smile or disappointment.
The Lord gathers His bondservants before Him—those to whom He entrusted talents—and He can say, “Well done, good and faithful bondservant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
That is His heart’s desire.
When I think of reward, I do have in the back of my mind certain details found in the Bible concerning the thousand years. But mainly, I think of the moment when I see the Lord face to face and behold Him, and I see Him smile and say, “Well done.”
To me, that is reward enough. To see the Lord smile—that is enough.
There are descriptions of rewards in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. To each of the churches, He says, “He that overcometh, I will give…” There are specific promises.
Paul also speaks of reward in 1 Corinthians 9. He asks, “What then is my reward?” His reward was that he could make the gospel free of charge as he preached it.
There can be rewards in this life. That is not necessarily evil. There is an evil form of it when people perform righteousness before men in order to gain praise. In that case, they already have their reward.
But by God’s grace and mercy, we sometimes receive a small taste of reward now. You may pray and pray for someone, and when that person is delivered, saved, or begins to walk with the Lord, you sit back and say, “Thank You, Lord. I saw the fruit of the travail of my soul.”
That is, in a sense, a reward. The Lord knows how to gather it all and unveil it in the end.
There are specific things in Scripture about ruling and reigning with Christ during the thousand years—being over ten cities or one city. These matters are according to a person’s measure and faithfulness in this age.
But it is all gathered up in the Lord saying, “I put you over a little, and now I can put you over more.” Ultimately, the reward is Christ.
Anyone who receives rewards in the thousand years will find that every aspect of that reward bears the fragrance and shining of Christ. It is a taste of eternity, in a time period in which the dominion of Christ is still being completed and His enemies are being brought under His feet.
Revelation 19 speaks of the bride making herself ready, clothed in the righteous acts of the saints. Then comes the first resurrection and the thousand years.
It is almost like a wedding feast—a taste of marriage, though not the whole package. To be with the Lord in that way is reward: more of Christ, more time with Christ, and more of pleasing Christ.
A further clarification was raised: are these varying rewards temporary? Are none of them eternal?
Revelation 21 describes the new heavens and new earth:
And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
That is not yet true of the thousand years. During the thousand years, Jesus reigns over the earth and Satan is bound. But 1 Corinthians 15 says that He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, the last enemy being death.
The thousand years are like the last battle of the heavenly conflict. In eternity future, the rebellious principalities and powers are no longer a problem. They are cast forever into the lake of fire, the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Once the battle is over, He can wipe every tear from every eye. But during the thousand years, while He reigns until all enemies are under His feet, there may still be tears of regret from believers who think, “If only I had given more to the Lord, I could have participated more in this kingdom.”
Yet the reward is not merely temporary. Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 promise the overcomer access to the tree of life, and the tree of life is also present in the New Jerusalem.
All of us will eat of the tree of life in eternity. But it is a reward to eat of the tree of life beforehand, during that kingdom time. The Christ gained in the thousand years continues into eternity.
The kingdom in Daniel begins when the stone crushes the kingdoms of this world. It begins in the thousand years, but it is an eternal kingdom. In that sense, eternity begins in the thousand years and then continues beyond it.
Whatever reward we experience is eternally glorious. We should not think in terms of gaining a “better spot” in eternity—asking what seat we will have or how many cities we will rule. Those kinds of comparisons belong to the thousand-year period.
After that, whatever we are doing for eternity with the Lord Jesus will make it easy to lay down every position and every selfish thought. Whoever has come through the fire, even if saved through the fire, will be able to look and see Christ.
The experiences and tastes of Christ gained in the thousand years count forever. They are part of the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven to earth in Revelation 21. But in the kingdom of the heavens, there is already a taste of that reality: Christ, the center of the New Jerusalem, rules and reigns, and His saints reign with Him.
The heavens rule the earth. Those things gained during that period are eternally valuable to the Lord.
How they are valuable to us—what badges, positions, or memories there may be—is not something we fully know. But all of it will shine Christ, and none of us will hold any position in selfishness. It will all be to the glory of God.
I do not actually know all the details. But I do know that it counts for eternity. The rewards count for eternity. Whatever measure of Christ is gained in this age is an eternal measure. That is part of the New Jerusalem.
One person shared Romans 11:33–36 as a helpful perspective concerning the intent of the heart:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
What matters is the intent of the heart whenever we do things.
In Matthew 7, there are those who come and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not by Thy name prophesy, and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works?” Yet He says, “I never knew you: depart from Me.”
Please do not let us be those who miss Christ and miss the point of everything. The point is Christ.
Everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him. By His grace, we may share in part of His reward, but praise the Lord, because it will all go back to Him.
We have to be careful with talk of position, because worldly wisdom is tied to selfish ambition.
God may ask, “Why do you want wisdom? So you can know everything? So you can explain everything?” In that sense, if information itself is what we seek, we may already have our reward.
God’s kingdom is not like that. The Gentiles lord it over people, but it is not so with us.
If we are not rooted and grounded in the true gospel and in the love of God, teaching about rewards can become dangerous. We can begin talking constantly about what will happen, who will receive what, and all these other things.
It is as though God pulls back the curtain for a moment and says, “I am letting you know about My economy. I have an economy. I see what is going on, and I am keeping a record.” Then the curtain closes, and He says, “Therefore, get on your face and love Me.”
That is our portion. The portion of the kingdom is to get on our faces before Him.
It is not about someone leading fifty thousand people to Christ while someone else leads only one. It is about love and obedience. If I love Him, and He tells me to do nothing, then that is what I will do. If He tells us to do fifty thousand things over a city, then we had better do that.
It is good to discuss Scripture and to look into these things. The teaching about reward is in the Scripture, and it helps us understand how God thinks.
But remember that the same Apostle Paul who taught these things also said that we can know all things, but without love, we gain nothing.
If you want to be zealous, love Him. Love Him, love Him, love Him. I guarantee there will be rewards—and it will be Christ.
God does not give us teachings and Scriptures to drive us away from other teachings in Scripture. They go together. We still love Him.
If we look around and only wonder what we are going to receive, we have missed the point. The point of a kingdom is that it has a King, but our King is different: our King loves us.
We are one with Him. We are united with our King. He can tell us, “I need you to do this for Me,” and there may be loss if we refuse. There is gain and loss in obedience to the Lord.
Jesus taught, “If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.”
The Lord has said to me over the years, “Stephen, be very careful not to get your works separated from love.” There is no reward for works done in the flesh or for anything done with the aim of gaining something personally.
The only reward comes from loving the Lord and obeying what the Lord has told us. Then there may be many rewards which God will reveal to us.
Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,
And which entered not into the heart of man,
Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.
We cannot even imagine the reward prepared for those who love Him.
A question was asked concerning the parable of the talents: what does multiplying the talents look like tangibly?
These measures that God entrusts to us are growable. We should not try to interpret “talent” according to the English use of the word, as if it means being able to sing well or do backflips. It is a monetary term.
The wealth is Christ. This is not the gift of salvation. It is the measure of the riches of the grace of Christ that you have discovered.
If you trade with what you have discovered of Christ, that measure grows. For example, one of the riches of His grace in Ephesians 1 is the forgiveness of sins and being accepted in the Beloved.
Suppose the Lord has entrusted that to me, and He wants me to trade with it. I share with others the forgiveness of sins that I have received. I help another believer struggling with sin by showing them the same Scriptures through which I repented and was cleansed.
That is a small way of trading with the grace entrusted to me. The other person experiences it, but also my own measure of Christ grows.
I may have discovered that I am forgiven, and then, through fellowship and ministry, I discover that I am also cleansed. It is a new discovery of Christ.
In 1 John 1, we walk in the light, and God is light. As we walk, the light continues to increase. The more I walk with God, repenting of dark steps and sins, the more Christ I discover.
But what has been entrusted must be used.
The Lord may give you a burden to pray for someone in the church. That is an entrustment of the Lord’s wealth—a taste of His shepherding grace and love. He says, “Love that sister. Love that brother. Pray for this person.”
As you pray for them, you are trafficking with what He has given you. You are putting the money in the bank, so to speak. As you do, the love in your heart for that person begins to grow.
But sometimes we bury it. The Lord gives us a taste of grace and says, “I want you to pray for that person.” Maybe we try for a little while, but it becomes difficult, and then we forget or set it aside.
We may say, “I know God’s will is for me to pray for these people, but I will get to it someday.” What we are doing is burying what He entrusted to us.
The growth of the measure is the grace God gives us to minister, fellowship, and serve according to our gifting. As we actually step out and do it, our measure grows.
There may be evangelists who are gifted, but because they have not tried or are in an environment where evangelism rarely happens, they do not know what grace they have received. There may be hidden gospel preachers who are more gifted than any of us but who are simply not walking in that grace.
The same is true of shepherding. I know people called as shepherds who do not shepherd, and they say, “I am not a shepherd. I am more of a teacher.”
But in Ephesians 4, shepherd and teacher are closely joined. Perhaps the reason someone does not feel like a shepherd is that he is burying that part of the grace entrusted to him—perhaps because his prayer life is neglected.
On a practical level, the growth of your measure of Christ has to do with obedience: walking in the light, trafficking in fellowship, and using whatever the Lord gives you. By God’s supernatural power, it will increase.
The person entrusted with five talents, if he trades with all five, receives the appropriate increase.
A clarification was offered: the talent is not the number of people you lead to Christ or the visible results of your ministry. It is not based upon whether another person responds positively to your encouragement.
The talent is the measure of Christ in yourself. It is not the people.
Otherwise, consider a prophet like Jeremiah, when nobody listened to him. We simply have to please the Lord. Numbers and visible outcomes do not always equal faithfulness.
Another question asked whether God had a plan for salvation even before the fall of man.
This question comes from Scriptures about God’s eternal purpose, His calling before the foundation of the world, and what He purposed for us in Christ.
Whatever God purposed, He purposed before creation. He created the heavens and earth with a purpose in mind. He had in view what He wanted in the end—the new creation, the new heavens, and the new earth.
So was the fall of man something unexpected, requiring God to make a new plan? It seems from Scripture that it was not.
Revelation 13:8 speaks of the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain. Some translations phrase the connection differently, but the thought is that the Lamb and the book of life belong to God’s eternal purpose from before the foundation of the world.
Romans 8 also speaks of God’s foreknowledge. According to His foreknowledge, He determined beforehand to save us.
God foreknew the fall of the angels and the fall of man. In the counsel of God, when He purposed His purpose in Christ, He did not merely create with free will and then wait to see what happened.
We cannot fully understand this because we are human and not God. But we can understand something of God’s foreknowledge through prophecy.
God gave Isaiah a prophecy concerning Cyrus, even calling him by name before he was born. Cyrus would later be the ruler who authorized the rebuilding of the temple.
There are many prophecies in Scripture about the future: prophecies about the Messiah, the events of Revelation, the coming Antichrist, the great tribulation, the two witnesses, and the Lord’s return.
If we believe those prophecies are true, then we believe God knows the future before it happens.
Can we take one further step back and say God knew the future when He created Lucifer? It may stretch our minds, but if we believe the prophecies of the future, it is not too far to acknowledge God’s foreknowledge.
The Son of God, before He was named Jesus, made the decision—in a way beyond our understanding—that He would go to the cross. In God’s heart, He was already the Lamb slain.
That is why the Old Testament continually points forward to the slain Lamb. That is why the Passover points to Christ. That is why John the Baptist said:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
If He was going to take away sins, He would have to be slain, because without blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
All of that knowledge was with God before creation. Yet God still decided that it was worth it. For what He would gain in the end, He decided that the creation, the cross, the bride of Christ, and the new creation were worth it.
Jesus, we thank You, Lord, for loving us. We thank You that You let us be Your disciples.
Just as You had those disciples, we have these questions: “Who is going to do this? How is this going to happen?” And You love us for it. You would show us these things, Lord.
We look to You to give us wisdom about Your coming kingdom. We look to You to give us wisdom about rewards.
Lord, we look to You to give us wisdom concerning what has been shared in this teaching. Help us interpret it in a way that fits rightly with everything else we know about You and everything You have shown us.
Lord, bless us here. Bless those who have been watching the children. Help us to have the right way. Help us not to veer into worldly wisdom tied to selfish ambition or pretense.
Help us to be lost in You, that we may come into true reward, true living in Your kingdom, and truly walk after You by Your Spirit.
Lord, I thank You for all our brothers and sisters. It is a blessed time to be here together. Continue to bless us through the rest of this evening as we eat, and in anything else that You desire to say and do.
Lord, if there is anything You need to tie up in our own hearts—any questions we have—would You be merciful and show us answers, even before we leave here.
In Your name, Jesus. Amen.