SECRET of the LORD

 Strong's #5475: cowd (pronounced sode)

from 3245; a session, i.e. company of persons (in close deliberation); by implication, intimacy, consultation, a secret:--assembly, consel, inward, secret (counsel).

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon:

sôd

1) council, counsel, assembly

1a) council (of familiar conversation)

1a1) divan, circle (of familiar friends)

1a2) assembly, company

1b) counsel

1b1) counsel (itself)

1b2) secret counsel

1b3) familiar converse, intimacy (with God)

Part of Speech: noun masculine

Relation: from H3245

Usage:

This word is used 21 times:

 

Genesis 49:6: "O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united:"
Job 15:8: "Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to"
Job 19:19: "All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned"
Job 29:4: "I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;"
Psalms 25:14: " The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant."
Psalms 55:14: "We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company."
Psalms 64:2: "Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:"
Psalms 83:3: "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones."
Psalms 89:7: "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all"
Psalms 111:1: "the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation."
Proverbs 3:32: "the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous."
Proverbs 11:13: "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter."
Proverbs 15:22: "Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established."
Proverbs 20:19: "He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips."
Proverbs 25:9: "thy neighbor himself; and discover not a secret to another:"
Jeremiah 6:11: "the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even"
Jeremiah 15:17: "I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because"
Jeremiah 23:18: "For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard"
Jeremiah 23:22: "But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned"
Ezekiel 13:9: "lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing"
Amos 3:7: "nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants"

 

Well, there is a grand secret for successfully facing these challenges, and it is a grand secret, I assure you. Essential to the solution is Psalm 16, which establishes the foundation by which we may consider our lives together in this world as God's people. It provides guidance and help as we face the future, and it helps remind us of certain things that are of vital importance to our spiritual growth and our eternal salvation.

Psalm 16:8-11 I have set the Lord always before me [Of course, this is David speaking.]; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

What an encouraging passage. If we will just do one thing, all these blessings are ours. And who would not want joy and pleasures evermore?

Here in Psalm 16, we have a man, a psalmist, telling us how he faces the future. This is a psalm of David and David was a man with the same concerns as us. He had many troubles and he had to face many problems as king far more than we do. He brought many of them upon himself, as we do, but many came despite of him, simply as the result of the world in which he lived and because there were other sinners like himself all around him.

If you read his story, you find that he lived a very tempestuous life. And yet through it all, with all his sins and faults and failures, and all the various calamities that came upon him, you find this man going always steadily forward, with a few setbacks, but then right away, going forward. He was a man who was well-pleasing in God's sight. A writer and a composer and author of many of these great psalms in which he celebrates God's goodness and lifts up his heart in praise.

Such a man obviously has a great deal to teach us and here he tells us one of the secrets of his life—one of the main things that kept him going. He shows us what it was that enabled him to recover himself when he sank into sin, or when he was almost overwhelmed by trouble. This psalmist opens his heart to us and here in verse 8, he brings us face to face with what was after all, the grand secret of the life of David, the King of Israel.

Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Now it is very important to realize that this psalm is one of the Messianic psalms, one of the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God. Those who are familiar with their New Testament, as all should be, will know that this psalm is quoted very frequently with respect to Jesus Christ Himself and especially with respect to His resurrection. Consider these words in verse 10:

Psalm 16:10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol [or the grave], nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

That verse was quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost, also by Paul in Antioch, where we were first called Christians, and again in the epistle to the Hebrews. It is undoubtedly a reference to Jesus Christ. So David was not only writing about himself, he was writing as a prophet about the coming Son of God, the Messiah, and therefore these words can be applied to Christ Himself.

In other words, we have in this verse not only the secret of the life of King David, we have also the essence and the secret of the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When He was here in this world and lived His life as a man, it was always, "I have set the Lord always before Me." And that was how Jesus Himself lived.

As you read the accounts of His life on earth in the four gospels, you find that this is obviously true. Observe His life in prayer and you see Him getting up before dawn to pray and or spending a whole night in prayer.

Why is He praying so much? In setting God always before Him, it is perfectly clear from the gospels that Christ, when He was here in the flesh, looked to God and He lived for Him and by Him. It is very clear then that we have a very important principle here regarding our lives in the world. Nothing can be more important than this—the secret of the life of David, and certainly of the sinless life of Jesus Christ.

Now, as you read the stories of the faithful, we find that this has also been the characteristic note, the outstanding feature in the life of all the men and women who have been used by God in an exceptional manner in their lives and ministries. The Bible contains nearly fifty lengthy prayers and several hundred shorter prayers or references to praying. The writers are far more interested in showing people at prayer than in talking about prayer.

The actual biblical practice of prayer shows that the major terms for prayer are conversational. It is a conversation with God. It presupposes a mutual attitude of trust and devotion, and it concerns the range of life concerns, like a conversation between friends, and it provides both comfort and challenge, and its purposes include service of others. But although it is a conversation as between friends, it is a most reverential, respectful, honored prayer with our Creator God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Contained in this asking in a conversational manner, which is neither demanding nor mere wishing, is the expectation that the asker is humble, expectant, and thankful. Now this conversational tone, face to face, includes the elements of speaking, waiting, and listening. And when we pray, we offer words to God, and we must be confident that God hears the sentiment of our words or that our words express. Psalm 34:6 typifies this by saying, "This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Abraham's prayer for Sodom in Genesis 18, uses ordinary speech and suggests a persuasive but respectful tone. Also, David notes the need to wait on God in prayer, and he describes calling out to God and receiving an answer. In Psalm 138:3, he says, "In the day I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul."

So conversation through prayer is essential to the intimacy of relating to God. Jesus exemplifies the intimate nature of prayer as conversation, and He related to God as a Father. Yet this intimacy does not diminish His sense of God's holiness. Turn with me, please, to Matthew 6. Except for His agonizing cry on the stake, He always addresses God as Father in prayer and teaches His disciples to do the same.

Matthew 6:6-9 "But you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed [That is, blessed, revered, honored] be Your name."

In this way, Jesus shows that the dialogue between God and His people should be a more personal, respectful conversation.

Turn with me now to Ephesians 1. This is reflected in the apostle Paul's prayer type of openings in his epistles. He emphasizes blessings which are very practical to God, and us.

Ephesians 1:2-3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

That is a lot of spiritual blessings. I have tried to count some of them before, and I have never been able to complete that list. But that was certainly something we should count and remember as Richard pointed out in the commentary.

So Jesus prays often and urges His disciples to make prayer a part of their lifestyle. He instructs His disciples in prayer and makes it His first action in times of trouble. The gospels record His praying at all the important events in His life. For example, at His baptism, His transfiguration, selection of the twelve disciples, and in Gethsemane.

Prayer is an exchange of confidence, and we assume the stance of a trusting child and pray with faith that is matched by obedience. So God remembers our frailty, loves us as His children, and hears and answers our prayers.

We cannot get to know Him if we use prayer as we use the telephone or send a text message for a few words of hurried conversation. Intimacy requires development. Turn with me now over just a couple of chapters to Ephesians 3. We cannot know God as it is our privilege to know Him by brief and fragmentary and unconsidered repetitions of requests for personal favors and nothing more. That is not the way to communicate with the great God who supplies all our needs, who blesses us abundantly.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think [How much higher above our asking and thinking can that possibly be? Not just abundantly but exceedingly abundantly, beyond our imagination.], according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

So prayer is not a meaningless function or duty to be crowded into the busy and weary ends of the day. And we are not obeying God's command when we content ourselves with a few minutes on our knees in the morning rush, or late at night when our human frailties, tired from the task of the day, long for sleep.

Turn to Luke 21. Jesus clearly warns us that discerning the times, being careful how we live our lives, and having an intimate relationship through prayer with God, are requirements for being worthy to escape the world's attitude and impending judgment.

Luke 21:34-36 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life [Hopefully, we are not guilty of the first two, but the cares of this life, it is absolutely every one of us.], and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. [That is over seven billion people.] Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Always here does not mean that we are to neglect the ordinary duties of life. What it means is that when we come into intimate contact with God in privacy, we are in touch with the Father, of which there can be no greater priority. Sadly, if you are like me, no end of distractions and thoughts come into my mind and pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and we push them out. We rebuke Satan for introducing some of them, and then we try to continue on. And so it is not easy to continue that heartfelt prayer that we are to give. We all struggle with it and we all fight against it.

Prayer then loses every vestige of dread which may previously have existed, and we should never regarded it as a duty, but rather as a privilege which is to be enjoyed, a delight that will reveal some wonderful new thing.

Consistent prayer enables us to escape all the troubles of life, and this principle works for avoiding harm by the tumultuous times and circumstances that are extant before Christ's return. It helps us to avoid losing heart like the point of the parable given about the persistent widow. It helps us to stay faithful to God and His way of life.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18 teaches of the necessity of patient, persistent, and persevering prayer and is much like the Parable of the Persistent Friend in Luke 11:5-13. Both parables are preceded by the mention of prayer and although delivered under different situations, they both show the absolute and immeasurable contrast between God and human beings. It is evident that God yields to the pleading and urging of His saints. In the Parable of the Persistent Friend, the persevering prayer was for necessities. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, the persevering prayer was for protection. Both parables conclude that God will not fail us as family, friends, and acquaintances sometimes, or maybe often, do.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow is especially linked with the last days and the final great crisis and the painful circumstances the faithful remnant must face. A major resource for those who remain true to God at this time of great apostasy is prayer. Vengeance is God's alone and He will punish all who persecute His elect. He will judge our oppressors. But as we wait for deliverance, persevering prayer is our supply of patience. Perseverance also carries with it the characteristic of consistency and regularity and reliability and constancy and steadfastness and faithfulness, which means we must be always in God's presence from where our true joy comes.

This parable is preceded by an exhortation from Christ showing our duty of praying, our dedication to praying, and our resistance against our discontinuation of praying. It ends by indicating that prayer is a matter of faith. If we lack in prayer, we lack in faith.

Luke 18:1-8 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'" Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

Some margins read the faith there instead of just faith. Will He really find the faith on the earth? But hopefully the faith that is delivered to the saints will not be a scarce commodity. It is a solemn duty to keep and guard the faith despite persecutions and trials. So the statement implies the answer and the answer is not good. The implication is that there will not be much faith on the earth when Christ returns, as other scriptures also indicate.

Two important things are shown here. They are the character of the end times and the condemnation of the faithlessness. First, we know that great wickedness and heresy and apostasy will exist at the end time just prior to the return of Christ to this earth. Second, the word "nevertheless" condemns faithlessness, even though God works wonderfully in answering prayer as Scripture promises. Nevertheless, people will not believe, and God has given people every reason to believe. But they have too much false faith in the wrong things. Many put their faith into the environment or the government or something else other than God, and they make them their god.

Now He has given people the glory of the physical realm—signs and wonders and many infallible proofs—that people should believe. But they still will not believe. The end time is manifesting wholesale unbelief.

Please turn to Psalm 37. God has given us every encouragement to pray, to live His way of life, to have faith in Him. We must work at making our call and election sure, and prayer is a major tool in the development of our intimate relationship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Our prayer should not be negative or overly emotional. Rather than destroying ourselves with negative emotions like society does, we must keep things in perspective, looking at them from God's point of view or perspective. Anger, resentment, and jealousy destroy faith in God's goodness and justice. Intimate conversation with God helps us avoid self-pity, and it develops deep trust in and appreciation for Him. Trusting in God means faith, especially the more difficult aspect of faith, submission to His will in the hope of His resolution of the dilemma. In the spirit of surrender, we find joy.

Psalm 37:3-8 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.

In one short phrase, what this is talking about is submitting to the will of God. If we submit to the will of God, then we can have prayers that are answered. They are not always answered in the way we want them to be but they are all always answered, and they all end in a good result for everyone.

The condition of our enjoyment is nothing less than a positive response to a bad situation. To do good and to take delight in the Lord should be the object of our love and hope. In verse 3, trust in the Lord is expressed in active obedience and reliance on God. Trust is also a fervent expectation of His justice.

In verse 5, to commit your way to the Lord is not simple abandonment, but it is a full commitment to transfer our concerns and worries to God and live our lives according to His will. The term "your way" in verse 5 relates to your whole life, including the negative feelings, nagging questions, and concerns of justice. God expects His children to be like children in innocence and to put themselves completely under His fatherly care. And that is something we struggle with and work on and try to have 24 hours a day, at least of our waking moments and sometimes of our dreams.

So let us consider our own lives. How do we feel as we anticipate the future? What specifically is going to happen? We do not know exactly. Nobody knows for sure. We can generally know what is going to happen to the world if we read the inspired written Word of God, the Bible. There we find that God's people are the conquerors in the end. That is the main thing we need to know about the end—we win as long as we submit to God.

Look back over the past year and consider the things that have happened. How many of them did you predict? What did you anticipate? It was impossible to forecast all the insane and idiotic things that happened in 2020. We were absolutely dumbfounded as to what has happened. We might have had inklings of this, that, and the other thing. But do we never had such a complete picture in looking back and being in disbelief at the stupidity of the people in this world, and ignorance of God is the cause.

Thankfully, as God's people, we should not worry about the details of the future. We must live through stressful times one step at a time, planning as best we can with whatever we have.

Matthew 6:25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing."

Matthew 6:28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin."

Matthew 6:31 "Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Think about today. Accomplish the things you need to today. Solve the problems that you can today and do not worry about these things tomorrow. It does not mean do not plan for them or plan to resolve them. But it means do not worry about things beyond today, and that is very hard for us to do having human nature.

Regarding this principle of setting the Lord always before me, putting it into operation will enable us to say that whatever happens to us, we know that all will be well because He is at my right hand and I will not be moved. I will remain faithful and steadfast no matter what. We will not be moved because we are living in the light of this principle, "I have set the Lord always before me."

Let us then look at Psalm 16:8 in a very practical manner. We spend a great deal of our time with principles and with doctrines because they are essential. But obviously they must be applied, and therefore it is a prudent thing occasionally to pause and be essentially practical to come down to the application of the things that we believe.

So what is the practical approach to this principle? It is the determination to live life in the conscious presence of God. That is what David the psalmist is saying. He has set the Lord God always before him. He says, in essence, "I'm going to live consciously in His presence. As long as I do that, I will not be moved." This is the primary concern of David's life, and he emphasizes that by the words that he uses. Notice again how he puts it. "I have set the Lord always before me." But what does he mean by this? How can a mortal man manipulate or set God? And yet we know that that is not what David had in mind. He is not talking about any manipulation or forcing God to do anything.

When we fast we will never be able to force God to do anything for us. The purpose of fasting is to get our minds in the right frame of mind, humble, realizing how small we are and how great God is and asking Him. So that is what it means to ask right. Because, as you know in James it says, you do not get your prayers answered because you ask amiss. It is our attitudes that are amiss. So what we say to ourselves, "I have to remind myself so that I will not forget it." That is the idea. This is a human way of speaking. It is a figure of speech.

What David really means is that he is going to bring himself into that position, "I have set the Lord." This term is used frequently in the Scriptures. We see it, for example, in Paul's epistle to the Colossians, though there we find the other side of it emphasized.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

We should set ourselves at the right angle, in the correct position. We must have the right perspective. We must constantly look at those things and think on them, and meditate on them. So David puts it the other way around. But it is the same thing. It is the term itself, however, and that is so important for us as we come down to the practicalities of this matter. Setting obviously implies determination. So it includes an act of will and it implies a very definite decision.

Take an ordinary domestic illustration for a moment. You set your alarm clock to go off at a certain time in the morning. Obviously, before you actually do it, you must have decided to do it. So you said, "I want to wake up at a given time in the morning and therefore I'm going to set my alarm clock at a given point." It is the same idea here. It involves determination and, of course, determination involves thought. It involves meditation and consideration.

This is the end of an argument, the outcome of a great process of reasoning on David's part. It is the implementation of a point of view regarding himself and regarding the whole of life. Having considered everything, this is the way he is going to live. He has determined to do so, and we must decide, we must exercise our willpower, and I am referring to our whole tendency to drift and to allow life to manipulate us and to carry us along.

I am not sure that as we examine ourselves at this moment, as we look back across our past life, we must be more alarmed at that than at any other single matter, that is, looking back and realizing that we have not always set God before us. Namely the way in which the months and the years are passing and we have not done what we propose to do. So we all sometimes feel like we have wasted our life. We have not done the things we intended and our blindness came upon us. We are so busy, there are so many things to do. Never has life been more mentally difficult and complex.

Life seems to be organized for us and the most difficult thing in the world is to control our own lives, living them as we believe they should be lived. We must decide, we must determine that we are going to do the right thing. Because if we do not, our lives will be governed by the social circle or the work-sphere in which we live. Many of our days start in a frenzy with business and friends and dealings and meetings and so on, and we are all so busy with such things that we almost forget our spiritual purpose and goal. That is not only dangerous, that is disastrous. We cannot let that happen. Remember, if Satan can make you busy, he can influence you to sin by distraction.

So what is the main concern? It is that I have set, I am determined, I am resolved to have a mindset that I live my life in the presence of God. At the same time, we must emphasize the element of activity in this and here again is something very vital. We must stir ourselves to action.

There are two sides to this Christian life in which we find ourselves. There is the divine initiative without which nothing happens at all. But as the result of that divine initiative, we are meant to initiate things ourselves. And when we are dead in trespasses and sin, we can do nothing. But when we are given life we can, and the Scriptures appeal to us to do so.

We must take control of ourselves and make ourselves do this. Thankfully, we have God's Holy Spirit that enables us to do it on a spiritual level. We must compel ourselves, be firm with ourselves, discipline ourselves, and this involves a very definite activity on our part.

Some people tend to take the view that we must just go on just as we are and pray that God will do something for us. They are waiting for some personal revelation, and in the meantime, they tend to do nothing. But that is not scriptural. And I have said this over and over again over the years in many sermons that we cannot just kick back, put our feet up, and wait for God to act. He expects us to have works with our faith. We must not just get up in the morning and say, "Well, I don't feel in a very spiritual mood this morning. I hope that I will be in a better mood tomorrow." Never kick this can down the road because it will be a disaster for you.

And when we feel the exact opposite, we must insist on setting the Lord before us in our mind's eye. We must take control of our weaknesses. We must set God prominently in our mind and speak to Him. That is what David means. This is an activity. It is not a matter of waiting passively for God to intervene on our behalf. He does answer our prayers like that sometimes. But the people who have had the most frequent intervention from God have been those who have sought Him most diligently and actively. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul, says,

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He has a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

This is the activity that we must undertake. Our faith in God grows as we fellowship with God and we must have both the desire to please Him and the diligence to seek Him. Prayer, meditation on the Word, worship, and discipline—all these help us to always walk with God.

In the case of health problems, we must do our best to research the problem to determine if we must make any changes to our diet and lifestyle. Are there any deficiencies in our nutrition? We must look into these things, and not just put our hands in the doctor's care.

A very important step in seeking God is the still more practical element of recollection. Setting the Lord before me means that I train and educate myself in the way of recollection. And David expresses this in at least two ways. (1) Looking for God and (2) seeing what God has already done for him. Psalm 63:2 and 7 say, "So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. . . . Because You have been my help, therefore, in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice." So this is a very important practical principle.

We may believe the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, but what is our heart like? Some people can read the Bible or hear a sermon about our Savior and be unmoved. They may feel good leaving, but they they feel good because they think that they have done something that will get the points with God. They think they believe it but are not moved. I am not talking about emotion. I am talking about that aspect of our minds that motivates us, the Holy Spirit, combined with our willingness, that motivates us to change.

What should we do if we find ourselves in such a dismal condition? Well, it is wise to do what David did—to practice this way of recollection. This simply means that you remind yourself of what God has done for you in the past. It is a matter of being thankful, grateful, and appreciative of past divine blessings and interventions. If you have been in the church for a long time, there have been many, exceedingly abundantly many.

Remember the slightest manifestation that you have ever had of the love of God and remind yourself of it. Start with that. Remind yourself of past blessings. It is of no use trying to work up your feelings. People who do that in connection with religion are just superficially displaying that they are ignorant of the whole thing. You cannot produce genuine emotions by contrivances, but what you can do is count your blessings. Remember that song that we used to sing? Some of you who have been in the church a long time, back in the 1960s? "Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done." There is a lot of truth in that, and actually it is a pretty good phrase or verse to remember. I do not remember what the rest of the song said, but apparently there was something wrong with it if the church took it out of the hymnal. But that was good, that part.

Just remind yourself of the facts, things that have happened to you, go over them and make the intellectual effort to exercise your will according to God's will. Appreciate what God has already done. Be thankful for those things. Then you go from there and remind yourself of the promises of God. As you read your Bible, you will find great promises there. Notice how the apostle Peter describes God's promises.

II Peter 1:4 By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

A promise is an assurance on the part of another person of some good for which we are dependent on him. God has not only given us all that we need for physical life, but He has also given us His Word to enable us to develop His life and godliness and thereby making our call and election sure. These promises are great because they come from a great God and they lead to a great life. They are precious because their value is beyond calculation. Without the Word of God, we are all hopeless and doomed.

Peter must have liked the word precious because he wrote about the precious faith, the precious promises, the precious blood, the precious stone, and the precious Savior. Go through God's promises, make a list of them, put them down on paper if necessary, and then prepared with these, go to God and thank Him for them and ask for them. (And I might add, in addition to what Richard said in the commentary, look through the Bible and find all the "remembers") because when you find those remembers, those are also blessings, or promises, one or the other. Or warnings, I should also add. That is what is meant by recollection. We must remind ourselves in that way.

We remind ourselves also of the benevolence and character and attributes of God. God is love and He is more ready to give than we are to receive. We think that we want to receive what we quite often want in the wrong way.

So then, if we do not know Him as we should, what is the reason? Thinking of these things makes us examine ourselves and see our lethargy. We see that we are sometimes like a spoiled child. We give all our time to trivial things. Then we run and ask for a gift from our heavenly Parent, though we have not done what we are told to do. That is how we sometimes act with God. How much better is it if, having examined ourselves in humility and repentance, feeble and discouraged, we go to Him and we open our heart and plead with Him. You will find then that the hardness and the coldness have gone and the door has been opened to God. Start with what you have and then go through this process. It will help you to be in God's presence.

Recollection means that you consciously, deliberately, and actively speak to yourself about yourself and about your relationship to God. And it means that whenever you wake up in the morning, before you allow yourself to think about anything else, you say to yourself, "I am a member of God's Family and an heir of God's Kingdom. God knows me personally, and I belong to Him." So we must do that and do it with determination and commitment, because the moment we wake up, human cares and thoughts will come crowding into our mind, temptations, perhaps doubts, all sorts of things. But we must brush them all aside and deliberately remind ourselves of God and our relationship with Him. We meditate on that and then consciously seek the presence of God.

To put it another way, we must practice always being in the presence of God. That is what David means by setting the Lord always before him.

Of course, there are many ways of doing this, but one of the most important is reading and studying the Word of God. He has revealed Himself to us there so as we read it, we obtain knowledge about God. He is speaking to us through the Word about Himself and about ourselves, so that the more we know it and read it, the more it will take us into the presence of God. Of course, the Holy Spirit is really the power that does that. But we have to be in the right mind for that to be able to happen.

So if you want to set the Lord always before you, spend a lot of time in regular daily reading of the Bible and let it be organized reading, not just picking it up at random and turning to a favorite psalm and then to somewhere in the gospels. Although there is nothing wrong with that, it is not enough. It must be studied from Genesis to Revelation. Go through as much of the whole Bible as you can. Year by year, go through it systematically. There are many methods, schedules, and Bibles, apps for phones and computers that have been designed to help you how to do this and helps you to do it also. Our CGG website can help with this, as can our other websites.

But we are not here to do your personal Bible study. We are to help you with it, and of course, you can work a system out for yourself. God's Word speaks to you. Listen to it and you will come into His presence. Set Him before you by reading the Bible.

Now, if we read the stories of the lives of the faithful in Hebrews 11, we see the kind of life they were enabled to live, and that the reason for their living as they did was that they always set the Lord before them. When they were desperately ill, or when sadness and sorrow came, it did not disturb their self-control. They were not irreversibly upset. They were not inhuman, they did feel these things and they felt them severely, but they did not lose their conviction. They did not feel that all was lost and gone. And when trials and predicaments came, even wars, they did not feel that everything had collapsed. Not at all. They went on and there was a kind of added energy about their lives and a still greater joy and peace.

That is what you find as you read the story of their lives, and you find that their secret was that they spent a great deal of time every day communicating with God through prayer, Bible study, and contemplating, which the Bible calls meditating.

Now the trouble with most of us today is that we are much too busy, as I mentioned earlier. This society entices us to constant distraction. We busy ourselves in various activities and we do not even read as earlier generations did. We type and read text messages because even emails are too long to bother sending and reading. We watch short videos because our attention spans are so short. We hear sound bites and read clippings for our daily news. We do not even communicate very well with each other person-to-person anymore. Speaking of society, that is what Satan's society has produced. Shallow relationships from shallow communications and an almost a total lack of love.

The secret of the saints in the past was that they read the Word themselves and prayed, studied, meditated, and fasted—not snippets, not mere devotional commentaries. They got down to studying doctrine to the depths, and they lived in those depths, and not merely in the shallows. The result was that God was able to produce sterling godly character in them.

Sounds like a lot of work, does it not? It is a lot of work, and it is a lot of determined work and planned work, and we must do it if we want the gift of salvation and reward of a place in God's Kingdom.

Do not let secular life control you. Do not let trivial events in your life determine your direction. Never let anything in the world manipulate you and do not let your job hinder you. We have to have them, but we cannot let them overshadow what we must be doing in our relationship with God. Do not let anything you do deter you from that very thing. Set the Lord always before you. The Lord Himself, not merely activities in His church, because if you do not do this, you will become weary in well doing in all your activities having to do with God's church and God's way of life. Your heart may grow cold and in time of need, in trouble, in trial, you will not have the answer or how to meet the challenge. More importantly, you will be unprepared to be an excellent witness of the faith and of the grace that you have have received.

Now we must be aware of this essential need, especially when we feel weary and anxious and drained of energy. And usually this happens when we have not sought the Lord and set Him before us. It is neglect that causes it. In Psalm 34:10, David wrote, "The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing." In Proverbs 28:5, Solomon wrote, "Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all." [that all is everything.]

It is a wonderful thing when suddenly the clouds of puzzlement break and the light of understanding shines again. And there is nothing more encouraging than to receive an answer to your problem or intervention from God in a crisis. Nevertheless, many people have gone on living a routine life, saying, "Of course, if things go wrong, I can always turn to God for help." But if they only put the Lord before them when they are in trouble, when things have gone wrong, they feel like they cannot find Him. He is not to be found because of neglect and what should have been done. Hosea 5 refers to what happens when prideful people stumble in sin or in a crisis.

Hosea 5:5-6 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.

What a fearful thing that is, God to have withdrawn from us. Thankfully, He does not do it quickly. But if we live a life of neglecting Him, we make a separation between ourselves. So people often feel deserted and they become anxious and fearful and do not know where to find help. But really, what they cannot find is God. The problem is, they only seek the Lord when they are in trouble, and the solution is seeking Him before trouble comes your way.

Isaiah 55:6 "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near."

You are very familiar with these scriptures, but it has helped so much to remind us of of them—me and you, all of us. What better way to start a new worldly year than to remind ourselves of these things and live our lives by them in the coming year. Whatever comes—whether sunshine or rain, storm or calm, affluence or poverty, gain or loss, health or sickness—you will be prepared because you have lived consciously in His presence. You always remember He is there.

Psalm 55:16-17 As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.

So David went in his troubles before God evening, morning, and midday, in solemn, earnest prayer. In Psalm 119:164 the psalmist says that he engaged in acts of devotion seven times a day. Daniel prayed three times a day and others were formal prayings where you get down on your knees and formally pray to God. There are times during the day where we pray all day long, so to speak, whenever there is a need, work or wherever we are. But those are not those specific, intimate, private, secret prayers with God. The apostle Paul, in a time of great distress, earnestly prayed three times for deliverance from his specific problem that you are well aware of.

II Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So when Paul was physically weak, he was spiritually strong and we are the same way if we take pleasure in these things. That is, if we accept God's will and go on from there, counting our blessings. Can we do that? Can we take pleasure in our infirmities and our sicknesses and all of the other things? The lack of things that we have, in our persecutions, the things that we get anxious over. Can we take pleasure in those things? Not without God's help. He has given us His Holy Spirit so that we can do that, overcome our human nature.

So Paul, on three special occasions, earnestly prayed for the removal of this thorn in the flesh. It is significant that Jesus had prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup might be removed from Him, and the third time He ceased and submitted to the will of God. Now the Jews were in the habit of praying three times for any important blessing or for the removal of a crisis. And Paul, having been a Jew, would probably have not only conformed to the usual proper custom, but he would certainly have imitated the example of Christ.

Biblically, among the Jews, three is a significant number. Repeated instances occur when an important matter is mentioned as having been done three times. Three is the minimum number necessary to establish a pattern of a occurrences. A single event can be pure chance, a pair can be mere coincidence, but three consecutive occurrences of an event serve as a symbolic symbol indicating special significance. An episode occurring in threes in a pattern that points to further developments yet to unfold. But three also conveys a sense of completeness or thoroughness to the episode itself. When an event happens three times over, the reality of that event gains emphasis. The figure three implies significance, sufficiency, and completeness.

It is right to pray earnestly and repeatedly for God's intervention for health problems and any other crisis. And, of course, when somebody is going through something like that, we are praying all the time—continually. I do not mean every minute of every day, but in a balanced way we continually pray about something like that.

These examples show that there should be a balance, a reasonable limit to such prayers. And Jesus prayed three times, and Paul limited himself to the same number of appeals and then submitted to the will of God. This does not prove that we should be limited to exactly this number in our appeals, but it proves that there should be a limit or balance in the way that we approach this. That we should not be over-anxious and that when it is plain from any cause that the crisis will not be removed, we should submit in an attitude of humility and thankfulness for it being completely in God's hands.

Jesus accepted it in the garden and Paul submitted to God's decision about his health. We usually do not expect any directive revelation from God but we may know in other ways that the crisis will not be removed, and we should accept it as Jesus and Paul did. Now the child or friend for whom we pray may die, or the condition, for example, blindness or deafness or health defect may be permanent, so that one is trying to pray about it every day for years.

At what point is one praying in vain? There is no easy answer to that, but we cannot let a single thing become an obsession that dominates our whole life, and that is physically and spiritually unhealthy. You remember, I am sure, David prayed most fervently for his child when it was alive. He prayed every day and no doubt prayed long prayers, and he kept praying and praying. But when it died, since praying was no longer of benefit to the child, he bowed in submission to the will of God and that God had answered, "No." We should thankfully accept His decision and readily submit to His will. Set the Lord always before you and live consciously in His presence.

God promises He will heal us. But often it is a spiritual healing of the mind we receive. But ultimately everything will be healed, whether it be physical or spiritual, but in this life, obviously, God has promised to heal us. But those healings are not always there in this life. So what is the answer to that? Well, I believe the answer is that He has healed this. But He has healed us in our mind, in our attitude and our growth in our character. And He has readied us for for His Kingdom.

Let us begin to wrap this up by looking briefly at the privilege of doing this. The essence of our Christian lives is to bring us into fellowship with God by living, by suffering, and by dying with Jesus Christ. It is Christ who makes it possible for us to live and walk in that fellowship.

I Peter 5:10 [Peter writes] But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

So he says there, "after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." That is His goal in what He is doing when he allows us to suffer, whether it be mental suffering or whether it be physical.

Enoch walked with God. So did Noah, as well as Abraham, the friend of God. And you and I are meant to walk with Him. What a privilege it is! It is a tragedy that we must remind ourselves of this. But we must do it always and remind yourself as you wake up in the morning saying, "What a wonderful thing, another day of walking with God, of walking with Jesus Christ." So what a good day it is, if we start our day like that.

Human reasoning tends to cause us to be miserable. Feeling world weary, tired, depressed, and so on with all kinds of thoughts and problems coming to mind and we can brush them all aside and say God has given me another day and I am going to talk and walk with Him today and always. That is the way we Christians should start our day.

Then finally a word about the comfort of setting the Lord always before us. It is certain that as we start any day, we will find ourselves face to face with temptations and challenges. And there is our Adversary confronting us. He is like a powerful, mighty, roaring lion seeking to devour and he will attack us with all his might, if God allows it.

I Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

If God is always before us when suffering a tragedy comes, the situation will be quite different than facing it alone and not knowing that He is there. Those who start the day without realizing all this and without setting God before them are foolish. They are child's play to Satan. So we must make sure that we set the Lord before us constantly and consistently with conviction.

Trials come in many different forms. Increasing age, our own sickness, the sickness of a friend or loved one. Divorce, persecution, or perhaps financial hardship. Troubles will come sooner or later in some way, and they are a substantial part of life on this planet. But through all the demands of life, there is only one thing that is truly comforting and encouraging. That we will not really be alone and that God will be with us. Christ had comforting words for His disciples and us on this.

John 16:32-33 "Indeed, the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you that in Me You may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

That is how Jesus went through it all. He always remembered the Father is with Me and He went on. And that is the only way that you and I will can possibly face and finally conquer temptations and afflictions and trials. Even when death seems to be near, He will be with us. He will not leave us nor forsake us. Christ conquered death and the grave, and He has gone through it before us.

Therefore, whatever happens, we have only to set God always before us and seek Him and ask Him to stand by us. And we will not be moved from our faithful conviction and our place in the presence of God.

I am going to define the word “destiny” for you, and I think you will find it quite interesting. It literally means “the place where one will stand fast.”

The English word “destiny” is derived neither from the Hebrew nor the Greek. If you are old enough, you may recall a stage play that ran for several years on Broadway with the title “Kismet.” Now “Kismet” is the Arabic synonym of the English “destiny.” Kismet means “appointed lot; fate.” The Arabs believed in fate.

The English word “destiny” is derived form a Latin term that means “to stare.” There is a movie out now about the men who stare at goats, and that is what the word means—“to stare.” It means “the place from which one does not move.” This is what you do when you are staring. You get into a fixed position, and you keep looking, but do not move. One can look forwards or backwards. When one is in destiny, one does not move.

Let us begin to put this into the Bible. That is, after all the travels of one’s life, one finally reaches where one is meant to be. The biblical equivalent of destiny is God’s rest—“God’s rest” as it appears in Hebrews 4. The pilgrimage containing all of life’s travails, uncertainties, and fears in which one mentally and physically might be all over the place, running around trying to accomplish things, is ended when one has reached the place from which one does not move—the place in which one will stand fast: one’s appointed place in the Kingdom of God. To me that is very meaningful—“our divine destiny.”

Our destiny is our designated place in God’s purpose. I can only point that out generally because the apostle John clearly stated that we do not know that exactly, because God, except for Jesus, has not revealed anyone’s exact position at this time.

I hopefully have put each point into a clear and easily understandable order that guides one to reveal what the Scriptures plainly say without having to resort to any in-depth study of either the Hebrew, Greek, or English language. There will be a little bit of parsing, but not very much.

It is entirely possible that the one question virtually everybody on earth has eventually asked is—“Why was I born?” It is the universal mystery. Of all possible sources one might turn to for an answer, only the Bible accurately answers that question. But even so, it must be dug out, and believed. The Bible is the only possible source, because it is the only book available to mankind regardless of when one lived and where one lived, and it is authored by the One who created us.

I believe that it is necessary to begin this explanation by touching on the way the Bible is written. It is the way it is written that is partly—and I emphasize partly—responsible for it being difficult to understand. Individual verses are not difficult to understand, but to get a complete picture of the individual teaching or doctrine can be exceedingly difficult. This is because complete teaching on any given subject is not focused in any one place in the Bible. The Author—God—has scattered the individual part of any given subject throughout the Book’s contents. This makes a secondary requirement for good understanding absolutely necessary to accomplish this “perfectly,” and requires a revelation from God Himself, personally and individually made available by Him. He has already provided this for us.

The following verses that I am going to give confirm what I have just said.

As we go through this study, it is going to be more like a Bible Study than a sermon. I do not apologize for that. I just want to give you a “heads-up.” Make sure that you jot down the scriptures I give you, and you will have a very nice easily-understood scripture-by-scripture study that you can review often.

We are going to begin in John 8. In this chapter there was quite a confrontation between the people and Jesus, and in verse 43 Jesus says to them:

John 8:43 Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my words. [He answers His own question.]

John 8:47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

It is that simple. I am going to read this to you as it is translated in the Philips Translation.

John 8:43 [Philips Translation] Why do you not understand My words? It is because you cannot hear what I am saying.

John 8:47 [Philips Translation] The reason you cannot hear the words of God is simply this, that you are not the sons of God.

That is pretty blunt. That is pretty plain. No wonder they picked up rocks to throw at Him because of their feelings about themselves, and where they stood within the purpose of God. They thought they understood everything perfectly, and were constantly accusing God Himself in the flesh of not giving right teaching. These Jews were the “uncalled.” This reveals to us, that in the biblical sense, “hear” infers more than merely having sound registering upon one’s ears. Secondly, “the sons of God” are in a separate spiritual category than those who are not “the sons of God.” I will give a little bit of explanation as we go along.

Turn with me to Matthew 13. We get a little bit more information on this particular principle.

Matthew 13:10-11 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

This is why the Jews were who they were. Now because God does not lie, these verses clearly confirm that only to those to whom it is given—those God has specifically chosen to reveal Himself and His purpose to—are able to grasp the fullness of His teaching. The called physically hear the same sound as the uncalled, but they understand. They understand because of what God has done to their mind.

Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

Now here is my note: God has purposely done what He has done. He hides, and He also reveals. To the best of my knowledge, neither the KJV nor the NKJV ever uses the term “secret” in this subject-content, but they do use the term “mystery” often when they refer to our destiny within God’s purpose. However, modern translations liberally make use of the term “secret.” Now the term “mystery” as used in the Greek language indicates something outside the realm of natural apprehension that must be made known by divine revelation, and that is what God has done for those truly called by Him. It is what God does that places “the sons of God” into a different spiritual category than the uncalled.

From here we are going to go to Ephesians 1. We are going through this subject step by step in an orderly manner as I have been able to do. Incidentally, in preparation for this I at least skimmed through Herbert Armstrong’s “Why Were You Born?” I also read United’s book on it. I also read Living’s book on it, and I found in them a common thread, and that is, they went from the beginning to the end in sometimes one page. They were so anxious to get to what we are going to be that they did not really give a step-by-step account of why we were born. Mr. Armstrong’s was by far and the way best, and I can tell by that he had a very orderly mind, and he put things in a progression in such a way that presented it pretty well.

Now we are going to go to Ephesians 1. Paul is speaking, and we are breaking into a sentence. It says:

Ephesians 1:9 Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.

Again, we have it in the NKJV, and we are breaking into the middle of Paul’s thought. I am going to read that to you from the Philips translation. “For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan.” I think that is a good translation. The Revised English Bible translates that same verse as, “He has made known to us His secret purpose in accordance with the plan which He determined beforehand in Christ.” That is a little bit more expansive, a little bit more direct, but nonetheless a very clear explanation.

While we are in that same area, turn to Colossians 1:26. Again, we are going into the middle of a thought here. Paul wrote very long sentences on occasion. He says:

Colossians 1:26 The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

Colossians 1:26 [The New Century Version] This message is the secret that was hidden from everyone since from the beginning of time.

We are going to look at three other verses now.

Romans 16:25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.

Can you even begin to get some of the feel of what this means? How many people have lived since Adam and Eve, and yet God kept His purpose and His plan hidden purposely from billions of people. When you were born, He separated you away, and said to Himself, “I’m going to give that person what I have hidden from billions of people”—the revelation of the mystery kept secret, hidden by God since the world began.

I Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.

That tells you how long ago it was. How much time has passed I have no way of accounting to you. Ages and ages and ages and ages ago He and the Son were putting this purpose together, and He kept it secret for you.

Psalm 25:14 The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

You see, there is a promise, that if He reveals His secret, He will also then add to that His covenant. Why? That we may keep it and become full part of what He is doing on this earth, and in this case for you and me specifically.

Why have I begun in this manner, stressing the terms “mystery” and “secret”? It is because I want all of those called of God to appreciate the gifts given them by God Himself personally and individually. I cannot stress that enough. I cannot get enough emotion into it. Personally and individually He has done that for each and every one of us. To merely understand the surface meaning of the words as they appear in the Book is something any educated person can do, but when the words impact on one’s mind so that they affect one’s life and turn that life’s direction toward God’s purpose, that brethren, is “being called.” There are many people who can understand individual verses in the Bible, and individual doctrines in the Bible, but they cannot put it together, and they cannot really put the purpose together into something that is really meaningful and life-offering for them.

You might recall Richard’s description in that sermon he gave of the apostle Paul’s calling as it is given in Acts 9. That dramatic a change is highly unusual, but that example gives a clear understanding of the reaction of a called person to what God personally does. Jesus Christ did that, and that is what the context shows. This is so we will clearly understand that even though He does not show us in our calling the way He did with the apostle Paul, what has taken place in our life is following the same pattern. He did it personally for you and for me. He opened the mind.

Evelyn and I experienced something similar to this when we heard Herbert Armstrong on the World Tomorrow program on the first Sunday of January 1959. We normally would have been at the Methodist Church services with our children, but two of them were sick, and so we stayed home. We reacted immediately to the message we heard Herbert Armstrong give, and I would have to say delivered really confidently, and our minds turned just like that, and I think I am happy to say that we have never looked back.

It was not quite as dramatic as the apostle Paul’s. There was no blaze of light. Jesus did not speak to us out of a blazing light, and He did not tell us, “Why do you kick against the goads?” But both of us had enough biblical knowledge by that time because we were serious in attending the church that we were attending, and Herbert Armstrong’s words were truth in the message that he gave.

I know that not everyone’s call will register so strongly, but a calling is something that will cause a person to react, and the reaction will almost invariably be positive.

Have you ever seen a place in the Scriptures where Jesus had to argue with any people that He personally called to follow Him?

Mark 1:16-20 And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.

“Hey! Where are you going, fellows? I still have nets to repair here!” Zebedee was with the hired servants, but James and John went after Jesus pretty quickly.

There is a place or two where Jesus spoke to some, and said, “Follow Me,” and they dragged their feet, and it is interesting what Jesus’ reaction was.

Matthew 8:21-22 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

“Follow Me” is the kind of response that Jesus is looking for, and that is the kind of response He expects. I have to admit that these people knew a bit about Jesus before this calling actually occurred, even as Evelyn and I did. We knew a little bit. We did not know very much truth. We did know a little bit, and what we heard Herbert Armstrong say rang true, and he was preaching right out of God’s Word, and so that was the end of us going to the Methodist Church. It was just that quick.

Let us go back to Ephesians 1 again. Just to remind you, I showed you in that last part what a person who is called does. Sometimes the calling takes a little while to sink in because we have such a resistance built up, but in many cases it also happens pretty quick, but it always leads to a change of life.

Ephesians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

I am using this verse to help to continue the thought by establishing that God has had the same purpose He is accomplishing from before the creation of the world. He has not zigzagged His way anywhere. He is following a direct line, as it were. It is not always clear to us what that direct line is, and He knows very well what He is doing.

Colossians 1:3-6 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit [they were the fruit], as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; . . .

Paul is inferring that these Colossians changed their way of life pretty quickly. They heard the call. They saw that there was something there that really registered true, and they began to change almost immediately.

Colossians 1:7-16 . . .as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

That was rather a long section, but I want you to see there that God has been working at the same purpose from the beginning. As soon as that purpose was formed—and He has not deviated from it, He will not deviate from it—we can expect that He will fulfill everything that He has said, and that should give us the kind of confidence we need to keep going on.

This long section we just read here confirms what John 1 says. In a very brief form, it says virtually the same thing.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

This establishes that Jesus Christ was right at His side, and concurs completely with accomplishing the purpose that they have had from the very beginning.

Now we are going to go back to the beginning of the book, as they actively begin to carry forth that purpose in the lives of mankind. And so the stage is being set here in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Let us jump from there to Genesis 2:7. Creation is still underway.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Linking these three verses together, it is here that God establishes His purpose, but that purpose is not fully clarified. It is given in a generality. He created man in His image. That is not clearly apparent at first. At first it appears as though it was a completed product that He made, so we are only looking at a beginning, but it is a very necessary beginning being worked out in two major stages. The first stage I call “the animated clay stage” or “the animated model stage” of the modeled finished product. Thus God created man in the same form and shape as Himself, but not of the same substance of which God consists.

Man, as these verses show us, is clearly made of the dust of the earth. He is created mortal, and is thus subject to decay and death, and upon death he will return to that of which he was originally made (Genesis 3:19). This is why he is the animated clay model. He looks like God. He is in the same form and shape as God, but he is not composed of the same substance as God, and therefore he is subject to death and to decay.

We have to add confirmation to this, and we do this all the way back in the book of John. Jesus very clearly stated the following:

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

So this clearly confirms that when man was created in the beginning, he was not made as a complete exact replica of the Father and the Son. Same form and shape, but not an exact replica.

Luke 24:39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

That confirms that we are not made of the same substance though we are of the same shape and form as Christ, who was the original model for us.

Back to Genesis 1 again. We are going to be jumping all over the Bible here because we have to pick this up step by step by step. I probably will miss some things here as we are going through, but hopefully you will get a study that you can keep by your side, and anytime you get down in the dumps, you can say, “Hey! This is what God is doing.”

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

I want you to listen to this as it is translated in The New Living Translation. “Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.” I believe that translation is really better than what you see in the King James or in The New King James. Just one minor change, but it really is not so minor. “Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.” I believe that is a better translation, especially the “to be like us” part, because it infers, once we get more information, the possibility that refinement of the original clay model could follow.

Notice that I did not say “would,” which would give sort of an absolute sense, but “could.” There could be an alteration of the original animated clay model. In other words, being like Them was not completed in the Garden of Eden. It was only a beginning, and thus we need to understand what God, who is fashioning man in His image, is like.

The first major clue is found in the Hebrew word that is translated in the KJV and the NKJV as “God.” It is the Hebrew word Elohim. Elohim is a noun, indicating one or ones who are powerful. It indicates someone with power. It is translated into English as though it is a singular noun, because most contexts in which it appears indicate only one person, and thus we see the word “God,” not Gods. But if it were going to be translated exactly in the plural state that the word Elohim is in, it would always say “Gods,” but the context in which it appears most of the time requires a singular translation, and so they translate it in a singular fashion—“God.”

What you have to understand is this: The use of this plural noun can easily indicate those encompassed within the term are in complete agreement. In other words, the plurality—“Gods”—whoever they might be—are in complete agreement. There is no division between them. They are in complete agreement.

All languages that we are familiar with have similar terms. For instance, in English the nouns team, group, corporation, company, class, and family show relationships within a unit, and the implication is always that they are in agreement. No matter how many are encompassed within the plurality of that term, they are in agreement with one another. So each of these terms indicates one unit consisting of more than one person. That is exactly what Elohim indicates. The Bible then clarifies that, because Elohim is shown in the Bible to indicate a family relationship.

Let us go again back to John 1. This makes the third time already that we referred to John 1:1-3. We will probably refer to it more, but it shows you what you have to do in order to really study. You have to parse these verses and pick the subject-materials that are in there, besides perhaps the one that you want.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

What do we see here that has to do with family? We see two parts of what might be contained within Elohim—part definitely called “The Father and the Son” or “The Father and the Word.” There was God and the Word, and so we clearly see distinguished a relationship with at least two.

Now we go to another verse in II John. Here the relationship is further enhanced.

II John 1:3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

“God” is mentioned in John 1:1-3. The Word is identified here in this verse as “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Elohim is revealing to us a family relationship that consists of God (who is Father) and God (who is Son). They are separate individual personalities with a family relationship between them. So just with these two verses it clearly confirms the relationship between the two is familial.

Let us go now to Hebrews 1. This is really significant.

Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son”?

Who is “He”? Well, the context clearly shows it is the Father. “He” is the Father.

Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

In this verse a family relationship is not only clearly shown, the Father is quoted, and He clearly calls His Son “God.” Very significant, right in the New Testament.

In John 17:24 Jesus’ final prayer is recorded here.

John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they [meaning the disciples, and that of course includes us] also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Here Jesus addresses God as Father, and He declares that the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world. This definitely connects with John 1:1-3. He clearly establishes that their relationship is no passing fancy, and that their relationship as Father and Son has existed from the beginning.

John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Fulfillment of this request will restore their relationship to exactly what it was before the earth and all the other creations were created.

Let us take this development one step further. Knowing what we know so far—that both Jesus Christ the Son and God the Father are spirit-composed Beings who have been related to each other for time without end, dating back long before the universe was created—helps us to realize a very major aspect of what the term “God” indicates. With the term “Father and Son” as part of their identification, it becomes obvious that God is a family of spirit Beings, working together in harmony to complete a purpose and plan they designed together, and fully intend to complete. Paul clearly identifies this team as being a family.

Now let us define family. The American Heritage College Dictionary says this regarding family: (a) A fundamental social group typically consisting of parents and their offspring, and (b) Two or more people who share goals and values, have commitments to one another, and usually reside in the same place.

From here we are going to go to the book of Ephesians again. It is a great book. Paul was in the midst of a prayer here.

Ephesians 3:14-15 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

This verse clearly defines a family relationship between those in heaven (which are two), and those on earth (who are many more) and to which God the Father and the Son continually add as they expand the family.

There is an interesting thing here that a commentator pointed out, and I am going to bring it to you, and that is that verses 14 and 15, which we just read, are actually the beginning of a conclusion of thought that Paul began all the way back in verse one, where it says: “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles—“ My Bible has a big dash there, setting it apart from what follows.

This is a 12-verse long parenthetical statement. I said Paul writes long sentences. Paul’s overall thought for the entire epistle, beginning all the way back in chapter 1, is the unity of the structure of the church and then of what it consists.

What Paul is giving here are illustrations to get across to the Ephesians in this letter what it means to be joined with Christ, or joined with the Father, or part of His family. In each case Paul is leading up to an illustration that hopefully somebody in the group is going to be able to understand because of their experiences, and so at the end of chapter one he says:

Ephesians 1:20-23 Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

You get the point? We are united with Christ in that we, (which Paul is describing) are actually parts of His body—part of the liver, you might say; part of the kidneys, part of the digestive track, part of the arms, part of the muscles, part of the cartilage, part of the hair, part of the eyes, part of the ears. When you are part of the body, you are not separated from the body. You are totally united with that body, just as sure as all of your parts are part of you. Simple, huh?

Paul does the same thing in Ephesians 2, but he changes the metaphor, and here he changes it to a building, and so at the end of the chapter, as he is getting to his point, he says:

Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

He might have had some men or women in the congregation who worked in construction. They would know buildings outside, downside, sideways, and everything, and they could understand that metaphor, that each part of the building was necessary for the whole, and carried out a function within the building.

Ephesians 3 is the same general form, only this time the metaphor becomes a family. Now you see we are getting something that everybody should be able to understand, that everybody is in a family that is functioning in some way, but in this case it is the family of God, and this is functioning with God as its Head, and so therefore Jesus Christ, in a sense you might say, is its heart and soul.

This is why, when we get to chapter 4, Paul is, in a sense, drawing this particular teaching to a close. He really wants to get this across, and so he saved his best metaphor, as it were, to the last—a family in which there are emotions flowing back and forth, and experiences being had together, and what we have to do as a result of being part of this divine family. This is the way it ends:

Ephesians 4:1-2 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love. . .

Why? Because you want to keep the family going. You want the family to be peaceful, and if the peace is up to you, you are the one who makes peace.

We insult one another left and right sometimes, and offend one another when we are not supposed to do that, but it happens. So what do you do when it happens to you? You bear with it, and you forgive. Your problems might be exceedingly worse than the one who offended you whom you have hard feelings against.

Ephesians 4:3-7 . . . endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

That aspect of this destiny of ours is exceedingly important. It is our responsibility to make use of the information that is given to us, and we are to live life to the fullest, conducting our lives in the present, living life fully, but always with our eyes to the future, because everything matters to some degree.

Let us go back to Genesis 1 once again. We are still generally following the theme here.

Genesis 1:11-12 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that itwas good.

Look now at verses 24 and 25. These verses all have a common theme.

Genesis 1:24-26 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

This shows a common thought. First, there is the thought of creation—God made this, God made that. It is followed by the thought of reproduction. The reproduction is after the same kind that was just created. It is right here that the translation of Genesis 1:26 from The New Living Testament is helpful: “Let us make man to be like us.”

Man is not after the plant kind. He is not after the fish kind, the bird kind, or the land kind. Man would be completely out of his element, as he is created, attempting to live and operate in the environment that those beasts were created for. Now the inference then is clear. That since man was created in the image of God, man is clearly and dogmatically created after the God kind. That is the only answer that is correct, that man is after the God kind, because that is the image he was created in. All those other animals reproduce after their kind, but man is a reproduction of the God kind.

There is more. The next element we see is that after man was created, that he is different in another area of life from other forms of God’s creation. Verse 26 tells us: “Let them have dominion.” Man is given authority and some measure of rulership over other aspects of God’s physical creation. Please understand. You have to compare us with what God has already created. He gave no authority to the animals, no authority to any beast, fish, or whatever. Only man is after the God kind, and is given authority.

From here we are going to go to Genesis 2:15-17.

Genesis 2:15-17 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Brethren, this shows us that man must make decisions. He must make choices between good and evil; therefore, unlike others of God’s creation, he is created like God, with mind. Man, unlike the others, can think and reason, and this requires a conclusion that man can think spatially. Man can think in terms of time, both backwards and forward. He can think of possible consequences as to what results will be, whether he does things this way, that way, or not at all. Animals function by means of instinct created within them by God.

There is really a brilliant example that some scientists performed because maybe they were of an evolutionary bent. I do not know. But they thought, “Ah hah! This weaver bird out here really puts together an interesting nest, so what we’re going to do is put these weaver birds into a cage, sort of like blindfold them, or whatever, so that they couldn’t possibly watch mother weaver or father weaver build their nest,” because the evolutionists said these birds just watch what their ancestors were doing, and they followed.

So these scientists waited a generation. They waited two generations of weaver birds. They waited five generations of weaver birds before they let these birds out of their captivity. None of them had ever seen another nest made. These birds went out and made nests exactly the way the weaver birds had been making nests for millennia. They did not learn. It was in their little pea brain—the way God created them.

Men are not like that. We have to watch. We have to learn. We have to practice. We have to use trial and error. We have to read books. We have to do things that lead us to be able to reason and reach places where we are sufficient to make good decisions. Our minds have to be developed. God has given us the equipment to work with. It is there. A human baby is about as helpless as a living being can get. Every single one of them would die if they did not have someone to take care of them. I mean it. Every single baby would simply die.

Now what is God showing us? If we are going to become what He wants us to become, we have to make full use of our mind. It must be developed. We are not automatically like God except in terms of what we look like. We are in His form and shape. We are not even the same substance, but we have the equipment to work with so that we can become like Him, if at this time anyway we are called, and we will use it.

Genesis 2:18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Again, unlike animals, man, like God, is capable of marrying to become one with another of his kind. Some animals may mate for life, but they do not become one with one another of their kind in the way God intends that we understand in this verse. We can become one with another human being, and brethren, as Jesus shows in John 17, we can even become one with God our Creator Himself. That is awesome! In a sense, how do we become one with Him? Finally, and ultimately, through a marriage. Let that rattle around in your brain!

Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Here we come to another significant feature, that man, unlike animals, is fully capable of sin, thus knowing sin through experience, and bringing death upon himself. And though all of these are very important ways to distinguish man from animals, man is very obviously modeled after a different kind—the God kind—and there are more similarities. So we can die because of sin. It is impossible for an animal to sin, and the reason is that God did not make them to sin. He put instinct in them, and they always act the way they are supposed to act. Sometimes those actions are pretty violent.

Let us go to Revelation 1. John was given this vision.

Revelation 1:10-11 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” [This is what John saw:] Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.

Here are obvious similarities between us and God. God has hair. God has a head. God has eyes. God has feet. God has a voice. God has hands. We can see in Exodus 31, He has fingers, and in Isaiah 40, we see He has a mouth.

Exodus 31:18 And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Isaiah 40:5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

I want to go one little step more here. I want you to go to Acts 17:28-29, and we will close on this series of verses. I want you to carry with you the thought that we all very definitely are modeled after our Creator in terms of our shape and form, and we are equipped in the same way basically that He is. We are just composed of something different.

In Acts 17, Paul was speaking to these unconverted people. When he says, “we here,” he is not speaking to the church. He is speaking to the general audience of people out there who were overwhelmingly unconverted.

Acts 17:28-29 For in Him [all of us] we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Paul made this statement to unconverted people. Now what can we get from this? Thus, to some degree, all of mankind are the offspring of God simply by being born. So this verse establishes clearly, apart from the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2, that all of mankind is God’s offspring, and all the word “offspring” really means is “descendant.” Everybody is descended from God. All human beings are descended from God. Everybody was created. All human beings were created after the God kind.

In your thinking you must understand that some people are being developed further along the line to becoming like God than all the other offspring of God. Even though they are the offspring of God, and are descended from God, they are still in a different category than the ones we will talk about the next time we are on this subject. So we will stop right there, and I hope this will be helpful to you.