Let angel (and human) minds inquire no more . . .

In art, literature, theatre, etc., there are only 33 original plot themes and all of them come out of the Bible.

“Every plot you’ll see, every one of them, finds its root in Scripture and one of the keys in a good story, especially a mystery or whodunit, is to have a good villain,” says Richard Jordan (shorewoodbiblechurch.org). “The greatest mystery writer of all time is the Lord and the passage that demonstrates this is Ephesians 3:4-5:

[4] Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
[5] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

“Paul is giving the most complete definition, the simplest most straightforward explanation of what a mystery is in the Bible. It has nothing to do with superstition.

*****

“In Scripture there are fundamentally two basic programs; prophecy and mystery. One is the program John the Baptist’s daddy, Zacharias, talks about in Luke 1 when he says ‘God raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
[70] As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began.’

“This program focuses on the seed of the woman becoming the seed of Abraham and the plan God has to restore His authority in the earth through that seed; a kingdom he vested in the nation Israel—something He’s talked about since the world began.

“When John the Baptist comes on the scene he’s simply confirming what God’s been speaking through His prophets all through the Bible.

“It’s a commonly held idea that when you come to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, something new began, but what’s going on there is only a continuation of what Zacharias and John the Baptist were talking about.

“Acts 3:18 says, ‘But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.’

“Jesus came along and every little thing the prophets said He was going to accomplish, He fulfilled. Somebody counted over 300 specific, details in prophecies the Lord Jesus Christ, in His first coming, accomplished.

“The other program is what Ephesians 3:5 is talking about: The mystery, the secret which in other ages was not made known and now is revealed.

“There’s a reason people avoid these verses and it’s because they don’t fit most thinking in Christian Bible study. These are verses the Adversary really isn’t interested in you hearing preached.

“Paul writes in Romans 16:25, ‘Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.’

“Slice it any way you want to, they’re not the same. They’re different. Two different programs. People who don’t like what Ephesians 3 says argue, ‘Yeah, but that word ‘as’ there is a comparison. The idea is it was not revealed in the past AS thoroughly and fully as it’s revealed now; it wasn’t revealed to the same degree, or as much, as it is now.’

“But that verse is not talking about a comparison. There’s no degree in Romans 16:25. It’s just a fact; it’s an absolute.

“One of the ways you understand the Bible is you find a verse that you’re not sure which way it should go and then you find other verses that help you understand how it should be.

“Paul says in Colossians 1, 25] Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
[26] Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

“Notice that’s an absolute statement of fact; no comparison involved in there. If I say to you the sun does not shine at night as it does during the day, am I saying the sun shines at night? Am I saying it shines a little bit at night but not as bright? No.

“If I say, ‘They didn’t have electric refrigerators in Moses’ day as they do now, am I saying they had them back there but they just weren’t as good as today’s? The comparison is they didn’t but we do. It’s a statement of fact.

“Now when Paul says the ‘mystery was hid in God,’ people say, ‘Well, it was in the Bible, but it wasn’t really revealed yet; they just didn’t know it yet.’

*****

“Luke 18 says, [32] For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
[33] And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

“All those things are in the Scripture because He showed them. That’s the passage, by the way, that causes me not to join the brethren who say the death and resurrection of Christ are not prophesied in the Old Testament. It seems to me that verse says they are.

“Verse 34, [34] And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

“When He begins to tell them He’s going to go to Jerusalem and die, and be resurrected like the Scripture says He would, they didn’t get it. It was hid from them only because they didn’t grasp it; it was there, but it wasn’t explained. So there’s a way something can be in Scripture and be hidden.

“Jesus says to His disciples in Luke 24:44, ‘And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.’

“He’s reminding them, ‘I told you this,’ which was back in Luke 18, for example. Verse 45 says, ‘Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.’ So He takes that blindness away and opens their understanding to what was already in the Scripture. He said, ‘see that verse,’ and interprets it for them.

“You remember the story of Phillip going out into the wilderness and meeting up with the Ethiopian eunuch. Acts 8:29-31: [29] Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
[30] And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
[31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

“It turns out he’s reading Isaiah 53, which is about the crucifixion of Christ. What happens? Verse 34 says, [34] And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?

“The Lord Jesus Christ spent 40 days with His apostles, teaching them things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He didn’t just sprinkle wiffledust over them and, ‘Oh, we got it!’ People have this weird kind of idea about how God communicates with us. When God wants to communicate, He uses words; HIS words.

“What Jesus Christ literally did was He spent that time SHOWING them. You ever had a verse you didn’t understand and somebody shows you the key to it and the whole thing just opens up to you?

“That’s what the Lord does. You take Acts 1 when Peter says, ‘This Scripture must be fulfilled about Judas,’ and you go back and read Psalm 41 all day but you can’t see Judas back there.

“How did Peter know that? Jesus said, ‘See that verse. That verse is fulfilled in this.’ He taught them that and it wasn’t some kind of hocus-pocus thing; the Lord literally did exactly what Philip’s doing with the eunuch, explaining how to understand Scripture. Christ took what was already there and taught it to His disciples. He opened their eyes so they could see it.

“Now, that’s NOT what’s going on in Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3 is not saying, ‘This mystery was previously hidden in the Old Testament; they just didn’t see it.’ Ephesians 3:9 says, ‘And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.’

“Where does it say it was hidden? It was hidden in God. Here’s some information that was NOT hidden in the Scripture like the stuff in Luke 18. The crucifixion, the resurrection, the coming and rejection of Messiah—all of that was back there. But this information wasn’t!

“So when he says, ‘The mystery which in other ages was not made known,’ he’s not saying, ‘It was back there; they just needed to have their eyes opened; now you can go back and find it.’ This information was hid in GOD, not hidden in the Scripture.

“You follow that? That’s a technical issue, but it’s important to put that information into your mind so you understand where it was hidden. But then the question comes, ‘Okay, then why did God hide it in Himself and not in the Scripture? Why did He have some information that He never told anybody about until it came to the point when He did reveal it?’

*****

“If you can understand WHY God kept a secret, all of a sudden you understand why and how it’s so important. First of all, know that the God of the Bible is interested in revealing Himself. God isn’t hard to find; He delights in making Himself known.

“You remember the story of Daniel? Nebuchadnezzar sees the vision, it troubles him and he wants his religious leaders to explain it to him. But Nebby’s dealt with the religious crowd before and caught on to them, so when he brings them in he says, ‘I want you to interpret this troubling vision I had, but I want to make sure you tell me the truth. I want you to first tell me the vision and then interpret it because I’ve figured out that if I just tell you what it is, you’ll make up something.’

“He says, ‘By the way, if you don’t do it, you’re dead meat. We’ve got a cemetery to put you in out here.’ So they get all upset and don’t know what to do and Daniel sends word, ‘Hey, I can do it.’

“Daniel 2 says, 27] Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
[28] But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.’

“You see that title, ‘God in heaven that revealeth secrets’? God delights in revealing Himself to be God. When Isaiah challenges the Gods of the heathen--the religions of the world in Isaiah 40-48--God Himself says, ‘I prove to you who I am, that I’m God and they’re not, and the way I do it is fulfilled prophecy.’

“He says in Isaiah 42, ‘Get your gods together and come on; get someone who can tell us the future like I can.’

“So God delights in revealing Himself; He’s not trying to hide Himself behind a mirror. The proof of who He is is precisely His ability to reveal the future and tell people that. In fact, in Amos 3:7 He says, ‘Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.’ He wouldn’t do anything but that He reveals it to His prophets. So He wants to tell people what He’s doing.

*****

“Then why is it Paul would come along and say, ‘What I’m preaching, God never told anybody’? He writes in I Corinthians 2:7, [7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

“Notice, once again, Paul defines what a mystery is. It’s not some hocus-pocus thing; it’s something that was hidden, planned, intended, but just kept a secret.

“He explains in the next verse, ‘[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

“There was a realm of understanding about what God was going to do through the Crosswork of Jesus Christ that, if it had been made known, Satan would never have instigated the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ because the Cross is the very undoing of the Adversary.

"Literally, God outsmarted the devil by keeping a secret! When you realize that, all of a sudden you see how futile it is, and you see the source of the idea that the Cross and the truth of the gospel was always taught back in the Old Testament.

“Ninety-eight percent of Christianity—Calvinism, Covenant Theology, Reform Theology, all of that-- teaches that everybody from Adam onward looked forward in faith to the Crosswork of Christ, understanding He was going to come die for their sins.

“If that’s true, Satan would have known it and he wouldn’t have crucified Christ, according to the passage.

“So who do you think wants you to believe that Adam, Abraham, David, Noah, on and on, all looked forward in faith to the Crosswork of Christ like you do? Well, it wouldn’t be God, because God didn’t tell them. Who would want you to think they all knew that? Well, the guy who got snookered! Listen, there’s a spiritual battle going on in this stuff and it revolves around this very truth.

“Colossians 2:14-15 says, 14] Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
[15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it..

“That word ‘spoiled’ is not like the banana spoiling on the kitchen counter. It means ‘to the victor belongs the spoils.’ A spoil is where you come in and take away from somebody something that belongs to them.

“When you spoil your enemy, you go in, conquer him and take his possessions as your booty; as your stuff. Literally, the Lord Jesus Christ went in and defeated Satan and all his minions and took away from them the things they treasured. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (the Cross).

“At the Cross, Jesus Christ put on public display the humiliation of the Adversary; the triumph He made over Satan was an open show. The idea of an open show is He just put him to an open shame. How did He do that? By keeping a secret.

“Ezekiel 28 will help you: [1] The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
[2] Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
[3] Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
[4] With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
[5] By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

“This a prophetic passage focusing on the Antichrist and his career; the personification of Satan’s original lie program. Notice it says of the Adversary, ‘Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel.’ Verse 12 says, ‘You’re the best-looking dude we ever saw. You’re the smartest guy that’s walked. You’re the smartest creature in the universe!’

“How do you prove that? ‘Thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee.’ Remember, Daniel was a revealer of secrets.

“I’ve said to you many times, the controversy between God and Satan was not about power. If you can step out on nothing and create a universe with a word, you don’t have to argue about who’s the most powerful guy in the room. But might doesn’t make right. If you don’t have wisdom and understanding to exercise the power, then you become a bully.

“The real contention in the creation was, ‘Who has the right to sit on the throne and determine how creation should be GOVERNED? Who has the WISDOM to do that?’ Lucifer was lifted up by pride in His wisdom, in His beauty, in the spectacular nature of who He was.

“The contest between God and Satan was a contest over wisdom. So what happened? All God had to do to defeat the wise plan of the Adversary was keep a secret. Satan didn’t figure it out so he wound up doing the very thing that UNDID everything he wanted to do! The Crosswork is where the Lord triumphs over the Adversary.

“Paul explains in Ephesians 3:9, ‘[9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“From the beginning of the world when God created all things, He kept this secret hidden, but now Paul says He wants all men to see it, telling you why He wants it made known. He wants the angelic host up there to see it because that’s the crowd that didn’t know it; that ‘had they known it they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.’ They wouldn’t have shot themselves in the foot, or in the head.

*****

“A great illustration is when the armies of Israel goes into the Land of Promise under Joshua and walk around the walls of Jericho and ‘BOOM!’, the walls of the big fortress come tumbling down.

“They win this great victory at Jericho and are strutting their stuff, so when they come up next to this little town of Ai, their attitude is, ‘Hey, guys, we can take Ai, no problem. Don’t worry about it; everybody take a day off. I mean, look what we did to Jericho!’

“What happened at Ai is they got the britches beat off of them. One, it was their self-confidence and their trusting in themselves. They thought they won the battle at Jericho, but it was God who did it. Go back and read the text. They didn’t fire a shot, they didn’t shoot an arrow, they didn’t pray a prayer. The walls just cracked. They were just a bunch of dudes walking around blowing trumpets.

“They go to Ai and they’re confident. There’s rebellion, sin in the camp. They didn’t obey God’s Word. They got stomped and then they got right with the Lord again. They learned, ‘It’s not us; it’s what God’s going to do.’ Hosea 2 says God’s going to give them ‘the Valley of Achor for a door of hope.’

“In Joshua 8, the Lord says, ‘Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. You got to go up and fight Ai again, Josh. I know you just got your clock cleaned by that little group of people, but don’t worry.’

“God told Joshua He wanted everybody to go because He wanted everybody to see what was to happen. He explains, ‘We’re going to do this at night in secret, so take some of your guys and hide them over behind the city. Get ready to fight with the other guys. The King of Ai’s going to come out and attack us, and when they do, we’re going to go, ‘Oh, no, we’re beat again,’ and run away and let them chase us. When we got them all chasing us, the guys in hiding come out and take the city. They’re not going to know there’s an ambush and that we’re tricking them to follow.’

“Joshua’s army suffered this tremendous defeat at the hand of the enemy and now they’re going to feign a defeat. God says, ‘Draw Ai out and then the ambush will come and whack ’em.’ The people of Ai couldn’t figure out the secret strategy of the enemy.

*****

“From the beginning of man, the Adversary knew how to win, so God said, ‘I’ll come and look weak; look defeated.’ II Corinthians 13 says Jesus Christ ‘though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. He wasn’t weak; He just humbled himself and was obedient unto death.

“He drew the Adversary out and He said, ‘We got him,’ and all of Satan’s host went to destroy Him, and in so doing did the very thing that caused his ‘city’ to be burned to the ground. God laid an ambush for the Adversary and the whole thing revolved around the fact the king didn’t have the ability to figure out the strategy that destroyed him.

“So why was there a mystery? Because God understood the nature of man and Satan’s sin and did the one thing that demonstrated the stupidity and faultiness of the wisdom of the world; ‘the wisdom of the princes of this world which come to naught.’ He literally outsmarted him.

*****

“Isaiah 49says, [24] Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
[25] But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

“Satan’s boast, the pride of the Adversary, was, ‘Wait a minute! Israel belongs to me! They’re in captivity to me lawfully. They have a contract with Jehovah that says if they conduct themselves according to His covenant, He’ll bless them, but if they violate it, He’ll curse them and put them into captivity, and that’s where they are because they couldn’t do it and I own them. Lord, I’ve got your contract that says so!’

“He thought he had God boxed into a corner. I love the Lord’s answer, though, in verse 25. The Lord said, ‘No, that ain’t going to work,’ and Satan said, ‘But I’ve got a legal contract; you can’t do it!’

“The Lord said, ‘Don’t worry about it; I’ve got it covered.’ God’s just sticking the devil, and you know what happens when you stick somebody who’s full of pride? You make them mad! You get road rage. Somebody drives up in your front yard and shoots you because you honked the horn at them.

“What is that? God just kept provoking him and Satan couldn’t think about how. Listen, in the blood-curdling attack Satan made on the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, in the bloodlust to destroy Him, in that rage of fury in that battle, Christ says, ‘I will contend with him that contended with thee.’

“If you go down to chapter 50 you’ll read about it. Verse 8, Jesus is talking: [8] He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

“He’s literally sticking his tongue out at the devil, saying, ‘You want to fight, c’mon!’ He’s hanging on the Cross when He does that! There’s the verse in verse 5: ‘5] The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
[6] I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

“That’s the verse in Luke 18 where He’s going to be rejected and spit upon. There’s the verse! In Isaiah 50:8, you see the Lord talking to the Adversary as He hangs on the Cross, saying, ‘Is that the best shot you’ve got?!’ and the Adversary says, ‘No, man, I have the power of death. Here, watch,’ and he never had the capacity to understand that God had a strategy in that. It’s, ‘We’re fleeing, we’re running; you’re winning!’ but when He got them all out there, He took the city.

“That’s the wisdom of God and if I was the Adversary, I wouldn’t want anybody to see that and know about that. I’d want them to think, ‘I knew that all along.’

*****

“How was the mystery revealed? Christ directly revealed it to the Apostle Paul. That’s why it wasn’t revealed previously. Who would want you to think it WAS revealed previously? If you understand that ‘why?’ you can understand why things today.

“Pastor O’Hair used to say, ‘The most shocked creature in the universe when God revealed the mystery to Paul was Satan,’ because he saw the triumph over him in what he thought was the humiliation. ‘We’re fleeing, we’re fleeing, we’re beat,’ but it turned out, ‘We’re not beat! We’re making you do the thing that results in your complete defeat!’

“God kept a secret to allow the Adversary enough rope to hang himself and then God sprung the trap and set forth the riches of His grace and God’s purpose today is to have that truth put on public display through you and me.

“As Paul says, ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ I Corinthians 1:21 says, ‘For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’

“There is the wisdom of God in Christ Jesus ‘in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ Whatever you face today, you know what the mystery demonstrates? Every piece of wisdom you need to handle everything you face is available to you in Jesus Christ ‘who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’

“Everything you need is in those four things and they’re all in Christ. The purpose of the mystery was to exalt Jesus Christ as the treasure of wisdom and knowledge that God the Father knows Him to be.

“Charles Wesley wrote the great hymn, ‘And Can it Be That I Should Gain,’ but the stanza that’s often left out of hymnals goes, 'Tis mystery all: th' Immortal dies! Who can explore his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. 'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more. 'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more.’ ”