The Condescension of God Pt.2
LUKE 19:5-6
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him (Catch the picture of what is going on here - Jesus had descended down below sea level into Jericho to the lowest city in the world, and then he had positioned himself under a tree so that he had to look up to see Zacchaeus (who was the smallest man of that city). But for Zacchaeus to see God, he had to look down. So the bible is showing us something here of how God condescends himself in order to win us to himself – Redemption by condescension), and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.
REVELATION 19:7
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
The Condescension of God Pt.2
ROMANS 12:16
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
The bible meaning of the word condescend means to yield or submit one's self to lowly things, but the modern meaning has somewhat changed:
The meaning of this word has evolved over time. In the eighteenth century, condescension or condescending denoted a positive characteristic of a person of superior breeding, class, or some other superior set of characteristics lowering themselves to speak kindly to an inferior. But by the nineteenth century, the word had developed a negative connotation - to condescend was to assert one's own superiority in a way that degraded others, as evidenced by Charles Dickens in Dombey and Son, where a character is described in contrasting terms as "a little condescending, but extremely kind".[1]
"In eighteenth-century prose, it is therefore common to find the word condescension qualified by adjectives such as generous, good, kind, and humble.
*So we are speaking of this subject of the Condescension of God with the pre-eighteenth century and bible meaning (and also the message meaning) of the word of how that God who was so great could humble himself and condescend in order to save mankind.
**From last week we saw how that for Zacchaeus to see God, he had to look down to see Him from his position of elevation in relation to the Lord.
And we realise that this story is placed in the bible because God is wanting to show us something of the character of himself in that He is so great that He is able to humble Himself to such a placed of a lowly position that the lowest man of the lowest city would have to look down to see him.
**And so this event of how God revealed Himself to Zacchaeus is showing us something of how God reveals himself to us in our lives also.
**Many people try to see God by looking a million miles up in the sky and not realising that it is actually when we look down among the lowly things of our lives that we begin to see God revealing himself amongst the humility of the common things of our lives.
*Even in the trials and the struggles that we all go through, and that we look down on as the low points of our lives – God is right there in those things trying to reveal Himself to us and to assure us that he is always with us.
**He is so great, yet He is able to reveal Himself to us in such a humble way and among the common things of our lives – that is what makes Him God, and what makes Him so great; it is His ability to condescend down to our level.
*God has the ability to humble himself lower than we could even humble ourselves as humans, and this is what he has done in order to win us to Himself in love.
FORSAKING.ALL_ TEMPE.AZ TUESDAY_ 62-0123
E-65 He went to the lowest city. And the smallest man in the city looked down on top of Him: Zacchaeus (That's--that's right.) of Jericho.
PERFECTION_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 56-0610
E-21 … The Highest there was come down here on earth, and lived among men and went to the lowest city in the earth: Jericho.
E-22 And was so low till the littlest man in the city had to look down upon Him, Zacchaeus, and then died for man's sins, come in the way of a stable, poor. The richest (Oh, I hope you get it.) the richest become the poorest.
PARADOX_ BAKERSFIELD.CA V-22 N-5 THURSDAY_ 64-0206B
72 … the Romans hung Him on a tree. "Cursed is he that hangs on a tree," to make a mockery out of the Son of God. He was despised, rejected. He came from the highest of Heaven, and become the lowest on earth. When He was here, He went to the lowest city. The smallest man in the city had to look down to see Him; Zacchaeus. He was give the lowest name. He was treated the worst, and hung on the... died the cruelest death that could be died.
HEAR.YE.HIM_ SOUTH.BEND.IN SUNDAY_ 58-0209A
E-18 And you know, He's so great. What makes God great to me, is because He's so humble.
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185 You put a man up, just give him a--a little pull in the organization, brother, you can't get by him. That's all there is to it. He's just the boy! He's puffed up like a frog eating shot. You couldn't--you couldn't do nothing with him. But, but, you see.
186 But, God can humble Himself because He's so great. He's got beyond what we call great. He's on the other side. And He's so great that He can make Hisself humble.
THE.WORST.SINNER.IN.THE.CITY_ MINNEAPOLIS.MN SATURDAY_ 56-0218E
E-32 So few... I hate to say this. But so few of professed Christians today in our land knows so little about God. Oh, they know all their religions, but to know God.
Humbled Himself, and that's what makes Him great to me. That's what makes Him real to me is to think that He was willing to come down here and not be some great somebody, take some great name, or something like that. He made Himself humble and become a servant to all of them. That's my Lord Jesus. That's the One I love; that's the One, I'm--want to give my life entirely to serve Him, and to work for Him, and do everything I can to get people to look at Him, and believe Him, and love Him. He's lovely. He's precious.
E-33 Becoming a footwasher, taking the towel and girded Himself and washed the disciples' feet, said, "Let him that's great among you be the servant of all." That was His example.
HEAR.YE.HIM_ CHATTANOOGA.TN SATURDAY_ 58-0301E
E-30 Our great Jehovah God just blew them off His fingers in creation (He is talking about the stars – The latest discoveries of the James Web Telescope have found huge galaxy’s in the what they call the dark ages (around 300-500 million years after the big bang) of where galaxy’s should not exist. So this is the big talk right now because they’re going to have to rewrite a lot of their text books on this one because this is supposed to be a time when stars weren’t even born yet. The scientist who first discovered this was so shocked when he realise what he was seeing that the coffee that he had just sipped on was uncontrollably ejected from his mouth). And He covers the--all the space. And sometimes we walk around and act like we can run His business.
He's so big that He fills all the space, and yet, will become so small that He will come to a poor, lost sinner's heart. That's what makes Him great.
**So when we are looking for the marriage of the Lamb to take place in this day - if we are looking for some great and mighty event to take place, then we know that we are looking in the wrong direction. Instead of looking up, we need to look down into the humility and the humanityof our lives of how God has chosen to unite with man in this hour.
*When Isaac united with Rebekah after she was introduced to him by Eliezer, it was a private affair and not a public affair – Genesis 24:67.
*We humans love public shows and performances with all the bright lights shining, but God is not like that, He does much of His greatest works in secret.
*Look at His first coming – a little baby born in a cow stable, how much lowlier could you get?
REVELATION 19:7 (opening scripture)
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
**We want to know what this scripture look likes on an individual level in our everyday lives so that we can know for sure that we are a part of this great event.
*We want to be sure that what is written here in symbol form in the book of Revelation is being lived out and is being interpreted in the events of our personal lives.
*We know that the spirit of Elijah came at the end of the Old Testament in a man called John the Baptist, and that same spirit of Elijah has returned at the end of the New Testament in our day in a man called William Branham.
And in both cases we know that the Son of man ministry of Christ Himself followed directly after these Elijah ministries both at the end of the Old Testament, and also in these last days.
And so if there was an Alpha Bride that followed the Elijah and the Son of man ministry at the end of the Old Testament, then there must also be an Omega Bride that will be identified in this day because she is following after the Elijah and the Son of Man ministry in this day.
***In the Bible, there was unrevealed Word and there was also unwritten Word.
God told John in Revelation 10 not to write what he had heard, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he begins to sound, the unrevealed and the unwritten word would all be made known by the seventh angel’s message.
*The prophet would tell us in the message “Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed”, (Paraphrasing) - “I will tell you about when God was not God, and the things that He had in the back part of His mind, and how He has unfolded it down to this present Hour.”
*All these things that have never been understood before have been opened to us in this day because this is the marriage of the Lamb time when God is communicating these secret things to his wife in an invisible union, and He has done it is such a humble way that while the rest of the world is so busy looking for something great, they have missed the entire event because they are looking for some big performance – but you and I must not miss seeing this event by trying to look for some big performance – this event is revealed in His condescension of this hour.
***As message believers, we know that we are living right now in the season and the event of the marriage of the lamb. And with any marriage, there has to be a special type of fellowship and relationship that leads to marriage – and so for the marriage of the Lamb and His wife to take place in this age, it requires the voice of the bridegroom of the son of man ministry, and that is what you and I who are believes of this message believe is taking place at this time and within the circumstances of our everyday lives – there is a people right now who are coming into union with the word of truth of the son of man, and that is what the marriage of the Lamb looks like in this hour and in your everyday life – it is such a humble thing.
379-1 A.RESUME.OF.THE.AGES - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.10
But what about the true seed? It will happen just as we have said. The people of God are being made ready by the Word of Truth from the messenger to this age.
**The marriage of the Lamb is able to take place at this time because of the word of truth that has been opened to us and is now here with us.
**The marriage of the Lamb to his bride is when we unite with the word that has been revealed in this hour - it is something that you actually do, and that is how we make ourselves ready, by receiving the truth by uniting our spirit with that truth.
REVELATION 10:8-11
8 ¶ And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
His wife is making herself ready in this age by an invisible union by receiving the revealed word of the end time message. This is the marriage of the Lamb. This is the secret coming of the Lord in this age to be united with his earthly bride by the revealing of His word of God unveiling himself before us – this is what the opening of the seven seals was all about, to unveil Christ through the revealing of His word.
That is the secret and revelation of the entire bible that was sealed up but has been unsealed in this day – this is what it looks like in your life. If you are looking to try to see great and mighty things of what we humans call great, then we will never see God, but the great things that are taking place in your life every day are happening in such a humble way that you often question it in your own life because it looks so humble.
***The book of Ruth reveals the coming of Christ in the form of Boaz coming to Ruth, and so that was the mystery of the seventh seal being lived out in their lives – but to them it didn’t seem like anything all that great, it was just their ordinary life.
*So then if we can see that the seventh seal was being lived out in Ruth’s life in mystery form without her even knowing it. So also can the seventh seal of the coming of the Lord be interpreted in your life also in the seemingly common events of your life.
**It’s because God deals so humble with us and that what takes place in our lives is done in such a humble way that we struggle to see the seventh seal being lived out in our own lives, yet the fact is that the pattern of all these stories in the bible is being live out in our lives at this harvest time.
***And so when we realise this, then we can begin to see the same events of the coming of Christ to you in this age being lived out in your own personal life story in mystery form also, because you have also been introduced to the Lord of the harvest like Ruth, and you have also seen God come down in human flesh and reveal the secrets of the heart like he did with Abraham and Sarah just before Sodom was destroyed, and so that same seventh sealed mystery that lived itself out itself in the stories of Ruth and Abraham and Sarah and in many of the other bible characters’ lives (unconsciously to them) is also living itself out in the story of your life in this day, and so that is what the marriage of the Lamb looks like in this day for you personally - it is the revealing of the word of this hour to you personally.
*So we can see how that God had to condescend to you personally in this age so that he could win you to himself in order for you to become a part of His bride for this hour.
***He had to came down into the lowest age that there has ever been, and then he finds the smallest type of people he could ever find, and then he condescends to them in such a way so that in order for them to see him, they have to look down to see him because of how humble He has made himself to them in this day.
***There is a love that is generated out of this display of the character of God that is design to win the human heart for eternity. When God said that we are to love him with all of our heart and mind and strength, you can’t do that by just being told, so God knows that he has to make a way for you to be able to do that from your heart, so the way he does that is to let you see something of his great character.
*Sometimes we just can’t experience the love of God in our lives like we should because we are so limited in our revelation of Him – but the more we see Him and understand his great love and condescension, the more we’ll learn and know how to love Him more – it is a love affair that will evolve throughout eternity.