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Everyone loves to know something that others do not. We like the feeling that we have an understanding of the truth because with knowledge and understanding comes power to choose the right path. Some people have to feel like they know everything there is to know about a subject for them to accept it as truth. But when it comes to God, we will never know everything until we go to live with Him in eternal life. To serve God and grow as a Christian into what God wants us to be, we have to come to an understanding that we do not know everything that God has "up His sleeve."

God's ways are above our ways! Even when we think that we have something completely figured out, God still knows more and has greater plans than we can even imagine or fathom.

What this means is that in order to serve God there will be times that you are simply going to have to trust God that He knows the truth. Sometimes God is going to ask you to do something or believe something that does not make sense to human logic. In those cases, we must believe what God's Word says rather than what we "feel" as human beings. That is called faith, and the scriptures teach that "without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6)." For God to be God, He cannot tell us everything or He would not be any greater than us. I like how that the creation account in Genesis chapter 1 is worded, because it tells us everything that we need to know to believe that God created the universe by speaking it into existence without giving minute details of the process. The only one there at the beginning was God, so I have to by faith accept His Word as truth! One day in heaven, maybe I'll ask Him to show me exactly what took place chemically and with the atoms at creation, but until now I have to let Him be God and accept His Word as truth.

Likewise in our lives, there will be times that we do not understand the purpose for the trial in our life, but we must live for God through the faith that in the end, God is God and He knows what He is doing. Hind sight is 20-20. It is when we come through something, and look back, that we can understand the design of God and how His hand was working in it all along. People who do not continue to trust in God throughout their situation never do realize that God really was working because they never get to the other side of their trouble where they can look back clearly. They forever stay in a fog of disbelief because they refused to trust what God's Word said about their situation.

The key point is that when we look back at past events and realize that God was working the entire time, we can give God praise and thanksgiving for what He has done. For this reason, God loves to allow His children to look back and realize that God had a plan that we may not have realized at the time, but now we can understand His perfect ways and because we have trusted in Him completely even when we did not understand, now we can look back and see clearly His plan. In other words, God loves for His children to look back and realize what He was doing the entire time and then praise Him. When you do that, you are praising God because He is God and that is the purest, most selfless praise that we can give God!

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When Jesus came to earth, He came to a time when the Jewish leaders had been falsely teaching the people exactly how that it would be when the Messiah came to earth. They had been teaching that the Messiah would be an earthly king and would overthrow the Romans. They taught that the Messiah would accept all of their sacrifices and traditions that they had taught. When Jesus came and claimed to be the Messiah, His meek and submissive teachings certainly messed up their idea of what the Messiah was supposed to do.

I find it almost hilarious when I look at the group of men that Jesus pulled together to be His companions and the leaders of the kingdom of God. He had three sets of brothers, two pairs who were uneducated, rough fishermen (Peter, James, John, Andrew). To that humble beginning He threw in a dishonest tax collector (Matthew) and a shade tree philosopher (Bartholomew). For some religious fun Jesus chose the money-hungry son of a Pharisee (Judas Iscariot) and a religious whack who was even more conservative than the Pharisees (Simon the Zealot). To round out the bunch, He chose a quiet and meek man who hardly ever spoke a word (James the lesser) and a doubter who had to have everything proven to him (Thomas). And to these men, Jesus revealed the secrets of God's plan for the world. Obviously, God specializes in saving ordinary people and having them realize the plan of God and praise Him for it! God loves to reveal His secrets to an ordinary person who simply has faith.

In our text, the disciples asked Jesus the meaning of one of His parables, the Parable of the Sower.

Jesus taught a key point about the ways of God. The twelve disciples were the one who had committed their lives to following Jesus by faith. When they forsook their old lifestyles and dreams, they did have all of their doctrine correct. They did not even realize to what purpose Jesus Christ had come, but yet, they trusted in God an answered the call of Jesus! And Jesus said "unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God." When people will step out on faith to serve Jesus despite not knowing everything about Him, God will reveal His mysteries to them! God loves responding to people's faith by allowing you to see the mysteries of God's plan.

I looked up the word for mystery here and it is the Greek musterion. It means "the secret will and plan of God which He reveals to the righteous, but stays hidden to the unGodly." A mystery of God is something that many people do not realize but that God has revealed to His children. The word is used 31 times in the New Testament. God uses it to refer to more than just parables, and the word is used to denote 9 specific mysteries that were once secret but have now been revealed for His children to understand. If you have faith in God and His Word, you can and should understand these 9 mysteries of God.

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1. Mystery of Godliness

The mystery of Godliness is the fact that God made Himself man and came to earth! Looking back, we can see the plan of God working to reveal His great love for us by becoming one of us, but it was once a mystery. The Jewish people knew that the Messiah would be "born of a virgin," but they did not realize that He would be the one God revealed in flesh. When Jesus claimed to not only be Messiah but also God Almighty, it "messed up their thinking." In fact the chief reason that the Jewish leaders crucified Jesus Christ is that they could not accept the fact that He claimed to be God! It was a mystery of God! It was a secret plan of God that has now been revealed! When God gave those prophecies of the "seed of the woman" to Adam and Eve after they were kicked out of the garden, it was because of His secret plan that He would one day become flesh Himself. Eve thought it meant that she would have sons. The Bible states that Adam was created in the image of God and the image of the "one to come" (see Romans 5:14, 8:3; Colossians 1:15; I Corinthians 15:45) or the Messiah who would be born of woman. That means that he and Eve probably had "belly buttons" even though they were not birthed themselves but were created in the image of one who was born of woman. I wonder if, after they had children and realized how the "belly button" came about, they ever looked down at their own navels and said "wait a minute, how come we have them?" If so, I would imagine that it was a great mystery to them. But today, the mystery has been revealed! The God in whose image that they were created was coming in flesh!

The devil did not understand why God had come in flesh but he recognized that Jesus was God in flesh long before many of the Jewish people did. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the devil tried to get Jesus to worship him. Why? Because the devil realized that He was God in flesh and was trying to figure out why He had come. Can you imagine the frustration of the evil powers knowing that the little baby lying in a manger was God manifest in flesh and wondering what was about to happen? Then imagine the amazement of the devil for 30 years as he watched Jesus grow into a man, learn the carpenter's trade, take over Joseph's business when he died, and not perform one miracle or any supernatural act. At first I would imagine that the devil at first was worried, and then as the years went by, became sort of lulled into a sense of false security. But after 30 years, Jesus revealed the secret by standing up in the synagogue and declaring boldy: "I have come to bring deliverance to the captive and sight to the blind..." (Luke 4:18-21). The devil must have been scared to death and that is why throughout Jesus' ministry we find that demon possessed people ran to Jesus and bombarded Him with questions! The mystery had been revealed! God had come in flesh and He was casting out devils and healing people left and right!

In writing the Colossians' church, Paul stated that he had prayed to God for three things:

The three things were "encouragement, unity, and a clear understanding of the mystery of Godliness." Even then, teachers had begun to rise up and say that Jesus was not the one true God in flesh. Notice the way that "The Living Bible" clarifies the scripture. In almost all of the Greek texts, the word "Father" is not there. Today we must understand the great mystery of Godliness that has been revealed: God came in flesh to set the captive free! Despite it being openly revealed, many people do not realize that Jesus was God in flesh, yet God has revealed it to His disciples who walk by faith.

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2. Mystery of the cross - This mystery is closely related to the first one. Not only was the fact that God was going to come in flesh, hidden through the Old Testament, but also the fact that He was coming to die on the cross and pay the price for sins!

Neither the human princes of this world nor the demonic princes realized the work of Calvary before it happened. The Jewish leaders thought that they were getting rid of a problematic false prophet. The devil thought that he had removed the visible image of God that was causing such headaches! The mystery that they did not realize was that the blood being shed on that cross was fulfilling all of God's requirements for forgiveness of man's sins! Is it now wonder that the devil hates to hear a sermon or bible study on the power of the blood of Jesus? It reminds him of the time that he thought he had won and actually had sealed his defeat! If he had known, he would have never have crucified Jesus! While the devil was reeling from the fact that God had hid from him the mystery of Godliness, God has another trick waiting!

Sadly, even today some people do not realize the importance of the cross. There are churches that have taken the blood of Jesus out of their sermons and out of their music. Baptism is to some an optional revelation of faith. Some emphasize traditions and saints more than the work of Calvary, but the secret has been revealed to those disciples who walk by faith!

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3. Mystery of the Gentiles being Saved. This one caught everyone by surprise -- even most of the disciples! This mystery is the one mentioned in scripture the most, but we will only read a few of the scriptures (also see Rom 16:25-26; Ephesians 1:9-10; 3:9-11).

Abraham certainly did not realize when God made him those promises that God would allow Gentiles to also inherit the blessings. When the Jewish people studied the law of Moses and read how strict that God's word was in forbidding Gentiles to even come into the temple of God or offer sacrifice, they certainly did not realize that one day God would allow Gentiles to BECOME THE TEMPLE OF GOD!

God certainly kept His secret well! When Peter and the other Jewish brethren stood in Cornelius' house and saw that God gave the Gentiles the Holy Ghost it brought complete shock to them! The God of the Old Testament who had forbidden Gentiles from even peeking through the outer wall and into the courtyard of His dwelling place had decided to take up residence INSIDE OF THE GENTILES' BODY!!!!

I would imagine that it came as a great surprise to the devil as well. He had probably noted that only Jewish people had received forgiveness and the Holy Spirit and had probably gathered together his forces to focus on the Jewish people. Then God revealed the mystery! The devil was thinking, "oh no, now there is going to be these Jesus-name, blood bought believers, filled with God's Spirit all over the world!"

Even today, I have heard people preach that do not know the secret. Some say that the Holy Ghost was only poured out on the original Jewish people, but God has chosen to reveal to His disciples who will live by faith and trust Him that EVERYONE can receive His Holy Spirit!

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4. Mystery of the Blindness and Future Salvation of Israel. There are many people who claim to be Apostolic who do not realize this mystery. Paul, writing to the Gentile Christians in Rome warned them by explaining it:

Paul warned for the Gentiles to not "get conceited" by thinking that they were greater than the Jews just because God had turned from them for a time. God is bound to His Word and He made many promises to Jacob that have not yet been fulfilled. Paul wrote this after that Jesus Christ had come the first time. Right now, Israel is blinded to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but that will only last until God has given the Gentiles ample time to come to Him. After that time is fulfilled, God will again turn to the Jews and they will "look upon whom they pierced" (see Zechariah 12, 13, and 14), and "all of Israel will be saved." That is, "all of Israel" that is alive at the time of Christ's second coming and that have not died during the wrath of God (Zechariah 13:8-9).

The longest previous periods of God were the time of Moses' law which lasted 1,520 years (from the giving of the law to Moses until Jesus' death upon the cross), and the dispensation of conscience which lasted 1,656 years (From Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden of Eden until The Flood). As of now, the time of the Gentiles has lasted 1,972 years (from Christ's death and the day of Pentecost in A.D. 30 until the current year of 2002) which has far exceeded any previous time period of God. In 1948, Israel became a nation again for the first time since the time of Christ. God is preparing the steps to turn back to the Jewish people and the "time of the Gentiles" is almost at a close! Unfortunately, many people today act like they have "all the time in the world" to get right with God. But God has revealed His perfect plan to His disciples who walk by faith. We are already on borrowed time and now is the time to draw closer to God than we have ever been before!

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5. Mystery of the Gospel - The Gospel is the "death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ" (see I Corinthians 15:1-4). The secret that was revealed was "how to correctly obey the Gospel." Paul spoke that he prayed that he would have boldness to state the "mystery of the gospel" or how men should obey the gospel (see also Colossians 4:3-4):

What is the secret that God has revealed of which Paul prayed that he would speak boldly? How do we OBEY the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Let's go to where Paul boldly spoke it out:

When we are baptized, Paul said that we are "buried with him." How do we obey the burial portion of the Gospel? By being baptized. So how then do we obey the other parts of death and resurrection? By dying to our sins in Repentance and by rising again through the operation of God in receiving the Holy Ghost! That's why Paul boldly asked the men in Ephesus "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" and when they had never even heard of the Holy Ghost, rebaptized them in the name of Jesus Christ and prayed with them until they received the Holy Spirit (see Acts 19:1-6). This explains why Peter, who had the keys that unlocked the kingdom of God, told the crowd on the day of Pentecost to "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). God had revealed to his disciples the "mystery of the Gospel" of how to exactly obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At the end of his life Paul wrote the young pastor Timothy urging him to never change the message of obedience to the Gospel:

We too must not change the message of Repentance, Water Baptism in Jesus' name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost just as on the Day of Pentecost! We must hold the "mystery of faith in a pure conscience" knowing that we have boldly taught the truth! There are many who do not know the secret that has been revealed to us; we must tell them!

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6. Mystery of the Rapture of the Church - You may notice how that these mysteries all tend to lead into one another. The term "rapture" is not a scriptural one but is just a word we use to describe the way that we are going to feel when the church is lifted out of this world! When Elijah was caught up into heaven by a fiery chariot and Enoch was taken from the earth, they did not realize that one day God was going to do the same trick with all of His Spirit-filled believers:

There is coming a day that every Spirit-filled believer will be changed in a brief moment, like the twinkling of an eye! Those believers who have died will resurrect with a new body. Those who are still alive will be instantly changed to a new body that will never die! Death and sickness will forever be defeated! Paul said that it would happen "at the last trump." When we get to the vision that John had in the book of Revelation of the seven trumpets which are seven events of the last days, we find the following note:

The mystery of the Rapture will be finished! It is going to happen! We really are going to fly away one day! What a surprise!

Little did the disciples know that as they watched Jesus ascend into the clouds and fly away, that God would one day take His entire church to heaven that way! Even some today teach that there will be no literal catching away of the church, but God has revealed His mystery to His disciples who walk by faith! Which brings us to our next mystery:

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7. Mystery of the Marriage relationship between God and the Church

The reason that we will fly away one day is because we have a wedding day planned with our Lord! We as the church are the "bride of Christ" and for us to one day be "wed" to Him, we will have to leave our home and go to where He lives!

From the very beginning of time, God ordained marriage of a man and a woman and that the woman and man would leave their father and mother and cleave together. Little did man know that the concept of marriage was a mystery that would one day be revealed! The purpose of marriage was to teach us how that God would take us as His own and we could leave our home and be with Him! When you obey the Gospel, you become a part of the church which is the "bride of Christ!" John saw this future event in a vision:

The Lamb of God is coming back for a bride that "hath made herself ready." Are you ready to go when the Rapture of the Church takes place?! Is your spiritual garment white and clean or stained with sin? Every time you think about marriage or your spouse, you should remember that you are the bride of Christ and that He is coming back for those who have made themselves ready!

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There are 7 mysteries that are revelations of the blessing and promises of God. Seven is the number of God's perfect completeness. There are 2 other mysteries which God has revealed that involve the work of sin which makes for 9 total revealed mysteries of God.. These numbers are not an accident. If a person gets revelation of all 9 of these mysteries it is through them allowing the Spirit of God to work in their lives. So the 9 mysteries of God join with the 9 fruit of the Spirit and the 9 Spiritual Gifts that the Holy Ghost wants to bring to us.

8. Mystery of Iniquity - "Iniquity" means "sin." The mystery of Godliness was how God became man. The mystery of iniquity is why man would try to make himself God. The mystery of iniquity is the antichrist who will come and proclaim himself under the influence of Satan as a Messiah.

One day there will be a world leader who goes into the rebuilt Jewish temple and claims to be God in flesh, but is only man trying to make himself God. Some, including the Jewish people, will be taken by surprise, but God has revealed ahead of time the mystery to His chosen people! We know that it will happen and will not be surprised! The spirit of the Antichrist was already starting to work in Paul's day! The books of I and II Thessalonians were written in A.D. 51-52. Now 1500 years later, we are getting close to the revealing for all to see of this mystery of which we already have knowledge!

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9. Mystery of the Great Harlot - The last mystery of God revealed is the False Church, the Great Harlot.

God also gave us some extra clues when He revealed this mystery:

Here are the clues that we have to the identity of the mystery of the Great Whore:

1. She is symbolized by an impure woman who will be judged.

2. She is a great city that reigns over the kings of the earth.

3. She sits upon or reigns multitudes of people from all nations and languages.

4. The city sets upon seven mountains or hills.

5. Her name is "Babylon the Great."

6. She dresses in purple and red and is decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.

7. She is "drunk" with the blood of saints and has killed many of the martyrs of Jesus.

8. She is a mother, but a "mother of harlots."

9. She will be in allegiance with the Antichrist.

Notice how that the Catholic Church completely fits the 8 clues:

1. She is symbolized by an impure woman who will be judged. If the true Church of Jesus Christ that obeys and keeps the scriptures is symbolized by a pure bride-to-be, then obviously a church that corrupted the scriptures would be symbolized as a harlot. The Catholic church has corrupted the scriptures in many areas. To name but a few of their false doctrines, they believe in or that: man can forgive sins, idolatry, prayer to people other than God, sprinkling baptism on infants, purgatory, triune God, Jesus is not God Almighty, Holy Ghost is not poured out today as in the Book of Acts, Alcoholism is okay, Mary is a mediator between God and man, the "miracle of mass" which is a man-made tradition, transubstantiation (the belief that communion is literally drinking the wine of Jesus Christ and the bread literally becomes the body of Christ, celibacy for priests and nuns, anybody is saved as long as they believe in some type of "god," and numerous other corruptions. Two of their obvious traditions that go against God's Word, forbidding to eat meat on Friday (which is currently okay) and priests forbidden to marry were prophesied in scripture as "doctrine of devils:"

2. She is a great city that reigns over the kings of the earth. The Catholic Church is located in Rome, Italy but the Vatican is actually considered a city within itself. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church regularly removed and replaced kings in Europe at will. They teach today that they have the right to remove kings and emperors (see Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 14, pg 313). When the Pope is crowned, he is announced "Father of kings and princes, the pastor of the universe, and the vicar of the earth of our Lord Jesus Christ."

3. She sits upon or reigns multitudes of people from all nations and languages. There are very few nations that do not have a considerable Roman Catholic population. She boasts of over 800 million members around the world. She truly is a "great" whore.

4. The city sets upon seven mountains or hills. Rome is known as the "city of seven hills." They even have individual names. They are Aventine, Palantine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Caelian.

5. Her name is "Babylon the Great." Babylon refers to a long lineage of kingdoms that trusted in the ability of man to rule the world rather than God. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the pope will eventually gain enough power to be proclaimed "king of kings" (see Catholic Prophecy by Yves Dupont pp. 90, 91, 117). The word Babylon became the Christian term for the city of Rome in scripture (I Peter 5:13).

6. She dresses in purple and red and is decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. Cardinals of the Catholic church wear red and the non-cardinal bishops wear purple. They wear crosses of gold and have rosaries that are often made of pearls or pearl-like beads.

7. She is "drunk" with the blood of saints and has killed many of the martyrs of Jesus. It has been estimated that the Roman Catholic Church has killed 68 million Christians! Charles Tyndale was burned at the stake after a church trial for translating the Bible into the English language which was THEN considered a crime by the church. Martin Luther was sentenced to die because of his statements of how the Roman Catholic's teachings disobeyed scripture. In the 1500s, Michael Servetus was burned alive at the stake for saying the Jesus and the Father were one (see John 10:30). In 1568, the Holy Office of the Catholic Church ordered that all of the Netherlands be put through unspeakable torture and death because of their religious differences.

8. She is a mother, but a "mother of harlots." Many denominations have split from the Catholic church because of a few contradictions of doctrine but have still held on to some of the Catholic heresies. They may have differed over whether or not priest could marry but still kept mass. They may have differed over infant baptism but still kept the doctrine of the trinity. These churches that can trace their roots back to the Catholic church are "daughters" of the mother church. Pope John XXIII noticed the trend of unity among any church considered to be "Christian" and pronounced "We, the Mother Church, are opening our arms to all of our daughters to return home." Last year, the pope kissed the Koran and proclaimed Muslims are saved.

9. She will be in allegiance with the Antichrist. This is the sobering part of the future part of the prophecy. God has given us this revelation of the mystery for a reason: so we can win others from the Harlot. God will judge the Antichrist and the great harlot, and we must win as many people as we can to be true disciples of Jesus Christ!

The mysteries of God are plainly seen by His disciples. Let's use the knowledge that He has given us to spur us to praise Him and to reach our world!