Cranbrook 1993 10-3-93 Pm — George Warnock

Christ’s Humility and Total Dependence on the Father

Unless the Lord sees fit to do it, and I hope it doesn't happen here, but it has happened. For to prove it, the Lord proves that He sees it. I'm embarrassed. But if He has to do that, it would glorify Him to do that.

Jesus, the Son of God, said, I talk to you out of Him. I can do nothing of myself. Every one of you here is maybe just trying to be a little humble. I can do nothing of myself. There's a simple reason that He came to us to be a man amongst men, to take the Lord's position.

Christ’s Self-Emptying in Philippians 2

I'd better read the passage concerning it first. In Ephesians and Philippians, Chapter 2, we start out by exhorting the Philippian Christians to take a humble position, not to strive after anything that's danglorious, to be lowly in mind, considering others, and being concerned for the welfare of others.

Then he says in verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, to be in the form of God, so that not robbery to be equal with God. You never come across the passage in the Authorized Version like this.

And I use the Authorized Version, but God never allowed any man or any group of men to make an absolutely perfect translation. So I don't object to certain modern translations, and I'm quite confident that other versions bring this out more clearly.

It speaks of grasping, and therefore they use the word robbery. But what Paul is saying, who being in the form of God, did not consider it to be a matter of grasping to be equal with God. He did not consider he should have a grasping attitude to be equal with God.

And the context bears that out. Rather than having a grasping attitude to attain to equality with God, he met the opposite direction and made himself of no reputation. The literal rendering, understand, being he emptied himself, put upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And so Jesus is saying, Paul is saying, have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who in the form of God, he was, I'm not sure of the implications of all that, but there was a form of Godhead in which he lived.

The Logos as the Complete Expression of God

We mentioned this morning, the word is with God, the word was God. The logos was with Chios, and Chios was the logos, that's literally the way it reads. He was with God, and God was the word. The word was with God, and God was the word.

And so I also encourage you not to try to figure things out when God purposely leaves it in the realm of mystery. This God was God. So he was in that form of God as the logos. So what is your word? Is it not the expression of something that's within you?

You want to communicate that to somebody else? And so just try to find the right word. And hidden in the heart of God were all the attributes of deity, including wisdom, knowledge, love, truth, power, you could go on and on.

And God wanted to express that, and he does so in the logos. Just as you would express the best you know, something that's within you in a word, God expressed himself in the logos. Of course, in the Old Testament, he expressed himself so many different ways.

The angelic visitation, even taking the form of an angel at times. And other times speaking through angels. Speaking through the prophets. Paul says in diverse ways and in diverse manners, he's spoken to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through the son, or literally, two Greek words, in son.

The son being that spoken thought of God. The son himself being that. Not just that Jesus spoke God's words, but he was that full intention of everything that God had in his heart. The written word was inadequate.

The word on tables of stone was not sufficient. It wasn't enough. The words of the prophets wasn't complete, but the son was the complete unfolding of the heart of God. In fact, he came down to earth to make that revelation here and there so that the logos was not really God the son.

God the father stayed there. God the son came here. But rather God the father spoke a word, the logos. And that logos, that thought of God, that very expression of God, came down to earth. There wasn't another God.

The son was the incarnate expression of God the father. The expression of God the father. Yet coming from the father, and then in the fullness of redemption going back to the father. Now, I'm not trying to explain that, but I'd like to.

And I'm not trying to be too logical or doctrinal in mentioning that the son was the expression of God the father. To me, it's the most beautiful thing. I grew up in front of Julia to get the thought that there was almost like three gods in heaven and they had a discussion and they decided the son would be the one to come down in the beginning.

And the other two persons wouldn't be involved. And so, you get the notion that there was a difference somehow. God remained intact, but the son did that horrible manner of suffering. One man told me, he says, I always loved Jesus.

He said, I never had any problem loving Jesus. But he said, I always had a problem loving the father. The father seemed so distant and so cruel and so harsh. And he's a good friend of mine and I never said anything at the time.

I loved him. I always loved Jesus, but I found it difficult to love the father. But when you see that when Jesus came down to earth, that God Almighty is humbling himself in the lotus, the son. And that the son was the expression of everything that was in the heart of the father.

Redemption Reveals the Father’s Love and Mercy

And he was humbling himself and coming to earth to reveal the father as a man. Because man was made in God's image and Adam was supposed to have been that expression of the father on the earth. But he spoiled that image to a disobedient.

And so we have the story of the havoc that went on in the human family awaiting the day of redemption. Something that God had preordained and something that was in his plan from the beginning. Because only in redemption could the fullness of God's heart be revealed.

Only in redemption could the fullness of God's heart be revealed. So that's the gift of love and mercy and sacrificial giving and forgiveness. You couldn't manifest it amongst angelic hosts. You could only manifest the fullness of the depth of his eternal heart to a man born in the earth from God in the form of God by coming down to earth emptying himself so that he could go into the very depths of humility on earth showing that God is loving and free and kind and merciful and patient and long-suffering.

Whether or not you understand fully what I mean. I think you understand what I'm trying to say. And therefore if you have any questions in your heart concerning what God might do you could come to him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because he came to earth to reveal the heart of the Father.

Don't think for one minute that the Father is up there just waiting for a chance to cast you into hell but this God is here to love you as if there's any difference. He came here to express the very heart of the Father.

Jesus talked about the Father the Father so much that it comes in what we think. Well, you've been talking about the Father show us the Father and that's all we need. Show us the Father. If I've been listening these three years you haven't realized that what I'm saying is the words of the Father that the works I'm doing are the works of the Father.

In other cases the Son can do nothing of himself. Why? If he came forth from the heart of God to reveal God in the earth, why? Because the Word was made flesh and trampled down to the mummies. We were the ones whom he would redeem and therefore he took our flesh our helplessness, our weakness took upon himself even the likeness of sinful flesh and Paul is careful to say that the likeness of sinful flesh because he never sinned.

It's the same kind of flesh that Adam had before he sinned and he had to come down into that state of humility to bring about our redemption. And so, I'd rather mention how it bothers your mind if you think out and out and out there and then how Telescope's been able to reveal some of those distant galaxies so far from us that a mind can't even begin to boggle with it.

It's the infinity of God. And yet, one of the early Russian astronauts who went up there was able to come back boasting, I was up there in space and God wasn't up there I never found God up there. Do you know why?

Too far away. God, I might have revealed something here, it's down here. He revealed himself and took upon himself the form of a man. What's a man? Like, it's the similitude of man. In every respect, that was sin.

That he might be our redeemer as well as our example. I know that was always a great barrier for me. Yeah, I could see that he could be my redeemer but my example when he was sinless and I'm a carnal soul under sin until I realize that in the fullness of redemption is such a dealing with sin and the carnal nature that we are as he was and is.

Not that we have attained to it but that redemption is not completed here in our mortal flesh until the sin principle will have been crucified in the flesh. And we can live and move and walk on the earth as Jesus walked when he was here.

Christ’s Victory Through Dependence and Obedience

Paul says, have this mind in me that is in Christ. He emptied himself. He emptied himself. Poured himself out. Emptied himself. I don't, I can't, I can't grasp the whole meaning of it. I can hardly say that he's no longer God but he emptied himself of every rug that God had in the heavens.

He was down on earth as a man. He wasn't in a position half God and half man. Where, oh, I'll go out and visit those people that are going across the lake in a boat. The storm has come up and so he walked on the water and everywhere he was gone.

And then on another occasion he got tired and he slept and so he must have been mad. I used to have that sort of a thought. Half God and half man and he could step out of one and into the other at will.

I think many still have that concept. So I realized he emptied himself of all those prerogatives of power and authority and to become a man in the earth but a man in total dependence on the Heavenly Father.

Total union and dependence on the Heavenly Father. Never stepping outside of that total dependence on the Father. And because of that he became our Redeemer. I say because of that. Because he went to the cross.

I know, but he went to the cross because he was totally dependent on the Heavenly Father for every word he spoke, every healing he performed, every miracle he performed and totally dependent on the Heavenly Father for guidance.

He knew he came to die, but he must die in the will of God. Not just to go on and go on and commit suicide. Some, you know, have that thought. He committed suicide. He came to die. Totally misunderstanding the nature of redemption.

The Cross as Conflict Between Light and Darkness

As we start to point out, he became a light into the world that confronts the darkness. Darkness and light won't mix. One must confront the other. And if the light is strong enough, it dies out the darkness.

He came to confront the law of sin and death. He came to overcome the law of sin and death with the law of life that functions within him. It was life against death. It was righteousness and holiness against sin.

It was truth against error. It was good against evil. And that's what brought his cross. Because when he came he became a light into the world. Immediately, evil sprang up against him. Hatred sprang up against him.

Simply because he was God revealing himself in a man. Jesus said, the world cannot hate you. Speaking to his own brethren. But me it hated because I testify of him that his works were evil. Or you say, I tell the world that his works were evil.

That's not what this testimony is about. He was such a living expression of the righteousness and holiness of God that by his very presence he testified of the world that it was evil and they knew it.

They hated him for it. So it's not just a case of marching on Washington and saying, we don't agree with this thing. That's not the kind of testimony that God's going to raise up. I'm not condemning them for doing that.

It's not going to change anything. When God has a people who are the living testimony of Jesus Christ on earth, you'll be hated by the world. You think you've got freedom down here in the states and up there in Canada?

Because of your form of government? They tell you it's because that presence of God is not permeating the church of Jesus Christ. That's why we're not persecuted. That's why we have this false freedom.

Freedom to do anything they want. They don't care what we do. They don't care what the church does. As long as the church leaves them alone, they're not making any inroads into the areas of darkness in the earth by marching, by protest, by getting involved in the political scene, getting involved in social things, not making any impact on the powers of darkness.

I know I get into trouble saying things like that. What are you going to do with all this sunshine? Are you just going to sit there and let them do it? Are you just going to let them do it? Aren't you going to object to it?

I'm not talking about being passive. I'm talking about unless the church of Jesus Christ comes to a place where they're in union with the Son and are walking and ministering in union with the Son of God in heaven, I don't care what kind of political power you've got on the earth, you're not going to change it in this nation or in any other until we come to the place where we have power against those principalities in heaven.

They're the ones that hold the stronghold over the affairs of man. You can get in the White House or you can get in the judicial system or in the Supreme Court. You can fill it with Christians, but until you have a voice that penetrates the heavens to shake those principalities and call us there, you're not going to change any situation in this country and in the world about us.

So, we're not talking negatively. And I know a lot of people who say, of course, we can't do that. And so, you can go on your hopeless way trying to resolve things by getting in charge of the government and you won't succeed.

Reigning With Christ According to God’s Timing

When we come into union with Him who is King of all kings and Lord of all lords and do what He says, we will accomplish in the earth exactly what Jesus once accomplished for this day and hour. And I qualify this for the simple reason it's not a case that we come into union with Jesus and we just go forth over the land and wipe out all the evil and establish the kingdom of God here or any other nation.

I said, according to the mind and the will of the Son of God, we'll do anything He wants us to do. Because Jesus Himself has been reigning on the throne of glory for 2 ,000 years almost with all power in heaven and earth and still the world is full of evil for the simple reason that God told Him to rule and reign in the midst of His enemies until all enemies are exterminated.

He gave Him a mandate, you rule in the midst of your enemies. Rule in the midst of it. I'm not going to destroy all enemies yet. It's going to be little by little. It's going to be according to my plan and purpose.

But the time is coming when the Father said all enemies are to be put under the feet of Christ. And He reveals to us that glorious mystery which we've only seen in part, that we are to be joined unto Him in that one body and that we are to be His hands by which we would serve Him and we are to be the feet by which the gospel of peace will go to the nations and that when the kings of this world are put under the feet of Christ they'll be under the feet of this church because we are yet those members of the body of Christ.

All according to God's timetable and God's schedule. Away with the thought that once we get this great power we're going to go forth into the earth and make things really worse. Jesus Himself with all power in heaven and earth has allowed permitted the evil to be in this earth for these two thousand years.

And yet all through that time there has been a people sometimes very insignificant sometimes it seemed that there was no real church in years. But all through church history God had a people who so walked with Him and learned obedience that they were able to shake those powers of darkness and to bring forth the mighty work of God that God intended for that day and hour.

It's now short of total conquest because God says you rule in the midst of your enemies. We're anticipating ultimate triumph and I don't know what might immediately happen in the earth in the church in the next year two or three years we expect mighty things from God.

But far be it for any of us to say once that thing comes we're going right on and we're going to subdue the whole earth for Christ. There's no room for any of that kind of boasting. God just wants the people to know His voice so clearly that if God says to a group of people and it doesn't have to be a large group God will be able to speak clearly to His people.

I want you to stop this whatever's going on whatever it might be in this city or in this nation. I want you to get together and seek my faith in intercession that you might overthrow those principalities that are controlling this horrible evil whether it's abortion or homosexuality or anything else.

If God indicates as well I want you to deal with that then the Spirit of God hears what the Son says and the Spirit of God communicates it to His people. And because the Spirit of God communicates it to you and I it lays upon us the burden that's on the heart of Christ and it comes forth in intercession to pray to God to do that thing and it's done and it's happened all through church history and it'll happen again.

God just wants this church to walk in His glory and in His harmony with the Son of God in the heavens. He's king. Don't think that He's coming back here to be king. He's king there in the heavens. He will be king when He comes back but He's king now.

Psalm 110 and Christ’s Heavenly Throne

7, 8, 10 times there's a reference or a direct quotation or a reference to Psalm 110 where it's so clearly declared that Jesus Christ when He rose from the dead was not appointed to rule on any throne on earth because that would be inadequate.

And that's what the Jews didn't understand. If He'd get on the throne there in Jerusalem everything would be lovely for them because they knew that they were God's chosen people and were under the bondage of the Roman emperor.

If Jesus gets on the throne there in Jerusalem then everything will be wonderful. And to their consternation and amazement and dismay and perplexity when He rose from the dead or before He rose from the dead He says, I'm not going to be here long.

I'm not going back to the Father. And it devastated them. So it was good that He was going back. It was good for them that He should go back. Because God hadn't just appointed Him to subdue the Romans in Palestine but to subdue sin in this world and to subdue principalities and powers in the heavens.

And therefore He gave them a throne higher than any throne in the earth and higher than any throne in the heavens. That He might have authority over the whole realm. Isn't that much better than if they built a throne room over there in Jerusalem or in England or here in the United States and some believe it's going to happen?

Sitting in the White House, what does Jesus want to get in the White House for? When His seat is on the highest throne in God's universe! He has authority over all that. And His people have it in union with Him, but they've got to come into union with Him God's way.

Humility as the Way to God’s Authority

And He showed us the way as the mind in you which is in Christ who though He was in the form of God did not consider His quality as God's function to lease out after, to strive after, but emptied in God.

He took upon Him the form of a servant, a doulos, a bonsai and was made in the likeness of man. Coming in the form of a man was great humiliation for God. But God is a humble God. I don't know if I've ever read that in the Attributes Concerning God.

He's a humble God. He's humblest Himself to behold the filling of man. And He's humblest Himself. You can now identify with your life. So you can see that that's the reality of God. That's the holy God.

Let's say it's the high and holy one that inhabited eternity. I dwell in the high and lofty place with Him also that He's full and of a constant humbleness and a constant peace. And so you go up there and you see the high and the holy one but you can't really find Him there.

You know He's there. We were talking today as kids, you know, and I did it too. You just think about God. Did He come from? How big is He? And your mind goes out and out and out and oh, I don't know, billions of miles, a few more billions until you have to stop thinking and then still you're not there.

The high and the holy one, the lofty one that inhabited the world eternity. But He says, I dwell there, I know, but it says with Him also that it's contrite of a humble spirit to revive the heart of the contrite one and to revive the heart of the humble.

That's exactly our goal. You want to find God first of all to show you have a humble heart and then He will show you that humble place where God is. Because God is going to reveal Himself in the earth once again.

And people will be traveling through and through when they hear of great things happening. God's working over there. I've got to get down there if I can scrape up a plane fare. I've got to get there because I hear God's working there.

And they go and they see God's working there all right, but did the time draw? You say, surely if I go where God's working I'll find Him. That's a job job. Sitting there in the asphalt, devastated, lost everything.

He says, I go forward, I can't find Him. I go backward, I can't find Him. I go to the right hand where He's working, I can't find Him. I go to the left hand, I can't find Him. That's right where God is working.

Didn't find Him. People can sit in a meeting where God is working. They don't see God. Then something came to Job that encouraged him. He knows the way that I take. And then I tried it. And God was leading Job to a place where he would find God.

And so he led him this way. God led him that way. I know you're from the faith leaders. I took to point out that Job brought his troubles on himself. It doesn't say the thing that he feared came upon him.

So he brought it all on himself. Don't fear anything and you won't have it. Because God didn't witness that way. He said, Job had spoken right concerning me. God did that which was right with Job. And what he did was in response to a challenge from the devil, he said, Job is serving you because you're dead to him.

When you take away what he's got, then Job will prostitute Satan. God challenged him. If God hadn't challenged him, the devil probably wouldn't have done anything about it. God literally sacrificed Satan.

Satan appeared one time with the other man, and the devil don't know what you're talking about, I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about. The devil I don't know what you're talking about.

And the devil said, I don't know what you're talking about. And the devil said, I don't know what you're talking about. Don't know what. And the devil said, I don't know what you're talking about. And the devil said, I don't know what you're talking about.

Visions, Burdens, and the Humbling of Ministry

Dedicating their babies and everything carrying on with this glorious institution, and we've got a great church in Oakland going on here. The Messiah was there in the midst of the medicine. Right. King James came along and kicked him off.

He said, King, the Messiah, let me try now, Lord. He cried. He literally said that. He cried. And Elder Austin Spock pointed out that it was a burden on him. And because God had said, you're not going to die until you see the Messiah.

Well, apparently he's getting older and older and getting more people and wished he could die, but he couldn't die. He died because God put a burden on him. You can't die until you see the Messiah. And then he says, now, Lord.

And the word is despotic, from which we get the word despot. Not that I'm recalling God Almighty a despot in the way He is. But it does signify it. And that's proletarianism. He put me under this burden.

He gave me this vision that one day I would see the Messiah. He said, now, Lord, I see the salvation of the Lord. The light that you have prepared for the judgment of Gentiles. Now let me go and die in peace.

Release me. Release me, Lord. I've fulfilled my duty in the earth as Father Christ. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Because not only with the vision of living to see the Messiah, but with any vision you have that God gives them, be it of a lower plane or a higher plane, I don't care what category you might put it in, because God does give an expecting people's vision and hope.

And we only pray that God will increase and enlarge and purify that vision, that it might be the vision He wants us to have. But with that vision, there comes with it a burden that you must carry. It sounds good when you see it, when you hear it.

It's great. Lord, my son, thou shalt be a great prophet of the Lord. Thou shalt stand and prophesy my, you know, and get some great promise. With that vision will come a great trial. A fire of testimony.

Ask Ezekiel. Ask Jeremiah. Ask Isaiah. Ask John the Baptist. Ask any two prophets of the Lord. They didn't ask to be a prophet. They'd rather lay down their ministry any time. Jeremiah laid his hands.

He means that he's going to bring forth a people walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Graciously. But to do that, he means that they're to humble themselves as he did. No matter what they're calling us.

No matter how great they might be in the eyes of men. A prophet that can speak forth words that reveal the secrets of man. A healer that can heal the sick and raise the dead. And no matter how great it might seem in the eyes of man, God sees that ministry must humble themselves.

Paul as a Bond-Slave of Christ

It's in our bones today. We're in the likeness of man by birth, so we don't have to be made in the likeness of man, but we're made in the likeness of bones today. Bones today. You try this if you're calling.

You talk to Paul and say, Paul, a born-traitor of Jesus, says, Paul, to be in the family. He sees it. He sees it in our eyes. Paul, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ. I, therefore, call the prisoner of the Lord, the prisoner of the Lord.

He took the humble position. You say, God led him that way. I know. But the reason God was able to lead him that way was because Paul had said, like his master, Lord, I will follow you. This mind in me which is also in Christ Jesus.

You read that and you stumble over it because you say, Lord, I'd like to. I'd like to be humble and meek and lowly like my master. Help me to do that. Show me the way. And so then he begins to show us the way.

And he reveals to us that he's the way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Life, that's what we want. Truth, that's what we want. To find truth and to find life, we must know Jesus as the way. In other words, we must walk in his way.

If we're going to know peace, if we're going to know love, we must learn to walk in his way. And as we walk in his way, God's way brings us down to humanity. Because God's a humble God, and God wants to walk on earth with man, but he will not walk with the proud or the sponsored.

Humble thyself to walk with God. O Him that leads the king in spirit and in power, give it all to Him. Humble thyself to walk with God. Just as a stream finds a bed that is lowly, so Jesus walks with the pure and the holy.

Cast out thy pride, and his heart shall consist. Humble thyself to walk with God. We talked about the river of God that's not going to release a river that flows through the land. It's going to flow in low places.

James always speaks out the lowest place. That's right. And so Jesus said, have this mind. Paul said, have this mind, but it's in Christ Jesus. Speak out the lowliest place. The apostles argued amongst themselves, who's going to be the greatest?

I don't know if Jesus heard it physically or heard it in his spirit. But they were lagging behind a little and they drew up close. He said, what was that you're talking about? He saw it. He took a little child and put him in the midst.

He said, he would be great amongst you. Let him be in the kingdom of God. He would be great in the kingdom of God. Let him be servant of God. Let him take the lowest position. You come into the banqueting house.

You don't know where you're to sit. Well, sit down to the end of the table. Sit there at the back. And then if the lowest seat fits, he promotes you, he'll call you up. Take the lowest position. Further he would explain, just before the meeting.

Well, yes, if that man can be used so mighty as God, the man that through the end of their life ought to try to be there somehow and still to get away from that original humility they had. Then he said to them, they've got to walk in God's ways.

Haven't they walked in God's ways? Who am I to judge? But it must be that somewhere along the line they listen to the voice of repentance. Because they had a great ministry, they've got to keep it going.

If God is saying, let it dry up, let it fold up, oh, that must be the voice of repentance. God doesn't do things like that. Man has a great ministry of healing and God comes to him and says, you've been healing the sick now these many years.

I'm going to lay to your side as far as that ministry is concerned and keep my faith and walk with me and let it be there. I wonder if God has said that, just said that to many of these, some of these who have fallen and they were not prepared to go.

I know prophets that went to some of these outstanding ladies, peace prophets, and went to some of them to warn them that they were on the wrong road. They didn't listen. But God does give warning. He gives opportunity to humble ourselves.

And by his grace, he has given us the ability to humble ourselves. Because he leads us in the way he wants us to go. And if we walk in the way he wants us to go and avoid the pressure that because we have something from God we could enlarge our ministry, avoid that pressure, God will be patient.

Jesus’ Hidden Years and the Father’s Timing

He leads you and I in the right way. And so before our Lord Jesus, before the Father permitted him to go forth in ministry, for one day, he was 30 years of age. I'm not saying that's a pattern in any sense of the word.

Nevertheless, he was mature. Even though he had the gift of God. Even though he was God's gift in the earth. Even though as a young boy he was able to confound the doctors of the law with his wisdom. It wasn't the Father's time for him to go forth in ministry.

I've always felt very sorry when I hear of someone's child that has been gifted with the Lord's gift. He's been gifted with Jesus. After one night, I heard a fact when I was younger. He was a prophet.

As a young lad. He organized his itineraries and had him preach all over the nation. Brought in thousands of people. Because he was a prophet, the Son of God, had a true prophetic ministry. Maybe God will raise him up yet as far as I know, he is still believing.

But the Son of God went back and left to work with his father until he was 30 years of age when the father released him. And then he gave to John the Baptist the word that when you see one coming and you baptize him, and as you baptize him, the Holy God will come down from heaven and rest upon him.

That's the one that I sent you to introduce to Israel. He's the one. And John recognized him even as he saw him walking up. He told the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. And he baptized him and the dust came down from heaven and the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.