Where Were You Before Creation (Part 1) – God’s Eternal Purpose Revealed

Now, brother, if I were going to speak tomorrow morning on what you were going to have to speak on, I would give some consideration to what He said. He spoke to His Father and said, “I want them to be with Me so they can see Me as I really am.” Does that make sense? “That they may be with Me where I am so that they may behold My glory, the glory of which you’ve given Me. For Father, You loved Me before the creation of the world.”

The first thing we find out is what happened before the foundation of the world. “Father, You love Me before the foundation of the world.” Now, here’s someone standing in creation, and here’s where creation begins, and here’s where creation ends, and there’s someone standing, or perhaps kneeling, in creation, and says, “You loved me before creation.” Now, here is creation, and here is Somebody loving Somebody before creation. It is the Father loving the Son. That’s the first thing we know that happened before creation. The Father loved the Son.

Let’s go to Ephesians 1:4. Ephesians is an ordinary letter written by a man to a church. Not a church with a building. Didn’t have a Bible school. It did have a Sunday school class. (laughter) This is a fellowship of believers. This is a community of Christians living in the first century, and they’re all heathen; ex-heathen. Not very religious people. Ephesians 1:4. That’s the very first chapter, the fourth line. The man who’s writing this is in prison, by the way; two-thirds of him is in prison. I’m going to remove the pronouns here to clarify. “Just as the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”

Now, I’m going to read that again. “Just as the Father chose you inside of Christ before the creation of the world to make sure that you’re holy and blameless before Him.” Has anybody yelled at you today? Has anybody fussed at you, complained at you, gotten ticked off with you? How many of you today have taken blame? Somebody has blamed you. You remember, you’re really clear. Don’t just throw your hands up. Somebody blamed you. Boy, if you’re married, there’s no way in the world you’re really popular. Okay. If you have been blamed today, please raise your hand. Yes. My wife has been blamed today by me. I told her I said when we get to Louisiana, everybody turns Cajun, and you should tell me that this is no longer Texas. No, that wasn’t it. Okay. So, you’ve also been picked on today. Will y’all do that again? I want to see how many hands go up again. Let’s stay here. Okay. Now, whoever blamed you, whoever blamed you, I assume it was temporary and not too serious. And Karen will forgive Andy for this, and Helen…oh, and Helen will forgive Gene there. I hope so. But I’ll tell you, it’s really important that you not be blamed. Well, it comes down to things that last a long, long time. For the Father picked you out, predestined you, marked you off, chose you, predetermined you when you were in Christ before creation that you might be holy and blameless. Alright, that’s the second one. That’s encouraging without a message attached to it.

Let’s go to Hebrews 4, written by who knows who. We have no idea who wrote this. Whoever he was, he knew an awful lot about the Hebrew religion. And Hebrews 4:3 – For we who have believed, that’s those who are believers, but you have to believe. We who have believed enter that rest. Just as He said, as I swore in my wrath, they…that’s the people who don’t believe…shall not enter My rest, although His works were finished. This sentence does not make sense. Yes, His works were finished before creation. I think it’s one of the most amazing verses in all scripture. That’s like a man standing in front of an empty lot and saying, “I have completed this house. I have already finished working, and I’m through, and the house isn’t there yet.”

Now, saints, this opens up a whole new adventure for us to understand a little bit about the vastness of God, and I don’t mean vast and big, but the whole understanding of Him we do not have. How can anyone say that He finished before He started? I don’t know how He can say that, but you will come with me tonight to appreciate that fact, it is a very good feeling on lonely nights. And now we come to the book of Revelation.

Let’s go to Revelation 13:8. That’s the last book we’ve got, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Now, some of you understand this book. I have gone far, far, far beyond you. I don’t understand this book. I started not understanding it, and I’m all the way back to where I was at the beginning. I did not understand this book. This is the 13th chapter and verse eight – And all who dwell on the earth will worship… This is a very tragic situation here…everyone whose name is not written in the book of Life of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world…

Brother Charles, did you happen to bring your Wuest version? Then would you crack it open while we all go to Revelation 17:8 and read it? We’re going to come back and listen to brother Charles read that verse, and we’re going to talk about it. 17:8. This is one of those negative ones. The beast that you saw was, and is not…and as I said, you know who he is. I don’t…and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, those whose names had not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the ages…and even though this is negatively stated, the positive point is that before God created, He had a book. And before anything existed, when God was the All, there had been nothing created; He wrote your name on a scroll. We call it a book: a book called the Book of Life. He did that before He began.

Brother Charles, would you come up here in front, please, and read this passage in Revelation 13:8? Stand right close beside me so it gets picked up. Okay.

Audience: “And they shall worship Him all who dwell upon the earth. Everyone whose name does not stand written in the scroll of the Life, the scroll that belongs to the Lamb who has been slain in the mind and purpose of God, since the time when the foundations of the universe were laid and who is looked upon by God as the slain Lamb at present.”

Okay. Thank you. Now, then, this is enormous. We have a book that was written before anything existed, but to go back and see God the All, and nothing has been created, but before He created… the Lamb. THE lamb. Not a lamb; THE lamb. Before I go any further, we have to realize that so much of creation reflects and shows us what God is like. It’s like He wrote descriptions of Himself into the universe. A grain of wheat depicts one thing about the Lord, the moon, another, but more than anything else that describes and shows us what God is like is a lamb. There was a Lamb. The Lamb. Not the one that is a picture of the Lamb, but the real Lamb. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of creation. Do you understand that? How is it possible, when God is the All, that the crucifixion could take place? Well, we’re going to consider this now. Anybody got anything they want to say before we plunge into these things? Would you like to bring the rest of the message at this point? I would say I’ve painted myself into an infinite corner here, would you not?

Alright, let’s go back. God is All. This is what we know: our God has expressed Himself, and it’s something that I don’t understand. Frankly, saints, I don’t understand how the eternal Son is in the eternal Father. I don’t know how Christ is in God the Father, but He does, and I’m going to take His word for this, that in God there is the fellowship of the Father and the Son. Neither you nor I will ever understand the enormity of what I’m about to say, and that is, that the Father loved the Son, and here is a reciprocal love. Do you know what the word reciprocal means? It’s like that, going back and forth. It reciprocates. Have you ever heard the word reciprocity? That’s from the word reciprocates…I think it is.