Today, the title is “The Compact”: Where are we in the spiritual progression of the Church, or the work, as Christ described in John 6:29?

This is what I want to focus on today. Jesus said, “This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Now they were wanting to do the works that Jesus did feeding five thousand people, healing people.

We often discuss the work being done, and how well we are doing it.  However, we need to take a look at ourselves and do an assessment.  We should do this on a regular basis as an organization after 25 years, in regard to fulfilling the work that we understand by our belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the express image of the Father. What He is telling us should be first.  What is foremost.

We open our meetings with prayer, we ask for God's will to be done.  I mean just these meetings here, but the meetings in council, the meetings, and other organizations, organizational parts of the Church that we do.

Sometimes we struggle to speak the same thing. Paul says we ought to be of the same mind.  We ought to speak the same thing, we ought to be in and find that agreement.  That agreement is not going to come humanly. I've been told so many times that I think it's kind of hard to expect two people to agree on most things, and that is true.  However, that's not what it says in First Corinthians, chapter one, so that you all speak the same thing, that you all be of the same mind. And there are reasons why we may not be, and one is spiritual immaturity.

There is a oneness and unity of the Father.  We're going to talk about that oneness and unity today, and how what was understood at the beginning.  And we need to answer that question, and the question is not so much today that I'm going talk about what we, what we should do in the church.  We're always discussing that.  We discussed it today.  We discussed it yesterday.  We discussed it last night, if you were there.  And we have once again various human ideas about what we should do, what we shouldn’t do, and sometimes they are godly ideas, and sometimes there are mixed agendas, and we have to come back to some questions here that we have to answer first, and one is, Why is the Church?--not necessarily, what we should do? How we should do it? That is true, we should be doing that.

But if we can answer that question, it leads us to the answers to what we should do, and how we should do it.  This is the real issue for us to answer if we are going to progress spiritually in the work.

So, can we answer that question clearly? What should the Church be doing?  What is first? What is foremost?  If we can define that, we can ask, how well we are we doing it--and where are we in the spiritual progression of God's plan for the Church?

Are numbers the indicators? I'm very happy to see that we've made comments already that numbers are not the indicators.

What should be the results? Are the results what they should be?  Can we answer these questions? Are we willing to think about what the answer might indicate that if we really address what we see.  So what we're going to look at needs to be not assessed, or let's say understood, by strategy necessarily.  But it should be assessed, because these are spiritual matters.  The Church is a spiritual body, and where we're going, what we're developing, what we're doing, is a spiritual matter.  This is at the heart of most issues that we have here.

But when we establish the spiritual basis for the “Why,” it naturally leads to some answers or other conclusions.  So, we ask the question.  Let us start first with the confidence and assurance from Jesus’ own words, that the Church will always exist.

Number one, New Testament Church, established from the beginning of almost 2,000 years ago, with Christ personally training His apostles to the sure promise that the called, chosen and faithful are being resurrected.  They will be resurrected to become the bride of Christ.  It's a sure promise. It's certain, and we should know why it is certain it is a part of the “Why.”  The Church has a reason for being here, and it's important to nail that down and have it so clear in our mind as to why He started the Church.  So, to introduce the “Why,” I would like to talk about the concept of a compact--which is the title of the message today. The “Why.” I would like to go back to the American History of November 20th, 1620, An important agreement on a small ship sitting offshore of Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, the first Pilgrims before they settled the shore of Plymouth Rock recognized they needed an agreement or compact on how they would work together.  The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard the Mayflower before the group ever went ashore. [The]Mayflower Compact set the guidelines of how those new settlers would work together to establish the objective of a new colony in a new land.

They arrived with their families and their wives and their children, mostly part of a congregation originating in Yorkshire, in England, along with others who would back them with financial investments, people who were not of their congregation, who were prepared to invest in such an adventure.  They came to stay, never to return to England.  In their minds, this was a permanent settlement.  Their families would live, children would be born, and that's the way it turned out.

In fact, what transpired was so much more than they had ever envisioned.  The significance of the Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society, according to their stated laws, yet to be formed.  They weren’t formed on the Mayflower. They simply agreed to work together.  And they bound themselves to that.

So, a compact is an agreement. It is a contract that people agree to.  The Mayflower Compact was an agreement between forty-one men aboard the Mayflower to live in a social contract, which meant people were willing to give up some of their individual rights and privileges to have other rights and protections as a group.  And this was necessary for an area yet unsettled and unknown.  The idea of a social contract was much better for these Puritans than an every-man-for-himself type of an approach. It was how they would relate to each other.

The rule of King James was oppressive to the religious beliefs, to what is known as the Pilgrims.  They would not agree to the State religion, but were dedicated to what the Bible taught.  The new settlement was based on the Word of God, as they understood it.  So, the Mayflower Compact undoubtedly played a role in the future [of the] colonists, seeking permanent independence from British rule, and shaping the nation that eventually became the United States of America.

It has been stated that the Mayflower Compact’s role in cementing the Plymouth Rock colonists’ dedication to each other was critical to their endurance that first winter and achieving their mission. It was a terrible winter, where over half of the 102 people--men, women, and children--died.  They could never lose sight of why they were there.  Those who had originally signed the Compact were serious in their commitment, and [it] remained in force until 1691, when the Plymouth Colony, became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Now, I use this illustration because it helps us to see from our own American history how the commitment of an idea of a compact between individuals, and a willingness for some to surrender their individual rights for something greater to be established--so that they can withstand the daily struggles and trials, and they would do it together to answer the question, then, of “Why” the Church--and take assessment of our spiritual progress, we need to look at yet another compact, the most important compact between two Beings that, when understood, provides how we begin to answer the “Why”--and where are we in our spiritual progression? We have to go back to the original compact.  There was another compact that was formed and agreed [to], that has become the founding principle of all things. All things would transpire from that point on, once it was agreed to.

It was not a covenant God made with man. It was not the Old Covenant which was “glorious,” as Paul would say--and there were certainly some weaknesses with the Old Covenant.  It was not the New Covenant.  However, the New Covenant would be based upon this compact.  It was not the Abrahamic Covenant, through whom God would bless the nations through Abraham, and eventually speak of the gospel being preached through Christ --eventually, Christ and the Gospel.  That had quite a bit to do with it, but it was not that covenant specifically.  But it was not a covenant, it was a compact.

What was the compact? Who was it between? When did it take place?  Do we really find it in the Bible? How does it affect us?  And how do we come into it? Not only does it affect us--it is about us, and it determines everything.  Indeed, it was the beginning of all things, and the result of that compact is what you see here today: the Church.

The Church is here as a result of that agreement made between two, just two, before anything ever took place.  We read in Ephesians, chapter one, verse 4:  just as He chose us in Himself before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before us in love, He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ, through, according to the good pleasure of His will.  The Church was in the mind of that agreement, and it is here.  That's why it is so certain that's what the Church is and what it will come to.  And that it will, in fact, achieve its purpose, not because of ourselves, but [because of] someone else who agreed, who was a part of that original compact.

John 17:24. Here we read a most remarkable statement.  He says, Father, I desire --- this is the final prayer of Jesus --- I declare that they also whom You gave Me, may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.  This is an extraordinary statement. We have a clear statement here.  In fact, the whole prayer of Jesus describes a relationship that most professing people --- God-professing people --- have gotten wrong.

But let's analyze this relationship and this agreement. 

Who was Jesus?  Who was God? Why would Jesus remind the Father that He loved Him before the foundation of the world?  Is that something the Father didn't do before? No, it is what Their relationship is.  It's what it always is.  But here, but here now, when this is being said, something very powerful is going on here that you read in this final prayer.  That Jesus is referring to--to what occurred before the foundation of the world.  A plan was being established, an agreement an eternal agreement, where both would willingly agree to do for eternity that came from discussions- discussions that occurred before the universe was created, before angels were created.  Discussions that became a compact between two Beings, that once They agreed to what They would do. They also agreed to what each one would do, and the relationship between the Two that would be from then on would be different from then on.  But it would be permanent.  No alteration. This was not between God and man, not from man, nor was it an agreement with angels.

It was an agreement, unbreakable, unalterable, between the two uncreated Beings of eternity.  The Two, in Their planning, and Their counsel that They took together--existing before anything was.  Before time, dwelling in Their own unapproachable light, as it were, explored the plan, how They would share Their life with others eternally.  How would They do this? All of this was a matter of discussion.

What would be the guarantee that once They embarked upon the plan that it would work?  It's important to fully comprehend what They were planning.

The object of Their existence, the object of Their discussions, the object of Their relationship for others, to dwell with Them who would exist by a special creation and a birth, a creation, and a birth process that They had planned, that They had worked out in detail. That when followed by the two main participants, in that compact, and the guarantee of what each one would do to faithfully carry out Their part, it would work.

When would it begin?  In the beginning, of course.  That's what we're told.  An agreement that brings you and me into the greatest plan that could ever be conceived or envisioned.  What would it require? 

We have already read where Jesus affirmed that the Father loved Him before the foundation of the world.  So, we ask, why would Jesus say this? There was something special going on here.  Verse 25, continuing in the prayer: “Oh, righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me.”  Not just that He came, but He was sent, [as mentioned] forty-three times in the Gospel of John.  Jesus says, He was sent.  You can count them for yourself if you like.  No question. It was by the Father. Verse 26: “And I have declared to them Your name.” 

Jesus is telling them the reason He came was for them was to know God the Father--and what He's doing, and had intended to do from the very beginning.  He says, “and I will declare it that the love of which You loved Me may be in them, and I and them.” 

The source of the love that Jesus spoke about was from the Father.  Let me make a point here, and maybe it’s a little bit difficult for you to understand, that what we find in those discussions is described in the Book of John, so clearly and so thoroughly, more than any other place in the Bible, perhaps other than Psalms.

Those, we have record of those discussions.  We begin to see, then, what They were talking about.  We begin to see the conclusions, then, that They came to.  So, a compact was made between the Two to carry out the plan to share Their eternal existence with others.

The love that Jesus speaks of, that was shown to the apostles, was revealed by Jesus Christ. And Christ fulfilled His role completely.

In Ephesians 3:10, Paul says it this way, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places”.  Something was going to be done here.  It was going to be done through the Church now at this point.  “According to the eternal purpose, which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, and whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.”  You can have boldness with that.  And you can have complete access. It all had to be done in a very special way.  In fact, only one way.

And so, when we say a compact, there was the great compact.  What is just amazing, if not more so, is what that compact was.  And you have to have the starting point.  And we do have what the Bible tells us. Why are They doing this?  They’re doing this because God is love. This is what He is.  It is inevitable that They would do something like this.  It was a part, of their “eternal purpose.” The two great uncreated Beings, in the process of Theirrelationship, worked out a plan.  How this would have to happen? They would have others who would be like Them, living eternally in a relationship with the Two.

And not only was there love between the Two, but the Two will love their children--children that They had planned to bring into being.

Here's how Paul understands it, conveying it to two young pastors.

Second Timothy, Chapter 1, verses 9 and 10: “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began…”  (I don't think I need to explain that to you.) “… but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”  And it was through the gospel, then, this mystery began to be revealed, and some things began to happen. Titus 1:2: “in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”  They were so certain They could do this--absolutely certain They could pull this off.  He makes it as a promise.

So, where did the story begin?  John [chapter 1, versus 1 through 3. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This implies an equality of two eternal Beings existing together.  He was, the Word was, in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him.  Without Him nothing was made that was made. You clearly have two persons here.  Their relationship is briefly described.

The Word, who is clearly the subject, is God.  He is with God. The Word was there in the beginning, and with God in the beginning.  Since They are eternal, the only two beings that existed, it is described as one with the other.  So, one might say They were together, but one was not a part of the other.  It does not say that.

But there was an agreement. For what purpose?  They had embarked upon a plan so ambitious, so vast, so complete, so all-encompassing, it would take your breath away just to think about it. God will bring into existence others like Themselves, to be His own children by birth, by a new creative process, not known before --- to be His children forever.  And being His children, they would have the mind of the Father and the mind of Jesus Christ.  Never to depart from God. Never to depart from His good pleasure.  And they would never consider anything else.  And they would do it by choice.  Volition of the children would be the fundamental factor of the success.  The future of them would be limitless.  The life they shared with God their Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with each other would be eternal.

How was this to happen? The Word became flesh. Verse 14.  The Word would become flesh, and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us.  We beheld His glory, the glory of as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus would say, “I come to show you the Father.” One would be willing to become a sacrifice, and was willing to do so gladly, as we'll see in just a moment. The humans who would be created would have the incredible potential to be the children of God forever.

One of the great Beings would have to become flesh as a man.  And it was in the crucible of flesh that the great plan would be accomplished.  One would become flesh, in the likeness of men.  It was worked out how that would happen, what He would experience, what would happen to Him. It was all understood beforehand. It was a part of the agreement before the foundation of the world.

As flesh, He would suffer as a man, not because of His own sin, but the sin of others, those whom He had come to save from their own sin.  Those whom He came to save would be a witness to God's love, and another way-- a way that will lead to peace.  Now God knew the possibility of evil. God would not create evil, but since God was God, He does not sin or devise evil, He also knew of the possibility of the alternative to Himself-- evil in the heart of beings who had the capacity, the capacity to choose.  He wouldn't create evil just for them to be exposed to it.

The creation of free moral minds, entities who themselves would have the capability to comprehend the evil, and then either accept it or reject it.  As we see, some did accept the alternative to God's way.

It was in the angelic realm that evil originated, and it was adopted as a way of life contrary to God's.  So, we find the apostle saying in Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 5, “He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels.”  But then, later on, he says, and not far from that, “But He does give aid to the sons of Abraham.”  Angels do not receive aid. Angels are angels.  They were created as spirit beings.  They can make a choice.  They can carry out that choice with an intelligence and a power of which they are capable.

Human beings will need aid. Here's the key.  Here's the key. Those who rely and trust in faith that God and Jesus Christ will do what they have declared to do, and continually receive that aid will be the ones who will be chosen to be the sons of God.  If you do not ever receive that aid. If you do not ever go to Him in complete trust and confidence and faith, indeed saved by faith, then you will never be His. You have to be His.  That's what He's looking for.

Those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. 

Angels know who God is.  They have knowledge.  Sons of God are humans, who require aid, who need that help, and they need to form, then, a relationship based upon that ironclad faith--if I can put it that way-- with the One who created them, and who called them for a great and wonderful purpose.

He knew, at the point of commitment, of a way of life contrary to God's way of love, that mankind whom He would create would be exposed to the evil. It did happen.  It happened among the angelic realm.  And then the One who agreed to be flesh, to lay down His life would be as good as dead.  Therefore, we also read that He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  They knew that.  It was a part of the agreement.  They had brought--they had taken--everything into consideration. 

Now mankind, too, would have to make a choice, if they were going to be in the family of God. If they were going to be made subject, because of a wrong decision, to live in the world of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would sin. And they would reap the wages of sin and death.  They would need a Redeemer.  The one who became flesh would be the Son to the other.  He would say, “My Father is greater than I.”  He would learn obedience as a man. Was He obedient before? Yes, He was, of course.  Now He would be obedient in the flesh.  He would not have the same privileges He possessed before He became flesh. Any success in carrying out His great plan would be supported and sustained by the Father.

What He had inherently, as self-sustaining God, would be entrusted into the hands of the Father.  He becomes a Son, a begotten Son, as a human being.  And He lives with the help of the One who is now His father.

So, Jesus says--He says, at this point of His life, just before His arrest, “You loved me before the foundation of the world.”--indicating the relationship of love, of deep respect, and commitment to the other.

He does not try to hold on and to grasp His divine rights, or power or privilege.  He becomes a bond servant. No reputation among men.  He came to serve, not to be served.  It had to be, and the only way it could be, but the One who did this would volunteer to be subject to the other.  It was not as if He was made by some authority, or a higher God, or one with more authority to submit to the other.  We find He was willing.  He was ready. He put Himself forward to do this, and He becomes then a Son of the other.

And he does not try to hold on to it.  He is willing to die.  He's willing to pay the price for those who would be exposed to the evil. He was willing to redeem them with his own blood, and specifically for the Church.  He purchased the Church with his own blood.  And upon their returning to God and repentance, He would then dwell in them.  And they, too would become brethren, children of God, co-heirs with Him.  And He would share that with him.  And it would be through man that He would accomplish His purpose.  For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.  Now He would build this Church.

The arrangement was, and we can read this in John chapter 6, as I am asserting to you at this point, that what you find in that original compact, in that agreement, is primarily in the Book of John.  And you can read it.  The Father would call them and send them to Christ.  Christ laid it out for us.  This is how it would be done.

And Christ would be faithful to the Father to ensure they would always turn to the Father when they understood that Jesus Christ would suffer and die for them.  He would teach them a way of life that would never end--the way of life that would ensure peace in the family of God forever.

Jesus Christ was the sincerest, the most honest, and altogether a man of truth, that anyone you would ever consider, think about or know--beyond anything humans had ever seen.  He had everything to lose by becoming a man and living and die for us.  He put everything on the line.

The way of life that existed between the Two from eternity would now become a way of life for those whom He would call, whom would choose what they saw in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was indeed a Son, a Son who said, “I always do the Father's will.”  He would say His Father had pledged that He would back His Son in every situation, no matter how severe it would be.

The Son would say, “My Father does the works.”  He had given that to the Father.  He did not possess inherently those powers. It's the way they lived. Their respect and their love for each other, their support of each other, being with each other, all the way from start to finish.  It's the way They lived.  It's the way They had always lived.  And now, the Son would always be the Son. The Father would always be His Father.  The Two would now dwell in that relationship forever. It would be permanent.

So, in this age, about 2,000 years ago, the way of life would be transferred to others.  A few at first, a picture of which we find in Acts chapter 2, where thousands repented and were baptized.  Their response to what they heard was a way of life so beautiful and inspirational, unlike anything they had ever experienced, and there was so demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection, and the teaching of the man Jesus Christ, who brought the message from the Father.

The Father backed Him all the way in the works that the Father did in Him.  To the grace that was shown, to the strength that he received in the final prayer, it would come. It would always be there. It will not fail.  The relationship was sound and secure. It was essential, and at this point eternal.  “You are my Son,” He would declare. “Today I have begotten You.” And again, “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son.”

As we heard this morning, verse 23 of John 17, just to go back to the prayer, “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as you have loved Me.”, and to be confident in that love.  For us to live in that.  To move. To have our being in the confidence of that love?  It's the way They would exist, the way His Church should exist.

The Scripture says to those first few continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching, this is what the apostles learned, and now passing on to the body of Christ that would last for over 2,000 years among the few that Christ would ensure would be there in the end.  Yes, one of the God-beings would have to die.  He would be made flesh. He was going--it was going to be through man that redemption would come.  It was going to be through man that life would be made possible. And it was going to be through His own blood that the Church would be purchased.  Since it was going to be done, it had to be done now. “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.” I've already quoted to you, “Since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”  It would be through the willingness to die, obedient unto death, that He would be perfected now as a man.  He would become a bond servant.  It is what He was. It is what He is.

Let me put it this way: If the two great Beings were not both uncreated, if there was not equality--which He did not strive to retain, of course-- His voluntary subordination and His willingness to become a bond servant would be meaningless.

The compact was complete, completed as agreed, to not just the word of them both, but with the pledge of them both, and complete faith in the Father.  Declaring the love They had before the foundation of the world, which was fundamental to the plan, They would now begin the plan.

We read [in] Hebrews 10:7, “I have come to do your will, Oh, God!” All this was agreed, declared, written, we’re told the volume of the book, as Paul says in that same verse, where one who would become a son through a human birth and a human and a spiritual begettal, and born through the resurrection of the dead to be the first born of God.  “I came to do Your will.” That's taken from Psalm 40 verses 7 and 8, where it says, and it says it perhaps a little better here, “Then I said, Behold, I come in the scroll of the book that is written of Me.  I delight to do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart”. And it says in Hebrews, “for the joy that was set before Him, now before the foundation of the world, knowing what would happen, knowing what had been predetermined, knowing that He would be the Lamb slain from that very time on and what that meant. Knowing exactly what that meant, He says, He says, “I delight to do Your will.”

So, before the first matter was created for the creation of any living being, the angels, some of which they knew would devise the alternative to God's plan of love. Before all of that, all of this was so decided and planned.

And so, this is what's important to understand about God's great plan of love.  By volunteering to do this, not by authority, or told to do this, then He becomes worthy, as we find in the Book of Revelation, worthy of worship.

So, He agrees with the great part of the plan to become a Son of God.  That is now permanent, an everlasting position through a human birth, and also a spiritual begettal in a birth.  And when He was baptized, He and the others heard a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  And in the next verse, he goes into the wilderness, and is tempted of the devil --- the very next breath, almost.

And so the devil says, so, you think you are the Son of God-- contradicting what God had just told Him when He was baptized and gone through what is equivalent to a spiritual begettal.  You ever heard that before? I have many times.  So, you think you are a begotten Son of God, do you?  It comes at us all the time.  It came against Jesus, who was tempted in all things as we are.

Jesus was unwavering in His loyalty to the Father.  You shall not tempt God, He says. The devil clearly was trying to put a wedge between Father and Son.  He says, I will give you the nations of the world--an accusation against God His Father--which in essence says, You don't have to go through all this suffering and dying.  Oh, the devil knew.  The devil would not, could not, put a doubt in the mind of Jesus.  It was never to be accepted by Him. Peter spoke the same words to Jesus.  “That shall not be so, Lord.”  Jesus saw the attack right away against His Father, now from one of His own disciples.  He told Peter, Go, take a walk.  Get your head straightened out, Peter. I'm not accepting what you have to say.  We're going to have a Church.   Understand that, Peter.  We are going to have a Church.  We're not ready for the kingdom yet.  There's more work to be done.

And that Church will exist in the face of the gates of hell for as long as the father wants to call and prepare people for His kingdom.  And Peter, you're speaking, by the way--Peter, you're speaking the same words of Satan that I heard in the wilderness.  So, Peter is saying, You don't have to do this.  This cannot be a part of God's will. And Christ says, It is most certainly God's will.  And it is for your sake, Peter, that I'll suffer and die.  And as for this very thing that will bring you to true repentance and live a life of faith for Me.  And, as Paul would say, “it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance.”

So, here's what occurs. Satan will do anything to get Christ to turn away from God.  And he tried it.  You can read the occasions of it with the Pharisees, with the original temptation, and eventually His death, and everything that went with it.  The devil was there and orchestrated it.  But He already knew He was going to be backed by the Father.

Let me make some points here. Number One: If the agreement can be broken, he has effectively destroyed God's plan. The Two knew what it would take to produce children who would always love God and be faithful to Him.  He could not separate Them. [Number]Two: Secondly, he's trying to break the agreement between God and His Church, and he is trying, and has succeeded in the weakest point where he will always attack.  It has happened.  Piecemeal, perhaps.  And sometimes in larger ways, but he will never quit doing this.  He's got to break that bond that was pledged at the beginning. Number Three: Satan will try to break the bond between us, those whom God has called and was given to Christ, who guarantees that He will not allow them to be snatched from the Father's hand.

Remember John 6: “I won't allow them!”  That was the compact. That was the agreement. The terms were there.  Jesus is always referring to the compact that was made before the foundation of the world.

Anything that attempts to weaken the relationship between the Two is of Satan.  I don't think I have to say that again to you.  I think you understand that.  Minimizing who Christ is, His role, His relationship and His existence with the Father is of the same spirit of Satan who wants to put a doubt in that relationship and agreement between the two great God Beings, as bold as that may seem, but that's what he wants to do.

The relationship between Them is the most powerful thing they have.  Perhaps it's something to think about. But this is what we're seeing from the beginning: with the Trinity doctrine--trying to deceive us on that relationship); [with] Christ, being created; or [with] Christ having a role which is considerably different from what the Two have already declared.

So, when we hear of different ideas being presented, we should know the source. This is not a hard idea to understand.  Destroy that bond between the Two in your own mind.  Destroy that bond between the Church and Him.  Simply destroy the idea of the bond between us--[and]You’ve destroyed God's plan. You have succeeded. Don't you think that's what the devil wants?

Let's now move quickly to the New Covenant, as it relates to the original agreement or compact.  The Church has entered this compact.  The New Covenant is based on this plan.  Yes, a plan. But an unbreakable Compact based upon the word of both.  Each would fulfil His part. Jesus always understood that He was sent to do His Father's will, and He carried it out to His own death.  The Father would see Him through to the end. When Jesus says, “It is finished!”--He did the work He was sent to do.  So, He says, as a part of understanding the eternal purpose, “Therefore my father loves Me”, John 10:18, “because I lay down my life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.  I have a power to lay it down, I have the power to take it again. This command I have received of My Father.” In the end it was His choice.  But it was the word of the Father who says, You will be resurrected.

Job, our friend Job, illustrates a larger lesson than sometimes we often discuss--the great cosmic debate when Satan countered God about Job: The only reason he's obeying you is because of what You do for him.  Take that away. Let's see what he does.  Satan didn't understand [that] Job wasn't obeying Him because of the blessings, or protection, or what he could get from God.  God, says, I think you're wrong, Satan. God knew His servant.  God knows His man. Job had no idea what was happening, but in the case of Job, either God or Satan would be proved wrong--and it turned out to be Satan.  Job did obey God.  He had a lot of questions. Oh, yes, you would too, when things happen to you, and you're not told.  But Job didn't turn against God because of the trial.  Job says, Job says, “I know my Redeemer liveth.”  Job says, I know the outcome. He has to be true to His word.  The devil was proved wrong! There was trust and faith.  And it was not based on the carnal idea that Job was in it only for the blessings.

So, when the God being, then, the Word, comes to this earth after being the Creator of the universe--He comes to this earth after being Creator of the angels, and Yahweh, who spoke to mankind from Adam to Abraham, to Moses, and the judges to the prophets, of Israel and to Judah--comes as flesh in love for us, and dies for us individually, and then makes us a part of His body.  He has our trust.

You trust Him. I have faith in Him. He has our undying love.  He has our love without question, without doubting.  And He is completely in order in his expectations that from those who have been brought into the great compact agreed by the Two that the children will be faithful children always.  Always.  Never a time when they wouldn't be.  You can count on it.  And they will do so by their own choice.

Matthew 28:19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, and baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit.”  We have entered into the realm of God, the agreement, the pact.  And we are inducted into that realm through a New Covenant that He has made with those whom He has invited--a realm where faithfulness and love is normative.  He has convicted us in the most convincing way.  Through the coming of the Word, through His life, through His death, through the resurrection of the dead.  That is, to this we must respond as an individual, as Job did, and it is to this we must respond as a church, as a body if unity means anything to us. So, it brings us to the question, What must we do?  That's a part of our discussion, is it not? What is foremost?  What is first? We ask the question further, what is God's clear objective?  One must align with His clear objective.

So let us reduce this to its simplest idea.  He is creating in humans, through Jesus Christ living in them, the mind of God, the mind of Christ.  This is what Christ will look for.  He wants to see Himself in each one.  The kingdom will not work without that.  The family cannot exist without that. It must be brought into being in the Church.

We must be a work, as Paul said, having Christ formed in us, before we can do a work. The object is not to see who gets the most numbers, who can do the biggest work.  We already did that.  We see what happened.  And we see what happens to us in our church on regular intervals.

The object is for each one to be as Christ, a bond servant, relying on the love of the Father, knowing they are saved by faith.  In short, I hope I have convinced you of a new creation where God is going, and this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.

You go to know He sent Him. You got to know the relationship.  You got to understand where it started and how it started. It was decided long ago what we should be, what we should do--and when the mystery kept secret from the foundation of the world began to be revealed through Christ, the devil was there to tempt Jesus away from it!  But Jesus would not be tempted. It was the compact, the agreement, the eternal pact between the Two that will never be broken.

Though their greatest threat to the eternal pact was when one was flesh, it was the will of both that it would continue, and it was solid.  Without that compact, established by the word of the Two eternal uncreated beings, nothing would happen.  No matter would exist.  No other life would ever be created. There would be no universe.  There would be no earth, no humans, no Jesus the Christ, no Redeemer, no plan, no time, no expression of love, no plan to share their existence with others, no intent to further a plan.  A plan simply would not exist.

But it did happen.  And we have the word. We have the knowledge.  We have experienced the love.  So since, to answer the first question, we can answer the question of the “Why”.  We can also answer the question, then, of “What” and “How.”  So, we've arrived at the beginning.  We have arrived at the beginning of the answer to the question, what must we do?

The compact before time began--it is the heart of everything that is.