Hemet Conference: 1998
Table of Contents
Prayer Expressions of Dependence
The Good Chief and Great Shepherd
The Trinity
Address—C. Hendricks
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I'd like to speak on the Trinity tonight and I selected this hymn. It's one of many hymns that have the Trinity in it. It begins with ABBA, Father the Father, and then it says God the Spirit with our spirit witnesses we're sons of God.
Abbas purpose gave us being when in Christ in that vast plan, so we have the.
All the three persons of the Godhead in this hymn, as in many hymns.
It's the most fundamental truth of.
The Christian faith.
It's that name to which we are initially baptized. Let's turn to the verse in Matthew 28.
That we all know so well. Matthew 28 and verse 19.
The Lord speaking, go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name.
Of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. I remember speaking once when in North Carolina.
You stay at the meeting room there and I was leaving for.
Some visitation and two ladies came up to the door and knew who they were. They were Jehovah's Witnesses, and in the course of our conversation together one of them said to me the Trinity.
Is not in the Bible.
And I said.
Oh, the very names of the persons composing the Trinity are in the Bible. It's in the very baptismal formula of the Christian. It doesn't say the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but the name. And I might mention this right at the outset. I had a young man come to me once after meeting and saying, is there any difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit?
Well, the answer of course is no. It's just a matter of the translators sometimes translated the Hebrew or the Greek word Spirit as ghost, but it's the same person. Now when we talk about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we're talking about 3 distinct persons in one God. We're charged of course, by those that reject the Trinity with.
Promoting the idea of three gods.
But it's not 3 gods, it's the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And in the Old Testament, the name Jehovah applies sometimes to the Father, sometimes to the Son.
Sometimes to the spirit Jehovah is all three, because that's who God is.
And it's so important to hold this truth, a young man in our assembly, in an assembly said to me once. I was talking to him and he was talking about another Christian in quotes.
Then he said he's a little confused on some things, but he's definitely a Christian. He just doesn't believe in the Trinity. And I said to him, if he doesn't believe in the Trinity, he's not a Christian.
He might be a Jew, he might be a Muslim, he might be a Unitarian, but he's not a Christian if he doesn't believe in the Trinity. This is the most fundamental and foundational truth of the Christian faith. Three persons in one God. A Sunday school teacher was once trying to illustrate the Trinity to her class. And she took a cherry pie and she cut it into thirds and she said this piece.
The Father and this piece, the Son and this piece, the Holy Spirit. Well, that's a nice attempt, of course, to illustrate to children the Trinity. It's one pie and yet it's got three pieces. Well, the, the fault in that and all of these illustrations fall short of, of the, the full truth of the Trinity is that the Father is not a third of God and the Son is not a third of God and the Spirit is not.
3rd of God. But the Father is all of God, and the Son is all of God, and the Spirit is.
All of God and you might say, well, I don't understand that. I don't grasp that. That's all right. I don't understand it either. But.
I believe it because that's who God is. He is 3 persons in one God.
Each person Co equal with the others, no one being superior to the other. We sometimes say that the Father is the first person, the Son is the second person, and the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. That comes from Matthew 2819 where they're named in that order. But as we trace it through in the Bible, as you'll see tonight.
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It's not always in that order, and many times it's the the sun is first and then the Father and then the Spirit.
Sometimes the Spirit is first and then the Father and then the Son, sometimes the Spirit.
Son and Father. Sometimes the Son, Spirit and Father. It's in different orders. Why?
Well, to show that.
None of the persons is above the other. They are all equal in the Blessed Trinity. Each one is all of God.
All of the cults deny the Trinity.
And those that are sound in the faith hold to it, thankfully. And the Christian religion, if I can use that term, is the only religion on the face of the earth that believes in the Trinity. All you have to do to deny the Trinity is well, you could deny that Jesus is God that denies the Trinity, or you could deny that the Spirit is a person or that he is God that would deny the.
One that believes in the Trinity or the Godhead. The Bible doesn't use the word Trinity. This Jehovah's Witness may have meant that the word Trinity is not in the Bible.
But the nearest to it is the word Godhead. And in fact, when I was saying that the sun is all of God, I think of the verse in Colossians 2, eight or two nine. Is it all? The fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily.
A wonderful truth that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him as a man, and that's a magnificent truth in the sun. Well, that's true of all the persons of the Godhead.
The Jew has a verse in Deuteronomy that they read every Sabbath day. Let's turn to it.
Deuteronomy chapter 6.
And verse 4.
This is their.
Famous verse that they like to refer to in their synagogues.
Hear O Israel the Lord, and I think we all know that when it's all capitals, it's Jehovah.
Jehovah our God is 1. Jehovah 1 Lord.
Now we'll see as we go through a little bit of the Old Testament before we come to the new, because you'll find the Trinity in both.
The Old and the New Testament. It's not revealed as such.
In the Old Testament, but the Trinity is definitely there, as we will see.
In the scriptures that we will look at, but there's two Hebrew words for one I understand.
I'm no Hebrew scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I've.
Learned this from those that know and this there's 2 words for one. One is an absolute oneness to the exclusion of everything else. Like that's what the Mohammedans, the Muslims believe that God is 1 solitary lonely individual God and evidently the Jews believe that same and yet their scriptures.
Their testimony to the Trinity and this very verse.
Which they use so often to prove their point. Really proves the opposite. Because this word for one.
The Lord our God is 1 Jehovah 1 Lord. The word for one is the word for one in plurality. Like we speak of our nation, one nation under God. We don't mean that our nation is composed of one person. It's composed of millions of persons. When Adam and Eve came together, it says the two shall become one flesh. That's the same word that's used here.
It's oneness, but with more than one, and we will see as we look at a passage in Genesis where this oneness and plurality is is used. So actually the verse says the Lord our God, our Elohim, which is a plural noun for God, is one in plurality. Lord. That is, there are more than there are more there is.
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Than one person in the Godhead. The very first verse turned to it. Genesis 11 in our Bibles.
Though it is not seen in our English translations, it is in the Hebrew again. And that majestic verse I love it is in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God now that word for God, Elohim.
Is in the plural, the word created. The verb created is in the singular. So you have a plural subject, a plural noun with a singular verb. When that combination is found in the Bible, it's referring to the Godhead. It's referring to the glorious truth that God is composed of more than one person.
And now the Jews have an explanation for this, and they say it's the plural of majesty.
Like the Queen would say, we are not amused and she means I am not amused.
But she uses the plural of majesty. Well, let's just examine that thought and see if where the plural occurs in connection with the deity, that it is just the plural of majesty. Turn over in chapter 1 to verse 26.
And God, again, it's Elohim said. Let us make man.
In our image after our likeness here you have not the plural of majesty, but the plural of persons in the Godhead conferring among themselves as to the creation of man.
And isn't it, isn't it wonderful that when he made man, he made him something like himself? God is a Trinity. He is a triunity, 3 in one and one in three. And so man is a Trinity. He's a triunity. He has a spirit, a soul and a body. Paul tells us that in First Thessalonians 4-5 where he says.
Your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.
Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The animals are not trinities. They don't have a spirit. They have a soul and a body, and they don't have a living soul. Any immortal soul like man has well.
God's confers among among themselves the persons of the Godhead. Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, the singular in the image of God created he him male and female created he them and God bless them. And then again verse 29, God said, behold, I have given you every herb. Again, verse 31, God saw everything that he had made. So you see, there's this, there's this interchange between the plural and the singular. And that's because.
When the plural is used, it's referring to the plurality of persons in the Trinity, in the Godhead, and when the singular is used, it's referring to the fact that he is 1 God.
The 3rd chapter of Genesis.
After the fall.
Verse 22 and the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us.
To know good and evil. Again, this is not the plural of majesty, but it's the plural of the communion of Persons within the Trinity describing man.
Initially when he was going to create him and then after he had fallen.
And had gained A conscious conscience to know good and evil.
Now turn to the 11TH chapter of Genesis.
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east.
That they found a plane in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said, one to another, Go to let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord God came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold.
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And noticed this.
People is 1 now. That's that same word for oneness.
That's used there in Deuteronomy 64. The Lord our God is 1 Lord, and here again it refers to a plurality of people. He doesn't mean that the people consisted of one person. That would be nonsense. The people is one. That is, they had one purpose, to exalt themselves.
And they have all one language. In this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to let us again. We have the Pearl. Go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.
Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Right after Proverbs.
And again, you don't see this in our English translation.
If you have Mr. Darby's translation, you can refer to the note.
Chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes verse one says Remember now thy Creator.
In the days of thy youth. Now we saw that in Genesis 11. In the beginning God, Elohim plural, created the heavens and the earth. Here if you refer to His, note the word creators in the plural.
It's not rendered creators, but remember now thy creator, thy creator is 3 persons, one God.
Now let's turn to Isaiah 6.
Isaiah chapter 6.
Now here we have a definite, distinct allusion to the Trinity in this chapter.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the Seraphims. Each one had 6 wings with 20 covered his face.
And with Twain he covered his feet. And with Twain he did fly. I just call your attention. Seraph is 1. Seraphim is more than one.
Now in the Hebrew, let me start this way in the English language.
The singular is 1, the plural is 2 or more.
Not so with the Hebrew.
In the Hebrew, the singular is 1, the dual form is 2. They have a form of two hands.
2 feet, 2 arms, 2 legs, two eyes, 2 ears. That's the dual form. It only means 2.
Doesn't mean one, it doesn't mean 3 and when they come to the plural form in the Hebrew.
It means three or more, three or more. So if something is in the plural, it's not singular and it's not dual. It is 3 or more. And we know that the Trinity is composed of three. So here we have Seraphim's, and that's the plural of seraph.
Every Hebrew word ending in I am is the poor. Like in English, we ended in S for the plural.
Above it stood the Seraphims. Each one had 6 wings. With 20 covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy.
Is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full.
Of His glory.
Now keep your finger in, keep your hand here, and turn to Revelation 1.
4.
Revelation 4.
And verse 8 and the four beasts, the four living creatures had, each of them six wings about him.
And they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying Holy holy Holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. Notice those 3 threes there 3 holies Lord God Almighty and which was and is and is to come describing God.
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Well, that's taken from what we have here.
These living creatures have some of the qualities of the seraphim's and some of the qualities of the cherubims as well. Going back to Isaiah 6, where we have the seraphim's crying out one to another, holy, holy, holy. Why don't they just say holy, holy? Because it's Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit.
All three persons, the whole earth is full of His glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongues from off the altar. And and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying.
Whom shall I send? And here you have again the communion among the Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity, and one of them, the Father. I would take. It says, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
The Trinity.
Then said I the son, here am I, send me.
And so he was sent.
I like to apply it also. After the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption and ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, the time was come for the formation of the Church. And again the Father says, Whom shall I send? And the Holy Spirit says, Here am I, send me.
And the father sent him, the son sent him down to form the assembly.
Wonderful.
Indications in the Old Testament.
Now turn. We're going to look at two more and then we'll go to the New Testament. Turn to.
Isaiah chapter 48.
Now, everything we've been looking at so far is the Jewish scriptures.
And they don't believe in the Trinity, the Jews, because they don't believe that Jesus is God.
I don't really know what their view is on the Holy Spirit.
But this is a beautiful verse where the Trinity is found in one verse.
Isaiah 4816 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time that it was now. Notice there am I, and now the Lord God, that would be the Father.
The the Persons of the Trinity are are found in many different places in Scripture. They're not always named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit is named the Comforter, the Anointing, the Unction, and appears in various forms like a dove, and so on.
But they're there. The persons are there. They have to be.
I want to make this statement before we go on. Every revelation of God, everything that God does, whether it's the birth of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the coming of Christ, the Trinity is always involved. The salvation of a lost soul, the Trinity is involved.
Because that's who God is. This book is the revelation of God. It tells us who God is. And who is God? Well, he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's who God is.
And if you don't believe that, you're not a Christian.
This is the most basic, fundamental foundational truth there is in all the Bible.
And this implies, of course, that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the Spirit is God. Otherwise it would not describe who God is.
All right, that 16th verse again. There am I and now the Lord God.
The Father and his Spirit hath sent me.
Isn't that striking? We read in John's Gospel in 14, the Father sent the Spirit, and we read the Son sent the Spirit in 15. But here we have the Father sending the Son, and we know that's very common. We understand that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, but it says his Spirit hath sent me.
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Because all three persons are indeed God, and in the 61St of Isaiah, the 61St chapter.
I believe yes, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. There you have the the the what we would say the third and the first person of the Trinity because and the me is is the sun. So you got in that first statement. You have the Trinity because the Lord hath anointed me. Now this is the Son speaking.
To preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted.
To proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of prison to them that are bound, and so on. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, all three persons in that wonderful, especially as we go through the New Testament and we've shown enough from the old that the Trinity is indeed there.
Matthew 3 We have one of the most beautiful evidences of the Trinity.
Verse 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. Here you have the Son coming to John to be baptized.
And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffered to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. Notice in the order, here you have the second person, and then the third person, the Spirit of God. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him, and then you.
The first person, the one we normally call that his voice from heaven, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
Our sister came to me once after speaking on this subject and she handed me her Bible and she said look, and I looked down and in the margin there were some verses where she had a little triangle and that of course represented the Trinity. She had as she read her Bible, she had marked those verses that have the Trinity. It's beautiful. Some verses just by themselves contain the Trinity. Many times the Trinity is found in the.
Of a passage, and it's almost always that way. You read a little bit farther down and you will find the third person mentioned of the Trinity.
So I thought that was very precious that she had made that study. I hope that as a result of this address this evening that when you read your Bible you will a fresh look for the Trinity, the Godhead in the Scriptures and he is everywhere. This woman said the Trinity is not in the Bible. My, how blind such a soul was.
And.
And continues to be, if she has not been delivered from that awful darkness.
Well, the 17th chapter of.
Matthew.
We have.
I don't know if we have the spirit here.
So maybe I shouldn't?
Choose this passage.
Let's umm.
Let's go on to the book of Acts. Now let's go on to John's Gospel. And we'll see the Trinity in a number of places. We'll go to the first chapter.
Of John.
Verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him.
And saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I set. After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John Bear records saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and at a boat upon him. I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize, that would be the Father.
With water the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw in their record that this is the Sun.
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Of God.
Let's go to the third chapter.
And verse 34.
For he whom God hath sent sometimes the Father.
Is referred to as God when the other two persons are mentioned distinctly.
And God has mentioned that God refers to the Father sometimes when it's just God in general.
It's all three persons of the Godhead that's referred to, but here it is he whom God hath sent. God sending him would be the Father.
And he whom he sent is the Son, speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. So we have again all three persons.
Turn to the 14th chapter. I am just selecting those that come to my mind at this time. There are many, many more which you will think of, no doubt, but what I give will be enough to illustrate. Now here in one verse we have the Trinity in John 1416. The Son is praying and he says, I, he's speaking. He says I will pray the Father.
There we have the Son 1St and then the Father, and he shall give you.
Another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit.
Of truth. So there the Spirit is referred to as the Comforter.
And the spirit of truth.
Again verse 26 but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. There again you have the three persons, the Spirit first the Father and then the Son. You notice the order is always is often different and.
And He will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you again in the 15th chapter, verse 26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, there you have the Spirit as the Comforter, and then the Son, sending him from the Father even.
Our which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.
Verse 7 of chapter 16.
The Lord tells them it is expedient for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, But if I depart.
I will send him unto you.
When He is coming to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more. So again we have the three persons referred to.
Now let's turn to the Book of Acts. Turn to the book of Acts.
And.
I'll read those first verses.
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that he threw the Holy Ghost.
Had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. So in that verse we have the Spirit and the Son mentioned, to whom also He showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.
Which saith ye have heard of me.
I'm just picking out certain verses chapter 2.
And verse 33 is a verse that has the Trinity in it.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, who is exalted? The Son of God, the Lord Jesus.
And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which he now see and hear. So there again we have the Trinity.
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Romans One.
I don't want to stay in just one book.
Romans One.
The first verse he speaks of that he was separated unto the Gospel of God. That would be the Father which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the.
Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead.
They didn't capitalize spirit there, but it could have been capitalized. Sometimes when it's they don't. The translator doesn't know to capitalize it or not. When it's capitalized, it's referring to this person of the spirit. When it's in small letters, it's referring to the state that the spirit forms in us by His presence there, but it's a definite reference to Him.
Now let's turn to the 8th chapter of Romans, where we have so much.
Of the Spirit of God.
Verse one, we have theirs therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Verse 2 Says for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh. God referring to the Father sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Well, we could, we could go through that whole chapter and point out over and over and over again.
The Trinity.
Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Verse 14. And God the Father hath both raised up the Lord.
The Son and will also raise up us by his own power, owe you not that your bodies are the members of Christ.
Umm verse 17 but that he that is joined unto the Lord.
Is 1 spirit again verse 19 what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own. Isn't it wonderful as we we look at the scriptures like this and we find everywhere we look we find the three persons not always as I said in the same order because they are all Co equal 1 is.
Superior to the other.
Look at 2nd Corinthians 13. Beautiful verse one. We often quote that it may even be here. I don't know, verse.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the love of God, that's the Father. And the communion of the Holy Ghost.
Be with you all, Amen. I cannot think of wishing another believer a higher blessing than that. The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. Be with you all, Amen. The fact that all three are put together over and over and over again in Scripture, absolutely without any question, proves the deity of each one.
Cannot mix creature hood and God as being Co equal and impossible.
Galatians 4.
Verse 4.
But when the fullness of the time was come.
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them, that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because ye are sons.
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying ABBA father. Notice in that sixth verse, in that one verse you have the Trinity, You have the spirit of His Son, crying ABBA Father.
Very precious.
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I didn't I didn't read it but we know the verse in Romans 8 the apostle says if God before us.
Who can be against us? Who is for us? Father is for us, the Son is for us, the Holy Spirit is for us. All three persons of the Godhead working in perfect harmony and unity among themselves. For your good and my good and blessing, God is for us.
In Romans 8 it says the Spirit himself maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered. We don't know what to pray for oftentimes, and the Spirit makes intercession.
To whom is he interceding? He's interceding to the Father. And a little bit later on, in Romans 8, it says the Son on high in the glory a man makes intercession for us.
To whom is he pleading? The Father. So here you again you have the Trinity in connection with prayer. 2 Persons of the Godhead, praying, interceding to the Father. For whom? For us.
For you, for me.
God is for us should we ever get discouraged? Never, never. Ephesians 1.
Ephesians One.
Verse 3. Verse 2. Grace be unto you, and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have those two persons mentioned and a little bit farther down in verse.
13 in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy.
Spirit of.
Of promise.
Again in the 3rd chapter, verse 14 for this, 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Chapter 4 of Ephesians verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.
In the bond of peace, there's one body.
And one spirit.
Even as you are called in one hope of your calling 1 Lord.
Notice verse 4 is 1 Spirit, verse 5 is 1 Lord, 1 Faith, 1 baptism, and verse 6 is 1 God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all.
Spirit is first in that case, and then the Lord is second, and then the Father is third.
Let's go to Colossians 1.
And verse.
Three, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There you have the Father and the Son, and in verse 8, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. I think that's the only time the Spirit is mentioned in Colossians. But if God is going to be revealed.
All three persons are there.
All right, now let's.
Go to 1St Thessalonians 1.
1St Thessalonians 1.
Verse 3.
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the sight of God and our Father.
Verse 5.
For our gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also in power.
And in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. So you have the Father, the Son.
And the Spirit.
You can think of many, many more passages that are passing over in Two Thessalonians chapter 2.
And verse.
13.
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because.
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have God the Father calling us, the Spirit sanctifying us. And what is He calling us to? To be?
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Conformed to Christ, the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wonderful.
Two Timothy 1.
We have the three persons.
Verse 2 to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father.
And Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verse 6.
Therefore I put you in remembrance that does stir up the gift of God, which is in you, by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the Spirit.
Of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Again, in verse 14, that good thing which was committed unto the keep.
By the Holy Ghost.
Which dwelleth in US.
It's very precious to see all these persons mentioned. Titus 3, now Titus three. I'm going quickly so we can get through.
I think my time is up. No it's not. We started 5 minutes late, got another 5 minutes. Titus 3 and verse 4. After that the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man, appeared. That would be Father.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and knowing of the Holy Ghost. There is a Spirit which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
The three persons again.
Let's pause a minute.
In the birth of Christ.
All three persons are involved.
You remember in Luke 135.
The Holy Ghost should come upon thee, and the power of the Highest, that would be the Father. You'll over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
You have the three persons in that one verse in the death of Christ.
We have the three persons to turn to Hebrews 9.
Hebrews 9 and verse 13.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living and true God In the next chapter. I won't read them for just to save time, but God wills the.
Son comes to carry out God's will.
And then the Spirit testifies.
Holy Ghost also is a witness to us of the effect of that work upon us. So again, we have all three persons in connection with His, His coming.
And and his death.
Resurrection. Let's just see the scriptures in John 2. We're going to have to go back there.
For a moment in John 2.
The Resurrection.
Verse 18 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Unto Jesus, What signs showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, 46 years was this temple and building in wilt thou reared up in three days, but he spake.
Of the temple of his body.
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the Scripture in the Word which Jesus had said.
Another verse in John 10 I quoted No man taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down, I have power to take it again. This commandment, if I received it, my father, he says, destroy temple, you kill me, and in three days I will raise it up, raise myself from the dead. In Romans 6, Romans 6, we have the father raising him.
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The Father.
Romans 6 and verse 4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death.
That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, and in one Peter three we have the Spirit raising him from the dead, quickening him first. Peter 3.
And.
Verse 18.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the justice for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Everything that God does, all three persons are involved in it. Take the salvation of the soul. We have a beautiful parable in Luke 15. The shepherd, straying sheep, lost sheep. The shepherd goes out after his lost sheep and brings him home. That's the sun going out after the sheep that is strayed. The woman that loses the lost coin in the house, she sweeps the house till she finds it. A picture of the Holy Spirit.
Pictured by this woman.
Till she finds the lost coin and then the prodigal son returning home to the welcoming arms of the Father. Beautiful picture of the salvation of a soul. The 1St 2 tell us God is seeking us, The shepherd seeking the lost sheep, the woman seeking the lost coin. And the third part of the parable tells us the welcome that the Father gives to us when we return home. I remember.
A brother saying once that he received a painting.
Of the prodigal returning home and he was a beautiful painting from a friend of his who had given it to him, but he never hung it up in his house. And he said I couldn't hang it up because it it didn't represent the truth of the welcome that the son returning to the father received. It pictured the father on the front porch of the house waiting for the son to come.
But the truth is, the Father ran, and he fell upon him, and embraced him, and covered him with kisses. Well, what a beautiful chapter in the salvation of a soul. All three persons are active in your salvation in mind. All three persons are active in interceding for us, and listening to that prayer of intercession, and responding to it. All three persons were.
In the birth, the death, the resurrection of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. While we're in Peter, let's look at the first chapter, verse 2, where we have the Trinity again and we'll close shortly. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood.
Of Jesus Christ, there you have the Father.
Electing the Spirit, sanctifying and the Son.
The sprinkling and blood of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to Passover to Jude just because of lack of time.
Jude verse 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.
Praying in the Holy Ghost.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lastly, Revelation 1 and verse 4.
To the seven churches which are in Asia.
Grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come.
That would be God the Father.
And from the seven spirits which are before his throne, that would be the plenty to the beard of God in governmental action in the Millennium. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth. Now these three persons are not all given the same names. They occurred, but they are all through the Word of God. It must be so. It must be so that the Trinity is everywhere in this book because.
Book is the revelation of God. And who is God? He is the Father, the Son.
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The Holy Spirit.
Now we're going to close by singing the only hymn that has the word Trinity in it. To my knowledge, it's easy to remember the number because the number is 1.
3/1.
The number of the Trinity.
Worship in the Spirit
Lessons for Parents
Crowns at the Judgment Seat of Christ
Humility
Knowledge of God in Christ
Stephens Apology
Members of the One Body
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn to Ephesians 4 please.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord.
Beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
With all lowliness and meekness, With longsuffering for bearing one another in love.
Endeavoring to keep.
The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit.
Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord.
One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all.
And in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens.
That he might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
From whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.
According to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself.
In love.
These last three chapters of Ephesians we have the.
The doctrine taught in the first 3 and now we have the.
The walk flowing from that.
Doctrine taught what we've read. These verses that we read has to do with there's three spheres that are in these last four, three chapters. There's the assembly sphere, and that's what we have in these verses that we've read. We have the sphere of the world in which we move every day.
And then we have the family sphere.
And at the end of the epistle there is armor to be put on to equip us to.
Stand against the the enemy of our souls in these three spheres.
The assembly, the world and the family.
And I'm just concerned this afternoon with the assembly sphere.
Notice that the 4th chapter begins very similar to the third chapter, The 3rd chapter for this 'cause I, Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles.
And this chapter starts, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you. So he picks up where he began in chapter 3. And so chapter 3, verses 2 to the end are is a parenthesis.
And there we have the mystery unfolded in the fullest way we have in the stairs.
So when he speaks here in Chapter 4, he says, I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith ye are called. What is that calling? Well, you have to go back to Chapter 2 to see what that calling is. There's three things that are brought out there in Chapter 2, starting with 11.
Where he speaks of our.
Our portion now.
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He says.
In verse 15.
Having abolished in His flesh Chapter 215. The enmity of and the law of commandments.
Contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain of Jew and Gentile, 1 Newman making peace that new man.
Has a body composed of Jew and Gentile, and a head in heaven.
The Lord himself, that's that one, Newman.
And we what we get here is a very solid Christian truth.
And that he might reconcile both both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross. That's the foundation of it. Having slain the enmity thereby, the enmity between Jew and Gentile has been dealt with and slain there at the cross. And he came and preached peace to you, which were afar off. That would be the Gentiles dispensationally afar off, and.
That were nigh the Jews. They were dispensationally near. But in verse 13, backing up a moment, we get something more than just dispensational distance and dispensational nearness. We get what is vitally so for both Jew and Gentile. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, that's the Gentiles.
Are made nigh by the blood of Christ. That's the vital nearness, isn't it?
The Gentiles were dispensationally afar off in the Old Testament and the Jews were near. But now he talks about a nearness that is by the blood of Christ, which is for both in that verse especially encompassing the Gentiles. Then verse 14 For He is our peace. He is the one that has not only made peace with God for us by His work, but peace.
Among.
Jew and Gentile who were at issue with each other.
He hath made both one. Notice He is our peace. Verse 14. Who hath made both?
You and Gentile 1 So I think the peace, the thought of the peace there is to remove the enmity that existed between Jew and Gentile, and made them one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to making himself of Twain one new man, so making peace.
Wonderful to see that in Christianity there is no Jew nor Gentile, but one new man, members of the body of which Christ himself is the head in heaven. It really is sad to think of all the divisions that the enemy has brought in in the Christian profession, and how he has succeeded in dividing those who are members.
Of one body.
Who are one in Christ?
Here he does away with the.
You might say insuperable difficulty of the enmity that existed between Jews and Gentiles. It wasn't. It wasn't.
Allowed for a Jew to even eat with the Gentiles according to the law. Peter was taken to task when he went in and did that with Cornelius until he told them the vision that he had and how that God was going to bring the Gentiles into this new order of blessing.
That began on the Day of Pentecost.
Well, that he might verse 16 again, that he might reconcile both.
Unto God in one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
All that existed of old, the enmity between Jew and Gentile.
Since the cross has done away with the first man, whether he's a Jew or a Gentile.
And crucified him, for we are crucified with Christ, Paul says. He says it in the singular in Galatians. I am crucified with Christ. And that's true of every believer. We can say that the cross is the end of the history of the first man.
Whether he's a Jew or a Gentile, and he's made now one new thing. 1 Newman, Christ and his church here. So to persecute the church.
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Is to persecute Christ.
Remember when Saul of Tarsus met the Lord on the road to Damascus?
The Lord didn't say Saul. Saul, why do you persecute my brethren?
Why do you persecute my brethren? He doesn't say that, he says. Why are you persecuting me?
It's true that we are his brethren, but.
Persecuting himself because he is one with us. I've often thought that's a very good verse to refute the ultra dispensationalist that say there's a Kingdom church that Peter preached and then the Pauline church that Paul preached. When Saul of Tarsus met the Lord, he said you are persecuting me when you're persecuting.
My disciples, those who are my followers, they are one with me. That's the truth of the assembly now. The truth of it wasn't out yet, but it existed before.
The vessel that was going to explain the truth of the assembly was converted, and it was, and it was stated to that very vessel Saul saw why persecuted thou made persecute. The assembly is to persecute Christ, because we are one with Him.
We cannot be closer to him than we are as members of his body. There is nothing closer to me than every member of my body. It's all 1. And so it is in Christianity. And this is what makes the divisions that exist among Christians so such a tragedy, and it's such a sorrow, and we ought to feel it very keenly.
Verse 16 and that he might reconcile. Remove the enmity, remove the alienation.
That he might reconcile both unto God in one body.
By the cross having slain the enmity thereby that.
That 16th verse is just rich with meaning.
Reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross.
Having slain the enmity thereby, the enmity is gone, and so there ought to be no enmity existing between Christians, those who are members of that one body.
And he came and preached peace to you which were afar off the Gentiles, and to you that were nigh.
The Jews both needed to be brought into a new position.
That only.
Is true now that we have a man in the glory and the Spirit of God down here to unite us to that glorified man.
For through him.
This is a verse I missed last night, speaking on the Trinity or the night before.
This is the Trinity in here, for through him Jesus, the Lord Jesus, we both have access.
By 1 Spirit unto the Father.
That's Christian position, Christian truth. Christian access wasn't true.
Before the cross, it wasn't true. Before the resurrection and his ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Now we're brought into the fullness of it. Now the conclusion of what he's been saying is now, therefore you are no more strangers as we the Gentiles once were, and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints.
And of the household of God, that's the first thing that he talks about.
The household of God, he says. You Gentiles are brought into that. You're part of God's household along with the Jews. No distinction, no difference. You have the same privileges, the same blessedness, the the same position and relationship as any Jew has that believes. I love it the way Peter pronounces in Acts 10. He says we believe we Jews believe that we.
Shall be saved even as they he doesn't say they should be saved even as we you would expected you to say that.
Because they always considered themselves the standard. But he says we Jews shall be saved, even as they Gentiles. How are they saved?
By pure sovereign grace. And he had come to recognize that.
That's the way the Jews are brought in as well.
No more strangers and foreigners, fellow citizens, with the Saints and of the household of God.
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That's the first thing God has a household, those that are in relationship with himself as his children.
And all who believe the gospel, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, makes no difference. There is no Jew, no Gentile.
In the household of God we are all one in Christ and are built upon the found. Now he's talking about a building here.
First he talks about a household, now he talks about a building where you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. This foundation of the assembly is found in the Scriptures. We don't have the apostles and prophets here, but we have their writings, and so we can read their writings and understand the truth of the assembly.
The foundation of the apostles and prophets every time the prophets follow the apostles.
In the New Testament here it's New Testament prophets, New Testament apostles.
He's not talking about the prophets of the Old Testament. They knew nothing of the church.
In spite of the fact that our King James translators placed headings over some of the Psalms and some of the prophetic books, the Church does this and that. The Church did not exist. We had that in our young peoples last night. Why do we need as we do? The Church didn't even exist in the Old Testament, didn't exist when the Lord was here on earth, didn't exist during His 40 days as a risen man.
Down here, and not until you ascended to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit.
That formed the assembly and united all those 120 believers into one body. That's when the church began. It was the birthday of the Assembly, the day of Pentecost. Wonderful day that was indeed.
You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
In home, in him, all the building fitly framed together.
Groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. The end result of this building that is being built.
Is a holy temple in the Lord. It is growing every soul that is saved.
Is an added stone in that building, and it's built upon the foundation that it was laid.
By the apostles and prophets of the New Testament.
And then he says, In whom ye also are builded together.
You also right now.
Verse 21 looks on to the future when the completed building will be a holy temple in the Lord. But right now ye are builded together. Verse 22 for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
God the Spirit dwells among the church.
In the church.
And this is the characteristic truth of Christianity. You remember when the Spirit of God came in Acts 2, it says the first effect of His coming was it filled all the house where they were sitting. I think that's a picture that was literally the house where they were. I know that. But I think it's a picture of the assembly here as presented as the House of God, where the Spirit of God dwells. He dwells.
Among his people.
And we have no claim on that. Over and above any other Christian, the Spirit of God indwells each one of his own, and he dwells among them as well.
If that were not so, if the Spirit of God was not present to lead and guide among Christians that are not with us, then you couldn't fault them for setting up a one man ministry or an arrangement of their own because the Spirit isn't there.
But he is there.
And that's what makes their ignoring his presence there and setting up a man made arrangement to be sinful because he is there and he ought to be relied upon to lead and guide in all functions of his people who are God's household.
And who are God's building? He is there, He's there, and he's there to be relied upon and counted upon. And he can be quenched and he can be grieved. And I believe that many Christians do both. And we're guilty of that too, at times. Quenching him or greeting him. Well, he is there among his people, His redeemed people.
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It doesn't. His presence there does not depend on our faithfulness.
It's founded upon the perfection of the work of Christ and His person.
So it says, in whom you also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
That's true of all the Saints wherever they are found. That's a different truth.
Than the presence of the Lord in the midst, as gathered to His name.
That's a different truth.
Talking about the presence of the Spirit of God among the Saints everywhere and when the rapture takes place, He will go with the Saints in the character that he's presented to us here as forming the assembly. So really in this chapter 2 we have 3 truths.
We have the truth of the one body, the 1 Newman.
All united to one another and to Christ as head in heaven. We have the truth that the Christians are the household of God, and that they are the House of God. The building of God, growing to a holy temple, the habitation of God by the Spirit, the dwelling place of God. It's a wonderful truth that God has ever thought of dwelling among his redeemed people.
He did it of old with Israel, and now he does it in the most vital and intimate and effective way by himself, coming the Holy Spirit and dwelling among his redeemed people, making each making the local assembly, or making, I shouldn't say the local assembly, making the church universal.
The habitation of God through the Spirit, because that's the view.
That's given to us in Ephesians.
Corinthians gives us the local assembly, but here we have that which is true.
Of all. Now going to the 4th chapter where we began.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith ye are called. What have we been called to? We've been called to the membership of the body of Christ. And by the way, that is the only membership that Scripture knows about. It does not know about or speak about membership of a local church.
And when one joins something, we are never told in scripture to join anything.
But the Spirit of God, when he comes upon us and dwells in us, He joins us to this one body which he formed on the day of Pentecost. He joins us and He makes us to be members of the one body. And that membership applies to all Christians. We have no special.
Privileges than any other company.
Do not have. As far as this truth is concerned, we are all members.
Of the one body.
Well then, we're exhorted to walk worthy of that calling, to walk worthy of the one body.
There's two ways that we can deny the truth of the one body. We can have a fellowship, that is.
Than the truth of the one body, and that is.
Sectarianism we can set up.
Requirements for reception amongst us that is narrower than the one body. I'm not talking about cases where discipline is in in order. I'm not talking about. I'm talking about.
Those that are going on, well, the one body, we can have a fellowship that is larger than the one body. Take the Episcopal Church, the Church of England. If you're an Englishman, you can be a member of the Church of England whether you're saved or not, whether you're a member of the body of Christ or not. Now that's a fellowship which is broader than the one body and it denies it or you can have.
Conditions of fellowship amongst your group.
Whatever it might be that are narrower than the one body, you have to subscribe to this doctrine or to that or the other. And again, I'm not talking about fundamental truths here that all of course, must hold to, such as the Trinity and the deity of Christ in his.
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Sinless humanity and so on. We wouldn't receive any that are not that I'm talking about those that are going on and holding the truth as to the fundamentals. So the the the one body can be denied. We say we are the principle of gathering is the one body. We're gathered on the principle of the one body. That's the ground of gathering. Well, that means that if one is a member of that body and there's no scriptural reason to exclude them.
That they have a place at the table and it's open to them. We make it narrower than that. If we say you have to be of us before you can break bread, we're nothing but another sect in Christendom.
Did you hear that?
If we make reception to the table narrower than membership in the body of Christ, when there is no other scriptural reason to exclude them, we make ourselves a sect.
Then we are all part of the family of God, the household of God.
And we're to walk worthy of that.
Were all part of the building the house?
Collectively viewed where the Spirit is present and if we set up.
Rules and arrangements in our assemblies, in our meetings, and when I say our I'm talking about the whole church. I'm not talking about us as a company. I'm talking about Christians wherever they are, if we set up.
That kind of thing where the Spirit of God is not relied on, counted on, and he's not there to lead and guide, but we appoint one man, say, to do it all that is quenching the Holy Spirit, really setting him aside. It's a gross dishonor to his being there. There are some that even still pray for the Holy Spirit to come. He's been here for nearly 2000 years now. And it's a, it's a.
Not to know that he is here. And it's a sad thing that he has been ignored in many cases. Oh, I know they talk about them, many do. They talk about him and so on. But they have a, an arrangement of things which ties his hands, so to speak, so that he can only use certain vessels. He cannot use whomsoever he will.
And this is what we gather from.
Walking worthy of the vocation, the calling wherewith we are called. We are to walk consistently with the truth of His presence in the House, and consistently with the truth that we are members of the one body.
With all other believers.
How can we do this? How is it possible with all our differences of views and our differences of dispositions and?
Nationalities and the way we've been raised and trained and differently one from another, how can we?
Do this with all loneliness.
And meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another.
In love.
It's the only way it can be carried out. We have to set our own wills aside.
And then the next verse comes to that, endeavoring using diligence to keep, not to make. We can't, this truth. What is the unity of the Spirit? It is the unity which the Spirit of God formed on the day of Pentecost when He came, uniting all believers.
Into one body.
Into one body.
It says the Lord says in Acts One that they were to tarry in Jerusalem and in a short time they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is to bring us into the one Body, and the baptism of the Spirit in First Corinthians 12 encompasses Jew and Gentile.
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The Jew in Acts 2, the Gentile in Acts 10. So you might say the baptism of the Spirit.
Was not completed until the Gentiles were brought in because they were encompassed by it. It it was initiated on the day of Pentecost, and when the Gentiles were brought in, then we have the full complement that is in enveloped in that truth, the unity of the Spirit, He united into one body, both Jew and Gentile.
We're told to keep it.
Endeavoring using diligence to keep.
The unity of the Spirit.
We can't break it.
He made it.
Maintains it. Every believer is a member of the one body. We can't change that.
But we can fail to keep it.
We can fail to keep it.
If we don't walk in company with the Spirit of God, there's three kinds of unity that we have in Christendom today. I remember when I was with.
Another group of brethren and they were considering reunion with another group of brethren.
And older brothers said to us all, he was very esteemed. He said, we have to agree.
To disagree.
If you have a different.
Opinion or doctrine than I have, we have to agree.
To disagree, that is. We're not all going to see everything alike, so our unity will be formed upon union by mutual concession.
That's the.
That's the ecumenical spirit of the day.
Doctrine does not matter much, but we unite under the umbrella of Christian love.
That's the union of Ecumenicism.
And we see that in many, many movements today.
I have a book at home. It's called Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
And it's pathetic, pathetically sad. Where evangelical leaders are considering union with the Roman Catholic Church. There is absolutely no way that there can be agreement between those two gospels. The Gospel of Rome is not a gospel. It is. It is a wicked.
Gospel a wicked teaching.
Not good news. I don't like to use the word gospel for it, but it is the system of works and law.
And Paul says.
Cursing.
Is the one that preaches that gospel or that comes under it?
He's pronounced a curse. At the Council of Trent, the Roman Church considered all the recovered truths of the Reformation.
One of which is the all sufficiency of the Bible as the rule of faith for the Christian, not the church, but the word of God, wonderful truth. And the other was justification by faith apart from works, and that was recovered, and they considered all those truths, and they pronounced anathema upon them all.
Anyone that says that we're justified before God according to the Gospel of Rome, without works anathema upon that person.
So the gospel that Paul preached.
Anathematized in the gospel which they preach, Paul anathematizes. There is no complicity, there is no agreement between the two.
But this union, by mutual concession, I'll concede my point here, you concede your point here, and we'll come together on the principle of compromise.
That's the ecumenical movement.
That's what characterizes the new Promise Keepers movement. I remember getting a pretty scathing letter. Maybe that's too strong a word.
Censoring me because I was passing out some literature to alert the Saints as to the evil of that movement and I was criticized for it. Well, I don't apologize for doing that and I will continue to try to make the Saints aware of what's going on.
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In the Christian world.
That we don't support something. It's sad to say sometimes you find Saints are even sending money to some of these organizations that are absolutely false to the gospel of Christ. And we don't want to do that. We have to be intelligent in order not to.
There's another kind of unity that is in Christendom, and it's the worst of all. It's to agree to agree.
Let me give you an example that's Popish Unity.
You have to submit to what the Pope says. You don't have a right to have a differing opinion.
You have to accept it. The Jehovah's Witnesses has exactly the same thing in principle, though they have no fellowship at all with the Roman Catholic system. But you cannot oppose the Jehovah's Witness hierarchy. You can't oppose that. It's not allowed. You're not allowed to even.
Think.
Your own thoughts if the hierarchy of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Has pronounced on something.
You, being a Jehovah's Witness, have agreed to accept that, to agree with it. Whether you so it takes away all liberty and freedom to judge according to the Word of God.
That's the worst ******* there is. There's no worse ******* than that. That's popery.
Potpourri.
And I'm afraid that we have a form of that. I have heard it amongst us.
That when an assembly makes a decision.
You must agree with it.
That is potpourri.
You submit to its authority, but you don't necessarily agree with what was done, and to insist that you agree with it means that you have given up.
Your liberty to judge according to the scriptures.
No delegated authority is infallible.
Every delegated authority is fallible. If the authority was infallible, then of course you'd have to agree with it. God is infallible. He can't make a mistake when he speaks. We agree with that. That's the unity of the Spirit.
The unity of the spirit is to bring us all into oneness of mind with the spirits, mind with the mind of God. That's true unity. That's what it is to keep the unity of the spirit. If you and I differ on a point and I say to you, well, I'll concede this and you concede that, I'll meet you halfway. How of us deal with the truth of God?
We can't deal that way with the truth of God.
If you have the truth and I don't, you don't give in any part of that. You seek to enlighten me as to it. Leave it to the Spirit of God to teach me and bring me up to the only true standard, which is the mind of God. That's true unity.
And I'm afraid that the reunions that have taken place among brethren have in large measure, and I'm not entirely, I would give them credit for a lot of sincerity in in many ways, but in large measure it is come about as a result of union by mutual concession. You can see this point.
You can see that point.
That's agreeing to disagree.
But potpourri?
Mr. Darby back then in connection with the problem that developed in Plymouth with Mr. Newtons heterodox teaching on the Person of Christ.
The position that was taken by those at Plymouth that were under Newton's authority was there is no recourse. You can't disagree with what's been done here. And if they cleared him, then he's cleared. And Mr. Darby says that principle is nothing but potpourri and he resisted it strongly. Thankfully he did.
And the Saints, in large measure, got delivered from that kind of thing.
So I submit.
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You submit. We submit to a decision that is made because by an assembly because it has authority to make that decision. We don't necessarily have to agree with it. If it's a mistaken decision, then the assembly is responsible to rectify it.
It is not to be left to stand if the decision is wrong.
Or their position is wrong. It is to be rectified. And that's and all believers have a part in that rectification process where needed. And that's how do you, why do you say that? Because there's one body.
That's why I say it, the easy way to see that is if the whole Church of God the world over there was a building large enough so we could all fit in that one building, then everyone in that one building would have a part in the decision that was made there. And that's the that's the truth of the one body. And I'm afraid that in, in some areas amongst us, we have fallen into the thought of.
Pendant assemblies that make a decision, no one can challenge it. Actually, there's no such thing in Scripture as an independent local assembly. Every assembly locally is merely in miniature, a part of the whole, and every decision that it makes affects the whole. And so others in other assemblies have a right to make their voice heard in that assembly, and that assembly should not.
Refuse it. The decision, of course, is theirs to make locally, because the one that's locally there.
Is the one they may be dealing with, but there is the right because we're members of one another to make our voice heard. And if you question that.
Read volume 2 of the letters, page 198 to 201. It's the most balanced letter. Mr. Darby wrote it, of course. It's the most balanced letter that I have ever read on the subject.
We're talking about.
And it's beautiful how he brings this point out, and then he brings this point out to balance it. And then he brings this one out to balance that. And the the the truth of God, if it's held properly, is in perfect balance. Who is it that keeps it in perfect balance? The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, he inspired it, He gave it to us, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in. In a word, that means to walk in company with the Holy Spirit, a divine person on earth, to walk in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, to be taught of him. Now, if you do that and I do that, and you do that and you do that, we'll all be walking together, won't we? We'll not have just one mind, but we'll have.
The same mind, and it'll be the mind of God. And this is what if you read Philippians 3, where if in anything you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. There's no thought of concession on the part of the one who has the mind of God to the one that doesn't. And meeting them halfway, it says God will reveal this to you who needs added light from God, and He will do that.
But the truth is the truth. It's not relative.
And we are to have the truth and to contend for the truth. The Spirit is called the Spirit.
Of truth.
Spirit of Truth endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
Oh, how wonderful it is when the Saints go on like that. That means I give up my will. I don't have my thoughts, You don't have your thoughts. We don't want our thoughts. We want His thoughts. We want his will. We want his guidance, his mind, and that's the unity that God is seeking to.
Promote in the word of God. Agreeing to agree is terrible *******. Agreeing to disagree is just compromise.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body.
One spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling.
Someone has beautifully said these are these are three circles.
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Verse 4 is the inner circle.
Composed of all true believers, all who are members of the one Body, brought into that one body by the one Spirit, and who all have that one hope of Our Calling which is to be conformed to the image of His Son.
That's the inner circle. All true believers are in that circle.
I was in a meeting once and they were having a special meeting. They called a special meeting to consider why we meet as we do, what is the ground of gathering and so on. And to my horror I heard a brother say that verse four. That inner circle was the gathered Saints period.
And then the next circle, which is 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism.
That would be Christians outside of us and then.
The last circle, one God and Father of all. Well, that's very serious error. The inner circle is composed of all members of the body of Christ. We saw that this morning at the Lord's table, where the one loaf on the table represented the whole Church of God, The whole Church of God.
There's that one body, united into it together and to Christ the head.
By the one Spirit, and with the one hope of Our Calling to be with them like Christ in glory soon.
The next circle, 1 Lord, 1 Faith, one baptism, is the circle that's a little bit larger. It's a circle of profession.
The 1St circle is reality. No one is a member of the body of Christ that is not a real Christian. There is no mere professor in that circle, but one Lord, 1 faith, one baptism. There are many that profess him and they're they're of the Christian faith and they've been baptized and so they're in that circle, but they may not be real many in that circle. Of course everyone in the 1St circle is in the 2nd circle, but there are some in the 2nd circle.
That's a little bit larger that are not real.
And then the 3rd circle is the circle of creation, one God and Father of all, who was above all and through all. And then it goes back to the first circle in you all.
So there we have the three circles. They have reality in verse 4, profession in verse 5, creation in verse 6, and then reverting back to that inner circle that is only.
Entered into by those that are baptized, that are sealed, I should say by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 7 But unto everyone of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
I've heard it said, well I don't have any gift.
I don't have any gift. I wish I had the gift of brother so and so, or whatever that verse says. Unto everyone of us is given grace.
Gift is grace.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ, everyone of us has something that we can contribute.
And do in the assembly.
Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive. That means he led the power that had held us captive, Satan captive.
He led the power captivity that had kept us captives to sin and Satan. He led that captive.
Through death, Hebrews 2, he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
And delivered them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. So when he ascended on high, the Lord ascended on high. He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Wonderful that these that he doesn't choose angels to give the gifts to, to minister to the Assembly. ** *** chooses sinners saved by grace.
He chooses you and me, He gives us so that we who are once sinners and lost and on the road to hell can now help to rescue others from that and bring them into the place where they can be taught and nurtured and fed and taken care of the Assembly.
Now that he ascended verse 9, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? That's of course his death.
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He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. Now from that place ascended to the glory far above all heavens. Now He gives gifts for the establishing and the ongoing blessing of His assembly. Down here He gave some apostles. From where? From where did He give these these gifts that are mentioned?
Verse 11 From the glory remember when He was here on earth, He, he commissioned the apostles, and their Commission was to the lost sheep of the tribes of a tribe of his tribes of Israel.
But this is not that many of those that were called by the Lord to minister to Israel and and the initial 12 apostles, many of them now are brought into this apostleship. But this apostleship is different. It's not a Commission. That Commission is entirely different. This is heavenly, comes from a heavenly head in heaven. And he commissions us to now the apostles and prophets as we saw in.
To laid the foundation of the assembly and their writings established the truth of the assembly. And then the evangelists, pastors and teachers build on that. Build on that.
So it says he gave some apostles. The comma after some is wrong. It shouldn't be there.
It shouldn't say he gave to some apostles and to others this and that. It's he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors.
And teachers.
The apostles and prophets were foundation gifts.
They existed in the 1St century for the establishing of the Church.
The ongoing gifts evangelists, pastors and teachers.
Are still with us today. The evangelist goes out and brings souls in. The pastor or the shepherd, that's what the word means. Takes care of them and the teacher.
Teaches the word to them.
The teacher is occupied more with the Word, the pastor with the sheep.
And the evangelist brings them in, brings them in.
Now verse 12 is very important. What are they there for?
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, unfortunately.
Our King James translation is faulty here because it uses the preposition for in these three cases.
And the preposition is different. The first one for the perfecting of the Saints is the prime.
Reason for these gifts that the Lord from Hanhai has given, that the Saints might be perfected, established in the faith individually, that we all individually might understand the truth of the gospel. I remember reading a letter by Mr. Darby once he was in Canada, and he says he's been there.
Ministering for three months and he hasn't touched church truth yet. They needed to be established in the truth of the gospel. They needed to get established first in that. I think we do a lot of harm to souls if we bring church truth to bear upon them when they're not even clear as to eternal security or other fundamental gospel truths. We must.
Establish them soundly on an individual basis. If they're not sound individually, they can never function collectively.
Amongst the Saints for the good and profit, they'll cause confusion. The one does not know that. I talked to one young man, he says, well he's he's a good sound Christian, just has a few problems. He doesn't understand eternal security. Well, he's not a good sound Christian if he doesn't understand eternal security.
That's a basic fundamental of the gospel, is it not?
You can't help other souls if you're not sure yourself. How could you even worship if you did not know that you had a settled, eternal, unchanging relationship with God? You are His child. You could never be lost no matter what comes until you know that. How can you help another in in the truth if you're uncertain as to a fundamental principle like that?
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So the first primary reason for these gifts?
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is for the perfecting the establishing of the Saints individually.
Then we get the next two things, and in Darby's translation, it's instead of four, he uses with a view to with a view to once that first objective has been attained and the Saints have brought been brought to maturity and perfection. That's what the thought of perfection is, maturity and understanding. They're standing in Christ, that they are reconciled to God, that they're justified by faith, that their sins are forgiven, that they have eternal life.
That they're sealed by the Holy Spirit and they're going to spend eternity and glory with Christ. These are all truths connected with the perfecting of the Saints.
That they are children of God, sons of God, sealed by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, all these individual.
Wonderful truths of the Word of God.
Now once that's obtained, then they are, then they can be useful in the ministry. Now the ministry doesn't mean someone standing up here and preaching. It means that the members of the body can function, can minister one to another. Whatever gift he's given you, whatever it might, whatever gift he's given, each one of us can use that gift for the help and blessing of all. Verse 16 describes what what that ministry is. From whom? The whole body.
Fitly joined together and come.
Impacted by that which every joint supplied. You are a joint, I'm a joint, I'm a member, you're a member and we're all supplying something for the health of the body.
Which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part they get increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So the the ultimate objective is that the body be built up. And that can only be if each member in that body has reached the state of maturity and perfection. Now we know in the human body if you have a member.
That is ill, that's sick, that is not functioning properly. The body.
Is sick.
And that's the picture we have here. First of all, each one has to be brought into the state of mature growth and understanding his standing in Christ. And then he's he functions in the work of the ministry, the service. It simply means the service that each one is given to perform in the body.
Doesn't mean public ministry necessarily at all. In fact, most of the ministry that takes place in the church is not public. It's private. It's not for the public eye, so to speak. And then what's the next result when the ministry is working and each member is flowing properly and helping each other member? Then edit. The body is edified for the edification with a view to the edification.
The edifying of the body of Christ.
What's the end result?
Till we all come, till we all arrive at New Translation, till we all arrive at.
The unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge?
Of this God, don't we know who he is? Well, yes.
But in one sense, not fully.
And in another sense, we'll never know as He, as the Father, knows who he is.
But to know him?
We're working towards that, the unity of faith.
That all believers.
Are one or one in Christ, one body and the knowledge of the Son of God? I must confess that some of these expressions are.
Beyond me to explain, I don't think I understand them fully myself, because they are.
They are so.
Wonderful and beyond even my our comprehension.
Unto a perfect man, fully mature, full grown man.
Unto the.
Stature of the fullness of Christ.
Well, these gifts have been given to bring us to that and we won't arrive at that point until we're home in the glory.
But that's where we're headed.
They were given to bring us into a fuller, richer, warmer tour, understanding of all that we have in Him so that we can function together for the good and blessing and the edifying of the Body of Christ. What a wonderful picture.
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That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro.
And carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. I just have to issue this warning.
There's so much out there in the radio waves.
And radio and television and so many voices, and there's so much ministry. Some of it's all right.
Some of it's very bad.
And.
Too much.
Habitual listening to that, you're going to be confused.
We have so much precious ministry.
That we know. Good.
Why do we dabble with?
That which is questionable, I'm not going to the extreme of saying all the ministry is bad and only ours is good. I'm not saying that I've heard some very good ministry from those that are not with us. But I'm just saying and habitual diet of that kind of thing is going to hurt your soul. But speaking or holding.
The truth in love.
They grow up unto Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
So that's the end that he has in view, and I've already read verse 16.
Consider