Regina Conference: 1995
Table of Contents
Dispensation of Grace
Address—C. Hendricks
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I'd like to talk on Grace this afternoon, but in order to do that we have to contrast it, of course, with the law.
And let's start by looking at John chapter 1.
John's Gospel, chapter 1.
And verse 17.
For the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and that one verse we have.
Two different dispensations spoken out.
When God was.
Dealing with Man and the Principle of law, 1500 years.
First part of the verse.
Moses was the lawgiver. The law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. I might define grace as.
Unmerited, undeserved favor.
It's the heart of God blessing us.
When we deserve no blessing whatsoever.
And why does he do it?
Because he wants to.
Because it is the desire of his heart to bless man.
But before he brought out the principle of grace.
And we're living in that day, the dispensation of the grace of God.
He gave man the law.
And Israel said.
All that the Lord hath spoken we will do and obey.
It was good.
Holy and justice and good.
Nothing wrong with the law.
The perfect rule for man to live by.
The two tables of stone.
10 commandments.
Let's just go over them, we'll see how good they were.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
God would not tolerate any rivals.
He deserves full allegiance from his creatures.
And they said that's good.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of anything that is in heaven or on earth. Thou shalt not bow down to it.
That worship it, that's the second commandment and they said that's good.
The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
And they said that's good.
The 4th commandment was ceremonial. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day.
To keep it holy, they were not to work on the Sabbath day. God made the world in six days and then He rested on the 7th day.
And so he gave man this day of rest.
The Lord's Day, the first day of the week that Christians meet on, is not.
A Christianized Sabbath day Sabbath day is the end of the week, the end of God's work.
And it speaks of that future day when he will rest from all his works.
All the blessings that he's brought us into and we'll rest in his love.
The Lord's Day is the first day of the week.
There was a man they found.
Gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. He wasn't doing anything morally wrong. He wasn't committing adultery or murder or stealing.
Or lying or coveting. He was simply gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
And they brought him to Moses to see what would.
What was to be done with him and.
Jehovah said he shall be stoned.
Because he had broken the law. See, the trouble with the law is it is inflexible. It shows no mercy.
It holds out the promise of blessing, the promise of life to the obedient.
But to the disobedient it is a ministry of condemnation and death.
And it says cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law.
To do them.
So it's not the law that's bad.
For man.
It's the principle that man can gain acceptance before God on the ground of the works of the law.
Well, Israel tried it for 1500 years and we have two.
Pronouncements One from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in John 7, if you'll turn there.
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John, Chapter 7.
And he says.
In verse 19, did not Moses give you the law?
And yet none of you keepeth the law.
What an indictment that was 1500 years under law being tested and he says none of you keeps it.
They had had it, they had said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey.
And before Moses came down from the mount with the 2 tables of stone in his hands, they had broken the first 3 commandments.
They had made another God.
And the first commandment says, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. They had made an image of a golden calf, and they were worshipping it.
And they had said, tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. They had used the Lord's name.
In vain, and attached it to that idolatrous feast that they had.
Concocted of their own minds.
They had broken the law, and so Moses breaks the 10 commandments, the 2 tables of stone at the foot of the mount.
And if he had brought it in there, it would have been certain death and judgment for them.
Did not Moses give you the law? And none of you keepeth the law?
More he says why go ye about to kill me? Look at Acts Chapter 7.
Where we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
As to whether man.
Can keep it.
In Acts Chapter 7, Stephen.
Verse 55 but he Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost.
And what was it that he said he was giving this whole?
A message to the Jews, the Jewish leaders. And he says in verse 52, which of the prophets have not your father's persecuted?
And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the justice one.
Of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers.
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
So we have the testimony of two infallible witnesses, that of Christ himself. Did not Moses give you the law? None of you keepeth the law and the testimony of the Holy Ghost speaking through Stephen. They had received the law, and they had not.
Kept it.
The problem does not lie with the law. The problem lies with man.
Turn to Romans 7 where we have this discussed.
And we just look at a few verses.
Before I read this, I'll read a verse from the 6th chapter.
In Romans 6 and verse 14 for sin.
Shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law.
But under Grace, it amazes me that with statements that clear.
In the word of God, that a large percentage of Christendom is under law.
When the Word of God is so clear in stating it, we're not under law.
We are under grace.
The first part of Romans 7, there's two husbands. The woman is married to the first husband, then he dies, and then she's free to be married to the second husband.
The first husband's a picture of the law, and the second husband a picture of Christ risen from the dead.
Provided by the grace of God.
And what has delivered us from the law, it says in verse 4 of Romans 7. Wherefore, my brethren?
Ye also are become dead to the law.
By the body of Christ, Christ given in death on the cross, that ye should be married to another.
Even to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit.
Unto God.
Proved unto God.
Delivered from the law.
Now in verse 9 he says.
I was alive without the law once.
But when the commandment came.
And I died.
A little illustration to illustrate the meaning of this verse children were playing.
In A room.
At the house.
And there was a table in the center of the room and there was a bowl on the table with a cover on it.
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And the mother said I'm going next door for 10 minutes. I'll be back shortly.
You can continue playing, but don't lift the cover on that bowl.
Now they hadn't even noticed it before she had said so.
It so happened there was a ceiling fan overhead and the bulb was filled with feathers.
And when she came back 10 minutes later, there were feathers all over the room.
Because they had lifted the bowl, it says. I was alive without the law once.
These children were playing and they weren't disturbed by anything. But when the commandment came, when she said don't lift that lid.
Sin revived. The desire to do what I was told not to do came.
And I died.
The law slaves the disobedient.
And the commandment which was ordained to life, it promised life to the obedient.
I found as to me to be death.
It deceived me.
And it's.
Sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and slew me. That's the sin nature that we have within.
I remember leaving California once and I noticed the road signs and then we went into Arizona.
And I remember which state had which, but one of the states had. Please don't litter.
And the other state had.
Littering strictly prohibited. Severe fine.
And it was striking to me that the mild sign that said please don't litter in that state, there was very little littering. But when I crossed into the state.
Where it was positively forbidden. That was littering all over the place.
That's the state of man, the sin that's within him. The commandment comes and says don't.
And then right away he says yes, I will.
You're not going to tell me what to do?
That's the attitude of man and we see it everywhere today.
The principle of law is the strength of sin. It doesn't prohibit sin. It doesn't stop sin.
It provokes it.
Because man is who he is. Nothing wrong with the law, he says in verse.
12 of Romans 7 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy.
And justice and good. We are having a reading.
In John.
And the Lord said, If you love me, keep my commandments. And the question immediately came and says, well, what's different about that? His commandments and the law.
And the answer was.
But there's nothing wrong with either.
They're both. A commandment from the Lord is the expression of his mind.
When the law is the expression of God's mind for man, there's nothing wrong with the commandment.
But the difference is, Christ's commandments come to us after he has saved us by grace.
Given us a new life.
Forgiven all our sins, made us His children, children of God. Our acceptance has been established by grace.
We're not keeping his commandments to gain acceptance, to gain his favor. We already are there.
Were standing in grace.
But the principle of law is that I have to work, I have to do, I have to keep.
That law in order to gain acceptance with God.
So it's the principle of the law.
Which is so deadly.
If you think you can do anything to gain acceptance or to.
Maintain your acceptance. There are some that say, yes, I realize I'm justified by faith in Christ, but that now that I'm justified, I have to to hold on. I have to do my part. I have to be obedient. I have to keep the law in order to remain saved.
Now if that's true.
If that was true of all of us here this afternoon, that none of us would be saved.
Thank God we're saved by grace.
We're kept by grace.
We stand in grace. We're justified by grace.
We are made righteous by grace.
It's a gift.
That's what grace means, the gift of God. Remember what the Lord said to that Samaritan woman in John four? He said.
She had asked him, He had asked her. Excuse me for a drink of water. How is it that thou being a Jew, ask us drink of Maine, which I'm a woman of Samaria. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Thou wouldst have asked of him, he said. Totally ignores her comment.
Thou which devastate of him, he would have given thee living water.
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If you only knew who it was that saith to thee, give me to drink, and you would have asked of him, he would have given the living water.
Or if you only knew God as a giver.
That's what he said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God.
And who it is that saith to thee? Give me to drink.
Which devasted him. He only knew God in grace.
It's utterly amazing that God has come out in his matchless, wondrous grace.
And yet man gravitates to the principle of law. It's like the law of gravity, always pulling us down.
It said to one brother just recently. Why is it we are so legal?
He said it's natural to us.
It's natural to us. It takes spiritual power to rise from that.
And to be in the atmosphere and in the enjoyment.
Of grace.
In the conscious sense, in my soul, that I am rotten through and through.
And there's nothing I can do or have ever done or ever will do that will gain acceptance with God. But he loves me anyway.
Because he's the God of all grace.
There are those that feel, well, Christ did his part on the cross.
And now we have to do our part.
It doesn't matter whether he did 50% and you have to do 50% or he did 70% and you have to do 30 or he did 90.
And you have to do 10 or he did 99% of the work.
And you have to do 1%. If that's the case with you, you're lost.
It's grace all the way through.
Unmerited favor. How could he love me?
How could he love us?
The allotted Saints of God.
Because God is love.
And his love found a way that would not compromise His Holiness.
His righteousness.
It was the cross.
And the cross was that which enabled God to act in grace and be righteous in doing so.
Well, this passage.
Makes it very clear.
It says in verse 5, again in Romans 7 when we were in the flesh.
We're not in the flesh any longer.
That was what we were in the old man.
In the flesh.
The old man represents all that we were before we were converted, before we were saved.
Before we became a child of God.
That's what I was. That's my old man.
And Romans 6 verse 10 says, knowing this, that our old man.
Has been crucified with him.
That the body of sin should be annulled.
And we should no longer serve sin.
So I am entitled by the word of God to say all that I was.
In the flesh and in Adam, the old man has been.
Crucified with Christ, it no longer has any existence before God.
Now that's not the same as the flesh.
The flesh has still existence, John says. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Yes.
We still have a sin nature within.
But that's not the old man.
The old man is all that we were in Adam and in the flesh.
And that man has been judicially judged at the cross. That's so wonderful to get a hold of.
That not only as we see Christ on the cross dying, crucified for us, not only do we see our sins being born.
But we see the crucifixion of the old man, for he stood there not only as our sin bearer.
But representing all that we were.
In our sinful condition.
So not only can we say he's put my sins away, but he's put me away.
All that I was the old man judge.
And he's given me.
A new life.
I am a new creature.
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If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. All things have become new.
And that's the Newman.
Christ.
In you.
The hope of glory.
Well.
Thank God.
That we've been brought into that.
And the enemy of your soul will constantly try to get you.
To put yourself in one way or another under law may not be the law of Moses.
It might be some law of a group of brethren.
It might be that you have to live up to certain prescribed rules and hold certain.
Specialized doctrines and harder to be accepted by this group.
The very legal system of things.
Be very careful.
That you don't get ensnared.
In that line of things.
Well, let's.
Go on and look at the Epistle to the Galatians.
Where we have this subject of law.
And grace.
Entered into.
Very fully.
Galatians, chapter 1.
You see the enemy in that 1St century.
Was trying to put the Gentiles under law.
Acts 15 Jews came from Jerusalem down to Antioch, and they said, Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.
And they could have settled it at Antioch. They had two apostles there, Paul and Barnabas.
But they didn't in order to maintain unity.
Among the Christians. So there wasn't a Gentile church.
Are different from a Jewish church. They went down to Jerusalem.
And the decision was made at Jerusalem that the Gentiles were not to be put under law.
It did not enter the Jewish mind of the believer, the believers that believed.
Of the Jews that believed.
Did not understand they weren't under law either. That came later.
That's why the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, to tell them, go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, the camp of Judaism.
That they had been identified with.
As Jews now, they were Christians, and the whole Epistle to the Hebrews is written to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism.
The better things.
Of Christianity over Judaism. We'll look at that in a short.
While Galatians chapter 1.
He says in verse 3, Grace be to you and peace everyone of Paul's epistles.
Begins this way.
Address to the Gentiles.
Grace be to you. We need grace every day. We need to have the sense in our souls that we are the the objects of His Grace.
Grace be to you in peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for our sins.
That He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. I remember when I was.
In Jamaica.
With another group of brethren at that time they had.
23 assemblies down there.
And I walked into a Sunday school and I heard a sister teaching.
The children if you don't obey him.
He won't like you.
And I was horrified at hearing that.
That his attitude, his smile towards you will change to a frown.
If you're.
Not obedient.
And you will lose your acceptance with him.
That's not to understand grace, is it?
He will deal with us if we're disobedient children.
Those of us who are fathers know what it is to send a child from the table to his bedroom because he's been naughty.
But we don't kick them out of the house. We don't disown them.
We deal with them as children.
In discipline and so our Father deals with us as children.
But we don't ever lose.
Our salvation. We don't ever lose our standing in grace.
Because that doesn't depend on us. Thank God. It doesn't even depend on 1%.
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For on us.
Doesn't depend at all.
All the gifts that we have and all the blessings that we have in Christianity are the gift of God's grace.
We don't deserve one of them. We don't deserve any of it.
It's all grace.
Or to get a sense of that in our souls, Paul says to Timothy, be strong.
In the grace that is in Christ Jesus have such a sense in your soul.
That you're standing before God doesn't depend on you at all.
It's all grace. And because of that.
You should seek to serve him.
Far more than you ever did when you were under law.
I remember the story of a slave girl, a beautiful girl, black slave girl. She was being sold.
And a wealthy man bought her.
And she came up to him.
And she spit in his face.
And he said, my dear.
I bought you.
To set you free.
And she fell at his feet.
And she said, Master, I will serve you forever.
Not because she was in the position of a slave.
But because of the love that he had shown to her.
That's what Grace does.
It produces a willingness of response in my soul to please him.
Because of all that, he's done.
For such a Wretch like me.
Odor as we learn more of His grace.
We learn more of our own wretchedness.
And nothingness.
Verse 4 Again, who gave himself for our sins?
That He might deliver us from this present evil world.
According to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then he says, I marvel.
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ.
Unto another gospel.
The Gospel of works.
Which is not another.
It's not a gospel.
Works is not good news.
But there will be some that trouble you. These Judaizers, these legalists, they were putting them under law.
And would pervert the gospel of Christ, he says. And he speaks in such strong language here, he says, But though we are an Angel from heaven.
Should preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received.
Let him be accursed. He had preached it. They had received it.
They stood in grace.
He says I'm.
Marvel.
That you removed from that.
That you've listened to this.
This other voice, these other voices, and.
Imbibed such error.
Look at the second chapter.
He says.
In verse 16, Paul is rebuking Peter.
For compromising the truth of the gospel of the grace of God.
And he says in verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ works of the law.
Is contrasted here with the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith which has Christ as its object.
Whenever you read that expression, the faith of Jesus Christ doesn't mean Jesus Christ's faith.
It means the faith which rests upon him is an object.
That we might be justified by the faith of Christ.
It's a little different thought than faith in Christ, but it's very similar.
And not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, whether it's Jew or Gentile.
Remember, when Paul went to Jerusalem, he was told by the Spirit of God not to go, and by his brethren not to go. But he went because of his intense love for his brethren after the flesh.
And James says.
It's reported of you, brother, that you're teaching the Gentiles.
To forsake Moses.
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And the Jews too.
Gentiles weren't under the law, but the Jews were, and that's exactly what he was preaching.
Let's read that verse again.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. He's talking to Jews here when he says even we.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ.
We ourselves also are found sinners. Here we seek to be justified by Christ, and then we put ourselves under law.
That's like the woman in John in Romans 7 being married to two husbands at the same time.
That spiritual adultery. You can't be married to Christ and the law at the same time.
Death has to come in to free you from the first husband, which is the law, in order that you might be to another.
Even to Christ, who is raised from the dead.
And he says, if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead. To the law, the dead, the law kills me.
That I might live unto God.
I am crucified with Christ. Now he looks at the cross.
And he says the wonderful deliverance that he saw there. I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me.
The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Who loved me and gave himself for me. Notice that last verse of this chapter. I do not frustrate the grace of God.
For if righteousness come by the law, if it comes by that principle, then Christ is dead.
In vain.
Even if Christ could have kept the law for me.
And that be the righteousness that's imputed to me. Then he didn't have to die.
Because his keeping of the law during his life would be my righteousness, and that is not correct.
Christ would have died in vain.
The righteousness that we stand in before God is Christ risen from the dead.
He is my life. He is my righteousness.
Then he goes on Chapter 3. Old foolish Galatians.
Who hath bewitched you?
What kind of a spell has been cast over you that you could have shifted from grace to law?
That you have listened to this voice that has seduced you into error.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? He had been portrayed before them on the cross, dying for them, bearing their sins, and.
The old man crucified with him.
On that cross done away with.
Not only all the evils that I have done, but all that I am.
In the old man judged and dealt with by God.
And now going to place the Newman under law.
This is only what I learned of you received ye the Spirit by the works of the law.
Or by the hearing of faith.
Just ask the question, it's clear what the answer is. It was by the hearing of faith they hadn't done a thing.
In order to get the Holy Spirit, it's all grace.
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh?
And that's what it would be if they put themselves under law.
It would be something they had to do in order to maintain their salvation. That's the principle of law.
Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth He it by the works of the law.
Or by the hearing of faith.
All of us by the hearing of faith.
Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, he didn't do one thing. He simply believed God.
God had taken him out and showed him the stars of heaven, and he said as.
The stars of heaven.
So shall thy seed be. Abraham believed God.
And it was counted to him for righteousness.
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Then he says, No, ye not that.
Know you therefore, that they which are of faith the same of the children of Abraham?
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith.
Preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying In thee.
Shall all nations be blessed?
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Now notice verse 10. Very important verse.
For as many as are of the works of the law on that principle before God are under the curse.
For it is written cursed is everyone that continue with not in all things.
Which are written in the book of the law. To do them, put yourself under the under law. You're under the curse of breaking it because you haven't continued in all things.
It's like a chain with 10 links.
And you have to be lifted from this pit.
And you grab hold of the bottom of the chain and someone starts to drag you up to haul you up.
And one of the links breaks.
All you have to do is break one of the commandments.
And you're.
Drop back down into the pin.
Cursed is everyone that continue with not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Verse 11 Here's the conclusion, but that no man is justified by the law.
In the sight of God it is evident for the justice.
Shall live by faith on that principle, the principle of faith.
And the law is not of faith.
But the man that doeth them?
Shall live in them. That's the principle of the law doing.
And then there's blessing if you're obedient, if you're not obedient.
According to Two Corinthians chapter 3, it's called a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation.
But what we have in Christ is a ministry of the Spirit.
The ministry of righteousness.
Spirit of God ministering Christ to the soul, filling the soul with power.
Energy.
So that we live Christ and Christ becomes our righteousness, not something we've worked out by the principle of law works.
But by grace.
By Grace.
There are so many passages that speak of this.
Let's go to chapter 5. We'll Passover 4. I could speak on 4 but.
In chapter 5 he says in verse 3.
In verse, we'll start with verse one. Stand fast, therefore.
In the Liberty.
Wherewith Christ hath made us free.
And be not entangled again with the yoke of *******. The yoke of ******* is the law.
The liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
You set us free.
From having to do something, anything, in order to get saved or to maintain our salvation.
And he set us free, set us before him, accepted, taken into favor.
In the beloved.
It's all grace. Stand fast, therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.
You're not entangled again with the yoke of *******. Behold, I Paul, say unto you, that if he be circumcised.
Christ shall profit you nothing.
It's either Christ is everything.
Or if you have to do anything.
Anything.
Circumcision.
Water baptism.
Whatever it might be that someone adds to the gospel.
A baptism has a place, but it has no place when it comes to our eternal salvation.
It brings me into an outward place on earth where the Christians are.
Does not admit me to heaven.
What does the blood of Christ?
The blood of Christ.
If ye be circumcised, you put yourself under law, he says. Christ shall profit you nothing.
Before I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor, to do the whole law, put himself on that ground, he has to keep it all.
And if anyone of those 10 links in that chain breaks.
Is lost.
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Christ has become of no effect unto you.
Whosoever of you are justified by the law.
Ye are fallen from grace.
It doesn't mean that they'd committed some great evil sin murdering someone or something like that.
They'd fallen from grace.
If he says Christ has become of no effect to you.
Whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace.
Whether that's your initial justification or whether that's what is to maintain you.
You've fallen from grace.
To remember.
That grace is God's favor shining upon us.
Says in Romans 51. I didn't read it.
But I'll quote him.
Therefore, being justified by faith.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom also we have access.
By faith into this grace wherein we stand.
Rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We're standing in grace in Romans 3, he says we are justified by his grace.
He has called us by His grace unto His eternal glory.
It is the God of all grace that has so done this.
And he says here you've fallen from grace.
If you add just one simple thing like circumcision, something that you can take credit in.
Something that will.
Enhance your standing before God will make you more acceptable to God.
That's the principle of law.
Those that were insisting that these Gentiles be circumcised, they wanted to glory in their flesh.
That's what he says later on in this epistle.
Glory in their flesh.
I remember speaking to a Roman Catholic instructor at Northwestern after I'd gotten saved, and I set before him some of these principles of grace.
And he looked at me and he said I don't want it. He said I want to do my part.
And that's what's built into man. It's ingrained in man.
There's nothing so humbling as grace. It makes absolutely nothing of us.
Nothing of you, nothing of me. It makes everything of God.
What's the difference between mercy and grace? The best distinction I've ever heard.
Is this?
Mercy is great in the greatness of the need.
You'll find in scripture wherever man's need is set before.
Man's condition, his state, his deplorable, wretched condition is set before us.
Then it says like in Ephesians 2, when it says dead being dead in trespasses and sins, in which he once walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air.
And so on. And he said, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us.
And then he goes on to say, by grace you are saved. And then he unfolds the blessings.
That God has brought us into.
Grace is great in the greatness of the giver.
Grace magnifies the heart of God.
Trembling, I had hoped for mercy some lone place within the door.
Just to be admitted. Just to be inside.
Just inside the door. That would have been great mercy.
But the crown? The throne?
The mansion already long before. That's Grace.
It not only brings us into the house, he gives us the whole house.
Because that's his grace. That's the heart of a God that is so wondrous, it says in Ephesians 1.
As it outlines all the wonderful blessings that we've been brought into.
And then it says to the glory.
Of his grace.
There is no higher glory.
Of our blessed God than the glory of his grace.
His Majesty wonderful, His Holiness, majestic and wonderful, but his grace.
Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich.
Yet for your sakes, he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich.
Paul preached 2 aspects of the gospel, and in Acts 20 he speaks of the gospel of the grace of God.
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God was manifest in the flesh. God became a man.
What grace? What unspeakable grace?
That he came down to where we were in order that he might reach us.
And bring us into blessing. And then he also preached the gospel of the glory, that one who became a man carried that manhood, that humanity into the very presence of God. And that's where he is tonight.
He's in the glory.
And that's where He's going to take us. He came down a stoop of grace so immense and so wondrous that we can't speak enough of it in order to lay His hand upon us.
You notice that one Timothy 316 the last the first part of the verse says God was manifest in the flesh, and the last part says he was received up in glory.
Not only he was received up in glory, but He's going to bring us there too. I believe that's why that's not in chronological order in the verse. It comes last because it embraces us.
Those that he's picked up on the way.
He preached unto the Gentiles. He was the message, was believed on in the world, and then received up into glory. Those of us who have believed that message are now one with Him, and we're going to be in that glory too. What grace?
What matchless grace.
Oh, who has bewitched you? Paul said to these Galatians.
That you should not obey the truth.
Who would be so foolish as to put himself on the principle of I have to do something?
In order to get or maintain these blessings.
When it's all grace, When 1500 years under law the indictment came down, did not Moses give you the law? And no man keepeth the law.
None of you keeps it. And Stephen spoke by the Holy Spirit saying.
You receive the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. They didn't keep it. You can't keep it. I can't keep it, but I'm saved by grace.
So are you when you believe the gospel.
A sense of grace.
Wherefore in Romans 14 he says, Receive ye one another. How? Even as Christ has received us to the glory of God.
He received us in grace, and all our fellowship together should be founded upon.
And based upon grace, Mr. Darby.
He wrote two pamphlets that were.
That were so fundamental and basic to the recovered truth and the first was.
Separation from evil. God's principle of unity.
A wonderful pamphlet.
God who is holy, God who is light, can have no fellowship with evil.
But long after that, Not immediately, but many years after. I don't know how many years intervened.
He said that only contained that pamphlet only contained half the truth.
And then he wrote.
Grace, the power of unity and of gathering.
The one gave the first pamphlet gave the principle of.
Unity is separation from evil, but the power of unity and of gathering the power that keeps us together, going on together, is grace.
Grace.
So he says in verse 4 of Galatians 5, Christ has become of no effect unto you.
Whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace.
In chapter 4, back up a minute.
He says.
He observed days.
And months.
And times.
And use.
They were put under law, the ceremonial law, all the rules and regulations that accompany Judaism.
And he says I'm afraid of you.
Are you Christians?
Are you really Christians?
I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor.
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In vain.
This was so serious.
To abandon grace for law per the law principle, He questioned whether they're even.
The Lords and he says.
I would that they would cut themselves off, which trouble you, these legalizers, these Judaizers.
How serious we heard yesterday.
In the address.
That we have not come to the Mount that was all on fire and that was burning Mount Sinai.
That was the law, the thunderings, the lightning. So terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear in Quake.
Thank God we haven't come to that much that could only condemn us, that could only slay us, but ye are come unto Mount Zion.
And to the city of the living God. And so on. We heard that yesterday. Mount Zion speaks of grace.
It was at Zion where?
Where everything was reestablished by grace that had been forfeited.
By man's disobedience. By Israel's disobedience to the law.
It was re established by grace.
And so it speaks of grace.
And God has come in.
And he has reestablished a relationship with us.
On the principle of grace, which we have all forfeited.
On the principle of law.
How foolish.
Than to go back.
To the law principle.
And yet.
It's everywhere.
It's everywhere around us.
It's in our own hearts.
And we have to be so careful.
That we deal with one another.
Not by the law principle.
But by grace.
Christ's commandments that He gives us should be the desire of our hearts to obey.
Because we're saved by grace.
Not in order to get saved or to maintain our salvation. Not with any fear that we're going to lose it.
If we don't keep what he tells us.
No, that's not the principle of grace.
That's the principle of law.
But it's the desire of our hearts now to be obedient.
The desire of our hearts to return to Him.
The response of our hearts in grace to Him.
What he's done for us.
Let's just close by reading the last two thoughts that Peter sets before us.
In his two epistles, first Peter chapter 5.
And verse 10.
But the God of all grace.
Who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus?
After that ye have suffered a while make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
To him be glory.
And dominion, forever and ever.
Amen.
He's the God of all grace.
Second Timothy. Second Peter.
Chapter 3 and the last sentence the last verse 18 but grow.
In Grace.
And in the knowledge.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we will grow in grace and truth, because that's what came by Him.
The law given by Moses, Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So he says, grow in grace.
And then the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
You don't have to turn to it, but in the last book of the Old Testament.
Don't know if you've ever noticed this. Many of you have Malachi 4. It says he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children.
And the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Isn't that interesting that the Old Testament ends with the word curse?
It was the dispensation of law.
And curse it is everyone that continueth, not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
But now we're in the dispensation of grace. And notice how the New Testament ends.
In Revelation 22.
Precious.
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Truth.
Revelation 22, verse 20. He which testifieth these things sayeth, surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so, come Lord Jesus, the grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be with you all.
Amen. Sin shall not have dominion over you.
For ye are not under law.
But under grace.
Serving Your Own Generation
1 Thessalonians 2:13
Behavior in the House of God
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 with me to.
Timothy 3.
First Timothy 3.
And verse 15.
But if I tarry long.
That thou mayest know how thou Artest to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the living God?
The pillar and ground of the truth.
And without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifesting the flesh.
Justified in the spirit scene of angels.
Preached unto the Gentiles, Believed on in the world.
Received up into glory.
Just a few comments on this passage.
Before we go on.
I just read it to establish that.
The House of God.
The Church of the Living God is.
In this epistle, where the Church is viewed in order.
Is the pillar.
And ground the upholder of the truth.
And, of course, the most important truth to be upheld.
Is the person of Christ? So it goes on to say, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, and so on.
His person.
Church is built upon the truth of his person. Thou art the Christ.
Son of the living God, that's the rock.
The confession Peter made.
And the Lord says I will build my church on that.
The House of God, in order is what we have in First Timothy.
And it is responsible.
To uphold and to maintain.
The truth of God.
Now in the second epistle.
To Timothy.
We have the House of God in disorder if you turn to the second chapter.
Of Second Timothy.
In verse 16, shun profane and vain babblings.
For they, that is those who speak that way.
Will increase unto more ungodliness.
And their word will eat, as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth of urge, saying that the resurrection is passed already.
And overthrow the faith of some. Notice the effect of that doctrine that the resurrection is passed already would mean that this scene is the.
Is the scene to be enjoyed by the Saints of God?
If the resurrection is already passed, we're already in the resurrection state and.
That really.
Destroys Christianity.
Because we're going to be brought by resurrection into our home above where all our blessings are. But if it's already passed and our blessings are here.
And this is just what's happened in Christendom.
And that is that the Church has become earthly minded.
And worldly centered.
Just as though that doctrine had taken effect.
It's no longer a heavenly calling that.
Motivates Christians.
Christianity has been lowered to the level of the world and it's just another religion to improve.
Society and to improve the ills of.
Society down here.
That's what's being contended for.
By those who are prominent men in Christian circles.
They have missed the truth of our heavenly calling.
And the heavenly citizenship of the Saints, the heavenly hope.
No wonder that the truth of the Rapture and the hope of the Rapture is fast being given up.
You can't really hold that truth. It's a heavenly truth. It's a heavenly rapture that we're looking for.
If we've given up the heavenly calling of the Church.
And so this doctrine existed back then, and the faith of some, he says, were overthrown.
Now verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ or Lord depart from iniquity.
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Things have come to such a pass in Two Timothy, which really envelops, embraces the present day in which we're lived, in which we live the last days. Difficult times have come.
And the House of God has become like unto a great house.
A house with all kinds of mixture in it. It's still the House of God.
Sometimes we think that first Timothy talks about the House of God and second Timothy talks about the great house. But if you're if you look at Scripture very carefully, there is no such expression in Scripture as the great house.
It's the House of God which has become like unto a great house, still the House of God.
And Peter tells us that judgment must begin at the House of God.
So those who are in that house and that embraces real and unreal.
All those who are baptized are in the house by profession.
And whether they have real faith or not, that's why it says the Lord knows them that are His.
We can't ferret it out. There's such confusion. 2 Timothy looks at a state of things ecclesiastically.
That's what it's looking at. It's looking at the church as it has become like unto a great house.
The real and the unreal and a great mixture.
How are we to find our way and to learn how to walk in the midst of this confusion, this Babble of confusion?
That's what the church has become, and I say the church. I'm Speaking of it in the largest sense of the word.
But he says.
Even though there's this false doctrine and the overthrow of faith of some has taken place, he says. The foundation of God standeth sure.
Now, of course, Christ, it's abstract here, but Christ, Paul says. I've laid the foundation.
And he is that foundation.
And he is the truth.
And the assembly is to uphold.
The truth of his person. It was stated in our readings yesterday that one way we can test.
What is genuine and real and what is false and not real is does it glorify, Does it honor? Does it exalt and magnify the person of Christ?
If it doesn't, then you have to be very, very careful.
There are movements out there today which are gathering.
Thousands.
And it's.
And thinking of a particular movement, the Promise Keepers movement, I've talked to several up here and they've never heard of it.
But it's quite a movement, probably the fastest growing religious movement in the United States, at least. I don't know how far it's reached out to other countries.
Thousands of men will gather in a huge.
Coliseum, football stadium, or whatever.
Thousands. I'm talking about 50,070 thousand 100,000.
And they're all men.
I remember the first time I saw it once, and I'm glad I saw it. I saw it on a television screen instead of hearing it over the radio because I wouldn't have noticed this. Have I had I heard it, I would have just heard the speakers and the message that we were given and the songs that were played. But as the the camera, I was walking in a store once and I saw this display and I looked and said, what is that? All these men? They're all men. I looked for a woman. I couldn't see a woman.
They were all men there.
And it played on this group, this band group that was playing. And then there was another one and there was another one, this band group that had caps on. They were wearing little like baseball caps.
The next one didn't have head coverings and then the next one did.
And then it played the audience and some of the men had caps on and some of the men didn't.
I said that's unscriptural.
I didn't have to. I didn't have to see anything more to say, whatever that is, and I didn't know a thing about it. He didn't even know the name of it at the time. I was told later and have received literature on it, but I I didn't understand what it was.
But the first thing what I saw I said that is thoroughly contrary to scripture.
00:10:00
Men praying, singing.
And listening to the word with covered heads. Not all of them.
But some of them.
The pillar and ground of the truth. The truth was not being upheld.
You can judge quickly by some of these signposts that God sets before us.
I was at Pensacola, FL.
They went to the Pensacola Christian College. There was a young man that had come over from Kenya, Africa, and he had become gathered to the Lord's name and amongst us and he was going there and I wanted to visit him, so I went there.
And paid a visit while I was there.
I met a young couple.
And they have a very strict dress code at that college. They seem to be very orthodox and fundamental.
And the girls all wear dresses, and the men, young men, they wear suits.
And especially when they go to the cafeteria, they have to wear a suit jacket.
And a young lady, if she's 23 or younger, can't be taken out and unless there's an escort that goes with them, so they're very careful, there's about 3300.
2/3 are female, 1/3 are male in that college.
And I stopped this young couple while I was there and I said I want to ask you a question when you have your devotions together.
Do the sisters have their heads covered?
When the you pray.
They looked at each other.
And they said no.
And I said, will you read the first 16 verses of First Corinthians 11?
Just read those verses.
And I left them, didn't engage in a further discussion. They're very polite.
And yet I couldn't help but think in just one generation.
When I was the age of many of you young fellows here.
Just about in all the churches throughout Christendom.
Women had their heads covered.
When they went to church, as it said. And men, of course, didn't.
But these new movements?
Have overturned.
Scriptural order which should be maintained in the House of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Well, this.
Promise Keepers movement. They welcome Roman Catholics, They welcome Mormons.
Believe it or not.
It's so ecumenical that just about anyone is welcomed.
And doctrine is something you don't bring up.
You see, doctrine teaching what Scripture teaches divides.
That's the that's the idea. The only way you can you can get all these different denominations and different groups together is you shelve the doctrine.
And under the flag of love.
There's this unity that is produced.
It's an ecumenical thing.
And it is.
Not of God.
It is not of God.
It looks nice.
Trying to promote young they're trying to promote fathers and husbands to take the lead in their home, to show integrity and honesty and responsibility. All good things.
But when you see what it's costing them in order to do that?
The truth that has to be given up in order to get all of these different.
Views put together, but the views that are different are not to be voiced, they're not to be raised, they're not to be mentioned.
It's a movement that is.
Laodicean in character.
Well.
This is what the House of God has become like.
And many of us are not even aware that these things are happening.
I just became aware of it recently by a brother that gave me some literature on it and then having seen that one thing and I said, oh, that's what that was that I saw. Didn't know the name of it.
Thousands of men.
All very worked up.
With emotion.
And shouting the name of Jesus and we love Jesus and all that.
00:15:05
And the sad thing is, there are many there that really, truly do, but there are many there that don't.
And there are those there that hold that which is fundamentally false.
Not the pillar and ground of the truth.
Don't ever get discouraged because we're few in number.
Because what really counts is not.
Numbers, but the truth of God.
That's what counts.
That's what we ought to be interested in.
That's what he values.
He has left us here and the one question that he will put to us when we get home, he'll say.
Have you been true to my word? I gave it to you.
Have you acted upon it?
Or have you not?
Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
So thou has been faithful in a few things. Be thou over many things.
What a wonderful day that will be. Verse 19 again. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, no matter how much confusion has come in, no matter how much departure has come in, and no matter how many.
Christians, there are true believers that are lending their support to what is false, but what is not does not square with the word of God. The foundation of God standeth sure, and we can measure everything and test everything by this book.
The truth of God does not change.
Having this seal.
The Lord knows them that are his. The House of God has become like a great house where there's such confusion that we really can't tell.
Who are real and who aren't?
We ought to be able to.
But it's come to that point.
Where the Lord knows them that are his.
But our responsibility is let everyone that nameth the name of Lord depart.
From iniquity. That word iniquity means unrighteousness. What is not right?
What is not according to the word of God?
You have three things. You have doctrine. We have to be true to the doctrine, and then you have morals. You have to walk morally before God and then ecclesiastically.
We have to be ecclesiastically in a clean path.
The word ecclesia simply means church. So when you say ecclesiastical means pertaining to your church position.
Those with whom you fellowship.
Those with whom you walk, the company that you have fellowship with.
Your ecclesiastical position, Is it pure? Is it clean? Is it according to the truth of God?
So let everyone that nameth the name of Lord depart from iniquity. And there's so much iniquity. We don't go out of the house. We can't. We cease to be Christians.
But we find a clean place in the house, and we depart from iniquity.
Upholding the Word of God.
Verse 20 But in a great house, it doesn't say the great house. It's still the House of God, but it's become like unto a great house.
There are not only vessels of gold and of silver.
Some real.
Also of wood and earth.
Some to honor, some to dishonor. There's a mixture that which is real, that which is not real, that which is clean, that which is not clean.
The man therefore purged himself from these.
He shall be a vessel unto honor.
That we are. We have to purge ourselves from that which is not right.
Unrighteousness, Iniquity. Ecclesiastically.
But I'm saying this afternoon is very unpopular.
In Christian circles.
It's the very kind of ministry which, if it was allowed at such a movement that I have just mentioned, it would stop it cold.
Would stop it cold.
Which is more important to us?
Numbers. Great crowds.
Or the word of God, the truth of God.
00:20:03
The man therefore purge himself from these. There's such a mixture, and there's that which is not according to the mind of God, where to depart from iniquity, purge ourselves from that which is wrong.
In this house, the House of God, that has become like unto a great house.
If we do that, purge ourselves from these.
These vessels to dishonor, says he shall be a vessel unto honor.
Sanctified.
And meet for the masters use.
Prepared unto every good work.
So it's one thing to be pure.
In your own belief system, to be sound in what you believe as an individual.
It's another thing to be pure in your individual life.
Keep yourselves from evil as it says in the next verse verse. Flee also youthful lusts and follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
That's an ecclesiastical purity.
That's calling, that's being in fellowship with those that are going on, not only.
Pure in doctrine and practice, but ecclesiastically pure, not being in fellowship.
With that which?
Denies the Word of God, the principles of the House of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
So our responsibility is threefold.
To be sound personally, to be pure personally, morally and to be.
Following righteousness, faith, love, peace with them.
That call on the Lord out of a pure heart, and I believe is referring to any ecclesiastically pure heart.
One that will not settle.
For a church system.
That denies the word of God, the truth of God we've had.
At the Walla Walla conference, we had Ephesians 4, and we went into some of those things in pretty good detail.
The youthful lusts but follow, pursue righteousness, the right thing.
Faith. Faith in the Word of God.
Charity or love?
True love is shown in obedience to the Word.
And had issues in peace. Peace.
But it's not a path where you're isolated and all alone. In fact, to be to take a path of isolation is not of God.
Unless there's just simply no one there where you live that you can fellowship with, you're not trying to take a path of isolation.
Instead, you're seeking to follow in this path of truth with them.
That call on the Lord out of a pure heart so there's a company that we can fellowship with. How thankful we are that you've invited us to be with you.
Here in Canada for these days of conference.
And as I look over your faces.
It's company that's seeking to do just that. How thankful we are.
We should.
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with them.
That call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
How do we know one is doing that? Well, he's he's purged himself from iniquity.
What is wrong? What is unrighteous? What is not right?
And there's so much that is there in order to know that we have to know our Bibles.
We have to be diligent in the scriptures.
We have to be ready to take.
Criticism.
We have to be good soldiers.
As he says in the second chapter.
We have to labor before partaking of the fruits.
We have to deny ourselves.
This epistle, Second Timothy is.
Is.
Paul seeking to encourage this young man Timothy, who was timid by nature.
And could easily get discouraged to be strong in the grace.
00:25:00
That is in Christ Jesus.
To be strong.
In that grace.
The grace is that which gives us a sense of our nothingness.
And he is everything.
Our God is everything. I don't want to take much more time to just set these things before us.
May the Lord.
Keep us, encourage us, and test everything, every one of these fresh movements.
If you understand the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
And you understand that Philadelphia has come.
That was the great recovery of the truth in the last century, and we're now into Laodiceanism.
Which is the latitudinarian, lukewarm state of indifference that characterizes the professing church today.
You would not be deceived by some of these new movements.
That seemed to be so wonderful.
Because the Word of God really doesn't hold out that there's going to be another great revival of truth. It's already taken place.
And now the word to thee.
The one that's seeking to really go on for the Lord is hold fast what thou hast that thou hast, that no man take that crown.
Well, there is a path, a collective path. It's not just individual.
That we can walk in. How thankful we are. There are still those in that path that we can walk with.
Until he calls us home.
May the Lord encourage us, especially those who are young here.
To study.
To show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth, the word of truth. That's what counts, the word of truth.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
For reproof.
For correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished.
For every good work.
Rightly dividing the word of truth. May God encourage us.
To hold fast to this book.
What's the real measure of growth in an assembly is not more people being added? It's nice when there are, we're thankful for that. But to see the soul growing in the truth of God, laying hold upon the truth of God, apprehending it more, entering more fully into the mind of God, that's the growth we should be looking for, not the growth in numbers.
Some of the churches that have the largest numbers have the least understanding of the truth of God.
That's a poor trade off, is it not?
To have many people who are not well taught, better to have a few.
That are taught the truth of God. Do you value young person? Do you value the spiritual heritage that you have where the truth of God is still being upheld and maintained in these last days?
1TI 3:15
1TI 3:15
Seeing the Witnesses of Faith Let Us Run With Endurance
What John Saw
It is done
Magnify His Word above His Name
Daniel and his friends