Shadow Hills Conference: 1997
Table of Contents
Forgiveness, Justification & Sanctification
The Trinity
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.
I'd like to talk tonight on the Trinity.
The Trinity.
We look at the Old Testament to start with, and we'll see some testimony to it.
Not fully revealed there.
But but it is there.
And then we will look at the New Testament, where it is so beautifully brought out.
When I was in.
Fleetwood, NC.
They put you up in the meeting room. They bought a house.
And it has a living room and a bedroom to the side, kitchen behind the living room, and bedroom to the side. Kitchen is fully equipped. And the visitors sleep, of course, in one of the bedrooms. And we meet in the living room. Saints meet in the living room.
Well, I was leaving once for during the day and two women came up to the door.
And I suspected who they were and the first lady who was the spokeswoman, she said. We are Jehovah's Witnesses and usually they didn't used to do that.
But she came right out with it.
And we engaged in a conversation.
And we got onto the subject of the Trinity, which they do not believe. You will find that all cults and false religions do not believe in the Trinity.
It is the characteristic truth of Christianity.
Three persons in one God, our baptismal formula.
Brings that before us and the one said to me, the Trinity is not found in the Bible and I said what?
Not found in the Bible, the very names of the persons of the Trinity are given to us.
And I quoted to her Matthew 28, baptizing them in the name of the Father.
And of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Well, she didn't have much to say after that.
Look at Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis chapter 1, the very first verse in our Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
Now you don't see the Trinity in that verse in our English Bible, but the word for God is Elohim.
If you talk about a cherub, that's singular. 1 Cherub. Cherubim is plural, Many cherub, several cherubs. Every Hebrew word that ends in I am is plural. Elohim L is the singular for God, and I don't know the dual. In the Hebrew language, there's a singular number and a dual #2 and then the plural number, which is 3 or more.
In English singular is 1 and plural is 2 or more, but not so in the Hebrew.
And this word God is Elohim.
Plural cannot be two, it cannot be one. It has to be 3 or more. And we know from other scriptures that it is 3 in the beginning. Elohim 3 persons, one God created, and the word created is a singular verb.
Verb in the singular you have a plural subject, Plural noun with a singular verb. Not grammatically correct, but it sets before us the wonderful truth in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the very first verse of the Bible, that God is a plurality.
You get that same thing later on in Genesis 1.
Verse 26.
And God said, 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 image.
In the image of God created he him.
Male and female created he them, so you have the singular used many times in referring to God.
For he is 1.
Three persons, one God. Sometimes you have the plural. Let us make man.
In our image.
Verse 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth. So you have the singular and the plural in the 3rd chapter of Genesis after the fall.
00:05:14
In verse 22 and the Lord God said, behold the man is become as one of us.
To know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat and live forever. And then he was sent out of the garden. Man has become as one of us.
Turn to the 11TH chapter.
The 11TH chapter.
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 truly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, Go to Let us build us a city in a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name.
That.
Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is 1. And they have all one language, And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to let us go down and.
There confound their language that they may not understand.
One another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from fence upon the face of all the earth.
And they left off to build the city. Let us go down.
And there confound their language.
Unity in plurality.
The Mohammedans believe in one single, solitary, lonely God.
The Jews do too.
They don't believe in the Trinity, though their Bible testifies to the Trinity as we are seeing as we read some of these passages from the Old Testament.
But they reject the Trinity.
Unitarians reject the Trinity.
All false cults, Jehovah's Witnesses, reject the Trinity.
Mormons reject the Trinity and so on.
God has revealed himself in the New Testament as Trinity.
A teacher was speaking to her students once and she was trying to illustrate the Trinity.
And she said it's like a pie.
Cut into thirds.
And each third of the pie represents one of the persons of the Godhead, Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, that's a nice illustration. It's fairly close, but it's not the full truth of the Trinity because each piece of the pie is only 1/3 of the pie. It's not the whole pie.
But the Father is all of God.
The sun is all of God.
And the Spirit is all of God, not a part of.
But each person is, in their essence, God.
And we may not understand that.
Our feeble finite minds may not be able to grasp that, but that is the truth. Sometimes the Trinity has been represented by water.
It's in either the solid-state as ice, or the liquid state as water, or the gaseous state as steam.
But it's never all three at the same time.
And so that fails to represent the Trinity. It can't be liquid and gas if it's solid, and it can't be solid and gas if it's liquid, and it can't be solid and liquid if it's gas.
And so that failed. Sometimes the Shamrock 3 leaf Clover is used to.
To illustrate the Trinity, but again it fails because each petal is not the whole.
Of it.
But these are attempts to just convey to the mind of man a three persons in one God.
The famous verse that the Jews used to prove.
Their concept of one God is in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we might look at that.
And this very verse.
00:10:00
Proves the contrary to what they are.
Advocating.
Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 here, O Israel, the Lord our God.
Is 1 Lord?
Jehovah, our God is 1 Jehovah.
Now the truth is that the Father is Jehovah, the Son is Jehovah, and the Spirit is Jehovah.
But that word one, they have two words for one in the Hebrew.
And I know Hebrew scholar, but this much I've learned and the one word means.
One absolute one with excluding everything else. And the other word is one in plurality. Like you talk about a bunch of grapes. There may be many grapes, but it's one bunch. A crowd of people. One crowd, but many people.
In fact, that very word one that's used here, the Lord our God is 1 Lord is the very word that's used in Genesis when it says that two shall be 1 flesh.
That one person.
But one flesh, the two persons, the man and his wife, shall be 1 flesh. So there you have unity in more than one.
And that's what this verse really conveys, if they would read it correctly. The Lord our God is 1 Lord unity in plurality. Turn to Isaiah chapter 6.
Isaiah chapter 6.
In the year that King Uzziah died, 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.
And one cried unto the other, and said, Holy.
Holy Holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of His glory.
Not wholly. Wholly.
There are not 2 Persons to the Godhead, but holy, holy, holy three persons. Each person is holy.
The Holy Father, the Holy Son and the Holy Spirit. And so the Seraphim's acknowledging this cry, Holy, holy, holy.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And 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, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lois, 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 who will go for us?
And then said I one of those three persons, he confers.
God confers amongst himself three persons conferring, and then one of those persons the Lord Jesus said, then said, I hear my send me.
And he said go.
Tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed but perceive not.
Whom shall I send? There's the singular.
Who will go for us? There's the plural. God is 1 and yet in three persons.
Now let's turn to.
Matthew 28. I've already referred to it, but I want to quote it.
Read it, I should say, from the word itself. Matthew 28.
And this is the.
What we call the baptismal formula. Verse 19 Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Notice it does not say names.
Now the word elohim is found in the Old Testament with a plural verb, and when that's the case, it's referring to the gooden.
Because Elohim is plural, it should be translated God's.
If it's with a plural verb, but when it's with a singular verb, it is God. God in his oneness in plurality.
00:15:04
God created the heavens and the earth, so Elohim is used in the Old Testament to also describe the false gods, and then it's translated in the plural as it should be. It's the name, not names. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. That's a difficult verse for the Jehovah's Witnesses to deal with.
Because it gives you the singular, the name and the plural. The three persons and their names are given. So when this woman said the Trinity is not found in the Bible, I said what?
Their very names are given and showed her this passage of scripture.
I'd like to look at a number of scriptures and I may miss some, and you may think of some that I miss, where the Trinity is found in a single verse in a single verse of scripture.
I'll start with Second Corinthians 13.
And verse 14.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the love of God.
And the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.
Here you have the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ you have.
God the Father and the Holy Spirit mentioned.
In one verse.
In Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse 18.
For through him the Lord Jesus.
We both have access by 1 spirit.
Unto the Father.
One Spirit unto the Father. So you have the three persons, Him referring to the Son.
And then the Spirit and the Father mentioned you may have noticed. Well, you didn't know what I was going to speak on, so you may not have noticed it. In the hymn that I selected, it says ABBA, Father, thus we call thee.
And then it says in that same verse, God the Spirit with our Spirit witnesses, we're sons of God.
Abba's purpose gave us being when in Christ. In that vast plan, Abbot chose the Saints in Jesus long before the world began.
Oh what love the Father bore us for how precious in his sight when he gave the church to Jesus. His whole souls delight.
Wonderful verse. I was singing that in the room before supper and I said I'll add that to my list of hymns that testify to the Trinity.
There are a number of them that I have written down.
There's only one though that has the word Trinity in it, and Lord willing will sing that later.
Turn to Revelation.
Chapter 1.
Verse 4.
John 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's a description of God himself, Jehovah.
We call him the Father.
Although each person of the Trinity is Jehovah, and then he says, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne.
Seven spirits, representing, of course, the Holy Spirit in the fullness of His power in a governmental way, which will be administered for the accomplishment of the setting up of the Kingdom and from Jesus Christ.
Who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the Prince of the kings of the earth?
So we have the three persons mentioned again, not distinctly as Father, Son, and Spirit, but there they are.
And it's beautiful to see how they are found in so many passages.
Now let's turn back to John 14, where we have such a wonderful display in these chapters of the Trinity. Naturally, when God is speaking and when He is acting and when He is manifesting himself, it must be all three persons.
In some way or other, because all three persons.
00:20:00
Make up the Godhead.
The Trinity in John 14. The Lord Jesus says in verse 16.
I, that's the Son, will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter. There you have the three persons.
The Son praying the Father to give the other comforter the spirit of truth, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.
Whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now that's that's spoken of the Holy Spirit, He dwelleth with us, and he is in us. And then later on in the chapter verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he would keep my words, and my Father will love him.
And we, the Father and the Son, will come unto him and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, the word which He hears, not mine, but the Father's which sent me. We will love Him, and we will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. So here you have in the same chapter the Spirit dwelling with us, abiding in US, and the Father and the Son also making His abode with us.
Again in verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name again, and we have the Trinity, the Comforter sent by the Father in the name of the Son.
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
You know Mohammedanism does not.
Have the the thought, the concept, maybe even the word love in its own.
Doesn't know anything about it.
It believes in a singular.
God.
A singular God.
All alone.
Having no companion.
No fellowship.
Doesn't know what love is.
The Trinity is 3 Persons.
Each Father loveth the Son, and the Son loveth the Father, and the love of the Spirit is mentioned. All three are connected with love.
Love speaks of companionship and fellowship.
And a sharing.
One with another, a singular, lonely God like the Unitarians believe in.
Would not be a God of love.
And they don't know the Mohammedans don't know a God of love.
It's a religion of fear.
And so are other false religions.
Because the true Godfather, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Are not known by them.
In the 15th chapter of John.
And verse.
26.
But when the comforter is come.
Whom I the Son?
Will send unto you from the Father.
Even the spirit of truth.
Which proceedeth from the Father.
He shall testify of me. We have the Trinity mentioned two times in that verse. The Comforter whom I will send unto you from the Father. That's the first time.
Even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. That's the second time you have the three persons of the Trinity mentioned in that verse.
In the 14th chapter he says I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. In this chapter he says I will send him from the Father. And in the 16th chapter the Spirit of God is not spoken of as being sent either by the Father or the Son, but he comes himself. Notice how it's put verse 13.
Albeit when he, the spirit of truth is come.
He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.
And he will show you things to come.
He will glorify. He should glorify me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Glorify me the Son. The Spirit glorifies the Son, and then he says, All things that the Father hath are mine.
00:25:02
Therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. Beautiful how John in his ministry, in his writing.
Brings in the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all functioning, working together in a perfect oneness, sameness to glorify the sun.
And to bring blessing to man.
In Hebrews 10.
Can only bring these things to your attention that come to mind.
In Hebrews 10, again we have the Trinity. Sometimes they are in one verse.
Sometimes they're spread through the chapter, and that's the case here.
In Hebrews 10, verse 7.
Then said I, and this is the Lord Jesus the Son, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of thee to do thy will. Oh God, that's the God the Father. Of course he came to do his will above, when he said sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings and offering for sin, But what's not? Neither hats pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
So here you have the sun coming.
Sent from the Father to do the will of God and accomplish his work. And we read about that in the next verse. You take it away the 1St that he may establish the second verse 10 by the which will, the will that he had come to do, the very will of God that he had come to do.
We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That's his work on the cross, of course, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man?
The Lord Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God. So here you have the Lord offering himself, and then sitting down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering yet perfected forever them that are sanctified, you have Him coming to do the will of God his Father.
God exalting him to his right hand, having completed the work of redemption, and then you have following this.
The first two persons of the Trinity mentioned, you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit, verse 16, verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts.
And in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
So here we have God sending him.
He coming and doing the will of God, by that very will were sanctified and set apart.
And by that one sacrifice on the cross, and then the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the value and efficacy of that work.
Look at the 9th chapter of Hebrews.
Verse 14.
Well, let me read, let me back up to verse 11. But Christ being common high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal.
Redemption for us, for if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean.
Sanctify it to the purifying of the flesh. Now here's the verse.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God?
Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot. How much more shall that sacrifice purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Beautiful to see the testimony in the Word of God to the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Godhead.
The Godhead.
00:30:01
It says in Let's turn to it Colossians chapter 2.
9 for in him that's.
The Lord Jesus dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.
Badly. Now the word Godhead does not tell us how many persons there are to the Godhead.
But it tells us that there are.
There more than one.
The Godhead and in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily. And again you have it in verse 19 of chapter 1. For it please the Father. And then notice the Father is in italics. It's not in the original and it really Mars the full sense of that verse. It would be better rendered. It pleased the Godhead.
All three persons that in Christ should all fullness dwell as a man.
As a man when he emptied himself, according to Philippians 2.
He did not empty himself of deity.
He never ceased to be God when he became a man.
But he took upon him the form of a servant was made in the likeness of men.
And accomplished the work of redemption.
Turn to 1, John.
Chapter 2.
And we have.
In verse.
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One.
And ye know all things.
I have not written unto you, because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ, He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son, so that unction from the Holy One gives us to know and understand.
Who God is the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, Whosoever denies the Son the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also. So you have the Son and the Father mentioned, you have that unction mentioned, the Holy Spirit. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning, if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you.
Ye also shall continue.
In the Son and in the Father, there you have in that one verse the Trinity, that which we, you have heard from the beginning, abide in you, the Spirit of God. You shall continue in the sun and in the Father. And this is the promise that you have promised us, even life eternal.
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing, that's the Holy Spirit which you have received of Him, of God the Father, or the Son, either one. They both sent. The Spirit, as we saw in John 14 and 15, abideth in you. If the anointing abideth in you, you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and His truth, and is no lie even as it hath taught.
Ye shall abide in him.
So the Spirit of God is the power of worship, the power of communion, the power of understanding the Scriptures, knowing the Father and the Son.
All three persons working together in perfect harmony and oneness.
Unity of purpose, thought will aim one essence, each person of the same essence. No conflict we have. We have great difficulty in our minds to lay hold upon this in our family relations we have we have a will, your wife has a will and your children have a will. But in the Trinity.
Their will is the same, the same, the same.
That brings to mind now, having said that, First Corinthians chapter 12.
First Corinthians, chapter 12.
I'm going to start from the first verse.
And then lead on to what is especially before me. But these first verses are so important.
Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto those these dumb idols, even as you were led. Who led them? Who led them to worship those dumb idols? Demons did. They were led by demons, by the power of the enemy, and they were worshipping false gods, these dumb idols that could neither see nor hear nor talk.
00:35:27
And so he says, that's what you were when you were Gentiles, you were idol worshippers. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.
I know one was in a.
Tongues movement meeting once.
He heard someone speaking in a tongue. It was a an actual foreign language. He happened to know the language.
And the person who was speaking was speaking blasphemies.
And it was obvious that that was not the Spirit of God. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus, accursed or says anything that is derogatory to His blessed person.
And that's the first, that's the first indicator that he gives to these Corinthians, how you could tell the difference between the Spirit of God leading you and demons leading you.
And then he says in that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now he doesn't mean that you cannot pronounce those words. Jesus is Lord if you're an unsafe person, but he says if you are led by a power outside of yourself.
Only that power of the Holy Spirit will call Jesus Lord, the demons will.
The demons won't.
No one can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and no one can say anything that is.
Dishonouring to him.
And be speaking by the Holy Ghost.
Now we've come to the verses that I was thinking of, in particular verse 4. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit doesn't just say 1 spirit, the same spirit. They weren't to conclude that because in the Church of God there were many different gifts given that there were different spirits giving them like they had in paganism.
He wants to make it clear contrast between Christianity maintaining the three distinct persons of the Trinity, with paganism, with idol worship, and with many demons and many gods and many Lords.
To us there is one God the Father and 1 Lord Jesus Christ and one Spirit.
But in paganism there were many gods and many Lords and many spirits, many demons.
And they were led by these demons when they worshipped idols. So he says there are diversities of gifts. Don't conclude that because there are many gifts, that there are many spirits. You know, it's the same spirit giving each gift.
And there are differences of administrations or you could render that services.
But the same Lord.
Doesn't just say 1 Lord, but the same Lord. It's the same Lord that leads you to go to serve the Lord in one place and in one capacity, and another brother in another and a sister in another. It's the same Lord.
We're serving the same Lord.
Christianity.
Is 1 God?
One Spirit, the same spirit, and the same Lord. And then it says.
In verse 6 there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.
Which worketh All in all. So you have the same Spirit, you have the same Lord and the same God.
God the Father.
Three persons.
And how wonderful.
These three persons working in perfect.
Harmony and oneness and unity.
To bring glory to himself and blessing to his own.
Tremendous truth, is it not that?
God became a man.
And we know who that was. Wasn't the father.
Wasn't the spirit?
And let's see if I have this. Yes, I still have it.
Dear brother Dan Jacobson gave me this.
Long time ago.
The early Christians, I don't know if you can see it.
The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost.
And in the center here is God.
00:40:02
And it says the Father is God.
The Holy Ghost is God.
Son is God.
But then it says on the outside, the Father is not the Son, who is not the Holy Ghost, who is not the Father. And that's the simplest representation that the early Christians had of the Trinity.
It's very beautiful. Each person equally God, all of God, not a part of God, not the Father is a part of God, and the sons the part of God and the Spirit is a part of God. They're all God, fully, all together.
And their distinct persons.
I was talking to a brother once. He began his prayer and I wasn't trying to be critical, but he had done it so many times.
I wanted to.
Bring it to his attention. He addressed the father and then thanked the Father for dying on the cross.
The father did not die on the cross.
He sent his son to die on the cross.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Sometimes it's a mistake that is just careless. You change your thinking in your prayer and you go from the Father to the Son, and one doesn't make one an offender for a word. But this was a repeated thing and I wanted to bring it to his attention and I was surprised.
In speaking with him that he thought at least he said so. Well, they are all one person. I said, Oh no, they're not. Oh no they're not.
They're not one person.
There are three distinct persons, but one God.
And sometimes you speak on a subject that is so basic and fundamental as the Trinity, and you find out and discover that there are some that do not really.
Understand the full truth of it.
He's talking to a young man in our meeting at home and he was talking about a Christian friend of his that he had been talking to, he says.
He's got some things wrong. He doesn't believe in the Trinity.
And I said he doesn't believe in the Trinity.
He's not a Christian then. Oh yes, he's a Christian. He's definitely a Christian, I said. If he's not, he can be a Jew, he can be a Muslim, but he can't be a Christian if he doesn't believe in the Trinity.
I mean a real 1 and he was accrediting his faith as being real.
Now I admit that there might be such a thing as just a confusion in one's mind, but that's the fundamental truth of Christianity. That's what makes Christianity stand out apart from all other religions, is that we believe in three persons, one God. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Son, having gone up on high, receives the Spirit a second time and sends him down to indwell and inhabit the house, and to indwell each Christian, each believer by the holy.
The Holy Spirit come down tremendous, tremendous truth that each one of us is indwelt of the Spirit of God so that we can know the things that are freely given to us of God.
God working on our behalf.
Father working on our behalf, the Son working on our behalf, the Spirit working on our behalf, the Lord Jesus said, the Father who dwelleth in me, he doeth the works, and yet he did everything by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He being full of the Holy Ghost, went forth says.
He was justified in the spirit.
And yet he could say I and my father are one.
Beautiful especially in John's writings, the ministry of John he intentionally by the spirits design confounds the persons of the Godhead, because each one is God. Sometimes you don't know when you read the verse. Is he talking about the Father or the Son? For instance, First John 520. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know.
That is true.
Who is that? And we are in him, that is true.
In his Son, Jesus Christ, He is the true God and eternal life. You just, you go through that and you see, is he talking about the Father or the Son he's talking about?
God the Father and God the Son both are God.
And so there's that intentional confounding of the persons.
And who indicted all this? Who indicted this blessed book? The greatest miracle I can think of, it's the book I hold in my hands. All of these independent epistles sent to various places, and all the books written in the Old Testament sent to various places. How did they ever get collected into one volume, which we call the Bible?
00:45:13
Greatest miracle?
That I can think of, you know, the Lord said, When after I've gone to the Father, ye shall do greater things than these.
And.
It was after he went back to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit that the Word of God was brought together in the form that we have it today. A wonderful, tremendous miracle of God.
The more you think about creation and redemption.
And the coming of the Holy Spirit, who is here to glorify Christ and to give us to know consciously that we are children of God and we can cry ABBA Father, even as the Son did by the Spirit. The more you think of these things, the more you stand in awe.
At the immensity of the grace love which has brought us into such a place of blessing.
Well, I'm sure I've missed.
Many passages that you could bring up.
And I'll think of them as I lie in bed tonight. Oh, I should have mentioned this one. I should have mentioned this one. But that's all right. I can only bring out what the Spirit brings to me at this time. But we've looked at enough scriptures to see the testimony of both the Old and the New Testament to the true Trinity, the three Persons in one God.
Do you know that God?
Can you cry, ABBA father?
Are you a child of God? Do you know the Son?
Who came from the father to reveal the father?
Do you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you?
Causing you to cry ever, father, giving you the conscious sense in your soul.
That you are a child of God.
Has this been made good to you?
To each one of us that's here tonight, I trust that he is so how wonderful.
The blessings that are ours in Him.
Baptized For The Dead
The Doctrine of Christ
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.
Let's start by reading a verse from First Timothy.
First Timothy, 316.
And without controversy.
Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Justified in the spirit scene of angels.
Preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
I'd like to talk about the first one.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Tremendous truth.
Let's turn to second John for a verse or two.
Second John.
Verse 7.
For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an Antichrist.
Verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth.
And abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God?
Very strong statement, isn't it?
Whosoever abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father.
And the son. So here John is talking about something that is fundamental truth.
The doctrine of Christ, the truth as to His person, who he is.
And he talks about the deceivers and the Antichrist that have entered into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh.
He says this is the deceiver and the Antichrist.
The confession of his person.
Most wonderful confession that we can make.
Jesus Christ coming in flesh. The confession of this person, he who came in flesh.
That of course supposes his pre existence before he came in flesh, coming in flashes, his manhood. Jesus Christ who came in the flesh.
Brings before us his deity.
Be the person who came.
Would be senseless to talk of us coming in the flesh because that's the only way we can come. But here was a person that preexisted before he came in the flesh, before he became a man. And this confession that John talks about is the confession as to his deity and as to his humanity.
And he says, he that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.
So this is fundamental, isn't it? And he that abideth in the doctrine, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Fundamental truth. I'd like to look at the doctrine of Christ a little bit tonight. Some of it, some of some of that which concerns him. We start with Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3.
This is after the fall.
Verse 14 The Lord is speaking to the serpent.
Who had just seduced Eve to take of the forbidden fruit?
Deceived her and she took it and ate and gave it to her husband and he took it in ate.
Verse 14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this.
Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman.
And between thy seed and her seed.
Now here he talks about the woman's seed, the serpent seed, and the woman seed, her seed.
It that is the woman's seed shall bruise thy head.
And thou shalt bruise his heel. So here we have the 1St.
The first mention sin having come into the world right away, the Lord says to the serpent, who was the one that brought sin in through the weaker vessel, the woman.
He says the seed of the woman.
The very one whom he had deceived and seduced into sin is the very one who would bear the coming Redeemer to destroy and crush the serpent's head.
00:05:07
The seed of the woman, it shall bruise or crush thy head.
And thou shalt bruise or crush his heel.
The seed of the woman.
Now we're going to trace this theme through Scripture and it brings before us.
His humanity, and it also brings before us the one who became that.
That he is God.
Let's turn to the Isaiah Chapter 7.
Isaiah Chapter 7.
Verse 10.
Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask the sign of the Lord thy God, Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But Ahas said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.
And he said, Hear ye now, O House of David, Is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will ye weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin.
Shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Now here we have both his humanity.
The Virgin conceiving and bearing the Sun.
And his name is called Emmanuel. God with us, God manifest in the flesh.
A sign. Now, in some of the modern translations that verse reads, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son. But that wouldn't be a sign because young women bear sons every day. But it's a sign if the virgin, the virgin conceives and bears a son. And we're going to see that. You don't have to get into an argument with anyone about the meaning of this Hebrew word, whether it means virgin or young woman.
It might be able to be rendered both of those ways, depending upon the context.
But here, there's no question about it. It's a sign which would indicate a special, unique, never to be repeated birth of the Messiah.
The seed of the woman. So every one of us in this room tonight is the seed of man. But here was one who was to be the seed of the woman, a most unique and unusual expression which would come and crush the serpent's head, destroy the one that brought in all the the the havoc, the ruin, the sin.
So disturbs us.
Down here in the scene.
A virgin, the Virgin shall conceive.
And bear a son, and shall call his name.
Emmanuel.
Now let's turn to Matthew chapter 1, where we're going to see this wonderful truth guarded by the Spirit of God very carefully in all of Scripture.
You see, if he wasn't the seed of the woman, if he wasn't virgin born, we don't have a savior.
We don't have a savior, and we'll develop that a little bit more. I'm going to read this.
Genealogy quickly.
Matthew 1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren, and Judas begat Ferris, and 0 of themar And Pharaohs begat Esram, And Esram begat Aram, and Aram begat Aminadab, and Aminadab begat Nayasin, and Nayasin begat Salman, and Salman begat Boaz of Recap and Boaz begat Obid.
Of Ruth and Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon. Of her that had been the wife of Urias and Solomon begat Roboem, and Roboem begat Abaya, and Abaya begat Isa and ASA begat Josephat and Josephat Begat Joram, and Joran begat Uzias.
And Isaiah's begat Joatham, and Joatham begat Achas, and Ecz begat Ezekius, and Ezekias begat Manassehs, and Manassas begat Ammon, And Ammon begat Josias, And Josias begat Echonius and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begets Elathiol, and Salathiel begets Zerubbabel, And Zerubbabel begat Abayad, and Abayad begat Iliacum.
And iliacum begatis or an azor begat sedic, and sedic begat acum. And akam begat eliad.
00:10:02
And Eliah begat Eliezer, and Eliezer begat Matt Fan, and Matt Than begat Jacob.
And Jacob begat Joseph. Now notice the change.
It doesn't say. It can't say.
Jacob. Joseph begat Jesus because he had nothing to do with this birth. Nothing.
And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Mary is mentioned over and over again in scripture as Jesus Mother, Jesus Mother.
Joseph never by the Spirit of God, is called his Father.
Men called him that legally he was so, but not really. He really had nothing to do with that birth. No, it was miraculous. It was the seed. Christ was the seed of the woman. He was born of the Virgin. And if we don't hold that truth?
We don't hold the doctrine of Christ.
Fundamental truth as to his person, because if he was begotten of a man like all these others, begat, begat, begat.
If it was a man that begat him, we don't have a saviour, because he wasn't the fulfilment of the prophecy that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, and that the virgin would conceive and bear a son.
Verse 17 so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ our 14th generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when as his mother Mary and she's called that over and over again.
The Roman Catholics speak about Mary as the Mother of God.
Well, as to that God has no mother, Jesus.
As to his deity.
Only has a father.
No mother. As to his humanity, he only has a mother. No father.
That is, he has no human father.
The one who did the begetting in connection with the birth of Christ was the Holy Spirit.
He took the place of the man in the normal birth that we're experiencing that all these that's why I read that genealogy because you get the word begat begat begat over and over again. Not so a man be getting.
This one, this unique birth.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph.
Notice the guard before they came together. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost, then Joseph. Her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Now if you have a margin in your Bible, as I have in mind, conceive, there's a little note too, and it says Greek begotten.
It's not the word for conceived. Matthew doesn't use the word conceived. Luke does. But Matthew uses the word begotten because that's consistent with the genealogy in Matthew. Matthew says that Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and so on.
But who was the begetter in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit.
So it should read that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Ghost. Mary conceived, that's Lukes teaching and the Holy Ghost begat, that's Matthews teaching. And so there was no man involved in that begetting process.
He was the seed of the woman.
Born of the Virgin.
And man had nothing to do with it. It's, it's interesting, isn't it, that it was through the woman that Satan introduced sin into the world. And it's through the woman.
That God introduces the destroyer of the serpent.
The seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, the very vessel, the weaker vessel that Satan attacked and seduced and deceived, is the very one, the weaker vessel that the Christ of God, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us, came into this world through the woman.
00:15:23
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Oh, that name Jesus, so wonderful. What a wonderful name, the most wonderful name in all the universe. It means Jehovah the Savior.
Goes on to say Jehovah of course is his Godhead and the Savior. It says, for he shall save his people from their sins, his manhood. He couldn't save us had he not become a man, had he not come right to where we were and become one of us in a part.
And she shall bring forth.
A son.
And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, and here we clearly now he quotes Isaiah 714. Now there's no question about the word in Greek it means virgin. But the teaching of the Spirit of God, the way he guards this truth, there's no question about the teaching of the Scriptures.
Behold, a virgin shall be with child.
And shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So here in this verse we have the doctrine of Christ. He is very man.
Born of the virgin and very God, Emmanuel, God with us.
Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.
And he knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son, and he called his name Jesus. Notice these two guards in verse 18 it says when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, so before they came together.
She was.
Found with child of the Holy Ghost in verse 25 adds the truth that he knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son. So during the nine months of development of the child and the womb of the virgin, there was no marital relations between them.
He knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son and he called his name Jesus.
So God preserved the truth that Joseph had nothing, nothing, nothing to do with this birth.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the King had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea. For thus it is written by the prophet.
And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the Princess of Judah, for out of these shall come a governor.
That shall rule my people, Israel.
This one that is coming.
As the seed of the woman virgin born is to be the governor, he's God.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young child. Now notice this expression here, the young child, it's going to, we're going to come across it a number of times. And it's, it's an expression which sets him apart, sets him apart from the the other one that is mentioned. Certainly there was a distance between Herod and the young child.
And Herod says, then he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child, for when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. He wanted to destroy him, of course, in his hatred.
When they had heard the king, they departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the East went before them till it came, and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And notice, and when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother. They are often mentioned together, the young child, Mary his mother, never the young child, and Joseph his father, never, never. Do you have that expression? They saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense. And.
00:20:25
The gold symbolizing His deity, the frankincense His holy humanity, and the myrrh, His sufferings by which we are saved.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph.
Again, notice the precision of the language of the Holy Spirit in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother.
Notice how that expression removes Joseph from the young child and his mother. He doesn't say take.
Your wife and son.
No, he doesn't say that. It says take the young child and his mother. Joseph is is spoken of as though he is distant and apart from the young child and his mother.
That is the language of the Holy Spirit. Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, and he was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying out of Egypt have I called my son? Now who's speaking? It's the Lord, that's it's the.
The Lord that is speaking, that says out of Egypt have I called my son? The father says that.
And he was indeed the son of the father, not the son of Joseph.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem.
And in all the coasts thereof from 2 years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled, at which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet saying in Rhema was there a voice heard lamentation and weeping, and great morning. Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted.
Because they are not.
But when Herod was dead, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. Notice again saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother.
And go into the land of Egypt.
The language is almost as though Joseph.
Was.
Apart from the young child and his mother, and indeed in connection with that birth, he certainly was.
Take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither, notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in the city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.
I should be called a Nazarene, A Nazarene A despised one. Shall any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Now let's turn to Lukes Gospel Chapter 3.
You will see the language is somewhat different.
The genealogy is different.
Matthew talks about begetting.
The man begetting in all of the births except the last one mentioned, where it says Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ.
But in Luke chapter 3 we read in verse 19, Fork, we'll just start there. But Herod the tetrarch being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added this. Yet above all that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened.
And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him.
And a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved son, in thee. I am well pleased. Now we've been often told that Luke gives a moral order of things, and here we have a beautiful moral order. God the Father speaks from heaven. Thou art my beloved son, in thee. I am well pleased, son of the Father.
00:25:17
And the next verse says in moral connection. And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age being and now the guard in the parenthesis, as was supposed the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of Matt Fat, which was the son of Levi, and so on.
Notice the genealogy. And Luke doesn't use the word begat, it uses it in Matthew. And Matthew speaks of the Holy Ghost begetting, and Luke speaks of the Virgin conceiving.
But we have the guard being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. Now let's turn back to Luke chapter 1.
And we look at a number of scriptures here.
Verse 24 and after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying.
Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man, whose name was Joseph of the House of David, and virgins name was Mary. And the Angel came in unto her, and said.
Hail thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And indeed she was.
It says in Matthew, it says in Daniels prophet prophecy, I think it's Chapter 11, it says about the the Antichrist, it says he shall regard the God of forces and he shall not regard the desire of women. What was the desire of women? What was the desire of a godly Jewish woman? It was to bear the Christ, to bear the Messiah. And here now is this Jewish maiden the virgin.
I believe that when we read of it of the the word virgin, it shouldn't be a virgin shall conceive as though anyone.
Would do. But the Virgin, There was one specific virgin, and she had to conceive and bear the sun according to Daniels prophecy, so that the Messiah was born at that precise moment in history, and the only one that could create that exactly was God himself, the Holy Ghost, the beginner.
And then she conceived. The Holy Spirit begat Mary conceived.
Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary.
For thou hast found favour with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb. Now there the word conceive is proper, not in Matthew, in Matthew it should be begotten, but here it is conceived. Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son.
And shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great.
And shall be called the Son of the Highest. The highest, of course, is a title of deity.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David.
And he shall reign over the House of Jacob Forever.
And of his Kingdom there shall be no end.
Now notice Mary's words. Then said Mary unto the Angel, How shall this be?
Seeing I know not a man.
There again we have the truth established. She had no relations with a man whatsoever.
She was truly the virgin.
And the Angel answered and said unto her, This is one of the most tremendous verses in all Scripture. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Now, by this overshadowing of the highest.
The power of God overshadowing her. The Holy Ghost coming upon her.
The result of that be getting and her conceiving was the Son of God come into this world preserved by the power of the Holy Ghost from all taint of sin.
00:30:02
That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. What Adam was created? He was created in innocence. The state of humanity in Adam before the fall was innocence.
After the fall, the state of humanity changed.
Sinful. That's what we partake of.
But here we have a third condition or state of humanity, holy.
Holiness. And what is holiness? Holiness is abhorrence of evil and delight in what is good.
And here we have the holy humanity of the Lord Jesus spoken of, as that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
So Christ, humanity is holy.
Now we partake of that in the new creation. When we are born of God, we have His life and nature. John tells us that that which is born of God cannot sin, for his seed remaineth in US, and he cannot sin, for he is born of God. Now that was a life of Christ, That was His holy humanity.
Adam, innocent, was sinless but capable of sinning.
Christ in holiness is sinless, incapable of sinning, incapable of sinning.
Holiness of horrors, Evil. It has no nothing in it that would respond to it. In fact, it is. It repels. It repels evil.
And that there we have the holy humanity of Christ. Some when they're asked the question, could the Lord Jesus have sinned, they say, well, if he couldn't have sinned because he was God, well, that's true. God united to to humanity is incapable of sinning, of course, but there's more to it than that. His humanity was holy, incapable of sinning as to the very essence of his humanity.
Holy, that holy thing.
Which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Why does it say thing? Why is the word holy in the neuter instead of the masculine that holy? 1 I believe it's because it's bringing before us the holy nature that Christ has.
As he came into this world.
And when we partake of that, when we're born again, we partake of that holy nature which is incapable of sinning.
Behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she had also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the 6th month with her who was called Baron. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Now all of these points that we are looking at, the way the Lord came into this scene, you know, even as to His humanity, it wasn't created. Nowhere does the Word of God use the word created in connection even with His humanity.
He was the Creator and when he entered his own creation.
He came through the instrument of the woman when Adam was created from the dust of the ground, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
He came directly from the hand of God, and he's called the Son of God by creation. But here is the Son of God from all eternity, the one who was with the Father from all eternity. He enters his own creation, the Creator. And it says in Hebrews 10A Body, hast thou prepared me? But nowhere does it say.
Created. That's a quote from Psalm 40, and Psalm 40 says my ears hast thou digged.
Again, the word created is not mentioned in connection with the holy humanity of Christ.
He chose upon coming into this world.
To enter it through the weaker vessel, the woman whom Satan used to bring in sin, and he's going to put sin away by the one that came through that very vessel, the seed of the woman.
Nothing shall be impossible. Elizabeth had been barren, and now she's going to have a son. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me, according to thy word. And the Angel departed from her.
Beautiful.
Mary, that godly, lowly, humble Jewish maiden, so pure.
So subject to the Lord, not a word. I'm not worthy, Lord, not a word. She just says, Be it unto me according to thy word. Complete submission to the word of God and to the will of God. She accepted that she was going to be that one.
00:35:07
Through whom the Messiah came.
And Mary arose in those days, and went into the Hill Country with haste into a city of Judah.
And entered into the House of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary.
The babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For Lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, And we want to read this.
I love to hear Mary's words.
And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Now how deeply she entered into the words she was uttering here. God my Savior was to be the very one that she was going to bear.
God my Savior, my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which the Roman Catholics erroneously teach, was that Mary was preserved from original sin. Now that's impossible because she had an earthly father. She had a man that begat her. The only way that could be preserved was by the begetting power of the Holy Ghost, and that was only true of the birth.
Christ and she speaks of God my Savior. She was a Sinner just like you and I, and she needed a Savior just like we do. And she says my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. And the one that was to become that was her own son, the seed of the woman.
For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, and blessed indeed to us.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name, and His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent away.
Empty away, He hath hope in His servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seat forever.
And Mary abode with her about 3 months and returned to her own house.
I would like to read these last these last verses, but in the interest of time.
I think I'll Passover them.
And we start with Chapter 2.
When he came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made when Serenius was governor of Syria.
And all went to be taxed everyone into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and Lange of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her first born son.
And wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a Manger, because there was number room for them in the inn.
When the Lord entered his own creation, think of it. Just think of it. When he entered his own creation, he enters through the weaker vassal, the woman seed of the woman.
And in the very lowliest of circumstances.
Into a family that was very poor.
And of no account as far as man would say.
And he's born in a stable, laid in a Manger.
There was number room for him in the inn.
There hasn't been any room in the heart of man for the Lord Jesus ever.
It's only when God works upon us by grace.
That we come to know him.
And they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, it says in it says in Genesis that a shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians.
00:40:08
The Egyptians speak of the world.
Egypt's the world, the Egyptians, those who are, who are living according to it.
And.
He uses that which was despised by the world to come and to announce his birth.
They were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night and low. The Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
And they were sore afraid.
And the Angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. This wasn't at Jerusalem, this was at Bethlehem.
A very lowly place.
It wasn't that the divine center where he came, but he came into.
The circumstances and in a way that speaks of weakness.
And nothingness that was in keeping with his first coming. And this should be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Lying in a Manger.
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest.
And on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven. The shepherd said, one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a Manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it.
Who wandered at those things which were told them by the shepherds?
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. We read that expression several times. Mary pondered these things in her heart.
There are only two humans here that knew that Jesus.
Didn't come.
The normal way.
That he wasn't conceived the normal way. I think his birth was normal, ever. Everything down from the conception. It was the conception, it was the beginning by the Holy Ghost that was miraculous.
The birth was normal.
The development in the womb was normal.
And they knew when he would be born and.
God ordained it that it was at Bethlehem.
Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. They came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a Manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Just how deeply she entered into who this one was.
We cannot say we know how slowly we apprehend divine truth.
And it's taken us quite a while at times to come into the full knowledge of who he is.
But if you don't know who he is, you're not saved.
The doctrine of Christ is essential truth. He that believeth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, and he who doesn't believe it hath not God.
So not talking about something that is secondary here, we are talking about something that is absolutely essential.
And the shepherd's return, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them.
And when 8 days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus.
Jehovah the Savior.
Which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. There's never been a male that's opened the womb that was so holy as this one.
00:45:00
That holy thing that was born was called the Son of God.
And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. A provision made in the law of Moses for the poor of the flock. The poor of the flock. And when he, the Creator of the universe, entered his own creation, he enters it in the poorest of conditions.
It speaks to us of the of the lowly place that he took when he came the first time. When he comes the second time, it will be in power and great glory, not the first time.
The first time he came to die.
And so he begins in this very world, rejected from the very outset.
Rejected. No room for him in the inn.
And they offered just what they could afford, the very the very minimum, because they couldn't afford anymore. They were poor pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents.
Notice the expression, the parents no problem with that expression. They were that legally, when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took him up to in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Which thou was prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory.
Of thy people, Israel. Just think of it. The glory of Israel had come.
And what did they do to him?
Notice verse 33. Notice the language of the Holy Spirit.
And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Now I'm going to come back to this verse and make some more comments on it, but we'll go on.
And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother. Notice Joseph and his mother. Verse 33. Marry his mother. Verse 34. Behold, this child is set for the fall, and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, Yeah, a sword shall Pierce through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
And there was 1 Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Faneuil.
Of the tribe of Astra. Now we'll Passover that and start with verse 40.
And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he was 12 years old they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. Notice again, and Joseph and his mother.
Knew not of it.
But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
And he came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Notice what she says, son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father, and I have sought thee sorrowing.
True legally, and that's probably the only way she could have said it.
But he corrects her very gently. Notice the next verse.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me, wish ye not that I must be about my father's business? And he wasn't talking about Joseph, was he? He was talking about God, his father's business.
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. Here he was, a boy of 12, possibly, they thought. And both of them, they're the only ones that knew that his birth was different.
Mary knew she conceived as a virgin man had nothing to do with that. Joseph knew the same thing.
00:50:01
They both knew this and they may not have understood.
As we are so slow to apprehend the truth that he knew who he was.
That he knew from whence he came, and here he says to them as a boy of 12.
How is it that she sought me? Wish ye not that I must be about my father's business and they understood not?
The things which he spake unto them.
So slow are we to apprehend these deep truths of God.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth.
And was subject unto them, but Mary kept, But his mother kept all these sayings.
In her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man now wherever we read of him, increasing.
And growing and changing. Growing weary, growing tired.
Growing hungry, thirsty. It's his manhood. I remember talking to a young man who professed to be a Christian. He had been raised as a Hindu, his parents were Hindus. And the one verse that really he had trouble with was the verse in Marks Gospel where the Lord says of that day and hour knoweth no man, neither the angels nor the Son, but my Father only.
And he said to me, how could he be God and still not know the hour?
When he would come.
Well, how could he?
Mark presents him as the perfect servant.
Now in the modern translations which use a different Greek text from this one that this King James is translated from, they have that appearing in Matthews Gospel. Also, that the Son doesn't know the hour. It doesn't belong in Matthew, that's wrong. Belongs in Mark. Mark is the perfect servant and as the servant he doesn't know the hour. Servant knoweth not what his master doeth. That's in keeping with the character of the Gospel.
And all of these expressions that speak of the Lord growing and increasing and being hungry and tired and sleeping, and so on, refer to His perfect humanity. How can we put those two things together that He increased in wisdom, and yet He knows everything, says in 147th Psalm. As to His deity, His understanding is infinite. He can never know anything more than.
Knows as God because he knows everything, and he can never know any less than he knows because he's the same. He never changes.
But as man, he learned.
He grew, He increased. How can you put those two things together? How can he not know the hour and yet know everything? Because he is man and because he is God.
The mystery of this person, we can't fathom it. It's beyond us.
That we can believe it. I love the hymn writer that says tis darkness to my intellect.
To sunshine to my heart what I can enjoy and believe in. My heart cannot understand. It cannot grasp. None of us can grasp God and man in one person.
That's the mystery of Christ. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Now if you read verse 43 in one of the modern translations.
You'll read the end of the verse instead of in Joseph and his mother. You'll read and his parents knew not of it.
And this is simply a Greek text difference Greek manuscripts, some of them say his parents there instead of Joseph and his mother, his parents is in verse 41. That's not a different, that's not anything that causes me a problem. But there is a verse that seems to, well, it's causing a big problem and it's 33.
Verse 33 I was reading a critique.
On the NIV once and the author was comparing it with the King James.
And instead of doing that, I compared every passage with Mr. Darby's translation.
And the first verse that he presented, Mr. Darby agreed with the King James, the next one he agreed with the King James, the next one with the King James, the next one he agreed with the NIV and several with the NIV, and so on. And when he does, it's because of the Greek text, because of translation.
Because of the Greek manuscripts.
Verse 33 reads in some manuscripts.
00:55:02
His father and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
I am convinced in my own soul that that is not the right reading, and the right reading is what we have in our King James Joseph and his mother, because this maintains the distinction between Joseph and.
The mother of the Lord Jesus. But if you adopt the reading, his Father and his mother.
Which the modern translations have done. Then you have this problem of the Holy Ghost calling.
Joseph, his father.
That's the one verse that I know of that I have discovered where I believe Mr. Darby chose the wrong reading because he reads his father and his mother. If you have the Stow Hill of Mr. Darby's, you won't see a note, but if you have the Moorish edition, you'll notice a note right there.
And then he'll at the bottom in the note, he'll say Joseph and his mother.
And then he gives the Greek manuscripts that support that reading, and he gives the manuscripts that support his father and his mother. I'm convinced that the whole internal testimony of the Word of God is against the reading his father and his mother. It should read as it does in the King James, Joseph and his mother.
One more comment on that and then I'll close.
I was at a Christian bookstore, I think it was in Rome, GA, and I was asking for the United Bible Society's Greek New Testament, and the man didn't have that. He said, but I've got this and he showed it to me and it was the Greek text of the New Testament based upon the majority of the manuscripts. The King James is based on the Textus Receptus, which is only 5 manuscripts that Erasmus, a Roman Catholic monk, used.
Put together a Greek text for the New Testament, and that's called the received text or the Textus Receptus. That's only built on five manuscripts, but I got a hold of this New Testament in Greek that is built upon the majority of the manuscripts. There are hundreds of them. Now it's very anxious to look at verse 33 of Luke 2 and it reads Joseph and his mother.
I was happy to see that I also have a Syriac translation of the New Testament of the Bible, which goes way back, I believe even to the 2nd century.
Older even than the Sani, Atticus and the Vaticanus manuscripts and.
It reads Joseph and his mother.
Well, in the in the light of internal evidence that we have been looking at the truth of this person, I believe that's the right reading.
How glorious a person he is.
How wondrous that he chose that way was the only way. It wasn't just a way, but it's the only way.
The serpent seduced the woman introduced sin. The destroyer of the serpent enters through. The woman becomes.
That Immaculate Conception sin apart.
Begotten of the Holy Ghost, conceived in the womb of the Virgin.
And it was that holy thing.
Which entered this scene.
Is he your savior?
Do you know who Jesus really is? You might say, Well that can all the gathered Saints know that?
On my trip last.
Winter I was out east and I heard of a.
A fairly young nun. He wasn't really young, he was middle-aged.
That.
His brother said he he denies that Jesus is the creator.
And he is at the Lord's Table, breaking bread.
So I phoned ahead and I was going to that assembly and I asked the leading brother there to for he and I, for him and me to visit with this this man.
And I asked him, is Jesus the Creator?
And he said, well, God created everything through him.
Well, that didn't satisfy me. You know, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that. They believe that God created Jesus and then created everything through him.
And finally I asked him, and I said he's Jesus, God.
01:00:01
He looked at me and he said I'll answer that question later, but he never did.
He never did.
He never made a clear confession.
And it became evident to us, though he was at the table, that he did not really know who Jesus is.
If you don't know that, you're not saved.
And you don't have a place at the table.
If you don't know that, that's absolutely essential. If you believe not that I am, he shall die in your sins, the Lord Jesus said.
Practical Lessons from Daniel's Life
1 Chronicles 28