In case you didn't notice, I
thought that kind of on my mind this morning was Trinity. This morning I was thinking about
that and had a conversation with a fellow this week. He was discussing, he posted something
on his Facebook and I kind of responded to it and
of course I know There's a lot of people that doesn't agree
with me on my view of the Trinity, and that's all right. Everybody
has to believe in the Lord. Just let them to believe. But
I just wanted to look a little bit about some of the things
that the Bible teaches as far as it pertains to the unity of
God, the unity of Godhead. I thought that might be something
this morning that might be beneficial to for us to know. I think that
whenever we see what the Bible teaches about the character of
God, it helps us in our theology, but it helps us in our soteriology
as well, you know, whenever we know who it is that we are worshiping. You know, me and my kids were
having a conversation just this last couple, last couple nights
and everything about preaching and about topics and subjects
and how preachers come up with what they preach and things.
Well, I firmly believe that the Bible teaches that the Lord teaches
us that he's the one who is the teacher. Things that are spiritually
known are known because they are spiritually taught. Me standing
up here is not going to impart any knowledge into you. The Holy
Spirit is going to give us knowledge. What I'm up here doing and what
any brother does whenever they share is we are encouraging,
edifying, building each other up, and everything like that. But ultimately, the Holy Spirit
is the one that is the teacher. I can't impart knowledge to you.
A seminary can't impart knowledge to anybody. All the books that
you read, wherever, they can't impart knowledge. God only imparts
knowledge. So to know who God is and know
what God is is something that is only taught by God. Matter of fact, the Bible says,
can we find out God by searching? The question that's asked there
is, ultimately, no, we can't find out God by searching. We
can search all the chronicles of books throughout the centuries
and every theologian, quote, theologian that there is, and
we still can't find out God by searching. He has revealed himself
in his word, And I would say that that's the first and foremost
place and the only place that we find the truth. We don't find
it in Gil's body of divinity, although there he speaks of a
lot of truth, or Gilbert Beebe or anybody like that, whoever
you want to put up as your theologian. We don't find that. They do not
speak truth. That's why we don't hold the creeds and confessions
and things such as that, because those are summaries that men
have interpreted as being the truth of Scripture, this right
here is the only truth of Scripture. Why do we need to go to secondary
things to tell us about what this says? I don't need a summary
from some man to tell me what this is saying. I can just go
to this. So let God be true and every man a liar. We don't need
creeds and confessions to keep us in line. I had that conversation
with a gentleman just recently continuing conversation with
him, and he's asked me why, you know, I have such a bad look
at creeds and confessions. Well, number one is because every
creed and confession that I've ever read, I find that there's
some places in it that it doesn't line up with Scripture. So, it's
written by fallible men. There's only one that's infallible,
and that's the Lord, and that's His Word that He has given us.
So, to know anything about God is not to learn philosophy, it's
not to learn systematic theology. I'm sure all of us here at one
time has looked through a systematic theology book. I've got several,
they're in storage now, but I've got several systematic theology
books. Wayne Gruden's book, I used to love that book, but man, the
more I looked against it, the more I found there was a lot
of things I disagreed with it in. There's Boyce's systematic
theology 39 articles and all like that. All these things,
these systematic theologies that men write, they write to try
to describe to us who God is. But again, I ask, can we find
out God by searching? I don't think so. It has to be
by revelation. It has to be by revelation, and
it's all going to be according to His Word. Therefore, whenever
we come to God's Word to search out what God has revealed to
us, And we pray that the Holy Spirit give us guidance on that.
We find one of the things that God tells us, and if you want
to go ahead and turn, 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, one of
the things the Bible tells us about our God is this. 1 Timothy 3, 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of God's name. God was manifest in the flesh. Now, whatever else that we might
find out about God through God's Word, one thing is sure, the
mystery of godliness is that, a mystery. That coincides with
what God said when he said, you're not going to find me out by searching,
because godliness is a mystery. God is a mystery. And all we're going to know is
what he's told us. But one thing else that we learn
is that God was manifested in the flesh. That is a truth, brethren,
that we cling to, that we hold to, that is the center point,
I believe, of all the scriptures, is the fact that God was manifest
in the flesh in the man Christ Jesus. Whatever there is in the
expanse of God in His greatness, the Bible says that the heavens
of heavens can't contain Him. The Bible says that He is the
Spirit, that He is omnipresent, He is everywhere, that He is
omnipotent, He's all-powerful. The Bible says that He is over
all things, He's sovereign. Here we have this God, but the
Bible says that He was manifested in the flesh. That all of God
was manifested in the flesh. Not just part God. Not one third
of God was manifested in the flesh. All of God was manifested
in the flesh. And we have that God as the center
point of the Old Testament. We have that God as the center
point of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
sum and substance of everything in the old, the sum and the substance
of everything in the new. Everything that we see in God's
Word from Genesis to Malachi is about Jesus Christ. People
like to go there and they like to see stories. They like to
go there and they like to see history. They like to go there
and find out who did what. They like to see all the miracles
that God did among all the people back then and all the things
that happened and all the, you know, all the stuff that we see
in the Old Testament. But brethren, listen, the New Testament tells
us all those things were written about Him, about Christ. That all those things were written
for our benefit to know Christ. So when we go to the Old Testament,
we are to find Christ there. Now, some people say, well, wait
a minute, I didn't think Christ showed up to the New Testament.
Brethren, we know that Christ was there before the foundation
of the world. We know that Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. We know that Christ was all through
the Old Testament, and I'm not going to go through all that
today. I've done that in times past, and we'll probably visit
it again sometime, but Christ was all in the Old Testament,
and in the New Testament, we learn that, of course, we see
more clearly Christ in the New Testament. him as the center
point of everything from Matthew all the way to the Revelation.
But this mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh,
is kind of what I wanted to look at this morning. Because whenever
I say God was manifested in the flesh, I truly mean that it was
all God that was manifested in the flesh. I really don't think
that it was just the Word manifested in the flesh. Now the Bible does
say the word was made flesh, and we'll read that verse in
a minute. It says the word was made flesh, but we have another
scripture that says it was not just the word that was in Christ
Jesus. If you'll look with me, look
at John chapter one. You know we can't talk about
this subject without going to John chapter one. I guess my point that I'm, I
guess to give the point ahead of time, just so you kind of
know my thoughts on it and everything, is I'm saying that all the Godhead,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, all the one God
is Christ Jesus. He is in the man, Christ Jesus,
and therefore the one God that we worship is Christ. And I believe
that men have tried to take the Godhead and so divided up into
distinct individual persons that they have made three gods. And I'm not denying the Trinity,
I'm not denying the Godhead, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit, these three are one. I believe what the Bible
teaches, but I don't want to go further than what the Bible
teaches, okay? And I don't want to say anything
less than the Bible teaches, but it's very clear that Whenever
we look at the term the Father, we look at the term the Word,
and we look at the term the Holy Spirit, we find that the Bible
overwhelmingly makes reference of these three in the Godhead
to Jesus Christ, and attributes those three Godhead titles to
the man, Jesus Christ. And so I'm just saying at the
outset, I don't know it all. I am ignorant of a lot of things.
I don't have it all figured out. I have much learning to do if
the Spirit would be pleased to teach me more. And it is a mind-boggling
thing to me to think of God and how He works, and how He has
presented Himself, and how the report is of God in Christ Jesus. It is truly a mystery. And I'm
not trying to say here that I have found it all out and now I'm
going to try to make it all concrete to you. I'm just presenting to
you what I see in scriptures. You be good Bereans and you go
search the scriptures to find out whether these things are
true because you don't take my word for it, you take God's word
for it. Right? So I'm just going to present
what I see in the scriptures and also in part of this is I've
not really spoke a whole lot publicly in this fashion. on what I believe about these,
I have in conversations and type, but I would like to publicly
declare what I believe because I've been misrepresented by many
men who believe that I'm a Sabellian or a, you know, some sort of
a denier of Christ's deity or denier of the Trinity and all
this kind of stuff. I just will say I don't have
it all figured out and I just, I want to only speak biblically.
I want to speak biblically. I don't find the Bible saying
that there are three persons in the Godhead. I don't see that.
I know that there's inferences there because it speaks of the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. But I only want to speak
as the Bible speaks on this subject. And it says there are three that
bear a record in heaven. So there's three record bearers
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit. It says, and these three are one. So I'll go that far. I don't want to go any further
than that. But let's look at a few things here. In John chapter
1 and verse 1, we read, In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything that was made. In Him was life,
and the life was the life of men. Now, drop down to verse
40. It says, And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So here we see that in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Okay? The Word was God. So we definitely know that the
Word, who we find in the Godhead, was God. Okay? The Word was God. And that that Word became flesh. Okay? But notice it says, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. Doesn't that kind of sound
weird? So you have the Word who was
God, and the Word who was with God. How did that take place? Well, my understanding of this
is, is whenever God brought forth the body that was prepared for
Christ as the mediator, as He took on that manhood, that He
as the Word made flesh, and we'll see in other places God made
flesh, but as that man who was the mediator, and the only mediator,
by the way, the Bible says, between God and man, is the man, Jesus
Christ. So ever since Christ has been
the mediator of the covenant, the mediator of his elect people
that was in him, he has stood as the man between God and man. So I believe that this was with
God, is in his manhood, that mediator role. was God because
He is divine. He is God in flesh. Now, I'm not dogmatic about that. You know, lies are sin. Take
that with you and gnaw on that or throw it out. Whatever you
want to do, throw it out. That's how I am understanding
this and, you know, I may be wrong and I'll be glad to be
corrected by Scripture on that. But He says that He was in the
flesh and He dwelt among us, right? Well, that's the very
name that was given to Christ, was Emmanuel. God with us. The very fact that His name was
God with us. Look also at Philippians. And if you guys have any questions
or have any comments, feel free to jump right in. And you're always welcome to
speak up and mention anything you want. in the New Brothers. Philippians chapter 2, look at
verse 5 and verse 6. It says, Let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now, let me just say this in
passing here. If you look at modern translations
of the Bible, you will find that that does not say that. It says,
who thought equality with God is something that could not be
grasped. That is the exact opposite of what God's Word says. Those
modern translations says that Jesus could not, that equality
with God was not something that could even be grasped. But here
it says that Jesus said that it was not robbery for him to
say, I'm God. And he did say he was God. I remember one time the Jehovah's
Witnesses or the Watchtower, is that the Watchtower people?
Jehovah's Witnesses or the Watchtower people? The Watchtower people
come to my door. It was an older man and a younger
woman come to my door. Most of the time I just never
would even respond to them whenever they come to the door. But this
time the Lord had me open up the door. And just so happened
to have my Bible was laying up there on that banister. Anyway,
he came and was wanting to give me some literature, and I told
him, I said, you know, I don't want your literature. And he
said, well, how come? I said, because you're preaching a false
gospel and a false Christ. And he began to say, well, no,
I think we're all the same. We're worshiping the same God.
I said, no, sir, we're not. I said, we believe that Jesus
is God. Do you believe that? And he said,
well, we believe that he is a God, but we don't believe he is Jehovah.
And I said, well, the Bible clearly believes that. And he's like,
well, can you And he hands me his Bible and says, can you show
me that? So I started opening up the scriptures
and I started going through a lot of these places. And I showed
him, I said, you know, looky here, look at this verse. Well, what about this verse?
Well, what about this verse? What about this verse? One of the ones I
went to is this one right here. I said, look at this verse. It
says right here that he thought robbery, there would not be robbery
to be equal with God. I took him to the passage where
the Pharisees were accusing him of calling or making himself
to be God. I said, now, whenever Jesus made that statement, those
men understood that as he's saying he's God. Now, you're the one
who's saying that he's not saying that. He said, well, Jesus never
said that he was God. I said, well, I made the difference.
He said that in a lot of places, and so did God's word. But anyway,
as I took this man through these scriptures, the more scriptures
that I read, the man physically began to tremble. I mean, just
like he had Parkinson's or something really bad. He began to tremble
like this. So I don't know if it was fear. I don't know if it was a demon
that was causing him to tremble that way. I don't know what it
was, but I mean, he physically began to like, his knees knocking,
his arms shaking. And I told that young girl that
was with him, I said, I'll tell you what, part ways with this
guy and get as far away from this gospel as you can, uh, and
everything. And he just said, well, he reached
out, shake my hand and said, well, we just need to agree to
disagree. And I said, no, sir. I said,
I'm just going to completely disagree. Uh, you are preaching
the false gospel. And he turned around and he said,
well, I hope you have a good day. I said, well, sir, I pray
that you repent. And, uh, anyway, The idea that
Christ is not God is not what we believe, is not what we hope
to. We believe that Christ is God
manifested in the flesh. We don't believe that he's anything
separate from God. You know, I'm not believing that
there's God and then there's Jesus Christ who is a created
being separate from God. Now, do I believe that Jesus's
flesh and that his manhood is something that was prepared for
him? Absolutely. The Bible is very clear about
that. But I don't believe that Jesus is a created God. I don't believe that whenever
it speaks of the begottenness of Christ, that that is speaking
of begottenness as far as His deity is concerned. It's speaking,
whenever it says that He is begotten of God, it's speaking of Him
in His manhood. It was the manhood of Christ
that was begotten, okay, and God took on that flesh that He
begot, that He brought forth and that He The Bible says that
he inhabited me in my ways before
the foundation of the world, before the mountains were laid,
before anything was laid. He inhabited me. What did he
inhabit? He inhabited that manhood that
God had made for him to dwell in as the mediator, as the Christ,
as the surety for God's people. And so we see in John, we see
that God was manifested in the flesh, and that this man that
was manifested in the flesh is equal to God, because He is God. Look, if you would, back into
Ephesians, at Ephesians chapter 4. It's in chapter four, and I think
it's in chapter four. What am I looking for here? Brother, my mind was taking me
here on the squares. I thought I was on something
here. Another verse that we see about
Christ being God is found in Colossians. In Colossians chapter
1 we see, speaking of Christ Jesus, he said, Who is the image
of the invisible God? So whoever God is, in that invisible
spirit nature, that essence, that who is God.
By the way, we also don't find anywhere in Scripture where the
Bible says that the essence of God. It doesn't say that there
are one in essence. I hear that all the time in theology
books. It says there are three in persons, but one in essence.
I don't find that anywhere in Scripture. I believe that's making
more out of trying to separate the Godhead than it is in trying
to teach God as the Bible teaches, one God. But it says here, who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. So here we see that Christ is
the image of the invisible God. Also look down at verse 19. It
said, for it pleased the Father. Now, if you see the Father is
in italics there. That's not actually in the Greek. It's actually put there for translators
to put it in there for us to better read in flow what it's
saying here, but it says, but it pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. So it pleased God that all fullness
dwell in Christ Jesus. Well, what fullness? Well, that's
the fullness of the Godhead. That he is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. That's in chapter two, right? Chapter two, verse nine. It says, for in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So that would tell me
that it's not just the Word that's in Christ, it's all the Godhead
that's in Christ. Whatever that Godhead is, and
I'm not saying that I know at all what it is, I'm just saying
whatever is there, John tells us that it's the Father, Word,
and Holy Ghost, but all that is in Christ Jesus, in all the
fullness. is in Christ Jesus. All of who
God is, every attribute of God, every character of God, every
ability and power, whatever is attributed to God is in Christ
Jesus. He is God in the flesh. Now,
with that being said, now that we've kind of established that
God manifested in the flesh, Let's look at a few things. Back
in Isaiah chapter 44, we learn that the Bible tells
us that there's only one God. There's not three gods. Or as
Benny Hinn says, there's 13 or 33 or something like that. I
heard him one time say something like that. Trying to say that
each person in the Trinity had their own three separate trinities
in them. Something like that. Don't listen to Benny Hinn. John chapter, or excuse me, Isaiah
chapter 44. Look with me if you would, down
in verse 45. Or excuse me, Isaiah 44. This verse one says, Yet
now hear, O Jacob, my servant and Israel whom I have chosen.
Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the
womb which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
for thou, Jezreel, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water
upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I
will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
offspring. And they shall spring up as among
grass, as willows by the water courses. And one shall say, I
am the Lord, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob.
And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname
himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the Lord King of Israel,
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts." And if you notice there,
the Lord of hosts, that's Jehovah. The Redeemer, the Jehovah of
hosts. I am the first, and I am the
last, and beside me there is no God. Now here we see Jehovah,
and most of the time whenever we think of Jehovah, we think
of the Father, right? We think of God, pre-Christ incarnation,
right? That's kind of who we think of
normally, or what theology books have taught us, what modern Christianity
teaches us. But here we see that Jehovah
is the Redeemer. We know that Christ is the Redeemer,
right? It says here that He is the first and the last, but isn't
Christ the one who is attributed to be the Alpha and the Omega
in Revelation? Isn't He the one attributed to
be the first and the last? He says, and besides Me, who? The Lord of hosts. Jehovah of
hosts, the Redeemer. There is no God. And who is I
shall call and shall declare it and set it. Matter of fact,
before I move on to that, who also is the one who created everything,
right? Thus saith the Lord that made
thee and formed thee from the womb. He's the one who created
everybody. I appointed the ancient people
and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show
unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid, have not I told thee
from that time, and have declared it, ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Yea,
there is no God, I know not any. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit.
are their own witnesses. They see not nor know that they
may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god or molten,
a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his
fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men.
Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall
fear, and they shall be ashamed together." So brethren, there is no other
gods besides God. There's only one God. The Hindus,
they have their, however many, 153,000, however many gods that
they have. Muslims have all of the Buddhists. I mean, all these people have
their gods. They're not gods. They're not
real gods. They're fake gods. They're things
that man make up in their imaginations because they have suppressed
the truth and they have began to worship the creation rather
than the creator. They have gone away and said,
we don't want the God of the Bible, so we're going to make
a God in our own image. We're going to make a God after
our own liking. We want to set up a God like we like. And brother,
listen, it's no different in the umbrella of Christianity.
There are modern people who call themselves Christians who have
set up a Christ and a Jesus of their own making. A God who supposedly
loves everybody, a Jesus who supposedly died for everybody,
a salvation that is supposedly for everybody, but yet the Scriptures
don't teach that. The Scriptures are very clear
that God does not love everybody, that He has loved His elect from
everlasting, that He hates all the non-elect, that He has created
them as vessels of destruction, and that He has sent His Son
to redeem His people only? And so we see that the God that
is built up, and even among modern Christianity, is just a false
God. But there is only one God. God
says there is only one. Him. Him. Christ Jesus, the God
of the Bible. That's the only God that there
is. Look over in chapter 45. in verse 21. He says, I tell ye, and bring
them near, yea, let them take counsel together who have declared
this from ancient time, who have told it from that time, and have
not I the Lord? Again, that is the Word of Jehovah.
And there is no God else besides Me. And look at this. This is
what really stood out to me in this verse. A just God and Savior. There is none besides Me." We
know that the term Savior there is always used in connection
with the man Jesus Christ. It's always in connection with
His mediatorial work, His substitutionary work as the Savior, as the Anointed
One of God, as the Christ. But that's being attributed to
Jehovah. It's being attributed to as the only God. And there
is no God else besides Him, Christ, the Savior. But it says here,
just God and Savior. The one that really Deuteronomy, if you would. Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter
6. Look with me if you would, verse 4. Now this is probably
the most famous verse to all of us. What do they call that? Come on, help me out here, brother.
Deuteronomy 6, 4, whenever you get there. What is it they call
that? The Hebrew something. Shema. The Hebrew Shema. Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Now, it says there
again, that's the word Jehovah. And this is the name that God
revealed to Moses, right? This is the name that whenever
Moses said, you know, who are you? What's your name? Whenever
I go down and tell him who sent me, he said, he said, this is
my name. Okay. Hear, O Israel, the Jehovah our
God is one Jehovah. There's only one Jehovah. There's
not three Jehovah's. There's not thirteen Jehovah's.
There's not a lot of spokes leading to the one Jehovah. And all these
little Jehovah's that are out there all lead to the main Jehovah.
There's not that. There's only one Jehovah. Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord, is one. Look at chapter
4. a few pages in your Bible to
chapter 4, verse 35. It says, verse 35, unto thee
it was shown that thou mightest know that the Lord Jehovah, He
is God, and there is none else beside Him. So brethren, I clearly believe
that our God is one God. And I know that that's been taught
all down through history, that we have one God. But as I mentioned,
I think while we say that, we try to keep this Athanasian,
Nicene understanding, Catholic understanding of the Trinity
by saying, yeah, we have one God, but they're split into three
persons. And these three persons are individual. I'm not saying stuff that I'm...
These are things that men have actually told me. That I've read
in the theology books, in the systematic theology books. And
that I myself have once held to. That they are three individual,
distinct beings. Have you ever looked up what
the word being means? Have you ever looked up what
the word distinct and individual means? If something is an individual,
that means that it stands alone apart from somebody else. Brother
Larry is an individual, but he's not Mike. Mike is an individual, but Marks
are not Mark. Okay? That would be three individual,
distinct beings. But the Bible says that there's
only one God, and that God who is invisible, by the way, is
only seen and only visible in the body of the man Jesus Christ. So to me, the Bible speaks more
clearly of a unity of God than it does in the separation of
trying to separate three persons and trying to prove it by verses
where God spoke out of heaven, Christ was being baptized, the
dove came down. Hey, listen, if Christ can be
on earth speaking to people and at the same time He says that
the Son of Man is also in heaven, How is the son of man standing
on earth and the son of man also in heaven? That's a mystery to
me. I don't know, but it says the
son of man is in heaven while he was talking on earth. That's
a mystery. I don't go any further than what
the Bible says. I don't want to speak anything less than the
Bible says. All I know is somehow Christ as the son of man can
be both in heaven and on earth at the same time. So why could
he not as God, deity, be speaking out of heaven to God in flesh
on earth. This is my beloved son. Well,
who's he speaking of? He's speaking of the humanity,
the manhood that has taken on the invisible God, or excuse
me, the invisible God that has taken on flesh as the Christ,
as the mediator, as the one God is mediating his own people in
that flesh. I don't know how else to explain
it. I may not even be able to explain it very well. And this
may be as confusing to everybody else as it's probably been to
me as I've been studying it. But brethren, all I can say is
that to me, there's only one God and that God is manifest
in Christ. And you can put me in whatever
group you want to put me in, I don't care. I do somewhat care,
but I mean, If anybody says they don't care, they're just lying
to themselves, because everybody kind of cares what other people
think of them. But I'm more interested in being biblical than I am fitting
into groups. So we see that God is one. We
see that God is manifested in the man Jesus Christ. But what
of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit? Is Christ, and
does the Bible attribute those three record bearers to that
man Jesus Christ? Well, I believe they do. Look
in, again, look in... I tell you what, since you're
already in the Old Testament, let's just start in the Old Testament. Isaiah... 46, I believe it is. I'm getting better at remembering. I just can't remember the verses this
morning. I even wrote some of them down. Some of you remember where the passage
is that speaks of that his name shall be called Emmanuel, the
everlasting Father. Oh, I'm having a brain block
here. Sorry, guys. Bear with me. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, sorry
about that. It says, For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, Again, I think all of us are
probably in agreement that this is speaking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, right? Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Notice that the child that was
born, this is just a side issue on this Christ manhood issue. Just notice that the child that
was born was the son that was given. He was already the son
before he was a child. he already had took on that manhood
before he was born as a child. Because the son was given in
the child that was born. It says, for unto us a child
was born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulders. I don't think anybody would disagree that the
government of God's kingdom is Christ, right? He is the one
who is the governor of the kingdom. The government shall be upon
his shoulders. But I would also say that all governments are
on his shoulders as well. He has set up and tore down every
government that has ever existed. This government that we have,
God has set this government up. I know we don't like it. I know
we hate the evil that's coming out of it. But God has set this
government up. Every ruler, every leader, everything
God has predestinated and God has set these up. The government,
whether it be the spiritual government or whether it be the civil government,
physical government of the world, all of them are on the shoulder
of Christ Jesus. But it says, and the government
shall be upon His shoulders and His name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor. Now wait a minute. That word counselor there, that word counselor is a term that
to me has indicative nature of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is our counselor. But it says here that Christ
is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God. And I've looked that
up in there to see if the word be there, what kind of word that
was. It's a definite article. It's
not just the mighty God, it's the mighty God. Meaning, the
mighty God, the only mighty God, the one and only mighty God. As opposed to anybody else, He
is the mighty God. So whenever the Bible speaks
of God, that's who He's talking about, the mighty God. Definite
article there, the. The mighty God, But here's the
one that has always squirreled me up in the past, and I'm just
praying what I'm saying is not against the truth. It says, The
Everlasting Father. It would be different if you
said, The Timely Father, or The Father of All His Children. But it says, The Everlasting
Father. Now, is there two Everlasting
Fathers? Is there the Everlasting Father
who was the Father in the Godhead, and the Everlasting Father who
is Christ? Who is the Everlasting Father?
There's only one Everlasting Father that I know of, but it
attributes that to Christ. I know I've read all the commentaries
by men who try to attribute that to something less than God, that
this is His his being the father of all his people in the aspects
of salvation and everything. But brethren, it says the everlasting
father, and that definite article is the same as the mighty God.
I mean, that the means the one and only. This the right in front
of everlasting father is the exact same definite article that's
in front of the mighty God. So if he is the mighty God, the
one and only God, then he is the one and only everlasting
father. The Prince of Peace. Also in Isaiah 7, verse 14. Now that's what you're saying
about Christ being represented there. Would you like to read
that? Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Amen. Amen. Yeah, Emmanuel. It means God with us. The virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,
who is God with us." God came in the flesh by way of Mary. The Bible says that the Spirit
overshadowed Mary and that Christ was conceived in Mary. He wasn't
conceived by any man. really conceived of Mary was
conceived of the Holy Ghost. I know some men, especially men
that we have known in the past and preachers that we've encountered,
has said that the Holy Spirit overcome Mary and put him in
the womb and that he has been, that he has been, I can't remember
the exact phrase they used, but basically that there was like
seven times he had been cleansed. The Holy Spirit had overshadowed
him and he was cleansed seven times. That's why he could be
born from Mary but not be of Adam. There's nothing in the
scripture that says that. It just says that the Holy Spirit
overshadowed her and that what was conceived in her was of the
Holy Spirit. We know that Christ did not get
his manhood from man. He did not get his manhood from
Mary. Otherwise he would have been of the earth earthy. He
would have been of Adam. Now he was of the legal lineage
of David. He was of the legal lineage because
he come from the womb. That was the legal thing. If
you come from the womb, you're considered to be this man's legal
thing. If you remember the, uh, uh, was it the Shulamite priest?
Uh, the order of that? I may be wrong on that, but anyway,
it was if, If a man died and his brother come and took his
wife and had a son, that son was considered to carry on his
dad's lineage, not his uncle's, but his dad's lineage. Well,
he didn't come from his dad's loins. Well, how did he come?
He come from his uncle's loins. But he did it because it was
the legal way of carrying on the lineage. Well, Jesus, because
he was born a woman, was born of Mary, was in the legal line,
and therefore, that's not contradictory to everything that shows the
lineage of Jesus Christ. But he doesn't have to get his
manhood from Mary to have that. If he had his manhood from Mary,
then 1 Corinthians 15 is wrong. He is not the man from heaven,
he is the man from earth. Okay, so we gotta let the Bible
clear up a lot of these theological books, right? Let the Bible be
true. But yes, brother, that is that
is a great verse that he is God with us, Emmanuel and everything. Also in John chapter 10, we find
something. If you think of any more verses,
we should hop around. John chapter 10. We can go round and round about
these verses here. Jesus said, I and the Father,
or my Father, are one. and because that thou, being
a man, makest thyself God." That's what I was speaking about. That's
one of the verses I was reading to that Jehovah's Witness guy.
And I said right here, those men, whenever Jesus said, I and
my Father are one, they did not think he was saying we are one
in essence. They are thinking, we're fixing
to pick up stones and we're going to stone you. for blaspheming
by saying that you are God. We understand you. Whenever you
say that you are one, you're saying that you're God. But Jesus
was saying that He was God. He was proclaiming that He was
God. Look over in chapter 14, verse 9. It said, Jesus saith
unto him, Have I been so long with you? This is whenever he
was talking with Thomas. Remember, whenever Thomas, after
Jesus' resurrection, Thomas was a man I, you know, or was it
Thomas? No, this was Philip. This was
with Philip, not Thomas. I'm sorry. Got my, got my disciples
mixed up. This is with Philip. Philip was
saying, hey, Lord, you know, show us the Father and we'll
believe it. If you'll show, if you'll show
us the Father. What did Jesus say in verse nine? Have I been
so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
Wait, he said, he just asked I mean, someone on the sideline
there said, Whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Jesus, did you
not hear Philip's question? Philip said, Can you show me
the Father? Yeah, we've seen you. We've been with you. We
know you. But he asked if we could see the Father. Would you
show us the Father? Jesus did make a mistake. He
didn't mishear, right? He said, Have I been so long
with you? And yet has thou not known me, Philip? He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father?" Well, why did Jesus say that? Was He saying
because I am the Father? You know, me and my Father have
the same essence. Okay? We are three persons in
one essence. Is that what He said? No. He
said, I and my Father are one. And if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. Why? Because all the fullness
of the Godhead, Father, Word, and Holy Spirit dwells in me. Psalms 18. Find some other interesting
verses here. Psalms 18 verse 31. It says, For who is God, save
the Jehovah, the Lord. For who is God, save the Lord.
For who is a rock, save our God. Who's the rock? It's Christ, right? He is the
stone of stumbling. Jesus said, whenever he asked,
who do men say that I am? What did Peter say? Thou art
Christ, son of the living God. What did Jesus say? Upon this
rock, He wasn't talking about Peter, right? He was talking
about all them popes that were going to come from Peter, right?
No. He was talking about Christ. Jesus was talking about Himself.
He said, upon this declaration, upon this truth, upon this doctrine,
that I am Christ, the Son of the living God, upon this rock,
I will build my church. The very fact that the church
would come into being, would be built up by Him, was based
upon the fact that there was a mediator between God and man. Without that mediatorial ship,
it was all going to be wrath against mankind. But praise God
before the foundation of the world, God loved us with an everlasting
love and chose us in Christ Jesus, who is our surety. Jesus said, Let me go. Send me, and I will
go. And if I do not come and bring
them back, let that blood be upon my hands." Remember Benjamin? Judah. Judah made the pledge.
We see that when we look past the physical part and look to
the spiritual part of that. Judah pledged to his father,
said, let me go. I will take Benjamin, and if
I do not come and bring him back with me. Benjamin was with him. We are with Christ in God. Right? We're in Him. And He went. He lived the obedience for us. He died the death that should
have been ours. The substitutionary work in obedience
and in death Christ did on our behalf as our mediator, as our
surety. So we went with Him. And we were
brought back with Him. Just as Julia went with Benjamin
and came back with Benjamin. Brother, a beautiful picture
of Christ's surety ship. And He is that God. He says here
that He, verse 31, is the rock. Who is a rock? Save our God. There is no other God but the
rock. Look at Psalms 95, verse 1. I
used to have this on a business card back whenever I traveled
in the Southern Gospel Group. Put this on my business card
one time. Psalm 95 verse 1 says, O come,
let us sing unto the Lord. That word again, Jehovah. Let
us make a joyful noise. To who? To the rock of our salvation. Jesus Christ is here again, shown
to be that Jehovah God. Now, I think everybody's alright
with that and good with the Bible's teaching on that, right? We ought
to be, because God said it, right? And I don't think I've tried
to throw that out too far. Out of the ordinary, just trying
to stick with the Scriptures again. But what about whenever
it comes to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit? A lot of times we attribute
Christ and God together, Christ and the Father together, but
what about the Holy Spirit? Does the Bible say anything about
the Holy Spirit being attributed to being Christ? Well, look with
me if you would to Romans. We'll read a few verses here,
and if you ask again, Have any that you can think of or come
up with? I'll be glad that you have all
the time you want to read them and discuss them. Romans chapter
8, and look with me if you would at verse 9. It says, But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the, here it is,
Spirit of God. So here we see that the Spirit
is called the Spirit of God. dwell in you. Now, if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So now the
Spirit of God is also called the Spirit of Christ. It's Christ's
Spirit. So now the Holy Spirit is attributed
to Christ. Look at verse 10, and if Christ
be in you, wait a minute, I thought the Holy Spirit was in me. I've
always been told that the Holy Spirit indwells me. But now you're
saying, did Christ be in you? Christ is in me. Well, how is
Christ in me? Well, because the Holy Spirit's
in you. Wait, I thought they were two
separate, individual, distinct beings, persons. Nope, they're
one God. They're one God. And God has come, not in the
flesh, but has come in the Spirit. and indwelt you, and that spirit
is the spirit of Christ, who is God, who is the manifestation
of God. Now, don't get me wrong when
I say manifestation of God, because some people are going to say
I'm a modalist. I'm saying this, that God was manifested in the
flesh. Was that not what our scripture verse that we began
with said? That great is the mystery of God, and God was manifested
in the flesh. That's what I'm trying to get
across, is that everything that we know about God and who all
God is, in that divine Godhead, it is in Christ. There's the
unity of God, and that unity is found in Christ. So I think
whenever the Bible says, and again, this is what I understand,
and again, I could be wrong, you go and search the Scriptures
to find out whether these things are true. But whenever the Bible
says that these three that bear record in heaven, these three
are one, I believe it means these three are one in Christ Jesus. He says, if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, well, wait a minute. Who
raised up Jesus from the dead? Here's where we kind of get into
a little mix-up, mash-up thing. The Bible tells us that the Father
raised the Son up, right? But we also see in Scripture
where the Bible says that the Son raised Himself up. Right? The Son raised Himself up. So
the Father raised up Jesus, but the Bible also says Jesus raised
up Jesus, that He raised Himself from the dead. But now, with
that being said, it's saying here that the Spirit of Him who
raised up Jesus be in you. So here we see the Holy Spirit
is attributed to the Father. It's attributed to the Son. And
it's attributed to Himself, the Spirit of God. So we see all
three of the Godhead is in unity here. And each one of those Godhead
titles is pointed to the man, Jesus Christ. It's attributed
to Him. Look at Galatians chapter 1.
I had a guy point out to me one time, and I did it. He said,
underline the Spirit every time it's mentioned in chapter 8.
And it's 16 times, with a capital S, Spirit. 16 times in chapter
8. The Romans. It says in verse 16, the Spirit
itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. That's the Holy Spirit. It bears
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. But
it bears witness of Christ, right? We are Christ's children. But
we learn that Christ is also the Counselor. Who's the one
that counsels us? Who's the one that counsels you
that you're a child of God? It's Christ, through the Spirit.
I mean, yeah, everywhere down through there that talks about
the Spirit. He that searches the hearts knows that that what
is the mind of the Spirit. Doesn't the Bible say that Jesus
Christ, that as Christ, the Bible says that the word come out of
His mouth like a double-edged sword, dividing even soul and,
I don't want to misquote it, bone and marrow and everything
like that. I mean, He's the discerner of the thoughts of men and the
thoughts of God. It means Christ that does that, but yet here
it's attributed to the Spirit, who is that. That's good, brother. In Galatians
chapter 1, verse 1 says, Paul, an apostle,
not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father,
who raised Him from the dead. So here we see that God the Father
raised Christ from the dead. You say, well, it's making a
distinction there, preacher. that He was an apostle, not of
men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised Him from the dead. Just because that says that doesn't
mean that they're not in unity. We learn that the Father is Christ
Jesus, the everlasting Father. We learn that Jesus Christ is
the One who raised Himself from the dead. So who is it that raised
himself from the dead? Well, God did. God raised him
from the dead. But let's not be bashful about
it, that all who God is, whether it be God Father, God Spirit,
God Word, was in Christ Jesus. Back again in John chapter 10.
I've just got a few more over here. John chapter 10 and verse
17. It says, therefore does my Father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it up
again. Very clear right there. Who took
it up again? Jesus. I lay down my life that I might
take it up again. Look at verse 18. No man take it from me, but I
lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Okay? So Jesus now is the one
taking Himself up again. And He said He even got that
commandment from the Father. Well, who gave the commandment?
Well, God gave the commandment. Well, who did He give the commandment
to? The Christ. The man who was God manifested
in the flesh. He gave the command that He could
take up His own life. He gave Him the power over all
flesh. He had power over His own flesh?
I believe He did. He could take up His own flesh. the end. Now, here's the one
that took me a little while for the Lord to kind of straighten
out in my mind, because I had this so mixed up for so long.
And a lot of men use this as a proof of the separateness of
Jesus and the Spirit and the Trinity, this Trinity, this affirmation
view of the Trinity. They say this is proof that Jesus
and the Spirit are not the same person. Now we've just read several
verses that show that they are. But here they come to John chapter
14 and in verse 15. They say, all three of the Trinity
is found here and they're separate. It says, and I will pray the
Father and He shall give you another Comforter that He may
abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive Because it saith him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you." Now, at that point they say, see there, you have the
Father who is being prayed to by the Son that the Holy Spirit
might be sent as the Counselor. There's the three persons, distinct
individual persons of the Trinity here. And you see that they are
separate persons because Jesus said, I'm going to send you another
comforter." Now, in our Bibles here, the word comforter is capitalized
because it's speaking of the Holy Spirit of God, right? He's
going to send you another comforter. So, I don't have any problem
with anything that's similar because God said it. And I will
pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter that
He may abide with you forever. Who had been their comforter
up to this point? Jesus. Why? Because He was with them.
He was with them all along. Teaching them. Instructing them. Keeping them safe. He pulled
Peter from sinking out of the depths, right? Whenever Peter
tried to walk across the water and come to him, pulled him out
of the depths. He kept the religious leaders
from killing him and everybody else along with him up to a certain
point, right? Jesus had been their Comforter. He'd been teaching them the things
of the kingdom. Preaching to them things of the
kingdom of God. assuring them of the salvation
that was theirs. He was their comforter, but now
he said, I'm going to send another comforter. So everyone thinks,
well, that's going to be the Holy Spirit. So look if you would,
verse 18. Just right after he said that,
he says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will company you. Jesus now is saying, I'm not
going to leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Well, how's
he coming to them? He's coming to them as the Spirit
of Christ. Now see, brethren, to me, that
is more a type unity of the Godhead, of who God is, than three separate
individual beings. And so again, I'm not trying
to deny the Trinity, and I'm not saying I know how it all
works beyond the realms that we cannot see. I'm just trying
to say what the Bible says and say it to the length that the
Bible says and no further, is that to me there is more of a
unity in the God that we really are not tapping into what is
being revealed and we're going more about what some Athanasian
creed or some Nicene creed has been preaching to us through
theologians through all the ages who wants to make this to be
some individual three-headed God. And I don't think that the
Bible is as clear on that as people make it out to be. Could
there be three divine persons with one essence? I don't know. The Bible doesn't clearly say
that. So I will stick with what the Bible does say, but I know
one thing. Everybody does not preach and
teach enough on the unity of God than they do on the division.
Whenever I hear people preach the Trinity, It's always to separate
them three. Have you all seen the little
symbol that everybody presses around about the Trinity? It
said, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And it says, the Father is not
the Son, is not the Holy Spirit, who is not the Father. And all
of them point into God. You know, the Father is God,
the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, but this one is not that
one. Well, to me, when I look at that,
that is completely antithetical to what we've seen in the Scriptures.
I mean, the Son The Bible says, is the everlasting Father and
is the spirit counselor that He sends to His people. That
He is the Word. That He is God. The Father is
God. The Holy Spirit is God. But these
three that bear record in heaven are one in Christ Jesus. So I would put Jesus Christ at
the center. And I would put the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Holy Spirit
is God, the Son is God, and all of these are found in Christ. He is the One. Now, with that
being said, who is the One that we are going to see in Heaven
on the throne? Are we going to see three persons?
Are there going to be three thrones up there? Is there going to be
one throne and there's going to be The father sitting up there
and then Jesus standing at his side and some little cloud hovering
over next to him, a dove maybe. We got a dove over here and some
cloud that's invisible, which is the father and then Jesus.
I mean, how's it going to work? All I know is the Bible says
that there's one who sat in the midst of the throne. The one
who had the scroll that no man could open, but who opened it?
The one who sat on the throne, Jesus. The Bible says that there
was one who was in the midst of the throne, and who was it?
The Lamb that was slain. Who is that? That's Jesus. The
Bible says that the one who sat on the throne was the one who
made all things. He was the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning, the
End. That all people that was being worshipped in that throne
room, around that throne, was saying, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Well, who is that? Well, John tells us back in Isaiah
that that was Jesus Christ that was sitting on the throne. That
was back in Isaiah's day. So in case people didn't believe
that Jesus was there, He was there. So there's overwhelming
evidence that our worship is directed to Christ, because He
is the invisible God made manifest. Now I don't think we need to
go a whole lot further than that, but brethren, there's a couple
other verses that clearly show us these things about Christ
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 11. Searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ was in them did signify when
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and of the glory that
should follow. What is that talking about? It's
talking about the Old Testament believers, right? They had the
Spirit of Christ in them. Wait a minute, I thought Christ
wasn't there yet. They had the Spirit of Christ. So obviously,
the Spirit who is eternal was in them, and yet it was the
Spirit of Christ. Again, God was manifesting Himself
in Christ Jesus, whether it was the Spirit manifesting, whether
it was the Word manifesting, whether it was the Father manifesting,
all the manifestations of the record bearers in heaven, We're
all making record and bearing witness of one person, and that's
Jesus Christ. The Spirit, back in the Old Testament,
was testifying of Christ. The Father, whether it be in
the Old Testament or whether it be in the New Testament, was
bearing witness of who? Jesus Christ. The Word of God,
who does it testify of? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is
the center point of everything, whether it be the Old Testament,
the New Testament, Or whether it be of the Godhead, Jesus Christ
is the center point of all of it. So I think that we, I think we
do a disservice to the preaching of the unity of God whenever
we try to make God into, break Him up into disunity, when the
Bible overwhelmingly is making it unified, more unified than
it is. All right, well, that's about
all I can think of, brother. At least all the ones that I
wrote down that I could think of. There's probably a lot more.
I mean, I know there's a lot more. I mean, there's a lot of
scriptures that talk about one God. There's a bunch of verses
that... Matter of fact, there's a verse in the New Testament,
I tried to look it up right before we started this morning, and
I couldn't find it, that said, where Christ actually said that
the Father is in me, or the Father who dwells in me, So the Father, I had a guy tell
me one time, the Father doesn't dwell in the Son. The Son has
the fullness of the Godhead, but the Father doesn't actually
dwell in the Son. And the scriptures are very clear.
He said, the Father who dwelleth in me. And I just couldn't, I
forgot where that was at. I couldn't find it to write it
down. Of course, you've seen, I've already forgotten half the
stuff that I was going to say. Anybody have anything? Brother,
would you like to speak up on anything? I know there's a lot
of disagreement. I found this very helpful because
I've struggled with this myself. And there's been a lot of argumentation
amongst the Brethren about it. But it's been very helpful. you know and also one other scripture
comes to my mind when he's talking about the thief on the cross
this way thou shalt be with me in paradise that kind of answers
that question you know because if God is omnipotent and omniscient
and if Christ is not separate from so those are two things distinct from, you know, Pink
in his book, The Holy Spirit, kind of separates things and
he talks about all the functions of the Holy Spirit and I think
that your point is well taken because if you try to make the
Holy Spirit having completely separate functions from the Godhead,
that kind of brings that into play, so if not, it's a very
good study. You know, one of the arguments
that I think of, now that you say that, is, you know, they
always try, when I'm speaking of the churning, sorry, I spit
on the wall myself, they always say, you know, in breaking down
the churning, they say, well, you know, the Father elected,
the Son redeemed, and the Holy Spirit applied, you know. But
yet, in some of the verses that we've seen here, we've seen that
the, of course we know the election of God, We see that, but we also
see that God was also involved in the redeeming. He said that Jehovah was the
Redeemer, the Savior. Well, those terms are attributed
to Jesus. So, that's why I say I think
it's more complex than just the basic Trinity model that we're man in his own image well michael
smith has a mind a soul and spirit and all all of our all of mike's
mind is mike's mind and his soul is like soul and his spirit is
and it's all one you know yes well that i mean it's uh um you
know you think about uh uh think about how God works in
everything, and we try to, you know, like I said, we put him
in a separate category here, and then we put him in a separate
category here, and then we put him in a separate category here,
and I can see where the person says, well now, you know, you're
saying that it's all the same person, now he's acting in different
modes, therefore you're a modalist. And I say, well I'm not exactly
saying that, I'm just saying that God acts, that these are
three titles that are given, that God has revealed himself
as, And that in these, just like Jesus, prophet, priest, and king.
Well, Jesus wasn't three persons. He wasn't, there's a prophet,
and then a priest, and then a king, and then three separate individual
beings. There's one person, but there's three offices or titles
that he held, and he acted as a prophet. He's our preacher,
he's our teacher. He's our priest, he's the one
who went before God with the sacrifice, and he's our king,
he's the ruler over all things. Those are titles, but not three
distinct individuals. as I understand it, that's how
God, or the Bible is describing God as Father, Word, and Holy
Spirit, that these three witnesses are bearing record of Christ,
whether it's the Father, in all of what He does as the Father,
or whether it's the Word, and all that the Word does, or all
of the Spirit, and all that the Spirit does. And how God does
that together, and that's why I say, to me it's more complex
than just saying, well, the Father has His part of redemptive plan
to do, and then Christ has his job, and then Holy Spirit has
his job, and these three have to get their jobs done. Well,
you make a really good point about the history of the Trinitarian
doctrine originating from the Athanasian and Nicene creeds,
and that's a Roman Catholic origin. So it's a relatively young kind
of idea that is not the historical position at all. Yeah. So, like I said, man, I
think that the Word of God should be our guide on all those things.
I'm just as guilty as anybody else, man. I love my theologians
in the day. Especially when it comes to doctrines
of grace. You know, Gil and all those guys. Man, if they said
it... Now I've got a form Okay, well
that's not what this is saying. See, what I'm doing is letting
that guy tell me what the Scriptures are saying instead of the Holy
Spirit telling me what the Scriptures say. And then checking to see
whether or not those guys are in accordance with the Scripture.
I think that the Scriptures is true and we're not. So, I think
you kids especially need to learn that from an early age is that
all men are fallible and all men are being taught of God and
they're growing in the grace and knowledge of God. What I
preach and believe now is not even fully the same that I believe
when I first came to Joplin, matter of fact. There's been
several things that I've come and repented of and turned from
and had to teach differently as the Lord's given me an understanding
of things. It's pretty tough on the old
pride when you've got to go back and do that. I know I preached this once,
but here's what the Lord's showing me now and everything. That's
why we always go to the Word of God to look for that because
all of us grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
as He teaches us and everything. And it's a wonderful thing. I'm
glad the Lord's continuing to teach me that I'm not left out.
I know some preachers that they're stagnant. They're still saying
the same thing they said 50 years ago and their minds don't get
changed about nothing no matter what you try to tell them. I
mean, even this very issue here, whether it's this, whether it's
God the author of sin, I've had conversations with preachers
that I know have been preachers for years and years and years
and years, and they don't even want to entertain the thought because it goes against
their theology. It goes against what they've
been teaching. Now they're going to have to say, oh, that book
that I wrote or that study lesson that I drew up, that outline
that I made, or that sermon that I preached, it's all going to
be wrong and everything. Well, if it is, that's all right.
Be wrong. mean nobody's perfect and everybody's
learning so just say it and go on stick with truth but know
that that you know those things that that we learn we learn because
the spirit teaches us so always look for the spirit and the word
of god to be our guide not not everybody's good as larry is
mark and me and anybody else that preaches or teaches or anything
like that Hey, we're not God. We're not all-knowing and we
don't have it all figured out and everything. Listen to my
preaching. Quite a bit you'll figure out.
I don't have a lot of stuff figured out. And most of the time I can't
get it out very well either. It's all jumbled mess. But I
pray the Spirit will be your teacher. Because it doesn't matter
about the ability of men. You don't have to be a great
orator to be a preacher. You don't have to be called of
a seminary or called of academics or have the voice of Adrian Rogers
and the intellect of John Gill to be able to be a gospel preacher. Robert made a good point. Made me really do a double take
on some of the things I had thought in the past. He talked about
the covenant between the Godhead. And he said, have you ever thought
about if the Godhead doesn't need to have a contract between
the three of themselves? He said that God is in perfect
unity. They don't have to strike an
agreement between them. Absolutely. Actually, all the
covenants that God made was never a conditional contract or conditional
covenant. The covenant that God made, and
I used to say this, you may have probably heard it too in your
years among other beliefs and stuff. we would always say that
a covenant is always a contract between two people. Well, that's
not true. A covenant is just God declaring
that this, I'm gonna do something. Yes, a decree that God has covenanted.
And we learn in the Bible that he's covenanted and he has swore
by his own name that this is what I'm gonna do. So the everlasting
covenant wasn't a covenant between the Trinity, it was a covenant
of God saying this is what we're, this is what I'm gonna do. And
yeah, I don't agree with that. In fact, I was reading somebody
just.