BY HAROLD LEE
Turn over to Jude chapter 1.
Brethren, we have seen in the recent history of God’s Church, we’ve seen major defections from the truth that was delivered to us from God’s Word and from His true teachers. And I don’t know. The last couple of days I’ve been a little bit—I don’t know—reflective about that, but I’m looking back at the time that’s passed since the mid-eighties. And now with the lens of this twenty years, we can see that the seeds for what was to follow had already been sown even back then. And, again, as you dig out things or look over things, you can see that the seeds were sown long before even that. We can see now that there were men among God’s Church that had coveted the power and had wanted followings all along.
Jude 1 verse 3, it says
Jude 1:3. Beloved, while I
was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it
necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints.
I don’t want to digress here. It’s not part of the sermon, but this word
“once for all delivered” means it’s a single event in time. And, in your own study, the same word is
actually translated in three subsequent verses; Hebrews
Verse 4.
Jude 1:4. For certain men
have crept in unnoticed,
While, as I mentioned, there were probably many signs leading up to the defections that were to take place, they—I think—almost went unnoticed. And the fatal crack—I don’t know if you would call it the watershed event and this is just my opinion—came with the publishing and the distribution of the book God Is …. This booklet then went on to, in my opinion, rip up the foundational truths that we had come to understand about God and God’s Family.
Even in the world, worldly generals and military tacticians know that if you want to take out an army, all you have to do is take out the head of that army. That army, then, can no longer function. And to kill the body, what better way would there be than to attack God directly, to discredit God, and to discredit Jesus Christ? And once that’s done, the body would die. Convince us that God wasn’t who He said He was. Convince us that Jesus Christ didn’t really do what He did for us and the body would just go away. And there were those that took that poison—and in my opinion—wrote a very tragic chapter in the history of God’s Church.
Jude 1:4. For certain men
have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation,
ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness
“We’re not under the Law. We’re under grace. Quit trying to keep the Law. God’s grace is sufficient. When you try to keep that, you’re just being self-righteous,” they say.
Jude 1:4b. and deny the only
Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s the end, to deny God and Jesus Christ.
“Jesus Christ isn’t who you thought He was. He wasn’t dead. Only His human persona was. God can’t die,” were the things that were being said. “He didn’t really do what you think He did.” And those that have weathered the storm, or at least that storm, have seen that this assault hasn’t stopped.
Brethren, we’re all vulnerable. And to this day, even today, we see the resurgence of the —and I’m going to just give it a label—“Christ was a created being,” bantered about. That’s the other form of God Is …. We’re trying to recreate what God very clearly tells us He is in His plan. And I think that that continues to threaten and to unsettle the Church as long as God allows Satan to do that.
And that leads to the question: What can we do to prevent ourselves from falling prey to this deception? Has God left us without a defense? Today I’d like to take a closer look at this and refresh in our minds the causes of it, the defensive measures, and the tools that we have so that we can be sure that we’re not swept away by those heresies that seem to so easily beset God’s people.
Turn over to a very familiar Scripture in Genesis 3. I don’t know if you’ve ever considered this, but this is the first—I’m going to say the first treatise on God Is …. Prior to this incident, if you will remember, the one that became Jesus the Christ spent time in a very personal, I believe, one-on-one training with human beings. He revealed Himself to them. He even offered salvation to them as we can see by the fact that He offered them the Tree of Life. He gave them everything that they could possibly need that was good for them, anything that was good for their minds, that was good for their bodies. And anything that would harm them, He made them aware of it and set it off limits.
God was more than just a thundering presence. He was their friend. He was their companion. He was their teacher. Remember, He even shared part of the post-creation work. He brought the animals to Adam. He wanted Adam involved in that. In todays speak, He wanted Adam invested in the creation. He wanted him to feel that he was not just watching it, but he was a participant in it, not just a recipient, but a participant.
Have you ever considered that the love of God that He had for them He wanted them involved with what He was doing? He put them in the garden, this beautiful garden that He had created. He put them in a garden to dress and keep. Now, how do you think they learned how to dress and keep?
I have to tell you I’ve got some roses at the house. I can’t even trim a rose bush. When I do, it comes out looking like it’s gone through the war. And, if I don’t, the buds get old and start to fall off. I don’t think there’s something innate in us. I think there was some instruction on that.
I don’t think you just say, “Go dress and keep this,” and not tell them how to do it, how to go about it. They were given instruction. And I don’t believe it was in a class lecture. I think it was in walking and talking with Him and watching Him. Consider that they were apprenticing under the very Creator of all things.
We don’t know how much time elapsed until this incident that we’re about to read occurred. Some think it was within the following week. And, again, this is just my opinion. The Bible doesn’t tell us. I think it was some amount of time, perhaps a few months, or maybe even a few years.
We have come to realize over the last years that Satan is a tool that God uses. He’s not running out there independently doing his own thing. He’s a tool that God has used. And I personally think before God would allow Satan to have access that He would make sure that they would have the defensive mechanism in place through training that He would do. And, again, this is just Harold’s opinion, but I just looking at the way God works, I don’t think He would sick Satan on them right out of the shoot. I believe they came to have a relationship with Him, to see Him, and to know Him, to know they could trust Him, and to know they could believe Him and what He said. And I think that takes an amount of time just as we with our relationships with one another. It takes us a while to come to see another person’s characteristics, because we are human. But, again, I think there was enough time that passed for them to have the exposure that they would have that.
Remember again, it was God that allowed Satan to meet with them and attempt to deceive Eve. And, again, I don’t think it would have occurred until sufficient time had elapsed. Remember, “God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.” I’ll just refer to this, 1 Corinthians 10:13, it says
1 Corinthians 10:13. No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to
be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to
bear it. 14) Therefore, my beloved, flee from
idolatry.
So again, there is a mechanism in place. We’re not helpless. Thankfully, we’re not helpless to Satan’s wiles! God allows it to exercise, to test, to purify us.
Genesis 3 verse 1, it says
Genesis 3:1. Now the serpent
was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And
he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of
the garden’?” 2) And the woman said to
the serpent,
And, again, I think this is because of, perhaps, the trust. And I do know that a lot of the training went directly to Adam, perhaps even before she was created. I don’t know. But she said
Genesis 3:2b. “We may eat
the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3)
“But of the fruit of the tree which is
in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you
touch it, lest you die.’”
Again, at this point, the humans had come to understand, I believe, God’s nature by what they had been told directly by God, what they had observed in their close contact with Him. And, again, He was their friend and their teacher and their counselor.
Now someone else comes along that teaches them the heresy that God was not what He represented. That he, the serpent, was going to teach them about the true nature of God. “Don’t believe what you’ve been told by Him. Don’t believe what you’ve experienced with Him. The truth is,” said this deceiver, “God is really not like that at all. You’ve been limited. You’ve been minimized. You’ve been lied to by Him, because He doesn’t want you to become like Him.”
Genesis 3:4. Then the
serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Again, I think, it’s not much of a stretch to here was the first God Is … treatise.
“Let me tell you what God is like.”
Genesis 3:5. “For God knows
that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil.”
And, Brethren, we have six thousand years of history to see the fruits of this. You know buying into the idea that somehow God can’t be trusted. He can’t be believed. He’s really different from what He says. And we can see it’s a dead end path. It’s only going to bring destruction and sorrow and death and hurt. And we—if I could borrow a phrase—upon whom the ends of the age have come can clearly see that it’s not just upon those that practice those, but the innocent, the children. Even unborn children that have never drawn a breath have suffered. We know from the Bible, the entire creation has suffered as a result of it.
We look back at the last twenty years at the scattering of God’s people and I think, again, we were perfectly set up for it. We personally witnessed that our teachers were not what they seemed to be. The misplaced trust that we had in them was shattered. And to many that also meant a shattering of the trust that we had placed in God and in His Word. We mistakenly felt, I believe, that we were on our own and we had to individually figure out what was truth. We sort of went back to square one. We said, “Well, you can’t believe what we’ve been taught. So let’s go back and try to rediscover.” Everyone became a source to themselves. And, again, the results are tragic. And it’s still apparent, because, Brethren, we’re scattered and heresies that were introduced into the Church haven’t stopped. In fact, it doesn’t even seem that they have slowed. The assault on God’s people continues.
Now to be sure God has allowed this, but that doesn’t decrease the danger that we have and the danger that we continue to be exposed to. As was pointed out in a recent sermon, we’re no match for Satan. In a head to head, frontal assault, we’re no match for Satan. In fact, apart from God’s Spirit and His Truth, we’re no match for any assault whether it be head on or more subtle, which we can see is one of Satan’s modes of operation. And, again, we understand there’s a purpose for it. God is in the process of producing a Family that will be tested and will be proven to remain faithful to Him and to Jesus Christ regardless of the cost.
Those of you that were around—and I think most of you were—back in that time, at least I did, when there was the first major defection, it was, we thought it was the largest wave. That’s it. We sort of weathered the storm. It’s going to be kind of calmed down now. And, again, we’ve seen it’s just the beginning in our Christian experience, just the beginning of our sorrows.
But, Brethren, we weren’t called to be swept away in a flood of heresy, but we were called to be firmly anchored in God’s Truth. Now, what tools do we have for that? What did God give us to allow us to be firmly anchored in His Truth? There’s two major tools that I’d like to just look at.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2.
First and foremost, we have to be able to perceive the spiritual. Now as physical, mortal human beings of ourselves we cannot discern God. We can’t discern His character, His nature. I can still in my mind’s eye go back twenty, thirty, thirty-five, forty years and remember the sermons that were given that said we can only discern physically through the five senses that we have. You know the five, hearing, smell, tasting, touching. There’s no sensory organ for the spiritual. That’s all we can, the only ways we can bring in information are through those senses. And there’s nothing for the spiritual and it cannot be discerned with our physical.
And in order for us to discern the spiritual, we have to be given the ability. We have to be given something that allows us to sense and to understand. We have to be given spiritual discernment. And we also understand that is the difference between those that God is working with that have His Spirit in them that have that discernment, and those that don’t. And, again, it’s not because we’re smarter or we’re greater. It’s God’s choice, because at this point He’s decided with those that He’s called, with those that He has extended His mercy, with those that He’s given His Spirit, it’s His choice. It’s not a human. And because of that, I think we can feel very blessed, but we can’t feel superior. We are, without God opening our minds, we are just what the world is.
1 Corinthians 2 and go to verse 10, it says
1 Corinthians 2:10. But God
has revealed them to us through His
Spirit. For the Spirit searches all
things, yes, the deep things of God. 11)
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man
Our logic, our ability to reason and to think, to process that information that comes through those five senses.
1 Corinthians 2:11b. which
is in him? Even so no one knows the
things of God except the Spirit of God.
12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by
God. 13) These things we also speak, not
in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
That’s pretty clear what that’s telling us.
Go over in Romans 8. Not only can we not discern the spiritual realm without God’s Spirit, we do not even belong to God without it! We are not one of His. It’s an absolute requirement to be an heir in God’s Family. Romans 8 and let’s start in verse 5. It says
Romans 8:5. For those who
live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but
those who live according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6) For
to be carnally minded is death, but
to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. 7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, [neither] indeed can be.
The reason the world, even the quote-unquote “Christian” world, thinks that they don’t need to keep the laws of God is they can’t be subject to those because God has not given them His Spirit.
Romans 8:8. So then, those
who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit
of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does
not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
I’m not going to go into it in depth today, but keep in mind there’s a very well-defined process for receiving God’s Spirit. If we have it dwelling in us, it presupposes that we have gone through the process that was covered in Acts 2:38 when Peter told them to “Repent. Let everyone to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” And then he said, “And you shall receive the Holy Spirit.” And then he goes on to say, “The promise is to you and to your children and all who are afar off.” In other words, everyone that God determines that He’s going to work with, afar off not only in distance but in time, that they go through this process. There’s no getting around it. There’s no shortcut to that.
With God’s Spirit dwelling in us, which will give us the ability to have a relationship with us and to discern the spiritual, God has also given us another tool. Look over in 2 Timothy 3. I seem to be spending all my time in very familiar Scriptures. And you know what? That’s okay too. Verse 16 of 2 Timothy 3, it says
2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, [to the end] 17) That the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That word “complete” is Strong’s 739, artios, which means “perfect.” We’ve heard about the
perfecting of the saints and that is the process that we’re going through
now. We’re being perfected. That’s the only place in the Bible that this
word artios is used. No where else in the Bible but this one. Zodhiates says, “complete, sufficient,
completely qualified to serve ones designated purpose.” In other words, to fulfill our
potential. God’s Word with His Spirit
will give us that. God gave us His
Spirit and He gave us His Word that He breathed for the purpose of perfecting
us. And without either one of these, we
can’t fulfill our designated purpose.
Look over in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 1. Isaiah 66:1, it says
Isaiah 66:1. Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is My throne, and
[the] earth is My footstool. Where is
the house that you will build [for] Me?
And where is the place of My
rest? 2) For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the Lord.
In other words, “I created it all. This is mine.”
Isaiah 66:2b. “But on this one will I look: on him
who is [of a] poor and contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.
One of the great, I think, paradoxes of time is just how little respect the lawmakers have for the law. They spend their lives trying to figure out how to abuse it or twist it for their advantage. And I personally think you cannot mishandle and abuse something and still have a respect for it. I really believe that lawyers and lawmakers have the least respect for law.
Remember the scribes and the Pharisees. And they were the lawmakers of the day. They were criticized many times for their abuse and disrespect for God’s Law. They wanted to mold it and push it into these little corners to suit them and to suit their egos and their vanity and also to allow them to be elevated.
God’s Law was never for that. God’s Law was for protection and peace and happiness. If we disrespect God’s Law, it will destroy our relationship.
Look over in 2 Peter chapter 3. And, of course, if it destroys our relationship and we don’t have a relationship with God, we know the end of that too. 2 Peter 3 and we’ll start in verse 15. And I’m just going to break into a thought here. It says
2 Peter 3:15. And [account] that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother
Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. 16) [And] also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which
untaught and unstable people twist to
their own destruction,
So they’re saying it’s Paul and they twist them to their own destruction. Do you know to this day that’s still going on? There’s still people that are twisting those.
But that’s not the worst. Notice!
2 Peter 3:16b. as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
So it’s not just these hard to understand ones that they do. All of the rest of the Scriptures, they twist and they wrest them to suit them.
2 Peter 3:17. You therefore,
beloved, since you know this
beforehand,
There’s a warning! He just said, “Look, there’s people that just twist these and they make them say what they want to. Not just Paul’s, which are hard to understand, but the others.” And here’s a warning.
2 Peter 3:17b. beware lest
you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the
wicked; 18) But grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now
and forever.
Brethren, there are some that seem to be constantly searching for some new truth, something that’s different than what we understood, something that’s—I don’t know—titillating, something that will cause people to look at them and go “Wow! Look at that!” Something that was different than we previously believed or been taught, whether it’s the nature of God, the keeping of the Holy Days, you name it. And I personally believe that growing in grace and knowledge is not discovering something other than what we’ve been taught. It’s the deepening of our understanding and the building on what was delivered to us. That’s growing.
Think about this. If we have a bush that grows up and then we cut it down, is it growing? No. What happens is it gets pruned and it gets worked with and it grows larger. It’s not just, “Why I didn’t know Passover is on some other day,” or “God’s not who He said He is,” “Christ was a created being.” Whatever it is it completely chops down and there’s nothing to grow on.
Again, we’re to grow in grace and knowledge. We’re to deepen that as we study God’s Word, as God’s Spirit shows us the depth of that and we come to have more and a deeper appreciation. Not a “Hey, wait a minute! That’s not what I used to think. And now I’m off.”
Brethren, there is only one place that we can go to discover God’s nature. One place! And that’s His Word that we’re to tremble over. There’s one way that we can understand His Word. And that is through His Spirit that was given to us on our repentance, our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and our baptism, and the laying on of hands. And if we properly use those two, we can come to the correct understanding of who God is as He chooses to reveal Himself to us.
Brethren, God’s not—what is this? I wouldn’t even see it but there’s a dark
movie out—The Joker in this movie or something.
God’s not the Joker. God, we’re
His children. We are infants and God is
not playing games with us. He loves
us. He says what He does is for our
good. And He’s not trying to get us to
say, “Uncle!”
Look over in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.
Again, remember we are to become His children. And a child trusts the parent. I was saying before services—I asked so I’m not talking out of school. But we have, of course, one that’s just recently had a child and two that are pregnant, and if I could use the word “glowing.” I have a daughter and a daughter-in-law also that are pregnant. And there’s just something wonderful about this. But think about this. Here is a child, not even born. It’s still in the womb. It’s still developing. And look at the love that’s already expressed by the parent! They give up perhaps the way they eat. I know the way they sleep and the way they dress. And it’s because of the love they have. They care for this and it’s never even drawn a breath. I will tell you, as a grandparent, my Father’s Day card was a sonogram. And I instantly loved this. It looked like a kidney bean. And I loved it and I would do anything for that. How do you think God feels about us? Here we are not yet born. We’ve been begotten. We’re in our infancy, but the love that He has for us. With that was also a wave file with a heartbeat. I don’t remember—a hundred and sixty beats per minute. That’s fast, but it was life. I know it’s a unique thing for parents that have children or grandparents or any of that family structure as to how you love something that has never even been born or drawn breath. God is not playing games with us, Brethren. We can depend on God. God loves us tremendously more than we as humans have the capacity to love our children or our grandchildren or our unborn children or grandchildren.
Genesis 1 verse 1, it says
Genesis 1:1. In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
If you want a title for today’s sermon, it is In The Beginning.
We understand when we read that that God was telling us about a time that the physical dimension and all of the things that come with it, length, width, height, density, time, entropy, decay, whatever. Everything that we associate with this only realm that man ever existed, God created it. He made it.
There’s some scientists that are brighter than I am that say, “Well, that happened about four and half billion years ago.” And that’s just a guess. And frankly it’s not germane to what God determined that mankind should know.
We also know that sometime after this the earth was reduced to a ruined, non-orderly, confused condition. And we’ve speculated that this was caused by Satan’s rebellion, but frankly it’s conjecture. And again, God didn’t deem it necessary—if I could and I don’t mean to be so informal, but I think if we can go to God and say, “Father, Daddy,” I think that we can say that our Daddy didn’t deem that we needed that understanding, because if we’d needed it, we would have gotten it. I really believe that.
But what we do know is there was a renewal of the cosmos and a restoration of the earth and a renewing of the physical which included the creation of life. Life as in trees, fruits, conscious life as in the animals, fishes, fowls, and then intelligent life which was restricted to only one species and that’s man.
Skip down to verse 26.
Genesis 1:26. Then God
And we know that word is Elohim.
Genesis 1:26. Then God said,
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
Brethren, what we absolutely know from God’s Word was that God, who revealed Himself as Elohim, was more than one Being. And we were created in His image, according to His likeness.
We’ll come back to that now, but let’s go to another very familiar Scripture, John 1:1. And, of course, it starts just like Genesis 1:1, because this fills in another part of that “In the beginning Elohim.” And here, it says
John 1:1. In the beginning
This is—I don’t even know if this can be expressed—but this is T0 x 0 – Infinity.
The word that’s translated “beginning” is Strong’s 746 here, arche. And it means the origin, the beginning, the first place or the principality. Zodhiates’ Word Study describes this word as “the extreme outermost point.” Again, this is kind of—we’re humans trying to put our arms around something that is beyond us, but he put it as if one was to draw a line on the paper and where the pencil goes down, that’s the beginning. That’s the origin. There was nothing before that.
Now this same word is used to modify other concepts. And like a commencement of a situation. And I’ll just refer to them without turning: Matthew 24:8, where it talks about “the beginning of sorrows;” Mark 1:1, “the beginning of the gospel.” In other words, when it’s modified—and let me just. I’m going to quote this out of Zodhiates’ Word Study. It says, “When it does not refer to a restrictive event [like in John 1:1], situation or time, it is used in the absolute sense as in John 1:1, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ It does not delineate what beginning. Here it means before there was a beginning whatsoever the Word had been.” So it’s not modified by the beginning of sorrows, the beginning of the Word. Just when it says “the beginning,” there was nothing before that. And Zodhiates’ understands that that means the Word was there.
Because, again, we’re finite and limited, temporary human beings, I don’t think that we can grasp those concepts. I can’t. Something that comes into existence and then never ceases, we can wrap our minds around that. It’s just like we’re going to live forever and ever and ever. That’s relatively easy to wrap your mind around. Of something that was always in existence, I, again, I can’t. That’s the one that you have to believe God and perhaps one day we’ll go, “Oh, okay. Now I understand it.”
But what this is saying in both Genesis and here was before
anything there was the Word. There was Elohim, the plural Beings. Remember Christ in the Old Testament and the
New Testament referred to Himself as “I AM.”
That’s again to try to take that to its logical conclusion, it boggles
your mind. And, I believe, these very
difficult to understand concepts have caused some to use human reasoning to try
to understand. And I also think they’ve
come to some very erroneous—in fact, let’s call it what it is—heretical
conclusions.
Twenty years ago this—and I’m going to read something later,
but this I’m going to call it—ancient Greek philosophy was being voiced
about. But it really started even before
that just after the
According to him, the Being that walked the earth was just a hypostasis. He wasn’t really God. It really didn’t become God. And, Brethren, it wasn’t “new” truth. It was old heresies. Let me read from a resource about this.
The literal definition of
hypostasis is one that stands beneath.
In early Christian writings [and I’m quoting], it is used to denote
being or substantiative reality.
I don’t know if any of you were forced to sit and listen to the tapes, but all these words, I think I got through one or two of them before I couldn’t take it anymore. But all these words like “substantiative reality” and all of those were the things that were voiced about.
Continuing to quote:
It’s not always distinguished in meaning from ousa or essence. It is used in this way by Tatian and Origen …
So here were the ancient Greek scholars.
… and also in the anathemas appended to the Nicene Creed of 325.
So by 325, the Nicene Creed had already internalized that Christ was a hypostasis. He didn’t really come.
See also Hypostatic Union where the term is used to describe two realities or natures of one person. The term has also been used and is still used in Modern Greek, not just Koine Greek or a common ancient Greek, to mean existence along with …
I’m going to quit. That’s enough. You get the point.
It’s not new. It wasn’t just discovered twenty years ago. It was written into the quote-unquote “Church doctrines” back right after the Church formed. And there was the falling away, the apostasy then. We called it “Robo-Christ.” That was the modern term of it.
But the other heresy that emerged—and it seems time and time again—is the concept that Christ was a created being. The line goes that Christ was created as an angel and was later given a chance to be promoted. He was going to move up into the God Family. And to do this, He became the Savior for mankind. And in doing that not only qualified Himself to be the eternal ruler, but also the physical humans, He would take with Him. So it was really He was qualifying Himself for promotion and He was also being, allowing humans to have a path.
It says
John 1:1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Brethren, it can’t be any clearer than that. There is no room for misunderstanding unless you want to get real, raise yourself up to our human pomposity and to try to analyze and to put our human reasoning. But as a child reading that, it’s very clear.
I remember when the nature of God started and God was a blob. And my daughter, 7, 8, 10, I don’t remember. She looked at me in services one day. She said, “Dad, God has a face. And He has eyes. And He speaks. And things are a stench in His nostrils,” because we had done Bible studies on that. “And we were created in His image.” Now out of the mouths of babes.
“The Word was God.” It’s a very concise explanation of who the “Us” was that made up Elohim. And if that wasn’t clear enough, continuing on in verse 2, God inspired John to clarify it.
John 1:2. He [the Word] was
in the beginning with God.
And if that wasn’t clear enough, God inspired John to clarify it yet a third time focusing on the role of Christ in the beginning. Verse 3.
John 1:3. All things were
made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In my mind, it approaches the beginning and Elohim from just about every angle you could approach it and you still come down to the fact that it was plural and that the Being that became Christ was there. He created us. And I think to imply that the Creator of everything, I believe both physical and perhaps spiritual—I don’t know—came from an angel, I think that’s an insult. I really do. As much as people imply I came from a monkey. (Maybe I did. I don’t know.) But I think that is an insult at the highest level to say, “You weren’t God. You were just an angel.” “Harold, you weren’t created. You evolved from monkeys, from pond scum,” whatever. I think it’s a tremendous insult against the human being and I think the other is an insult against the very Creator.
And what’s more is that insult devalues the sacrifice that was made for us. Consider that. It wasn’t the Creator that became human and died, it was a created being. It was an angel. And, Brethren, that devalues what God did for us, what Jesus Christ willingly went through for us, because He was God. He had that. He was the Creator. He was the one that put it together. And He gave it all up for us. And to somehow say, “Ah, He was one of the… There was Gabriel, Michael and they flipped a coin and this is the one that drew the short…” That’s to me it’s unconceivable that God would do that.
Look over in Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2 and verse 18, it says
Colossians 2:18. Let no one
cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false
humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not
seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
Notice the obvious reason behind this pride is vanity, the desire to appear wise and to be looked up to, to have discovered something that people didn’t know before. And I have to tell you as I observed these—and I’m just going to call them—these “new truth heresies,” to a person, these people over time have become full of themselves and very puffed up and a resource to themselves. And they continue going off. None of this unifies. None of this answers questions. None of this brings us back together. It drives apart.
Verse 19.
Colossians 2:19. And not
holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together
by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Notice that “Head” is capitalized. That’s talking about Christ. We are to hold fast to that.
I want to read Matthew Henry’s Commentary and what it says about this Scripture. Now let me just give a disclaimer. We know that the commentaries were written by people that had a lot of technical understanding, but for the most part most of them—there are commentaries that I believe, I think Fred Coulter has put out some commentaries that I think with spiritual discernment—but for the most part the commentaries that we read are, they’re nice to understand, but you would never form a doctrine, you would never use them as a basis for anything. But here’s the time I believe that the wise of this world are wiser than some of God’s people. Here’s what he says about Colossians 2:16.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Colossians Verses 16-23, II. He cautions them to take heed of those
who would introduce the worship of angels as mediators between God and them, as
the Gentile philosophers did. Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a
voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, v. 18. It looked like a piece
of modesty to make use of the mediation of angels, as conscious to ourselves of
our unworthiness to speak immediately to God, but, though it has a show of
humility, it is a voluntary, not a commanded humility; and therefore it is not
acceptable, yea, it is not warrantable:
it is taking the honour which is due to Christ only and giving it to a creature. Besides, the notions upon which this practice
was grounded were merely the inventions of men and not by divine revelation, —
the proud conceits of human reason, which make a man presume to dive into
things, and determine them, without sufficient knowledge and warrant: Intruding
into those things which he hath not
seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind — pretending to describe the
order of angels, and their respective ministries, which God has hidden from us;
and therefore, though there was a show of humility
And I have to agree with this. I mean the people. I’ve heard people say, “But they’re so humble when they describe this.”
Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Colossians Verses 16-23, II. …there was a show of humility in the
practice, there was a real pride in the principle. They advanced those notions to gratify their
own carnal fancy, and were fond of being thought wiser than other people. Pride is at the bottom of a great many errors
and corruptions, and even of many evil practices, which have great show and
appearance of humility. Those who do so
do not hold the head, v. 19. They do in effect disclaim Christ, who is the
only Mediator between God and man. It is
the highest disparagement to Christ, who is the head of the church, for any of
the members of it to make use of any intercessors with God but him. When men let go their hold of Christ, they
catch at that which is next them and will stand them in no stead.
Let’s go back to Genesis 1. I just want to make a point here. Genesis 1, but let’s just skip down to verse 26. I’ve read this. I’ll just use it for continuity.
Genesis 1:26. Then God said,
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.”
I know there’s experts that look at some of the animals and talk about the intelligence of animals. They can be taught. They can be trained to perform through repetition. And they can be trained to do some very wonderful tasks. Animals, I personally believe, were a blessing from God.
God gave them to us to help us. They’re very beneficial to humans, even some animals taking a great degree of specialization, Seeing Eye dogs. There’s these monkeys that can serve paraplegics. They can go get them water and they can turn on the TV for them. They can type in their computer, not that they’re composing, but they can do some wonderful things. Dogs, we’ve got border collies. We have sheep dogs and these dogs just love what they do. They love to go out there and round up the sheep. A guy could run himself ragged trying to do that.
But God’s given us these animals that can be trained. But none of them possess the power of reasoning. I did see a Discovery where they found this bird that was trying to get—he could peck a hole in a tree, but he couldn’t get the worm out. So he’d go over and get a piece of straw and he would actually get a fishhook and pull it out. And they go, “Look at that! Look at how smart this bird is.” Brethren, they don’t reason.
There is an ability. And some of it—of course, given some people and the way we act, we could be amazed by something that simple. But they can do amazing, wonderful tasks. And I think they’ve been able to accomplish this entirely within the intentions of what God had for man when He told them to have dominion over and to subdue and to rule over. That’s one of the things in this creation that God gave us for our benefit to serve us.
And to me, and we were talking about this right before church started. You can look at the creation and see God’s love and see that He loved us. Even what man has done to it, you can still see the beauty in it. You can still see the intricacy in nature and the interdependence.
We lived in
Verse 27.
Genesis 1:27. So God created
man in His own image; in the image of
God He created him; male and female He created them. 28) Then God blessed them, and God said to
them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion
over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.”
And skip down to verse 31.
Genesis 1:31. Then God saw
everything that He had made, and indeed it
was very good.
It wasn’t just good. It was very good.
Genesis 1:31b. So the
evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God, if you contemplate anything, God in His love and wisdom gave us the animal kingdom to serve us in many ways. Helpers, transportation, oxen and horse and camels—okay, oxen and horses, camels are just to have a foul breath and hiss at you when you get close to them. But food, He gave us the clean animals, sheep and fowl, fish, a very necessary part of the eco-system. Again, bees to pollinate and birds to propagate seeds. Companions, just go back and look on the table with Vickie’s dogs. Those are her companions. We have—I don’t know what our latest count is. We have “grand dogs,” which I’ve got to tell you is the best one. You feed them and you love them and then you send them home. And we’ve got—I don’t know—probably about a half a dozen grand dogs. But I enjoy them. Again companions. Some will argue about it. I know there’s people here that say, “Those aren’t man’s best friends.” But they’re loyal.
I got an e-mail one time. There’s people who put these little cute sayings at the bottom. And in this one he said, “My goal is to become the person my dog thinks I am.” And I’ll tell you that’s a tough one. To a dog, a person, that’s God. Right? That’s perfect.
Brethren, we are richer because of the animal kingdom. And yet, despite all of that, there is a gulf, an untraversable gulf that exists between man and animals. Can’t be crossed. It’ll never be traversed. Animals produce after their kind. Humans reproduce after their kind. We have a potential. God has given them to us as a blessing.
The same is true for the spirit realm. There are angels and there is Elohim. And that gulf will always exist. We know angels are created beings subject to the power and the authority of God. God is sovereign. And just like the vast difference between man and beast, there’s a vast difference between God and angels.
Look over in Matthew 22.
We’re going to look at a very familiar Scripture, but I want to approach
it a little differently. Matthew 22
verse 23, it says
Matthew 22:23. The same day
the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked
Him, 24) Saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies,
having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for
his brother. 25) “Now there were with us
seven brothers. The first died after he
had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26) “Likewise the second also, and the third,
even to the seventh. 27) “Last of all
the woman died also. 28) “Therefore, in
the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”
They were married to her.
Matthew 22:29. Jesus
answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor
the power
And that word is dunamis which means mighty work or a miracle.
Matthew 22:29b. of God. 30) “For in the resurrection they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.
Brethren, what’s the first thing we’re going to do when we’re resurrected? We’re going to a wedding supper with the Elohim Beings, not the angels. Angels don’t marry just like the animals here don’t. And there is a gulf that exists. They’ve never married. They never will.
Just hold your finger there. Go over to Revelation 19. Probably don’t need to. I can just read it to you. Revelation 19 because Christ very clearly said, “The angels in heaven don’t marry.” Look what He says Revelation 19:5.
Revelation 19:5. Then a
voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and
[all] those who fear Him, both small and great!” 6) And I heard, as it were, the voice of a
great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty
thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the
Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 7) “Let us
be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has
come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
One of the greatest events that will take place in the spirit realm that we understand is when Jesus Christ, the Omnipotent God, will marry His Bride. Just like the animal kingdom doesn’t marry, angels don’t marry. That’s something that God has reserved for the God Family and one of the, again, ways, He loves us is the human family. We’ve always taught that marriage is a God-plane relationship not a spirit-plane, but a God-plane relationship.
I’m just going to read out of one of our booklets. Just, I’ll probably skip through this for time. It says
The apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians explained how husbands and wives were to treat each other in marriage. After giving specific instructions to husbands to love their wives, Paul wrote “for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.”
And I’ll just skip down.
Here Paul teaches the marriage relationship is similar to our relationship with Jesus Christ.
And I think it’s been talked here that the relationship—remember the relationship of Christ and the Father when They say They’re one, just as we are to become one. There is a relationship there of more than, I think, than what we understand. It is a pattern.
But he says
Physical marriage is modeled after a godly relationship. A proper relationship between husband and wife gives insight into the spiritual relationship God wants to have with each of us. This spiritual aspect of marriage sets it apart and puts it on a higher plane. Marriage is a God-plane relationship. Just as marriage produces families, God is building His Family. God provides for the right spiritual relationship between a husband and wife to teach us about Himself and His great purpose.
I just want to go back to Matthew 22 just for clarification of the point there, because He made the statement that they’re not going to marry. Let’s just go back and read this.
Matthew 22:29. Jesus
answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor
the power of God. 30) “For in the
resurrection they neither marry
He’s talking about these resurrected humans.
Matthew 22:30b. but are like
the angels of God in heaven.
So you think, ‘Well, wait a minute!” This statement, someone could mistakenly assume that there’s no marriage in any of the resurrected beings, but we know, Brethren, that the firstfruits will. We’re told.
Just skip up to verse 28, because look at the specific question that He was answering.
Matthew 22:28. “Therefore,
in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”
So it wasn’t He was saying that ‘Resurrected beings are not going to marry.” What He said was, “They’re not going to marry each other.” It wasn’t one of the seven that she was previously married to. We know. In fact, when we took our vows in our physical marriages, we know that death breaks that apart, that our vow is until we die, that that bond is then dissolved.
Brethren, the gulf between angelic beings and God are like
the differences between humans and the animal kingdom and they’re not going to
be crossed. The God of the Old
Testament, the Creator, the Word, the Logos, the One that was there in the
beginning was never a created angelic being. To have been so would have crossed—now I’m
not saying, “God couldn’t do it.” God’s
sovereign. But God didn’t do this,
because it would be confusion. It would
have been to cross uncrossable boundaries.
And more importantly, it would diminish the sacrifice that was made for
us.
Remember one of His names was Emmanuel? God with us. Not an angel. Not a created being. God with us. Nothing less! And, Brethren, to accept that He was a created angel and He was moved to a higher plane as the Son of God, would also imply there was a selfish motive in what He did for His own advancement. “I’m going to get a promotion out of this. It’s going to be tough to go through this.” Brethren, God is love. There was never a selfish motive in what He gave up for us. There was never a selfish motive. It wasn’t for Him. It was for us. It was willingly done for us so that we could be brought into the God Family. Don’t buy into the false doctrine of thinking that Christ was a created being. Don’t buy into the concept that He didn’t give up everything He had to be our Savior, our Pioneer, and ultimately our Husband.
John warned us about this. Go back to 1 John 4. 1 John 4 and we’ll just start in verse 1. It says
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because
many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God,
He wasn’t a hypostasis. He wasn’t an angel. He was Jesus the Christ, the Creator, the One that was there in the beginning, and He came in the flesh.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit
that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have
heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
These heresies are not going to go away. They’re going to continue, and, sadly, they’re going to continue to snare those who like Eve will listen to lies and entertain them and have their vanity stimulated by the arguments and become seduced by them. And there’s no positive outcome to that.
Look over in Romans chapter 1. Romans 1 verse 21, it says
Romans 1:21. Because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God,
It was something less.
Romans 1:21b. nor were
thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. 22) Professing to be wise,
they became fools,
As I mentioned before, my observation that people that have espoused some of this “new truth” in all of its different forms, they’ve become even more clouded in their thinking. And they’ve eventually taken a path that’s moved them away from God, away from His people, and to become more self-centered and focused on themselves. And some even taking very bizarre approaches to their beliefs. Brethren, the fruits alone should speak for it.
Remember, if we reject who Jesus Christ is, we will naturally reject what He says. And if we reject what He says, we will have removed ourselves from the only light, the only source that will allow us to see.
Hebrews 1 and verse 1, it says
Hebrews 1:1. God, who at
various times in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, 2) Has in these last days
spoken to us by His Son,
He’s the Illuminator, the Revealer.
Hebrews 1:2b. [To] whom He
has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3) Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by
Himself purged our sins,
How’d He do that, Brethren? By divesting Himself of His majesty, by being born as a human being and becoming lower than the angels like us, living a perfect life, becoming a perfect sacrifice, being resurrected and accepted by the Father.
Hebrews 1:3b. when He had by
Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, 4) Having become so much better
than the angels,
That doesn’t mean He came from an angel. He was a human. He was lower like we are. He was fully a man.
Hebrews 1:4b. as He has by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, 5) For to which of the angels did He ever say:
Notice that word “ever!”
Hebrews 1:5. For to which of
the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, today I have begotten
You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be
to Me a Son”?
He has never said that to an angel. Never said it. Never will. And, Brethren, we can bank on it, because it’s God’s Word.
Hebrews 1:6. But when He
again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” 7) And of the angels He says: “Who makes His angels spirits and His
ministers
Or “His servants” as The Revised Standard.
Hebrews 1:7b. a flame of
fire.”
Now don’t turn there.
Genesis 3:24. Remember how it
depicted the cherubim that He placed eastward in
Verse 8.
Hebrews 1:8. But to the Son He says:
He says the angels, “Go do this and go do that.”
Hebrews 1:8. But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, is
forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
Hebrews 11 and verse 6.
Hebrews 11:6. But without
faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe [Notice this!] that He is,
Remember the “I AM”? That would be the way you describe Him. “He is.” You can’t say, “He am.” “He is.” We must believe that He is the “I AM.” He is that one. He is one of the Elohim that brought us into existence. It says
Hebrews 11:6. he who comes
to God must believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
I’ll just read what Adam Clarke says.
The man who professes that it is his duty to worship God must, if he act rationally, do it in a conviction that there is such a being infinite, eternal, [I like this word!] unoriginated, and self-existent, the cause of all other being on whom all beings depend and by whose energy, bounty, and providence all other beings exist, live, and are supplied with the means of continuing existence and life.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I like that word though, “unoriginated.”
Remember, Brethren, we’re to become like children in our Christian development. One of the attributes we have to develop is to become uncomplicated and just simply believe what God reveals to us about Himself. He’s not going to lie to us. He’s not going to deceive us and what He gives us is right and good. We can always believe God. We can always rely on Him. Always trust Him, because He has our welfare and our best interest.
God demonstrated that when He gave us God to become a perfect sacrifice for our redemption. Anything less than God, any lower created being would have represented an inferior sacrifice that would have been unacceptable.
Final Scripture, John 4 and verse 23, it says
John 4:23. “But the hour is
coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father [Notice!]
in spirit and truth;
And that truth can only be revealed by the Word.
John 4:23b. for the Father
is seeking such to worship Him. 24) “God
is Spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and truth.”
Brethren, thanks be to God that He’s revealed His Truth to us. We have His Word. We have His Truth. We have His Spirit. And our job is to have the tenacity to hang onto the faith that was once delivered to us.
Transcribed by kb