Smith, Harold: Doctrine-Who Is The Lord

Thank you, Glenn, and good afternoon, everybody. It's good to see you all out, many that I do know and some that I don't. Let's look at a verse in the book of Exodus first, Exodus chapter five, Just the first part of verse number two. Exodus chapter five and verse number two. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord? Somebody asked you that question, what would you say? How would you describe the Lord? Who is he anyway? Somebody has said there are over six billion people in the world, and there are over six billion gods. Paul went up on Myers Hill, and he found one altar to the unknown God. But what would you say if somebody said to you, who is the Lord? When you pray, and you say, dear God, or oh, oh God, who are you talking to? You say, well, he's the creator, that's for sure, that's quite well known. You only have to look at creation to know that he's the creator God, but is that all he is? Who is he anyway? I don't suppose there's a greater problem among Christians down through the ages than the Trinity. We have groups that do not believe in the Trinity. They believe there's just one God. Some believe Jesus is the only God, others believe he's not God, and uh, you have all sorts of division and controversy over the Trinity. What is the Trinity? Who is the Trinity? So I'm going to look at that a little bit during this conference and see if I can help you a little bit. Somebody wrote me from, I have a, a quite an extended ministry on the internet. Some lady's doing one of my Bible lessons, uh, down in Africa, wrote me the other day, and she works in an office, and she said, we have a new man in our office, and, uh, he's inquiring and telling us that he does not believe in the Trinity. Can you send me some help? And everywhere you go, somebody's saying, can you tell me what, who, what is, what is the Trinity, or, or who is God anyway? So we want to look a little bit at that. And first I want to read a few more verses. Let's read in first John chapter one— five rather, and verse number twenty. First John chapter five and verse number twenty. Now, sometimes we think that the Lord Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost, and that is true, but we mustn't stop there. He came in for many other reasons. He came into the world too. Uh, First John Cha- uh, John chapter one and eighteen says he came to declare the God that no man has seen. But this verse puts it very nicely. In verse number twenty of First John chapter five, we read this. And we know that the Son of God is come, that we know, and has given us an understanding. That do we know, or are we, have we got that far yet? What's the understanding he wants to give us? That we might know him that is true. That is the true and the living God. And, and we, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. So the Lord Jesus not only come into, into the world to die on the cross for our sins, but he came into the world to give us an understanding of the true God and our knowledge of him. And this, I think, is lacking quite much in all of our lives. I met a man the other, the other night here. I talked to him, it's the first time I've met him. If you ask me his name, I think I remember that, but don't ask me anything else about him because I don't know anything more about him. So, we can only tell people who the Lord is in as much as we know. If you ask me who Brian Taylor is, I can tell you who he is. He's a fellow came along one time, and we were having some, uh, gospel meetings, another brother and I, and the other brother said, take Brian out visiting with you. And it was raining hard, and I was quite familiar with the area there, so I said, we'll go somewhere where we can get in, just walk in without knocking. The first place we went into, there was a man there that was quite drunk, and there was a woman there who was drunker than the man that spit all over Brian and and his face. And I don't know, we went to several other places. I could tell you quite a bit about Brian because I know him a bit. Tell you more about my wife because I know her better. I've been married to her for sixty three years. So you get the point. We can only tell people who the Lord is in as much as we know who he is. We say, I know the Lord is my savior. That's good, but how much more do you know about the Lord? What else do you know about the Lord? Who is the Lord? Well, Jesus came into the world, has come that we, to give us an understanding that we might know him that is true, and that is the true God. The true God. Now, I want to look at some more verses. Look with me in Philippians chapter two. Let me say this, that we're not going to know the true God apart from the Son of God. We can know God as creator, and we can know he's a- he is a Godhead in Romans chapter number one and twenty, and we can know he has tremendous power, and uh, we can know he's the creator. We only have to look at nature. We don't need the Bible to know that. We only have to look at the sun that comes up in the morning and the stars that come out at night to know that there's a creator God. Romans one and twenty makes that clear. But the nature does not reveal to us the Redeemer God. Only the Son of God is, it has come. God was manifest in the flesh, and he come to declare that God that we have not seen and we do not know, to give us an understanding. Now, I want you to look with me in Philippians chapter two and verse number six. The Lord Jesus is seen in the Bible in three forms, and that word form is a mode of expressing himself. Physically, it's, it's, it's that which strikes the eye. You might remember the witch in the, in the Old Testament that supposedly called up Samuel, and Saul said, what form is he? And she described him. And, uh, so the word form means that which hits the eye or the understanding. So the Lord Jesus appears in the Bible as in three different forms. And we want to try and follow those through a bit to show you the true and the living God, that we might understand and know the true and the living God. Now listen, and look at it in Philippians chapter two and verse number six. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. That's number one. he was in the form of God. Number two, in verse seven. but he made himself of no reputation, te- reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant. That's form number two. Now, if you look with me, we're going to get back to those. We're look with me in, in Luke, in the Gospel of Mark, chapter sixteen and verse number twelve. And we read, and after that he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. Now there are three different forms. That word form is only mentioned three times in the Bible, and it's mentioned of Christ. First, he was in the form of God, then he took upon himself another form, the form of a servant. Now, remember this, he never ceased to be the form that he left. He never ceased to be God. He had, he had, he, he was in the form of God. He be- he took upon himself the form of a servant, but he was still God i- in the flesh. And then in his resurrection, he took upon himself another form. So those are the three forms that our Lord Jesus Christ appears to us. That which strikes the vision or the understanding. He come to give us a, an understanding of the true God, and, and that true God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we read. This is the true God, even his son, Jesus Christ. So what we're going to find out, or what we're going to learn about the true God, whether it's today or any other time in our lives, we're going to have to learn it through the Son of God. That's how we're going to learn about the true God, who he is. Who is he? So we have those three forms. We'll look at those maybe later, uh, tonight, well, again tomorrow a little bit. Now, God likes forms. The first thing we read about the creation in Genesis chapter one two that it was without form. God didn't like that. So you got the rest of the chapter to show how God put some form to creation and put some order to creation. He likes form, forms. When he got ready to make a man, it says that he formed man out of the dust of the earth, and he breathed into that man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. He likes form. He speaks of Israel the same way in Isaiah chapter forty three verse seven. He said, I've formed thee, I've created thee, I've made thee, the same three words that he uses of, of, uh, Adam in chapter two and verse seven of Genesis. He's forming every one of us, every Christian here today. God is forming us, shaping us up. Sometimes he has a tr- uh, quite a problem getting some shape and form to us, but he's working on us all the time, and you can be sure of this one thing, that eventually we are going to be conformed to the image of Christ. Whether we're very far along the way at the si- uh, when he comes, I don't know, that he's going to finish the form when he comes. So God likes forms. So he presents his son to us, who is the one who's going to manifest to us the true and the living God in three forms. Form of God, the form of a servant, and in another form. Now, let's look, uh, let's look, I have to look at the time first. I'm in America, so I'll go by Canadian time. That would be better, eh? That'd be all right, Lynn. Uh, let's look first at God. Who is God? Now, the word God, of course, is used about two thousand five hundred times in the Bible. It's used of false gods. It's used of human beings, judges, and it's used in a different way. But the word Lord, who is the Lord? That's the word we would, we would know as Jehovah. That's the name of God, and quite often that God and the Lord, and the Lord Jehovah, of course, is synonymous. But who is the Lord? Let's look at some verses, and let me say first that there's only one Lord, not three, just one Lord. Now don't, don't jump to any conclusion until you hear me through. You remember the Proverbs, a very important proverb, chapter eighteen verse three thirteen rather. He that answereth a matter before he hears it, to him is a folly and a shame. So it's best to listen to a guy through, then you can straighten him out afterwards. But don't jump to some pre- some preconceived conclusion, uh, and tell him to. There is only one God. When people tell you there's one God, they're right on. They're right on. Now we want to look at a few verses to show you that. Look in the book of Isaiah chapter forty five. Isaiah chapter forty five. It's very, very clear in the Bible that there is only one God. Isaiah forty five and verse number five. We read this. I am the Lord, and there is none else. That's very simple, isn't it? There is no God beside me. I am the Lord, and there's none else. There is no God beside me. Look in verse six. That they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. Look in verse eighteen. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it. He has established it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none else. Only one Lord. Look back a page in chapter forty— forty four and verse number eighteen. In chapter forty four, verse eight. Fear not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time and have de- declared it? Ye are my, even my witnesses. There is no a g- there, is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any. There's only one God. We could go on and on, especially in the book of Isaiah. If you look in chapter number forty six of Isaiah, in verse number... in verse number 9. I probably got the wrong verse there, but it it's a similar verse, that I am the Lord and there is none else. Uh, there is a verse in the, in the, in chapter forty three, a favorite one of the Watchtower Society, in verse, chapter forty three of Isaiah, in verse number ten. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be any after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. Now that's very clear. There is only one God. And that the great profession of Judaism is in, is in, in the book of Deuteronomy, uh, chapter six and verse four: The Lord our God is one Lord. Very clearly given. There is only one God. James writes in James chapter two and verse nineteen: Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well. The devils believe, they fear. Even the devils believe there's only one God. Only one. Where do these three persons come in? Does that mean there's no Trinity or what? Which one of the three is that one God? Some will tell us Jesus only, others will say Father only, and so on. Who is the Lord? What are we going to tell people when they ask us, who is the Lord? Now, if you look in the book of Genesis chapter one, and I'm quite sure I'm going over some grounds that many of you already know, but Peter did that in the book of Peter. He said they already knew what he was talking about, but he said, I'm going to put you in remembrance again, and even after I die, I'm going to have, I'm going to have a remembrance, and he wrote it in a book for people to read after he died. In the book of Genesis, we read verse number, chapter one and verse number twenty six. We read that God said, let us make man in our image. Now, us is plural, not let me make man in my image. Us is pl- uh, plural, and our is plural. How do we reconcile the fact that there's only one God, and yet he speaks that way? Let us make man in our own image. He says that throughout the Bible, many places. I think I'm thinking of verse in Isaiah chapter six and verse eight, When the Lord said, who will go for us? Who's he talking to? Who's he talking about? Who is the Lord anyway? How can he be one God and yet use such terms as us and ours? Well, we're gonna look at, we're gonna look, find that out. Let's look in Genesis chapter one again. And verse number twenty seven. Now we read here in verse number twenty seven of Genesis chapter one, so God created man in his own image. Man is singular. In the, in the image of God created he is singular. Him is singular. Look at the next verse. Male and female created he them. Male and female, there were two. Two. Yet God said he just created one man. How come there was two there and he only created one man? God could see in that Adam, he could see Eve when he made Adam. To just read this without chapter two, we would think that God created Adam, and then he formed Eve out of the dust of the earth and breathed into her the breath of life, and she become a living soul too. But God just had one man, but in that one man he could see two people. And you know the story well, in chapter two, what did he do with that one man? He put him asleep, he broke him apart, and took a rib out of him, and he made the woman. Now that one man is two distinct people. I don't know whether they had the new math back there, but it that that's sure, it was sure back then in Genesis. One man, but in God's eyes, there were two people there. He broke them apart, and he made the two people two distinct people. Then what did he do? He took those two together, he took those two people and put them back together in a union co-marriage, and he said they're one again. I don't know that the educational system of America and Canada has got up that far that they can do that, but that's the way God does it. Had one to begin with, broke it apart, made two, then put them together in a union co-marriage. Now he's got one again, just one again. In the book of Ephesians chapter two and verse fourteen, he takes the Jew and the Gentile, two distinct groups of people, many people from the Jews and a good number from the Gentile world. He brings those together in Je- in Ex- in chapter two uh, fourteen of the book of Exodus, and he says, I'm making one new man, just one man. A lot of people, but just one man. One God. Just one God, just one man. Marriage, just one f- one flesh. Now we've got this everywhere in in nature. You look at a flock of sheep. The flock is not, they're not sheep. That's the flock, but it takes sheep to make a flock, eh? Flock is singular. But it takes more than one sheep to make a flock of sheep. Look at a verse in the, in the Genesis chapter eleven. Genesis chapter eleven. the first ecumenical movement in the Bible is in Genesis chapter, uh, uh, uh, uh. And God saw them building that tower up to heaven and that city to govern the earth. And he says to them in verse number six of, of Genesis chapter eleven, the Lord said, behold, the people is one. They have one language. And in verse seven he says, go to let us go down. Us is plural. That's God speaking, just the one Lord. But the people is one. Have you talked about the people of the city of Portland? Just one people, just one city, but it's composed of many, many people. In our family, we have six children. That made eight in our family. We are a family, but a family is not a person. But it takes people to make a family. It takes people to make a city. One army, but it takes many soldiers to make one army. You get the point? Now, when you think of God, you listen to this, and and uh, don't jump to any conclusion. Don't think of God as a person. He has personality, but don't think of God as a person. Because God is not a person. Three times in the Bible, he's called the Godhead. Acts chapter seventeen, Second Cor- uh, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9, and in Romans chapter 1 and verse twenty. Uh, the Godhead is not a person. God is a divine being, not a divine person. He's a divine being, like a family is not a family. People in the family make the family and give personality to the family, but the word family is not a person. So think of God as a divine, as a supreme being. We often call him that, but don't think of him as a single person, but he's a divine being. He's a Godhead. He's a divine unity, a being of three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, it's those three persons that puts personality to the Godhead, but the Godhead hims- eh, the Godhead is not a a person in its- in itself, it's a divine being composed of three different persons. I hope that makes some sense to you. But always think of God. When you pray to the Lord, who are you praying to? When Jesus cried on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Who's he talking to? The Father? Doesn't say that. Talking to himself? Doesn't say that. Was he talking to the Holy Spirit? Doesn't say that. He was talking to a divine being that he was a vital part of. So in this divine being, this one God, this one Godhead, in this divine supreme being called God, called the Lord, called Jehovah, uh, called God, this divine being, there are three divine persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each one of them have the full essence of that supreme being. The Father is God. You'll read, you'll read many, many times in the Bible about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Father is God. He's not all of God. He has all the essence of the Godhead. And the Son is also called God in Hebrews chapter one verse ten. Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever. The Son has all the essence of that supreme being called God. But he's not all of God. That's where people make a mistake. When it says that the fullness of, uh, of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily, they say that's all there is to God. There's no Father, no Son, no Spirit, just the Son only is God. The Spirit of God is also a person, not an influence. I have a lady down in the States here somewhere taking a Bible course, and she answered that question on one of the test pages just this morning when I was correcting the lessons. And, uh, uh, was the Holy Spirit a person? And she, uh, she had, she had faults. He was not a person. He is a person. He has all the essence of the divine being of God. Christ is said to be in the form of God, in Philippians two and verse six. That means he had all of the essence of the Godhead when he was on earth, he had the same. Colossians two and verse nine: In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was every bit God when he was on earth. Now, mind you, he wasn't all of God, but he had all the essence of the divine being. I hope, I hope you, I hope you get that. I hope I'm not confusing you. So, think of God, think of God as a divine being that has personality, but it's not, it's not a person, has personality, because in that divine being called the Godhead or God, there are three divine persons. No one is more God than the other. No one is less God than the other. They're all equally, have all equally have the full essence of the Godhead, but there are three of them. Now, in this Godhead, there is no independence. They're a perfect unity. We have all, we have problems because we're human beings. We have differences of opinion, but not in the Godhead. And you'll find that what they ha- we, we'll look at that later today, at the function of the Godhead. You're going to find that they operate separately, but not independently. For instance, the Son of God alone came to earth and died on the cross. The Father never died on the cross. The Spirit of God never took upon his- himself flesh and and died on the cross. But by but at the same time, the Son of God offered himself up to God by the Spirit without spot. So the Spirit had a vital part in the sacrifice of Christ. It was God, it was the Father that gave the Son to die on the cross. He had a vital part in that too. He didn't do the dying, the Father, but he, he most certainly. There was a working together. Jesus said, destroy this body and I will raise it up the third day. And yet the Bible says that the Father raised him up from the dead. And the Bible says the Spirit raised him up from the dead. See, they work in perfect harmony. But yet there are three distinct persons in that Godhead. They make up the being of God. So when we are asked the question, who is the Lord? Who is God? We should simply say this, God is a divine being, a supreme being, a divine being that that's made up of three divine persons that puts personality to that divine being, just the same as my family puts personality to that word family. Your family puts personality, you in the family puts personality to that, to what is called a family. Now, I, I think if we, we, we get to s- see that clearly, that we're going to appreciate a little bit more of what the Trinity so-called, or who God really is and what the Trinity is. In the... you remember Moses said in the, the, the first song in the Bible, in Exodus chapter fifteen, he uh, he speaks of who is like unto thee, O God. He's spock- talking about the Godhead. When you see the word God, it's the Godhead that it's talking about. And it's not talking especially there about the Father or the Son or the Spirit. When it's speaking of the Father, it will, it will, it will use the word Father or the Son, it uses the word Son. But when it's speaking of the, of the, of God or the Lord, it's speaking about the Triune God, or what we would call the Trinity, and that's so important that we understand that. There's probably nothing that's caused as much controversy and division among Christians down through the ages as that of the Trinity. It's divided Christians all down along the way. Nothing probably more confusing to the minds of unsaved people than trying to understand who God is. You get it all the time. How can there be three gods and yet only one God? If there's 1 God, there's one God, there's not three gods. I don't know any Trinitarian that knows the Bible at all is going to tell you there's three gods, because there isn't. But there are three persons that make up that one being, that one— sup- not a person, but that one supreme being that's called God, or more properly called the Godhead. When Paul went to Athens, and he, they had an altar there, uh, uh, to the unknown God, and he declared the Godhead to them, the God that they didn't know. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus came into the world for. That we might, he came into the world, the Son of God ca- is come, that we might, if they give us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, that is the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. This is the true God and eternal life. Now, that Godhead and that being called God and the Lord Jehovah that you read about in the Old Testament is manifested to us by and in the coming of the Son of God to earth. And know him as creator, but you can't know the persons of the Godhead by creation. It took the Son of God. No man has seen God at any time, we read in John chapter one and verse eighteen, but the Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has come to declare to us that true God. And it's the Son of God alone that has come to declare. Now, he not only come to declare that, that we might know, that we might understand that, but he's also come in those three forms. He was in the form of God. He took upon himself the form of a servant, yet he never ceased to be what he always was, the son of the eternal God. And he'll never cease to be what he become. He become a man. He's still a man today. He's the only man sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven now. He's the only man that's passed through the heavens and opened up the heavens in Hebrews chapter four and verse fourteen and opened up to us a new and a living way that we might up, we might go directly into the presence of God. He's a man. Only one God and one mediator between God and man. Who? The man Christ Jesus in First Timothy two and verse five. That's... He come to give us an understanding, not just to teach us, but more than that, to give us an understanding, to demonstrate, you might say, in these three forms. Was in the form of God, but that was not something to hold on to. But he made himself of no reputation, and and took upon himself eventually a human form, came down to earth, and in the resurrection he took upon himself another form. In fact, the servanthood of Christ, I could, I would like to spend the whole thing on the servanthood of Christ, because there's at least about se- six different stages of the work of Christ as a servant. He's still a servant at the right hand of God today. He's serving us. And he's going to be a servant in the kingdom forever, according to First Corinthians chapter number fifteen. Once he's put the last enemy under his feet, he's going to deliver up the kingdom to God, and he's going to be subject himself. And subjection has to do with servanthood. So who is the Lord? We got, we look at the person of Christ, and he is the manifestation of that one whom Pharaoh said, who is the Lord? That way we will know who the Lord is. The more we can study about the Lord Jesus, the more we know about him, the more we we're going to be able to tell other people. Pharaoh's question, who is the Lord? We should be able to tell people that. Not enough to pass it off and say, oh, it's a mystery, nobody knows who God is, he's some, he's a spirit being, and nobody knows anything about him. There's a lot that, there's a lot in the Bible about who he is, and we should be getting that out so that we can not only tell Christians to help them along on this subject, but we should be able to tell unsaved people exactly who God is. And remember this, he's a divine being, not a divine person, but in that divine being there are three personalities that make up the one God, just one God and three distinct personalities. Now I'm going to close now, give you probably a little extra break or give my brother a little extra time. Thank you very much for your...