One As God and Christ Are One

The title for the sermon today is, One as God and Christ are One. And the reason I've chosen this topic, brethren, is because over recent times I've had a number of discussions with individuals about the oneness of God and Christ. A number of questions have come up, out making visits or even phone calls that come in. Questions come up, such as, what does it mean when we say that God the Father and Jesus Christ are One? And why is it that the Church of God teaches what it teaches on the oneness of God and Christ? And, you know, as questions come in, sometimes an indication that maybe it's time to speak on a topic is when you have an elevated number of questions about it. And so, for today, I want to look at what the Bible has to say about the unity and the oneness that exists between God the Father and Jesus Christ. And in doing so, it's my intent to hopefully answer some questions that you may have regarding that relationship. What we find throughout the course of the Bible record is that God and Christ are One. They are One in intent, they are One in purpose, they are One in unity of the Spirit. Again, they are One and they are One in the Spirit. Jesus Christ Himself stated that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And that is not some sort of Trinitarian statement, brethren. It is the record of Scripture. Let's begin today by turning to John chapter 10 and see Jesus' own words on this account. John chapter 10 and verse 27.

John 10 verse 27. Here Jesus is contending with the Pharisees as often times came up. John chapter 10 verse 27, it says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. He says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father has given them to me, and he is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are One. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Maybe we ask ourselves, why would the Jews want to stone Jesus Christ for saying, My Father and I are One? Were they bothered? Was He simply telling them, you know what, My Father and I agree. He likes red, and I like red, and maybe you should like red as well. Is that what He was saying, or was it something more than that? Well, their reaction shows they understood that what He was saying to be something more to that. They wanted to kill Him because He was declaring His divinity, and He was declaring His unity and spiritual oneness with God the Father. Again, for that, they wanted to take His life. Verse 32, continuing on, Jesus answered them, saying, Many good works I have shown you from my Father, for which of those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourselves God. They knew clearly, understood absolutely clearly, just what it was He was saying. Verse 34, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, You are gods. And if He called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent to the world, that you are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God? He says, If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may also know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him. Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. Jesus Christ stated that they must believe, that they must believe that the Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. And you know what? They didn't like that very much. And simply even for making the declaration, for pronouncing His divinity and His spiritual oneness with the Father, they wanted to kill Him. He said, My Father and I are one. The Father is in me, and I am in the Father. Question for you to consider, brethren, is this a Trinitarian or a Benetarian statement that Jesus Christ is making? Again, the Father is in me, and I am in Him. Was He claiming to be one in the same being with God the Father, or was He claiming something different altogether even than that? I'll leave you to think about the answer of that for a moment. Let's turn over, while you're thinking, to John chapter 14.

John chapter 14 will pick up the account in verse 6. Here the crucifixion is approaching. Jesus Christ is wanting to convey some important lessons for His disciples to understand and consider. John chapter 14 and verse 6.

You know, Philip's saying, you know what, Lord? You've told us about the Father. You've taught us about Him. You've explained. You've demonstrated the relationship that you have between you and the Father and the relationship that we have. Show us the Father. Show us the Father. That will be sufficient.

Indeed, that will be enough. Verse 9. You know, you can almost hear the frustration in Christ's voice. It's kind of like, really, Philip? Seriously? Have you been with me so long? Have you not heard? Where have you been? If you've seen me, you have seen the Father. Or have you not been paying attention to what's been going on? Verse 10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works.

We understand where this authority comes from, and the authority that Christ came with. It was from His Father. Verse 11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.

Jesus Christ declared, again, that He was literally in the Father. And the Father was literally in Him, and that that relationship was evidenced by the works that He did and the words that He spoke. Jesus Christ wasn't one with the Father simply because He walked and talked like the Father.

He was one with the Father because they dwelled together in unity and oneness of the Spirit. And the way that He walked and how He talked, and the example that He said, was a reflection of the unity and oneness that He shared with God in the Spirit. Christ said, My Father and I are one.

I asked you earlier to consider whether Christ's words were a Trinitarian type of a statement. To declare that, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Is that a Trinitarian type of a statement? The teaching of the Trinity essentially states that in the being of the one Eternal God, there are three eternal and essential distinctions. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And yet there is no separation between them. So it's like three and one.

It's kind of like the blob, as you'd imagine it. I don't know why when I was thinking about this here last night, a flubber popped in my mind. I remember the old movie Flubber, but he was kind of this bouncy ball of goo that would go into all kinds of different shapes and forms. But the Trinity is the teaching essentially of three and one. Kind of like the blob, it's the concept of three different persons in one substance. And when one acts, they all act together. So if the Father needs to act, he kind of extends out of the blob and acts and retracts back in.

If the Word is doing something or Jesus Christ, he extends out and acts. But they're all joined together in this substance. So it's like if one acts, they all act together. Essentially, it's not biblical, the teaching of the Trinity, so there's a reason it can't be easily understood. But that's essentially what the teaching is. When they act, they do not act alone, again, three and one. Is that what we teach in the Church of God when we refer to the spiritual unity and oneness of God in Christ?

It is not. Clearly, it is not. I'm sure we all understand. That is not what we teach. Some over the years have claimed as well that the Church of God teaches what they call the binity. That's a man-made term, such as the Trinity as well. Neither appear in Scripture. And as I have understood it to be explained, the binity is essentially the same thing as the Trinity, except the Holy Spirit is out of the equation, so we have God and Christ together, two and one.

And that's the binity. Again, it's kind of like the blob. You've taken God and Christ, shook them up together, kind of homogenized them to the point where you don't know where one ends and the other begins. And when one acts, they both act. And you don't know. Is this the Father? Is this the Word? Is this Jesus Christ? And again, the concept is when one acts, it is they're both acting. Now, the problem with the teaching of the Trinity and the binity, there are a number of problems with it, but one major problem is that when Jesus Christ died on the stake, the teaching of the Trinity literally says part of the essence of God in heaven died.

Because they're three and one, you can't separate them. One part of the essence, if we want to say that way, came in the flesh and extended out into the form of Jesus Christ. And yet, when he died, and if he literally died, then an essence of God in heaven died. And it's kind of like the passion of the Christ is also the passion of God in heaven, and yet, if he was really dead, how could he really be dead?

And the essence of God died. Again, we understand, and that is not what we teach. They are not two in one. They are two distinct individual beings functioning as one. That is what we teach in the Church of God, brethren. We do not teach three in one. We do not teach two in one, such as that. Many of you here have been baptized longer than I have been alive. Tended to Church of God longer than I've been alive. Have you ever heard such a teaching as that from the Church of God?

I know in my life I have not, except for a brief portion of time in the 1990s when there was a move against our doctrinal integrity. Other than that, I've never heard such taught in the Church of God. To attribute the Trinity or the Beneti concept to what we teach in the Church of God today is a fallacy.

It extends from a lack of understanding of what we teach in the Church of God and what the Scripture says. God the Father and Jesus Christ are not two in one. Let's be clear on this, brethren. They are not two in one. They exist as two separate and distinct individual beings functioning together in unity and in oneness of the Spirit to fulfill all that they have purposed to fulfill. This is an important point for us to understand because we'll see later in the message understanding the oneness of God and Christ is critical to understanding what they are doing in us in terms of the Church and what it is that they have offered us in terms of our eternal salvation.

But again, it is two separate and distinct individual beings functioning together in unity and in oneness of the Spirit to fulfill all that they have purposed to fulfill. The Church of God teaches from the Bible that God the Father and the Word who became Jesus Christ are uncreated and they are coeternal. They are uncreated and they are coeternal. In other words, they have always existed together in eternity and they are self-existent eternal beings having life within themselves.

Turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 1. This is a major point of the basis of our teachings. John chapter 1 and verse 1. John 1.1 says, and we know it well, In the beginning God was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Brethren, these verses reveal a few things about God and the Word that we should take note of. First of all, it says, in the beginning was the Word. The word was, in the Greek, essentially means to be. It's a declaration of existence saying that in the beginning, and we could actually translate this as in a beginning.

Eternity has no beginning, but in the beginning was the Word. To be. He existed. It says the Word was with God, and the term with God shows relationship. He existed with God in the beginning, and there was a relationship between those two beings. It goes on to say that He was God. That shows identity.

Who the Word was. He was God. The word existed on the God plane, and was a God being of the God-kind along with the Father in the beginning. This is describing two eternal, self-existent, and uncreated beings dwelling together forever. If we can even wrap our mind, I can maybe wrap my mind around the concept of eternity going forward, because in this physical existence, I've not faced an end yet. When you're young, maybe you feel like you're going to live forever.

But the concept of no beginning is a little hard for me to comprehend, frankly. In the flesh, I think it is for all of us. Verse 2, again, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. So we begin to see the relationship whereby God and the Word have worked together, and they continue to work together in harmony. All things were created, and things that were created, were by God through Jesus Christ.

There's multiple scriptures that show us that. Everything that was created, heavens above, earth beneath, physical, spiritual, angelic creation, it was all created by the Father through the Word. Clause in chapter 1, verse 16 reinforces the fact. It says, all things were created through Christ and for Christ. So these two eternal beings have always existed together. They've always worked together in perfect unity and harmony and oneness of the Spirit.

There's never been a disagreement between them. There's never been a miscommunication. There's never been a misunderstanding. Oh, you wanted blue people? I didn't know you wanted blue people. I thought, never been a miscommunication. Yesterday, I was looking at the schedule. I was scheduled to be in Kennewick for church, but the weather, which rolled up upon us, we canceled services down there. But in anticipation, yesterday, I went to Les Schwab because I haven't put any of my snow tires on this year.

We've been busy fixing the house, moving. Weather's been so mild, I just didn't bother with it. Now I'm looking to the fact that I've got to make this road trip. We're going to have blizzard conditions. I went to get the studded tires put on and put them in the back of the SUV and went over there and said, Hey, I need my snow tires put on.

About 10 minutes later, the worker came in the door and he looked kind of perplexed. He says, You know you never had your snow tires on? I said, Oh, I know. I never had them on. I want them on. He says, Oh, you want them on? I thought you wanted them off. I said, you know, look out the window. I didn't say this, but look out the window, right? It's blizzarding. No, I want my tires on. Oh, okay. Well, put the snow tires on. Miscommunication, misunderstanding, all good intention. These two eternal beings that have existed together from eternity, there's never been a miscommunication, never a misunderstanding between God the Father and God the Word from eternity.

They've existed together in perfect unity and harmony in oneness of the Spirit, two distinct individual beings functioning together as one. John chapter 1 verse 3 also shows us the authoritative structure that exists between God and Christ. Verse 3 said, All things were made through Him, without Him nothing was made that was made. So we see that the Word willingly submits Himself to the will and the authority of His Father, fulfilling a subservient role in this relationship of God through Jesus Christ. And that has been their role in relationship together from eternity.

We see it through the record of the biblical Scripture. We see it in what God is doing today. I'd like to read to you a quote from the United Church of God booklet, Who is God? This is under the heading of the personal nature of God. It says, Of course, then and always the Father is supreme. Christ's equality with the Father is in the sense of sharing the same level of existence, both of them being God.

They're both God beings and the Godhead and equality in that way. But it does not mean, as some maintain, that the two are equal in authority. For Scripture clearly shows that Christ is subordinate to the Father. End quote. So again, that is what we teach in the Church of God, pertaining to the relationship and the authority structure in that relationship. Again, the point is, these are two eternal, self-existent God beings who have always existed together and continue to exist together in unity, harmony, and oneness of the Spirit.

And Christ said, My Father and I are one. They didn't like that very much. And for even speaking it, the Jews wanted to kill him. Brethren, there is only one Spirit. There is only one Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the essence of God. There is only one Spirit. There are not different spirits divided up into different places. You know, the Father is a Spirit and the Word has a Spirit, and we have a different Spirit, and it's all kind of divided up.

There is only one Spirit. And the Spirit which is in the Father and proceeds from the Father is in Jesus Christ, and is the same Spirit which is in us as well, through the baptism and the laying on of hands. God the Father and Jesus Christ are one in the Spirit.

And the incredible human potential that we can realize one day is that we will have the opportunity extended to us. It has already been extended, but in terms of the fulfillment of it fully, to one day be one with them in that same Spirit as well. We have a taste of that. We have a glimpse of that. We have that same Spirit dwelling in us. And I'll talk about that a little later on, towards the end of the message. God the Father and God the Word have always functioned together as one. Two separate individual beings, yes, but one in unity, one in purpose, one in the Spirit.

Now the question has arisen as well from time to time. Is there more than one God in Scripture? Is there more than one God in Scripture? We go through Scripture and say, here's a God, here's a God, let's add them together more than one God. Or is there one God in Scripture? What does the Bible say? Brethren, the Bible declares plainly that there is only one God. In fact, the Hebrew Scriptures point out the fact over and over and over, there is only one God who is identified as the God of Israel, the God of the patriarchs, one God.

There's one. That God is called by the name of Yahweh. I'm not married to the pronunciation. Understand it's our best estimate of what that, how that name would be pronounced. But whenever you see the capital letters L-O-R-D, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D in your Scripture, translated from Yahweh into the English, and Yahweh is the proper name from God. It is His proper name. It's not a title like L or Elohim, which is translated God. Yahweh is His name. And Yahweh essentially means the Eternal. It is probably about the closest translation in the English, the Eternal. And like I am, Yahweh is an expression of God's self-existent and eternal nature.

We won't turn there today, but in Exodus chapter 3, when God spoke to Moses, sending him to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, Moses asked God what his name was, and what did God say? God said, I am who I am. He said to Moses, you tell them I am has sent me to you. That's Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. And so, I am describes an eternal nature. It describes a self-existent state of being. And it is a nature that is shared by both God who became the Father and the Word who became Jesus Christ. They are both eternal, uncreated, self-existent, life within themselves. I am beings. You recall in John chapter 8, verse 58, the Pharisees, again, they were challenging Jesus Christ and they're saying, what?

You're not even 50 years old and you say you've seen Abraham? And Christ said, well, surely I say to you before Abraham was, I am. And wow, that did it, didn't it? They wanted to kill him again for uttering his divinity, for claiming to be as God, for being that self-existent eternal nature. They knew exactly what he was saying. The Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, it was written roughly around 300 B.C.

It was translated by the Jews, because you see, as you had the Jews now throughout the Greek-speaking world, they were immersed into the Greek culture, many of them spoke Greek, and now you need to have a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that were Greek. And so the Septuagint was produced under Jewish supervision, and it was available in many of the synagogues of the day. Many of the verses, or at least a certain number of verses that are in the Scripture, that are quoted by the apostles from the Old Testament, are actually quoted out of the Septuagint.

And you can tell by the wording of those verses. And Jesus Christ himself quoted the Septuagint. So this was a common writing. I don't know if I could say authoritative, but it was commonly read in their day and available. And when Jesus Christ said, I am, the words that John recorded in the Greek, okay, in the book of John, go and look up that Greek, look up the Greek in the Greek Septuagint, and look through multiple passages in the Old Testament.

God, the Scriptures for God and who he is and the claim of I am that was recorded for Christ in the Greek match up to a number of places in the Old Testament in the Greek Septuagint. So when Christ said before Abraham was I am, they knew what he was proclaiming, whether he spoke in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Greek translation that we have in our Scriptures captures that essence. He says, I am eternal. Name Yahweh is for an eternal, self-existent, uncreated being.

When we come to the one eternal God known in the Hebrew Scriptures as Yahweh, the Scriptures show that there is no other God besides him. No other. Let's look at a few examples. Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 39. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 39. This is Yahweh speaking.

Okay. Yahweh is described as eternal and self-existent. Again, as I live forever. Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 10. It says, you are my witnesses, says the Lord. It says Yahweh. You are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me. I even I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God among you. Therefore you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. Again, confirmation that there is no God besides Yahweh. And brethren, the Bible states the fact over and over and over. There is no God but Yahweh. Isaiah 45 verse 5 and 6. Isaiah 45 verse 5 and 6 says, I am the Lord and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, that I may make known from the rising of the sun to the setting, that there is none besides me. I am Yahweh and there is no other.

Going on to verse 21. Isaiah 45, 21. Tell and bring forth your case. Yes, let them take counsel together who has declared this from ancient time, who has told it from that time. Have not I the Lord? And there is no other God besides me. A just God and a Savior, there is none besides me. Again, clearly, there is no God apart from Yahweh. Only Yahweh alone exists as God in heavens above and on the earth beneath. There is no other Savior, there is no other God but Yahweh. Now, these passages and many others, brethren, beg the question, is Jesus Christ also God? Is Jesus Christ also God? God the Father is clearly Yahweh. Okay, we're not going to argue that point clearly. Father is Yahweh. But sometimes people may wonder if God the Word, who became Jesus Christ, is also God and Yahweh. Because if there is no other God besides Yahweh, then Jesus Christ must either be God and Yahweh as well, or He is not God. No God in heaven above or on earth beneath besides the one who was called by the name, the Eternal, the self-existent, the I Am that I Am. See, the Jesus Christ is either God and Yahweh along with the Father, or He is not God. There is only one God, brethren, and His name is Yahweh. Now, our current historical teachings in the Church of God has been that there are two eternal, self-existent God beings in the Godhead. God the Father and God the Word, who became Jesus Christ. Again, they are not the blob. They are not the binity. They are two distinct and individual beings functioning together as one. And if I could bring you a physical example that falls short, but maybe it's something we can grasp, it is as a husband and a wife, who God takes two individual beings and says, The two shall become one.

When God is joined together, He says, let not man separate. God says, you are one. And that's not a reference to the physical union only because it says God has made them one. Therefore, when God has made one, let man not separate. It is a covenant relationship of unity whereby God says the two are one. And yet, in that relationship, there's an authority structure. The husband is to be the leader of the family with the wife, submitting herself willingly to the godly lead of her husband.

God the Father and Jesus Christ, two separate and distinct beings from eternity, an authority structure of God through Jesus Christ, one submitting Himself to the other, existing together in spiritual unity and oneness of relationship. God and Christ existing together as one.

That is what we teach in the Church of God. Both God beings are referred to in the Scripture as God and Yahweh, with the context determining which one is being addressed. Again, that's the record of Scripture, and that is our teaching in the Church of God.

I see no other way around this point, brethren. Believe me, I have immersed myself for three years now in this topic of study, as well as you have as well. I see no way around this issue. You cannot have it both ways. Either Jesus Christ is also God and Yahweh, or He is not God. There is a reason why people who believe that Yahweh is the Father exclusively and the only God, there is scriptural support in terms of why one God is there. Alright, the question is, is Jesus Christ also God? It has been our teaching that indeed, yes, He is, and that He is also called by the Scripture Yahweh.

There is no other God besides Yahweh, and because the word is also, from our understanding, called God and Yahweh in the Scripture along with the Father, we can find distinct evidence pointing to that fact in a number of places. We're only going to turn to one place. We've been down this road before. If you go back in the archives before Passover last year, I gave an hour and a half sermon on the divinity of Jesus Christ from the New Testament and the Old Testament. We covered a number of Scriptures. So I'm not going to walk all through that, brethren, but I do want to go to one that I think is a clear illustration of the point. Let's go to Genesis 16.

Again, it's the word also Yahweh. Genesis 16. This is the account when Hagar ran away from her, Mr. Sarai, found by the angel of the Lord. And let's notice the interaction here that takes place. Genesis 16 and verse 7. It says, Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. As I've explained before and recently, I don't personally like this term, the angel of the Lord, as it's translated into the English, because I think clearly it obscures who this being is. An angel, as we commonly use the term, is for a created being. This was not a created being. You study out the angel of the Lord in Scripture. You will find he is called Yahweh and God. He is worshipped. There is divinity behind the angel of the Lord. He was not an angel. Our best understanding is that this is the Word who became Jesus Christ. Again, that other eternal, self-existent being with the Father. In the Hebrew, the words that are literally here translated, angel of the Lord, are malek yahweh. Malek yahweh. Malek means messenger. This is messenger Yahweh. In the Hebrew, there is no of the, although I think in many cases we'll apply that he was the messenger of the Father. But literally in the Hebrew, of this term, it is malek yahweh. You can find of the, throughout the Hebrew, the God of Abraham, or the God of Bethel. You find of the in the Hebrew. But as it refers to this being, it is simply messenger Yahweh, or malek yahweh. So what we find is there is Yahweh and there is messenger Yahweh, the Word, spokesman. It is oftentimes as well referred to as Yahweh in the Scripture, and Genesis 16 is an example of that. The conversation continues here between Hagar and the messenger. If we go down to verse 13, wrapping up the conversation, verse 13, she says, Then she called the name of the Yahweh who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. For she said, Have I also here seen him who sees me? So what we find is Hagar recognized that being that she was talking to as a God being. She said, You are the God who sees. You've seen me, and you know what? I've seen you. We also find in the same verse that this being who spoke to her is identified as Yahweh. It says, She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. The Yahweh who spoke to her was the Malek Yahweh, again, to the best of our understanding, the Word, that Eternal Being who became Jesus Christ. Moses wrote this account. All right. Hagar didn't say, I'm calling the name of the Yahweh who's speaking to me. No, she just said, You are the God who sees. Moses, narrating the account, says she called this Yahweh, that name. Moses knew who these beings were, and, brethren, I don't believe he was mistaken.

I'm going to reference a few scriptures for you. This is for your research later. We're not going to turn to these things, but I'd like to suggest that you go and study out these accounts and see where they lead and study others of like kind as well. You can find that the same Malek Yahweh intervening in the near sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac, in Genesis chapter 22 and verse 12, the angel of the Lord, as the English translation says, appeared to him, stopped him from sacrificing his son, and said, Now I know you fear God, because you've not withheld your only son from me. Then he said, begins to deliver him a message, and he says, in that message says the Lord. So you know now here's a message from the Father through the messenger. But he appeared to Abraham in that account, Genesis 22.12. You can find the same Malek appearing to Jacob in a dream, declaring himself to be the God of Bethel, where Jacob anointed the pillar and made a vow to him. That's in Genesis 31 verse 13. And it's a reference back to Genesis 28, where Jacob had the dream, the latter going up to heaven in Yahweh at the top, and he called the name Bethel, anointed the pillar, made a vow, and said, Yahweh will be my God. The Malek Yahweh appears and said, I'm the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made the vow to me. Again, Genesis 31.13 and Genesis 28. You can find the same divine being wrestling with Jacob, the man who appeared in the flesh there, who wrestled with Jacob, again, a divine being by the best of our understanding. Jacob calling the name or the place of the encounter, Peniel. Rousled with him in this place, called it Peniel. Peniel means the face of God. And Jacob says, I've seen God face-to-face. And I believe he acknowledged him as his God.

Remember, brethren, Scripture states, over and over and over there is no other God besides Yahweh. No the God, no a God, no idols, no wood, no plastic, whatever it might be. There is simply Yahweh alone, the Eternal, who is God.

You can find Jacob praying to the Malek to bless his sons, or the sons rather, of Joseph. Jacob offering up this prayer, acknowledging the messenger, the Malek, in his prayer, asking for the blessing of his son Joseph and his children in Genesis 48, verse 15 and 16. Again, he's acknowledging this as a God-being. He is not praying to an angel. You can find the commander of Yahweh's army, again, a spirit being, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, accepting worship from Joshua at the brink of Jericho. Joshua chapter 5 and verse 15. Anywhere in Scripture that you see an angel that is bowed down to, fallen down to, Book of Revelation, John falls down to this angel and he says, don't do that. I'm your fellow servant. Worship God. An angel of God does not accept worship. Only God is worthy of worship. So he said, don't do that. He didn't say don't do that. He accepted the worship of Joshua. He said, take the sandals off your feet. The place you stand here now is holy ground. The presence of an angel doesn't make the ground holy. The presence of God, brethren, does. This unity has always existed in the relationship between these two eternal beings in the Godhead of God through Jesus Christ, working together in unison to bring about God's plan, His perfect plan of salvation for all of mankind, all the way back to the beginning of God through Christ. It continues today. They function together in seamless unity and oneness of the Spirit, each fulfilling their own individual roles.

It is Yahweh in the scripture who fights against the nations whose feet will stand on the Mount of Olives at the beginning of the millennium. Zechariah 14. That is Yahweh. But a revelation shows that to be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Yahweh is declared to have established the creation by Himself. We see through the New Testament scriptures and the writings that the Father created all things through Jesus Christ. It was a joint effort and in agreement that Yahweh did this Himself, God the Father and Jesus Christ, working together. Yahweh is declared to be the only Savior. He is declared to be the only rock. He is declared to be the King of Israel. Yahweh is declared to be the first and the last. Go to Revelation. Look up the first and the last. The only scriptures referencing the first and the last are to Jesus Christ. There's four of them. The Father is the first and the last. So is the word Jesus Christ. It is a descriptor for Yahweh. All of these titles, all of these descriptors, Jesus Christ shares along with God the Father. God the Father and the Word have always existed together in perfect unity, perfect harmony, spiritual oneness, and accompanying God the Father was the Word bringing His plan of salvation to pass, as God has determined. Now in due time, the Word became flesh. The Word dwelled among men. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 expresses that point. Let's go there. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5 says, That is the mindset that should be in each and every one of us. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. We discussed that equality earlier. It was not in authority, but it was in being. Verse 7, Jesus Christ was born as a baby and had to have His diaper changed like each and every one of us. The greatest of authority came in the flesh for the purpose of us, giving us opportunity. That's the mind that should be in us. Verse 8, So it's important, brethren, that we understand that when Jesus Christ came in the flesh, this was not a new creation coming into being. This was God who was with God. The Word had always existed. John 1, And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we begot as it were, the only begotten of the Father. Alright? The Word became flesh. This was an eternal, self-existent being. Jesus Christ was the result of the Word humbling Himself, divesting Himself of glory, being born in the flesh by the Spirit of God through the Virgin Mary.

When Jesus Christ came in the flesh, He gave up the glory that He had with the Father in eternity, but He did not give up His divinity. He gave up the glory. He gave up the existence as a God being in that sense for a period of time, but He did not give up His divinity. He says, I am, and indeed He was Emmanuel, God with us. As God in the flesh, Jesus Christ continued to be very much at one with His Father in Heaven through the Holy Spirit. He lived His physical life in much the same way that He lived His life in eternity with His Father in one, in unity. And in this flesh, when you saw Him, you saw the Father who sent Him. Again, you recall Jesus Christ said, the Father is in me and I am in Him, and my Father and I are one. That's how He lived in eternity as the Word. That is how He lived in the flesh as a physical human being. They lived and they functioned as one. Two distinct individual beings bound together by the Spirit of God is one. On the night before His crucifixion and death, the same oneness was on the forefront of Jesus Christ's mind, and He prayed to the Father regarding it. He prayed that His followers, that His disciples, would experience that same oneness, that same unity by the Spirit of God. Let's go to John 17.

John 17 and verse 9.

Here again, just before He is delivered up for the crucifixion. Praying to His Father, John 17 and verse 9.

Verse 11.

Christ prayed that those who would be His disciples that would follow Him, that would live this way of life and be a reflection of God and Christ as well, that they would experience this same oneness, just as He and His Father are one.

Brethren, I sometimes wonder if we grasp the magnitude of that prayer. Is it simple agreement?

Again, did Christ walk just in agreement with the Father? He likes red, I like red, sounds good to me. Are you and I here today out of simple agreement? The Sabbath day is Saturday, so we're all here. Well, that may be a part of it, but what binds us together, if it is only simple agreement, it will not last, because there are things that people have been doing. There are things outside of Scripture that have opinions about, where you may disagree, but the fact is we are bound together as one by the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that made Christ and His Father one. He prayed it would bind us together as well. Verse 20 says, He says, So it continues down the line to us. We have believed through their word and through the people who believed in their word and taught it, and those people who believed in the word and taught it. And as this has been preserved by God's Spirit, this comes down to us as well. Verse 22 God the Father and Jesus Christ are two individual and distinct beings, and yet they exist together as one. One in the Spirit. Perfect unity. Perfect harmony. Again, that doesn't make them a trinity. It doesn't make them a binity. Those aren't biblical words, but you know what? It does make them one. It is indeed what the Scripture says. The incredible revelation we've received from the Scripture is that you and I, as the people of God, are given the opportunity to share in the same oneness of God and Christ through the Spirit. You and I can be one with God, one with Jesus Christ, and one with one another through the Holy Spirit of God, which binds us together. Isn't it our goal to be one with God? If God dwells in you by His Holy Spirit, would you call that a trinity? If you and God are one, would you call that a binity? If God and Christ are one by the Spirit of God and function as one, would those titles apply to them? Again, the incredible revelation of Scripture, brethren, is that you and I are given the opportunity to be one as they are one. Many members join together as one. 1 Corinthians 12 and 12.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, speaking of the body of Jesus Christ.

These are spiritual matters.

Oneness and unity in the oneness of God and Christ and the oneness that is extended to us is a spiritual matter.

God is revealed in His Scriptures. Verse 12, For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, you notice it is one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews are Greek, whether slaves are free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member but many.

Brought together as one. Verse 15, And the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, Because I am an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were a hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed they are many members, yet one body.

The body of Jesus Christ, bound together by the Spirit of God, is one.

One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one equals one.

It is the unity and oneness of God and Christ. And the unity and oneness that He has called us to partake in as well. The body is made up of many individual members, yet one body. It is not the 144,000 entity, or whatever title you might like to give to it. It is one, just as the Father and Jesus Christ are one.

Final scripture for today, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10.

Hebrews 2 verse 10 says, For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies, who sanctifies, is God the Father who sanctifies. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified, that is us, are all of one.

He who sanctifies, who are being sanctified, are all of one. For which reason, He is not ashamed to call them brethren. We are brethren of Jesus Christ, if we enter into the spiritual unity and oneness that He shares with the Father. When we put it all together, this oneness is not a Trinitarian kind of construct, but rather, it is a spiritual unity, whereby the Father, Jesus Christ, and the believer are all one through the Spirit of God. And the oneness of God is expanding. That's the exciting news, brethren. That is the good news. That is the gospel. The oneness of God is expanding to include all those who would become sons and daughters of God in His eternal family. That's the incredible truth of the oneness of God and Christ. It is not a closed system. It is not the Trinity, three in one. Or it's not the binity, two in one, a closed system. It is an open system of oneness, whereby those who God gives His Spirit to may indeed become one, ultimately members of His family for all eternity. I hope that's exciting to you. It's exciting to me. It's rather eye-opening to me. Jesus Christ said, my Father and I are one. His prayer shortly before His death was that we too would be one as He and the Father are one. Brethren, let us seek more fully to understand the unity that exists between God the Father and the Son, and in doing so, we will come to more fully understand the level of unity that can be here among us as well. Christ said, make them one as we are one. If you tear apart the oneness of God and Christ, what happens to the oneness of the body? I dare say, it falls apart as well. God the Father and Jesus Christ are one. They have called us to be one just as they are one. Brethren, I implore you, I plead with you, that God has joined together. Let man not put us under.