Grace Pipeline, The

Partnered With His Power

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host)

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Program Code: GPL000005


00:01 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:02 Please join us now on "The Grace Pipeline,"
00:05 where we will look at what the Bible says
00:08 about being yoked with Jesus
00:10 and partnered with His power.
00:33 Welcome to "The Grace Pipeline."
00:36 This series, it follows a Bible study
00:38 that I was very blessed to write in the book
00:41 that is also titled "The Grace Pipeline."
00:43 And today, we are going to take a look
00:47 at the privilege of being yoked with Christ
00:51 and partnered with His power."
00:54 If you're following along in this--
00:56 in your series companion book, we're beginning on page 41.
01:00 Now in our last program, we concluded
01:02 with the story of a personal experience of mine.
01:05 Some years ago, I was praying 1 Corinthians 6:17 that says,
01:11 "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
01:15 And as I pray this as an affirmation of my faith
01:19 thanking God for making me one with Him.
01:21 I didn't feel one with Him.
01:24 I couldn't even comprehend
01:25 what it meant to be united in this way.
01:28 When I ask and the Lord cried out for understanding,
01:32 what He did was, He let me in a study
01:35 on the mysterious oneness of the Father,
01:37 the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
01:40 We're going to take just a few minutes of today's program
01:43 to briefly consider the unity of the Godhead.
01:47 The concept of three divine persons who are only one God.
01:52 This will help us understand how we can become
01:56 partnered with the Lord's power and be one in spirit with Him.
02:01 When trying to understand this concept of oneness,
02:04 the Lord led me first to Deuteronomy 6:4,
02:08 which proclaims "The Lord our God, the Lord is one!"
02:14 We're going to take a little closer look at this
02:18 and we're going to get technical for just a moment
02:20 but stay with me, because what we'll do is
02:24 look at the literal Hebrew of this translation
02:27 and we'll understand more.
02:30 The Hebrews says "YHWH our Elohim,
02:36 YHWH is eh ad," meaning "Jehovah, our Self-existent,
02:43 all-powerful God, is plural but One."
02:48 Let's unpack this.
02:50 YHWH is the "Tetragrammaton"
02:53 that just means a four letter word.
02:55 But it is used by the Bible writers for Yahweh,
03:00 which in English we say Jehovah.
03:03 This is the name that God pronounced or announced
03:06 from the burning bush to Moses.
03:08 Yahweh means "I am,"
03:11 I am the one who is the self-existent one.
03:14 And in reverence for the holiness of God's name
03:17 in fear of breaking the commandment
03:18 of taking God's name in vain.
03:21 Jews avoided pronouncing or spelling the secret name Yahweh.
03:25 Instead it became their common practice to use Adonai.
03:31 Now, let's consider Elohim that means the all
03:35 "powerful creator and sustainer."
03:38 Elohim is a masculine plural noun.
03:43 And in the first scripture of Genesis 1:1
03:46 "God reveals His complex plurality
03:51 of His nature as creator."
03:53 Genesis 1:1 says that
03:56 "In the beginning God Elohim created."
04:00 These words announce the presence of only one God
04:05 and confirm that this all powerful creator
04:08 is composed of more than one member.
04:12 Elohim is the most frequently used name of God.
04:16 It appears some 2250 times in the Old Testament.
04:20 It is His Covenant Maker name in His declaration that
04:24 He will not abandon that which He has created.
04:27 And the most telling Hebrew word though in this
04:31 in Deuteronomy 6:4 is eh ad,
04:36 that is a word that defines a union of several components
04:42 combined into a single unit.
04:46 So the scripture we are examining
04:48 Deuteronomy 6:4 declares "The Lord Jehovah,
04:53 the plural Creator Elohim is One eh ad,
04:58 His several components that are a single unit."
05:01 We will see the significance of this divine oneness
05:05 of the Godhead in a moment.
05:06 But like divine love, divine oneness has no equal.
05:10 There seems to be universal agreement
05:13 that the person identified in scripture is the Father,
05:16 is the all powerful infinite God.
05:19 So I feel no need to expand on this fact.
05:23 But some religions acknowledge Jesus
05:27 as God's greatest historical prophet,
05:30 yet they deny His deity as our creator God.
05:34 Scripture does not support this denial.
05:36 The New Testament clearly portrays
05:39 Christ as a member of the Godhead
05:42 and indeed in John 1-3 and Colossians 1:16.
05:49 In Colossians 2:9 Christ is described
05:54 as the force behind creation.
05:58 Legally all Bible scholars recognize
06:01 the Angel of the Lord of the Old Testament
06:04 was the visible God of the Old Testament
06:07 in the person of Jesus Christ.
06:09 He appeared to Moses from the burning bush
06:11 and among others He appeared to Abraham,
06:14 the slave girl, Hagar, Jacob, Gideon.
06:17 He is distinct from the father
06:20 and He does not appear again after Christ incarnation.
06:24 Therefore scholars conclude that
06:26 the Angel of the Lord is Christ, the Messiah messenger.
06:32 The word angel simply means messenger.
06:36 Jesus said in John 8:58 "Most assuredly,
06:43 I say to you, before Abraham was I am."
06:48 With this exact praise or name used of God,
06:51 Jesus proclaimed His eternal existence
06:55 and He further stated in Chapter 10.
06:58 He said, I and the Father are one and he avowed
07:02 the authority that was reserve by God alone to forgive sins.
07:06 So in doing this Christ clearly claimed
07:10 He was God accusing Him of blasphemy,
07:13 the seething Jewish leaders wanted
07:16 to stone him for His claims.
07:18 And they eventually schemed
07:19 to have the Lord of Glory crucified.
07:22 Jesus declared He was the Lord,
07:25 the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah,
07:28 the Son of God and the Son of Man.
07:31 In other words Son of Man meant the Lord
07:34 who humbled Himself to become human,
07:37 uniting divinity with humanity forever.
07:40 And the Lord who will return in the future
07:43 on the clouds of heaven with majesty in great power.
07:47 Significantly in Daniel 7:13 and 14
07:52 "God supply the same emphasis of Christ humanity
07:55 in prophetic vision to Daniel,
07:57 who saw one like the Son of Man
08:00 who proceeded from the ancient of days
08:03 and was given universal authority.
08:05 Every Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah
08:08 was fulfilled in Jesus
08:10 and recorded in the New Testament
08:12 historical account of His life.
08:15 If Christ was not who He claimed to be,
08:19 then we must consider Him an unholy liar.
08:22 No one can acknowledge Him as a holy prophet of God
08:26 while denying His claims of deity,
08:29 accept a great parallel of missing God's Grace.
08:32 The Bible portrays not only Christ as God
08:37 but the Holy Spirit
08:38 as the member of the Godhead present at creation.
08:42 And His personhood is denied by some Christian circles,
08:46 who equate His presence to nothing more than
08:50 a force of God's being?
08:53 As one dear soul tried to explain to me.
08:55 She said, oh, spirit can't be a person,
08:58 and I said, well, God is a Spirit,
09:01 that's what John 4:24 says
09:04 "Is that God is the Spirit
09:05 and He certainly is the member of the Godhead.
09:10 Her convoluted reasoning cannot get around that.
09:13 But as for me, I will lit here to the opinion of Jesus Christ,
09:17 who always refer to the Holy Spirit as a person
09:20 and identified Him with the personal pronoun
09:24 he him or his, Christ never call the Holy Spirit and it.
09:29 Peter identified the Holy Spirit is God,
09:32 when he rebuked one of the early Christian Church members
09:36 saying in Acts 5.3 and 4
09:38 "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart
09:43 to lie to the Holy Spirit...
09:45 You have not lied to men but to God."
09:50 You know the scripture is replete with references
09:55 that tell us that
09:57 the Holy Spirit exercises His choice
10:00 and experiences emotion
10:02 and then He possesses the qualities of God.
10:05 The Holy Spirit is identified in scripture
10:07 as being omniscient all knowing,
10:10 omnipresent all present, and omnipotent all powerful.
10:16 And we must remember Christ great commission
10:19 found in Matthew 28:19 and 20, where He said
10:24 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
10:29 baptizing them in the name not names
10:32 but in the name of the Father
10:34 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
10:38 teaching them to observe all things
10:40 that I have commanded you."
10:43 This great commission of Christ
10:45 appeals to the complex unity
10:49 of three personal co-eternals sinners of consciousness.
10:54 Scripture reveals the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
10:59 cooperate in perfect harmony.
11:02 Jesus did nothing contrary to His Father's will.
11:06 Whatever the Father did, the Son did in like manner.
11:09 And in reverence for His Father,
11:12 Jesus did not compete with Him
11:14 because of His reverence submission
11:17 the Father exalted Him.
11:20 And in like manner the Holy Spirit
11:22 does not compete with Jesus,
11:24 but does everything to bring Christ to glory,
11:28 the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
11:32 The Bible clearly defines a distinction of three persons
11:36 but in essences of oneness.
11:38 Now man labels this concept, the trinity...
11:42 How are we to understand this and explain it?
11:45 Its not as difficult as I have thought
11:48 before God led me in this study.
11:51 Here is my conclusion "The Father, the Son,
11:55 and The Spirit are one in purpose thought and action."
12:01 This study not only helped me to understand,
12:05 how the three can be one
12:08 but also pointed to a powerful truth.
12:11 Perfect unity leaves no room
12:13 for separate plans among the Godhead.
12:16 All though they are coequal, their actions illustrate
12:20 a chain of command so to speak.
12:23 The Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father.
12:28 And for this the all loving Father exalts Him
12:32 and gives Him authority.
12:34 This God ordained system applies to our lives as well.
12:39 We are called to humble ourselves
12:42 and glorify God in our actions.
12:44 When we do, He exalts us and gives us authority
12:49 as we tap into God's supply of grace and are born again,
12:54 God joins us to Him and the new creature we become
12:58 as Paul proclaimed is one spirit with Him.
13:02 By God's design in our faith we grow in grace
13:07 and become one in thought purpose and action with Him,
13:11 living out God's perfect plan for our lives.
13:15 This unity squelches any of our plans
13:19 that are separate from His will.
13:22 It is your destiny to develop the same character of Jesus.
13:27 Did you know that, that it is written
13:29 in the Bible in Romans 8:29 it says
13:33 "For whom He speaking of God foreknew,
13:36 He also predestined to be conformed
13:40 to the image of His Son,
13:43 that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
13:47 That's your God given destiny.
13:49 God knew of the sin struggle humanity would face
13:53 and before He created our world,
13:56 He designed His glorious Calvary plan
13:59 with only one end in mind
14:02 that all who accept His gift of salvation
14:05 are destined to become like His son.
14:07 If you are a Christian your God given destiny
14:11 is to be like Jesus,
14:13 this good news is that the best part of this
14:17 I should say is that Philippians 1:6 tells us
14:21 that this is a work that God begins,
14:24 sustains and complete in us.
14:27 He achieves it by His grace alone
14:31 which we will consider in greater depth
14:33 in upcoming programs.
14:35 Jesus reveals the secret of obtaining eternal life.
14:39 In John 17:3 and there He says "This is eternal life,
14:46 that they may know you the only true God,
14:50 and Jesus whom you have sent."
14:54 In this verse the word know is a verb
14:59 that conveys the thought of a personal connection,
15:03 a union through an intimate relationship.
15:06 In fact, the Bible uses this verb know to describe
15:09 a relationship between a man and a woman.
15:12 Eternal life is not gained through
15:16 scholarly head knowledge,
15:18 but it is a gift of God's grace for those who know Him
15:21 through heart knowledge
15:23 gained from an intimate personal experience.
15:28 God's greatest desire is that we will cherish
15:32 a close relationship with Him through Christ
15:35 His predetermine plan is to make us one with Him
15:39 in thought purpose and action, that is God's motive for grace.
15:45 The practical impact of grace is to enjoy
15:49 an intimate relationship with God in the spirit of oneness.
15:54 Now I want to share an amazing truth.
15:57 You've probably heard the saying that
15:59 a picture is worth a thousand words,
16:02 well, who can argue against the truth of this saying.
16:05 It is equally true however that words
16:09 can paint pictures in our mind
16:11 that evoke strong emotional responses.
16:15 The word yoke for example often creates a picture of hardship,
16:20 one mental image created by this word is wooden collar
16:24 like instrument that harnesses
16:27 two oxen or two horses together
16:29 as they pull heavy plough or weighty cart.
16:33 Well, we might recognize the wooden frame helps
16:35 support creatures share this heavy burden,
16:39 it is still something nonetheless
16:42 that we are left with the impression of hard labor.
16:45 Another picture the word yoke might bring to mind
16:48 is that of a slave within iron collar around his neck
16:52 being transported to market.
16:54 Let's look at the words of our loving Savior now.
16:58 In Matthew 11:28 through 30, and Jesus says
17:03 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
17:08 and I will give you rest.
17:10 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
17:15 for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
17:19 and you will find rest for your souls.
17:22 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
17:28 Why would the master of grace
17:31 want to place the yoke upon our shoulders?
17:35 Well, to take Christ yoke is to become subject to Him
17:39 as our Lord and to live under His authority.
17:43 Do we view this invitation as a burden of drudgery,
17:47 I mean who yearns to be yoked anyway.
17:51 The truth is all of humanity lives
17:55 under one yoke of subjection or another.
17:58 I want to share another scripture with you.
18:00 This is Romans 6:6, Paul writes
18:03 "Do you not known that to whom you present yourselves
18:06 slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey,
18:13 whether of sin leading to death,
18:16 or of obedience leading to righteousness?"
18:20 We see here that two conditions are identified in this verse.
18:24 We are either subjects of Christ held captive
18:27 to His love and His obedience
18:31 or we are subjects to Satan and thereby slaves of disobedience.
18:36 Either God is our spiritual Father or the devil is.
18:41 It is written in John 8:31 that
18:45 "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."
18:49 These are the words of Christ and He says sin and slaves,
18:54 before we're born again we are unspiritual creatures
18:59 sold under its control and ensnared by an evil taskmaster.
19:06 Satan hangs his yoke of bondage around the neck
19:10 of fallen humanity and presenting himself
19:13 as an angel of light.
19:15 Satan strategy is to tempt us with sin
19:18 and to steal our chance of the saving relationship
19:21 with the Lord Jesus Christ.
19:23 The pleasures that He offers are fleeting
19:27 and his burdens become difficult to bear.
19:30 The devil proves to be a driving taskmaster.
19:34 When we're lashed repeatedly by his cracking whip
19:37 and groaning under the weight of sin,
19:40 the weary soul is rubbed raw by his rough yoke.
19:45 But what I want to do is go back
19:48 and unpack the scripture of Matthew 11:28 through 30,
19:53 where Jesus said, "Come to Me,
19:56 all you who labor and are heavy laden,
20:01 and I will give you rest."
20:04 You know the call of Christ is sweat music
20:07 to our fainting heart.
20:08 If we accept His invitation,
20:11 He will set us free from the charcoaled of sin,
20:15 cutting away the cords of the wicked that bind us.
20:18 He will destroy the works of the devil.
20:21 We can caste the weight of our cares
20:23 upon the one who cares for us.
20:26 Now in Matthew 11 and verse, well this in Matthew 11
20:32 He continues by saying "I am gentle and lowly in heart,
20:37 and you will find rest for your souls."
20:40 They are wounded and weary people around the world
20:45 outside the church and within,
20:47 who seek rest for their souls.
20:49 Only the Son of God, who humbled Himself to die
20:52 on a cross as our substitute can provide that rest.
20:57 The one who emptied Himself to take on the attributes of man
21:00 and become the Son of Man was made like us in all ways
21:05 that He might sympathize with our weaknesses.
21:08 He knows what it is to suffer temptation.
21:12 Christ is more than able to come to our aid,
21:14 because He never succumbed to sin,
21:18 but He gained victory over it
21:20 through His complete dependence upon the Father.
21:24 And at the cross our Savior exposed Satan
21:28 for who he is and he made a public spectacle
21:32 of him disarming his power at the resurrection.
21:36 He gained victory over death.
21:39 Only Christ can refresh your heart restoring the rhythm
21:45 to be as one with God and give you rest.
21:51 In Matthew 11:29 Jesus continues and He says
21:58 "Take My yoke upon you and learn for me,
22:02 for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
22:07 Why would we not cheerfully submit to exchange
22:10 the harsh yoke of Satan for the pleasant yoke of Christ?
22:15 The Lord's gracious yoke is lined with layer
22:18 upon layer of divine love.
22:20 We don't need to be concerned about yielding to it.
22:24 Jesus is a gentle master.
22:26 He knows our capabilities and He knows our limitations
22:30 as He teaches us to live under His leadership,
22:34 His guiding love gives us direction in life.
22:37 He shares in our burdens and leads us to enter His rest,
22:41 which is nothing, nothing less than
22:44 total dependence upon God.
22:47 Here's the exciting news, Christ appealed to be yoked
22:51 with Him is an invitation to be partnered with His power
22:56 and as we walk through life
22:59 connected side-by-side with our sympathetic Savior.
23:02 He supplies our every need by infusing us
23:06 with His inexhaustible all sufficient grace.
23:10 Yoke together with Christ,
23:11 He perfects His power in our weakness.
23:14 The Apostle Paul learned this supreme lesson
23:17 as he prayed for the release from an affliction
23:21 and answer of Christ promise created an astounding reaction
23:25 from Paul recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
23:29 And Paul says "He said to me,
23:32 "My grace is sufficient for you,
23:34 for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
23:38 Now listen to Paul's response
23:39 "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities,
23:45 that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
23:50 Paul didn't receive the answer He was looking for,
23:54 but He wasn't left disappointed.
23:56 Christ had something greater in mind than a quick fix,
24:00 He gave Paul the grace to endure his infliction
24:04 showing him the way to greater spiritual power.
24:08 And Paul's weakness open the way of God's strength,
24:12 the weaker he became the less he relied on self,
24:16 the greater God's power increased,
24:19 so practically gushing from the experience
24:22 that accompanied this inside.
24:24 Paul joyfully concludes in verse 10.
24:27 He says, "When I'm weak then I am strong."
24:32 Now why do we have such difficulty
24:35 in learning this lesson?
24:37 Could it be because the world praises us
24:40 for our ability to be strong and self-sufficient
24:44 after all our training from birth to the time
24:48 that we grow up is to teach us
24:51 to live independently as adults.
24:54 It is counterintuitive and humbling for an adult
24:58 to learn dependence on God.
25:01 All though difficult for us to comprehend His ways
25:04 and His thoughts are higher than ours
25:07 and abiding grace results only as we enter
25:10 into His perfect plan of total dependence upon Him.
25:16 In Luke 18:17 Jesus said,
25:21 "Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive
25:25 the kingdom of God as a little child
25:28 will by no means enter in."
25:31 Child like faith, child like dependence,
25:36 this is how we enter His rest.
25:38 When this precious truth opens our eyes,
25:42 security settles into our hearts and faith soars.
25:46 The Apostle Paul learned to live
25:48 in the daily miracle of Christ's supernatural power,
25:52 this divine assistance of Christ.
25:56 And writing to the church at Philippi,
25:59 He said in Philippians 4:13
26:02 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
26:09 We find true strength only as we allow Christ to empower us.
26:14 When He infuses His sufficiency in us,
26:18 we can do everything that He has planned for us.
26:21 God will indeed cause us to be all that He has called us to be
26:25 and as we are yoked with Christ,
26:28 we have His divine assistance to keep the commandments of God.
26:32 You know, Jesus clearly tells us in John 15:5
26:35 that apart from Him we can do nothing,
26:38 nothing of eternal consequences.
26:40 But listen to this beautiful promise from Isaiah 40:31.
26:45 It says, "Those who wait for the Lord shall change
26:49 and renew their strength and power,
26:51 they shall lift their wings and mount up as eagles,
26:55 they shall run and not be weary,
26:58 they shall walk and not faint."
27:02 Look to the Lord for your salvation.
27:06 Divine love will create a bond to keep you living
27:11 in the reality of relationship with Him.
27:14 He will exchange His power for your weakness.
27:19 And in submission to His yoke,
27:22 the liberating joy of dependence upon God
27:26 and the strength of divine grace will be yours.
27:30 Indeed, you will be yoked with Him
27:35 and He's carrying the balance of the load,
27:38 you will be partnered with His power.
27:41 Well, we hope that you have enjoyed our thoughts today.
27:45 And that you will join us on our next program,
27:48 where we're going to be talking about
27:50 how the lives of two robbers
27:52 showed an incredible snapshot of grace.
27:56 Growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord until next time.


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Revised 2014-12-17