VESPERS!--PSALM 2:6-8    4/82              DO 2359

         1. We're reading the Second Psalm beginning with the sixth verse: "Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion." Who is the king? Well, we're going to find out in the next verse. (Verse 7:) "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee." Now obviously He is talking to Whom? It even sounds like Jesus is the One Who's speaking in the seventh verse, right? "I will declare the decree: the Lord"--that's God--"hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son."
         2. God is speaking in those Words, "Thou art My Son," & He's obviously speaking to Jesus. The "Me" is Jesus, so Jesus is actually speaking here in this Psalm: "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son." And most of your Bibles probably have the word "Son" capitalised, showing they recognise that it was Jesus. "This day have I begotten Thee."
         3. Now what was Jesus called? Can we quote John 3:16? (Family: "For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.") So Jesus is God's only begotten Son. He is the only begotten Son in the sense of being unique in that He was literally begotten in the flesh.
         4. We're all sons of God who love Jesus & believe in Him & have been born again. We are the sons of God & there are many references to that in the Scripture, both Old & New Testament. In fact, when the Scribes & the Pharisees accused Jesus of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of God, He reminded them of a Scripture in the Psalms where David said, "Ye are gods!"--Proving that it was perfectly legitimate for anybody who supposedly is related to the Lord to call himself a son of God, therefore they shouldn't have accused Him of blasphemy.--Jn.10:34-36; Psa.82:6.
         5. But He was uniquely God's Son, the only begotten Son, the only one begotten in the flesh by a woman sexually, believe it or not. It uses the same expression there, "the Angel came in unto her," that is used throughout the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, as a sexual expression meaning sexual intercourse.--Luke 1:28; Gen.6:4; 38:18, etc.
         6. "This day have I begotten Thee." There was a certain day when Jesus was begotten, right? What day was that? "In the beginning was the Word." Who was the Word?--Jesus! "And the Word was with God, & the Word was God. All things were made by Him." David, do you want to quote it? "Without Him was not anything made that was made." (David: "In Him was life; & the life was the light of men."--John 1:1-4.)
         7. So Jesus was there in the beginning with God--"in the beginning"! Where do we also hear that phrase, "In the beginning"? Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the Heaven & the Earth." Now since God had already been in existence & had no beginning or no ending, when was the beginning? (Fam: When He made Jesus.) Well, in the first verse of Genesis it's very obvious, when He created the Heavens & the Earth. This same phrase is used in John, the first Chapter, the first verse: "In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, & the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, & without Him was not any thing made that was made."
         8. "In the beginning!" That phrase is used several times, first of all in the Bible regarding the creation of the Heaven & the Earth, & it's also used in John 1:1 saying what? (Fam: "In the beginning was the Word.") "The Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."--In the beginning!
         9. Obviously, since God had no beginning, this has nothing to do with the beginning of God. The only beginning being referred to & the only beginning there is or ever was, was what beginning?--The beginnings of the creation of God. And we just got through quoting John 1:1 which says that at that same time, what? (Fam: "In the beginning was the Word.") Jesus was there in the beginning. He was there, therefore, at the beginning & He was the One Who did the actual work of Creation! "All things were made by Him & without Him was not anything made that was made." Jesus was the Creator!
         10. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter one, it says in the 8th verse, "I am Alpha & Omega, the Beginning & the Ending." Now since there's only one beginning spoken of in the Bible, & God had no beginning, it must refer to the same beginning, right?--The beginning of the creation of God. "In the beginning God created the Heaven & the Earth." "In the beginning was the Word." These are obviously the Words of Jesus. Obviously Jesus was talking to John: "I am Alpha & Omega, the Beginning & the Ending."
         11. All right, we're trying to pinpoint the beginning & what was begun! We know from Genesis 1:1 that's when God created the Heaven & the Earth. We know from John 1:1 that Jesus was there & did the creating, so He must have been in existence at least slightly before the actual creation of Heaven & Earth. All right. Again He says in Rev.1:11, "I am Alpha & Omega, the First & the Last," & goes on & Jesus talks a lot in the second Chapter of Revelation about some of the different churches.
         12. He continues talking to the churches in the third Chapter until you come to the 14th verse & He says: "Unto the Angel of the church of the Laodiceans write." It's rather interesting that He uses this expression again, because He's now talking to which church? In succession, in order, He's talking to the last one, the seventh one. And some people even make these chronological. So to this last church that He's talking to, whichever way you look at it, He says:
         13. "These things saith the Amen!" What does "Amen" mean? (Fam: So be it.)--The "So Be It"! "The faithful & true Witness." Who is He talking about? Jesus Himself is speaking & He's talking about Himself! He's a faithful & true Witness! Praise God! So all of you who are faithful & true witnesses are in Jesus' class, because He was a faithful & true witness!
         14. Then here's a shocker that the preachers have a hard time explaining & they try to get around, particularly those who are of the belief of "Jesus Only," who identify Jesus as being not only the Son, but the Father too. They run to the extreme on what they call "Oneness of God" to the point that they make Jesus His Own Father & they do not separate the personalities of God. But here in the 14th verse of the third Chapter of Revelation, Jesus Himself is speaking of Himself & He says He is the Beginning of the Creation of God!
         15. So what was Jesus & what is Jesus?--A creation of God! Therefore, in a sense, Jesus had a beginning, a creation. It says so. Is it right or is it not? Is that a shocker? The churches don't talk about that very much, do they, because it kind of fouls up their theology a bit. But Jesus Himself, speaking of Himself, & God speaking of Him, speaks of Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. Now if He is a begotten Son He has to have a beginning. And He says of Himself, "I am the Beginning & the Ending." And He says here, "I am the Beginning of the Creation of God."
         16. "My Son here, had a beginning!"--At least here on this Earth as far as human beings are concerned--& that's what we're talking about, really, in a sense--in Jesus' case, at least, as an analogy, as a sample or an illustration, He had a beginning. When did He begin? When did Jesus really begin as a human being in the flesh? (Fam: When He was conceived.) Yes, when the Angel went in unto Mary & the power of God came upon her & she conceived.
         17. Now some people find that difficult to understand. The Mormons interpret it that God took on a theophany or a human form like an Angel & actually had intercourse with Mary. But the Bible says "the Angel came in unto her," which sounds like the Angel was the bodily instrumentality, in a sense the physical instrumentality, with the Holy Spirit, the power of God. (Demonstrates:) Here's Mary, here's the Angel, here's the Holy Spirit in a sense. The Angel came in unto Mary & the Holy Spirit empowered what happened, which made Jesus the Son of God--not of Man nor anything else, not even of the Angel, but of God. Amen?
         18. Well, we might be splitting theological hairs three ways because it's too great a miracle to possibly understand or comprehend! All we have is the very simple explanation. We have the Word of God to prove that Jesus was the Beginning of the Creation of God. He was there in the beginning & He created all things, so therefore He must've been created before the creation of the Heavens & the Earth. And obviously He must've been created by God as His Son, as the Scripture says, even before the foundations of the Earth (John 17:24), because He is the One who founded the Earth. So He was created before the Heavens & the Earth, "In the beginning!"
         19. Well, quite a few things happened in the beginning! First of all, somewhere there in the beginning, Jesus was created as the only begotten Son of God. That was long before His human creation, right? According to God's Word He was created long before He was given a human body. It's either so or the Bible isn't so!
         20. Lord, give us wisdom & help us to understand! We have pretty simple, finite childish minds, but that's what it sounds like to me! I'm not going to pretend to be any theologian or necessarily any expert, I'm just taking what the Bible says as simply as you can take it, that apparently Jesus was created at some time or other before the creation of the Heavens & the Earth, so that He then could be God's Son, an instrument, instrumental in creating the Heaven & the Earth.--Is that clear?
         21. Who else was there in the very beginning? The Holy Spirit was there. She says, "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the Earth was." So the Mothering Holy Spirit of God was also there in the beginning, before the Creation of the Heavens & the Earth!--Pro. 8:22,23.
         22. It never says exactly that She was a creation, but that She was there. We're not told anything more about it, really, & we don't need to know, but it's as though the Spirit of God, being such a part of God, has been like God, always in existence. I don't think you'll find any place in the Bible where it speaks of the Holy Spirit as being created or a creation, but rather a oneness with God, a part of God, the Spirit of God, & yet a separate personality. But according to God's Word, Jesus was definitely created, & He was obviously created in the beginning, at some time in the beginning of things.
         23. Now why does He emphasise this "beginning & ending" thing so much?--The Alpha, Omega, the Beginning, Ending, in the beginning! And then He speaks so much about the ending. In order for something to have a beginning & an ending what does it have to have in-between?--Time!--Because we're speaking of Time here, are we not? We're not speaking of space or distance, are we? We are speaking of Time. So therefore, what happened in the beginning? It was not only the beginning of Jesus & the Heavens & the Earth, but the beginning of Time! And Time shall come to an end, right? "Time shall be no more!"--Rev.10:6.
         24. Time itself is a creation of God & was a part of the Creation.--"In the beginning!" There you have the creation of Time almost first of all, because God had to create Time first in order for material things to exist. What did Einstein teach us?--That things not only have to have three dimensions--length, breadth, height, some kind of volume--but they have to have a Fourth Dimension, Time, in order to exist. So in order for the material creation to exist, it had to have a beginning & it had to have Time & it will also have an end. Amen?
         25. So Jesus is the Beginning, He is the Ending, & He will bring about the End, but He will continue on with us forever! It doesn't mean that He will end, but He is the End. He's going to bring about the End. He was the end of the Law, for one thing. He is going to be, really in a sense, the end of all things. He's the Livin' End!--The forever livin' end! Praise God!
         26. That's quite a deep theological subject & you learned a whole lot in a few minutes, Lord willing! (Prays: "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," Psa.19:14 & Num.6:24-26.) Shalom Alechem! And if you know how to answer in Hebrew, you say: "Alechem shalom!" PTL! It means, "Peace be unto you." God bless you all! Good night, & I hope you're getting something out of these Bible studies! (Family: Amen!) Lord bless & keep you & give you a good night's sleep!
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         27. Our last Vesper was about the only begotten Son of God, His King on His holy hill of Zion. He said, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." What day do you suppose that was?--And that's how we got into that discussion! What day was Jesus begotten? Well, obviously He was begotten even before the creation of the World, before the foundation of the World. Not just when He was born here on Earth, that wasn't the first time He was begotten, but even before the foundation of the Earth He was here. But He was born by a woman for the first time here on Earth, supposedly somewhere around Christmas time, about the year 4 B.C. according to our present calendar.
         28. (To Alf:) I thought you were raising your hand! It's a good thing you weren't at an auction, you might have bought a cow! You couldn't even lift your finger & scratch your ear at an auction without buying a pig or a cow or something! (To kids:) Your Uncle Aaron was just scratching his ear like this once and the auctioneer said, "Going, going, gone! Sold to Mr. So-&-so!"--And he gave Aaron the pig. He knew Aaron pretty well by this time, so it must have been a little sick pig or sick calf because he always bought the rejects cheap.
         29. So Who's talking here? They should've put this all in red letters. Is it in red letters in your Bible? (Family: No.) It should've been, because it's Jesus talking. "The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me." Now who do you think is still talking? It could be either God talking to Jesus, or Jesus talking to us, but it's all for us anyway.
         30. "Ask of Me, & I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, & the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession!" That's a good verse for us, amen? (Family: Amen!) Isn't that what we were praying for? (Family: Amen!) What kind of an inheritance would you like to have?--Ten million Dollars? What's a million Dollars? I mean, Dollars won't be worth anything then anyhow. (David: Souls saved!)--Souls saved, right! "Ask of Me, & I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance!" All the heathen we're getting saved for Jesus! Isn't that wonderful? It's going to be our inheritance because we're laying up treasures in Heaven, everlasting souls we'll have forever! The only things you can take to Heaven are your children & souls! PTL!
         31. Well anyhow, the Lord's going to give us the heathen for our inheritance & the uttermost parts of the Earth for our possession! What more could you ask than that, amen? PTL! And that's the end of our time tonight & it's time for us to pray. Who'd like to lead us in prayer? (Fam. prays.) (Prays "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" & Num.6:24-26: "The Lord bless thee, & keep thee; The Lord make His face shine upon thee, & be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, & give thee peace.") Shalom alechem! God bless you all!