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Holiness Becomes Thine House (C. Hendricks, 1992) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: In nineteen ninety two, a faithful brother Chuck Hendrix delivered this address on holiness in the assembly in Walla Walla, Washington.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: He delivers long held truth from scriptures that has slowly eroded away in the body of Christ.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here now is Chuck Hendrix as he begins with the topic of holiness found in Psalm eleven, verse three and seven.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Verse three.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Verse seven.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm forty-five, verse six.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then the 93rd Psalm, verse 5, Thy testimonies are very sure, holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in the 94th Psalm, verse 20, shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by Allah.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: One of the most common questions that has been put to me in my travels is based on a statement that is often made amongst us that an assembly decision, right or wrong, is to be bowed to.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that has to be explained.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the answer is hard to answer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've read these verses that speak of what is essential to God's nature.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: He is holy, he is righteous.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason that he has delegated authority to man in the various spheres is to maintain order and righteousness.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Take, for instance, Romans 13.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just cite this as one instance.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Romans 13, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: For there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive judgment.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Should read.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not to punish good works.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: For he is the minister of God to thee for good.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: If thou do that which is evil, be afraid.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Beareth not the sword in vain.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Every government has been established to judge the evil and to reward the good.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Every delegated authority is set up by God who is righteous.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: We turn to 2 Timothy 2, very well known scripture, verse 19.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: The firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord knoweth them that are his, and not everyone that nameth the name of Christ or Lord depart from iniquity.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: That word iniquity means unrighteousness.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole basis for the assembly is established on the footing of righteousness.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: God who is righteous.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and he wants that maintained in his assembly.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if he had not delegated authority to those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus and given them power to deal with evil, the assembly would be the greatest iniquity on the face of the earth, because it would be the place where the Lord was, and uh place where it would be impossible to judge evil.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So he's committed this authority into the hands of men, and they are responsible.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: A father is responsible to administer the authority that has been committed to him righteously.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: A husband has authority over his wife, he's to exercise that rightly.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Every delegated authority is to be done in righteousness.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: The assembly is to come down with righteous decisions.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's God's thought, and that's God's purpose and desire.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: But all delegated authorities are fallible, they're all made up of sinners saved by grace or sinners like you and me.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's failure in the exercise of authority.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes an assembly will take an action.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: We had discussed this a little in the reading meetings, but I think it needs more clarification.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: An action which you may judge is wrong.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: What are you to do?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're to submit to the action, you're to submit to the authority of the Lord in the midst of his gathered saints, whether you think it's right or wrong.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really what that statement means.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't mean that the assembly has the authority to commit wickedness.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean that I, as a father, have the authority to punish my child unjustly, knowingly, willfully, to do such.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now I know as a father I've made mistakes in the punishment of my children.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've made mistakes, but I've never done it to my knowledge, to my conscious knowledge, I've never done it unrighteously, that is, with evil intent to punish one that I knew was innocent.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a difference between unrighteousness and a mistake, because we're fallible.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: The only authority there is in the universe that is infallible is that of God.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: He never makes a mistake.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: He knows the thoughts, the motives, the purposes of the heart, which you and I don't.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we can make mistakes, and when the authority under which we live makes a mistake, in our opinion, we may be wrong and we may find out that they were right after all.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: But even if I think I'm right and they're wrong, or even if I know I'm right and they're wrong, I still submit to the authority under which I live.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way of peace.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: But we're never called upon to submit to known wickedness.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about now in the assembly sphere.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, if an assembly commits itself to a course of wickedness, then it would forfeit its right to be considered an assembly of God.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: But that would only be arrived at after much earnest prayer and looking into the matter.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're fallible, there is a guard against the setting up of any independent local authority, and that's in the truth that there's one body.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it's not ever right for another assembly to come in to an assembly that has rendered a judgment to overturn that judgment.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's never right.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because the authority of the Lord in assembly B can never be used to overturn the same authority in assembly A at the same authority.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: The truth of the one body is seen and acted upon by all other assemblies, bowing to what an assembly has done.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: If the Lord makes manifest that there is more than just maybe a mistake, and that we can bear with because we are all cannibal and prone to that, but there is absolute wickedness.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's another matter.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: The problem that confronts us is not that at all.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a question of wickedness, it's not a question of unrighteousness, it's a question of opinion as to whether a mistake was made or not.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: In that case, I set my own opinion aside and submit and bow to the authority of the Lord in the midst of the assembly.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: If we follow any other course, there's hopeless confusion and division and great distress.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: The way of peace is submission on the part of the one who's under the authority.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's important to see, like the question is put, is an unrighteous action on the part of an assembly bound in heaven?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: If it's an act of wickedness, no, it's not.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's not bound in heaven, not if it's wickedness, because God is righteous.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he's given that authority to be carried out for his glory in the 94th Psalm.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: I have to read it again.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: But we're not talking about that in the problem that confronts us today.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about judgment having been executed with regards to one who was local in an assembly.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that assembly made a decision, and in the unity of the body of Christ, we accept it.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: We bow to it.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: The authority of the Lord elsewhere is the same authority that is in that assembly.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's only one authority, and it's the authority of Christ in the midst.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about committed wickedness, but I think that it's a question that troubles so many.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in the world, he has given authority to the governments, and oftentimes they use their authority in a very evil way.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are we to do?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're to submit to it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: We can't expect the world to act upon Christian principles.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: We have the right to expect better things in the Church of God, and so the Church of God is to exercise the authority committed to it righteously.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: It may fail in a mistaken judgment, but that can be borne with and labored with, questions, and so on.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're all members one of another, Church of God is one.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we're not a group of independent churches that have no responsibility one to another, but what's done here has weight and force and is accepted everywhere.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's a complete ref refutal of the system of independency and independent local churches that exist throughout Christendom.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's a precious principle to see that we're gathered on the principle of separation from evil.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let everyone in the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, unrighteousness.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: The very position that we occupy is founded upon that fundamental principle of separation from evil.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's God's principle of unity.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And if it be not that, if it be not that we don't have anything, our coming together must be on a righteous footing.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's why he's given authority, so that evil could be dealt with and put away, because it's not compatible with the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the midst.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: His person, his holiness, is incompatible with known and allowed evil.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why he's given authority.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And in the exercise of it, there could be a mistake.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: But let's not call a mistake iniquity.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: There have been, there's been that mistake made.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Serious charges against an assembly that has acted with all good intention for the glory of the Lord.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And there have been those that have labeled it iniquity.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a serious charge, most serious charge.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So let us be very careful in how we speak upon about an action which has been taken in the fear of the Lord.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: It may not be perfect.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know of an assembly action that has ever been perfect because it's composed of imperfect people like you and me.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: But still, done in the fear of the Lord, for his glory, seeking his mind according to the word, we can bow to it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if mistakes have been made, look to the head to set right any mistakes that have been made.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: May the Lord exercise us and keep us in the path of righteousness.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful path to be in.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: May the Lord keep us in that path.