The Trinity In Scripture

Transcript

GR 368
7/20/1980
The Trinity in Scripture
John 8
Gil Rugh

We’ve been studying the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John together and in that chapter Jesus stresses very strongly and clearly His identification as God, as Deity, the chapter closing on that tremendous statement ’’before Abraham came to be, I am," coming from Exodus 3:14, stressing His identity as the timeless and eternal God. In our previous study together we looked at something of the emphasis in scripture on the Deity of Jesus Christ. He is identified very clearly in the Old and New Testament alike as God, and many passages in the Old Testament where Jehovah is spoken of, the New Testament makes clear that that is a reference to Jesus Christ Himself. Now today I’d like to look at a little bit with you at the subject of the Trinity in Scripture. And naturally we're just going to touch on a few of the highlights. What the Bible says about the Triune God and the Deity not only of Christ, which we've looked at, but also of the Father, and particularly of the Holy Spirit. And then something of how it all ties together.

Someone passed an article from the Lincoln Journal from November of 1979 to me after last week which gives you some idea of how current these issues are. There is a book that was published in Britain called "The Myth of God Incarnate." And you can understand something of the subject of the book by the title. "Myth of God Incarnate", in other words, it is standing against the idea that Jesus Christ was God. Now this books notes that it is to be published now in the United States by Westminster Press. Let me just read a couple of excerpts to you from this article. "Westminster Press, the publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church, and never one to shrink from controversy has done it again. (I won’t comment on that.) The people who brought you the "Honest to God" debate and the "Situation Ethics" debate, now have raised for American Christians the question of whether Christianity needs to affirm Jesus as God as a necessary element of what it means to be a Christian." Now, do you have to believe in the Deity of Christ to be a Christian? And what is happening is we are going to continue to use the word "Christian" but we infuse it with a new meaning. And now we’re going to say you don't have to believe in the Deity of Christ to be a Christian. And so we see this pretty well happening. The word Christian becomes such a neutral word you don't have any idea what a person believes when he does say he's a Christian. It becomes contentless.

"The issue is raised in a provocative book being published by Westminster,
The Myth of God Incarnate edited by well-known theologian John Hick. It is a collection of ten essays by seven theologians which when first published in Great Britain earlier this year created a storm of controversy which has yet to subside. Now Westminster has made the book available here so that American theologians, and more importantly, the average church attender can get in on the debate. The general position of the book in somewhat simplistic terms is rather straightforward. (Now listen what the book claims.) Jesus never claimed Divinity for Himself. The identification of Jesus as the second person of the Triune God is a post-New Testament identification. Third, it is not necessary to recognize Jesus as Divine in order to be a believing Christian." They note you can be a believing Christian but what does that mean? What are you believing? You evidently don't have to believe in the person of Jesus Christ any longer, at least not His Deity as presented in scripture.

First statement—Jesus never claimed to be Deity. Now these are theologians and we only studied it briefly together last week and already most of you know more about the Bible than they do—that He did obviously claim to be Deity. The Jews of His day understood it.

Secondly, that the identification of Jesus as the second person of the Triune God is a post-New Testament identification. Liberal theologians have a great freedom that we as Bible-believing Christians don't have. In other words, when they come to something they don't like they just take it out. And it really solves a lot of problems! So on the Deity of Jesus Christ they simply relegate that and say "Oh, that wasn’t really written by the Apostles, but someone after the death of the Apostles recorded what the church had come to believe and developed as its theology. But it's not really biblical truth." And since they have a much broader openness to inspiration than we do, they can do this. They’re willing to set aside the inspiration of scripture and just relegate certain books as non-inspired, a significant portion of scripture. It’s interesting how they handle this. I mentioned Westminster Press here also published "Honest to God." It's amazing, and here it’s the publishing arm of the United Presbyterian Church, and if they spend as much time publishing descent stuff the Presbyterians would not be in near the problems they're in today. They spend more time educating their people on garbage than they do on biblical truth. Now this is really what the average Presbyterian needs, to be aware of the myth of the God Incarnate debate! It has nothing to do except to tear down the Bible. Now I'm not anti-Presbyterian. It's what the article said. This is the publishing arm of the United Presbyterian Church publishing this. Now they also published "Honest to God." How many of you read "Honest to God" by John A.
T. Robinson? (Ah, well, praise the Lord!) (For those of you who listen on tape, nobody here reads garbage.)

John A. T. Robinson wrote this book several years ago, "Honest to God", basically just to tear apart what the scripture said about God and God becomes a comfortable big, soft cat in the sky kind of analogy he uses, that people can lean on, etc. So John Robinson is a, you know, out-front liberal and the liberals love him. And lo, and behold, he became a heretic in the last year or so from the liberal standpoint. He wrote a new book, it’s a thick book. It's called "Redating the New Testament" and in this book he takes the position that scholarly research demands that you conclude that the entire New Testament was written before 70 AD, in the days of the Apostles. Now it's amazing how liberal theologians can love someone and see him so scholarly, so full of insight, then he writes a book like that and all of a sudden he’s become stupid. So here’s a man, who himself being a liberal, whose position is scholarly study and research, necessitates you come to the conclusion that the scriptures were written during the time of the Apostles and he’s more conservative than even I am because he thinks they all ought to be written before 70 AD. So that's refreshing. But the average way to deal with it is post-New Testament truth. Was it written by New Testament writers at all? And so do you need to recognize Christ as Divine to be a believing Christian?

Now note the conflict here. At the same time, most of the authors, while denying the Deity of Christ stress His uniqueness, and His role into bringing the believer into a relationship with God. Now you see what's happening? They continue to use the same terminology so you’ll be able to listen to them say that Jesus Christ is essential, He is unique, He brings you into relationship with God, but they don't believe He's Deity. Now just as far as we've gone in John, the stress that Christ brings is that because He is God He can bring you into a unique relationship with God. But they throw out the Deity but still keep the language. That's why it is so confusing to talk to liberal theologians or read their works. Because they use the same terms but they don't mean the same thing. If you heard a preacher stand up and saying, "Jesus is unique and He's the one who brings you into a relationship with God" you'd say the man must be a Christian. But he may not believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ at all. Just redefined the words.

More conservatives contend that if Jesus is not Divine as well as truly human then He could not be Savior and humankind would be eternally separated from God because of its sins. At least some of the "radicals" would counter that salvation is God's activity, not Christ's, although it is made known to humanity through Jesus suffering and death. So you see this issue still goes on and now instead of the church being the defender of the faith of the Deity of Christ, of the personal work of Christ, it is the very source of the attack against Christ. You see how clever the Devil has been. And you see the truth of what Paul wrote and Peter wrote, that there would be some from among you who would come and ultimately even deny the Lord who bought them. That's exactly what happens. We have within professing Christendom that broad term, the church broadly as it's used today not normally in the scriptural context, and the major attacks on the scripture now are coming from the publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church. John Calvin would have a heart attack. Could you imagine that that's where it's come to.

All right, this morning we want to look a little bit at the subject of the Trinity as presented in scripture. We've already looked at the Deity of Christ. That's where the main argument is. Most who accept the Deity of Christ accept the idea of a Trinity. There are some strange groups, there is the "Jesus Only" group which says that Jesus only is God, so they're a little bit different. There are other forms, but mostly those who believe the Deity of Christ accept the Trinity. But we want to focus a little bit on what the Scripture says about the unity of God, His oneness, then on the Deity of the Father, just briefly, and then spend the rest of our time on the Deity of the Holy Spirit where there's much confusion, even sometimes among believers.

Now we come to study the person of God. We cannot exhaust the subject no matter how much time we take, but it's crucial that we have a correct understanding of who God is. If your understanding of God is distorted, everything else will be out of line. So we want to have a correct understanding of God and to do that we have to have a biblical understanding because that’s where God has revealed Himself. Now we will not have a thorough or complete understanding. But what we do understand must be true. And even though our knowledge is limited, it can be correct. It's not a valid argument to say your knowledge is too limited because we can know everything God has revealed to us, and that will be true even though it is limited in scope, and has to be because we is are finite and He is infinite. All right, just briefly on the unity of God. Deut. 6. And as we turn there let me just remind you of what we are talking about when we talk about the Trinity. The word Trinity is not found in the Scripture. But that’s not an argument against its existence. The name Trinity is a title given to a biblical concept. I carried on a correspondence with a man a few years ago who was arguing against the Trinity and one of the things that he argued was, the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. Well, the concept does. Basically, what we mean by the Trinity is that there is one God, eternally existing in three persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are three persons, distinct persons, but they all share the same essence and nature. Together they comprise the one God. Often those who are Trinitarian, believe in the Trinity, are accused of having three Gods. Yet the Scripture is clear, there is only one God. We're going to go through many scriptures today, it's going to be more of a lesson than a sermon, I guess, and you may want to jot these down and you can pursue them in your own study.

Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!"
Now see that stress, "The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" So the Lord is one. God is one. The Lord is God. Very clearly stated, the unity of God. There is only one God. He is a unity. He is one. There are not three Gods, there is one God.

Look over in Isaiah 44. Some of the passages that we look at in the Old Testament we have also touched on last week in connection with our study on the Deity of Christ. Isaiah 44:6, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me." It does not say, there are no gods besides us. It says there is no God besides Me. It's a singular. It's interesting, just take not of it in the first part of verse six, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts." You get the idea we are talking about two persons here. Jehovah the King of Israel and Jehovah Sabbaoth, the Lord of Hosts, and yet the Lord our God is one Lord. There is no God besides Me.

Look in Isaiah 45 which we read for our scripture reading. Isaiah 45 and we'll just pick up a couple of statements. Down in verse 18, the last statement "I am the Lord, and there is none else." Down to verse 21, the last statement: "There is none except Me." "And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is not except Me." The end of verse 22: "For I am God, and there is no other." That repeated stress, there is only one God, Me. So there is not a plurality of Gods. This is carried over in the New Testament as well, one passage, James 2:19, "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and tremble." To see the unity of God, that there is only one God does not mean the person is saved. Even the demons acknowledged that and the demons are destine for Hell. But there is a clear statement here. Even the demons recognize this basic truth. God is one. But that does not mean that there are not three distinct persons. But that does not mean there are three Gods. Now were going to look and see, we saw the Deity of Christ clearly last week. Let's look just briefly at the Deity of the Father, then the Deity of the Spirit, then we'll have to acknowledge that if all three are identified as God that there are three persons even though there is only one God. Then we'll something of how they tie together at the end. There's not much question about the Father being God, most acknowledge that God and the Father are identified, and so there's not a lot of question here, but look at Philippians 2:11, a passage which has its background in Isaiah 45 where everyone will bow before Jesus Christ. And in verse 11, "Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And note, they will acknowledge that Christ is Lord and this will bring glory to God the Father. So the Father is called God and note here He is distinguished from Jesus Christ so that those who do attempt to identify God the Father and God the Son as the same person are in error. And we need to be careful. There is an old heresy and it resurfaces which says that there is one person who manifests Himself in three ways. And sometimes we as Christian have used an illustration of the Trinity which is a heresy. We say it's just like a man can be a father, a husband and a business man. Well, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is not an accurate analogy, because I am a father and I am a husband and I am a preacher but I am only one person with three areas of responsibility. But God is three distinct persons. That heresy was called Monolistic Mona^rthianism or Sabalianism, basically said God manifested himself in three modes or three ways. There’s one person but sometimes he manifests Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Holy Spirit. But that's not biblical. So here, the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Father are distinct, and separate, although God here is addressed as Father. Just jot down I Corinthians 8:6. There we're told there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Emphasizing the distinctness and yet the relatedness. And there it said, one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. That does mean that Jesus Christ is not Lord. When the different persons of the Trinity are brought together it's necessary to distinguish them by different names. If it said that there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, God, you would not realize that they were distinct persons. You'd think we were talking about the same person. So it's necessary to distinguish the persons of the Godhead by different names, often, and often the case is that the Father is identified as God in contrast to Jesus Christ and in contrast to the Holy Spirit, but they all partake of the essence or nature of Deity. Jesus prayed to the Father. Now obviously He was distinct or Jesus Christ was praying to Himself. In the garden He was praying, not my will but thine be done, but he really meant His will because He was the Father. It becomes absurd and not very many people have held to that position.

So, God the Father is called God. There's not much debate about that. Let's focus our attention from here on the Holy Spirit and the questions that come up about Him. And we need to begin here by establishing the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an It; is not an influence. He is a personal being. Now by a person being we mean that He has personality, usually marked off as having emotion, intellect and will. He has emotion, intellect and will. That marks Him as a distinct person from the Father who has emotion, intellect and will and the Son who has emotion, intellect and will.

Okay, back in John 14. See just quickly that the Spirit of God is a person. Now part of the confusion has come because in the King James Bible, Spirit was often identified as It. In the Greek language, the word Spirit is neuter. You can have masculine, feminine and neuter words. It was neuter and neuter is an it. The word is neuter, but the Holy Spirit is not neuter. And this is seen by the very fact that He is called He, etc. Look in John 14:16, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." Not that it may be with you forever, but that He may be with you forever. "That is the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because the world does not behold Him or know Him, because He abides with you, and will be in you." You see, He’s another comforter just like Jesus Christ. Another helper of the same kind as Christ. We’ll do the details of this passage when we get here in John. He’s just like Jesus Christ in His ministry and He is one who will be with us to help us and comfort us.
Look in John 16:13, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes." Again it would be normal grammically, be grammatically correct to say, "But when It, the Spirit of Truth comes," so that they agree in gender, but that’s the way it's put. It’s "But when He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you." You see how He’s functioning as a personal being; has the ability to communicate a message from God to man just as Christ did? Has the ability to make Christ known to people. He is a personal being, not just an influence that is present, but a personal being that is present.

Acts 8:29, "The Spirit said to Philip." Now here you see the Spirit can communicate, He can talk. He can tell someone to do something. As a personal being the Spirit said to Phillip over in Acts 10:19, "And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him," and so on. The Spirit communicates, he talks.

Acts 13:2, "And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Spirit said." So repeatedly the Holy Spirit is seen as speaking or talking. In Romans 8:26, "And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is."

So you see, the Spirit intercedes to the Father, so the Spirit is distinct from the Father. Just as Christ prayed to the Father, so the Spirit of God prays to the Father on our behalf. And the Father knows the mind of the Spirit. So the distinction is clear. It's just not just an influence of the Father that’s present. It’s the Spirit of God who is present as a distinct person carrying on a ministry. Many other passages, Ephesians 4:30 warns us against grieving the Holy Spirit. You cannot grieve an influence but you can grieve a person.

Look at Matthew 12. And we’ll use this as a transition to the Deity of the Holy Spirit because it shows both the fact that the Spirit can be sinned against and that He is Deity. Here we have what we call the unpardonable sin which we’ve referred to previously. Verse 31 of Matthew 12, "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come." So you can sin against the Holy Spirit. You don't sin against an influence, you sin against a personal being. And you note here something of the Deity of the Holy Spirit's stressed. To sin against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable. You could sin against the Son of Man, Jesus Christ and be forgiven, but you could not be forgiven if you blasphemed the Holy Spirit. That's as clear a statement of the Deity of the Spirit of God as you could want and it marks Him off as separate from the Son of Man. Not just that the Spirit is the continuing influence of the Son of God. He is a person, just as the Son of God is a person. And Christ distinguishes Himself. You can speak a word against the Son of Man but if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit it won't be forgiven. Has to do with Christ's ministry as a man and the Deity of the Spirit. "You can sin against me and you will be forgiven. You can blaspheme against me and you will be forgiven. But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable." Relates to His Deity.

Acts 5 calls Him God. Let's look at some of the passages that deal with the Spirit. A good study for you if you are sometimes looking for studies to do on your own. Study what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Much talk about the Holy Spirit today, but it carries us off into areas that really aren't the crucial areas often. The person of the Spirit, the Deity of the Spirit.

Acts 5:3, situation with Ananias and his wife. In verse three, "But Peter said, 'Annanias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God." So verse 3, Peter says, Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. The end of verse 4 he says, "You have not lied to men, but to God." So Peter says, you lied to the Holy Spirit, not to a man but to God. So a lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. In other words, the Holy Spirit is Deity. When you lie to Him you lie to God because He is God.

I Corinthians 2. Important section for our understanding and knowing about God. I Corinthians 2 makes clear that the reason you and I as believers can know and understand the depths of God, things which you do not find out in any other way is because the Spirit of God revealed them to us. But God has revealed them to through the Spirit, in verse 10, "For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." Note here, we’re told that the Spirit of God perceives and comprehends in total the mind of God. That is to say He is an infinite being. He is Deity Himself. For who could know the mind of God, the depths of God but God Himself? Certainly not a created being because created beings are finite. For all the billions and trillions and quadrillion years of eternity we will be growing in our knowledge of God and still not understand and know in total the mind of God because we are finite created beings. I really believe that’s why we have such tremendous capacity in our minds which we only use a fraction of today. God has prepared us to be eternal beings and we’ll need to use every ounce of capacity of these minds in eternity to grow in knowledge and understanding of God. But the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, the depths of God. HE has to be God to have that kind of knowledge and understanding.

Look at Matthew 28, the Great Commission (And again I’ve rather selectively just picked out a few verses, not that they are stronger than others but we need to limit what we look at because of time. Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Notice He doesn’t say baptizing them in the names, plural, but "in the name" singular. You think there ought to have been three because there's three names. Baptizing them in the names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but it's not, it's singular. There's one name. Name, you remember, in the Bible refers to character and person, being. We believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has to do with all that He is, with His very being. So we're being baptized in the name of God, having to do with all that He is, His very character is the foundation of our salvation. And the name is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so joining the Spirit together with the Father and the Son under one name indicates His Deity. It would make no sense to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and Peter. The gap there is too great. It doesn't fit. Peter is different. But the Holy Spirit fits. This is the same in II Corinthians 13:14 where Paul gives the benediction to the Corinthians and he says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all."

Again we've seen the Deity of Christ; we’ve seen the Deity of the Father, it would make no sense to bring in an influence here. "The fellowship of the Holy Spirit" except that He is a distinct person and yet equal with the Father and the Son. Again you see the pattern here. It's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; the love of God. The Father is called God. If you had said the grace of God, the love of God and the fellowship of God be with you all you would have had no idea that you were talking about three distinct persons. So it's necessary to title them differently. And when that's done it’s the Father who's called God in distinction from Jesus Christ and distinction from the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean that He is not God also, it simply means that there are different titles that they use. We'll refer to that in a moment.

Okay, let's just look at a couple of passages from the Old Testament. I've selected just three from three different books where it says that God did something and that's applied to the Holy Spirit of the New Testament. Sort of the pattern we followed when we looked at the Deity of Christ. What was said about God in the Old Testament is said to be concerning Jesus Christ in the New.

Psalm 95. I didn’t pick any challenging books for you this morning. Psalms Isaiah and Jeremiah is where we are going to go. Verse 7, verse 6, "Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (word Jehovah, there) For He is our God (Elohim) And we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness; When your fathers tested Me. They tried Me...For forty years I loathed that generation" etc.

Now look in Hebrews 3 (not reading all the section just because of time, not because it's not important or pertinent). Now let me refresh your mind on Psalm 95 as you get to Hebrews 3 and look at verse 7. Psalm 95 said, "Kneel down before the Lord our Maker, He is our God. Today, if you would hear His voice (Jehovah’s voice, Elohim’s voice)...Do not harden your hearts." Now note Hebrews 3:7, "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear His voice." Psalm 95 says it was Jehovah, Elohim speaking. Hebrews 3:7 says it was the Holy Spirit and then he goes on to quote Psalm 95, obviously the Holy Spirit being God.

Keep your finger in Hebrews and go back to Jeremiah 31, on the new covenant. And Jeremiah 31:31 we read, "Behold, days are coming.' declares the Lord (and you could take Jeremiah 31:31-34, although we’re not going to read them all)." "’the days are coming,’ declares the Lord (Jehovah) when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" etc. Verse 33, "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declared the Lord (Jehovah), "I will put My law within them, and on their heart," etc.

Look at Hebrews 10:15. Now let me read you again Jeremiah 31:33,"'This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares Jehovah." Hebrews 10:15, "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord."' So you note, Hebrews says that it was the Holy Spirit speaking. Now we have here the inspiration of the scripture. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Is inspired of God. God-breathed. And it's the Holy Spirit who did it indicating the Deity of the Holy Spirit. Now one other passage, Isaiah chapter 6:8. We've already seen Jesus Christ in this passage and then look at verse 8 of Isaiah 6,"Then I heard the voice of the Lord (the word Adonai, here) saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, 'Here am I, Send me!' And He said (the Lord, Adonai said), "Go and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' Render the hearts of this people insensitive... ears dull... eyes dim" etc.

Look at Acts 28:25, "And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting work, ' The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, 'Go to this people and say, "You will keep on hearing, but will not understand...keep on seeing, will not perceive...the heart...has become dull...the ears""', etc. In other words Paul says the Holy Spirit spoke. Isaiah 6 says Adonai spoke. So in just the brief three passages we've looked at the Holy Spirit has been called Adonai, Jehovah and Elohim. So obviously He has to be Deity. Now the question comes then, are we talking about the same person? But that's been clear. We've seen that they are distinct. Then we must be talking about three Gods. No. We've already seen and it's clear that there is one God. Now the problem comes when we sometimes try to reconcile things that our finite minds cannot reconcile I say, well if there are three persons and if they are all equally Deity, then there are three Gods. But I know the scripture says that there is only one God. Well, then I say there must be one person. No, the scripture says there are three persons who are Deity. I think we are here in an area where there is no analogy or comparison to illustrate it in the finite realm. What you have in the way I've laid it out on my paper is draw a big circle and title that circle God (the general word God). Within that circle I write Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Because there is one God but there are three persons comprising the one God. The Father is of the essence and nature of Deity, the Son is of the same essence and nature, the Holy Spirit is of the same essence and nature. Each are distinct in personality, but they are the same in essence, and they comprise one God, not three. And there is no analogy that I know of. You can say well we have human beings here and every human being is distinct in personality. But every human being partakes of the same essence and nature. We are all humanity. We partake of the essence and nature of humanity. But that doesn't clearly and accurately portray it either because we are persons and personality but we are distinct and separate and God is distinct and separate yet He is blended in the same. Their personalities are perfectly harmonious and in perfect agreement. There is no area of conflict of difference among the three persons comprising the one God. Things which I do not believe we can understand. I believe every illustration falls short. There's no way to illustrate the Trinity. And I know that right away you're thinking of illustrations but every illustration breaks down somewhere along the line because there is nothing exactly like that anywhere in the world. God is three and yet He is one. Three persons, yet one God. One God, three persons. And I go so far with that but I have to go as far as scripture, and from our study of scripture, the last few studies together, we can say that the Father is Deity, the Son is Deity and the Holy Spirit is Deity. That each of these are persons distinct, having their own personality, being personal beings. And yet the scripture is also clear, there is only one God—they comprise one God. Now the fact that I cannot understand that all is not so amazing. If you had a God that you could put down on paper and have them all clearly and thoroughly explained He would be a finite God not an infinite God. And that's not a cop- out. I believe we must understand as much of God as He has chosen to reveal in His Word, but that does not in any way cause me to think that I will be able to explain everything about God. I can only explain to you what God has said. But my finite mind does not reconcile it all. There's much I don't understand. That God has been eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Billions, quadrillions, super trillion years ago there was Father, Son and Holy Spirit that boggles my mind. What were they doing all that time? I mean, forever and ever backwards, there, He always was. What did He do before He had us to look after?
You know, you can’t think of that. You sit down and pretty soon your mind runs off the paper and what can you say? It’s hard enough for me to even try to conceive something going on endlessly into the future. That I'll never cease to exist. I can’t imagine God never had a time when He began. For my finite mind everything has some kind of beginning, but not God.

One closing passage, Isaiah 40:18, "To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?” He’s talking about idols here. Same kind of concept. We grapple with something to liken God to. To compare with Him in the finite realm to help us understand it. But God says you can't. What are you going to liken Me to? What are you going to compare me to? There is nothing. And so it's a little frustrating because I like to bring everything into the realm of the tangible. But you know the only clear, full expression of God has been given in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. "He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” So all the other analogies and pictures I try to draw of the Trinity break down and they end up being problems, not help.

You say, well, there is vapor and ice and water and that's just like the Trinity. But no it isn't. There are breakdowns there. You have the same thing in different forms. Again you're back to the old problem. You can't liken God to anything ultimately. But I know there is only one God. I know He exists in three persons. I know all three persons were involved in my salvation. I Peter 1:2 says that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, by the sanctification of the Spirit so that we might obey Jesus Christ. All three working together. Perfect harmony to bring about my salvation. Elect by God the Father, set apart by the ministry of the Spirit of God so that I might believe in Jesus Christ; and they work in total harmony, complete harmony in all that they do. You, know it's amazing, the God that we have. Overwhelming, the God that we have. And the only reason that you and I can study this revelation from God this morning is because the Spirit of God that we’ve been talking about indwells every believer. And we can study this mind-boggling material that has been given to us and comprehend something of its truth. We know something of God, His character, His nature, His being. I don’t by any means know all of it, and never will, but amazing that me, a fallen, sinful being, can understand any of it. That’s a result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us the depth of the character of God. If you're here this morning and don't know what we've been talking about it may be an indication that you don’t have the Spirit of God, and the only way to get the Spirit of God is by believing in the Son of God. See how they are all linked together? You must come and believe, recognize that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died to pay the penalty for your sins. You come to believe in Him, the Spirit of God comes to take up residence in your life. But you know the amazing thing? The only reason you come to believe in Him is because the Spirit of God brought you to that point so you could understand and caused you to believe. And you know why the Spirit of God did that? It was the plan of God in electing you for salvation. That's mind-boggling. That’s amazing. All fits together as one unified, harmonious whole because it was planned by one God. It’s carried out by one God who is comprised of three persons.