So, I'm going to continue on with the series we started back a few weeks ago on the essence
or the nature of God, and tonight we're going to talk about, in respects to the nature of
God, His unity.
God is somebody who is united, and what we mean by that is that His essence, and not
His personality, we'll talk about here at the end too, is united, it's one.
And a lot of people might get a little nervous when they hear that and say, uh-oh, the deacon's
going off the rails at Faithful Word again, okay, so that's not the case.
Let's just go ahead and define what we mean by that.
So you're in Isaiah 42, I'm going to read to you from Deuteronomy 6, where it says,
Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
So you know, God is one in the sense that He is united in His essence, He is one being,
if you wanted to say that, but He is also three distinct personalities, you know, we
believe in the Trinity here.
But to say that God is, you know, to talk about His unity as God being one is accurate,
because the Bible does say that the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart.
So that's not an inaccurate statement to say that, but we have to understand in what context
do you mean that when you say that God is one, and what we mean by that in that His
essence, you know, His what He is, or God's just the brass tacks of who God is, if we're
going to describe God, we would say that God is united, He is one essence.
And this is important to understand because that, you know, remember this whole series
was kicked off by trying to understand, you know, we're talking about the conceptualization
of God.
Man feels after God, he has an innate ability to conceptualize about God, but that doesn't
mean he always comes to the right conclusion.
You know, and a lot of people, even on this topic of the unity or the disunity of God,
come to wrong conclusions, don't they?
They teach things like polytheism, you know, they teach that there's a multitude of different
gods, but that would go against God's nature because God is omnipotent, you know, or God
is omniscient, rather.
He's both, but we're focusing on that.
He's omniscient, meaning He is present everywhere, right?
We talked about last week how He's a spirit, and He can't be bound to just one place and
say, okay, you know, this God only gets to control the God of the mountains, this is
the God of the valleys, you know, this is the God of the stars, no, God, you know, by
His very nature is united, He's a spirit, He cannot be contained, He is present in all
those places, but it is one God that is present in all of those places.
You know, polytheism would be a wrong conceptualization about God in that regard because they are
teaching that there are multiple different gods, or you could even talk about dualism,
you know, which is another thing that's really popular in Eastern mysticism, you know, where
you get into the ying and the yang, or, you know, you get into the New Age type of teaching,
or, you know, you could nerd out with your Star Wars and talk about how, you know, it's
a force, that there's light and dark and hate and good and, you know, all of that, but those
are wrong conceptualizations about God.
God is not divisible in the sense of His essence, right, of the fact that He is, what is God,
He is united, He's not limited to one area, He's not dividable, because God's essence
cannot be divided, it cannot be isolated, right, ever present, all places, He's omnipotent.
You're there in Isaiah chapter 42 verse 8, you know, God makes the point of letting us
know this, I am the Lord God, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another.
He's gonna say, look, I'm gonna let you call something else God, or have some wrong idea
about who God is, because I'm the only God that there is, and I'm in all places, He's
not gonna allow that glory be given to another, go over to Isaiah chapter 44.
He said in Isaiah 45, I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside me, you
know, sorry Mormons, you know, God just said there is none, so your dreams of being a God
one day are dashed, which is something that they teach, that they themselves one day will
become a God on their own planet.
So again, God's essence, His nature is that He is united, that there is only one God,
He is not divided into multiple different gods, there is none else, there is no God
beside me, He said.
He says there in Isaiah 44 verse 6, thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God.
Say look, if you don't, you know, there's no one else beside me, there's only one God,
He's united in His essence, in His nature.
Go over to 1 Timothy chapter number 2, 1 Timothy chapter 2, chapter number 2, there's, you
know, this is something that's taught throughout scripture, okay?
He says in 1 Corinthians 8 verse 4, actually no, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, I'm sorry,
go there.
You say, well, you're saying God, there's only, you know, God is one, you know, that's,
you're starting to make me a little nervous, Deacon, but, you know, that's what the scripture
says, you just have to understand it in what context is God one?
Well, He's one in the sense that there is nobody else, that there is only one God, true
and living God.
He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 4, as concerning therefore the things eating,
of eating those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol
is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one.
For there are many be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be
many, there be gods many, that's lowercase g, so He's referring to all the heathen gods,
all the idols, all the false images that man makes, they are there, but they are no gods.
He says in verse 6, but to us there is but one God, there is but one God.
So that's Paul saying, hey, look, there's only one God.
So we have to understand in what context does he mean that, okay?
If you would, go over to 1 Timothy chapter 2, keep something in 1 Corinthians 8, we're
going to come back, but now I'll go over to 1 Corinthians, or 1 Timothy chapter number
2.
Keep something in 1 Corinthians 8, go to 1 Timothy 2, the Bible says in Ephesians 4,
there is one body, one spirit, even as you're all called and one hope of your calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all.
1 Timothy chapter number 2, verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus.
So there is one God and there's also one mediator.
Now we know that Jesus Christ is God as well, okay?
But again, it's an accurate statement to say that there is one God or that God is united,
that God is not divisible, okay, in the sense that He does not share His godhood with another
person or another God, I should say.
There's only one God.
That's in the sense in which God is united in His nature, in His essence.
You say, well, what about the Trinity, you know, doesn't this kind of go against what
you're, well, you know, it can't, all right?
This is the Bible talking, all right?
The Bible doesn't have contradictions in it.
We just need to wrap our minds around it.
Sometimes we have to think a little harder, think a little deeper about what the Bible
is trying to teach us when it comes to the nature of God and not just go off on these,
you know, hare-brained ideas or just think that there's only, you know, that there's
these contradictions in Scripture because that's just not the case.
So the unity of God, you know, we have to understand does not contradict the Trinity
of God because the unity and the Trinity, what are these?
These are just terms that refer to distinct aspects of our understanding of God.
That's all they are.
The unity of God, that's a term that we use to, in our understanding about an aspect of
God's nature.
We use, you know, the unity of God that there is only one God, that God is united in essence
and then we have a term like the Trinity that we use to define another aspect of our understanding
of God, that God is three persons, okay?
So we have His essence and we have His person.
So that's why these things don't conflict.
If we think there's, if they conflict, then there's a contradiction in Scripture.
And look, that's a great, you know, that's a great thing to remember when we're studying
the Scripture, is that if there's something that contradicts in the Bible, it's either
the Bible is wrong or we're wrong.
Either the Bible's wrong or our understanding is what's lacking.
And let me just go ahead and break it to you, it's always the latter.
It's our understanding that's coming up short.
And look, there are hard things to wrap our minds around in the Bible.
There are hard things.
Again, this whole series is about finite man, limited man, trying to describe an eternal
immense being like God.
And we can only do that in the terms which God has given us through the Scriptures, okay?
So these terms that God has won and that God has united do not conflict with the fact that
God is divisible in three persons in the Trinity, okay?
You say, well, you know, God is one in the sense of how, and we'll think about it in
the sense of a compound unity.
What do we mean by compound unity?
That something can be composed of two or more parts.
Say, well, you know, I just can't be, look, the world is filled with this.
We can go around the room for hours coming up with examples of this, of something that
we would say is one singular thing that is composed of a multitude of parts.
I mean, the chairs you're sitting in, that's a chair that you're sitting in.
Some of you might be sitting in a little bit more than one.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just teasing.
Right?
But that it's a chair that you're sitting in.
But is that chair just one, composed of just one thing?
It's just composed of chair?
No, it's got what?
It's got fabric.
It's got, I want to say stuffing, but that's not the right word.
It's got a cushion, right?
It's got metal legs.
There's stitching.
Right?
There's probably some kind of fire retardant spread all over it.
Right?
Those are, it's a multitude of things that are making up one thing.
It's a compound unity.
And look, we can understand the unity of God in this way, that God is composed of three
persons, yet he is one God, in essence.
Okay?
And this is what the scripture teaches very clearly.
This is why every orthodox faith, you know, Christian faith, you know, believes this.
You say, well, you know, unsaved Catholics teach that.
Yeah, the Trinity is so hard and so easy to understand and so clear in scripture that
even the unsaved Catholic gets it.
That they say, hey, we're going to try and teach a false doctrine, but we can't go after
the Trinity because it's just so obvious in scripture that it's the Trinity.
So that's really, you know, that's kind of a straw man argument to bring up.
Because what else, you know, if we're just going to start discounting doctrine based
on what other false religions believe about the Bible, then we have to throw out the virgin
birth.
Then we have to throw out that Jesus Christ is God because those are things that the Catholic
Church believe.
They believe those things.
So that's a poor argument to make, okay?
Just because some other false religion, you know, believes in the Trinity, that doesn't
invalidate it.
All that simply means is that even the unnatural, unsaved man, even the devil himself has enough
sense to not go after that doctrine because it's just so clear in scripture, okay?
And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it tonight, but we are going to touch on
the Trinity because when you start talking about the unity of God's nature, you kind
of have to explain that.
Because people say, well, how do you explain the Trinity that God is divisible into three
persons?
Well, it's a compound unity.
Just like there are things that are composed of multiple other things, it's the same way
with God.
And look, every illustration falls apart at some point, you know, none of them are perfect.
You could probably scrutinize that and find some kind of, you know, take it, you know,
extrapolate upon that and take it and say, well, you're an error in some way by saying
that.
But, you know, you get the point that I'm making here, that God is compound in his unity
because he's made up of three distinct persons and you see that all throughout scripture.
And you see examples of compound unity in scripture.
The concept of it is found in scripture.
Go over to, again, keep something in 1 Corinthians where you were, chapter eight, but go over
to Mark chapter 10, okay?
A great example of this would be marriage, right?
Therefore, he said in Genesis chapter 2, shall a man leave his father and mother, he shall
not leave his wife, okay, you stick with your wife, he shall leave his father and mother
and shall cleave unto his wife and they, plural, shall be one flesh, okay?
He said that again in Mark chapter 10 verse six, but from the beginning of the creation
of God, excuse me, from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female for
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they
twain, right, two, shall be one flesh.
So they are no more twain, but one flesh, what therefore God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder.
So you can see how a man and a wife, they are one in what?
In essence, in agreement, in unity, right?
You know, me and my wife aren't the same person just because we got married.
We're single, we're one in purpose, but we are still independent individual people, right?
We didn't get married and then become like some Hollywood power couple where now we're
just core shell, you know, or that's shell bin over there or something like that.
We didn't merge into one person literally, you know, and that's a good thing for a lot
of reasons, right, because who wants to have to deal with this all the time, right?
But look, we are still individual people, but we are one, we are united in the sense
that we are one in purpose and that we are joined unto each other in an agreement, right,
in the bonds of matrimony.
So that's an example that, you know, of one example in scripture, how two things or two
people can still be one, not meaning that there was like some sci-fi thing that when
we got married we just kind of bleh into like one person, literally, okay?
That's pretty obvious, right?
But what about the fact that the Bible teaches that there are many people who are one?
I mean, if you think about Philippians, I'll just read to you from chapter 2 where it says,
Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love being of one of port,
of one mind.
Is he suggesting we all just get lobotomies and just have one guy stay sane and just he's
our mind?
We all be of one mind in this church?
No, he's saying that we all be what?
We be of one mind because we all be in one agreement, one accord, right?
So even you have a multitude of people within the local church who are to be united as one
in purpose, okay, in agreement.
So this is how you understand the unity of God's nature in the way that it doesn't contradict
the Trinity, which is the division of his persons, okay?
So let's talk about that for a minute, the triune nature of God.
So we're kind of covering two topics tonight, you know, the nature of God and that his unity
and also the nature of God in his triune nature as well.
So God is one in essence, you know, we kind of looked over that real quick tonight just
now and got a sense of that.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8 where you were.
The God is one in essence but he is also triune, right, or, you know, we all know what
tri, you know, three means.
Think of the word like trace, you know, the Spanish word, tray, you know, that's three,
tray, tr, right?
Tripod is something that has three legs.
So when we talk about the Trinity, you say that's not a Bible word.
There's other words that we use like rapture that aren't in there but are biblical concepts.
It's okay for man to take a word to explain a concept that is taught in Scripture, okay?
And a lot of people that want to just pull out this, well, that's not a word in Scripture
that the Bible uses.
It's just this holier than thou attitude.
I only use words that the Bible uses.
Well, it's funny because I don't always hear you saying ye and nor and thee and thou and
all these other words, right?
Anyway, it's a stupid argument but it's out there, you know, I'm just getting ahead of
the YouTube comments, if anyone bothers to watch that.
But look there in 1 Corinthians 8 in verse 6, this is one of my favorite verses on the
Trinity.
He says, but to us there is but one God.
So yeah, there is one God, right?
The father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are
all things and we by him.
Say, look, it's one God but you have the father and you have one Lord Jesus Christ,
one of whom are all things and we in him and one of by whom are all things and we by him.
So right there you have a great verse on the Trinity, you know, and these are verses that
you should probably know, you know, there's at least, you should always have a couple
of verses down on some of these doctrines, this in my opinion is one of the better ones
because it does say there is one God, right?
But then it breaks it down into two different people and we know that there's also the Holy
Spirit, he's just not mentioned here, okay?
So we see here that one God is composed of multiple persons and again, this is something
that is just from the cover to cover in the Bible and, you know, people don't under, people
don't believe this or deny this, it's either because they've never read the Bible or that
they're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because, you
know, they're unsaved, you know, they don't hear God's words because they are not of God
because this is something that's just very clear in Scripture, you know, going all the
way back to Genesis 1, I won't take you there because I'm sure you'll get to Genesis 1 eventually
but go to 1 John chapter 5, you know, a very, very popular verse on the Trinity but in Genesis
chapter 1 it says, and God said, let us make man in our image, I mean, just Genesis 1,
you have God referring to himself in the plural form saying, let us make God in our image,
right?
New Testament passages teach this and it says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 7, for there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
Now, again, emphasis on the fact that there are three that bear record in heaven, there
are three and because some people say, yeah, but these three are one, yeah, but that there
are still three in heaven, it's like you want to just grab people and throttle them, it's
like what don't you understand about there are three?
So if there aren't three in heaven, then the Bible is not true, this is a lie, right?
But there are three in heaven that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost, and these three are one in accord, in agreement, in essence, in that they are
all God.
How are they all one?
They are three distinct persons but they all are individually God, they compose and make
up the same God.
Say I don't understand it, you know what, it doesn't matter if you understand it or
not.
And I've heard people say that, and I love that statement, I've heard people say, hey,
you know what, the Bible teaches the Trinity, I don't fully understand it, but the Bible
teaches it, so I believe it.
That's the kind of faith we're supposed to have when it comes to the Word of God.
You say it's a blind faith, yeah, I guess it is, but I trust the Word of God to be the
Word of God, and God cannot lie.
So if God's telling me that there are three in heaven, I believe that there are three
in heaven, and it is the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are
one.
Not the same person, the same God.
And again, I can't understand that, I know, because we are a feeble man, trying to conceptualize
an infinite, eternal God.
So let's just trust what he's given us and what he's told us, and we'll understand the
rest when we get there.
And there are three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one.
So he's giving us an example, how are the three in earth one?
They agree in one.
So that is the comparison there.
There are three in heaven that bear record, there are three in earth that bear witness.
And how are they one in that they agree, that they have the same mind.
If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his son.
And he's going into that bit about the witness of men, if we receive the witness of men,
the witness of God is greater.
What is that when he's talking about there, the witness of men?
Well, if you remember in the Old Testament, it's taught that in order to condemn somebody
guilty of a crime, you have to have what, more than one witness.
It says in Deuteronomy 19, I read to you, one witness shall not rise up against a man
for any iniquity, or for any sin, and any sin that he sinneth.
Now that just makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
If all it takes is one person to accuse somebody of a sin worthy of death, if I've got a beef
against someone, then it's just like, hey, I saw them commit adultery, they blasphemed
the Lord's name, they defiled the Sabbath, they murdered somebody in cold blood.
You got any other witnesses?
No.
Well, that's all right, we'll just take yours.
Because now I'm lying, how do you know I'm not just lying?
So that's just common sense.
And that's something that we still practice even today in our modern law.
We need to have more than, you can't just condemn people on the witness of one.
A lot of times that other witness could come in the form of an audio recording, a videotape,
some other kind of evidence, that could be a type of witness.
But it says in the law, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses
shall the matter be established.
And he's saying, look, the witness of men requires more than one person, and the witness
of God is greater.
Why?
Because there's more than one person in heaven.
If God was only one witness, then it wouldn't be greater than the witness of men.
We have a greater witness because we have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost all bearing witness.
So I don't want to go on and on about the witness of men.
I think everyone understands that.
But let's just go ahead and look at some other scriptures tonight about the Trinity, scriptures
that are just plainly teaching the Trinity throughout the Bible.
Go over to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter number 28.
Jesus said, I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth
witness of me, saying, look, I have more than one witness.
Now if Jesus and the Father were the same person, would that be more than one person?
Would that be more than one witness?
It would not.
It would be the same witness.
Just like I can't go to trial as a witness and say, well, I'm going to testify as deacon
wrestle.
You know, deacon wrestle, please come to the stand and bear witness of whatever you saw,
whatever crime.
And I give my testimony, and then I sit down.
And then he asks the prosecution or defense or whatever, do you have another witness?
Yes, I'd like to call Corbin wrestle to the stand.
That's the same guy.
No, no, no, it's a different guy.
He's going to come to stand, but he's going to testify as a husband now.
Look, I am the same person.
But in heaven, what we have three distinct persons that are all God.
Okay, does that make sense?
You can't say, if Jesus is saying, look, I am one that bear witness of myself and the
Father that sent me at bear witness of me.
That has to be two different people or the witness of God is not greater than the witness
of men.
Then that's no witness at all.
He said in John 5, but I have a greater witness than that of John.
The works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness
of me that the Father hath sent me.
He's saying, what's the proof of the witness of the Father?
The works that I do.
He sent me to do these works and they themselves said, no man can do these things except God
be with him.
The works that he did were a witness of the fact that the Father, a distinct other person
had sent the Lord.
And the Father himself hath sent me and hath borne witness of me.
He have never heard his voice in a time nor seen his shape.
Now Matthew 28 is one that gets twisted a lot by the Pentecostals and others.
They like to take this and do a Jesus only baptism.
They baptize in the name of Jesus.
They teach oneness Pentecostalism that God the Father and God the Son are the same person.
That when you get to heaven you're only going to see God the Father or just one person Jesus
sitting on the throne.
That these are somehow the same person.
I know it's confusing, but they take this verse and they run with it.
It says, go ye therefore, verse 19, Matthew 28, and teach all nations baptizing them in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
That name is Jesus is what they say.
But is that what it means when it says in the name of?
They think, well see there it's got it, well what's his name then?
But they don't understand that that is a phrase, that is a saying, to say in the name
of something.
That's just saying go and baptize them in the authority of on behalf of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
You're not saying figure out which name I'm talking about here.
I'm going to give you three different names and you need to narrow it down to one and
that's the name.
Is that what he's saying here?
I know that sounds ludicrous, but that's what people teach.
They run with this.
That's the carnal man trying to understand a spiritual book and that's people being confounded
and not being able to understand a simple truth.
You say, well, what do you mean in the name of?
Think about this, stop in the name of the law.
Well, what's the law's name?
Is it Barney Fife?
Is it some other famous detective?
Have they given a name to the law?
What am I saying when I say stop in the name of the law?
I'm saying stop in the authority of the law.
Upon this authority, I'm acting and telling you to stop.
That's what he's saying here in Matthew 28.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of, in the authority of,
on behalf of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Not one particular name.
Go over to Matthew chapter 3.
The Trinity is just all over the Bible.
And as you think about it and keep it on your mind as you read the Bible, you'll start to
see it everywhere.
You'll see it in Paul's writings and the way he, you know, when he signs off on his letters,
when he greets people in the middle of his epistles, you'll see it throughout the Gospels.
You'll see it in the Old Testament, you'll see it in the New Testament, you'll see it
all over the place.
That's why it's the predominant teaching that God is three distinct persons because it's
undeniably taught throughout the Bible.
We're just touching on it.
I'm telling you, we're just scratching the surface.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, amen.
So there again, he's just signing off a letter and it's, you got three people that he's signing
off in the name of.
Matthew chapter 3 verse 16, Jesus' baptism, beautiful picture of the Trinity.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water and lo, the heavens were
opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God.
So who have we got so far?
Well, we got Jesus who was present there on earth.
Then you have the heavens open and he has the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, descending
like a dove.
So now you have another, you know, the other presence of the Holy Spirit, the other person
of the Trinity, okay, lighting upon him and lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son.
So if this voice from heaven is calling Jesus his son, who is that?
Well, that's the father.
Is this really that hard to understand?
Is this really that complicated?
Look, I understand the concept of the Trinity is deep and it's hard because we're talking
about the nature of God.
But the doctrine itself is just plain as day on the pages of scripture.
It's just right there.
And it just, you know, it boggles the mind how people can get off on this and come up
with just crazy ideas about the Trinity when it's just so plain.
You have, you know, was Jesus throwing his voice here?
This is my beloved son who I will please.
No, it was a voice from heaven, the Bible says, the narrator speaking, calling Jesus
his son.
And you have the Holy Spirit there, all three present at one particular point in time in
his baptism.
You know, and again, I'm not going to, it's going to be a shorter sermon tonight.
There'll be other, I'd like to do more sermons on the Trinity at a later time, but, you know,
we're just kind of touching on it tonight because of the fact that we're discussing
the nature of God.
And one aspect of God's nature is that is his unity, right?
That God is, that there is one God.
Okay.
But whenever you, you know, I can't just bring that up and then close in prayer because now
I'm going to get a phone call, right?
I got to explain the fact that there is the Trinity and you have to explain how these
two things do not conflict with one another.
God is one in his essence and that he is God, okay?
But that does not contradict with the fact that he is three persons in the Trinity and
it's three persons that make up one God.
And, you know, there's a lot, and I'm just saying tonight, just do your own Bible reading
and just look for it.
You'll see it everywhere.
It's all over the place.
First Corinthians 12, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.
And there are differences of ministrations, but the same Lord.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God that which worketh all
in all.
Okay?
Now, real quick, just, you know, I just want to talk about this real quick concerning the
Trinity.
It's not tritheism, okay?
We're not, because some people, that's where they'll go with that.
Well, you're teaching that there's three gods.
That's not what we're saying.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
It's one God, in essence, with three persons, distinct personalities in the Scripture.
Go to Hebrews chapter one.
We're going to close here.
Hebrews chapter one.
Have you ever seen that image, I should have printed it off, where it has that picture
of the Trinity?
It says, the Father is not the Son.
The Son is not the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is not the Father, but they are all encapsulated as God.
I should have printed it off.
But just imagine that, you know, a triangle with arrows going around, right?
And the first arrow says, the Father is not the Son.
The Son is not the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Ghost is not the Father.
Those are, that's an accurate statement.
You know, I believe that.
You know, you could hold that out, and I'd say, I agree with that.
You know, you have that triangle, then around that, draw one big circle, and just call that
God.
That's who God is.
That's God's essence, but within his essence, he is three distinct persons, the Trinity.
We're not teaching that there are three gods in the Trinity.
You know, the Trinity is not polytheism, it's not tritheism.
You know, people that say that are just not comprehending the difference between God's
essence and his nature and his personhood.
Look at Hebrews chapter one, verse one.
God who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in times past unto the Father's by the
prophets.
So who's doing the speaking here?
God.
Okay?
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.
So he did it through his Son.
So you have God, so this is clearly the Father, and he's speaking unto us by his Son, whom
he appointed heir of all things.
So again, I want to kind of save a lot of this when we go further into depth in Trinity.
Not only is there three distinct persons within a Trinity, but there is an authority structure
within it.
You can see it right here.
God, who at sundry times and a diverse verse of manners spake in times past unto the Father's
by the prophets.
Verse two, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed.
So somebody appointed who?
God appointed the Son, right?
And Jesus, you know, again, I'm getting ahead of myself in that sermon, but the fact is
that Jesus was under the authority of the Father.
The Son is under the authority of the Father.
There is a structure there.
I'm going to go into that in a future sermon, okay?
But I'm just making the point here that we see what?
Distinct personalities in Scripture.
That's why we believe in the Trinity here, because the Bible teaches it, and it's not
hard to see.
It says that God appointed the Son.
So either there's the Trinity, either you have God the Father and God the Son, distinct
personalities, or Jesus isn't God.
I mean, that's how I read it.
I mean, are you going to say, well, it was God who appointed Jesus?
Either Jesus isn't God, or what?
You have to reconcile that.
How can God appoint God?
Well, it's the Trinity explains it, and it makes it very clear.
He said he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed
the heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person and of all things by the word of his power,
when he hath purged, he hath by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high.
How can Jesus sit down at the right hand of himself if it's the same person?
It doesn't make any sense.
You got to explain that.
Jesus went and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
That's a reference to the Father, God the Father.
No, Jesus sat down at the right hand of himself.
You go home and try that and tell me how it goes.
Try to sit down next to your own right hand.
It's not going to happen.
Try to sit down next to yourself.
I know it sounds ludicrous, but people who want to teach that God, Father and God, Jesus
are the same person, you have to reconcile these scriptures, and you can't.
Verse four, being made so much better than that of the angels, let's just jump to verse
five.
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my Son, this day I will have
begotten thee.
And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.
And again, when he bringeth the first begotten in the world, he saith, and let all the angels
of God worship him.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame
of fire.
But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness,
is a scepter of thy kingdom.
Look, verse eight is a great verse on the deity of Christ.
People that want to teach that Jesus isn't God, take him to this verse.
But unto the Son, anyone's going to agree, who is Jesus?
He's the Son.
People are, you know, even Mormons are going to say, well, he's the Son, right?
But he's saying here, but unto the Son, he saith.
Now who's doing the speaking here?
Verse one, God, who at Sunday triumphs in diverse manners, right?
Because God, that's the one, he's talking about God the Father speaking, and he says,
of the Son, thy throne, O God.
So you have God the Father calling God the Son, God.
So that, you can see how there's distinct personalities that all make up God.
Because we also understand from earlier that God is one, that there is only one Lord God,
that there is none else.
It's not different gods.
It's one God in essence who's composed of three distinct persons.
So I just wanted to touch on that tonight, because when we start to talk about the unity
of God, you've got to kind of go into that.
And there are going to be other sermons coming up on the Trinity.
But the unity of God's nature, it doesn't conflict with the doctrine of the Trinity.
You can see tonight how they can both be reconciled and both be true at the same time.
And that both of these aspects of God's nature are clearly taught in scripture.
We read them tonight.
The Lord our God is one Lord.
We also saw all the passages where God is referred to as the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, three different people.
So here's the thing.
To deny either one of those, we don't want to go to the other extreme and say, well,
you know, God isn't one.
The Bible teaches he is one.
We just have to comprehend what he's meaning by that.
To deny either one of these, the Trinity or the unity of God, is to deny the very nature
of God, because that is what the Bible's teaching us about the nature of God.
And that's to preach another Jesus and say, well, what's so bad about people who don't
believe in the Trinity?
Why are they called heretics?
Why would you say that they're unsaved?
Because they're teaching another Jesus.
They're taking the very nature of God and who he's revealed himself to be and what he
is, his very nature, and they're saying it's not true.
They're trying to make it into something else, the very nature of God.
That's to teach another God.
To me, that's just an intellectual form of idolatry, saying, oh, I'm just going to carve
God into an image that I like.
I'm just going to make up my own interpretation of who God is.
We are not at liberty to do that.
It's a foolish thing to do as a limited person with a limited perspective on eternity and
God.
That's why God has given us the scripture, so that we can understand these things about
the nature of God.
And hopefully tonight we can see both the unity of God and the Trinity of God and how
these things work together and that are not at odds with one another.
Let's go ahead and pray.