Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Glad to have you here this morning.
Let's go ahead and take out our hymnals
and turn to song number 411.
Hold the fort.
And that's song number 411.
411.
Hold the fort.
Oh, my compact
sing.
Oh, my
compact
sing.
Oh, my
compact
sing the signal
waving in the sky
reinforcement
now appearing
victory
is nigh
hold the
fort for I am coming
Jesus
single still
wave the answer
back to heaven
by the grace
we will see the mighty host advancing Satan leading on. Mighty men around us falling courage
almost gone. Hold up one for I am coming Jesus signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven by
thy grace we will. See the glorious banner waving hear the trumpet blow. In our leader's name we'll
triumph over every foe. Hold up one for I am coming Jesus signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will. Fierce and lone the battle rages but our help is near.
Onward comes our great commander dear my comrades dear. Hold the fort for I am coming Jesus signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will.
Amen. Great singing of the Spires. Word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father we just thank you for this day. Thank you that we have this church to come to. I just pray you'll bless the service, bless the singing and fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word to us and help us Lord to be open and attentive to the words preached today that we could apply to our lives and we love you and pray the things in Jesus name. Amen.
Next is going to be Psalm 126. It's going to be in that white handout right in front of you. If you don't have one you can always try to share with your neighbor or raise up your hand and one of the ushers will try and bring one to you. But if not you can always take out your Bible. Right in the middle of your Bible you'll find the book of Psalms. We're going to be in Psalm 126.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen the Lord had done great things for them the Lord had done great things for us whereof we are glad.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious heed. Shout down let's come again. Shout down let's come again with rejoicing bringing issues within. Then said they among the heathen the Lord had done great things for them the Lord had done great things for us whereof we are glad. Amen. Good singing.
Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin just slip up your hand nice and high and we'll get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage Exodus 20. This is our grace week.
You basically have one extra week to quote the entire chapter. If you can quote the entire chapter there will be a special prize for all those that are able to complete it.
On the inside we have our service times, our soul winning times as well as regional soul winning times. Our church stats down below. Please make sure to turn in all your soul winning maps as well.
We just want to make sure we're getting all of our area tracked. Right now we're kind of working on the south east portion of Fort Worth and so we're trying to really get a lot of that covered in. On the right we have a list of expecting ladies. Please keep them in your prayers.
We also have our prayer list and we have a lot of people that have been sick so just be in prayer for everybody's health. Next Sunday we're having a special event.
We're having brother Oliver Gonzalez the deacon of Verity Baptist Church. He's going to be coming out here and preaching for us and he's a really great guy, a good preacher and so I'd really encourage you to be here.
If I can't sell you on Oliver I can sell you on this. We're going to have a lunch right afterwards and it's going to be Himes Barbecue. This is really one of those Sundays you don't want to miss.
Brother Dylan helped us make some nice invites and they're over here on the cabinet. This would be a great service to invite somebody to. A family member, a co-worker. If you know anybody that you feel like you would like to invite them to church I'd give them one of these invites.
This is what I would say, Himes Barbecue. That's all you have to say. If you would help us, we're going to provide all the meal but if you would like to bring a dessert that would be great.
We're going to have a potluck dessert. Everybody bring whatever desserts they would like. Cookies, brownies, chocolate. Those are my favorite but you bring whatever you want.
We'll have a bunch of desserts and we'll have a lunch in here. It's going to be a lot of fun. You don't want to miss it. Brother Oliver is going to preach both services so I'd encourage you to be here for both morning and evening services.
Those cards are over there. Please make sure to hand them out because by next Sunday they're worthless. Let's just hand them out, grab a few, hand them to your family and friends or maybe if you get someone saved out soul winning or you talk to them you could give them one.
Also we have September 11th our Shreveport Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon. October 6th we have our Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. On the back we have real exciting news.
My wife gave birth to Eloise Sue on July 28th. 544 am weighing 6 pounds and 19 and a half inches long. She's doing really good. She's very beautiful.
My wife did all the hard work. Don't worry. She's recovering. If you'd just be in prayer for her recovery and for development. Everybody's doing great. Ellie's been a really good baby. She's really sweet. Hopefully we'll get to share her pretty soon. We're going to call her Ellie so that's why we have it in there.
The spelling may not be obvious so there's the spelling. It's Ellie Shelley. That's pretty much all I have for announcements this morning. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Song 232.
232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. All together on the top.
How the angels and chorus sing as they welcome His birth.
Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth.
Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious. Sweetest that ever was heard.
Fasting alone in the desert. Tell of the days that are past.
How for since He was tempted. Yet was triumphant at last.
Tell of the years of His labor. Tell of the sorrow He bore.
He was despised and afflicted. Homeless, rejected and poor.
Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious. Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him. Rithing in anguish and pain.
Tell of the grave where they laid Him. Tell how He liveth again.
Love in His glory so tender. Clearer than ever I see.
Stay, let me weep while you whisper. Love paid the ransom for me.
Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious. Sweetest that ever was heard.
Amen.
As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to Matthew 28.
Matthew 28, the Bible reads,
In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.
And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow.
And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the woman, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He is not here, for he is risen.
As he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.
And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee.
There shall ye see him. Lo, I have told you.
And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word.
And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail.
And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him.
Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying,
Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept.
And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you.
So they took the money and did as they were taught, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for this chapter and also for our church.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to preach his sermon for us,
and also I pray that you minimize distractions for us so we can learn as much as possible from the sermon.
We thank you so much for the opportunity that you've given us to serve you, Lord,
and for the brothers and sisters in Christ who are here this morning. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Amen.
Well, I want to look at verse number 19, famous verse here.
The Bible says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
And what I want to draw out of this passage is really the fact that there's three persons that are mentioned here,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And what I want to teach on this morning is the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity, or the title of my sermon is just simply the Trinity.
And the Bible makes it very clear that there are three persons but one God, according to the Bible.
And we have a lot of passages that bring up all three.
Simply right here we have the Father, we have very clearly the Son and the Holy Ghost.
This is who the Bible describes God is, is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Now, if you go to Matthew, chapter number three, Matthew, chapter number three,
I want to show you that there's many places in the Bible where it shows all three at the same time.
If you look up in the dictionary, though, because the word Trinity, while it's never found in your Bible,
I believe is a very biblical concept. It's something that's understood by most Christians and especially Baptists.
But if we just look to the dictionary and we ask, okay, what does the dictionary say the Trinity means?
Merriam-Webster says, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons and one Godhead, according to Christian dogma.
According to TheFreeDictionary.com, Trinity and most Christian face the union of three divine persons,
the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, and one God.
So, what I also like about TheFreeDictionary is it has three divine persons, because divinity is in reference to what?
Them being God. Essentially, there's three persons, one God.
That's what the Trinity means. If you look it up in the dictionary, it's three persons, one God.
You look up in another dictionary, three persons, one God.
And you say, well, where are they getting this idea or this concept? It's from the Bible.
It's from reading verses in the Bible. Look at Matthew, chapter three, verse 16.
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 descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased.
So, right here in verses 16 and 17, we have all three persons of the Trinity.
We have the Son who's in the water. We have the Holy Spirit who's descending down, and a body that's shaped like a dove.
And then we also have a voice from heaven, which is God the Father.
So we have the Father, we have the Son, we have the Holy Ghost, again, mentioned in the Bible.
Go to Luke, chapter number two. Go to Luke, chapter number two.
Dictionary.com, this is what they say.
And it says, Also called Blessed Trinity, Holy Trinity, the union of three persons, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and one Godhead, or the threefold personality of the one divine being.
So, according to dictionary.com, three persons, one God.
John, chapter three, I'll read for you. It says, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
So, in John, chapter number three, the Bible tells us God, and then it has the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, being given unto him, which is Jesus Christ.
So, again, in one verse, you have the Father, you have the Son, and you have the Holy Spirit, all three mentioned very clearly in the Bible.
Look at Luke, chapter two, verse twenty-six.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
So, again, we have all three members of the Trinity.
We have the Holy Ghost, there's the Spirit.
We have the Lord, and then possessive S, who's that?
Who's the possession of Christ? That's the Father.
And then who's Christ? That's the Son.
So, we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, again, mentioned in one singular verse.
And the Bible, I could go on and on and on and on, showing you examples where all three persons are mentioned in either one or two passages next to each other, because the Bible is constantly telling us about the three.
It's telling us about the three.
That's why you're going out and baptizing the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, because God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
These three persons are one God.
Now, I want to read a couple other things for you for a second.
Go, if you would, to Isaiah forty-three, and I'll get there in a moment.
If I look up according to the Wikipedia definition of the Trinity, okay?
So, just online, what does Wikipedia say about the Trinity?
Look, Wikipedia is not necessarily a reliable source of information in the sense that everything they say is true.
But what Wikipedia does is it gives you a consensus idea of what most people believe or what most people view things to be.
And, according to Wikipedia, it says the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it's Latin, from Trinitus, or triad, and it means threefold.
It says, hold that God is one God and exists in the form of three co-eternal and co-substantial persons, the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
The three persons are distinct, yet one substance, essence, or nature.
And it says, in this context, a nature is what one is, whereas a person is who one is.
So, we could say this, I'm Jonathan, but I'm a man. And I could look at another man and say his name, and then say he's a man.
So, the man is my nature. That's what I am. But who I am is Jonathan, right?
So, what the Bible is, or what this Wikipedia article is saying, which I agree with, is saying that God, when we look at the three persons, what is Jesus' nature? God.
What is the Holy Ghost's nature? God. What is God the Father's nature? God.
But the Father is who He is, the Son is who He is, and the Holy Ghost is who He is.
So, they're not each other, yet they all have the same nature, and that nature only exists in one person, or one, I'm sorry, not necessarily a person, but one being, that would be God.
So, we have one God, one nature that's God, and it's made up in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Bible is saying they're co-eternal and co-substantial, meaning that they've always existed.
They're all equally God. It's not like Jesus is 99% God and 1% something else. It's not that the Holy Ghost is only a part of God.
Look, they're all fully God, but those three persons are the one God that we worship and serve.
Now, I'm going to read a few other things, because some people would say, oh, well, Baptists differ on the Trinity, or have different ideas, or, that's false.
They all agree on this element, three persons, one God, okay?
The Gospel Coalition, not necessarily a Baptist organization, but they try to, they're kind of ecumenical, and they're giving their perspective on Baptist.
This is what they say about Baptist. They say, on the whole, Baptists have much in common with other Christian denominations.
They believe there is one God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Baptist Bible College. Now, this is a college in Missouri.
The independent fundamental Baptist church that I was going to back home in Amarillo, Texas,
their main pastor that kind of started that church was sent out of Baptist Bible College.
And, in fact, they have a huge network of churches that they've started and they're friends with,
and a lot of independent Baptists kind of trace their roots to this Baptist Bible College.
This is what they say about the Trinity. They say, the Godhead, there are three persons,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, equal in every divine perfection,
and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
So, they say, three persons, one God.
Independentbaptist.church. So, this is a website of thousands of other independent Baptist churches,
and they have a doctrinal statement, and you have to basically submit your doctrinal statement
or your information to even be a part of this website.
This is what they say about it, about the Trinity.
We believe in one triune God, eternally existing in three persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature,
co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.
So, again, it's across the board. Baptists believe in three persons, one God.
Three persons, one God. I'll read one more article, okay?
I'm just giving you all the evidence for what Baptists believe,
because this is an important doctrine, and we have to realize it's a Baptist distinctive.
Christianity Fact. It's a website, ChristianityFAQ.com,
and it says, this is the title of the article,
Do Baptists believe in the Trinity? Get the facts, okay?
So, he's going to tell us what Baptists believe.
The doctrine of the Trinity has always been central to Christianity.
The Baptist tradition is one of the largest branches of the Christian faith in the world today.
A lot of people want to know what Baptists believe about the Trinity.
So, then later, it says this, Baptists believe in the Trinity.
This means they believe that there is one God who exists in three persons.
Baptists believe that the Father, Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are each fully God.
The Trinity is so central to Baptist theology that a person cannot be a Baptist
if they don't believe in the Trinity.
I didn't write this article, okay? I'm just telling you what they said.
They said, key term, the Trinity.
This doctrine states that there is one God who exists as three persons,
Father, Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and that each person is fully God.
Each person is fully divine, eternal, and not created.
Hey, amen. Praise the Lord. That's a really good doctrine.
It says this, Christians, including Baptists, acknowledge that there is some mystery to the doctrine
because there is some mystery in the nature of God.
They say, quote, unquote, mystery, however, does not mean that there is confusion or ambiguity
in the nature of God only in people's ability to fully comprehend it.
That's a really good statement because you know what he's saying?
He's saying, even though we will never fully understand all the aspects of the Trinity,
you know, how can God be three persons from eternity past?
How is there a Father and Son and Holy Ghost from eternity past?
You know, how do they all have the same nature?
Things like this are impossible for us to fully grasp or to understand all the aspects of it or how it works exactly.
But what it's saying, though, is the fact that there's three persons, one God, is not a mystery.
That's not the mystery part. That's crystal clear. That's super easy to be understood.
How that works is the hard part.
Just like, you know, the fact that a car I can get in it and press the gas and it goes is not a mystery.
Now, to people that don't know about mechanics, it's a mystery how that works. Does that not make sense?
You know, to most people that don't know anything about computer programming,
the fact that computers do the things they do is a mystery to them.
But the fact that it works isn't.
If I said, hey, I could pull up on my phone right now directions to across the state and tell you exactly how to get there,
you wouldn't be like, oh, man, that's a mystery.
You'd be like, that's what we all do. Yeah, of course.
But how that works to you all is a mystery.
You know, how satellites work can be a mystery to people.
The fact that they exist is not a mystery.
Hey, the fact that babies are born, it's like, how did that work?
I have no idea. But I know that it happens. Right?
How did Jesus Christ be born of a virgin?
I have no idea. But I know that it happened.
How did Jesus Christ raise again from the dead?
I don't know. But I know that it happened. Okay?
So don't let people cloud you and say, like, we don't know if it's really three persons, one God, because it's a mystery.
No, no, no, no, no, no. We know it's three persons, one God.
Now, how that works, yeah, of course, there's a little bit of mystery involved in how that works.
How did the resurrection work? There's mystery, but we know it happened.
How did the virgin birth work? It's like, I don't know, but it happened.
So don't let people cloud you in this idea of, like, well, great is the mystery of godliness.
God is manifest in the flesh.
Well, here's the thing. I have no doubt that God is manifest in the flesh, though.
I have no doubt that Jesus came here.
Now, how the incarnation worked, yeah, I don't know how that works.
But I know that it happened. I have zero doubt.
Don't let people confuse you with the word mystery.
And that's what they're saying right here.
They say, Baptists believe that it's true that God is one and three, yet they acknowledge not having exhaustive knowledge about how that's true.
So they're saying, fact, God's three. Fact, there's one God.
How that works, we have no idea.
That's fine. If you never figure that out, you're normal.
Okay, because no one's going to figure that out.
Only God can understand that fully, how that works.
And the more we read the Bible, though, and the more we study, the better we can understand it.
The closer we can get to understanding.
But I would say that there's no earthly example.
There's nothing that's going to necessarily help us fully understand this always.
You know, there's always going to be a little bit of mystery.
But having thought about this doctrine for a really long time, and really trying to think, what would be the best example, though?
Okay, because let's try to think of something that would give us some idea of what, how does the Trinity work?
Or how can we understand aspects of the Trinity?
You know, I've heard a lot of examples like, well, we're a body, soul, and spirit.
Okay, but sometimes that breaks down because we're still one person, and so it kind of gets a little confusing to people.
I usually, if I'm going to talk to somebody, and I don't have the ability to have like a prop or something, I bring up time.
You know, time has past, present, and future.
So all three are distinct from one another, yet past is fully time, present's fully time, okay?
But the past is not the present, the present's not the history, you know?
There's distinctions between them, yet there's only one time.
No one would say like, oh, there's all these other times.
It's like, look, there's time.
Past, present, future, yet they all, you know, have these kind of linking attributes as it were, okay?
But I think there's actually still a better analogy, okay?
And when you can have a prop, this is going to be the best analogy.
And so I believe that the best way to illustrate is cake, all right?
Cake.
And you say, cake, Pastor Shelley, you know.
Now, look, don't try to tie me down and say that God is cake, okay?
I didn't say that.
What I am saying is this, I believe that cake is a great way to illustrate the Trinity, and I'm going to explain why.
Go to verse 10 here.
Why?
Because the Bible says over and over that there's one God.
That is super clear.
Look at verse 10.
Hear my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He.
Before me there was no God formed.
Neither shall there be after me.
I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior.
Now, tell that to every Mormon.
Hey, you want to talk to a Mormon?
This is the verse you need to tell them.
Say, hey, you're not going to become a God, bro.
And, look, Jesus didn't become a God.
He is God.
There's only one God.
There's only ever been one God.
There will only ever be one God.
If you were lied to by the devil and thinking that you can become God, you're deceived because there's only one God, period.
And, right here, this is one cake, okay?
There's one cake right up here, right?
Obviously this is a piece, but I'm just saying this is a piece of cake, and we're using it as a representation of a cake.
One cake, okay?
Go to chapter 44 and look at verse 6.
If you want to just destroy Mormons, you just stay right here because you just have verse after verse after verse, okay?
Look at chapter 44, verse 6.
Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and is redeemed with the Lord of hosts.
I am the first, and I am the last.
Beside me there is no God.
Notice another very clear statement.
Look at verse 8.
Fear ye not, neither be afraid, have I not told thee from that time, and have declared it.
Here even my witness is, is there a God beside me?
Yea, there is no God.
I know not any.
He's saying, look, there's no other God.
Look at chapter 46 and look at verse 9.
Chapter 46 and look at verse 9.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else.
I am God, and there is none like me.
Notice what he's making it over and over again.
One God, one God, one God, there's none else.
There never will be one.
I don't know of any.
And it's not like, well, maybe there's one he doesn't know of.
No, no, no, no.
He's making it clear.
There's still not another one, though.
Because guess what?
He knows everything.
If he doesn't know it, it's because it's not real.
Because he knows everything.
Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 2.
That's the Old Testament.
Let's go to the New Testament.
Mark, I'll read for you.
So in the New Testament, again confirmed, one God.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5.
For there is one God.
That's a clear statement.
And one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Now, in James it even says this.
Thou believeth that there is one God.
Thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble.
Now, here's the thing.
This aspect of the Trinity,
I would say that pretty much every false religion still believes.
Even the devils believe there's one God.
You know, what would be some of the devils?
Well, these are non-Trinitarian groups like the Christadelphians.
The Christadelphians hold the Unitarian belief
that although Jesus is the Son of God,
this is only a relational title toward the Father,
who alone is truly God.
So the Christadelphians, they believe there's one God,
but here's the problem with them.
They say that Jesus is not God.
Okay?
The Church of God also denies the Trinity.
Iglesia Nicristo, which is in Tagalog for Church of Christ.
I may have not pronounced that in Tagalog or how that is,
but they say they view Jesus as human,
but endowed by God with attributes not found in ordinary humans,
though lacking attributes found in God.
They say that the Trinity is heresy.
Jehovah's Witnesses.
They teach that God the Father is uniquely Almighty God.
They consider Jesus to be the first begotten Son,
God's only direct creation, and the very first creation of God.
So there's all these groups that deny the Trinity,
and they're all cults and weird.
Okay?
I already brought them up, but the Mormons,
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
or really Satan, teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are distinct beings that are not united in substance,
a view sometimes called social Trinitarianism.
Now, I've met Mormons that when I ask them,
do you believe in the Trinity, they'll say yes.
But here's the thing.
They don't, based on the dictionary
and what everybody else believes about the Trinity,
they make up their own random definition of Trinity,
and then they just say they believe in the Trinity.
Because this is what cults do, this is what the devil does,
this is what false religion does,
is they adapt your phrase and change the definition of words.
Oh, saved by faith.
And you say, oh, okay, well, what does faith mean?
Serving God for your entire life?
Doing the works?
So they can sit there and you're like, saved by faith?
And they're like, amen.
But it's like they've redefined what those words actually mean.
Or they'll say, saved by grace.
And let's say, what's grace?
That God allows me to do all the works.
I'm like, that's not really grace, right?
Grace is not grace if it's works, okay?
And works is not grace if it's works.
You can't just change the word.
That would be like saying, hey,
all of y'all can come to church for free,
you just have to give me $1,000 to enter the building.
It's like it's no longer free anymore.
You can't just change the definition.
So that's why it's important to define things.
What we have to realize is that, as a whole,
the world agrees the Trinity means three persons, one God, okay?
So if you come up with a definition where it's not three persons, one God,
that's just not the Trinity.
You can call it the Trinity all you want,
but it's still not the Trinity.
You're just wrong.
You're just misleading people on what that word actually means.
Other groups that deny the Trinity.
Members, Church of God International.
Oneness Pentecostalism.
It's a subset of Pentecostalism that believes God is only one person
and that he manifests himself in different ways, faces, or modes.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different designations for one God.
God is the Father, God is the Holy Spirit,
and the Son of God is manifest in flesh.
The term Son always refers to the incarnation
and never to the deity apart from humanity.
So according to Oneness Pentecostalism,
they believe that when the Bible says Son of God,
the only thing that means is God being in human form on this earth,
but that it's not a real person,
that it's not someone that actually exists,
but rather it's just a mode or a phase that God's going through,
or he's just putting it on.
Like, I'm just going through a pastor phase.
But, look, I can't just declare myself three persons.
I can't say, well, you know what? I am three persons.
I'm the husband of my wife Carrie.
I'm the pastor of Steadfast Baptist Church,
and I'm also the son of my father.
This is three persons.
Look, it's the same person.
That's just three different roles I play in my life currently.
That's what they try to make God.
They try to make God as like, oh, he's playing the father role and the son role,
and there's these weird people that they perform music,
and what they'll do is they'll paint half their body
where like one side is a girl and the other side is a dude,
and they'll sing like this duet,
and they'll stand like this with the guy singing,
and then they'll flip over, and they'll be like the girl or whatever.
And it's like that's the view of Oneness Pentecostalism God,
where he's like the father, and he's like talking to the son,
and he's like talking to the father.
It's like this is not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible is really three persons, okay?
And we're going to continue to prove that.
Now, so far, we've only looked at one thing, one God, right?
But everybody agrees with that.
Even the devils believe is what the Bible says.
And look, even these devils will say there's one God.
Okay, we haven't lost anybody yet.
It's where they attack the three persons.
It's where they attack who Jesus is.
And that's where you start getting the distinctions
when it comes to Christian doctrine.
I'll read a couple other groups.
The Swedenborgianism, I don't know how you exactly pronounce that,
but it says,
holds that the Trinity exists in one person,
the Lord God Jesus Christ, the Father,
the being or soul of God was born in the world
and put on a body from Mary.
So that sounds like the Oneness Pentecostals.
Again, they're just saying there's one God,
and his name is Jesus, okay?
Numerous Unitarian Christian organizations as well.
So there's a lot of non-Trinitarian groups.
But here's the thing.
None of them are mainstream Christianity.
None.
They're all cults.
They're all weirdos.
They're all freaks.
And you know what's also common between all these groups?
None of these groups that I just mentioned
believe salvation by faith.
None of them.
Whereas I could find you other denominations
in other churches that are not Baptists
that will believe salvation by faith.
I mean, you could find a non-Anom church.
You could find a Calvary Chapel.
You could find some other groups
that believe salvation by faith, okay?
But you know what you can't find
is non-Trinitarian groups that believe salvation by faith.
You know, according to this article,
this is all the non-Trinitarian groups.
Now, obviously there could be an outlier, right?
There could be a random church
that just calls themselves whatever they want,
and they have a weird mix of things.
But I'm just saying like an actual group of churches
where there's more than one of the cult, okay?
They don't believe salvation by faith.
But when we're talking about the church,
go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 8.
What we have to understand is when we read through the Bible,
God is so complex that He cannot ever describe to us
everything about Him at one time.
So what He does is, as you're reading,
He describes certain aspects of Him.
So in order to know exactly who God is,
you have to read everything about Him.
Now, this is called a 3D world, okay?
Why?
Because from one perspective,
you can't see this entire cake.
You can't see everything from where you're sitting.
I would have to start turning it
and rotating it for you to see everything
in order to get a full picture
of what this cake actually looks like.
So from your perspective,
you may identify certain attributes,
but if I rotate or change the cake,
now you might identify different attributes
about the cake, the same as with God.
So while I'm reading the Bible,
I may find all day long one God,
one God, one God, one God,
but that's from a certain perspective.
We have to then also look from other perspectives
and change our rotation, use other scriptures,
to see if there's any other perspectives of who God is, okay?
And this is how we understand the Trinity.
You can't just take one verse.
You have to look at it from the whole of scripture,
not just one cherry-picked verse.
That's why it's foolish, because I've heard people say,
well, if I could prove, you know,
in one place that God's one person or whatever,
then that settles it.
And it's like, that's not true,
because I could prove all day long this is one cake.
But from other perspectives,
we could learn other things about it, couldn't we?
Now, there's something unique about this cake,
so I'll go ahead and start revealing that to you.
This is called the New Testament, okay?
When you start revealing more information,
is that this is what you would call a tri-layer cake.
Now, from looking at it from the other perspective,
you would have no idea.
You just saw one cake, one cake, one cake.
And you know what?
There's still one that I haven't cut into.
From the outside looking in, all you see is one cake.
One cake, one cake, one cake, one cake.
But you know what?
When you cut into it and you look a little deeper,
you see actually it's a tri-layer cake,
which is interesting,
illustrating that there's three layers.
This is also how we understand the Trinity, okay?
Because the Trinity has the three persons of God.
Now, when I gave you those definitions,
let me just quickly explain that with the cake
and then we're going to walk through them through Scripture.
Because, you know, who cares what Wikipedia says?
The only thing that cares is what the Bible says.
But I actually agree with what Wikipedia says
because that's what the Bible actually says.
Now, they said that there's one God, right?
One cake.
But there's three persons.
There's three layers.
Now, if you know anything about baking,
in order to make a cake successfully like this,
what you do is you take all the ingredients
and you mix them together and you make the batter.
Now, this batter is one essence.
It's all the same batter, okay?
And that's the same with God.
God is one essence.
But then what they do is they pour them
into three different pans
and they cook them in their three distinct cakes
and then they lay the bottom layer
and then Lucy puts a nice little piece of icing
right on top of it.
And then they set the next cake on it
and they put another piece of icing on it.
And they put the third layer
and then she ices the whole thing
and then you have one cake that's a tri-layer cake.
Each layer is 100% cake.
100%.
It's fully cake.
I mean, is this, this is a cake.
Look, that would be like saying that Jesus isn't God.
Hey, each person of the Trinity is fully God,
yet they're distinct.
But you wouldn't say that this layer is this layer.
Now, again, it was originally up, standing up,
so I'll kind of show you.
You would say this is the top layer,
the middle layer, and the bottom layer.
You wouldn't say the bottom layer is the top layer
because why?
The top layer is who this is.
Cake is what it is.
The middle layer is who this is.
The middle, but cake is what it is.
The bottom layer is who this is,
but cake is what it is.
So when we look at God, it's the Father is who He is,
but God is what He is.
Jesus, okay, that's the Son, that's who He is,
but you know what?
What He is, God.
And the Holy Ghost, when we think about the Holy Ghost,
what is He?
Well, He's God, but who He is is the Holy Ghost.
Now, even, I like this analogy for another reason.
And I'm not going to go to these verses,
but the Bible teaches that the Son is subject
unto the Father, okay?
Well, here's the thing,
the middle layer is subject to the top layer,
and the bottom layer is subject to the middle layer.
But you know what?
They're all equal in value.
They're all the same cake.
This is why I love this analogy
because you keep looking at all the attributes of God
and you're like, wow.
And when people look at it, they say,
oh, you believe in three cakes.
It's like, this is one cake, bro.
You know, do you have a problem with your vision?
I mean, if you walked over to one of those cakes
and someone is like, I see three cakes,
they're like, you got problems, you know?
That's what people say, oh, the Trinity?
That's polytheistic.
That's believing in multiple cakes.
No, it's not because there's still one cake.
There's one God.
Again, I'm not saying this is perfect,
but I'm saying of my understanding of the Trinity,
this is the best example I could possibly give you.
And it tastes really good, I'm sure, all right?
We're going to find out in a minute.
But what do we think when we say three persons?
Isn't that biblical?
Well, let's see.
First Corinthians chapter number eight.
Look at what it says in verse six.
But unless there is but one God, 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.
Now, when we think of the word person,
if you look up in the dictionary,
it says body, personality, or self, okay?
Well, the word one is denoting,
if you understand the word one used in the English language,
is denoting an individual.
So there's one God, specifically the Father,
and then it says, and one Lord Jesus Christ,
denoting a self for each one of these persons, okay?
Now, go to Hebrews chapter number one.
I'm going to illustrate how the Bible actually even uses
the word person to describe them, though.
Genesis chapter one, God says,
let us make man in our image after our likeness.
That sounds like a plurality.
And you know, if this cake could speak,
it would say, let us satisfy Pastor Shelley, you know.
But denoting what the plurality of the unity.
Hebrews chapter one, look at verse three.
Who being in the brightness of his glory
in the express image of his person.
Now, whose person are we talking about?
God the Father.
So the Son is an image of the person of what?
God the Father.
So God the Father is a person.
Case closed.
Now, you would never say an image of a person is the person.
That's weird.
Like, I'm not an image of myself.
I'm myself, okay?
If you took a picture of me, you could say,
hey, that's an image of Pastor Shelley, right?
If I took a picture of this, I could say that's,
and I held up a picture right next to it.
This is an express image of this, right?
But it's not this.
This is an express image of this.
Like, that's bizarro, okay?
So we're talking about something different.
But then you have to ask this question, okay?
If it's different, then what is it?
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter two.
What is Christ?
If he's an express image of his person,
what do we define Christ as?
Well, I'll again submit to you
that the Bible describes him as a person.
2 Corinthians chapter number two,
look at verse number 10.
To whom you forgive anything, I forgive also.
For if I forgive anything to whom I forgave it,
for your sakes forgave I it,
and the person of Christ.
So notice again, it says that God the Father is a person.
Then it says that Jesus is a person.
Why?
Because there's three persons but one God.
Go to John chapter number 16.
I want to look at a lot of verses this morning quickly
to illustrate all these attributes.
But we have three persons.
According to the dictionary, there would be three selves.
S-E-L-F.
Self.
A self, okay?
Meaning they possess themselves, right?
This cake layer has its own self.
Self, self.
There's some kind of distinction between them, right?
You could even say they have their own body in a sense, right?
This is the same with God.
And when it comes to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
let me prove to you.
John chapter 16 verse 13.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, has come,
he will guide you into all truth.
For you shall not speak of, notice this word, himself.
But whatsoever shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come.
So notice the Holy Spirit is described as what?
A self.
Go to chapter 17 and look at verse 5.
Chapter 17, look at verse 5.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
So the Holy Spirit's a self.
God the Father is a self.
And notice Jesus says your own self,
meaning you have your own personal self, right?
And if the Holy Spirit's not speaking of himself,
yet he speaks the words of God,
that means it must be coming from some other self.
What's that self?
The Father's self, right?
Now look at John chapter 7.
Flip back to John chapter 7 and look at verse 28.
Let's see if Jesus has a self.
And then we'd have what?
Three selves.
And again, I can't find you an exact verse
that says the Holy Spirit's a person,
but wink, wink, nod, nod,
if we have the Son's a person,
the Father's a person,
and then they're all selves,
I'm willing to go ahead and plug in the formula
and say the Holy Spirit's a person too.
And the word he, constantly denoting what?
A person.
Look what it says in John chapter 7, verse 28.
I am not come of myself,
but he that sent me is true,
whom he know not, but I know him,
for I am from him,
and he hath sent me.
So notice, he's talking about another self
in John chapter 17.
Then he's saying myself,
and he's saying someone sent me.
That was the self of what?
God the Father.
So we have three selves when it comes to
who God is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Go to Luke chapter 22.
None other than that, we have wills.
Now, I already proved to you that
the Holy Spirit has his own will,
because he does not speak of himself.
Meaning that if you did not have any will,
that wouldn't be possible.
You know, I can't really look at a robot
and say, well, he doesn't speak of himself,
because he doesn't have a self to speak of.
He only does whatever I program him to, okay?
I could say that,
and it might make sense to us in a modern vernacular,
but in reality, it's kind of an obvious statement of fact.
Just like, hey, the rock's not going to speak for himself.
It's like you're just pointing out the obvious,
because the rock doesn't have a self.
But if I said that about someone that does have a self,
it's not really an obvious statement.
You know, if I said, hey, Duncan doesn't speak of himself,
you would think, oh, that actually has some kind of a meaning,
because Duncan is an actual person, has a self,
so he's capable of doing it.
If I point to an inanimate object,
or something that doesn't have a self,
of course it doesn't speak of itself, right?
So the point of that verse was not to just say,
hey, the Holy Ghost is an inanimate object.
It's saying he has a self, he has a will,
but he doesn't express it.
He's just obedient to the Father.
He just expresses the words that were given unto him.
He's a messenger, in a sense.
Now, when it looks to the Son,
we have a clear definition of a separation of bills.
Luke 22, look at verse 42, saying,
Father, if thou be willing,
guess what, if you're willing, that means you have a will.
You could never be willing without a will.
Remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will,
but thine be done.
So Jesus says this is a difference of wills, doesn't he?
Go to John chapter number six, John chapter six.
Now, what I've heard from liars, heretics and false teachers,
is they'll say, well, the two wills there is Jesus' flash and his spirit.
But you can't separate those, number one.
Number two, I can prove to you that's not what he meant.
Okay?
It's not what he meant.
Because, look what it says in John chapter six, verse 38.
For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will,
but the will of him sent me.
So notice, when he was in heaven, he didn't do his will.
He did the other person's will, which was the Father's will.
But in heaven, he wasn't flesh yet, in that sense.
He was made flesh through the Virgin Mary.
He came down from heaven.
So notice, there was two wills before the birth of Jesus Christ,
before the conception of Jesus Christ, before the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
before Jesus Christ descended down from heaven.
He had a will in heaven, and the Father had a will,
and the will of the Father sent the Son.
He's saying, hey, I didn't come here to do my own will.
I'm doing His will.
Noting, again, that there's different wills.
Go to Mark chapter 13, go to Mark chapter number 13.
Not only is there different persons, not only are there different selves,
not only are there different wills, there's also different minds.
Different minds, according to the Bible.
Look at what it says in Mark chapter 13, verse 32.
But at that day and that hour knoweth no man,
no, not the angels which are in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father.
So notice, he's saying that the Son doesn't even know things that the Father knows.
How is that possible? Because they have different minds.
Go to John chapter number 5, go to John chapter number 5.
John chapter number 5, look at verse number 30.
The Bible says this, I can of mine own self do nothing,
as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will,
but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Now again, he's pointing to someone that had sent him,
that's not with him, in the sense that it's not him.
He's saying I'm not doing my will, but someone that sent me.
How disingenuous would that be if he's talking about himself that's there with him?
That would make no sense.
But again, that's because they have different minds, they have the different wills.
He's saying I can't do anything of my own self.
How could that even make sense if there's only one self?
That would mean he does nothing, or there's another self involved.
And that other self is the Father's self.
Now, not only do they have these different minds, wills, selves, persons,
they also have different witnesses.
Look at verse 31.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
There is another beareth witness of me,
and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
Now again, it's not like he's sitting here saying my witness is not true,
but mine is.
No, he's pointing to the fact that he can't just bear witness of himself.
He's not showing up and just saying I'm the Son of God, guys,
and they're like, well, how do we know that?
Just believe what I said.
What he's teaching is that there's someone else that witnessed of him.
And you say, well, who witnessed of him?
It's called the Bible.
The Bible already told you everything about Jesus before he showed up.
And so he's saying, hey, I don't have to even tell you anything about me.
Just read the Bible and it'll tell you all about me, is what he was saying.
He was saying you don't have to hear me.
You could just have known the Bible and seen Jesus and been like,
this is talking about this guy.
This is describing this guy.
This guy must be the Christ.
And you say, well, who is that witness?
It was God the Father giving that witness through the Holy Scripture,
through the Holy Ghost coming upon prophets of God,
and throughout all the centuries declaring who Jesus Christ was.
And he's saying, look, I don't have to sit here and tell you who I am
because God the Father already did.
But what does that prove?
That there's multiple witnesses because he's saying I'm not witnessing of myself.
Now, riddle me this.
I'm going a little deep here, okay, but just try to pay attention to what I just said.
If Jesus Christ is the Father, okay, let's go with this stupid narrative.
And all of the revelation that was given in the Old Testament was from that Father.
And then Jesus shows up and says that I didn't give you this witness.
Wouldn't that be a complete lie?
Because he did.
So if you tell me that the Father is the Son, this verse is completely ruined
because he's saying I'm not bearing witness of myself.
How disingenuous would that be for me to literally write out,
what if I wrote out a note telling you everything about me
and then I said I'm not bearing witness of myself, read this.
And it's like, well, who wrote that?
Well, I did.
It's like, no, what he's saying is the Father gave you this witness.
I'm not coming here and telling you my witness.
Believe his witness, just his.
Now, obviously, Jesus does also bear witness of himself, too,
but he's just saying he doesn't have to, okay.
Now, I'm going to prove the witnesses even more.
Go to 1 John 5.
Now, this is the whole essence of 1 John 5.
In verse 7, a lot of people try to twist what this is even about.
1 John 5, 7 is really trying to tell you that there's multiple witnesses
to who Jesus is, to the gospel, to the record that God gave of his Son.
That's the whole essence, what's being drawn out
and the point that's being made in 1 John 5.
So that's why he says in verse 7,
For there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.
Now, to say that there's not three would just deny clear scripture
because clear scripture says there are three.
And you say, well, what are the three, though?
What's the reference of the three?
It's that there's three witnesses in heaven.
And you say, well, what does it mean when it says that they're one?
It's meaning that all three of those witnesses are the exact same.
They're in unity. They have the exact same message.
So if me and two other guys from my church came and knocked on someone's door
and we were going to get them saved,
we're three witnesses with one message.
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He's saying there's three of those in heaven.
And guess who they are?
The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
And they've always existed.
They've always been there to give you.
You don't have to trust one.
You can trust all three because they all have the same witness.
Go to 2 John 1.
But if those three witnesses didn't exist, we would have to rely on one person's testimony.
One person's witness.
But that would make no sense because God's constantly telling us that
out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
Why would he put a higher standard for us than for himself?
He doesn't.
He has three witnesses to testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Father can tell you everything about Jesus.
The Son can tell you everything about Jesus, the Word of God.
And guess what? The Holy Ghost can tell you everything about Jesus.
And if they tell you anything, it's always going to be the exact same message.
It's always going to be this.
It's always going to be the Word of God.
It's not like one's going to have a different detail.
You know, when you go to a court and you actually have multiple witnesses talking about an event,
sometimes they'll bring out different things.
They'll have sometimes contradictions or they'll say things differently.
One person remembers that it was blue.
Another person thinks it's purple.
But one person's right, one person's wrong.
Here's the thing.
With God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it's just purple and it's purple, it's purple.
You know, every fact is the same.
It's John 3.16, John 3.16, John 3.16.
I mean, just every single time, it's the exact same witness.
It's the same truth every single time.
2 John chapter 1, look at verse 3.
Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now here's the thing.
If God really wanted me to believe that Jesus is the Father,
wouldn't this be a good time for him to just say,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father?
But then what does it say?
The Son of the Father.
So who is Jesus?
He's the Son of the Father.
What sense would it make to then tell me that the name of the Father is Jesus?
That would be super bizarre.
Why would he then say, hey, the Lord Jesus Christ, FYI, who that is?
The Son of the Father.
Because that's who he is.
God's not playing mind games with you.
He's not trying to trick you here.
He's making it clear who Jesus is.
He's the Son of the Father.
Now, you say, well that sounds like two persons.
You're right. Look at verse 9.
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,
hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son.
You know what that word both means?
More than one.
More than one what?
Well, more than one person,
more than one will,
more than one mind,
more than one witness.
Look, it's more than one because there's three persons that are one God.
You say, was there multiple Gods? No, there's obviously one God.
No one's disputing that. No one believes differently than that
when it comes to Christianity.
I mean, we're all in lockstep.
Even the devils believe there's one God.
Even Muslims believe there's one God.
Even Jews believe there's one God.
We get it. The synagogue of Satan believes there's one God.
Actually, a lot of them are atheists, but that's a different story.
But here's the reality.
When it comes to the Trinity that Jesus is equal with God,
that's where people get upset.
That's why the Jews even killed Jesus in the first place,
is that he forgave sin,
is that he was healing people on the Sabbath,
that he was telling people that he was the son of God,
making himself equal with God.
That's why they wanted to kill him.
You know, it's easy for people to believe Jesus is just a pretty good person,
but what's offensive to people is when you start saying he's God.
When you start saying this layer is the same essence as this layer.
It's the exact same.
Go to John chapter 8. Go to John chapter 8.
Now, fortunately for me, I brought up a fork while I'm up here
because I just want to illustrate certain facts for you, okay?
This is about your learning, okay?
Not about my enjoyment or anything.
But if I take a piece out of here and I said,
you know what, this piece in our illustration represents God, okay?
But it's not the Father, not the Holy Ghost,
but it is Jesus.
That would be, in our illustration, true.
Because you can see, hey, I took it from the middle layer.
So, hey, it's still cake, but it's not the top layer.
If someone said, hey, that's the top layer, wouldn't that be a lie?
Hey, that's the bottom layer. No, it's not the bottom layer.
Oh, well then it's not cake then.
It's like Jesus is the Father. No, he's not.
Oh, well then he's not God. Yes, he is God, okay?
So you have to understand all of these situations that people bring up
and, hey, this makes it perfectly clear.
And you know what, if I eat this, I'm not going to say it's like part of cake.
It's 100% cake. It's super good.
And you know what, in order to eat any of this,
when it comes to the doctrine of Christ, right,
you can't deny one and not have the other in the sense that if I said,
you know what, that tasted like anchovies.
That's anchovies, right?
Could I then say, well, this one's cake, but this one's anchovies.
No, because if I say this isn't cake, well, now I'm saying this isn't cake too.
Right? So if I say Jesus isn't God,
well, now all of a sudden I'm saying that, you know, I'm denying the Father too.
I'm denying everything because it's a package deal.
Where if I say, hey, Jesus is God, this is cake, hey, I'm saying they're all cake, right?
Because you can't just have one and not the other because it is the same essence.
John chapter 8, look at verse 16.
And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone,
but I am the Father that sent me.
Now, what kind of a weird statement for people that deny the three persons?
I'm not alone, but wink, wink, nod, nod, I kind of am.
Verse 17, it is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
I am one that bear witness of myself and the Father that sent me bear witness of me.
Notice why, because there's two different persons,
otherwise these verses are meaningless.
And you'd make Jesus a liar over and over and over again.
Go to John chapter 17, go to John chapter 17.
So I've proven two things to you, okay? Point number one, one God.
Hey, what if we say, well, you know what, Pastor, let's go back to the Old Testament, okay?
All I see is one God over and over again. Sure.
And then you're like, let's go to the New Testament.
And you're like, yeah, but what about the Old Testament, okay?
Did you see the New Testament?
And, you know, sometimes, you know, the Old Testament will even kind of be like, you know.
But don't get freaked out.
You know, it's like just because there's a different perspective
and God's showing you different parts of who he is.
I mean, hey, this is the bottom of the cake, right?
You can't even really see much icing. Over here, it just looks like icing.
So depending on how you angle it and how you look at it, you're going to see different things about God.
You're going to learn different things about God.
But we're not changing who God is, you know.
Why? Because there's one essence.
So we've talked about there's three layers, which represents the three persons.
There's one cake, so there's one God.
But it's the same batter. There's one essence.
And this is also observed in the Bible about God.
That the Father and the Son, they're both truth, okay?
These things both have sugar in them.
All these layers of sugar.
They have flour. There's water. There's probably salt.
You know, I don't know how she made it.
But they're going to have the same elements, right?
John chapter 17, look at verse 17.
Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
Whose truth? God the Father's truth.
Why? Because God the Father's true.
Go to John 16. Jesus said in 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
So Jesus is true. God the Father has truth.
And look at John 16 verse 13.
Howbeit when he the spirit of truth.
So guess what? They all have the same essence.
God's true. The Son's true. The Holy Ghost is true.
Hey, they all share that essence.
Go if you would to verse 11, chapter 17.
Go back to chapter 17 and look at verse 11.
They also share these attributes.
King of kings, Lord of lords, ancient of days.
Here's a really important one. Holy.
They share the attribute of holy.
You know, I don't think it's a coincidence that in our Bible we read in heaven they're singing this.
Holy, holy, holy.
I wonder why they would do that three times.
I think it's real clear why.
The blessed Trinity, that's why.
That's a good song. We should probably sing that.
John chapter 17, look at verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to the Holy Father.
So notice the Bible tells us the Father is holy.
Okay.
Go if you would to Mark 10.
Now I don't even have to tell you about the Holy Ghost because guess what? It's in his name.
He's holy. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, obviously.
The Bible also says about Jesus in Acts 3, I'll read for you.
Be ye denied the Holy One and the just.
The Father is holy. The Son is holy.
The Holy Ghost.
They all share the same essence again, right?
Not only this, they're all good.
Mark 10 verse 18, Jesus said to them,
Why cause thou me good? There is none good but one.
That is God.
Now of course people like to point to this and say that Jesus isn't God.
And it's like, so you're saying he's not good?
And it's like, no, Jesus is good.
He says, I'm the good shepherd.
We know that he's good.
Okay, we can prove over and over that God is good.
We can prove that the Holy Spirit, he's our comforter.
He guides us in all truth.
I mean, obviously the Holy Spirit, Jesus, they're all good.
Because why? They're God.
Not only that, they're all God.
Go to Acts chapter 5. Go to Acts chapter number 5.
Acts chapter number 5.
And look at verse number 3, the Bible reads,
But Peter said, Ananias, Why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the prize in the land?
Why as it remained was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not thine own power?
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied unto men, notice this, but unto God.
So notice how the Bible describes the Holy Ghost.
He's saying, hey, you lied to the Holy Ghost.
And he says, you didn't lie to men, you lied to God.
Because the Holy Ghost is God.
Go to Hebrews chapter 1.
The Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
So Jesus Christ, being the Word of God, is God.
And He's with God.
You say, well, how does that work?
Because there's three persons.
Just like this.
Hey, this is cake, and it's with cake.
But it's cake, and it's with cake, because it's a cake.
Right?
It's like Jesus was there with God, and He's God.
But He was with God.
And He made things because He's God.
And God the Father was there.
It's not that hard.
It's just people that are unsaved can't understand a lot of these things sometimes.
Hebrews chapter 1, when this cake talks to this cake, all right?
Let's see what happens, all right?
When the Father talks to the Son,
But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
So He's like, hey, cake.
And He's like, what's up, cake?
How's it going, cake?
You know, that's how they can talk to each other.
Or they can say, hey, middle layer.
Hey, top layer.
But you know what? The top layer can't say, hey, top layer.
The Father's not going to say to Jesus, hey, Father, how's it going?
The Son isn't going to look at the Father and say, hey, Son, how's it going?
Why? Because that's who they are.
But what they are is God.
He says this in verse 9.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.
Therefore, God, I like this, even thy God.
How does God have a God?
It's like, well, this cake has a cake.
This has another layer, okay?
You say, well, how many cakes are you talking about?
One.
Just one.
Just one cake.
And in this verse it's great because he says,
Hath anointed with the oil of gladness, and with thy fellows.
Hey, there's all three again.
Talking to the Son, thy God the Father, and the oil of gladness of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost.
So you have all three again mentioned.
Go to Matthew 22, Matthew 22.
I'll read for you Matthew 1.
It says, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,
which, being interpreted, is God with us.
Hey, this is cake with us today.
Praise the Lord.
Cake came from the oven, you know, not to do its will, but the will of the baker.
And you know what? It's going to accomplish that will.
It's going to sacrifice itself for our enjoyment, for our nourishment.
Just like Christ did, right?
He sacrificed himself. He had to die to give us life.
This cake was wheat one day and had to die to give me nourishment in life, okay?
And life more abundantly.
Hey, talk about prosperity preaching.
I mean, this stuff works.
Matthew 22, look at verse 42.
Whose son is he?
They say unto him, The son of David.
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit thou in my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
I love this question.
Because anybody that denies the eternal sonship of Christ, anybody that denies that Jesus Christ has always existed,
this is what I think Christ would say to them.
They would say, okay, then what think ye of Christ?
Whose son is he?
And they're like, oh, well, he's the son of David.
But he's like, wait a minute, then how did David call him Lord?
Because I say that the son only refers to the incarnation of Christ.
You got a problem.
Because David never would have had the incarnation of Christ to call Lord.
That was way later down the road.
So who was he talking to?
He was talking to the son that was way before the incarnation.
He was talking to the eternal son.
That's why the Lord is talking to the Lord.
You're like, how is God talking to God?
Because he's talking about the Father talking to the Son.
That's why in Genesis you have the Lord raining fire and brimstone down from heaven from the Lord.
That's why you have in the beginning them saying, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Right?
So, you know, it'd be like these three layers looking at, taking another layer out and bringing it out and saying, hey, it's in our likeness.
The way I like this is if it's me, my dad and my grandfather looking at my son and saying, hey, he's in our likeness.
But it's not the fact that he's three persons, it's the fact that he looks like us.
I think that Adam looked just like Jesus.
Why not?
He's the son of man.
He's the son of God.
He was a representation of Jesus Christ.
And then guess what? We're in his image.
Just think about it.
If Adam was exactly like Jesus, physically looking, you know, he's the express image of the son, in a sense,
and that son produces children, then wouldn't you say all of them are in Christ's image?
We're the image of God.
Men are the image of God.
Now, obviously, we all look a little different.
And you know what?
Black is beautiful, baby, that's what my dad says.
Somehow, in God's DNA, you know, we got every color, we got every shape, we got every size, you know.
Don't be disappointed in who you are.
God likes who you are.
And who knows what Adam looks like, it doesn't matter.
One thing we know is we're in the image of God, but we're not God.
Jesus is God.
Okay?
Go to Hebrews chapter 7, go to Hebrews chapter 7.
There's only two people mentioned in your Bible as the son of God and a direct reference.
Okay?
Now, we're called the sons of God.
And that's in a spiritual sense, and one day we'll, you know, put on that image of Christ.
But from like a physical descendancy, there's only two people that are given the title son
of God.
I'm not the son of God in a physical descendants.
Okay?
I'm the son of Trey.
You're the son of somebody else.
Okay?
But Adam is called the son of God, and Jesus is called the son of God.
Now, what does that mean?
It means they have no earthly father.
It means that they had a direct descendancy from God.
But, there's other meanings to the son of God, and there's another person in the Bible
that kind of has this crazy, like, no lineage issue.
It's called Melchizedek.
Melchizedek is a priest that just shows up randomly.
And you're like, where did this guy come from?
Well, the Bible tells us where he came from.
It says in verse 3, without father, without mother, without descent.
It's saying, he never was born.
You're like, where did he come from?
He must have always existed.
That's why he's saying, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.
And then it says this, but made like unto, and he's going to tell us a person that's
like this.
There's a person that's never descended, that has no beginning of days nor end of life.
He's always existed.
Who is that?
But like unto the son of God.
So, you know what the son of God, he's always existed.
He's always been.
Before Abraham was, I am.
Hey, he's the creator of all things.
We could go to all kinds of other verses.
Colossians chapter 1 makes it clear he's before all things.
All things consist by him, okay?
He gets all of the preeminence for all of creation.
But we have to say this, the son of God always existed.
That's why it cannot only refer to the incarnation because the incarnation has not always existed.
That's a moment in time.
You know what's always existed?
The son of God.
Always.
Go to Proverbs chapter 8.
I'll show you a few more verses.
Micah 5, 2, this talks about Christ and a prophecy.
It says, but thou beth him, Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.
Yet out of these shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler to Israel, whose
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
So, Christ, you say, well, where is he from?
Everlasting.
Say, how far does that go back?
It just keeps going.
It's the energizer bunny.
It's going and going and going and going.
It never ends because he just always existed.
Proverbs 8, look at verse 22.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old.
I was set up, notice this, from everlasting.
Now, this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ and notice how it describes him.
He's from where?
Everlasting.
From the beginning or ever the earth was.
Just like in the Bible.
How does it start?
In the beginning, God, something already exists before the beginning.
It's saying, hey, when beginning happened, there was something there, God.
And it says what God did.
He created the heaven and the earth.
Verse 29, when he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment,
when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then was I by him, as one brought up with him.
And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.
Now, that's a really interesting statement.
As one brought up with him.
He's saying, I'm not brought up with him because he's from everlasting,
but it's like I was just brought up with him.
Because he's the son.
But he's always been the son, he's always been there with him, as one brought up with him.
Go to 1 John chapter number 4.
It's the last point I'm going to make.
But we've talked about the essence.
What is the essence of who God is?
Well, we've already seen many characteristics.
We've seen that he's the truth.
We've seen that he's the king of kings, lord of lords, ancient of days, holy.
He's good.
He's God.
All three are God, all three are holy, all three are true.
That's why you'd say that there's one essence, there's one divine nature.
Here's another attribute.
They're all eternal.
I'm not going to go there, but I can prove that they're co-equal.
Even the Jews understood that.
They said, you're making yourself equal with God, when he called himself the son.
They didn't think that the son was a lower title.
They said, hey, if you're calling yourself the son, you're making yourself equal with God.
They got it. They understood what he was saying.
They just rejected it.
But here's another point.
Here's the last point I'm going to make.
And it's a little different than the essence.
So we've learned all three points.
Here's one other interesting thing, though.
No man has seen God.
Now, for the illustrations I've been showing you, I couldn't really have shown you that yet.
But I'm going to try and illustrate the last one for you, okay?
Here's basically the last one.
If there was something covering this one layer over here the whole time, and it was a cloud.
Now, I don't have clouds in my pocket to put out here, all right?
So you just have to envision with me.
There's some clouds right here, okay?
You can kind of picture it.
But it's just saying no man has seen.
So it's saying, like, what does that layer look like?
This one, without a bite, okay?
It doesn't have the missing piece, right?
It looks like this one, right?
So this is the express image of this person.
So if I had seen this layer, if you say, hey, show me what that layer looks like.
That one.
Right? Okay.
Now, let's look at some verses here.
1 John 4, verse 12.
No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us, okay?
So we can't see this layer when it comes to who God is.
We can't see the Father.
No man has seen his face and can live.
Go to John chapter 6.
I'll tell you another verse.
No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
So it's more like this.
Now, this guy over here, he can look over here, and he can see him.
You guys just can't, because he's in the bosom of the Father.
He's right there with him, you know?
He can just look over, and there was a point when they didn't see each other.
When was that?
When it became sin.
Say, why?
Well, because this layer can't look at sin.
He's too holy.
He can't look at it so that he can't even turn away from his own son for the moments of him being sinned.
But then when he was restored, they have that restored relationship.
But that's another reason why you and I can't look at God.
Can't look at the Father.
Because if we did, he's just too holy to just kill us.
It's too righteous.
But he wants that relationship restored.
God wants to look at you.
You know, one of the greatest things you can do when you're a parent is look at your children in the face.
You know, that's why people love FaceTime, right?
Don't grandparents love FaceTime?
They just want to FaceTime their kiddos, their grand kiddos.
Because they want to see their face.
They want that restored relationship.
It's good to hear the voice.
But there's something about the face, isn't there?
I mean, of all the parts of the body, isn't that?
I mean, if you were to say, hey, I have a girl that I want you to date.
I'll show you every part but the face.
Aren't you still kind of like, I don't know.
But all the other parts, you know, it's like, I'll show you every part but the left foot.
You're like, well, the deal's off, man.
I got to see that left foot.
Wouldn't you say the face is kind of the most important?
Wouldn't you say it's kind of the deal breaker?
I mean, that's like the essence.
It's like, hey, this is a really attractive person.
It's like, what does their face look like, you know?
Because that's where it's at.
I'm just telling you.
Okay.
John chapter 6, look at verse 46.
Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, he has seen the Father.
So the son's saying, hey, I've seen the Father.
Go to Matthew 17.
Now, I've heard some people say this because they're idiots, they're morons, and they don't believe in the Trinity.
They'd say, well, we saw Jesus in flesh but we didn't see his inner self or something, you know, and that's who we didn't see.
No, we just didn't see the Father, the distinct person.
But to prove to you that when they're saying that they haven't seen Jesus, or this is what liars say.
They say, well, we haven't seen Jesus.
And I'm like, what?
You know, they'll say, well, we saw him in human form but we didn't see him in glorified form.
Oh, yeah, we did.
Somebody did. I didn't.
But look at Matthew 17, verse 2.
And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun, his raiment was white as the light.
So three people actually got to see the glorified Jesus.
They got to see his face.
So then how could you say, no, man, like, is Jesus going to get even more glorified beyond that?
No.
They saw the glorified Lord Jesus Christ because they saw this layer.
You know what? No man's seen that layer.
Abraham saw the back sides.
So Abraham got to see kind of like that side, you know, but he couldn't see the face.
And even just seeing the back side, his face just shone like a bright light.
But God the Father wants that restored relationship with us.
And look what it says in verse 5. This is interesting.
While yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold, a voice out of the cloud,
which said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased to hear him.
Don't you always wonder why God the Father is in a cloud?
It's for your protection.
He's protecting you from dying.
He's like, you know, I'd like to show you what I look like.
I just can't because you'll die.
So he has to talk to you through a cloud or he has to talk to you through a messenger.
What? The prophets, the angels, and then he even sent him his own son.
And the son is the express image of the Father.
He's in flesh. He's the mediator.
He's the one brokering the deal to get us restored to that relationship.
He wants that relationship. He wants to see your face.
And he wants you and us to see his face, face to face.
But something had to be accomplished. It's called the gospel.
It's called sin. Go to Revelation 22. This is the last place I'll return.
The Trinity is such a powerful doctrine.
And it's such an important doctrine.
It's a fundamental doctrine.
Because when you don't understand the Trinity clearly,
you're not going to understand very much of the rest of the Bible.
Because understanding who God is and all these different persons here
that are working together help you to interpret scripture
and understand what he's talking about and who God is and these things.
When you have a weird view of who God is,
everything's going to be turned upside down.
And you're just going to have a skewed view.
Revelation chapter 22, there's hope about seeing that other layer.
Verse 1, and he showed me a pure river of water and life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the land.
Notice, too, in the midst of the street of it,
on either side of the river there was the tree of life,
which bare twelve manna of fruits and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it,
and his servant shall serve him,
and they shall see his face,
and his name shall be on their foreheads.
So we have full restoration.
God created man, man sinned,
kicked out of the garden, no longer the presence of God,
and it ends with what?
Full restoration, and we get to see all three layers
in their beautiful unison.
We get to have full restoration to God the Father.
We get to see his face. We can live.
And the only reason why is because all sin has been eradicated.
Death has been eradicated.
And we get to sing, up in heaven,
Holy, holy, holy.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us all this truth in the Bible,
for sending your Son, for revealing us all this truth through your Spirit.
And I pray that we would just, as we study our Bible,
get deeper understanding of who you are,
that we would appreciate all three persons of the Godhead,
and that we would realize the importance that you place
on us being able to have full restoration
and being able to see your face one day,
the exceeding joy that we can have
when we have that type of relationship with the Father.
And we thank you for the sacrifice of your Son to get that relationship.
I pray that this doctrine would seek deep down in our hearts,
and as we read the Bible, we'd fully understand it to the best of our knowledge.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen.
Don't eat my...
We're going to switch it up.
We're going to sing, holy, holy, holy.
We do take requests sometimes, especially when it's Pastor Shelley.
Holy, holy, holy should be in your white hand out there.
Holy, holy, holy, sing it all together.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the classy sea,
cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
which word and ordain evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide Thee,
though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,
only Thou art holy, there is God beside Thee,
perfect in power in love and purity.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
all Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Amen. Thank you all for coming. You all have a blessed afternoon.
Thank you.