Participants: David Asscherick
Series Code: POFCM
Program Code: POFCM000002
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00:53 Great is thy faithfulness,
00:59 oh God my Father. 01:04 There is no shadow of 01:09 turning with Thee. 01:17 Thou changest not, 01:22 Thy compassions, they fail not. 01:29 As Thou hast been, Thou forever 01:38 wilt be. 01:45 Great is Thy faithfulness, 01:50 Great is Thy faithfulness. 01:56 Morning by morning, 02:01 new mercies I see. 02:09 All I have needed, 02:14 Thy hand hath provided. 02:23 Great is Thy faithfulness, 02:34 Lord unto me. 02:52 Summer and winter, 02:57 and springtime and harvest. 03:04 Sun, moon, and stars 03:08 in their courses above. 03:14 Join with all nature in 03:20 manifold witness. 03:25 To Thy great faithfulness, 03:30 mercy and love. 03:36 Great is Thy faithfulness, 03:41 Great is Thy faithfulness. 03:46 Morning by morning, 03:51 new mercies I see. 03:57 All I have needed, 04:01 Thy hand hath provided. 04:07 Great is Thy faithfulness, 04:12 Lord unto me. 04:17 Great is Thy faithfulness, 04:22 Great is Thy faithfulness. 04:27 Morning by morning, 04:31 new mercies I see. 04:37 All I have needed, 04:42 Thy hand hath provided. 04:48 Great is Thy faithfulness, 04:53 Great is Thy faithfulness, 04:58 Great is Thy faithfulness, 05:09 Lord unto me. 05:30 Amen. 05:31 Thank you Reggie, thank you Ladye. 05:33 Reggie and Ladye Love Smith. 05:35 A lot of you, I'm sure, and our viewers at home 05:37 have seen them with the Gaithers. 05:39 They travel a lot with the Gaither's 05:41 and done a lot of their homecoming videos. 05:43 And I think the last couple months or so 05:46 Reggie has been singing with the Gaither Vocal Band. 05:50 And so we're very privileged to have them. 05:54 They're brothers and sisters in the Lord 05:56 and it's great to have them here. 05:57 Actually, we did our Pillars CD and we used some other singers 06:03 in the beginning and they've actually come back and 06:05 replaced all of the voices, nearly all of the voices. 06:08 So when you get your new CD's, it's Reggie and Ladye 06:11 so you'll know who to associate the voices with. 06:14 And Reggie's going to be singing again in just a moment. 06:17 The Pillars song is going to be, I Have Fixed My Mind. 06:21 And that is a beautiful song, fantastic song. 06:24 It's the words of William Miller. 06:27 And so these are songs that have a great deal of meaning, 06:32 not just words but a lot of meaning in those words. 06:36 And our speaker tonight is David Asscherick. 06:39 And how many of you know David Asscherick? 06:42 Amen. 06:43 And he is one of the most popular speakers we have 06:48 from the stand point of people just loving David 06:51 and really appreciating the fact that he loves the Lord. 06:54 It's exciting when a young man finds Jesus Christ, 06:58 finds these truths and gets so really filled with them 07:03 and is able to reach out and win as many people 07:07 to the Lord as David has. 07:08 Just like the Lord reached down and caught him and brought him. 07:13 And it's just amazing. 07:15 Just like the apostle Paul, that's right. 07:17 And just like Danny, that's right. 07:20 So it is an exciting thing. 07:24 And David is going to be speaking tonight on the Trinity, 07:28 and so we're looking forward to that. 07:30 We are, again, just so thankful to ask Reggie to come out, 07:33 Reggie Smith. 07:35 And Reggie will be singing in just a moment, 07:38 I Have Fixed My Mind. 07:39 And again, it's been this Pillars project. 07:42 It's music that you're going to be hearing 07:44 for each of the sermons. 07:45 It's incredible music written by David Huntsinger 07:49 and Kris Wilkinson. 07:50 They will be here tomorrow night and they're going to be here 07:52 the rest of the camp meeting. 07:53 So for those of you that haven't met them or those that 07:56 you appreciate their music, we want you to let them know. 07:59 Come on out, Reggie. 08:00 We want you to let them know that you appreciate the music 08:03 and encourage them in what they're doing. 08:05 It's a privilege to have you here, my brother. 08:06 And we're looking forward to, I Have Fixed My Mind. 08:09 Amen. 13:26 Alright, good evening everyone. 13:28 Beautiful music, amen. 13:30 It's just great to be here at the Pillars weekend 13:33 and looking forward to camp meeting, amen. 13:36 Great, alright. 13:37 Let's pray together and then we've got so much to cover that 13:40 we're not going to... no niceties, no small talk. 13:42 Right into the Bible. 13:43 Amen? 13:44 Let's pray together. 13:46 Father in heaven, we want to thank You for this beautiful 13:49 music and, Father, we thank You for the person who sang it. 13:52 We just ask for the filling of Your Spirit in 13:54 our hearts tonight. 13:56 Father, we're looking forward to understanding You better and 13:58 Your Son better and the Spirit better. 14:01 And so tonight as we open Your word, may You open us. 14:04 Father, our time is limited. 14:05 I mean, my mind is just boggled thinking that I have 14:08 42 minutes to try and explain the nature of God. 14:12 Father, we'll be studying the nature of God, Your nature, 14:16 throughout endless eternal ages. 14:19 And so what are we going to do in the next 42 minutes? 14:22 Father, I just pray that Your Spirit will be with me 14:24 and that this will be a potent presentation. 14:27 Not because of the presenter but because of the message preached. 14:31 Father, we want to thank You that You've gotten 14:33 us all here safely, we want to pray for those that are 14:35 still yet coming, and for those that are watching. 14:38 Father, may this be a Spirit filled weekend, a weekend 14:41 in which we can really say that we are standing on the pillars, 14:44 that we are standing on the promises, that our hope is built 14:47 on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness. 14:51 We want to pray a special prayer for every Pillars presenter 14:54 and for every Pillars listener that, Father, truly we will 14:58 be rooted and grounded in the Word, is our prayer. 15:02 And be with us now as we open Your word, 15:04 may You open us, is our prayer in Jesus' name. 15:07 Let everyone say, amen. 15:10 Alright. 15:11 Well, beloved, our topic... 15:13 Does anyone know what my topic is? 15:15 Trinity. 15:16 Ok because I thought, well if you don't know then maybe 15:17 I'll just preach something else. 15:20 Because I'm mildly nervous about this. 15:22 Not nervous to be here in front you because there's 15:25 no need to be nervous when God has called. 15:26 Amen? 15:27 But just the nature of the topic and the breadth of the topic 15:29 we're going to be talking about, the topic that's been assigned 15:32 to me is the Trinity. 15:33 Now, let me just say a couple of things right up front. 15:36 First of all, this will not be.. 15:38 Will... What did I say everyone? 15:39 This will not be a point by point apologetic 15:43 for the Trinity. 15:44 In other words, I'm not going to be able to answer 15:46 every objection. 15:47 The nature of God and the nature of Christ have been 15:49 some of the great discussions and the source of some of the 15:52 great heresies in the history of the Christian church 15:55 down through the ages. 15:56 So it will be impossible for us to point by point 15:59 provide an apologetic that would answer every objection 16:02 that you could conceivably come up with. 16:04 However, rather than doing that, what we're going to do 16:07 is we're going to make a positive affirmation 16:09 of the character and nature of God from a Biblical context. 16:13 Can you say amen to that everyone? 16:14 In other words, the sermon is not going to be unnecessarily 16:17 polemical or apologetic or argumentative. 16:20 The purpose will be to present a positive picture. 16:23 What kind of picture? 16:24 A positive picture. 16:25 Now let me just say something very briefly here about 16:27 the word "Trinity". 16:29 You might be wondering why I'm giving all these caveats, 16:31 all of these sort of special pleadings before the 16:35 presentation begins. 16:36 Very simple, I have received dozens and dozens and dozens 16:41 of emails preparatory to this presentation. 16:43 More than any other that I've ever received in the history of 16:45 working with 3ABN. 16:47 And many nice people, many well meaning people, 16:50 and I've had the opportunity to interact with some of them. 16:52 But I have received books, I have received manuscripts, 16:54 I have received emails, I have received concerns, 16:57 I have received copious amounts of spirit of prophecy quotes and 17:00 Biblical quotes to try and persuade me that the idea of 17:04 a Trinity is not Biblical, but is actually rooted in 17:06 paganism and papalism. 17:08 And so I want to thank all of those very kind people that took 17:11 the time to send me books and manuscripts. 17:13 However, I think you're going to be a little bit disappointed 17:17 that even after reading almost all of what was sent me, 17:20 I remain committed to the Biblical picture of God's unity 17:24 and God's plurality. 17:25 Now having said that, let me be crystal clear about something. 17:29 I am confessedly noncommittal about the word "Trinity". 17:33 I am confessedly noncommittal. 17:35 In other words, to me, I could care less about the word. 17:38 That's the word that's been assigned to be, but really 17:40 the topic is, The Nature of God. 17:42 Are we together everyone? 17:43 The word "Trinity", does it or does it not occur in scripture? 17:47 It does not occur in scripture. 17:48 And so the word comes so burdened with theological 17:53 and historical baggage that I'm not married to the word, 17:57 I'm just married to the Biblical teaching. 17:59 Ok, and so sometimes when you use a certain word, 18:02 because language is fluid, over time language takes on 18:05 new meanings and different meanings, and the fluidity of 18:09 language demands that we're always evaluating and 18:12 reevaluating the very best way to communicate the gospel. 18:14 And just to communicate period. 18:16 And so this idea of the Trinity, I'm not committed or I'm not 18:20 for or against the word. 18:21 I'm perfectly ambivalent about the word. 18:23 If you like the word and you're defining it in a Biblical 18:26 context, good for you. 18:27 If you don't like the word, it's a little bit like the person 18:29 who goes to the doctor and says to the doctor, 18:31 "Oh doc, every time I move my shoulder like that, 18:34 oh, that just kills every time I move my shoulder 18:36 just like that. " 18:37 What's the first thing the doctor's going to say? 18:40 Don't do that. 18:41 And so here's a robust piece of advice. 18:43 If you don't like the word "Trinity," don't use it. 18:47 You see, that's just so easy. 18:49 And so we're not going to be spending a lot of time 18:51 trying to defend or go into the historical and theological 18:53 context of the word "Trinity". 18:55 There is so much baggage there, what we're going to do is 18:58 look at the Biblical picture of the plurality and simultaneous 19:02 unity of the nature of God. 19:04 That is a pillar in Christianity. 19:07 Can you say amen to that? 19:08 Ok, now what we're going to be doing is looking at three things 19:11 and if we have a little bit of time we'll have a fourth 19:13 very small thing that we might address just directly to my 19:17 Seventh-day Adventist friends. 19:19 The first one is, the very first thing that we're going to be 19:21 looking at, because this truth about the nature of God 19:23 hinges on three things. 19:25 How many things everyone? 19:27 Three things. 19:28 And the first is the simultaneous plurality 19:31 and unity found in the nature of God. 19:34 Ok, the simultaneous plurality and unity. 19:38 What are those two words? 19:39 Plurality and unity found in the nature of God. 19:43 So that's the very first thing. 19:44 The second thing that this whole issue of the nature of God 19:46 turns on is the full eternality and divinity of Jesus Christ. 19:51 In other words, was Jesus actually God in the 19:54 most emphatic sense? 19:56 That's the second thing. 19:57 And the third thing that we're going to be looking at is the 19:59 personhood of the Holy Spirit. 20:01 Is the Holy Spirit simply some kind of a force, 20:05 some kind of an emanation between the Father and the Son? 20:07 Or is the Holy Spirit a person in the same sense 20:12 that the Father and the Son are a person? 20:15 And so we'll be looking at the personhood of the Holy Spirit. 20:16 It's a tall order to accomplish in the time 20:19 that we have allotted. 20:20 So let's begin, let's get right into scripture and go to our 20:22 first point which is the simultaneous plurality 20:25 and unity found in the nature of God. 20:28 The simultaneous plurality and unity found 20:30 in the nature of God. 20:31 Inarguably, or possibly arguably, the most profound 20:35 single phrase in all of scripture may well be 20:37 1 John 4:8, 16. 20:42 In both of those verses, we find John saying something 20:45 absolutely radical. 20:47 He says, "God is... " 20:49 What is the word everyone? 20:51 Love. "God is love. " 20:54 Now, what is meant by this? 20:57 I believe that John is making a profound statement 21:00 not just about God's character. 21:03 Most of us would be very persuaded and very confident 21:06 in the fact that God has a loving character. 21:08 Can you say amen to that? 21:10 I believe, however, that John is making a far more profound 21:13 statement than merely saying, "God is loving. " 21:16 He is saying, "God is... " What was the word? 21:18 "... love. " 21:19 Now let's just talk about this from a Biblical perspective. 21:21 First of all, you would agree with me no doubt 21:23 that the word "love" is a very abused word in this day and age. 21:26 Are we together everyone? 21:27 And we were just talking for a moment there about the 21:29 fluidity of language. 21:30 The reality is, is that a word that comes to mean so much 21:33 eventually comes to mean almost nothing. 21:35 Right? Because we love spaghetti and we love our 21:38 Chihuahua's and we love fishing and we love... 21:40 I don't love Chihuahua's, by the way. 21:42 In fact, I can't even stand them. 21:43 No offense to Chihuahua owners. 21:45 But we love our dogs and we love spaghetti 21:47 and we love our wife and we love God. 21:49 And so this has become such a broad meaning, such a 21:52 boundless word that it almost means nothing. 21:55 Ok, so from a Biblical context, what does that word mean, 22:00 "God is love"? 22:02 This is not merely a commentary about God's character as loving, 22:05 it is also, I believe, a profound commentary about 22:07 the nature of God. 22:09 That is to say, what God is in His Godness, 22:13 what makes God God. 22:15 Well, what would you... 22:16 If I ask you, what is the love chapter? 22:18 I say, what's the love chapter in scripture, what would 22:20 you say to me? 22:21 1 Corinthians chapter 13, very good. 22:23 And in the context of 1 Corinthians 13, 22:25 we don't have time to go there because we're going to be moving 22:27 very rapidly, verse 5, the apostle Paul says something 22:30 very interesting about love. 22:31 He's giving all of these qualities of love. 22:33 He says that love is not proud, love does not boast, 22:35 love never fails. 22:37 And then he says something very interesting in verse 5. 22:39 He said, "love seeks not its own. " 22:42 Just a single little phrase, "love seeks not its own. " 22:46 Now let me ask you a question. 22:47 A very simple question, a very logical question. 22:49 If love is not seeking its own desires, its own hopes, 22:54 its own ambitions, and its own benefits, 22:56 then what would it be seeking? 22:59 It would be seeking the desires, the benefits, the ambitions, 23:02 the good of others. 23:03 And so Paul says, "love is not seeking its own. " 23:07 Some translations, "love is not selfish. " 23:09 I would paraphrase it this way, "love is not self-centered. " 23:12 And so then it is the opposite of that; love is other centered. 23:16 Are we together everyone? 23:18 Love is other centered. 23:20 Love is the principle of putting others first. 23:24 In fact, why don't we say that together, 23:25 love is the principle of putting others first. 23:27 Say it with me. 23:28 Love is the principle of putting others first. 23:33 Jesus said it this way in John chapter 15 and verse 13, 23:35 "Greater love has no man than this, that a man would 23:38 lay down his life for his friends. " 23:42 So this idea that love is other centered, it is not 23:44 inwardly focused, it is not introspective. 23:46 It is other centered. 23:48 Love puts others first. 23:49 And that's what Paul means when he says that, 23:50 "love seeks not its own. " 23:53 But wait a minute. 23:54 John says that God is... 23:56 What's our word everyone? 23:57 God is love. 24:00 John is making a very profound statement here, 24:02 not only about the character of God but about the nature of God. 24:05 He says, God in His very, the essence of what makes God God, 24:10 it not merely loving, but love. 24:14 It would be perfectly grammatically appropriate 24:16 for you or me to say, if we were perhaps looking across the room 24:20 and we say a mother cuddling and cradling and cooing 24:23 her little baby, you might say or I might say 24:25 that mother is a loving mother. 24:27 Would that be an appropriate thing to say in that context? 24:30 Ok, and you all at times are loving people. 24:35 Is that true, yes or no? 24:36 And so, all of us at times are loving people. 24:39 We might see that mother and say she's a loving mother, 24:41 but would we say that mother is love? 24:46 No, no, no, no. 24:47 Because what we're saying is we're looking at her actions 24:49 and we're saying "loving" is an adjective that 24:51 describes her actions. 24:53 But John doesn't make this modest claim. 24:55 John doesn't make this very modest claim 24:57 that God acts loving at times. 25:01 What John says is, "God," and then he gives us a grammatical 25:04 theological equivalence here. 25:05 "God is," not loving, an adjective describing behaviors, 25:10 "God is love", a noun describing nature and essence. 25:17 He says, God in His very fiber, in His very fabric, 25:19 in the Godness that makes God God, there's this idea, 25:23 this principle of love. 25:25 Of what everyone? 25:26 Love. 25:27 But we just learned from scripture that love is the 25:29 principle of putting others first. 25:32 Now just work with me here. 25:34 If love is the principle of putting others first, 25:36 and God is love, then by definition what must you have 25:42 in order to have love? 25:44 Yea, there must be an object, you must have others. 25:48 If love is the principle of putting others first, 25:50 then by definition you would have to have others, 25:53 you would have to have an object upon which to bestow your love. 25:56 If God was rigidly singular in the most emphatic sense of 26:01 singularity, if God was alone... 26:03 And we'll deal with that in just a moment, 26:04 this idea that God is one. 26:06 If God was alone in the most emphatic sense, 26:09 in the Islamic sense, in the Unitarian sense, 26:12 in the Jehovah's Witness sense, this God who is alone in His 26:16 aloneness could become loving the moment He created an object 26:22 upon which to bestow His love. 26:24 But God is eternal, God is infinite. 26:27 God existed for ages and ages, the Bible says from 26:30 everlasting to everlasting. 26:31 God existed from everlasting before there ever was 26:33 a created being. 26:35 Before there ever was a David, before there ever was a you, 26:38 before there ever was a Lucifer. 26:39 Before there was ever another moral sentient being, 26:41 God was there. 26:43 Can you say amen? 26:44 But here's the question. 26:45 How can a God who is rigidly singular be in His nature love 26:51 if love is the principle of putting others first? 26:56 Now this God, this rigidly singular God, could become, 27:00 listen very carefully to the language, this God could 27:02 become loving once He created an object upon which to 27:07 bestow His love, but you could not say that this God is love 27:11 in His essence. 27:13 Why? 27:14 Because there's just one. 27:15 And love is the principle of putting... 27:17 What is it? 27:18 ...others first. 27:19 Are there others here upon which to bestow love? 27:22 There are? 27:24 No, no, no, no. God is alone, He's by Himself. 27:27 The rigidly singular God of the Unitarians 27:29 and the rigidly singular God of the Muslims and other 27:32 monotheistic faith traditions, they could have a God that 27:36 could become loving, but this is not what John says. 27:40 John does not say, "God became loving," 27:43 or even "God is loving. " 27:44 This is far too modest a claim. 27:46 You could say that about any of us. 27:48 David is loving. Molly is loving. 27:51 John is loving. Mark is loving. 27:54 No, no, no, no, no. 27:55 John says, "God is love. " 28:00 But wait a minute. 28:01 Love is the principle of putting others first, and in order to 28:03 have love you must have others. 28:07 So what then does this tell us about the nature of God? 28:10 That this picture of God is not a Biblically consistent 28:15 and coherent picture. 28:16 It's not a picture that is compatible with the 28:18 notion of God as love. 28:20 This God could become loving, but in His rigid singularity 28:25 how pray tell could He be love if love Biblically defined is 28:29 the principle of putting others first. 28:33 Are we together everyone? 28:35 So already we're beginning to see, we're beginning to see 28:38 a hint, this is not proof positive but it's a hint. 28:42 It's a... What word did I say everyone? 28:44 It is a hint that there is a plurality within the 28:48 very nature of God. 28:49 You see beloved, God is presented in scripture 28:52 as a unity of three co-eternal persons; 28:55 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 28:58 And so before there ever is a Lucifer, before there ever 29:01 is a David, before there ever is a John, 29:03 here is God in His simultaneous plurality and unity, and the 29:08 heart of the Father can go out to the Son and the Spirit. 29:12 And the heart of the Son can go out to the Father 29:14 and the Spirit. 29:15 And the heart of the Spirit can go out to the 29:17 Father and the Son. 29:18 And so John can say about this God who is simultaneously 29:23 unified and plural, he can say God in His very nature, God in 29:27 His very essence, God in the Godness that makes Him God is, 29:32 not merely loving, an adjective describing a behavior, 29:35 God is love. 29:39 Are we together everyone? 29:41 Now, open your Bibles very, very, very, very quickly to the 29:43 book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5. 29:46 And here we're going to sort of buttress our definition 29:49 of love as others centeredness. 29:51 Ephesians chapter 5, notice with me in verse 1. 29:53 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1. 29:56 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1, the Bible says, 29:59 "Therefore be imitators of God as... " what? 30:01 "... dear children. " 30:02 We all know that children like to imitate their parents, right? 30:05 If you met my little boys, Landon and Jabel, 7 and 8, 30:08 if you met them and you said, "What do you enjoy doing?" 30:10 they would say, "We enjoy fishing, we enjoy backpacking, 30:13 we enjoy surfing. " 30:14 Well, why do they enjoy fishing, backpacking, 30:15 surfing, and rock climbing? 30:17 Why? Just hazard a guess. 30:19 Because their dad does, that's exactly right. 30:21 And chances are in those formative years, your children 30:25 liked what you liked. 30:26 And so Paul uses a very profound and very simple self evident 30:29 analogy, and that is children like to be like their parents. 30:32 And so he says, "Be imitators of God as dear children. " 30:34 And what's the first thing that comes to Paul's mind? 30:36 What's the very first thing that comes to Paul's mind when 30:39 he exhorts us to be like God? 30:40 "Be imitators of God as dear children. " 30:42 Now look at verse 2, "And walk in love, 30:47 walk in love as Christ also has loved us... " 30:50 Now watch this. 30:51 "... and," what's the next phrase there? 30:54 "... gave Himself. " 30:56 "Walk in love as Christ also has loved us... " 30:59 And then for Paul, this is an equivalence. 31:03 "He loved us and... " What's the phrase? 31:06 "... gave Himself. " Loved us and gave Himself. 31:09 Look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. 31:13 Verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ also 31:18 loved the church and gave Himself. " 31:22 For Paul, these are equivalences. 31:25 To love is to give yourself. 31:27 I just had the privilege of performing a wedding on Sunday. 31:29 In fact, I had the privilege of marrying off the person that 31:32 introduced me to Jesus Christ. 31:34 Can you say amen? 31:35 Very profound, very wonderful. 31:37 It was just awesome to be there. 31:38 And as I was speaking to Josh and Shelly, I said, 31:40 "Josh, it's so easy to say, 'I love you. '" 31:43 Because as we've already said, love is such an abused term, 31:46 it's such a broad term, it's such a liquid term. 31:48 We love our dogs, we love pizza, we love whatever. 31:51 But what if instead of saying, "I love you," we said, 31:54 "I give myself for you. " 31:57 Which is easier to say, "I love you" or "I give myself for you?" 32:01 Yea, I love you. 32:02 It's so easy, it just flows off the tongue. 32:03 I love you, man. 32:04 I love you, sister. I love you. 32:06 What do we mean? It could mean anything. 32:10 When I was a little boy growing up, they had this cartoon 32:12 called, The Smurfs. 32:13 And the Smurfs were these little blue people that always ran 32:15 around and they'd be like, "Hey, how are you feeling today?" 32:18 And they'd say, "Oh, I'm feeling very smurfy. " 32:19 And they'd say, "Oh, where are you going?" 32:20 "I'm going down to the smurf. " 32:22 "To do what?" "I'm smurfing. " 32:23 And so the word smurf could be a noun, it could be an adjective. 32:25 You never quite knew what the thing meant. 32:27 It meant nothing, and therefore it meant everything and nothing. 32:31 And so to the word love. 32:32 Love is such a broad, love is such a liquid term that 32:35 what exactly does it mean? 32:37 But for Paul, for Paul, "Husbands, love your wives 32:40 as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself. " 32:43 "He gave Himself," for Paul there is an equivalence here. 32:46 To love is to give yourself. 32:50 Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, turn there in your scriptures 32:52 very quickly in your Bible. 32:53 By the way, a marvelous sermon by Pastor Knott. 32:55 Can you say amen to that? 32:57 So appreciated the fidelity there, so appreciated 33:00 the spirit there. 33:01 Praise God. 33:02 Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, "I have been 33:03 crucified with Christ," you know this. 33:05 "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 33:07 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith 33:09 in the Son of God, who... " 33:12 Look at the last phrase, look at the qualifying phrase. 33:14 "... who loved me and gave Himself. " 33:19 This phrase comes up over and over and over again 33:22 in the writings of Paul. 33:23 "He gave Himself. " 33:24 In fact, you want to look in Galatians chapter 1 verse 4. 33:26 He gave Himself, He gave Himself, 33:28 He gave Himself, He gave Himself. 33:30 He gave Himself. 33:32 For Paul, to love is to give yourself unreservedly 33:37 for somebody else. 33:38 Does that make sense? 33:40 Therefore, love is others centered. 33:42 But we ask our question. 33:43 How can a God who is rigidly singular be centered in others? 33:49 This God could become loving once He had an object upon 33:52 which to bestow His love. 33:54 But the God of scripture is a kind of... 34:00 Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. 34:03 Genesis chapter 1. 34:04 Our first point is the simultaneous plurality and 34:07 unity of God's nature. 34:09 Go with me to Genesis chapter 1. 34:11 And while we're going there, let me just as you a question. 34:13 What is the number one verse in all the Bible that people know, 34:16 like the number one verse? 34:18 John 3:16. 34:20 Now just watch this. Watch this. 34:22 Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world," 34:26 and what's the very next thing, "... that He gave. " 34:28 Love gives. 34:30 He gave Himself, He gave Himself. 34:32 "Love seeks not its own. " 34:33 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man would 34:35 lay down his life for his friends. " 34:36 Love is the principle of putting others first. 34:37 But if there are not others, then there is not love. 34:40 But John says, "God is love. " 34:44 And when we come to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, we find the 34:46 outworking of this triune love. 34:48 Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26, "Then God said, 34:51 'Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness. 34:57 Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 34:59 over the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all 35:01 the earth and over every creeping thing that 35:02 creeps on the earth. ' 35:03 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God 35:05 He created him. " 35:06 Watch this, "Male and female He created them. 35:09 Then God blessed them and said to them, 35:12 'Be fruitful and multiply. '" 35:16 God said, "Let Us," that's the plural pronoun, 35:19 "make man in Our," plural possessive pronoun, "image. " 35:22 "Let them," plural pronoun, "have dominion. " 35:26 Where did all of these plural pronouns come from? 35:28 "Let Us... " "Make Our... " 35:30 "Let them... " 35:32 The reason for the plural pronoun is that there is a 35:34 little thing that happens here in the Hebrew that's not 35:36 perfectly clear in the English. 35:37 In the English, "God" is in the singular. 35:40 "God said... " 35:41 In the Hebrew, the word "God" here is "Elohim" 35:44 and it is a plural, it is a plural picture of God. 35:48 It's literally like "Gods". 35:51 No wonder the pronoun, of course a pronoun always has to 35:53 agree with the antecedent noun. 35:54 And so you have a plural noun, masculine plural, Elohim, 35:59 "God said," Elohim, "let Us. " 36:02 "Us," plural pronoun agrees with the plural antecedent noun. 36:06 "Let Us make man in Our... " What's the word there everyone? 36:09 "Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness. 36:15 Let them have over the fish of the sea. " 36:17 God is presented here in a very opening passage of scripture, 36:20 Genesis chapter 1, as a kind of plurality. 36:24 As a kind of... What everyone? 36:25 Plurality. 36:26 And follow this, see if you can follow this. 36:28 Only a "them" could represent an "Us" and an "Our". 36:33 Only a "them"; a he or a she, singular masculine and 36:38 singular feminine, cannot represent an "Us" and an "Our". 36:41 This is a plural that is represented best 36:44 apparently by a plural. 36:46 Now I have here in my hand a mirror and I'm just going to ask 36:49 Nadia to come out very quickly for a very simple illustration. 36:52 Come on out Nadia. 36:53 She was nervous about this but she's going to do great. 36:55 Ok, so just take a look in that mirror. 36:57 Nadia is holding the mirror and here's 37:00 something very interesting. 37:01 If I stand right here and I look in the mirror, 37:04 what do you think I see? 37:07 What do I see in the mirror? 37:10 Ah, ok several of you said her. 37:11 No, I don't see her in the mirror. 37:12 What I see is her image. 37:14 Now watch this, something very simple here. 37:17 Whatever I see here in the image, while this is not Nadia. 37:21 I think we can all agree this is not Nadia. 37:24 Ok, can you imagine? 37:25 But what I see here is a reflection or an image of Nadia. 37:31 Does that make sense? 37:32 So whatever I see here corresponds here. 37:34 Right? In other words, it would be really weird if I was looking 37:37 in the mirror here and I see what looks like a nice 37:39 pretty young girl and then I look over here and it's 37:41 an average looking man. 37:44 I'd say, "How does that work?" 37:46 Something's wrong here because what I see in the mirror, 37:49 the image, is absolutely tell-tale of what the 37:53 real article is. 37:54 Does that make sense? Thank you so much, Nadia. 37:56 So what God says is, "Let Us make man in Our image. " 37:59 So what is the mirror that we see God in? 38:02 The mirror, beloved, is a man and a woman. 38:06 And the very first thing that God says to a "them" 38:08 is, make another. 38:09 A family. 38:11 God makes a family in His image. 38:16 God makes a... What, everyone? 38:18 God makes a family in His image. 38:21 Why, pray tell? 38:23 Well I'd like to suggest to you today, because God in His 38:25 very nature, God in His very essence, God in the Godness 38:29 that makes Him God, is a family. 38:34 God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 38:38 So when God says, "Let Us make man in Our image," 38:42 people will see this thing and they will know what we are like. 38:46 He doesn't make only a male, neither does He make 38:48 only a female. 38:49 He makes a man, He makes a woman. 38:51 And the very first thing He says to them is, make another. 38:53 Make a family. 38:55 The family is in the image of God. 38:59 It is not just men who are in the image of God. 39:01 Neither is it just the ladies that are in the image of God. 39:05 It's the family unit that is in the image of God 39:08 And why, pray tell? 39:09 Because in the family unit, the heart of the husband goes out 39:13 to the children and the wife. 39:15 In the family unit, the children's heart goes out 39:17 to father and mother. 39:18 In the family unit, the heart of the mother goes out to the 39:20 son's or daughter's and to the man. 39:23 In the family unit, you have a picture of the other 39:26 centeredness that is rooted in the nature of God. 39:31 Now it's very interesting, something very 39:33 interesting happens. 39:34 When we come to the rest of the Bible outside of Genesis, 39:41 in other words, only in Genesis is the word "image" 39:44 used positively. 39:45 Isn't this great for them to have this image for me out here? 39:48 Only in Genesis is the word "image" used positively. 39:51 In the rest of the Bible, "image" is used negatively. 39:54 This particular word is tzelem; tzelem, the Hebrew word. 39:58 "Let Us make man in Our image," tzelem. 40:01 It's positive in Genesis 1, positive in Genesis 5, 40:04 positive in Genesis 9. 40:06 But the rest of the Bible, Number and Ezekiel, 40:08 it's negative. 40:09 "You have your images. " "You have your images. " 40:11 "You have your images. " 40:12 And everyone of us in the room knows God hates idolatry. 40:15 Are we together everyone? 40:17 But the question is, why? 40:19 Why does God hate idolatry so much? 40:21 Well, there are a variety of reasons. 40:23 First of all, it's folly. 40:24 And we can just think very quickly about Dagon, right? 40:27 The fish god of the Philistines. 40:29 And they brought the ark of the covenant into Dagon's room 40:31 and the next day they walked in and Dagon was flat on his nose. 40:35 "Oh," they said, "what happened to Dagon?" 40:37 And so, look at the irony. 40:39 They lift up Dagon and then they bow down to worship him. 40:44 "Oh great Dagon, the one who is unable to lift thyself. 40:48 We give you praise, we give you honor. 40:52 Remain standing. " 40:53 Ok then, the next day, the very next day they come in and 40:57 what happened to Dagon? 41:00 Dagon's flat on his nose again. 41:01 And God's like, "Ok, we missed it on the first time. 41:04 Let's try it again. " 41:05 So they come in, "Oh no, something has 41:06 happened to Dagon. " 41:07 And so they lift up Dagon and they say, 41:10 "Ok, he's upright, he's standing. 41:12 "Oh great Dagon, the one who is not able to lift thyself up. 41:15 We made you out of a piece of wood. " 41:16 In fact, God in the book of Isaiah says be very careful 41:19 when you make an idol out of a piece of wood because you 41:21 go into the trees, you go into the forests, you cut down a 41:24 piece of wood, you cut it in half. 41:26 With half of it you bake food and with the other half 41:28 you make an idol. 41:29 And I always say, be sure that you made an idol out of the 41:32 right half and you cook the right half. 41:35 Right? And so why is God so against images? 41:38 Because it's an insult to God. 41:40 But more, it's an insult to man. 41:42 Let me say something radical here. 41:44 God is not against images. 41:47 We just read it. 41:49 "Let Us make man in Our image. " 41:52 The reason that God is against idolatry is not because 41:55 He's against images. 41:56 Listen very carefully. 41:57 It's because God has already imaged Himself 42:01 in the family unit. 42:03 God has already imaged Himself in the family unit. 42:05 And so He says, "No, No. You've got to be kidding. 42:07 Come on, no way. " 42:10 God has already imaged Himself in the family unit. 42:12 "Let Us make man in Our image. " 42:15 A family made to represent a family. 42:20 Are we together everyone? 42:21 Now there are so many other passages that we could go to. 42:24 In Genesis chapter 3, look very quickly with me there, 42:26 Genesis chapter 3 verse 22. 42:28 "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become 42:32 like one of... '" what does it say? 42:33 "... Us. " 42:35 "The man has become like one of Us. " 42:36 Go to Genesis chapter 11. 42:38 Here we find the building of the tower of Babel. 42:41 Genesis chapter 11 beginning in verse 1. 42:43 "Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 42:45 Now it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, 42:47 that they found a plain in the land of Shinar 42:49 and they dwelt there. 42:50 Then they said to one another... " 42:51 And there's a play on words, a marvelous poetic 42:53 play on words here. 42:54 Watch what Moses does. 42:55 "'Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. ' 42:57 And they had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. 42:59 And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and 43:02 a tower whose top is in the heavens. 43:04 Come, let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered 43:06 abroad over the face of the whole earth. ' 43:08 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower 43:10 which the sons of man had built. 43:11 And the Lord said, 'Indeed the people are one, and they 43:14 all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. 43:16 Now nothing that they propose to do will 43:18 be withheld from them. '" 43:19 Look at what God says, "Come let Us 43:21 go down there and confuse their language. " 43:24 God says, "Come let... " What? 43:26 "Come let Us. " 43:27 See, there's a play, there's a poetic play on words here. 43:29 The people say, "Come let us. " "Come let us. " "Come let us. " 43:32 And then Moses has God saying, "Come let Us go down and 43:36 confuse their language. " 43:37 God is presented in the book of Genesis repeatedly as a plural. 43:40 Well the reason is because "Elohim" is plural. 43:44 But it gets even more amazing. 43:45 Go back to verse 6. 43:46 This is a stunner, it's just a wonderful little serendipitous, 43:50 of course it could be inspired, but it might just be a 43:52 serendipitous little happening here that further 43:54 buttresses our point. 43:55 Look at verse 6. 43:57 "And the Lord said, 'Indeed the people are... '" 44:00 What does your Bible say? 44:01 Very interesting. 44:02 "People," singular or plural? 44:05 Ok, there are many people there. Singular or plural? 44:07 Plural. 44:08 "One," singular or plural? 44:11 Ahhhh. 44:12 Look at this. 44:13 Moses wrote the book of Genesis. 44:15 Moses, as a Hebrew, does not see an inherent contradiction 44:20 in the plurality of the people and the oneness of the people. 44:24 "Look, the people are one. " 44:27 In other words, the plural is singular. 44:30 Now it's very interesting here. 44:31 "The people are one," shows us that in the Hebrew mind 44:35 there is no absolute contradiction between plurality 44:38 and unity as long as we define our terms. 44:42 Now here's a very interesting thing. 44:43 When it says, "the people are one," 44:44 it's the Hebrew word "echadh". 44:47 Echadh, "the people are one. " 44:49 The people are echadh. 44:51 Very interesting. 44:52 In Genesis chapter 2, it says that "a man will leave his 44:54 father and mother and cling to his wife 44:57 and they two," twain, "shall be," echadh, "one. " 45:03 So already in Genesis we've been introduced to this idea 45:05 that a "two" can be a "one" as long as we define our terms. 45:09 Are we together everyone? 45:11 Now many well meaning non-Trinitarians or Unitarians 45:15 will go to Deuteronomy chapter 6. 45:16 Go there with me very quickly, Deuteronomy chapter 6. 45:19 In Deuteronomy chapter 6, if you were to ask a Jew, 45:22 "What is the most holy, the number one passage in scripture? 45:29 What is the passage that sort of sums up Jewishness, 45:32 that sums up Old Testament?" 45:34 And it would be Deuteronomy chapter 6, almost certainly, 45:37 and we would go to... 45:41 Deuteronomy, let's see here. 45:42 Deuteronomy chapter 6 and it would be verse 4. 45:47 Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4. 45:48 The Hebrews call this text the Shema, the Name. 45:51 Look at what it says. 45:52 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is... " What? 45:57 Echadh. 45:59 "The Lord is one. " 46:00 And they'll say, "See, you're silly trinity. 46:02 It's a holdover from Catholicism, they got it 46:04 from the pagans. 46:05 The Bible says, 'God it one. ' 46:06 And if you're going to believe what scripture says, 46:07 you're going to believe that God is one. 46:08 He doesn't need a Son. 46:10 He had a Son, it was the literal Son of God. 46:11 The Spirit's just the force emanating between. 46:13 You are denying the most sacred scripture in the Old Testament 46:15 that God is one. " 46:17 But wait a minute. 46:18 God; Elohim. The word is Elohim. 46:21 It's plural, it's the same plural that we just translated 46:22 "Us" as the pronoun in Genesis chapter 1. 46:27 God is one. 46:29 But wait a minute, "the people were one," echadh. 46:32 "And the two flesh shall be one," echadh. 46:34 In the Jewish mind, there is not absolute inherent 46:37 contradiction between a plurality and a singularity 46:40 as long as we define our terms within the context 46:43 of which we are speaking. 46:44 Are we together everyone? 46:47 And so the first point that we want to make is simple, 46:49 and I think very profound. 46:50 A family represents a family. 46:54 God makes a family unit, a loving family unit. 46:57 Love is the principle of putting others first. 46:59 How can you have love in a vacuum? You can't. 47:00 The heart of the Father going out to the Son and the Spirit. 47:03 The heart of the Spirit going out to the Son and the Father. 47:05 And the heart of the Son going out to the Father 47:07 and the Spirit. 47:08 You have this oneness, you have this family. 47:10 No wonder then, when we come to Genesis chapter 1 47:13 we find God saying, "Let Us make man in Our image. " 47:19 "Let them... " 47:22 Only a "them" can adequately represent an "Us" and an "Our". 47:25 And so we find in scripture this affirmation of the simultaneous 47:29 plurality and unity of the nature of God. 47:31 Are we together everyone? 47:32 Ok, let me go to our second point which is 47:34 the absolute deity and eternality of Jesus. 47:38 Now this is a point that doesn't require a lot of affirmation 47:41 for most of us because most of us are persuaded, as scripture 47:44 plainly communicates, that Jesus is fully God 47:48 in the most emphatic sense. 47:50 Let's just pick up this "one + one = one" motif. 47:53 In John chapter 10 verse 30, you might want to turn there. 47:56 In John chapter 10 verse 30, Jesus says, 47:59 "I and My Father are... " Does anyone know? 48:03 ...one. " 48:04 Now just do the math here. 48:07 "I," that's one, that's an individual, 48:09 "and My Father are one. " 48:14 One plus one is one. 48:17 This is very much what we find in the Old Testament. 48:19 "The people are one. " "The two are one. " 48:23 Elohim, plural, is one. 48:25 "I," one, "and My Father," two, "are one. " 48:30 "I and My Father are one. " 48:32 There is a oneness. 48:33 Why? Because they're members of the same family. 48:35 Same goals, same desires, same aspirations, same character, 48:38 same eternality. 48:41 Let's go to John chapter 1. 48:42 That's a passage well known to most of us. 48:44 "In the beginning was the Word. " 48:46 There's one figure, there's one agent. 48:48 "And the Word was with God. " 48:50 Right? If I'm with my wife, that's another agent. 48:53 So, "In the Beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, 48:55 and the Word was God. " 48:57 One plus one equals one. 49:00 Now some people say, "Oh yeah, yeah. 49:02 But that's not the best translation, 49:03 that's not the best translation. " 49:04 Well let me tell you something. 49:05 I'll let you in on a little secret. 49:06 I don't know any Hebrew and I don't know any Greek. 49:09 Ok, or just enough to get me into big trouble is what I know. 49:11 I say what James Dobson says, "I know a little Hebrew, 49:15 and he owns a meat market on 67th and Union. 49:17 And I know a little Greek, and he owns a Laundromat 49:20 over on 37th street. " 49:21 So, I don't know Hebrew or Greek. 49:23 But what I do have is access to lots of different 49:25 Bible translations. 49:26 And people that translate these things do know Greek. 49:29 And so, according to the KJV, NKJV, NIV, TNIV, Weymouth, 49:33 Phillips, ESV, NASB, ASV, HCSB, Amplified, NLT, CEV, 49:37 NCV, Wile T, Darby, and every other translation that I 49:42 was able to locate, this is the best way to 49:44 translate this passage. 49:45 Are you with me? 49:46 "In the beginning was the Word," one. 49:49 "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. " 49:55 We find this over and over again in the gospel of John, 49:57 in the writings of Paul, and in other places, 49:59 that Christ in the most emphatic sense is declared to be God. 50:04 Jesus had said to the skeptical Jews, 50:06 "Before Abraham was, I AM." 50:09 He, here, was making the very claim from the Ego Ami, 50:12 from the Old Testament where Moses had stood at the 50:14 burning bush and said, "Who shall I say sent me?" 50:16 "I AM." 50:17 The Jews certainly understood what He said because 50:20 they took up stones to kill Him. 50:22 In Hebrews chapter 1, the apostle Paul says that 50:25 Christ was the one through whom God created the earth. 50:28 In Colossians chapter 2, he says that in Christ dwells 50:31 all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 50:34 In Philippians chapter 2, when he's describing the mind of 50:37 Christ and the necessity of having the mind in the church 50:39 he said, "Let this mind be in you which was also in 50:41 Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God... " 50:43 Then it's an awkward translation here in the King James and 50:45 New King James because it's an awkward phrase. 50:47 "... did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. " 50:51 What a weird thing to say. 50:53 What the Greek means is that, who being in the very form 50:55 of God did not need to grasp or cling to Godness. 51:01 Now I can cling to my maleness because I'm a male. 51:06 I can cling to my David Asscherickness 51:08 because I'm a David Asscherick. 51:10 Christ could only cling to equality with God if He was God. 51:16 He can only relinquish Godness if He possesses Godness. 51:21 And so the uniform testimony of the New Testament 51:26 is this idea that Jesus is God in the most emphatic sense. 51:31 Passages could be multiplied par excellence. 51:34 Let me just give you one. 51:36 In Revelation chapter 1 verse 11, 51:37 Jesus refers to Himself as the First and the Last. 51:40 Revelation chapter 1 beginning in 11, moving down to verse 18. 51:43 He's speaking to John, He says, "I am He that was 51:45 dead and am alive. " 51:46 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the First and the Last. " 51:50 Here's something very interesting. 51:52 That phrase, "I am the First and the Last," 51:53 comes straight out of the gospel prophet Isaiah. 51:55 Let me just read you a couple of passages here. 51:57 Isaiah 41 verse 4, "Who has performed and done this, 52:01 calling this generation from the beginning? 52:03 'I, the Lord, am the first; and with the last I am He. '" 52:06 Isaiah 44 verse 6, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, 52:09 and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts; 52:10 'I am the First and I am the Last; 52:12 Besides Me there is no God. '" 52:15 Isaiah 48 verses 12 and 13, "Listen to Me, O Jacob, 52:17 and Israel, whom I called; I am the He, I am the First. 52:20 I am also the Last. 52:21 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, 52:23 and My right hand spread out the heavens. 52:25 When I call to them, they stand forth together. " 52:28 This phrase here, "First and the Last," is extracted 52:31 straight from the Old Testament. 52:33 When Jesus says, "I'm the First and the Last," that phrase 52:36 in the gospel prophet Isaiah applies to Jehovah. 52:39 It applies to God. 52:41 And so if Jesus is saying, "I'm the First and the Last," 52:43 Jesus is saying, "I am He. " 52:46 "I and My Father are One. " 52:48 I mean, it's inescapable. 52:51 This is why orthodox Christianity has almost 52:54 uniformly affirmed the absolute divinity and 52:58 eternality of Jesus. 53:00 Jesus was the Son of God, but not in a created sense. 53:03 He was the Son of God in a relational sense. 53:07 Are we together everyone? 53:08 He's not the Son of God in the same exact way that 53:11 Landon is my son because I pre-existed Landon, 53:14 I pre-existed Jabel. 53:15 No, no, no, no. 53:16 He is the Son of God in the relational sense. 53:18 And I wish I had more time to go into that. 53:21 And finally, we go to our third point. 53:23 We're not going to have time to go to point number four 53:25 which was my little word of advice to my good 53:27 Seventh-day Adventist friends. 53:28 But point number three is very simple, 53:29 and that is the personhood of the Holy Spirit. 53:33 Now there are many passages that we could use 53:35 to establish this. 53:36 We have Acts chapter 5 where Peter has said to 53:39 Ananias and Sapphira, "You have not lied to men, 53:41 but you have lied to God. " 53:43 And then he says, "You lied to the Holy Spirit. " 53:45 You lied to the Holy Spirit, and thus you lied to God. 53:47 The apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 53:49 and verse 30, "Do not grieve the Spirit. " 53:53 In Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul says, 53:54 "The Spirit is sent forth into our hearts. " 53:58 "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit 54:01 that we are the sons and daughters of God. " 54:02 Listen to that language. 54:03 "The Spirit Himself... " 54:05 In verse 26, he say when we don't know how to pray, 54:07 "the Spirit Himself prays for us with the groaning's that 54:11 cannot be uttered. " 54:12 And Jesus in the clearest language said, "I will send you, 54:17 I will send you," John chapter 14 verse 6, 54:20 "another comforter. " 54:22 "I will send you... " the word is "allos". 54:24 "I will send you another comforter. " 54:26 It's the very same word that the gospels use repeatedly 54:28 when they say, "Jesus spoke another parable to them. " 54:31 Another parable. 54:32 He spoke a different parable. 54:34 So the word "allos" is different, it's another. 54:37 Jesus says, "I will send you another parakletos. " 54:40 Another comforter, friend, advocate, helper; 54:42 many different translations. 54:43 "I will send you another one. " 54:46 Now if you're sitting in a cafeteria with me 54:48 and I'm sitting down, and you just come up and my wife 54:51 is there and you hear me say to my wife, "Sweetheart, 54:52 may I have another sandwich?" 54:56 What do you know by definition? 54:57 Even if you just walked up, if I ask for another sandwich 54:59 what do you know? 55:01 I already had a sandwich. 55:02 So Jesus says, "Hey, don't be disturbed. 55:05 Don't be too discouraged. 55:06 Because when I'm in Galilee, I'm stuck in Galilee. 55:08 When I'm in Jerusalem, I'm stuck in Jerusalem. 55:10 And when I'm in Judea, I'm stuck in Judea. 55:12 In fact, it's expedient for you that I go away. 55:15 Don't be discouraged, I will send you another comforter, 55:19 a different comforter. " 55:20 The word "parakletos," literally; to walk with, 55:23 one who walks with you, an advocate, 55:25 one who stands beside you. 55:26 Well that raises the question, if a comforter or an advocate 55:28 or a parakletos is one who walks with, who was the first one 55:33 that had been walking with the disciples for 55:34 three and a half years? 55:35 Who was that? 55:36 That was Jesus. 55:37 So if Jesus says, "I'm going away but I'll send you 55:38 another comforter," beloved, follow this. 55:40 It's very simple. 55:41 Only a person could take the place of a person. 55:46 An energy force, an emanation, cannot take the place 55:49 of a person. 55:51 If Jesus is leaving, that is a space left vacant by a person. 55:55 The only object, the only agent that can fill the space left 55:58 vacant by a person is a person. 56:02 No wonder Jesus says, "When you go out in the great commission," 56:04 Matthew chapter 28, "baptize them in the name of 56:07 the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. " 56:11 So many more evidences could be marshaled. 56:13 One of my favorites is when you go to the book of Revelation, 56:15 you find this counterfeit triune nature of God. 56:17 Right in the book of Revelation. 56:18 You find the dragon masquerading as the Father, 56:21 you find the false prophet masquerading as the Holy Spirit, 56:24 and you find the beast masquerading as the Son. 56:26 Well beloved, think it through. 56:27 If Satan has a counterfeit; dragon, beast, false prophet, 56:30 that tells you what the original is. 56:32 Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 56:36 But the great truth is not about, "Oh, I know what the 56:38 text says and I believe that God is a unity of 56:41 three co-eternal persons. " 56:42 Beloved, the great truth is where we began. 56:45 It's where we began with John's affirmation and 56:48 robust declaration that God is love. 56:53 Beloved, that's where this whole truth lies. 56:57 God is not merely loving in His actions. 57:00 The uniform commitment and declaration of scripture 57:04 is that God in His very nature, God in His very essence, 57:07 is love; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. |
Revised 2014-12-17