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Sermon #52 — 1st John Series

 

            Title:               Questions About The Trinity

 

      Text:                                  1 John 5:7

            Subject:                     The Trinity

      Date:                                Tuesday Evening — January 7, 2014

      Readings:           Bobbie Estes and Cody Henson

      Introduction:

 

Let’s go back to 1st John 5:7. I brought you a message from this text back in September; but I’ve been going back to it, studying it more and more, with constantly increasing amazement for the past five months. So let’s go back to this remarkable text of Scripture again. — 1st John 5:7.

 

(1 John 5:7) “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

 

For there are three that bear record in heaven.” They bear record that Jesus us the Christ.

  • The Father” by accepting His sacrifice.
  • The Word” by His own exaltation.
  • And the Holy Ghost” by regenerating and effectually calling the redeemed, giving us faith in Christ.
  • And these three are one.” These three Persons are the one true and living God.

 

Proposition: We worship one God in the Trinity, or Tri-Unity of His sacred Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), and adore each as the God of all grace by whom we are saved.

 

The title of my message is Questions About the Trinity. Actually, the word “trinity” does not occur in the Scriptures. It is not found in the Book of God, anywhere. Nowhere in the Bible is God called in the “three-in-one,” nor is he called “one-in-three.” But that does not mean that the Bible does not teach and emphasize the doctrine of the Holy trinity.

 

You will search the Scriptures in vain to find the word “substitute” too. It doesn’t occur in the Word of God, not even once. The word substitution is not in this Book. But the doctrine of substitution is found everywhere in this Book.

 

Even so the Word of God clearly teaches, the doctrine of the Trinity, though the word “trinity” is not in the Bible, though the word “three-in-one” is not in the Bible, though the word “one-in-three” is not in the Bible.

 

The Word of God clearly teaches that the living God is one God. — “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord!And the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus of Nazareth is truly God. He is truly God and yet, he is a distinct person from the Father. He is truly God and yet he is a distinct person from the heavenly Father.

 

And the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit is truly God. The Holy Spirit is truly God. He is called the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit; and he is truly God. The Holy Ghost is not an influence, or an in it. The Holy Spirit is a person. One does not have to have a body to be a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. — God is Spirit; and God is three divine persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

The Bible clearly teaches that there is a trinity of persons in the godhead. Now here in our text, 1st John 5:7, we read…

 

“There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

 

My message tonight will be a little different than usual. I encourage you to get out a piece of paper and a pen, or a pencil, and take some notes. We are going to look at a lot of Scripture,; and I will be reading many others you will want to remember and refer to in the future. Now, I plan tonight, to bring a message with ten questions about the trinity. That is the title of the message: Questions about the Trinity. I am going to ask ten questions and answer them from the Word of God. My study in preparing this message has been helpful to me; and I think the message will be helpful to you, if God the Holy Spirit is pleased to bless it to your souls, for Christ’s sake. I promise, I’ll be done in 45 minutes, or less; but I want us to look at these ten questions about the Trinity together. May God the Holy Spirit, whose Word we have before us, be our Teacher.

 

1.    Plurality

 

We will start in Genesis 1:26. — Here is the first question. Number one: Does the Bible teach that God is one person? Does the Bible teach—now watch this carefully, be careful. I am not trying to be tricky. — Does the Bible teach that God is one person?

 

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 

No, it does not. It teaches he is one God, but not one person. Let me show you that here in Genesis 1:26. The Bible does not teach that God is one person. Listen to the Scripture. “And God said, ‘Let us make man...” That is plural, isn’t it? “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

 

To whom was the Lord God speaking here? He certainly wasn’t speaking to the angels or the seraphim or cherubim. He said, “Let us (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) Let us make man.

 

Here’s another text: — Isaiah 6:8.

 

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

 

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’” — Here is the Lord God speaking to himself, or God the Father speaking to the Son and the Spirit, as in Genesis 1:26. — “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’” — Then, as our covenant Surety, God the Son, our all-glorious Christ, stepped forward and said, “I’ll go. Send me!” — “Then said I, ‘Here am I. Send me.’”

 

Look at one more text in this regard, showing that there are three persons in the godhead. — John 14:16-17

 

John 14:16-17 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

 

Here in John 14:16-17, our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples before he ascended back to the Father. He said in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.”

 

The Bible teaches that there is one God, three persons.

 

2.    Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

 

All right. Question number two. Does the Bible teach that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost? Does the Bible teach that there is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Yes, most definitely it does, most definitely without question.

 

Turn to Matthew 3:13-17.

 

Matthew 3:13-17 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. (14) But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? (15) And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. (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: (17) And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 

Here is the Father speaking from heaven, the Son standing in the Jordan River, and Spirit descending upon the Son. Remember the Lord said to John, “Upon whom you see the Holy Spirit…” Or he said to John, “Upon whom ye see the Holy Spirit descending, that is the Son of God, the Lamb of God.”

 

Look at Matthew 28:19. — Our Lord is speaking to his disciples. — “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” That is what the Master said.

 

John 15:26 — “But when the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he will testify of me.”

 

There you’ve got the blessed trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

All right, the third question. Do you have those two? The first one: Does the Bible teach that God is one person? It does not. One God, but three persons. Does the Bible teach there is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit? It certainly does.

 

3.    One God

Here is the third question. Is the word “one” — O-N-E — used in the Bible in reference to God? Is the word “one”  in reference to God? Does the Bible specifically tell us that God is one? Is the word “one” used in the Bible in reference to God? Many times, many times. These are the scriptures by which many stumble over the Stumbling Stone, Christ Jesus, and miss the doctrine of God. They say, “How can you say that God is one, and yet believe in the Trinity?” The answer is very clear. — The Book of God says that God is one; and the Book of God says that there are three persons in the godhead.

 

The word “one” is used many times in Holy Scripture referring to our God. In Zechariah 14:9, listen…

 

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

 

Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

 

The word “one” in these Scriptures and others in reference to God denotes unity and not unit, but unity. It denotes unity. That is important. It denotes unity. The Lord our God is one God in heart, in purpose, in unity, in goal, in covenant. He is one. And I will show you some more Scripture.

 

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

 

Voice:             “I and my Father are one.”

 

The Savior didn’t say, “I am my Father am one.” He didn’t say, “I and my Father is one.” He said, “are,” two persons are one, are one. “I and my Father are one.” Two persons are one. That is what Christ said, “I and my Father are one.”

 

Let me show you two other Scriptures in this connection, two other Scriptures that show us there is a plurality of persons in the one God. Turn to 1st Corinthians 3:8.

 

1 Corinthians 3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

 

Paul is talking about preachers here. Somebody said, “We are of Paul.” One says, “I am of Apollos.” Another says, “I am of Cephas.” And Paul said, “He that planteth and he that watereth are one.” Did he mean that he is Apollos and Apollos is Paul? No. There is Paul. There is Apollos. And there is Cephas. But they are one. They are one in unity. They are one in purpose. They are one in goal.

 

That is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ meant, when he said, “I and my Father are one,” not one person, but one God. — Look at John 17:21.

 

Listen to this Scripture. In John 17:21 our Lord Jesus is talking about us. He is talking about believers. He says this, talking about all that come to him, all that were given him of the Father. He said, John 17:21, “That they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”

 

I don’t know how to explain this, but I know it is so; and you do too. — In glory we are going to be like our Lord, conformed to the image of our Lord. We are going to be so truly and completely one with him in unity, in Spirit, in heart, in love, in all things that we cannot be separated. We are going to be one as the Father and the Son are one. How can that be? There are so many of us, as the stars of the heavens and the sands of the seashore; yet we are going to be one.

 

And that is the trinity. The Bible does teach this: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons. And yet they are one, one in unity, one in heart, one in purpose, one in objectives, one in goal. They are one. One in a covenant.

 

All right. The fourth question. I hear people say, “Well, I just can’t accept what I can’t understand.” Then you will just have to throw all the Scripture away.

 

4.    Beyond Comprehension

 

The fourth question is this: Can any man understand the trinity? Well, the answer is no. I don’t need a God I can understand. I want and need a God I can worship, a God I can trust.

 

And turn to Psalm 89:6. In Psalm 89, verse six, listen to this Scripture. And we must be careful trying to compare God with humanity. God said, “You thought I was altogether such as one as you are.” Man tries to bring God down to his own level. We try to bring God down to the level of our thinking and understanding. But that won’t do!

 

Look at Psalm 89:6. — “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who of all the heavenly creatures can be compared unto the Lord? How are you going to compare him to anything or anyone? — “And who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?” There is no one in heaven or earth to whom we can compare the Lord.

 

Now, look at Job 11:7.

 

Job 11:7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

 

Job 11:8-9 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? (9) The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

 

Turn to Isaiah 46:4. I can’t explain the trinity. I can preach the trinity, but I can’t explain it. We receive the belief in the trinity by faith, but we cannot explain it. Is there any one or thing to which you can compare God?

 

Isaiah 46:4-5 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. (5) To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?

 

5.    Same Essence

 

All right. Here is the fifth question. Does the Bible teach that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct persons who are one God and possess the same essence? Does the Bible really teach that?

 

“Brother Don, can you turn in the Bible and find for me Scripture which teaches that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons and yet they are one God and they possess the same essence?”

 

I believe that I can. And we will have to turn to several verses. If you want to, just jot these down and don’t turn and just listen while I read them. The first one is John 3:35. One person of the godhead is said to love the other. Here are three distinct persons of the same essence and one God. In John 3:35 he says, “The Father loves the Son.” That is a distinct person. “The Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hands.”

 

And then in Matthew 11:27 we are told that one person in the trinity knows the other person. In Matthew 11:27 listen to this, one person knows the other. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father and no man knows the Son, but the Father neither knows any man, knoweth any man the Father save the Son.” The Son knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. And the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

 

Watch this — Hebrews 1:8. One person addresses the other.

 

Hebrews 1:8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

 

One person sends another. Look at John 14:26.

 

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

 

To whom shall ye liken God? — The reason men say that can’t be is that we have nothing to compare him with. Something we have never seen or heard or imagined or have anything to compare it with, we throw up our hands and say, “It can’t be.” That is the only God I want is one that humanly can’t be, naturally can’t be, supernaturally God.

 

John 14:26 — “But the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send.” Here is one person in the godhead sending another.

 

What did Christ say? “As my Father sent me, so send I you, so send I you.”

 

One person glorifies another in the Trinity. You know that verse in John 17:4, when Christ said, “Father, I have glorified thee on the earth. Glorify me with the glory which I had with thee.” And then when he said the Holy Spirit is going to come and he will glorify me. And yet they are one.

 

I go back over that four things.

  • One person loves another.
  • One person knows another.
  • One person addresses another.
  • One person sends another.

That is God. That is what Scripture teaches, three distinct persons. And yet they are one. John 14. You are already there. Look at verses eight and 10. — “Philip said unto him, ‘Show us the Father and it will suffice us.’ And Jesus said, ‘Have I been so long time with you and yet you hast not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen my Father. And how sayest thou, then, “Show us the Father?” Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?’”

 

I will give you another verse on there. In Philippians 2:5, it says here in Philippians 2:5, talking about our Redeemer, it says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be what? — Equal...equal with God.”

 

The believer is in Christ, but the believer is not Christ and Christ is not the believer. Christ is in the believer and the believer is in Christ, but the believer is not Christ and Christ is not the believer, yet they are one. The Father regards them as one. The Father loves them as one. The Father accepts them as one. The Father accepts me in Christ and without any loss of identity. When I believe the Son, I believe the Father and when I believe the Father I believe the Son. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot have a third of a God. That is absolutely true.

 

6.    Eternal Sonship

 

All right. Here is the sixth question. Did God have a Son before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem? That is a good question. Did God have a Son before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem? Why, certainly, certainly.

 

Turn to Proverbs 30:4. — “Who hath ascended up to heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fist? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is his Son’s name if you can tell?” What is he called? “The everlasting Father.” You can’t be an everlasting Father unless you have got an everlasting Son.

 

I have been a father over 40 years. I wasn’t a father before that. I wasn’t a father until my daughter was born. But the Father is the eternal Father because he is the Father of the eternal Son. And I cannot explain that relationship. I don’t even make an effort to explain it. I just know that it is true.

 

1st John 2:22 “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is an antichrist and he denies the Father and the Son.”

 

I will show you another Scripture in 2 John 9. In 2 John, verse nine. “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ.” The doctrine of Christ is more than just teaching that there was a man on the earth who called himself Jesus Christ who died on the cross. The doctrine of Christ is talking about the doctrine of Christ as the eternal God.

 

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

 

It comes down to all the types that picture Christ and his saving work. It comes to his incarnation. It comes to his mediatorial work, his intercession, his eternal glory. He hath made this same Jesus Lord and Christ and highly exalted him that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

 

The doctrine of Christ is a lot more than just believing he died on the cross and buried and rose again. It has to do with who he is yesterday, today and forever. And what he did and why he did it and where he is. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he has both Father and the Son. He has both the Father and the Son.

 

Christ never did say, “I am the Father.” Do you recall him ever saying, “I am the Father?” He said, “I and the Father are one.” But he never said, “I am the Father.” He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” but he never said, “I am the Father.” And the Bible never calls the Father Jesus. The Father is never called Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is never called Jesus. And Jesus is not his own Father.

 

Look at Luke 1:35. Now this is very distinct here. This is the angel talking to Mary. Christ is not his own Father. He is the only begotten Son of God. And it says in Luke one, verse 34, listen to this. “Then said Mary unto the angel...” The angel said she was going to have a son. She said, “How can this be? I know not a man.”

 

And the angel said unto her, “The Holy Ghost will come upon me and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing...”

 

The angel was very selective in that word because he didn’t say the holy boy or a baby or a child or a man or a person. He said, “Holy thing.” There is nothing with which to describe it. “The holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

 

7.    Divine Attributes

 

All right. Here is the seventh question. And I wish that I could stress this so strongly here because our relationship with God has to do with our thoughts of Christ.

 

Our Lord asked the people he was preaching to, “What think ye of Christ?”

 

And I can bring you to sign creeds and catechisms and statements of faith, but what you think of Christ is another issue, another question. What you honestly, personally think of Christ? And that is the basis on which God will deal with you, what you think of Christ. The idea you entertain of Christ. You see, your attitude towards your works, towards your self righteousness, towards yourself, towards God, towards eternity, toward everything depends on what you think of Christ. And I am saying that as Thomas said, “He is my Lord and my God.” I don’t even hesitate there, my Lord and my God. I bow before him and worship him.

 

Here is the seventh question. Does Jesus Christ possess all the attributes of deity? All of them I am talking about. He is not a subordinate deity, God. Let all the angels of God worship him God says.

 

I will give you several Scriptures. John one, one and two. You know, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:14, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” Acts 20, verse 28. “Feed the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood, the Church of God.” Hebrews 1:8, “Thy throne, oh God, is forever.” 1 Timothy 3:16, “Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in human flesh.”

 

Here are the attributes of deity, basically five or six. I will give you five. What we call attributes or characteristics or character, attributes. The attributes of God are the character that God possesses, characteristics. One attribute of God that no one can possess but God is eternality. “In the beginning God...” God is eternal. Nothing else is eternal, no one, nothing else.

 

Is Jesus Christ eternal? Well, John eight, verse 58 says he is. John 8:58. — “Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you before Abraham was...” And he uses that classic words, “I am.” He never said, “I was.” “I am, eternally.” Eternality, “I am. I am.”

 

Revelation 1:8. And that is the word that God used to identify himself when Moses asked him, “I go down there into Egypt and they say, ‘Who sent me?’”

 

He said, “You tell them, ‘I am.’”

 

That’s who Christ said he is.

 

Now, Revelation 1:8 is tremendous. Christ is speaking here. “I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is, which was, which is to come, the almighty, the almighty.” That is my theology. I won’t have any trouble praising him as such in glory because that is the way I feel now.

 

The second characteristic or attribute that only can be said of God is immutability. That is a big word for he never changes. God never changes. Everything else does. Change and decay in all around I see. Oh thou that changest not. And that is in Malachi where he said, “I am the Lord. I change not.”

 

You say, “What does that got to do with Christ?”

 

Hebrews 13:8. “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and forever, yesterday, today and forever.” Eternally.

 

Here is the third attribute that only belongs to God: omnipresence, omnipresence. That is God is everywhere. He is everywhere at the same time. Where does it say Jesus Christ was everywhere? Try John 3:13, John three, verse 13. Let’s see what that says. And Christ is speaking here. He says, “No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is where? In heaven.” Scripture says he was in the bosom of the Father when he was right here on this earth. That’s what it says.

 

He said to one of the disciples, “Before Philip called thee I saw thee under the fig tree. I was right there with you.”

 

He said to his Church, “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the earth.”

 

He said, “Where two or three are met in my name, I will be in their midst.” How can that be? Omnipresent. Omnipresent.

 

All right. Another is omniscience. He knows everything. You are right there at John three. Look right up above there. It says in John 2:23, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover at the feast day. Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all. That word “men” is in italics. He knew all.

 

How many times have you read the Scripture, “Jesus knowing their thoughts?” When Peter came to him and said, “Those fellows want to know if we pay tribute to the temple.” Christ said, “There is a fish out there in the sea with a coin in its mouth. Go catch it.” He knows everything. Our Lord knows everything.

 

Here is the fifth attribute only God possesses, omnipotence, almighty. Is that Christ? In Matthew 28:18 he said, “All authority, power, is given unto me in heaven and earth, all power.”

 

You see, no one possesses those attributes, Charlie, except God. Eternality, unchangeableness, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. Only God. And every one of them Christ Jesus the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth possesseth. He is God.

 

8.    Holy Ghost

 

Eighth question. Is the Holy Ghost a person? Is he a person? Yes, he is. He is called God in Acts five, three and four. Turn over there. Well, all the way through the Scriptures he is called the Holy Spirit of God or the Spirit of God. But here in Acts chapter five, verse three. Peter said, “Ananias,” Acts 5:3, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, to like, to deceive the Holy Ghost? Keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained was it not your own? When it was sold was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied unto men, but unto God. In the same sentence he said, “You lied to the Holy Ghost. You have lied to God.” The Holy Ghost is God.

 

You say, “But you call the Holy Spirit a person.”

 

And I said a while ago you don’t have to have a body to be a person. When the rich man was in hell he was a person, but he left his body in the grave. One day I will leave my body in the grave and I won’t cease to be a person. But God is a Spirit.

 

And I will give you some of the personal properties of the Holy Spirit. Number one, the Holy Spirit knows, the Holy Spirit knows. He is a person in that he knows.

 

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “No man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him. Even so no man knoweth the things of God except the Spirit of God.”

 

He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11. “The Holy Spirit giveth t whom he wills, severally, as he wills.” The Holy Spirit has a will. A person has a will.

 

Fourthly, the Holy Spirit testifies. John 16:13. “He will testify of me.” A person testifies.

 

And, fifthly, the Holy Spirit the Scripture says is vexed. He is made angry. “You have vexed the Holy Spirit of God. “ Isaiah 63, verse 10. You have made angry the Holy Spirit of God.

 

Now, turn to Romans 8:6, Romans 8:26. Under that same question, now, number eight, is the Holy Spirit a person? In Romans chapter eight verse 26. Romans eight, verse 26. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit,” and that ought to be himself, I believe, “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

 

Now, he is a person because he intercedes. He prays. That he is a person distinct from the Father, I find in this verse, because to whom does he pray? See what I am talking about? The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, to whom? The Father. He is a person distinct. He is God.

 

9.    Self-awareness

 

All right. Here is the ninth question. These next two are very brief. The ninth question is this. Do the blessed persons of the trinity, do they possess self awareness? Now, we certainly do. I have a self awareness. You do, too. I have a self awareness. I have an awareness of my relationship with you and yours with me. I have an awareness of my relationship with God. I have self awareness. That is what I am talking about A person has self awareness. We find that proven in these Scriptures and I didn’t jot down the Scriptures. I just wrote them out.

 

The Father said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The Father has an awareness of himself and his Son. “And this is my Son and I am pleased with him.”

 

The Lord Jesus Christ has a self awareness. In John 17 he prayed, “And now, Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

 

And I will tell you a self awareness. When he screamed from that cross, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Is that not self awareness?

 

And then the Holy Ghost, our Lord Jesus said of him, “He will not speak of himself.” He has an awareness of his duty. He has an awareness of his task. It is to glorify Christ. I wish we preachers had as much awareness of our task in our persons as the Holy Spirit does. For he said he will not speak of himself. He will not dare suffer himself to be glorified. He will take the things of mine and show them to you.

 

10. No Body

 

And then my last point, I have dealt with it all the way through because I think it is important for us to understand because we are so earth bound and so fleshly minded, the 10th question, Is it necessary to have a body to be considered a person? And the answer is no. But Hebrews 10:5 says this. Now, this is interesting here and something some of you can work on later. Hebrews chapter 10, verse five, the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 10:5. “Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, ‘Sacrifice and offerings I wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me, a body thou hast prepared me.’” Prepared a body for him.

 

So you don’t have to have a body to be a him, to be a person. God is a spirit. They that worship him worship him in spirit and truth.

 

2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

 

 

Amen.

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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