The Mystery of the Trinity, Pt. 4

The flu and the colds if you're here today or some of you maybe getting over it and so let's pray for those who couldn't make it today. I hear Dave and Katie just came down with it last night and everybody else has had it and so I guess we shared it with them.

That's the Christian thing to do but pray for them because it's no fun and I'm sure they wish they could be here but not today. They're going to go home and rest. All right we have a guest with us today.

Doris Music is with us back here and so glad to have you with us today and always good to have our home folks with us and had a great Sunday school lesson at 10. Ben Mitchell taught and we had some good discussions about bearing fruit what that means.

Fascinating. You can make it at the 10 o 'clock hour come because you're missing out by not being there if you're not there. So try to be there if you can. It's fantastic but you are here and that's the main thing.

So let's have a word of prayer. We'll get started. Lord we thank you so much for the services already. We ask you Lord to now bless the teaching and preaching of your word in Jesus name. Amen. This sound is a little off today but you know the weather affects it.

Sounds okay. Yeah I don't hear any bass you know for whatever reason. Usually I have lots of bass but you can't fix it. We'll do it later and I think it's the weather. I think if you just get the volume a little higher it'll bring the bass out anyway.

I don't. Yeah that's probably. There I can hear it now. Is that too loud though to y 'all? Finally I can hear it. Okay that's perfect Matt. You did it. Good job. Well let me get you to turn to Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 and this verse has well we had you know a couple of verses in there but this verse in particular has had us studying now for several Sundays and let me read it to you and we'll we will discuss a little bit more about why we're taking so much time on it.

It may be the most important doctrine of the entire bible and that's the doctrine of the trinity and you know there's a lot of discussion about this. There's a lot of disagreement about it and really I think most of the disagreement is philosophical because when you look at what the bible says it's quite plain.

The bible makes it quite plain. The philosophy makes it somewhat difficult but so let's read this verse Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and into all riches of the full assurance and of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ.

Now this word acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of father and of Christ there you see the triune nature of God. You see God and the father and Christ in this case the word God must be a reference to the holy spirit but we have all three persons mentioned and it says that Paul is praying for his new converts that they might acknowledge the triune nature of God is basically what that's saying.

Why is it important? Well if you keep reading all the way down to verse four you see because if you don't acknowledge it and understand it false teachers will beguile you and pull you out into their cult group.

So it's very important to understand this particular doctrine. This doctrine what does the word doctrine mean by the way? It just means teaching major teaching of the bible. It's so important because if we don't understand this is God how God exists then we cannot answer there's a lot of questions in the bible we're not able to answer if we don't understand this or if we put it in the positive if we do understand it there are a lot of things we can understand that other people can't grasp other people grapple with they can't figure it out it's because they don't understand this first so this is so important now this word acknowledgement often is just translated in english into the word knowledge but there are several different greek words that can be translated into the one english word knowledge it's kind of like love english has one word greek has three three kinds of love right and it's very important to know that there are those three especially if you're doing marriage counseling you got to know all three of those kinds of love and participate in all three of them in a marriage but this word for knowledge it's got several different greek words that are all translated into the one english word knowledge and that's too bad because we're missing out by not understanding the different colors or shades of meaning.

But let me give you a couple of examples. The word that's found here acknowledgement is literally you know skein which means knowledge but it denotes intelligent comprehension of something intelligent comprehension of the truth of something.

So let me give you a couple of other synonyms in greek that are close that are close enough to be translated knowledge in english but don't mean this. They mean something else. For example uh the greek word a stannis thai good word huh.

Can you remember that. For next sunday i'm gonna put give you a test. No i can't even remember it. But that word is translated into to know something in english. But guess what it really means. It means to feel something now.

Why is this important. Because if you think about it most of the united states of america which is the leader of the west the western world most of the philosophy of the west today i'm talking about right now not historically.

If you go back to when our country was founded this is not true. When our country was founded it was based on true knowledge of truth. But now knowledge in the united states and in the west means something you feel is true.

You see the difference. Oh i just feel it's this way. This is my truth. What's your truth. That is not the kind of knowledge that this word is talking about. This word that we're looking at for the acknowledgement of the mystery of the of the triune nature of god means means knowledge is based on facts of the way things really actually are not on how you feel they are.

Now we can take it to another level. In our churches today in the united states most of the doctrine that's in the fastest growing largest churches in this country are based on experiences and feelings rather than true knowledge of the truth.

And the way things really are as the word of god tells us they really are. And that's very very sad. It will be the demise of the united states of america. I can predict that based on many nations that are gone now but especially on one that's not really gone.

It's still there england. It's still there uh in name. But it's not there in power anymore. They used to control most of the world england did before world war ii. It was the country upon which you know the sun never set.

They had islands in the caribbean. They had nations in africa. They had india. They had part of america all of america once. Right. And so then right before world war ii. And then god gave them the gospel in some of the most powerful ways you can even describe.

I'll just name one charles spurgeon the greatest the prince of preachers. Every denomination pretty much that's a true denomination says he's the prince of preachers england. Right. And then as soon as the man went to be with the lord all of a sudden within another 50 years or so nobody was going to church in england anymore.

I say nobody. I'm speaking in generalities. But the churches were declining very tiny little churches with very few people. These beautiful synagogue not synagogues but beautiful cathedrals with five or six people in them.

And then world war ii happens. And all of their young men are wiped out. Pretty much if we hadn't stepped in the united states hadn't stepped in they'd all been destroyed. All their young men would have been killed.

They would have had no future. Most of them were killed before we got there though many of them and they never returned to power. Why. Because they set aside this book this book was not important anymore.

All that mattered i guess were their feelings. And so their philosophies weren't based on the truth of the bible. And look at the demise of that nation. Uh charlotte and i've been over there recently and there's very few believers left over there.

They're secular. And you look in their eyes they're walking dead people. Very very sad. Now we don't want that to happen in america. But it is happening. But it's happening differently. If we could go out a hundred years in the future if we have that much longer before jesus well we will because we have a thousand years you know beyond when the lord comes back.

So there will be history of the united states. And here's what it's going to look like. It's not going to look like england because our churches are not empty. Our churches are more like the mustard plant that's grew from a tiny seed that you can barely see.

And it's supposed to create a little plant about this tall. But in the bible jesus told a parable about where that little mustard tree was a huge tree which is abnormal not supposed to be that big. And it was full of black birds.

And the black birds jesus said are false teachers. And that is a depiction of the end times church that is huge mega church full of people but it's full of black birds and false teachers. And it's way bigger than that church would be.

If someone came in there with this bible and just preached it for about six months it would whittle those churches down to around you know maybe if they've got 30 ,000 they might have around 1 ,200. I mean you could send almost any man in this church that knows the bible let them preach there for six months it would whittle that thing down to about 1 ,200 if they're running 1 ,500 and whittle it down to about 120 because false people can't stand the truth.

So it's it's very very deceitful because america looks like she's doing just great because she's got churches full of mega churches with 20 ,000 25 ,000 30 ,000 people every sunday morning she looks like she's thriving whereas england was just 20 or 30 or six or five people and it was obvious that they were dead.

Well false churches are just as dead if they're full of people as they are if they're empty that's the problem. And so america thinks she's fine and you can read about it in the book of revelation. She thinks that she's wealthy.

The church thinks she's great you know she's powerful and yet from god's viewpoint viewpoint it says that she's you know paltry and and nothing. She's just sick and paltry and very very weak. That's the laity see in church that you see in america today.

Well a lot of it is because the doctrine is so bad and the fruit is so bad of the leaders in these churches many of them involved in adultery and all kinds of things. And then they continue to preach just maybe after six months of rehabilitation and then they continue.

So i mean the fruit is there. It's false fruit. And jesus said that's how you know their doctrine's wrong. Now these words this word to acknowledge the mystery of the trinity is intelligent comprehension of the truth of a matter.

It is not this greek word that means to feel something. Um there is another greek word that can be translated into knowledge in english. And it is a thesis which means a sensation or a sensual perception of something where you just you you believe it because you've experienced it.

And that's that's not what the true word for knowledge in greek means. See that's not knowledge of truth which comes from understanding the scriptures. That's knowledge that you base on some perceived thing that you think you saw happen.

Therefore it must be true because you saw it happen. And the worst mistake is you think just because you saw it happen. God did it. But the bible tells us that satan himself can mimic the holy spirit.

He can mimic the works of the holy spirit. And that it's done quite often. And so you have these churches that are basing their doctrine on their experience. That's not the right greek word for knowledge and so on and on.

So this word is more likely akin to if you want to look look at the proper synonym logos which means to reason. That's a better word. But this word um gnosis comes from it. It means true knowledge of what something really is.

And if you don't have that verse four i'm sorry verse three says that when you do have it you have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Verse four says when you don't have it any man can beguile you with enticing words.

Ben talked about that for an hour in sunday school today. Quite good. So this is where we are as we're talking about this. Now let me remind you of this. We're talking a little bit about the definition of the triune nature of god.

God is one god who subsist as three distinct personages all right. Now that is a little hard for us to understand because he's on a higher level. He's at least four dimensions. We're three dimensions.

So it's hard to comprehend something in a higher dimension. So it's not like three different people in the room. That's not how god is because that would be three gods. It's not like that he is one god but just like you can exist as a body and a soul and a spirit.

That's three things in one god can exist as one person. What if you want to say it that way one god who exists with three distinct personalities who talk to each other who call one of them him or you and the other one he you know like they talk to each other.

One will send one to do some job. One will send another to do something else. And so you have to agree that there is a distinction in the persons of the godhead. Now here's a good way to think about it.

They are the same in essence they are the same in what they are because what they are is one god. They are the same but they are distinct in who they are in person. And so you could think of that this way.

They have different functions they have different vocations. I'm talking about the father the son and the holy spirit. They have different commissions the job they're sent to do or supposed to do. And who sends them each other.

God himself. The godhead agrees. We call it the great counsel of god. He agrees on how he's going to do things. For example the godhead agreed that jesus would be the part of the godhead who would die on the cross physically as a man and be born into the world and be the god man right in the holy spirit whose vocation was to be sent by jesus after he ascended into heaven to fill us and live within us to give us peace and comfort and truth until jesus comes back all right.

So who sent him jesus. Who sent jesus. The father. Very good. And you can go back even before time began and you find out that the father and the holy spirit together sent jesus into time and space. So way back then the holy spirit sent jesus.

But when jesus ascended jesus sent the holy spirit. But the truth is that shows the oneness. Right. They're both god. They can send whatever they want to do but they have a different commission a different job to do.

They have a different responsibility. The holy spirit is not the shepherd jesus is right. Uh different operation and so forth. So we talked about that last time. Those are great words to remember to help you understand the distinction of the godhead the different persons of the godhead how they have different jobs.

It doesn't mean they're less god than the other. They can't be. They're fully god fully god. And we'll see that as we get to the scripture. So now let's turn to first john 3 5. We're going to look at a lot of the actual bible passages that teach this great doctrine.

It really wouldn't matter if you had a single church father that ever spoke on the issue although we have had them going all the way back to 200 to ad 200 and then on up to around you know what is it 420 or something when i forget the exact year when augustine uh was living and writing he he was really given credit to be the first person to really uh speak of the triune nature of god in an intelligent way where people could say okay i understand that a little bit i'm starting to understand that better.

But you don't need that because you have the bible. Now one thing you know that the old testament saints didn't have was the new testament yet. So we're of all people most privileged. We have the whole of the perfect.

We have the whole perfect bible. So let's look at it. Turn to first john chapter three verse five. And i like you looking at it while we're studying these. So either turn in your bible or if you got a phone or an ipod or something ipad not ipod.

We're not going to listen to music. Um turn to first john 3 5 and look at this. And you know that he this is speaking of jesus was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. Now before we go any further in that the reason it's important as paul says in colossians chapter 2 verse 2 for us to fully comprehend with an intellectual knowledge and understanding from the truth of the triune nature of god.

The reason it's important to understand that god is one god who subsists or exists as three distinct personages is because later on all through the new testament is going to particularly talk about jesus christ and the fact that he is a man but he is fully god.

It's all through the new testaments even the old testament. We're going to stick mostly with the new testament today. Um it talks about the deity of jesus christ so much. Why do you think it talks about that more than it talks about the deity of the holy spirit who can give me a shot at that.

Why do you think that the new testament speaks more of jesus being god than it does of the holy spirit being god. Well who wrote the new testament. Which which person of the godhead. No yes i didn't think they could get that one.

But he got it on the second try. Very good. The holy spirit wrote the bible. Now the thing about the holy spirit is. And this is one way you can tell a false church from a true one. I mean one way one type of false church is they talk about the holy spirit all the time.

A true church will talk about jesus most of the time not the holy spirit. Because the holy spirit himself speaks very little of himself in the scripture. Check it out check it out. And he speaks all the time about jesus.

He promotes jesus. He will not talk about himself hardly ever. He will show us and teach us the things of jesus christ. That's part of his vocation. That's where he's different than the father and the son.

He will uplift the son all the time. He says very few words in the whole bible about himself. A few like in genesis chapter one he hovered above the waters of the earth when they were in chaos. And he brought unity to all the molecules and atoms of the earth and probably the whole universe at the same time the holy spirit says of himself that he did that.

But you don't read a lot more about him in the whole old testament. I mean you see the spirit of god come down on people like samson a few times. But you don't see a lot of talk about himself. He talks about jesus the coming messiah in the old testament.

But in the new testament about jesus. Now when you find these churches that every other word is the holy spirit even when they pray they say well i asked the holy spirit to do this and do that. That the holy spirit doesn't talk that way.

Now some of that is baby christian. Or you've been misled by your church leaders and i'm so i'm not against. I mean i understand that there are sheep that are misled by the the false pastors and but you need to read your own bible and address that and fix it.

You need to talk about jesus and the father more than you talk about the holy spirit it's just it's how the holy spirit does it if you're full of him that's how you will do it all right now. Is that important.

Not so much for a baby christian. But is it important for those of us who are trying to grow and be more mature in the lord that we speak correctly. It's not wrong by the way from time to time for you to talk to the holy spirit.

You you certainly may pray to the holy spirit he is fully god. But he will most likely direct you to talk to jesus or the father. That's just him doing that inside of you. That's just how he is. He promotes jesus he promotes the father.

Now jesus will speak of the father mostly isn't that interesting. But guess who it is that draws you to jesus. If you're really saved the father he said the father draw. Nobody comes to unless the father draws them.

So you see different parts of the godhead have different duties vocations and so forth. But most of what we will see in most of these verses some of them will talk about the entire three persons of the godhead.

But most of them will talk about jesus and prove that he's god. And because the holy spirit wants to prove that and will prove that more than anything else. So look at this first one uh first john 3 5 and you know that he jesus was manifested to take away our sins.

And in him is no sin. But we we've got to we got to think about this now. What does this word manifested mean. In the greek it is the word funero and it means to render apparent. It comes from a greek root word funeros which means shining shining like a bright light.

Or it can be used to mean a made apparent and so or to lighten something. It comes from the very root word phos which means fire or light or rays of light. And so what we understand is that uh it actually means to bring something before the senses that human beings have.

What senses do we have. We have five who can name some somebody give me one. What's a sense. Smell. What's another one. Hearing taste sight touch. All. Right. So it's to bring something that's real before the senses of a human.

Where the where the human can see that it's real or feel that it's real. Or hear. Did we say hearing. We can hear that it's real. We can smell that it's real. So when it says that jesus was manifested it means he already existed.

We looked at that last earlier in some of our recent sundays where he existed with the father and was always the father's delight before him always before god made anything. Jesus the eternal son has always existed.

He never came into existence. For he has no beginning he has no end. He's the alpha and the omega. And he has always existed. But he was not always brought for before the senses of human beings. That happened sometimes in the old testament when jehovah would speak with an audible voice and or from a burning bush.

And what sense would god would manifest himself there if he spoke from a burning bush. You're hearing. And that's all. You couldn't feel him. You couldn't smell him. You couldn't see him. You could only hear him in some cases.

Or sometimes he spoke with an audible voice to the prophets. Didn't he in the old testament doesn't do that now. But he did it in the old hebrews 1 1 says he no longer does that. But he did do it in the old testament.

So that's before the hearing. But when jesus was born in that manger. What. What of which of our senses was he manifest to. About five of them. And even more if you want to include emotions that come from the inside.

Right. He was god all right. So i don't want to get ahead of myself. So this verse says that jesus was brought before the senses of human beings. And their first reason he was brought now how. Let me ask before i go the next rest of this verse.

How was he brought before all five of our senses. No. No. I don't mean the state he was in but well i do mean the state he's in. But i'm talking about his moral state but his physical state. How he was born.

He was born of a virgin into a human. What body. He was fully man. We could smell him. We could taste him you you could feel him. You could touch him. You could see him. You could hear him. And why though does this verse says that the godhead determined in god's wisdom that jesus the eternal son would be brought forth into the world.

Perfect time to talk about this at christmas season all right into the world he was manifested. Why. Number one to take away our sins and in him is no sin. Two actually two reasons. One is he lived in this human body and was tempted with every temptation we have been tempted with.

And he didn't sin. He said no every time. Secondly that he could take away our sins. How did he do that. By dying he gave the blood of his life the life blood of himself to save us. He couldn't do that without a body.

So the first two reasons he was manifested and he this means god the eternal son the part of the godhead that would be sent here he was manifested to be tempted and yet without sin and live the perfect life that we cannot live and totally pleasing to the father.

That's the first reason. Secondly so he could die and give his blood as the ransom price to set us free. Now there's more look at verse 8. There first john 3 8. For this purpose the son of god was manifested brought before the senses of the world come into the world.

As a man he was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. So now there's a third reason. How did he destroy the works of the devil. Because when he rose again three days later satan now knew he had messed up.

He thought he had killed the messiah. Didn't he. He put it. Who put it in judas's heart to turn jesus in satan. Think before you speak. Think before you speak. Because i know you know the answers. Now satan.

Right. So so now all of a sudden judas turns him in. And later he's crucified. And satan thought he won. Didn't he. For about three days. But on the third day what happened. I'll show you a young girl expressed this in song once at a revival like i've never seen before.

He trembled and she did her hands like she was singing a song about how satan thought it was all about the devil how satan thought he had won. But when jesus rose the song paused. And then it comes back in she goes he trembled and goes like that.

And i've never seen a revival like broke out at that moment when that song was finished and that preacher never seen it either. This is in the baptist church. And the preacher got up and walked up there and he looked at them.

He said would you sing that song again. And they said same song. Yes. And he sits down. And they did it again and just blew the place up. And then two different preachers preached and time it was over.

You didn't know if you were crying or laughing or running or walking or jumping or sitting. You didn't know god came down on that place in a way i've never seen before. Not a single charismatic in the room.

They were all baptists. None of them believed in tongue speaking. None of them believed in faith healing. None of them believed in any of that. But god came down and nobody could deny that. Myron was sitting behind me laughing at me because he knows i'm pretty much like feel it on the inside guy.

Right. Like i'm pretty much feel it on the inside guy. But he saw me jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit. And he thought that was funny. I don't know why. Well it was also funny too because this woman he was sitting behind me this woman that i didn't notice sitting here.

She was just going. Whoa whoa. And i'm over here going you know because she's gonna backhand me accidentally. Myron thought that was humorous for some reason. Well so jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the devil.

He could not do that without a human body. He had to die but he also had to rise again which he did. So jesus is god manifest in the flesh. Now there's another verse that says that more clearly. But this is alluding to it here in first john chapter three this whole passage all right.

Look at first john chapter one verse one. But i want to ask you a question to think about. And then we'll read this. Why is it. Or let's put it this way. Would it be a good definition of the godhead to say that jesus and the holy spirit and the father are simply three different manifestations of god.

That god will sometimes manifest himself as jesus. He will sometimes manifest himself as the holy spirit and then at other times he will manifest himself as the father. Would that be a good definition of the trinity or not.

He is one god but he manifests himself as either jesus or the father or the holy spirit. Think about that a minute. Okay first john one one says that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes.

Now now let me let me explain what's going on. So you can think about it while i read this. That which is from the beginning he's speaking of jesus again goes all the way back to the beautiful passage where he was joyfully before the father before anything was made.

So you go back to john one one i'm sorry genesis one one when everything was spoken into existence and you go back one step prior to that jesus was already there. Right. He is from the beginning. He's always existed.

He's eternal because he's god now. So jesus that which is from the beginning. Now what i'm going to say is this passage from verse one to verse four is probably the best bible definition for what it means to be manifested.

What does it mean when you say jesus was manifested. Well i gave you the greek definition and part of an english webster's dictionary definition to be brought before the senses. It's what webster says he was a christian.

By the way the guy that wrote webster's dictionary is a christian. But i want to show you how god defines it. What does it mean to be manifest. Now you have to listen carefully that which was from the beginning.

So that's jesus which we have heard. What sense is that hearing which we have seen four eyes. Right. Nobody laughed at emily which some of us don't think it's funny. You have to wear glasses. Right. Which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon now that is a little different than just seeing something.

Because when you gaze upon something you're taking a long look. You're taking a long look and you're analyzing everything about that person. Kind of like when you're dating somebody and you're deciding is this the one i want to date.

Only you know that that kind of like you're looking it's more than just they pass before your eyes but you're actually looking at them and sizing them up. Right. All. Right. So which we have looked upon and our hands have handled.

What's feeling. Okay gave you the answer. That's feeling. Right. That's the sense of feeling of the word of life. So here we have heard we have seen we've gazed upon and our hands have touched and handled the living word.

The word of life. Jesus in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. We have handled him. We have handled god now though we didn't get to live 2 000 years ago. But those apostles handled god.

In fact by the way don't ever be deceived by this many many denominations say they still have apostles. All they have is false apostles. Because one of the definitions of an apostle they had to walk with jesus on this earth.

They had to handle the word of god to be an apostle. There ain't any people here that have done that. Okay. So they're lying to you. So don't believe their doctrines either. Because they will be false they'll be 90 true 10 false 95 true 5 false.

But that 5 could kill you. Rabbit trail. So we have handled the word of life now. Verse 2 says. For the life was manifested by whom keep think again. By god. By god in the holy spirit by the father in the holy spirit and the eternal.

You got it. One third correct. Because the full godhead before time began determined that jesus would be the part of god. I shouldn't say part of god. He's fully god. But he would be the person of god that would be manifested that we could touch and feel and walk with and hear.

And the bible says jesus was slain before the foundation of the world. That means the godhead determined before that before god made anything that jesus would be manifested to destroy the devil and to set us free from our sins and all the things we just read about in these verses.

So the life was manifested because god decided that he would be. The word jesus was manifested. We have seen it and we now bear witness. And that's our job now. We didn't get to see him with physical eyes but we behold him.

And that's a different greek word for c that's translated c. And there's so many english words. There's one word for about three different greek words. But there's a difference in greek between seeing something with the eye and beholding something.

And the word for beholding is translated c in english. But it's not the same thing because jesus said whosoever sees me and believe in the father shall have eternal life. Well you can't see him but you can behold him.

And the greek word if you look at that is not the word for c. It's the word for behold. It's a big difference important difference. You can behold him with your mind. You can behold him with your heart because you have his words and he said my word is spirit and my words are life.

You can behold him by reading his love letter that he wrote to you. It's from his heart from his mind. And you can behold him. And you can't be saved until you do behold him. And you can't behold him until the holy spirit opens your eyes and your heart and your mind to behold him.

But i tell you if you care about your soul and you care about where you go when you die then he's working on you. He's working on you to turn all that equipment on so that you can behold him. And so it's jesus that was manifested that we have seen.

And now it's our job to bear witness that we have beheld him he's. It's one thing to show them scripture the romans wrote or something about how to be saved. It's another thing entirely to tell your testimony about he lives in my heart he's alive now.