Apologetics Session 16 - Theology - Part 1

Okay, everyone so tonight is going to be the study of theology proper believe it or not

We have not covered this yet covered a lot of things so far, but theology proper is what we're going to look at tonight, and I So does everyone remember what

Matt was teaching last time What was Matt teaching about last time all the guys are here?

Soteriology which is Which is no salvation right the study of the doctrine of salvation and So now we know what it means to be saved now.

We're going to learn about the great. God who has provided that salvation So we hate you.

How you doing? So we have a problem We are finite beings with finite minds

And that even includes Brad But we're going to try to describe

God With our limited abilities and our limited minds and our limited language

That's going to be a tall task folks as a matter of fact. There are a lot of people Who say that this task is impossible, and we shouldn't even try it

There are many who say that Well since God is so far out there, and he is so far above us

It doesn't make any sense for us even to try to know him or to try to understand him

If you remember a while back we were talking about epistemology, which is the study of truth

The origins of truth, and we talked about a lot of philosophers. There was one named Emanuel Kent Who wasn't necessarily an atheist?

But he had a certainly a different idea of God than the Bible so Emanuel Kent viewed

The physical world as those things we can see sense with our five senses, and then there's this

Numenal world he called it out there somewhere. It was in the metaphysical realm

It was beyond our ability to perceive it so we said well We can't really know those things and God exists in that realm

So it doesn't make any sense That we even can know God as a matter of fact

In R .C. Sproul's book. He said that Kent said this he said in this way Kent chopped off our ability to know anything beyond the observable world so Kent said we can't possibly know

God But you know what that's not going to stop us tonight And the reason is is because Kent although he might have been a an interesting philosopher.

He was not a good theologian and Because God is a God of grace and even though he is infinite, and he is awesome

He has revealed himself in many ways to us by his grace and by his mercy

So those are the first verses we're going to read tonight, so whoever has verse 1

Psalm 8 3 & 4 whoever has that please read that Psalm 8 3 & 4

Yes, I Know it has to do with God created heavens and the earth and God created man a little lower than the angels it does, but how about reading that verse?

We're getting there what do everybody turn to their verses so when I when I hit you up you're ready to go

I left my Bible out in the car, which I probably I know you're working on it.

Go ahead just Okay Three eight when

I look at your heavens the work of your fingers and the moon and the stars which you have set in place

What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?

Amen we talked about that verse when I was breaking up about creation the other day Um God has revealed himself in creation, and there are many other

Verses we could read about that psalm 19 certainly 1 through 4 speaks of that Romans chapter 1 speaks of this how

God has revealed himself in creation, and we can actually know about Divine attributes and his eternal nature through what he has made for we can see he has tremendous wisdom tremendous creativity

He has tremendous power we can see all these things and what he's made now He's also revealed us in some other way revealed himself in some other ways, so who has the second verse which is

Romans 2? verses 14 through 16 There's four when

Gentiles who do not Do not have the law by nature do what the law requires

Have the law but by nature do what the law requires they have they are a law to themselves

Even though they do not have the law they show that the work of the of Excuse me

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while Their conscious also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on That day when according to my gospel

God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus Okay now Apostle Paul is talking about the

Gentiles there that weren't provided with the Word of God So that they could study it and read it, but yet the

Lord has put on their heart His very law that they would actually know what's right and wrong and their conscious would

Convict them one way or another that God has revealed himself in his holy nature

Through that conscience and you could also say you know through the spirit convicting that conscious, so we'll read

John You know what scratch that because that's the fourth fourth verse the third verse is 2nd

Timothy 3 15 through 16 if somebody has that this is another way that God has revealed himself

And how from childhood you have been acquainted With the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for a proof for correction and for training in righteousness

I'll finish it off please and that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work absolutely

Equipped for every good work, so how else has God revealed himself besides nature and the conscience the word through the

Word of God He's given us his word Written down for us that we may know it and mean that we may know him through it

Who has John 16 8? when he is come and He when he has come will convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment

So who is he in that verse? Well Jesus is sending the heat

Yeah, the Spirit and the Holy Spirit is going to come because Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit and That and his

Holy Spirit is going to minister to us now That's what the spirit was active in the Old Testament as well, but in the

New Testament We see the Holy Spirit not only convicting the world unbelievers of sin righteousness and judgment but he also is guiding the believer into all truth and He gives comfort to the believer and he reveals himself

Through the Spirit so Thank God for that That Jesus sent the

Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us the believer actually becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit Yeah, we find him and dwelled and dwelt

So who has Hebrews 1? 1 and 2 Long ago at many times and in many ways

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets But in these last days he has spoken to us by his

Son and we appointed the heir of all things Through him also created the world He's spoken to us in His Son Jesus Christ and there are many other verses we could read about that as well

So the good news is God has not left us in the dark He is awesome and he is almighty he is infinite

But he has revealed himself in all of these ways Some of these are what we would call general revelation meaning that every man on earth

Can understand God through the creation of nature and the conscience, but then there's specific revelation, which is for those who have been

Converted to the Spirit that they've been born again by the Spirit and they have the Word of God come alive to them

They understand who Jesus Christ is and Jesus Christ ministers to them in spirit through the

Holy Spirit and We understand Because we have the Holy Spirit within us who's the author of the scriptures?

We get an understanding of the Word of God itself. It says when an unbeliever reads the Word of God He doesn't understand and he doesn't appraise those things of the

Spirit So God himself needs to illumine our hearts through the Spirit so that we actually understand what he has written down But he hasn't kept himself far off so that his creation can't know him.

He has revealed himself Through all of these things and we are very grateful for it now

The question is it's okay if we can know God How are we going to describe

God? Can we define God? Somebody can answer that the answer is no

We cannot define God But he can reveal himself

And define himself For the things he wants us to know about him There are some things that we're not going to be able to understand about that because he is infinite but because he has revealed these things in his scripture and We have these things written in our hearts

We can know a lot of things about who God Almighty is because he's gracious and he's given us his word and he's given us his spirit so if we said in a simple definition

And I saw the simple definition online Says well, he he is the creator of all things

He is the owner of all things and he is the sustainer of all things Would that be an accurate statement about the

Lord Some things are true. Yeah some things right, but isn't that a very limited view?

Because it actually is defining God by his creation itself saying, you know, he has created all things

He sustains all the it all revolves around creation. He is a much bigger God than that And we certainly can't define him by a simple statement by that like that But we can endeavor to look into what the scriptures have revealed

About the very nature of God and that's what we're going to do now So the first thing I'd like to say about The essence of God who he is is that he is self existent

That's very important Self -existent he is not a created being

Now I'm going to quote R .C. Sproul first and we're going to read a few scriptures R .C.

says this he says the idea of self existence Which in theology we call the attribute of a say it is a team

Is the idea that something exists in and of itself it is uncaused uncreated and differs from everything in the universe that has a cause a

Self -existent eternal being is one that has the power to be in and of itself

It does not exist or it does not receive its existence or it's being from something antecedent to itself which means before antecedent

It has existence Inherently it can never not be and R .C.

says and because it has its existence inherently It has it eternally For all time

God has existence So we can just stop the class But the scriptures reveal that that is the

God who we worship he has existed for all time in eternity and That is a big concept to wrap our heads around But he's the only thing that is uncaused in the universe and if you can even say he's in the universe

We're going to get into that in a second, too So let's turn to a couple other Bible verses the Bible does describe

God as being self -existent a few few several passages But we'll get a couple so who has

Exodus 3 14 God said to Moses I am who

I am and he said say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you

And we always we always think of this verse like gosh, what a statement to make like What kind of a name is that right, but he is declaring

You know his eternal existence through those statements He didn't say he was who he was or he came into being and who has you know being he is

Who he is and he has always been that Can someone read Psalm 90 verse 2?

Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had been formed Ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting

New York Everlasting to everlasting meaning he's going to go on forever It's eternal turn you back eternity forward.

He is oh he cannot You have to watch the double negatives here, but he cannot never be if you kind of get that he always will be and That is an incredible statement to make and the scriptures are very clear about that I got into a little bit of a discussion with my

Gosh this is on tape. I shouldn't just say who it was Probably not. Yeah, I got in a discussion with somebody right and They thought it made more sense to To say something is self -creating

Instead of self -existent no creation Right because you can't in order to create yourself you have to exist before you were created

And then you get into that whole logical argument that's like well that X in the helo you know feet which is nothing comes from nothing and that doesn't work, and it doesn't make logical sense, but it doesn't make logical sense to say a

A Divine creator has existed from all eternity past and it does make logical sense

Although it's hard to get our heads around You're gonna say something yeah so looking back in church history and especially in round 300

AD arianism was such a problem because of that whole concept what you're talking about where they were thinking there was

God in the creative being and And it was the heretical language it was all over the church

And they had Nicene Creed ended up coming out of that because of just fighting what what was happening this radical

Belief that was just permeating everywhere from that just from that what you just said there

Someone's creative being right and then Mormonism later, right yeah And that's why we're doing what we're doing tonight because it's in the scriptures

But encapsulating it into a class like this saying God has defined himself in these ways makes makes it clear makes it clear and helps you know the clarity of the situation and We're not going to twist anything or turn anything the way we want it to be we're going to talk about what

God has declared of himself so God also has eternal attributes and Our friend

Jeff Cleaver. I will mention his name He says this we speak of the essential attributes

For the purpose of knowing God as he revealed the essence of himself to be so that's in his book

The deep things of God. It's not a long book. It's a good read So God has certain attributes that we call are incommunicable and some that are communicable so incommunicable means

They will not be communicated to another or supplied to another So what are some of those attributes?

One is transcendence Meaning that he is above and beyond the created realm he is

You know beyond his creation Omnipotence when God creates something he does not create that that being or that that thing

With omnipotent power. He is the only one On the presence he doesn't create beings with omnipresence

Omniscience is another one Sovereignty which is total authority and total power

Obviously he has that but not his created beings and immutability never changing

He has that But the things that he has created do not have that we change all the time we talked about that before in some of the other classes where it's like Well, I'm the same person.

Well, not really because even a living being all the time Our cells are dying and decaying and regenerating.

I'm not the same person I was two seconds ago because I had different air in my lungs. I have different blood thrown flowing through my veins

There's all kinds of things that change all the time in a living being and if you even think of an inanimate object

Like a rock or something that goes through change over time as well So God is the only thing

In existence that is immutable but there are Attributes that God has that he has communicated to his creation

So some of these are we're going to go into these a lot more in depth a little bit later

Spiritual being His creation the angels the angelic realm and also the human realm that he has created have a spiritual existence

He has created Beings with love Which he has from all eternity.

He has a perfect But he has created us with the ability to love and love others and love him

Faithfulness, that's a characteristic trait of God, but it's also a characteristic trait that can be displayed in his creative beings intellect and creativity as I said before, you know, if if you're thinking about You know big -brained people

There's a lot of creativity there so and we do see a lot of creativity in this world by people and Probably by the angelic realm too.

Oh, we don't we don't read a lot about that There it seems like they're more in lockstep with exactly what the

Lord tells them to do So that's interesting. That'll be a study for Ivan when he gets into Angelology and and the spirit realm the council yeah, and his his creatures have a will his creatures have a desires and they have a purpose and things that they would like to do and execute in their lives and So creature we will as part of this creation as well

So those things are all Attributes of the Lord, but as I said, some of them are passed on to his creation

Some of them are not passed on to his creation and we're going to examine all of those attributes in great depth in a little bit but think about all those attributes for a second and Now we'll talk about God Almighty being as the creator of all

We read a sentence before that said well, you know He is the creator of all the owner of all things the sustainer of all things.

That is very true That was a limited view of who he is but it's certainly a true view of the things that he has done so God is creator of all he alone has spoken the worlds into existence and we see that in Genesis chapter 1 where he says

Let there be light he speaks his word and these things happen and they take place in Exodus 20 as well 2011 and we take these things as a literal six -day creation because that's the most reasonable way to read it and Matt may get into The six -day creation when he goes through That's a ways off, but that's another class, but we'll get into that later

Well, let's look at Hebrews 11 3 Whoever has that Hey By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the

Word of God So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible

Another huge statement about God He created all things by the word of his power

He spoke and it came into being and there's many other scriptures, by the way Did say the same thing that Hebrews just did

Psalm 33 say this Psalm 33 6 right? That's another very good spot.

That is others So he's created all things not just the physical world we see but also those things are in the unseen realms

You know the spiritual beings the heavenly places the things we don't see now. It's very important though to understand that when we say

God is and Gets in the omnipresence, but when we say

God is everywhere you'll hear people say well God's in this table Or God's in the chair or God's in the tree out especially living beings

Say that what's what's that called when people describe it is pantheism

Which means kind of God's everywhere and everything together make of God That is not what the

Bible teaches Bible teaches that God is outside of his creation That he is unique and separate from his creation and he has created all things by the word of his power

So everything is in his presence and we'll talk about omnipresence in a little bit But he is not in dwelling a table or in dwelling a lamp or anything like that As a matter of fact

Paul little says this Paul little I like Paul Well, he's his theologians wrote it written a few books one's called know what you believe

Another one's called know why you believe he says this God is separate from his creation.

He is transcendent We've used that word before it's separate above and beyond his creation

The head his creation heavens in the earth. He is not a slave to the natural law that he authored and that's why we can

You know trust that God can do miracles whenever he desires But he is independent of it and he is above it

He can override it at will Which is the miraculous? Though normally he does not interfere with it

So he's above and beyond his creation but That is going to trip us into another possible problem because that is

This is where the deists got tripped up because they say again that God is so far beyond his creation

That he is not involved in his creation anymore He just kind of started things rolling and things kept going and going and going

But God is not so totally transcendent that he is aloof from his creation Yeah, he didn't leave things alone and say okay you guys figure it out now

God is caring for his creation. He looks after his creation He is involved in his creation on a daily basis and you can count on that So let's look at Isaiah 57 15 somebody has that So this is what the high and exalted one says he lives forever whose name is holy

I live in a high and holy place But also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite

So God exists outside of his creation, but yet he steps into his creation, especially by his spirit and ministers to those

Who especially believers in him? Matthew 6 26 Forget the birds of the air

They're neither so nor reap nor gather in the barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than this?

So those who would say that God doesn't care after his creation I have to ignore a lot of verses because God talks about caring for the birds in Psalm 104.

He talks about feeding of the various And it actually says in Psalm 104 that they know their

Creator God very very much Looks after us every day and that is so important to know that he has not left us alone

He said he's you know, he's going to be with us. He cares for me. He knows our needs even before we ask he's a great

God and an awesome God, but he's also a very intimate God with his creation and he has promised us

Very precious things about how his care is going to be ministered to those who love him

So yes, God is creator of all He is transcendent above his creation But he is very active in your life every day and his care for you

That's important to know because if there's problems on both ends of the spectrum, we just mentioned say Richie Go ahead.

Sure. It says in 1 John 4 that God is is love. God is love

He's not only loving but he is love Doesn't say God is holiness God is love.

Yeah, we know God is holy But he identifies himself as the essence of pure love

Yeah, we're going to talk about that attribute a lot and we're going to break all those attributes down a little bit

Now something else we're going to say about the Lord before we get into The individual attributes that I keep talking about God is one

But The scriptures have revealed that he exists in three persons and this is a very important Doctrine and this is also a possible way

For people to get tripped up and then it's gone down to radical lines with this We need to understand the doctrine of the

Trinity. You're not going to find Trinity in the Bible the word Trinity But you want to find the teaching in the

Bible. So that's what we're going to look at now. I Don't think I gave anyone this first, but this is the

Shema of Israel Hero, Israel. This is Deuteronomy 6 4 hero. Israel.

The Lord is our God. The Lord is one and then Jesus affirms

This in Mark 12 29. He says Jesus answered Saying the foremost law is hero

Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord the very essence of God is one his very being but There are three divine persons that are rightfully called

God Now we're going to get into the word Elohim in a second and see what that means

But before we do that Who has Matthew 28? 18 through 20

And Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore make disciples

Of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold.

I am with you always to the end of the age Okay, and who has first Corinthians 12 4 through 6?

Now there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit and there are varieties of service

Same Lord and there are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone so I picked those two verses because they equate the

Father the Son and the Spirit together as that all being equal in nature and an importance but yet having different ministries and That's important because I could have picked another

Gosh, I don't know how many verses another 20 verses They would have said the same things that the it was it's father's father sons those in the

New Testament. We see that In a many many many different places where they're equated together

And we need to understand that when they're equated together like that. They're giving equal weight or importance to those names

So the Father the Son the Spirit are equated yet. We just read before that God is one

God We see both of these things in the scriptures so we need to understand both that there is one

God But he exists in three persons so This is a difficult teaching and this is another one.

That's it's hard to explain I would say but it's not hard to to teach because it's revealed in so many ways throughout the

Bible and The reason it's so hard to explain is this big is this because it's a divine truth and One of the the things

I like about it, especially is because it's a divine truth

I Find it hard to believe that man could make this up That this had to be something that God revealed through his word

That we would never have somebody said well Christianity is just a made -up religion It's like nobody would have ever made this up because it's a very difficult thing to to to get your head around But yet this is

God's nature and he has revealed it very clearly in his word So let's look at several more verses that teach this in the

Bible Now I said in the New Testament there are many many verses we could pick

We're gonna look at the Old Testament for a little bit So in Genesis 1 1 through 3 we see

God Elohim Which is the plural? for God Creating the heavens and the earth by his word and his spirit

So Paul Whittle said this he says there is revealed thus early a threefold center of activity

God as the Creator thought out the universe expressed his thought in a word and Made his spirit the animating principle

Just right there in that Genesis 1 1 through 3 where he says the spirits hovering over the you know

The formless earth and the spirits forming things but it's God's thoughts and of course the thought to becoming word is

Jesus Christ as we Certainly read in the New Testament that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He's the Word of God So even in Genesis back in Genesis we see

The nature of God being three in one You can chime in any time you want

Ritchie if you've got something on your heart Beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God. Yeah and so we read before the Shema of Israel, which said the

Hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one Elohim is also in that even though it says the

Lord our God the word is one Elohim is in there. So it's like the many are one.

It's not like an e pluribus unum kind of thing, you know You know, we're all unified. I mean, it's it's much more divine than that And we see other statements in Genesis Genesis 126 says let us make man in our image

There's one image of God But yet us

Means that there is a plurality of persons that have claimed to that one image that image is owned by all three persons of the

Trinity and I'll tell you rabbis have a lot of trouble with this people that just believe

You know the Old Testament. They don't want to believe in Jesus. They don't want to believe in the Trinity They have a hard time explaining some of these verses in the plurality of God So why were the plural words used and why you know, why is it say let us make man and they try to say well

You know, it might have been the you know, the even but it wasn't the angels images that were created here

It was the image of God that man reflects not the angels So and like God we are tripartite beings body soul and spirit

Right and the best place to see that is in first Thessalonians chapter 5 the very end of first Thessalonians chapter 5 as far as our nature goes

So Also in the New Testament we have passages like this

And again, this is another Triune example, so let's read mark 1 10 through 12

Somebody has that Oh yeah,

I'm sorry 10 through 11 When he came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him

Like a dove and in a voice. Sorry any voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son with you

I am pleased So again, we see Jesus being baptized the spirit coming upon him and the father

Speaking from heaven saying this is my son again, the Trinity, you know active and You know revealing themselves, you know all in one in that particular scene and that happens many many times

There are many other verses in the Old and the New Testament I Did not go much further than this but the

The Concept of the Trinity is a difficult one and it is a place where a lot of people have stumbled

Because a lot of people would say well There's just one God. There's not three gods. Well, they're right.

There are not three gods But you need to understand that Father son and spirit are all

God But yet they are all one one in person. So Paul little again.

I get a little help from him. Let's see if this helps us He says part of the problem of understanding the

Trinity is the inadequacy of human words to the spread to express divine reality for instance we speak of persons in the

Godhead and The Bible uses the term Godhead by the way to express again plurality of God's nature

We use this term because it describes a being who has intellect emotion and will a

Person however is an imperfect Expression of the truth and as much as the term denotes to us a separate rational and moral individual

So that's a problem in our thinking we think like well if it's a person it's a separate person But in the being of God, there are not three individuals, but only three personal self distinctions within one divine essence

So that's like okay. What did he say there? But he explains it here pretty well,

I think then again personality in man implies independence of will actions and feelings

Leading to behavior peculiar to the individual And that's true. We understand that we all have a different Bent we all have a different world.

We all do different things This cannot be thought of in connection with the Trinity however each person is self -conscious father son spirit and Self -directing yet never acting independent independently or in opposition to the others

They are one But yet they have these distinct wills and distinct persons

As I said, it's not easy to understand, but it's certainly easy to Say and believe because it's written all throughout the

Bible You know there's many that would say Jesus is not

God we know that we're going to get into the cults and We're going to specifically talk about Christology, which is a study of Jesus Christ a little bit later and talk about his divinity the same thing with pneumatology, which is study of the

Holy Spirit and See how the Spirit is revealed as God Almighty in the scriptures as well.

I'm not going to get into that right now Except for what we have talked about already and all those verses that equate the father son and spirit together and teach the

Trinity in scriptures So There there are many who say that Christianity teaches there are three gods

And we do not and that needs to be something we grasp a hold of tonight Muslims yeah, they think we they think that we have a

Doctrine we don't have it. We have a doctrine that says there is one God and he reveals himself in three persons he exists in three persons, so that is the doctrine of the

Trinity and It's very very important. I know pastor as we have

Discussed he's discussed many many times There's a movement in South Jersey called the one the oneness

Pentecostal movement, and they have taught And I guess they're bigger than just Jersey right, but they have taught that the

Trinity is a sham You know Yeah, go ahead. Go Jack.

It's funny. You mentioned that I recently watched those debates that he put up on the channel and One of the scroll to the comments afterwards because there were thousands and one of them said it was like Yelling at pastor saying that he was making things up So I pulled up a revelation 617 where it says the great day of their wrath has come who can stand and?

Pastor Responded to that comment with the strong Definition personal possessive pronoun third -person plural and Just laid out directly from the definition that this is a plural word referring to the three members of the

Trinity Pouring out their wrath on humanity That's a very interesting right

Now it's a very interesting Section of first John that It's not controversial, but some of the some of the

Bible versions do not contain the verses that I'm going to go after right here. I need some does somebody have a new

King James or King James Let's lay hands on a new

King James if you could You're gonna go first John 5 and You see some of the most of the manuscripts contain these verses, but some do not my

Bible New American Standard says well We're going to eliminate those just because it wasn't all the verse in all the manuscripts, but many of them

You can't do King James So I'm gonna have

Matt read from I think six to probably about ten

Okay, and the ESV might have this too, I forget if the ESV is included new King James first John 6

This is he who came by water and blood Jesus Christ not only by water But by water and blood and it is the

Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth But there are three that bear witness in heaven the

Father the Word and the Holy Spirit And these are these three are one

And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit the water and the blood and these three agree as one

If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater For this is the witness of God which he has testified of his son

He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself He who does not believe

God has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given I Yeah, you weren't far enough and the key verse in there.

I think was seven or eight. So I think it's seven ESV is different a little bit different, but it's there

This is the Spirit the water in the blood. It doesn't say Well, the spirit the work that's what he said the

Spirit the word seven Verse seven says for there are three that bear witness in heaven the

Father the Word and the Holy Spirit And these three are one that was verse seven, right? Now you don't need that verse to prove the

Trinity and the scriptures Because we have all the other verses and you know 50 verses that I didn't talk about But that's a very very clear one

We're defining three as one the Father the Son the

Spirit and even in the ESV it says where there are three that testify the

Spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree, so That's actually sorry seven where there are three that testify is what the

ESV says Very short Yeah, but that that verse is in many of the manuscripts some of the

Bible translations have chosen to not put it in the final version, but That verse is there and Apparently I am

NOT a Greek expert, but apparently if you leave the verse out Some of the grammar doesn't doesn't quite hold up.

So most people think that that verse is supposed to be there So just think about that as well

New King James lovers out there King James to by the way King James King James would have that as well

So any questions on the Trinity? So one of the things that people say is they they'll defaulted to like modalism.

Yeah, so That God is not three persons, but rather three Moods or emotions right that he expresses himself in three different ways rather than being three different People but are three different persons rather But I think that the verse they talked about where where Jesus was baptized.

I think kind of like would debunk that kind of Thought but that's one thing and then as far as like the creative beings

I know we're gonna get in a cult at some other point in time of both the Mormon Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Well, Jehovah's Witnesses believe

Jesus was a creative being Mormons believe that both Heavenly Father and Jesus were creative beings and that they are separate gods so just tribute

Yeah, we I think that what we've read so far has been pretty clear I hope that's that's helped everyone as far as I know again.

I'll this is going to be available to everyone afterwards. We'll put online I did pretty much read through everything that I had in those sections.

So I didn't I didn't have too many other things. I didn't read but now going forward

I'm going to we're going to get into the attributes of God and I'm gonna have maybe 20 to 25 verses on each characteristic of God but we'll only go over a couple of them and then

The rest you can read it your leisure, you know, whatever you'd like to but I typed them all out And you know why

I typed them all out Because I needed to see them and when you type them all out yourself

I had a chance to think about them as I was typing them out. So I used in the old days.

I used to write them down. Yeah, it hurts my hand now, so I'm better at the key clicking writing.

Oh, yeah but We need all the help we can get to memorize things, right?

Absolutely, I'd love to have all these met these verses memorized for one and as I said, there's about 20 for each attribute of God But There is something very simple we can memorize

Maybe even tonight that you will not forget because I have never forgotten it and it came about with a discipleship program

I was part of in the 1990s By a pastor named Bill Boulay who was a pastor up in Pennsylvania I think he was up in the

Scranton or Wilkes -Barre area somewhere up in there and he made some discipleship material and I was the benefactor of that a older gentleman took me through this and Part of it was

Studying the attributes of God so here's the acrostic or the acronym he came up with for trying to remember the eternal attributes of God So here it is little story a young boy learns that he is going to have liver and peas for dinner that night and And you can imagine he's not very thrilled about that No liver and peas,

I don't think I haven't ever had a dinner like that. I'll take french fries. Yeah, right. Where are you? But his mom says to him son

You can have jello first Because jello was the other part of the dinner. So his son responds and says ooh jello first That's our acronym

Oh -oh -ooh jello First we can spell that By the way,

I don't have copyrights on the brand name jello, so you just go with it

So think about it Oh -oh -j -e -l -l -o -f -i -r -s -t

Oh Omnipotence Oh Omnipresence J justice

The hard one is E &L because E &L are together eternal life It could be just a life, but they described it as eternal life

Next L love Next O omniscience

F Faithfulness I immutability R Righteousness and that's very closely related related to justice, but it's not quite the same thing

S Sovereignty and T Take a guess

Actually not Tuna Truth we haven't talked about truth yet So yes it you know self -existence isn't necessarily in there

But eternal life is so eternal life is you know he has eternal life He possesses eternal life

So ooh jello first is not hard to remember and It's been useful to me over the years to try to remember all the wonderful attributes of God And what we're going to do one by one is we are going to talk

About these incredible attributes of God going forward. That's probably where we should stop tonight

Let me see what we got for time here Yeah, it's kind of early actually maybe we could get into a One or so of these and then probably considering where we are

We might just have to we might be able to get through this too, but after we describe all the things we've talked about God his self -existence his communicable and incommunicable

Attributes his Incredible power wisdom and creativity and creation

The fact that he exists as a triune God and then all of these attributes.

I think there's 11 of them I'm to count them up Might be 11 or 12 all of these things together

Attempt to Basically describe the holiness of God the end of it is all going to be

God is holy He is totally holy Totally separate from his creation and he is to be honored and praised and that is the end of all of this study

Is looking at all of these things that God is and saying God you are holy and we get on our knees like Isaiah like the four creatures in heaven

The four living beings they fall down and they worship and they say holy holy holy

Are you And that is what we want to do over, you know the rest of the time we have tonight and also tomorrow or the next week as well

So let's look at omnipotence. I Didn't hand out these verses so we're gonna have to go one by one here

Didn't think we'd get this far We're moving So what is omnipotence?

all -powerful Everybody grew that yes. Yep all -powerful

Okay First verse and someone look up second perks.

Give me first Samuel chapter 2 verses 6 through 8 and Whilst somebody's doing that could someone look up psalm 33 9

For Samuel 2 6 the Lord kills and brings to life He brings down to shield and raises up the

Lord makes poor and makes rich He brings low and he exalts he raises up the poor from the dust

He lifts the media from the ashy to make them sit with princes and inherit the seat of honor

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and on them. He has set the world He's all -powerful now some of these some of these versions are going to kind of point to Sometimes all -powerful is going to point to omnipresence with your omniscience and it's going to point to Socrates but there

But we get the idea when we really read somebody so does someone have psalm 33 9

Or he spoke and came to be he commanded and stood firm That kind of power is we try to talk about that creation before it's like how

How can you speak a word and and and that is done? That is just a man

That's power Can someone look up Genesis 18 14? And can someone look up Job chapter 26

And we'll read a few verses here 7 through 14 so Genesis 18 14

Joe 26 7 through 14 Okay, so did someone read the

Genesis Is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time?

I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son So we remember the context with that right that it's impossible

For someone who's a hundred years old to father, you know and someone who's 90 some years, you know nine years old to have a baby

But yet nothing's impossible Mm -hmm. How about that long job passage? Did somebody have that?

He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on the north nothing He binds up the waters in the thick clouds and the cloud is not split open under them

He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over his clouds He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his review By his power he stilled the sea by his understanding he shattered her house

By his wind the heavens were made fair His hand pierced the fleeing serpent

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways and how small a whisper do we hear of him? But the thunder of his power who can understand

This picture itself let's let's look Let's turn to Job 42 to somebody can do that one and then someone else do

Isaiah 40 26 to 42 to You can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be afforded

Not only all powerful nobody's gonna stop him. I mean, it's just not gonna happen.

How about Isaiah 40 26? Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these

He who brings out them hosts by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might and because he's strong in power

No one is missing He's talking about all the stars there And somebody gave me something today

Or no, it wasn't today was it was yesterday about the billions of stars that are in every galaxy and billions of galaxies that are existence and And To think that God has not only created all these things

Between 200 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone That's awesome

It's really hard to get your head around things like that and to know that God created all these things were just a blur

And they all came in just go ahead. I mean, I didn't know if we're a lot of interject. I didn't want to keep it There's a video

I used to watch years ago called the Milky Way and beyond And at the end, of course, it takes you through the whole solar system and all the it's a

Christian documentary But anyway at the end it just shows all the galaxies hanging like a tapestry

You know scale it back and just kind of like go all the way out like billions of light years away

Of course, you know It just like makes me think that how God just shoot like just this bands Like he sits out here and we're in here and he just kind of just he stretches out the heavens like a tent like a curtain

Yeah, it's pretty cool video, but I don't know if it's on DVD it's all deep VHS the Milky Way and beyond it's called even even those videos that Are not necessarily

Christian videos, but they just you know show with the Hubble telescope They're screwed me over things like that. It's just phenomenal to see what's out there

The Lord's created is that there's something I saw in recently. They're Deploying a new satellite with the cameras to go beyond the

Hubble and they showed a picture of an IR Representation what is coming out of the one of the cameras?

It's just amazing what you see and then the comment was That's it's more amazing because that's the aiming camera that just directs the big camera to look at what's out there

We haven't seen that yet. And it's it's amazing to see what the aiming camera saw. Yeah We talked before about you know, the creativity of man and how you know, we really you know, you think about The great artists painters and things like that, but then when you see

God's creation and what he has done in this world and the beautiful colors and the expanse of it and the

Complexity of it and how all things work together and continue to work together You know, we can't make it we keep trying to make these perpetual motion machines doesn't have to say that we can and we can that's that law of entropy and you know conservation of energy and all that but I'm going to read a couple more verses and then what we're going to do in all these sections

When we talk about the God being all -powerful Any of these attributes we're going to say what does this mean to the believer?

And what does this mean to the unbeliever? So I'm going to read one more verse on this Jeremiah 32 17 ah

Lord God Behold thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm

Nothing is too difficult for thee That's not a song We know that one, right?

Oh, there was another you know, like I said, I had 25 verses another one I had marked was Isaiah 50 verse 2 is my hand so short that I cannot ransom

Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with my rebuke

And his point is that he is going to ransom his people Israel So when we think of God's great power

What does that mean for us as believers we've put our trust in this God what is his great power mean to us

He provides he protects Comfort do we have any reason to fear?

Do we have any reason to worry that you know, who's in control of the government right now?

Who's sovereign? Do we need to fear spiritual forces, you know demons don't

Because He is desirous to steal kill and destroy And she's it was much damage as he can greater is he who's in need and he who's in the world

And he's stronger than the spiritual forces there He is almighty

And he can't be thwarted So he sometimes put on protection for that though to say that means that we need to sometimes have protection

Against the schemes of the devil to pray for it. Well, I'm also, you know putting on the first bit of righteousness

Oh sure things like that, right? Because we can we can stumble in our walk, right and and allow things to harm us

That shouldn't because we've left the protection of God and that's that's similar to You know a wandering child who you know, you've provided a household for you've provided You know food on the table.

You've provided protection in the home If a wandering child decides to leave that protection

They will face the world, you know by themselves and Of course what will happen in that case if we do end up there

We're gonna get beat up a little bit for a while sometimes maybe a lot But God's protection is still going to come in guys because if we are faithless he still is faithful He will make sure that he brings his children home

So we shouldn't have to fear anything in this world because our God is all -powerful Now if you're an unbeliever and you're hearing that God is all -powerful

What does that mean to an unbeliever children And let's get into God's justice as well

But I guess in some sense, you know, the unbeliever is saying I'm not going to follow you

Psalm 2 kind of a thing. They're gonna shake their fists and say I'm gonna break your fetters and your rules and your regulations

Lord, I'm not gonna follow you. What does it mean to someone who takes that stance? And one day their every knee is gonna bow right every tongue is gonna confess

That Jesus Christ is Lord and he who sits in the heavens laughs when in derision men shake their fist

At him because he is in control and they are not and the scary thing is is this world has been prepared for fire and destruction

And God is going to judge this earth and we're gonna talk a little more about that justice later, but you know if anyone

Online is listening to this And hearing of the great power of the Lord. He allows you in his mercy to turn to him before that judgment comes

Nothing is going to stop his purposes So if you're hearing this tonight know that his mercy is available right now, but don't wait

Because if you wait it might be too late So Yeah, well he was gracious to us wasn't he we certainly didn't deserve his salvation, but he was gracious to all of us here

So we thank you so thankful for that You know what one of the verses that I think about with his power is

Let's close with this. Let's read John Chapter 10 didn't write this down But it's going to be just before 1030 it's probably 1028

Where it talks about the father or Jesus holding us in his hand and the father holding us as well so If somebody can grab the context on that it's probably gonna be 1027 28

Go ahead This is a 27 my sheep hear my voice, and I know them they follow me

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand

I am the father or one And one of those Trinity verses a little bit

That's because it's anyway having more comments tonight about any anything we talked about tonight Next week's gonna be very similar

We are sealed and seal represents ownership protection and provision

Who's gonna break the seal Reggie nobody can break nobody's breaking the seal Rich do you want to close this in prayer tonight sure by the grace of God?

Thank you so much Heavenly Father We love you we worship you we glorify you and we praise you and we pray our children do the same

Lord God we thank you for drew for the wisdom you've given him for Matt and for Ivan my brother

God bless them all or use them mightily for your glory to help further Instruct us to live in accordance with your will and to share the word effectively for the glory of God We know you still love many and there are many unsaved people that we pray will come to know you as Lord and Savior And Lord God as we travel home, we pray that you grant us all journey versus bring us home safely

Lord God So that we will meet again on Sunday for Jeff. Thank you

Heavenly Father And by the way, we'll watch over our pastor Lord God. We praise you and we thank you